Sunday, March 14, 2010
Consumed
A being roams from place to place looking for whom it may devour. Yet, we do not know it is a threat. It is attractive. Chiseled torso. Perfectly groomed hair. Radiating eyes. Booming, yet inviting voice. Charismatic in personality. Everything we want to be.
This being speaks like a self-help guru or wealth expert. Giving us answers we want to hear and the hope that we can sustain ourselves if we get our priorities straight. He promises to set us free.
His answers make sense. We have worked hard to get where we are so why not go further? Why not seek all the wealth we can gain? All the things we can grab? Why not seek all the power we can wield? All the influence we can hold?
After all, contentment is for the weak. Power is for the strong. The minute we feel for someone else we become vulnerable and will be crushed. Everyone is chasing after the same limited prize. Either you get it all or you get nothing.
We suddenly feel free to live for ourselves and it’s a wonderful sensation, but we start to feel a tug.
But you can live with less than the best or all the material beauty you can stand. It’s your choice. Why limit yourself to modesty when you can live in the finest neighborhoods, in the biggest houses, driving the most expensive cars, and impressing all the neighbors?
Why settle for simplicity when you can enjoy the finest steaks, the freshest fish, and the most succulent feasts.
The messages confront us on a daily basis convincing us to grab, grab, grab some more, convinced that the more we grab the happier we’ll be. Every romance begins with a diamond so we buy them up for our lovers. The new series of the latest do-it-all electronic device hits the market with a couple of new functions, so we replace the old out-of-date device we purchased six long months ago.
Value menus with supersize options catch our eye. All-you-can eats present themselves as a mere challenge to our appetites. We decide why eat just any beef when we can spend disposable income on Japanese beef that was fed saki as it was raised so as to marinate the beef while it still grazed. Fancy restaurants with menu items we need translated beg for our attention.
Enjoyment is high but we start to feel as if something else is directing us.
The barrage of want confronts us at every turn. It’s never ending. And it doesn’t stop with us. It works on our children even harder before they have the cognitive ability to make moral decisions. It confronts on commercials presenting toys all boys and girls must have. It pressures them in school with the need to fit in and keep up with the latest fashions. So much so they may change who they are from one year to the next.
The want must continue. We must continue to acquire. Continue to feast. Continue to consume. For it is through our consumption this being is fed.
So we are motivated. To work longer hours to make even more or advance up the corporate ladder even faster. To upgrade our lifestyle at each waking turn to keep up with the Joneses. And knowing that this being whom we find so friendly drives everything around us and that failure to follow would destroy all of our dreams of wealth and success.
We have so much we will never have to worry. In fact when we retire, we will live like kings. We will travel the globe. And we will continue to consume, seeking to fill our souls, for we have stored up our wealth to enable us to do so.
We feel happier as we pile up goods yet increasingly out of control. We discover this being that helped us become everything we ever wanted is a puppeteer. We are on its strings and he will have his way.
Nothing is beyond our reach. Nothing is beyond our control. We need nobody. And we feel important. We have gained the whole world, and as the puppeteer suggested, we have filled our soul. We have conquered our world and will continue to conquer for we are kings of the hill and if we hesitate for one moment someone will throw us off.
At times we have doubts about the lives we have embraced. What about the hungry? What about the poor? What about the fact we live in a country that constitutes five percent of the world’s population yet we consume somewhere between twenty-five and thirty percent of the world’s natural resources?
The puppeteer says never mind that. You have gotten where you are because you are hard-working. You are civilized. You are superior. If they weren’t so weak they would not be where they are at. They are lazy. They are primitive. They are evil. So if consumption consumes them and their way of life, we’ll all be better off.
And we, having filled our souls with earthly goods continue on. We are unconcerned that we are consuming others in all the material things we consume. We are unconcerned that we have placed highest value on the wealth we have and continue to obtain and made our neighbors mere objects to be used to get what we want.
We are not worried with the jobs lost here at home or the working conditions of those overseas whose labor keeps our prices low. We are not concerned with the people laid off and the effects it has on their families so long as our stock prices can climb even higher. We will remain indifferent to those working at the minimum wage to get us value meals and those going without health care to keep the costs of our luxuries and our taxes down as long as it isn’t us. We will fight through crowds and with people in crowds on Black Friday to get insane deals. And through consuming our neighbor we feel happier and the puppeteer is filled all the more.
