A Trivial Pursuit
Ξ February 10th, 2006 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Theology, That's Life |
When I take a step back and look at our highly advanced society, I find myslef realizing that with all our technology and ability, most of us really do nothing with it. Our use of it is sadly trivial at best.
Our idea of “a good life” is ridiculous. Look at our hobbies. For many of us, our hobbies are fruitless. They are a meaningless distraction. While the our society is a total mess of good people permitting bad things to happen simply because we don’t want to step on someone else’s “rights”, we choose to do things like play video games, watch movies, and work out. The resources we have could change millions of lives around the world. We chose instead to use these same resources to hypnotize us and make us sometimes totally fruitless.
Instead of doing a truly good thing, like getting out there and BEING with people for the simple purpose of drawing near to them, we drown ourselves in a mountain of distractions (like self-righteous blog writing - believe me - I see the irony here). If we all did our part, I mean truly did our part, we could literally change the world. If we could get it straight in our heads who we really owe for all our technology and money, perhaps we would put all this stuff to work to actually make a difference.
How much do you do in a day that is mainly just a trivial waste of time? How much time do you waste on things that serve yourself? There are a million options in our culture. Movies, Television, Fitness Clubs, Music, Shopping Malls,…. I mean each of these things COULD be a GREAT thing, but overindulgence or misplaced indulgence can make these things far from great.
A person could watch a movie and get inspired with a new idea they didn’t previously have and then actually use their own arms and legs to DO something with that new idea. Often though, we just use the movie as a drug. We find ourselves sensationalized through the movies. We like the ways they make us feel – excited, happy, sad, turned on… So there’s a satisfaction aspect of why we watch movies. Those same kinds of feelings could be achieved doing a number of other activities, many of which include contact with other humans who really NEED the contact. And I’m not only talking about the weird guy on the street corner, I mean the guy you say “hi” to every day at work. Your sister. Your brother. Your best friends.
True, it’s good to take care of one’s physical health, so working out is always good, right? Wrong, even that gets perverted and becomes just another form of worshipping one’s self. How buff can I get? I’ve reached the healthy level of fitness, so now I must take it further and work out so much I neglect my family. I’ll start taking supplements that might help with building muscle, but in the process they put at risk a number of other parts of my body. I’ll try various diets and starve my body of things that doctors haven’t realized I need yet. No worry though, when they figure it out, they’ll launch a new diet and I’ll do that one instead. Next thing you know your mission of just getting healthy and fit has become something else - something far from healthy.
Television, well do I really need to discuss this? It’s the nation’s babysitter, teacher, and in some cases, parent. Though TV can be educational and positive, its designed to be addictive and so we become subject to the hurtful part of it that we never wanted to intentionally take in.
Music? Well this one hits close to home for me as many of the others do. Music is an art form that could be a beautiful thing all the time. Sadly the music industry has been taken over by people who have seen how lucrative it can be. So what music do most people here? The marketable stuff. You almost never hear an artist’s best song on the radio. Well sadly, sometimes the crap that you hear IS the artist’s best offering, but if there was something better, you better believe that if it doesn’t “fit” with where the music of the day is going, you’ll never hear it. So some of the most interesting stuff is never heard at all. What a shame. Then there are those people who set out to use music as a way of getting rich. For them, the music isn’t about art and conveying a valuable message. For them it’s about an image they can produce for themselves in order to become famous and rich. Like movies, we listen to music because of how it can interface with our emotions. It’s a positive thing to listen to music. But what’s the point of being inspired by a lyric if it never draws you out to do anything with that inspiration? We think that if we listen to it enough times, somehow we will have a part of the greatness in the song. It’s simply not the case.
What about shopping? Well, what are we buying, and why? Do we NEED another pair of shoes? How many pairs do you have? Do I need another gadget - another flashing light in my life? What COULD I be buying and for whom? Even then, would it help?
All good things can be messed up in this way. I mean I think there’s a time when all these things can be positive and life-giving additions to our lives. We are fortunate to have the option of taking part in these things at all. Many things can be used for good purposes. Even if the purpose is to simply relax and get some release from the frenzied pace of life. That is a good and worthy purpose, but there’s a line, I think, where us losing ourselves is irresponsible. We have the means in our society to create a healthy world. We don’t do it because we say that no one has the right to tell me what I should do with my time or money. So to exercise that right, I’ll do precisely nothing. That’ll show ‘em!
How sad we are. There are enough resources on our planet to end hunger, and to give everyone clothes to wear and home to live in. Somehow though, the storehouses remain closed to the public and yet bursting at the seams.
In the end, our rights won’t matter much. We’ll be dead and if you believe (well, even if you don’t believe), God will look upon us and He won’t consider our rights. Hopefully He’ll love us enough to oversee what we’ve neglected to do. Maybe He won’t be thinking of the thousands that died of starvation in my lifetime. Maybe he won’t remember how many sweaters I horded in my closet while there were people in my town or city who had no sweaters to wear at all – and THEY live outside.
Perhaps He has His own distractions and He just won’t think of what I could have been doing while I watched my movies and played my video games. Yeah, maybe He’ll just say, “Did you murder anyone? Did you steal from a neighbor?”, and that’ll be it.
The point is that we can’t know what it will be like, but I can’t escape the feeling that we have a responsibility to be good stewards of our time. We assume that our only responsibility is to not do harm to people and that’s it, but I can’t escape the feeling that there is more to it than that. I fear we will be held responsible for what we have neglected to do.