Life Worth Living

 

I am thrilled to have finished another fabulous book this month! Life Worth Living (by Volf, Croasmun, and McNally-Linz) was a perfect follow-up to Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. 

Let's dig into what really resonated for me.  

This book was based on a very popular course offered at Yale. Its aim is to take the reader on an excavation of sorts. Uncovering what exactly it is to YOU that makes a life worth living. 

First, I want to share this cautionary tale from the opening of the book. A man named Albert Speer was an impossibly talented architect.  He fancied himself an architect to his very core.  His ultimate dream was the chance to build the unimaginable.  Unfortunately, Hitler made him an offer he decided he couldn't refuse.  He would build the New Reich Chancellery. Hitler's foreign headquarters which included a marble gallery, along with many other massive, groundbreaking structures. See them here.  His work was funded by Hitler and his buildings were built with the aid of slave labor.  

"There is a certain greatness to Albert Speer. It lies in the fact that he was '"above all an architect."' That singular devotion to his career made him an exceptionally good architect. But that greatness also contains the monstrosity of his life because that same singular devotion also made him an exceptionally bad human being. "

It is interesting to me that our culture is so centered on hacks, morning routines, productivity, and success. Yet little thought or wisdom is given to what exactly we are hacking towards, or why we want any of these things, do they deliver, and furthermore ARE THESE THINGS EVEN WORTH WANTING? 

That is the question I am still mulling over: what is worth wanting? This question seems to me like a great foundation.  And a lot of us are building lives with no foundation whatsoever and finding ourselves blowing all over the place. 

The authors include insights from many different religious traditions: including Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Judaism just to name a few.  The book also explores different philosophies from famous figures in history. Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Nietzsche, Jeremy Bentham, and even an indigenous tale called Skywoman. These different perspectives invite the reader to lean into the perspectives that resonate and consider others that don't.  

Each chapter has questions to reflect on and journal.  I found some more useful than others.  The first four chapters of the book were especially valuable for me.  Some of the questions about what you value in contrast to how you spend your actual time and days were revealing to say the least.  

This would be an excellent read for ages 17 and up.  

I read this with a group of friends from church.  There is a podcast series to go along with it too and I will link it here. The podcast episodes feature Claire Danes, Kate Bowman, and Kelly Corrigan.  I have not listened to these yet but several of the ladies in our book discussion loved them.  

I do want to say that I think the Yale course itself would be a lot more engaging and have a better flow than the book.  The first 4 chapters were great as written, but as the book transitioned into all the different perspectives and philosophies, it felt a little bogged down and all over the place.  It was definitely worth finishing though.  

As a follower of Jesus, I have been thinking about how Christ took time to reflect on the character of God, spending time in prayer, in praise, and then pouring out what He was filled with.  He knew what was worth wanting.  And from there He did what was worth doing.  He began and he ended with acts of love.   

So what do you think? What is worth wanting? What is a life worth living? 

Let Me Live in the House by the Side of the Road

 

I love this cross stitch, it was made by my Great Aunt Margaret and it hung in my Mema’s house. That is actually HER farmhouse in the picture. When they moved her the house had no plumbing or electricity. There was an outhouse and a well on the property. A great big pecan tree. I grew up on the property right behind her home and barns. Wow, this sounds about as southern as you can get. 

 Anyway, it hangs in my home now, and I don’t know if you can read it, but it says “Let me live in the house by the side of the road and be a friend to man”

This was basically Mema's rule of life, not that she would have called it that.  

She was a friend to everyone she met. 

She never had an Instagram account or a Facebook feed.  I have no idea how social media would have shaped her for better or worse. Her life was lived out in those flesh-and-bone days that we seem to be stepping away from. My memories of her are all wrapped up in my senses. I remember the feel of the skin on her arms wrapped around me. The spiky texture of her amber tea glasses in my hands. The sizzle of her skillet. Her freezing cold bedroom in the front of the house where she would tuck my twin and me up into bed as girls and pack us in tight under so many blankets. The sound of the kickball as she kicked it toward us. Her perfect lap and silky soft hair. The sound of her voice as she made up stories for us. Her kooky friends that would often visit. How she tried to find the good in everyone. She delighted in a loving God, in his people, in his creation. She made everyone feel like they were her favorite.

I am so thankful I can remember her as a woman with her eyes and heart set upon whomever crossed her path.  She was a witness to the world unfolding right before her. And not through empty words, but through her VERY LIFE, she testified to all that was good and beautiful and broken in it.

And I wonder how our world might change if each one of us just lived in the house by the side of the road and was a friend to man.  

Omnipotent, Omnsicient, and Omnipresent or Powerless, Stupid, and Nowhere?

“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralyzed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops – but not on our lives. The Machine proceeds – but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die”  

-The Machine Stops E.M. Forster

I love a chilling quote, and this quote from The Machine Stops DELIVERS.  If you have not read this short story, I highly recommend it. I first heard about this story on Tsh Oxenreider's podcast: A Drink With A Friend.  Her guest was Autumn Kern, a fellow Charlotte Mason Homeschooling enthusiast.  The episode was about Autumn's recent abandonment of her smartphone for a flip phone.  Their conversation was phenomenal.  I always enjoy Tsh's podcast and how thoughtful she is at both crafting a life that represents her values and sharing it on her podcast.  

As Autumn began to share her thoughts on social media and having a mini computer in our back pockets I found myself nodding along with her.  She asked a question that just floored me, and I am going to paraphrase: "Are these things making us feel like we are God?" 

Omnipotent? At the push of a button, we can declare our beliefs, attack those we disagree with, and assemble a virtual tribe that will tell us we are right right right.  Powerful or powerless?

Omniscient? We can answer countless questions with a simple Google search. Are we full of more knowledge or are we becoming stupid? 

Omnipresent? We are ACCESSIBLE to anyone in our contact list or on our social media feeds at all times.  Are we everywhere or are we LOST? Are we even present with those humans right next to us? 

It is shocking that day after day we know these things aren't delivering what we are looking for.  Like drinking salt water and finding yourself more and more parched, yet choking down another pitcher.  WHAT ARE WE DOING?? And what will we do about it? 

How can we love with our hands and our hearts when we are too busy scrolling on a hamster wheel? How will we hear the Spirit when we never take time for quiet reflection? 

Maybe we don't all need a flip phone.  Maybe some of us do.  I for sure don't need to be spending much time on social platforms like IG or FB.  The more time I spend on them the more hopeless I feel.  The less loving I am.  Detached and disembodied, my words are not tempered with any measure of grace.  When my kids see me on platforms daily where I am ranting and raving about politics and people then I'm not teaching them to love the world, I'm actually teaching them to hate it.  And while it's true that Jesus did call out the Pharisees on occasion, in person, he actually spent the majority of his time loving people, healing people, and delivering messages of encouragement and hope.  All of these interactions were HUMAN interactions. Face to face by a God who EMBODIED himself to meet us in person.  Feet washed. Dirty bodies touched, Tears wiped. 

I don't see how we can become better humans by dehumanizing ourselves.  And so the work of embodiment in this age of virtual everything seems so daunting.  And yet while I am still in this physical body, I want to lean into this physical world God created us for, with full hope that when this body is discarded, the spiritual realm that awaits will infinitely redeem a fallen virtual platform created by man.  

A Drink with A Friend