Three Days and Counting
Wednesday March 26, 2008
The improvement of the capacity for experience and use generally involves a decrease in man’s power to relate-that power, which alone can enable man to live in the spirit
(I and Thou, p. 89).
My wife’s cousin Billy visits every Wednesday morning. Lately we’ve been discussing computers, specifically, migrating my blog to WordPress. I only aspire to be a geek-I’m more Nick Bottom the weaver, who said, “I can gleek upon occasion.” But that’s gotta be in an enchanted wood and Titania the mystic queen must be enamored of an ass (who shall remain nameless).
I told Billy, “it’ll take me six months to migrate my blog.” Well, to my astonishment, it took four days! Of course, there are a few advanced points I still have trouble with, like username and password.
Wisely, my wife Sandy left town for three days, the length of time, the resurrection takes. She’s attending the national meeting of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors in Norfolk, Virginia. Our African brothers scheduled to present a workshop on multicultural issues in pastoral counseling service and training were denied a visa or delayed in coming; Sandy and colleagues from the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, therefore, are pinch hitting.
I’ve decided to spend the next 72 hours in a kind of retreat, turning off the TV, struggling to listen to the Spirit, and writing.
Writing!
You remember writing. It’s what the shaman does-goes into the dark womb of the earth and marks on the wall with a charred stick magic drawings; what the monument builder does-chisels the names of kings and conquerors; what the monk does-illuminates the sacred scrolls; what John-boy Walton does with a No. 2 pencil and a Big Chief tablet: point to life in all its fullness.
Is Martin Buber right? Would I be better off without a Naturally Speaking head set and a laptop? The jury’s still out. The technology for making movies is light-years beyond what they began with, but the headlines a new film generates are the amount of box office receipts and who the stars are sleeping with.
Three days of silence. Think what God can do in three days. And this time God’s got Billy advising on tech stuff.
Tags: retreat