Just thinking.

Just lying here wondering what has happened to us as a society, as people, as families and community members. How we’ve lost joy, and relationships, and a compass that tells us what’s truly important and what isn’t. Maybe this is judgey of me. Or maybe I’ve idealized the past and it was always like this, but I don’t think so. I feel like, as a society (but even closer to home, as an extended family) we’ve forgotten who we ARE.

I feel like where we live is a little bubble of reality, here in our little corner of the UP. Others outside of this bubble think we’re backwards and behind the times and boring. So be it. To me, it feels like a place that hasn’t forgotten what’s real. Being close to nature grounds a person. I can see how certain people mistake nature itself for almost a deity, how the environment becomes their religion.  They are searching for sacred, and find sacred amongst the water and the trees. They find beauty and peace and quiet where it struggles to take hold in busy metropolises. And they recognize that this is holy. Except, they mistake nature for the end, rather than it being the reflection of the GREAT Beginning and End. But they are closer to truth in my mind than those who run about chasing material things and status and achievement and false youth as so many do. Nature reminds us that there is much that is greater than ourselves, and that we are small in comparison. Our busy society teaches that "me myself and I" are the most important things. It breeds self-centeredness. I am the center of my own world, and only I matter. This is not how it was. But it is now. My community here in the UP is close to nature, and I feel like that has helped to keep us grounded.  Which is besides the point I am making, but true. I digress.

I guess one of the big reasons I’ve been pondering this is that my parents’ 50th anniversary is coming up, and it has been a ginormous struggle for my extended family to simply come together and celebrate that.  Meanwhile,  I’ve been going through 72 years worth of pictures, and it occurred to me that it didn’t always used to be this way. In fact, even two and a half decades ago, we were able to gather in our parents’ back yard and work together to put on a lovely party for their 25th anniversary, filled with friends and family and love. It wasn’t fancy or expensive, because we girls were college students with no money at the time.   But it was fabulous. And we worked together to make that happen for my parents.  What happened to US that we can’t do that now?  Now that we are more mature and have resources?  Why have we forgotten who we were as a family growing up, the joy and love that our parents showered on us from an early age?  Can we no longer see that acknowledging that love is so much more important than where we celebrate it, or what recreational activities are available in the location, or how we’d rather spend our vacation time??   We’ve forgotten who we are. We’ve become distracted by stupid things that we’ve convinced ourselves are of the utmost importance when they are NOT.

Going through these pictures is helping me to remember. Remember that joy and relationships and family and loving one another - that is what is important.

This is rambling and not cohesive. I’m just waking up, and typing this on my iPhone, so forgive its scattered nature. But it’s what I’ve been pondering on this early spring morning and I pray that we remember, as a family, but even more as a society, who we ARE.  Because what is happening in my family I feel is a microcosm if what is happening everywhere in America, as we become more and more self centered and selfish and self absorbed. Paradoxically, the more we focus on ourselves, the less we remember who we ARE, in the grand scheme of things. So sometimes, we need to look back to look forward. Don’t forget our roots and who we used to be.

ADDENDUM:  Just read this by Cardinal Sarah, and it feels like it's saying what I am trying to say, in my awkward way.

" Our contemporaries are convinced that, in order to be free, one must not depend on anybody. There is a tragic error in this. Western people are convinced that receiving is contrary to the dignity of human persons. But civilized man is fundamentally an heir, he receives a history, a culture, a language, a name, a family. This is what distinguishes him from the barbarian. To refuse to be inscribed within a network of dependence, heritage, and filiation condemns us to go back naked into the jungle of a competitive economy left to its own devices. Because he refuses to acknowledge himself as an heir, man is condemned to the hell of liberal globalization in which individual interests confront one another without any law to govern them besides profit at any price".