But one day finally we discover the truth. Reality hits us in the face. All we worked for is fading away. Those who said they were our friends have no further use for us and provide no aid. Even if we have maintained our wealth we realize our endless pursuit of consumption has left us lonely and our lives full of holes.
Credit card debt has mounted as we bought and ate things we didn’t need and couldn’t afford and making ends meet seems impossible. Illness and injury mounts as our bodies break down. Instead of happiness, we find despair. Instead of souls overfilled, we find empty caverns within.
We discover all along the puppeteer had been devouring us from within. He fed on our souls with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
We lay soulless. Lifeless. Wallowing in our despair. Wondering if there is any hope. When another appears.
This one is unnerving. Frightening at first sight. Gaunt build. Ribs poking through his flesh. Long tangled hair.
His words bring great unease. “Woe to those who are rich…” “What good is it to gain the whole world only to lose your soul.” “You cannot serve both God and money.” And he tells this story.
(Read Luke 12:13-21)
Despite these harsh words this encounter is different from that with the puppeteer. It does not begin with demands and control. It is that of a storyteller pouring himself out into the characters inviting them to be participants in a grand drama.
This pouring out begins to refill the empty pits that are our souls.
The storyteller speaks what seems as nonsense but because of his love, we listen. We start to hear the key is to share. To give. To love. We discover the irony that filling ourselves leaves us starved and alone while pouring ourselves out fills us as never before in a community of hope.
We no longer need things. We embrace relationships. We no longer pursue money. We hunger for justice. Our money and possessions are no longer things to grip but resources to help. To reconcile. To set our world and the world at large to rights.
When someone is hungry, the storyteller’s community feeds them. When someone is thirsty, the storyteller’s community gives them something to drink. When they need clothes to wear, are sick, or in prison, the storyteller’s characters participate in salvation.
And the nonsense we embraced surprises us. Our souls are filled. We are happy. Our lives are more abundant than they ever were when we were mere puppets on a string chasing after so many things.
When other souls are used up and discarded by the puppeteer, we are there to fill them up. When the puppeteer and its marionettes seek to entice, enslave, and consume other souls we rise up to play out the true story on the world stage setting souls free with the truth. Cutting the strings and untracking their fading lives.
And the storyteller stands before us today, offering food and drink at his table. The bread and wine he poured out for all. Tonight he asks us to take what he has to give. Then, to participate in the story by loving and sharing in his way to live.
This being speaks like a self-help guru or wealth expert. Giving us answers we want to hear and the hope that we can sustain ourselves if we get our priorities straight. He promises to set us free.
His answers make sense. We have worked hard to get where we are so why not go further? Why not seek all the wealth we can gain? All the things we can grab? Why not seek all the power we can wield? All the influence we can hold?
After all, contentment is for the weak. Power is for the strong. The minute we feel for someone else we become vulnerable and will be crushed. Everyone is chasing after the same limited prize. Either you get it all or you get nothing.
We suddenly feel free to live for ourselves and it’s a wonderful sensation, but we start to feel a tug.
But you can live with less than the best or all the material beauty you can stand. It’s your choice. Why limit yourself to modesty when you can live in the finest neighborhoods, in the biggest houses, driving the most expensive cars, and impressing all the neighbors?
Why settle for simplicity when you can enjoy the finest steaks, the freshest fish, and the most succulent feasts.
The messages confront us on a daily basis convincing us to grab, grab, grab some more, convinced that the more we grab the happier we’ll be. Every romance begins with a diamond so we buy them up for our lovers. The new series of the latest do-it-all electronic device hits the market with a couple of new functions, so we replace the old out-of-date device we purchased six long months ago.
Value menus with supersize options catch our eye. All-you-can eats present themselves as a mere challenge to our appetites. We decide why eat just any beef when we can spend disposable income on Japanese beef that was fed saki as it was raised so as to marinate the beef while it still grazed. Fancy restaurants with menu items we need translated beg for our attention.
Enjoyment is high but we start to feel as if something else is directing us.
The barrage of want confronts us at every turn. It’s never ending. And it doesn’t stop with us. It works on our children even harder before they have the cognitive ability to make moral decisions. It confronts on commercials presenting toys all boys and girls must have. It pressures them in school with the need to fit in and keep up with the latest fashions. So much so they may change who they are from one year to the next.
The want must continue. We must continue to acquire. Continue to feast. Continue to consume. For it is through our consumption this being is fed.
