Click on the picture to go to the youtube video
Some of you may have already seen the youtube video of the comedian Louis CK on Conan. If not, it’s worth taking a look at. So funny. And so true. I particularly like the part where he’s telling the story of being on an airplane that was trying the new internet inflight. He was happy, surfing the internet, amazed that he was flying at 30,000 feet and on the internet. I mean, trippy, right? Well the internet goes out and the guy next to him is like, ” pssh! this is b*llsh*it!” And Louis is like, “so quickly he’s entitled to something that he only found out about ten minutes ago.”
I find this observation rather profound. We do live in an amazing era, technology that advances so quickly allowing us to do things that a generation ago would seem like magic. I mean, I remember life before the internet, and yet I met my husband because he followed my blog (This blog!) and we got to talking and one thing led to another.
If anything, we should be happier than ever, and yet it seems like as a culture the more possiblities we’re aware of, the unhappier we are. the more technology hasn’t actually led to more time, it somehow has created less time because there’s more to keep track of. Of course, we perpetuate this cycle, allowing the instant possiblities to create a tyrrany of the urgent that all too often we give into, and allow all the beeps, rings, and notifications to run our lives instead of using them for the tools they are.
I find the concept of “entitlement” an interesting one to play with though. Going along with my earlier musings on the economic crisis, I think the two concepts go hand-in-hand. If it was our pride, the concept that we could control our environment, that led us to grasp for more and more, then entitlement runs along with pride. If we take a humble view of ourselves and what it is that we “deserve,” we’ll have a hard time feeling entitled to anything. After all, in reality, we’re entitled to nothing.
In our arrogance and pride, we thought that we didn’t need to trust God, and we took the fruit from the one tree forbidden us and all creation fell through our arrogance. What do we deserve? We deserve punishment from God. We deserve his wrath, we’re entitled to that, and only that. Everything we have is because by his grace and mercy he took it upon himself to provide a way of escape for those who would take it, and by his mercy he continues to sustain this broken planet instead of wiping us all out.
We have so many ideas of what we’re entitled too, not realizing that if we got what we deserved, all we’d have is the results of our sin and brokenness.
And yet, we play out our entitlement every day. When we cut someone off because we’re in a hurry, run that light, cut in line, tell little lies, feel discontent because of something we don’t have, something someone else has.
The economy has brough us all up short. Brought us face-to-face with the reality of what our pride and greed has done to our nation. It’s time to really look in the mirror and slow down. Be grateful for what we do have. Realize that even in crisis most of us are still so much better off then almost the entire world (I’m not knocking those suffering in the midst of this, that suffering is real, I’m talking to the rest of us).
I talked last year about the need to pursue contentment in the culture of consumerism, and the realization that if I didn’t learn to be content, I would always live in the future, and not in the moment, effectively missing life while I was living it because I didn’t know how to be present.
I realize the difficulity of saying to be content when you might be out of work, facing losing your house, wondering if you’ll ever be able to retire, and all the other fears and uncertainties that come with a time such as the one we’re living in. But while contentment might be te wrong description, we can learn to be present, even in the pain, fear and uncertainty, for it’s not worth missing the lessons that come in the midst of times like this by simply looking for a way out.
Something to muse on.
Watch the video: Everything’s Amazing, Nobody’s Happy
Thanks to Bishop Alan for the tip to the video.
you dropped by. I hope you'll grab a cup of coffee (or other comforting beverage of your choice) and hang out with me for a while.
Not so plain vanilla
Anyway, I figured, it’s such a small amount, is it really going to hurt me? Well, probably not, but when said bottle ran low, I was pleased to discover, on the shelf of my grocery store a “Pick Tennessee” label next to a large bottle of Simplify’s Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract. Not only is it local, it’s less than half the price (per oz) of the grocery store brand. Oh, yeah, and no high fructose corn syrup, just water, vanilla, and booze. The way it should be, thank you very much.