Saturday, October 07, 2006

Life in Every Breath

When you find there’s nothing special,
about that big hole in your heart.
Cause everybody’s got one;
With precious little time to talk about it


Bill Mallonee – excerpt from Nothing like a Train


Every time I hear this song I can relate to this verse. Every time I hear this song I hate the fact that I can relate to this verse.

I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis’s, The Abolition of Man, these last couple weeks, and listening to some talks by Father Thomas Hopko dealing with the book and post-modern culture.

Lewis talks about the Tao in Man. Hopko calls this the “Image of God in Man”.

Both deal with the loss of that “something” that is core to our very being.

The ultimate end….Lewis says we become “Men without Chests”…..Hopko says, “we become nothing more than a calculator and a copulator.”

We become less than human. We deny the very image in ourselves, albeit slowly over time, through reductions, compromises, and agreements.

I've noticed as I moved beyond the honeymoon years of young adulthood that the chasm between the idealism and hope of youth get washed away in a series of calculations, investments, computations, scheduling, strategizing, positioning, retirement planning, healthcare planning, etc.

I at times accept this as "normal", which perhaps is the agreement.....this is "merely" this stage of life, and this is "merely" normal....

The "putting down roots" stage of life, as is perceived from culture, seems far from Paul's call of learning to be content in all situations and stages of life, RATHER an "acceptance" of this world's plan of salvation!

Invest wisely, plan for your future, get what you deserve - privilege, power, possessions, guarantee consumption power in your golden years.....guarantee copulation power in your golden years (thanks viagra).....guarantee health, promise freedom from pain, and live as long as you possibly can with the best medication and healthcare facilities in the world..............for what?

We reduce to being "merely" human, and in so doing deny the very essence of who we are.....

Perhaps this is the battle….to become TRULY human.

Culture calls to calculate, consume, copulate…..castrate...

I am struggling to know life in every breath….to find time to “talk about it”....to become human...Lord, Have Mercy!


My daughter stills knows life in every breath!!

"The Son of God became man, that we might become god."

- St. Athanasius