First of all, a disclaimer: Do not be deceived by the title of this entry, I'm not going to waste your or my time rambling about MTV's infamous "The Hills" not-so-reality TV show.
(Although, small plug. I will say, Steven, from Laguna Beach, is coming back in next week’s episode! I can hardly contain my excitement. Really, it could change your life if you get addicted to this show. Or it may prompt you to slit your wrists. Either way, stay tuned ... Monday night!)
As you can see, we all have our little guilty indulgences. Mine happens to be relishing in 30 minutes of a shallow self-proclaimed reality program that details the mindless lives of Angelenos and their ridiculous SoCal lifestyles. Sue me. However, for other fellow Americans, guilty indulgences often take the form of things that are primarily monetarily funded. Starbucks addictions (guilty), car obsessions, clothes addictions, jewelry junkies, donut compulsions, toy infatuations, travel aficionados, etc. Our economy thrives off the fact that we are consumer addicts. We buy to survive. We buy to make ourselves feel better. We buy for status. We buy for pleasure. We buy. And we buy. And we buy excessively. We Best Buy! This is what we are known for.
However, Americans across the country are putting a proverbial lead foot to the brake on their normal spending in light of a domino effect of discouraging market trends. Gas prices are downright silly, the housing market is essentially a low-budget circus with scary clowns, and food costs are proliferating across the globe.
In fact, I just read an article that says Costco is now limiting the number of bags of rice that customers can purchase because of rising global rice costs. Now, in all honesty, I don’t even like or eat that much rice, but just the fact that they are limiting it because of the slipping economy makes me want to go start buying excessive amounts of weird stuff like rice in case I have to run for the hills. In fact, I think I’ll start today, instead of washing my car, I think I am going to load up on canned pineapple. You really can never have too much pineapple.
But with all this talk about a dilapidated economy and forecasted Great Depression-like circumstances looming ahead, I really have to stop and ask myself: Is the media just manufacturing the danger of the market and prematurely urging us all to “run for the hills”? Or is there really substantiated proof that we are in for some really unprecedented hard times up ahead?
The other day, the institution that I work at put on a seminar enlightening the staff about the differences and commonalities between the Baby Boomer generation, the Gen-X Generation, and the Millennial Generation. The Millennial Generation (which includes myself and most of my peers) is said to be the most sheltered generation in all of history. We have been shielded from much of the substantially dangerous and burdensome international crisis that other generations have been exposed to and have never had to endure such an alleged financial crisis. Perhaps this gives fodder as to why I personally am completely skeptical of all the alleged projections of a financial crisis of catastrophic proportions. Are people just crying wolf and consequently aggravating the market to an even higher extent? The Los Angeles Times did a great piece about a month ago comparing the differences between now and the Great Depression of the ‘30s. It essentially states, with a bit of experience under our belt, we as a country have more safeguards in place to avoid such a disastrous era. However, it does warn we still could experience some major hardships on the way.
So far, the biggest hit I’ve experienced with all this fiscal emergency chatter is in filling up my gas tank. I have a ridiculously small vehicle and even it is costing me near $40 to fill ‘er up. Thus, I have resorted to car pooling more often to work and avoiding unnecessary trips to unnecessary places. Additionally, the other day for Earth Day, my coworker and I biked to work. In so doing, we were able to save gas, get a great work out, and do our little part for the environment. (Ok, I’m not a hippy. I like granola just as much as the next person and I take vitamins from time to time, but seriously, I do not own one pair of Birkenstocks and if it were up to me, we would have drilled Alaska for every ounce of oil it was worth by now. So, hippy and me are definitely not synonymous).
I realize that last parenthetical thought was shallow and not particularly political correct, but who says you have to be PC in a blog?
Conclusively, the verdict is still out as to whether or not we are going to be walking across hot coals in regard to our economy in the coming months. Only time will tell I suppose. In the meantime, I plan on making it Earth Day more consistently and saving money on gas by just biking places and perhaps cutting back on my coffee and tea purchases. *Groan.* Or better idea, I’ll just sample the coffee at Whole Foods in the morning a few several times to get my jolt for free! Regardless, I plan on watching prices religiously and if costs start getting really outrageous, I’m going to Costco, buying a ton of rice and taking my cable-ready TV to the hills to watch “The Hills” … and maybe some Animal Planet so I can get some tips on how to live in the wild.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Illuminating the Gray.
