Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Transcendentalism

It scares me that since I've been here, I haven't been able to write anything of substance. My way of thinking is gone because everything is loud and shallow.



People care about Calvinism and free will more than the people who believe in it. They care more about praying and reading their Bible than they do actually building a relationship with God, if that makes sense. People pray over their food because "it's what Christian's do." People read their Bible and go "witnessing" to people. If these people cared about the people more than they cared about their souls, they would get phone numbers and hang out with them, opposed to cramming Jesus down their throats for ten minutes, then booking it to save someone else's life before curfew. I know that their intentions are good, but it drives me crazy.



Yeah, Jesus would spread the word, but not because he had to, but because he loved and cared about the people. He had dinner with a tax collector at his home. I doubt if one of these evangelists would go to a party if they were invited by someone to whom they were sharing the gospel with.



...ending my rant.



At one point in my life I believed that if i just moved away, if i just got far from everything that i knew, i would be fine. I would be able to start clean and fresh. This wasn't true at all.



No matter where I go, I'm still myself. Nothing about that is changing anytime soon.



“Traveling is a fool's paradise... I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there besides me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from."



Transcendentalists make me feel a little less crazy. They also frustrate me with their brilliant diction and illustration. Sometimes I wish I was like Emerson. Back in the day he and a few others formed the Transcriptural Club and published a journal for all of the public to take in. Works like Emerson's "Nature" were first published there, and people were deeply influenced and inspired simply by what he had to say.



I get discouraged because many times I wish that my page, in the infinance of (which isn't actually a word... i suppose i mean the infinite nature of) the Internet will maybe have a fraction of that impact.



However, I'm well aware of the fact that I fall short.

1 think:

Lucy Doughty said...

funny, i listened to a retreat speaker on that same topic this past weekend. his metaphor being: dogs don't bark to be dogs. they bark because they ARE dogs. they aren't taught to bark to seem more like dogs. it's an inherent act, a given. just as prayer, reading of The Word, and spreading God's love should be inherent acts of a Christian. we don't do it to seem a Christian. we do it because we are.