Season in Hell
or, Why you've got to travel light
The whole point of going away on holiday was so that, when we came back, the builders would have finished and gone away. Well, OK, the whole point was really to have a holiday, enjoy God's recreative grace, and come back refreshed. And ready to grab our working life by the -er, throat. Instead of which, the builders only went away at the end of last week, leaving the decorators in possession. The decorators couldn't do anything while we weren't here, because they didn't want to empty our shelves and cupboards of all the valuables (i.e. crockery, drinks, videos and DVDs, books etc.) that they contain. So they are waiting for us when we get home, like ravenous bugblatter beasts.
We look at the stuff that we've got to move and are paralysed with the question Where do you start? So much stuff that you don't need, never use, but can't bear to throw away because it's your life and your shared history. But neither can you bear to move it somewhere (even if such a 'somewhere' existed) for two days and then put it back when the bugblatter beasts have gone.
OK, some of it has got easier. All those old vinyl LPs I thought I was going to have someone record onto some other medium, because we haven't had a record deck for years. They've got to go. But what about the photographs of holidays 30 years ago, that we never look at? The childish scrawls of pictures of Daddy? What about all the unused gifts we've received over the years? Well, let's give 'em to the next WI or Over 50's sale. Good idea - but wait a minute, we can't put that in the sale, because so-and-so gave it to us, and so-and-so will probably be there at the sale. They're certain to recognise it. Or something even worse might happen: they might think, That's just the thing for Tony and Alison, and give it to us again. Aargh!
When life has this way of leaping out at you and rubbing your face in the fact that all the great spiritual teachers who tell us Travel Light may just have a point, you'd think we would learn, wouldn't you? Instead I make another good resolution to get rid of some of these material possessions, that I know I won't keep until the next time life bushwhacks me.
I had a terrible thought today, as I remembered those stories SPCK tell about the African pastors who only have three books to aid their ministry - and this is why we should help them by sending them twelve more, or some such. The thought was: Lucky blokes.
Footnote:
If your life was on fire, and you could salvage only ten books to see you through the rest of your ministry - which ten would you choose? (We'll allow you the Bible and Book of Common Prayer or equivalent.) Which other ten?
The whole point of going away on holiday was so that, when we came back, the builders would have finished and gone away. Well, OK, the whole point was really to have a holiday, enjoy God's recreative grace, and come back refreshed. And ready to grab our working life by the -er, throat. Instead of which, the builders only went away at the end of last week, leaving the decorators in possession. The decorators couldn't do anything while we weren't here, because they didn't want to empty our shelves and cupboards of all the valuables (i.e. crockery, drinks, videos and DVDs, books etc.) that they contain. So they are waiting for us when we get home, like ravenous bugblatter beasts.
We look at the stuff that we've got to move and are paralysed with the question Where do you start? So much stuff that you don't need, never use, but can't bear to throw away because it's your life and your shared history. But neither can you bear to move it somewhere (even if such a 'somewhere' existed) for two days and then put it back when the bugblatter beasts have gone.
OK, some of it has got easier. All those old vinyl LPs I thought I was going to have someone record onto some other medium, because we haven't had a record deck for years. They've got to go. But what about the photographs of holidays 30 years ago, that we never look at? The childish scrawls of pictures of Daddy? What about all the unused gifts we've received over the years? Well, let's give 'em to the next WI or Over 50's sale. Good idea - but wait a minute, we can't put that in the sale, because so-and-so gave it to us, and so-and-so will probably be there at the sale. They're certain to recognise it. Or something even worse might happen: they might think, That's just the thing for Tony and Alison, and give it to us again. Aargh!
When life has this way of leaping out at you and rubbing your face in the fact that all the great spiritual teachers who tell us Travel Light may just have a point, you'd think we would learn, wouldn't you? Instead I make another good resolution to get rid of some of these material possessions, that I know I won't keep until the next time life bushwhacks me.
I had a terrible thought today, as I remembered those stories SPCK tell about the African pastors who only have three books to aid their ministry - and this is why we should help them by sending them twelve more, or some such. The thought was: Lucky blokes.
Footnote:
If your life was on fire, and you could salvage only ten books to see you through the rest of your ministry - which ten would you choose? (We'll allow you the Bible and Book of Common Prayer or equivalent.) Which other ten?
2 Comments:
My wife and I are having the same experience right now. After ten years overseas, we're moving back to the U.S. so I can complete my seminary training. Unlike our earlier moves which were paid for by others, we're financing this one ourselves. According to the budget we've set up, we can only ship two crates back, and we moved here with six! We've sold almost all of our furniture, most of the kitchen appliances, and tons of old clothes, toys, etc. The hardest part, though, has been throwing out bags and boxes full of memorabilia: cards, letters, love notes, newspaper clippings, and the like. We've been pretty brutal about it, but I wonder, will we (or our children or grandchildren) live to regret it?
The one thing I'm not getting rid of is books. Ten to see me through the rest of my ministry? Heavens!
...Theology for the Community of God by Grenz...Mere Christianity by Lewis...A Knock at Midnight (Collected sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr....Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work by Peterson...Christian Theology: An Introduction by McGrath...the companion volume, The Christian Theology Reader...The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey...my cherished 1946 Roget's International Thesaurus...and perhaps I'd let my wife choose the last two!
I forgot to add...perhaps if you wrap a towel around your head, the Bugblatter Beasts will assume they can't see you either and will leave you in peace!
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