conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sabbath: the way of enough

I make myself rich by making my wants few.
- Thoreau

What is the American Dream? This is a question that runs through my head from time to time and it is the one that I think Wayne is mulling over as well. He's not that explicit, mind you, but that's the connection I make. Wayne is wondering what "enough" really is. If the Hebrews can find enough in the desert, and Buddhists cannot keep food overnight, accepting what they are given each day as enough, what then do we do with vast storerooms in each home, extra freezer chests, bigger and larger etc...Why do we hold on to so very much? Why are we so afraid of not having enough? Is this somehow handed on from generation to generation? Is this the inheritance of our "immigrant state?" We are all immigrants here, you know, people seeking something "better" or "more."

I know, this is perhaps silly to some, but let me play this out a bit. If I do have a cultural bias, it is Virginian. But that culture is suspect. Second sons of English aristocrats came over seeking wealth. They came over because they were have-nots in England. Here in the new world, they would be "Haves." Albion's Seed is an interesting book that chronicles the various immigration movements from the UK. The one that shapes me, I imagine, is this immigration to the mid-Atlantic region. They were not fleeing religious persecution. They were seeking what they imagined they did not have. They established harsh parish systems where even the wives of landowners were, essentially, owned. Slavery was rampant. They were focused on gain. This is the shadow side of the life at least. I inherited this, I know. And I inherited my grandfather's fretfulness as a child of the Great Depression. I inherited my father and mother's reaction to that. It is a long inheritance.

So, as I read this chapter in Sabbath, I encountered my own sense of entitlement. I deserve stuff. I need stuff. I want more stuff. And I am afraid of what life would be like without stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. The irony about stuff and wanting it is that I am not afraid of poverty. I am afraid of not having. It is not about wealth, liquidity. It is about possessions. Strange. I'll have to puzzle that out. For physical desire is a mirror for spiritual desire...and spiritual seeking is no less a distraction than stuff seeking. Wayne says:

When we are trapped in seeking, nothing is enough. Everything we have mocks us; we see only what is missing, ans all that is already here seems pale and unsatisfying. In Sabbath time we bless what there is for being. The time for seeking is over; the time for finding has begun.

This chapter really pushes me around in a good way. I preached on this topic without having read the chapter. Now I want to go back to my sermon and see what is already there that I know, to find what I have and to begin (again) to let go...simply let go. Enough is enough.

I'm interested in what Megan and Christopher have to say as well.

Posted by tripp at July 23, 2007 09:39 AM