So we are motivated. To work longer hours to make even more or advance up the corporate ladder even faster. To upgrade our lifestyle at each waking turn to keep up with the Joneses. And knowing that this being whom we find so friendly drives everything around us and that failure to follow would destroy all of our dreams of wealth and success.
We have so much we will never have to worry. In fact when we retire, we will live like kings. We will travel the globe. And we will continue to consume, seeking to fill our souls, for we have stored up our wealth to enable us to do so.
We feel happier as we pile up goods yet increasingly out of control. We discover this being that helped us become everything we ever wanted is a puppeteer. We are on its strings and he will have his way.
Nothing is beyond our reach. Nothing is beyond our control. We need nobody. And we feel important. We have gained the whole world, and as the puppeteer suggested, we have filled our soul. We have conquered our world and will continue to conquer for we are kings of the hill and if we hesitate for one moment someone will throw us off.
At times we have doubts about the lives we have embraced. What about the hungry? What about the poor? What about the fact we live in a country that constitutes five percent of the world’s population yet we consume somewhere between twenty-five and thirty percent of the world’s natural resources?
The puppeteer says never mind that. You have gotten where you are because you are hard-working. You are civilized. You are superior. If they weren’t so weak they would not be where they are at. They are lazy. They are primitive. They are evil. So if consumption consumes them and their way of life, we’ll all be better off.
And we, having filled our souls with earthly goods continue on. We are unconcerned that we are consuming others in all the material things we consume. We are unconcerned that we have placed highest value on the wealth we have and continue to obtain and made our neighbors mere objects to be used to get what we want.
We are not worried with the jobs lost here at home or the working conditions of those overseas whose labor keeps our prices low. We are not concerned with the people laid off and the effects it has on their families so long as our stock prices can climb even higher. We will remain indifferent to those working at the minimum wage to get us value meals and those going without health care to keep the costs of our luxuries and our taxes down as long as it isn’t us. We will fight through crowds and with people in crowds on Black Friday to get insane deals. And through consuming our neighbor we feel happier and the puppeteer is filled all the more.
But one day finally we discover the truth. Reality hits us in the face. All we worked for is fading away. Those who said they were our friends have no further use for us and provide no aid. Even if we have maintained our wealth we realize our endless pursuit of consumption has left us lonely and our lives full of holes.
Credit card debt has mounted as we bought and ate things we didn’t need and couldn’t afford and making ends meet seems impossible. Illness and injury mounts as our bodies break down. Instead of happiness, we find despair. Instead of souls overfilled, we find empty caverns within.
We discover all along the puppeteer had been devouring us from within. He fed on our souls with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
We lay soulless. Lifeless. Wallowing in our despair. Wondering if there is any hope. When another appears.
This one is unnerving. Frightening at first sight. Gaunt build. Ribs poking through his flesh. Long tangled hair.
His words bring great unease. “Woe to those who are rich…” “What good is it to gain the whole world only to lose your soul.” “You cannot serve both God and money.” And he tells this story.
(Read Luke 12:13-21)
Despite these harsh words this encounter is different from that with the puppeteer. It does not begin with demands and control. It is that of a storyteller pouring himself out into the characters inviting them to be participants in a grand drama.
This pouring out begins to refill the empty pits that are our souls.
The storyteller speaks what seems as nonsense but because of his love, we listen. We start to hear the key is to share. To give. To love. We discover the irony that filling ourselves leaves us starved and alone while pouring ourselves out fills us as never before in a community of hope.
We no longer need things. We embrace relationships. We no longer pursue money. We hunger for justice. Our money and possessions are no longer things to grip but resources to help. To reconcile. To set our world and the world at large to rights.
When someone is hungry, the storyteller’s community feeds them. When someone is thirsty, the storyteller’s community gives them something to drink. When they need clothes to wear, are sick, or in prison, the storyteller’s characters participate in salvation.
And the nonsense we embraced surprises us. Our souls are filled. We are happy. Our lives are more abundant than they ever were when we were mere puppets on a string chasing after so many things.
When other souls are used up and discarded by the puppeteer, we are there to fill them up. When the puppeteer and its marionettes seek to entice, enslave, and consume other souls we rise up to play out the true story on the world stage setting souls free with the truth. Cutting the strings and untracking their fading lives.
And the storyteller stands before us today, offering food and drink at his table. The bread and wine he poured out for all. Tonight he asks us to take what he has to give. Then, to participate in the story by loving and sharing in his way to live.
