I live in Florida, right? Most of the time it's hot...so when driving...windows "up"...ac "on". As is everyone else on the street. Modern cars, ya know, all have ac...power windows...and even with the economy being all poopy, you don't often see an "old" car around.
I was waiting for my son at soccer practice last night with the windows down, enjoying the cool air that's arrived this week...as...according to "Time Hop" it seems to do every year at this time (I don't know where 'climate change' is happening but it's not happening here). When we left and took off for our 17 minute ride home, I left the windows down and turned the ac "off."
What I noticed then is what made me sad...
The speed limit from soccer to home is 50 in most places. It takes me through a 4-lane hwy area with stores and restaurants on both sides of the road until just two miles before my house everything disappears and we're out "in the country."
As I approached a red light and pulled to a stop...to my right was Lowe's and Target and a little mini-strip mall with places like Pie5 and Panera, and to my left was a new mini-mall with LA Fitness, Goodwill, BJ's, and Pollo Tropical. Right at the corner of the entrance to that shopping area, like a beacon to call all weary travelers in, stands a bright shiny brand new Wawa.
"Back in the day" when I was driving a 60 Chevy as my daily driver, I had no ac and so "windows down" was the norm. And, I pulled into those places a lot since I didn't usually "fill 'er up". Just slapped $5 or $10 in the tank at a time as I had money, right? Gets ya pretty far, actually, back when gas was at 60¢ a gallon.
I always liked everything to do with my car. I liked driving even when I had nowhere to go just cruising around. I liked washing my car. I liked waxing it. And, I loved pulling in and putting gas in it. Yes, I was weird, but I loved it. The smell of the gas and gentle guzzling ticking of the gas pump.
Inevitably, a dude I'd classify as old (who...cough cough gag...was about the age I am now!) would pull in and comment on my car and tell me he had one once and how he sure wishes he'd never sold it.
Last night...
As I sat at the red light and looked over at the Wawa I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia...for those long-ago days and for the first time in the months since that Wawa was built...I felt like I was "there."
I realized...for the first time I'd ever sat at that intersection, I felt like I was "there" like...actually there present in the intersection and not just observing.
I thought about how opening the windows really changes the driving experience and makes you feel more connected to and really "present" where you're driving, rather than just an observer encased in glass. We all spend so much time in front of screens looking at HD images...when driving...the screen of glass in front of me and all around me could easily be just a screen. Being inside the car blocks the sounds, feels, and smells of outside for the most part. Could so easily just be a screen...
So, with the windows down, I could feel the outside air. I was surrounded by the same temperature as outside rather than the temperature I always choose. I could heard the sound of my tires slowing as I'd approached the stop. I could smell the cars. I could hear their motors.
The light turned green and I took off again away from the intersection and was shown why I normally don't put the windows down. It's too noisy.
You know? Having the windows down at 50 whips your hair around (except not like the song) and is just so noisy. Can't really talk and listen to the radio like that too easily.
I thought about how it's not even "natural" for humans to move that fast. Apart from the invention of a car, how else would we move through the air that fast? We can't run that fast, nor can horses, so this is the 1st time in history (the last 100 years or so) that man has been able to move this fast.
And, then it hit me.
It's like...in this modern 2015 world...not only have we invented machines to move us around faster than nature would have ever intended...but our LIVES move that fast. And, because our lives move so fast, they're too noisy to be "present" in and so we shut ourselves up to keep everyone else out...
In the past...everything was slower. When we "drove" somewhere in our cart or on a horse...we could talk to our companions, and we'd sing (not listen to the radio and be bombarded by advertising) and we'd be able to hear, feel, smell, see, and be present on the road.
Now...it's like we put the windows up in our cars and shut out the world and just go around inside our own little climate-controlled, sound-controlled, smell-controlled worlds and are oblivious of the world outside our cars...
And, really we must do it because it's unnatural for us to travel so fast and it's too loud. We're all always going so fast...moving faster than nature (or God) ever intended us to travel. We close up, sink into our own little worlds, because hearing, feeling, smelling, and being "present" in the world we're a part of would be too noisy...because we're moving too fast.
I think that's why Facebook can be so tiring and wearisome and people need "breaks" from it because in one way fb makes us stop and notice what's going on in the world of others but...it's 1000 others' worlds...and it's too much...too much noise!
We're moving to fast.
It's too noisy.
We've all blocked each other out and are traveling at great and dangerous speeds around, past, and beside each other, all completely separated.
What's the goal?
Get born...hurry hurry hurry and sleep all night...
Mothers leave their babies to cry and cry and cry...it's so noisy...because life is so fast and the baby needs to sleep so they can go back to work and work...work...work...
Off to daycare...and the baby cries because Mommy is leaving...it's so noisy...but hurry hurry hurry become independent...get potty trained...learn to talk...
Off to Kindergarten...and again the children cry because they want to be with Mommy but Mommy must work...work...work...so hurry hurry hurry...learn to read...
Get good grades...study...study...study...and the parents and children fight and argue over the grades...it's so noisy...
Behave! Spank! Spank! Spank! Cry! Cry! Cry! We fuss and fight with the children to make them into the person we want them to be someday when they're grown and it's all so noisy!
Get involved in everything you can because that looks good to colleges...
Work...work...work...hurry...hurry...hurry...
Off to college...work...work...work...
Graduate and get a job and now work...work...work...AND...
Make your own baby to do the same thing to...
Push the child to sleep all night...off to school...work...work...work...
All that noise...all that work...
AND FOR WHAT?
What's the end goal?
The end goal should be "today"...now. To be present today with whomever and wherever you are...and enjoy them...
Our culture was intended to walk 5mph, feet touching the ground, smelling the air, feeling the breeze...but spends most of its time at 55 inside a box...
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.
Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.
I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;
Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.
Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility.
Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart an the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
God is the "Great I Am."
That's a present tense verb. He IS. Now.
We're created in His image...to be like He is.
Let's start being here now...
(What's funny to me about writing this is in my mind when I imagined writing this it was 2 paragraphs!)