I was at the gym the other day attempting to expend some pent up aggression. When I go to the gym -- the germ-infested, meathead sanctuary known as 24 Hour Fitness – I do everything I can to minimize time spent there. I just get in, put in the headphones, set a goal, wash hands profusely, and get out. No one gets hurt and the world is peaceful. However, every now and then I get unsatisfied with my music and my workout and my eyes start wandering (big mistake) and I see things that no human should be subjected to. It is because of this fact that I should warn you there is a good chance there will be a future blog entitled “Hey Scantily Clad Work-Out Girl, This is Not the Garden of Eden, Clothe Thyself!”
But, I digress.
The other day when I was there on the stair climber nearing death, I was completely engrossed in some music I had recently placed on my shuffle. Climbing to the worshipful sounds of Explosions in the Sky, I found myself essentially in another world; my mind jumping from one topic to another at an alarming rate. Most importantly, I was entirely unaware of the reality of my setting.
Suddenly – and I’m not so sure how much time had past – I started recognizing that the entire building was surprisingly empty … and the lights! Why were they flashing? Slowly, I started dripping back into reality and I noticed there was a sharp ringing in my ears that I knew wasn’t my music. Then, I looked down to see one of the cute little fitness gals trying to get my attention from the floor.
Discombobulated, I nearly fell off the stair climber while trying to pull my headphones out of my ears while -- not having any concept of volume with the instrumental craziness assaulting my ear drums -- loudly asking “What is happening?!”
So, long story short, after completely embarrassing myself, I was notified that the fire alarm had gone off and the fire department was on their way to investigate. Needless to say, the entire structure was evacuated and because of my state of oblivion, I was one of the very last people to vacate the premises.
Shamefully, I exited the front of the building to find everybody else already outside. Apparently they had got the memo a lot sooner than I that the building was potentially burning down. I quickly blended into the crowd and look incredulously back at the building and thought to myself, “How in the world did I not notice the bright flashing blue lights, the insanely loud sirens, and the fact that everyone had cleared out? How could I have been that out of it?”
My pastor gave an incredible sermon the other day with the inadvertent tagline “Missing the Miraculous in our Midst.” He spoke about how we, especially as Americans, are so configured to rush through our daily lives accomplishing, consuming, and producing as much as possible that we trample over the divine whispers and blessings that are dispersed throughout our daily happenings. We miss Him when He shows up in our lives and consequently we miss out on knowing Him. Essentially, we become so consumed with our own goals that we cheat ourselves from accomplishing our one simple purpose: To know God.
Standing in the parking lot of the gym that day perplexed as to how I could have been so unaware of the reality that beset me, I was struck with the metaphorical realization that that small episode was a snapshot of what we as Christians so often allow our lives in general to look like. Here we are on the daily grind working full force ahead for our own goals. We want the job, we want the family, we want the vacation, we want the appearance of piety, we want recognition, etc. etc. But in our pursuits, we absolutely miss the reality of where we are. We overlook the truth of our surroundings and mask it with loud distractions and refuse to take notice when the sirens are going off telling us to get out.
These last couple of months I, personally, have found myself stumbling into the “gray area” of the world and forgetting – or rather ignoring – what I know to be black and white truth. I was reading something the other day that says that our enemy’s favorite color is gray, if he can get us to compromise and say “Did God really say such-and-such is bad?” (reminiscent of the question he asked Eve in the Garden) he has got us right where he wants us: in the ambiguous, everything-in-moderation, free-for-all mentality. That being said, my biggest fear is becoming a judgmental, legalistic, pious freak of a Christian where all I can and want to do is sit inside and knit sweaters with bible verses on them (I apologize if that is offensive). But I think not engaging the world is just as bad as over-engaging the world. Somewhere we have to strike a balance where we are indeed “in the world and not of it” and not compromising but not condemning.
In pondering and discussing all of the above with much wiser people than myself, I think alleviating gray area is the best place to begin in acquiring the balance. For myself, I plan to start by turning down my music at the gym, refusing to wear anything gray, and rethinking my obsession with “Grey’s Anatomy.”(Ok, so forget the last one completely … new episodes resume April 24th! No legalism here!) But in all seriousness, as I have mentioned in previous rantings, our relative society wants us to think that there is no absolute truth and there is no absolute right and wrong. Therefore, our surroundings are constantly advocating the view for all of us to live in the gray area of concession. However, as followers of Jesus – the man whom we, as Christians, believe was the embodiment of truth – we know that there is in fact absolute truth. Making that a reality, setting ourselves apart, and living what we speak – even when you’re at the gym amongst half naked ‘roiders – is where the reality of being a Christian takes form ... or it doesn't.
