rest is a strange thing. we work and work, looking forward to rest with desperation and when the time to rest arrives, we're not sure what to do with ourselves. i just picked up Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work by Miroslav Volf yesterday at the Regent College bookstore and something he said right off in the introduction rang true:
Work has come to pervade and rule the lives of men and women, be it in the form of indefatigable or cruelly enforced industriousness, pure and simple, in the initial stages of the industrial nations' development; be it in combination with frantically pursued leisure at later stages.
admittedly, i've spent too much time on this vacation feeling hopeless, overwhelmed by the weight of future work and decisions. fortunately, i was called to accountability by an interview that was reprinted in the Utne Reader. Tony Kushner, a playwright who's most well known for his ambitious two-part play Angels in America, says that in this climate of privilege, despair (at least for those who don't suffer from a chemical imbalance or horrible personal circumstances) is a luxury and it's our ethical obligation to find hope because the things we despair of are not irreversible. Kushner says this in a political context, but the same can be true in a personal context.
on a large scale, all of these realizations make me understand that when we go back to the real world in Three Rivers, Michigan, our lives must include room for dedicated study. we're searching for grad schools in part because we feel like we need a two-year compartment of time in which to cram all of the reading and learning we wish to do. but we may already be committed to learning by doing in our small, yet promising town. we'll see.
we're going for a short warm-up hike today (and perhaps a swim in a glacial lake) in anticipation of a day hike tomorrow on Panorama Ridge. one of us will be back soon with pictures, i'm sure.
k.
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