The Haunting Proposition

Where do we go from here?

I found out a few weeks ago that, at work, several interns working in our program were not given an exit interview upon the end of said program. That surprised me, because that interview is the only way of evaluating the program to improve it or to send the interns off with a culminating wisdom to shove into their pockets for back home.

I thought about writing on this topic last week, before the NSL Forum, but it almost seems more apt, now. The question, of course, is whether we're at where we need to be. Are we at least at where we said we would be?

A couple of years ago, there was a piece in The Rope (the Baylor satire newspaper) poking fun at the concept of weekend (or weeklong) bible camps and the concept of getting fired up for God. The cliche (which is more often true than not) is that individuals bask in the ultra-violet glow of religious fervor during camp. Everyone there is there for the same reason. The leaders are charismatic (maybe even some of you have played this role?) and the other kids seem really in tune to what's going on. The result is an explosive, intense, short term effect. Kids usually return home to settle back into their daily lives - as if the weekend had never even happened. The piece came out right after Spring Break - "On Fire for Secularism" - and gave the fake-news story of how Baylor students were returning back to campus from a secular retreat that had them totally on fire for bikinis, beer and all things secular (except, of course, those that were totally faking it.) Baylor religious leaders weren't worried though, because they recognized the pattern, and soon students would be backsliding in their secular-ness, returning to the pews to continue their Godly lives as if the retreat had never happened.

I'm going to try to do this without belittling the subject matter.

On their television show, Penn and Teller sent out a woman to a Greenpeace protest to gather signatures banning Dihydrogen Monoxide. They didn't lie - they mentioned that it was found in pesticides, that it stayed on food even after it was washed, that its rampant in our homes, a corrosive chemical. They got tons of signatures. Of course Dihydrogen Monoxide is water, h2o, and of course the point of the social experiment was that people like signing up for things, they like joining, belonging. It mattered less what the cause was and more that there was a group of people to identify with.

Now, I believe that philosophy and theology are about a million times more important than one's choice to join the green movement. The culminating ethos of life is not something to compare to a movement of people just wanting to join up. But, sometimes, isn't it? I speak from personal experience when I say that if not careful, people can join a religion for the people instead of the ethos, instead of the God they are worshiping. In fact, even Jesus can be a false idol if viewed the wrong way. You start worshiping the man instead of his teachings, instead of the initiator of those teachings. To worship Christianity instead of Christ.

The same could be true about any ethos. Why are you what you are? Is it because you firmly and passionately believe a certain way or is it because you haven't had exposure to anything else, that your friends were doing it, your parents?

It's easier to live life than it is to think about living life.

Examining takes time. Takes effort. We have to sit down and really contemplate ourselves and our motivations - our goals and successes, where we've failed. Living is easy. You just go through the motions. (Think of the commercial with all the people kicking trees and the one guy in the Wendy's red wig. [Why they kickin' trees, dog?? Why they kickin' trees?] ) They've got it made. Ignorance is bliss. Tree kicking is easier than questioning why trees exist in the first place, what our ultimate purpose is.

So in the whirlwind of this summer, of this weekend, of all the new beginnings we're embarking on, are we where we want to be - have we grown from our experiences or have we left all the good lessons of the recent past behind us? How well have you kept up with the people you loved this summer? The people you said you'd call and write to?

I know I have a lot of room for improvement. How about you?