Living Undisturbed Lives

Battering Down Walls

I must admit that my preference is to live an undisturbed life. Minimize hassles. Keep to my own schedule. Get through what I think is most important. Study. Make music. Write. Work out. Push projects forward…it is all decidedly first world I fear!

When following the “bad news press” and hearing (and seeing) the terror in Gaza I recoil in horror. How is it that as Homo sapiens we continue to hate our enemies? We treat them inhumanely in every possible way. No food, water, medical supplies. The only thing that matters is to inflict pain, damage and death. And it comes from both sides of the aisle.

Alas, in that far away land few have the luxury of living undisturbed lives.

Robert Morneau comments on our desire to be left alone:

Most of us prefer to live undisturbed lives. We strive to isolate ourselves from the fears of insecurity and the anxieties of poverty. By means of control and power we erect walls that protect us from the bruises of life. No “enemy,” demon or divine, penetrates our fortified souls. (R. Morneau, Fathoming Bethlehem).

We work so hard to have a bit of isolation. A bit of protection. But the world’s onslaughts keep pouring down upon us making it nigh-on impossible to find peace these days. Was the wealthy farmer of old that outlandish when he wished for an undisturbed life—“Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry” (LK. 12)? Is that too much to ask for?

Yet there is One who desires more from us who won’t settle for bits and pieces. Rilke sees it and whispers quietly in our ears—“He is the one who breaks down the walls, and when he works, he works in silence.”

Indeed, there is One who batters down walls so that our ‘false selves’ surrender and our ‘true selves’ unfold like Sharon’s rose and the Valley’s lilies.