But, I digress.
The other day when I was there on the stair climber nearing death, I was completely engrossed in some music I had recently placed on my shuffle. Climbing to the worshipful sounds of Explosions in the Sky, I found myself essentially in another world; my mind jumping from one topic to another at an alarming rate. Most importantly, I was entirely unaware of the reality of my setting.
Suddenly – and I’m not so sure how much time had past – I started recognizing that the entire building was surprisingly empty … and the lights! Why were they flashing? Slowly, I started dripping back into reality and I noticed there was a sharp ringing in my ears that I knew wasn’t my music. Then, I looked down to see one of the cute little fitness gals trying to get my attention from the floor.
Discombobulated, I nearly fell off the stair climber while trying to pull my headphones out of my ears while -- not having any concept of volume with the instrumental craziness assaulting my ear drums -- loudly asking “What is happening?!”
So, long story short, after completely embarrassing myself, I was notified that the fire alarm had gone off and the fire department was on their way to investigate. Needless to say, the entire structure was evacuated and because of my state of oblivion, I was one of the very last people to vacate the premises.
Shamefully, I exited the front of the building to find everybody else already outside. Apparently they had got the memo a lot sooner than I that the building was potentially burning down. I quickly blended into the crowd and look incredulously back at the building and thought to myself, “How in the world did I not notice the bright flashing blue lights, the insanely loud sirens, and the fact that everyone had cleared out? How could I have been that out of it?”
My pastor gave an incredible sermon the other day with the inadvertent tagline “Missing the Miraculous in our Midst.” He spoke about how we, especially as Americans, are so configured to rush through our daily lives accomplishing, consuming, and producing as much as possible that we trample over the divine whispers and blessings that are dispersed throughout our daily happenings. We miss Him when He shows up in our lives and consequently we miss out on knowing Him. Essentially, we become so consumed with our own goals that we cheat ourselves from accomplishing our one simple purpose: To know God.
Standing in the parking lot of the gym that day perplexed as to how I could have been so unaware of the reality that beset me, I was struck with the metaphorical realization that that small episode was a snapshot of what we as Christians so often allow our lives in general to look like. Here we are on the daily grind working full force ahead for our own goals. We want the job, we want the family, we want the vacation, we want the appearance of piety, we want recognition, etc. etc. But in our pursuits, we absolutely miss the reality of where we are. We overlook the truth of our surroundings and mask it with loud distractions and refuse to take notice when the sirens are going off telling us to get out.
These last couple of months I, personally, have found myself stumbling into the “gray area” of the world and forgetting – or rather ignoring – what I know to be black and white truth. I was reading something the other day that says that our enemy’s favorite color is gray, if he can get us to compromise and say “Did God really say such-and-such is bad?” (reminiscent of the question he asked Eve in the Garden) he has got us right where he wants us: in the ambiguous, everything-in-moderation, free-for-all mentality. That being said, my biggest fear is becoming a judgmental, legalistic, pious freak of a Christian where all I can and want to do is sit inside and knit sweaters with bible verses on them (I apologize if that is offensive). But I think not engaging the world is just as bad as over-engaging the world. Somewhere we have to strike a balance where we are indeed “in the world and not of it” and not compromising but not condemning.
In pondering and discussing all of the above with much wiser people than myself, I think alleviating gray area is the best place to begin in acquiring the balance. For myself, I plan to start by turning down my music at the gym, refusing to wear anything gray, and rethinking my obsession with “Grey’s Anatomy.”(Ok, so forget the last one completely … new episodes resume April 24th! No legalism here!) But in all seriousness, as I have mentioned in previous rantings, our relative society wants us to think that there is no absolute truth and there is no absolute right and wrong. Therefore, our surroundings are constantly advocating the view for all of us to live in the gray area of concession. However, as followers of Jesus – the man whom we, as Christians, believe was the embodiment of truth – we know that there is in fact absolute truth. Making that a reality, setting ourselves apart, and living what we speak – even when you’re at the gym amongst half naked ‘roiders – is where the reality of being a Christian takes form ... or it doesn't.
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