IGNORANCE (or Not Knowing Any Better)
[So it's been a while since I've written anything here, but I have several good excuses: the holidays, the increased workload that comes with the resignation of staff members, a slow desktop computer (now replaced with a more efficient laptop), etc. But the most likely reason I haven't written in a while is because I've felt as if the words I would've written here would be little more than digital sawdust (and who am I to say they haven't been thus far?). So I'll take a new stab at writing something semi-worthwhile.]
You were born into a family that couldn't afford to keep you, but couldn't afford to get rid of you. You were raised thinking that people with stairs inside their houses and pools in their backyards had to be the richest people in the world. You've always assumed that everyone smelled like secondhand smoke and cheap laundry powder. You thought all hot dogs were red and bologna was the preferred sandwich meat. As you got older, you were convinces a dishwasher was a job title and not an appliance, marriage was an expensive luxury in a relationship, children were a necessary burden, a job was the way to a paycheck, and retirement was a word used by old, rich, white people on T.V. in commercials.
Or maybe...
You were born into a family that planned on your arrival; they even had a special room in their home painted and decorated especially for you. You were raised thinking that everyone ought to live like you, and if they didn't, that was their own fault. You assumed everyone got new clothes in the fall and everyone got expensive shoes--after all, shoes were naturally expensive. You thought everyone's car and home had air conditioning, their bedrooms had televisions (with cable and a video game system), and everyone had at least one computer with Internet access. As you got older, you looked at those who "shacked up" and though they were trashy. You saw those who were buying cigarettes at the grocery store and thought they were less than you because of their habit. And for you, retirement was the ultimate goal of one's job/career/vocation.
Either way whatever atmosphere you were brought up in, the air penetrated your lungs, permeated your soul, and tints the lenses through which you view the rest of the world and its people. I wish we could walk a mile in each others shoes. Maybe then the rich wouldn't look down upon the poor so harshly, the poor envy the rich so greatly, the activist judge the apathetic so strictly, the fundamentalist rage against the liberal so fiercely, the liberal berate the fundamentalist so sternly. Maybe then we could stop thinking that our ignorance is actually a well-informed opinion! Maybe then Christians would act like Christ, and others would believe our words because of our actions. Maybe...if we put aside our ignorance and be willing to listen to each other as human beings and not regurgitated opinions. Maybe...
CPT
You were born into a family that couldn't afford to keep you, but couldn't afford to get rid of you. You were raised thinking that people with stairs inside their houses and pools in their backyards had to be the richest people in the world. You've always assumed that everyone smelled like secondhand smoke and cheap laundry powder. You thought all hot dogs were red and bologna was the preferred sandwich meat. As you got older, you were convinces a dishwasher was a job title and not an appliance, marriage was an expensive luxury in a relationship, children were a necessary burden, a job was the way to a paycheck, and retirement was a word used by old, rich, white people on T.V. in commercials.
Or maybe...
You were born into a family that planned on your arrival; they even had a special room in their home painted and decorated especially for you. You were raised thinking that everyone ought to live like you, and if they didn't, that was their own fault. You assumed everyone got new clothes in the fall and everyone got expensive shoes--after all, shoes were naturally expensive. You thought everyone's car and home had air conditioning, their bedrooms had televisions (with cable and a video game system), and everyone had at least one computer with Internet access. As you got older, you looked at those who "shacked up" and though they were trashy. You saw those who were buying cigarettes at the grocery store and thought they were less than you because of their habit. And for you, retirement was the ultimate goal of one's job/career/vocation.
Either way whatever atmosphere you were brought up in, the air penetrated your lungs, permeated your soul, and tints the lenses through which you view the rest of the world and its people. I wish we could walk a mile in each others shoes. Maybe then the rich wouldn't look down upon the poor so harshly, the poor envy the rich so greatly, the activist judge the apathetic so strictly, the fundamentalist rage against the liberal so fiercely, the liberal berate the fundamentalist so sternly. Maybe then we could stop thinking that our ignorance is actually a well-informed opinion! Maybe then Christians would act like Christ, and others would believe our words because of our actions. Maybe...if we put aside our ignorance and be willing to listen to each other as human beings and not regurgitated opinions. Maybe...
CPT
You truly are a saint...greater even than your namesake. I'll reopen the canon when you write your first book. Good stuff!
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