Baby Boomers: The 60's and revisited in 2013

           I thought this was a pretty humours look at my generation, which someone compiled:

Baby Boomers: The 60's and revisited in 2013
Then: Long Hair. 
Now : Longing for hair. 
Then: Acid Rock. 
Now : Acid Reflux. 
Then: Moving to California because it's cool. 
Now : Moving to California because it's warm. 
Then: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor. 
Now : Trying not to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor. 
Then: Paar. 
Now : AARP. 
Then: Rolling Stones. 
Now : Kidney stones. 
Then: Being called into the principal's office. 
Now : Calling the principal's office. 
Then: Parents begging you to get your hair cut. 
Now : Children begging you to get their heads shaved. 
Then: Passing the driver's test. 
Now : Passing the vision test. 
Then: "Whatever" 
Now : "Depends"

      All I can say is that time has flown by, and I agree with the writer of James: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14. NIV)

Hey Old Timer!

            A few years ago, when I was forty-two, my family and I visited some friends of our family. We took our kids swimming in a community pool belonging to homeowners in my friend’s subdivision.

            While in the pool, I took my friend’s toy football and threw it to some kids, who were jumping off the diving board. One boy was about 11 years old, and he began conversing with my friend and me—just trying to get to know us.

            Later, a 14-year-old boy began playing catch with the 11-year-old. The 11-year-old was having trouble throwing the ball correctly to the 14-year-old, who was jumping off the diving board. The older boy began calling out, "Hey, old timer. Old timer!"

            I finally realized—he was calling to me! Since the 11-year-old was failing, the older boy wanted me to throw him the ball. Now, I didn't feel old, but “old timer” was the only way that teenager could describe me.

            An old hymn opens with the line, “Time is filled with Swift transition.” It certainly is.

            13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:13-14.)

The United State of Busyness

A few weeks ago, TIME magazine did a cover story on the American novelist, Jonathan Franzen. Here is a quote from Franzen that speaks to America today:

We are so distracted by and engulfed by the technologies we've created, and by the constant barrage of so-called information that comes our way, that more than ever to immerse yourself in an involving book seems socially useful. The place of stillness that you have to go to to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can actually engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world.

Franzen was inspired by the 19^th century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Ahead of his time, Kierkegaard wrote that the problem of perpetual busyness is that which locks an individual into continuous distraction.

We live in a society with all of its cell phones, Internet capabilities, MP3 players and the like that seeks to distract us. With that distraction, as TIME so ably summarizes it, people are empowered to “avoid difficult realities and maintain self-deceptions.”

I like Franzen’s idea of finding a place of stillness, in order to read, process, and think. Rather than making any book your partner in that endeavor, I would recommend placing our priority upon one: the Bible. With that time, that place, and that book, I think each day we can find an oasis in our cultural desert. 

Could there be a more nourishing experience?