One day I’m going to travel to a monastery on some remote mountaintop and just be still for a whole week. If you were a gambling man or woman, it would be smart to bet that I wouldn’t make it that long. Going two days without any disruption of any kind sounds amazing, but I think my attempt at respite would be met by delirium. You see, it hasn’t been quiet in my little world for a long time.
It has a lot to do with having little toddlers running around, but even with the absence of miniature me’s and their shenanigans, I would have no problem busying myself. See, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we live in a very loud, busy, claustrophobic-inducing culture.
I ride the New York City subways everyday, which means at any moment I could get a rude shoulder to the chin, a beggar panhandling for a dollar or if I’m lucky, a seat crammed in the corner by the shrieking brakes.
My default position is to insert white earbuds in while Coldplay attempts to take me to an ethereal place. It works for a song or two, but the hustle and bustle of the day overwhelms even the best stanzas.
Inserted into the craziness of the day are things that never existed a decade ago: Blackberries, iPhones, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets,RSS feeds, Hulu, TiVo, spam mail, text messaging. With all these things competing for your precious time, is it any surprise that none of us have time to feed the soul? As Socrates said famously, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
My blog has a simple mission: to observe how faith intersects with the other parts of our lives. Most of the time it’ll be simple observations, but hopefully, once in a while there will be some level of profundity. Either way, I’m happy to be a part of this community. Here’s to being a part of your intersection.
(Oh, and I'd love to connect with you all. Whether on www.Twitter.com/wonki78 or www.Facebook.com/WonKim)
Comments
Welcome! This is a great community. I've found that most of the people who hang out/write for/observe/post on this website are respectful, curious, interesting, and captivated by God's work. Looking forward to your essays.
Won, great to have you as part of the ConversantLife creative content team. You are going to bring a great perspective to the community. Looking forward to engaging with you!
So true about our lives being inundated by messaging and things competing for our precious time. There is definitely a huge wave of mobile techy stuff and social networking that complicates our lives. Looking forward to more insights Mr Kim.
Great quote by Phillip Yancey's Prayer:
"I hope your stay is a blessed one," said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. "If you need anything, let us know, and we'll teach you how to live without it."
Man, am I ever looking forward to reading this blog! Bring on the profundity!