Yann Martel
So I just finished reading his book, Life of Pi, for class. It was a wonderful novel that I won’t bother summarizing, just know by the end he’s presented two very different accounts of the same story. One of the accounts is very fantastical, the other, very “horrible.” One activates your imagination and brings you hope, and meaning, the other brings you a knot in your stomach as you contemplate your very human nature.
Martel never bothers to tell us which one is the “real” story, and it’s funny that we might get so caught up in that, because, well, it’s fiction. But that was basically the main goal of the story so, naturally, we discussed it.
Today, I ran into a friend who had also read the book. He thought it was obvious that the “horrible” ending was the true story, I claimed the fantastical one was. At first, he thought I was joking or just trying to argue, but I wasn’t.
This took him aback.
“What do you mean you’d prefer to accept the fairytale version? Is it just because the “horrible” one makes you realize how horrible we all are? People are horrible. We’ll do whatever it takes to survive, because, by nature, we’re selfish. There’s nothing we can do about it. That’s just how we are.”
I stopped to think about how sincerely depressing that would be. How hopeless we would be. How deep down that would mean when it cames to the core of our beings, we’re selfish beasts. I asked him if he believed in God, or if that was just another “fairytale” story to him. He said no, that he couldn’t prove it either way, so it made sense to him not to. I told him I thought that was kind of the point of the story. That we could decide on the most logical or rational story, be left lonely and have no hope, or we could take a chance on the fantastical one. I read from the author’s note:
“If we do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
I then began to ask a few questions like, what if we didn’t take ourselves so seriously? Or what if we weren’t so arrogant to believe that it ended at us, that we were the pinnacle of existence? Or what if we all took a chance on something beyond “reality?” What if we trusted our imagination to take us to those places otherwise cut off, to those places where there’s hope, to the essence?
Our conversation started there.
Galatians 5:14
“Oh, I’m sorry, we have a ten dollar minimum on cards.”
“Err…”
“Well, do you want it?”
“I do; I’ve run out of things to read.”
“Well, here, I’ll just give you the receipt and you can come pay for it whenever.”
Naturally I had no idea how to respond to this. This was an entirely counter-cultural approach to the situation. Anywhere else I would have been expected to find something that would have cost me $1.07 or gotten out of there. I mean, hey, it’s a rough life owning a small business; you have to make the money somehow.
It was as if the idea hadn’t crossed his mind though. He didn’t know me; he literally knew nothing about me. He didn’t know if I lived in town, he didn’t know my number, he didn’t know if I would come back to pay, heck, he didn’t even know my name!
In that moment, I felt this wonderful sense of humanity. I didn’t feel over analyzed or like a means to making money. And I realized how often I didn’t feel that way. I realized how often I didn’t treat people that way. This man had blown my mind and I’m positive he hadn’t any clue.
I want to show the world that kind of love.
Romans 12:10
I came to college ready to conquer the world. It was a fairytale that I was finally getting to live. I had never been more excited about any transition in my life - the adventure, the learning, the opportunity. Looking back on my first year, I’m quite surprised by what shook me the most.
Wednesday nights, 8:30, ±15 girls, some Bibles and the presence of the Lord.
This was by far the most transformative experience of the first year of my collegiate career. With a divinely woven group of girls I learned where I stood in my faith, and proceeded to walk further.
When I fell, they were there to pick me up. When I rejoiced, they cheered with me. When I was in distress, they prayed with/for me. When I was bored, they entertained me. When I wanted to cuddle, they crawled in bed with me. When I cried, they wiped the tears for me. When I went to the hospital, they drove me.
I learned what a community was, what a family was, what Christ’s Body was.
Through everything and with everything they had, they served me with the grace of the Lord and I have no idea what I would have done without them. I’ve made sisters in Christ for eternity, and without a doubt, that experience, that journey, has been the highlight of my collegiate career and I imagine that it will continue being so.
Eternally grateful.
People Who Inspire Me
Once, when a stranger on the trolley car asked if he knew the great Karl Barth, he replied: “Know him? I shave him every morning!”
Christ came and died to marry his bride-to-be and though death could kill the groom it could not kill the ring. God made us one with Christ and life with matrimony’s cling. Now the undying church, his everliving wife can sing, “O death where is your sting, where is your victory?”
I started off this weekend on a swing set.
But sometimes I want more than good enough! Sometimes I want to exceed expectations. Sometimes I want to make the move, make some headway, make progress. Sometimes I want my motion to be locomotion. But I feel constrained. That very comfort that is the swing set, suddenly becomes my cage.
But it’s so comfortable on that swing set.
We live in a world where we’re constantly seeking to be good enough. We’re constantly scared by our expectations, we’re constantly pressured by our obligations, and forever disquieted by our responsibility. We’re always in need of a break, but we don’t always necessarily find it. How could we? All of this is on our shoulders and we fail. That’s just the case.
We crash under pressure. Somewhere, some way, we can never fully meet our expectations, nor fully satisfy our obligations, and certainly we’ve all fallen short on our marked responsibility.
Luckily, we’re not expected to. Luckily, someone’s done it for us. We get to sit on the swing with equanimity because someone took on all that expectation, fear, obligation, pressure, responsibility and angst. Someone made that motion on our swing not good enough, but the superlative of all things good. Someone gave that swing set meaning, and beauty, and life.
LET’S CELEBRATE IT!
