Quiet, Please - I'm Thinking

This morning, as I was silently eating cereal at the table, spoon in one hand and nothing in the other, not even my omnipresent cell phone, I realized I was actually lost in my own thoughts, a phenomenon which had not happened for a long time. I was thinking, actually thinking, all by myself, unaided by scrolling news stories or radio commentary, music lyrics, or television advertisements. That’s when it dawned on me what has happened to the world: WE'VE STOPPED THINKING! The deluge of entertainment has finally engulfed our minds, flooding our consciousnesses and dulling our wits. Predictably, chaos has ensued. Chaos everywhere!

I often think about how natural and quiet the world must have been before Thomas Edison discovered a means of recording sound in 1877.  Before the phonograph and the radio, which came along 18 years later, no one on the earth could hear music unless it was being performed live within the range of their own hearing. How remarkable! We’ve become so used to recorded sound that we do not think of it as miraculous, though it is. It is not only miraculous, it is omnipresent. 

Before 1877, no one could hear distant voices, except over the telephone, invented only one year earlier. Today we hear music almost everywhere we go. We can hear the same song played the exact same way over and over again, long after its performer has died. We even hear commentaries on sports and politics from people we’ve never met whose voices we nonetheless instantly recognize. We hear jingles that are impossible to forget, though we’d often like to. 

I often want entertainment, thought-provoking commentary, and news of events far and wide, but sometimes I think it’s all too much. Sometimes I’m glad that devices can be turned off and I can hear my own thoughts again. 

Good Ground

No actual progress to report on the weight loss front - but I do have a new plan. Enough about that already. I'm even tired of hearing myself talk about this most tedious of all subjects.

Who really cares how much I weigh besides me and a handful of people who are genuinely concerned about my health?
I don't like letting petty, vain obsessions take over my life. So I will update here from time to time when there is news, but I will now move on to other more interesting topics...

Like dirt. Specifically, the wonderful, intoxicating smell of dirt.

A few months ago I scooped some potting soil into an old milk jar to use as an object lesson for my Sunday School class on the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth;
6 And when the sun was up they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up and choked them:
8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

There are so many things I love about this passage of scripture, but for the purpose of this blog post, let me draw attention to verse eight: good ground. As opposed to the wayside, the stony places, and the choking thorns. We need to cultivate good earth in our lives where seeds of faith may grow into good fruits.

So I passed this jar around the class saying this is what good earth looks like and smells like. And I brought the jar home and put it on my desk, where I breathe deeply from it at least once a day. It smells like the shady woods after rain when water is still dripping from the leaves.

It may be the greatest smell in the world. 

Now back to the parable. Jesus's disciples asked him to explain it further, and this is what he said about verse eight:

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also bearers fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

In a recent speech condemning the industry surrounding elective abortion, I said, "It is incumbent upon all who see the atrocity of abortion to denounce it." I said this on microphone at a large gathering at the Capitol rotunda, because somewhere along the line I realized not everyone CAN see it. Some do not have eyes to see it or ears to hear it.

So I ask myself: Do I hear truth and wisdom? Do I understand it? Do I bring forth good fruit as a result?

I hope so. That is my goal - and it's even more important than losing weight.