Rain came down today.  Clouds hung low and flowers bent under the weight of the water.  It felt like a good day to stay in and think.  Last month we stumbled on a 24 hour period where no major deadline loomed and we decided to do nothing.  It felt good not to cook (plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator) or clean house, or go to the store.  In fact it felt so good we decided to try to have one day each month just to think about things.

First, it seems as though as we age we become more and more out of touch with mainstream culture.  We no longer recognize (or care about) the bright young faces on the covers of magazines.  It also feels as though the world is either speeding up or we are slowing down.  What if both of these things are happening at the same time?  In fact, if that is what is happening, are we going to become more and more out of touch with life?  In a meeting this past week a woman a few years older than we are lost track of the conversation.  When we brought her back in she apologized.  She said, “Sometimes the lights go out for a few seconds and they are taking longer and longer to come back on.”

If the world is speeding up and we are mentally and physically moving at a slower rate, how will we be able to stay afloat in this culture?  That is a question we have begun asking ourselves.  Ships stay afloat in stormy seas by tossing unnecessary items overboard.  Instead of believing we can still do everything as easily as we could 30 years ago, we have started cutting some obligations loose.  This afternoon one of us called our church newsletter editor and told her we had decided not to write an article this month because we don’t have time to think about it.  We had decided to spend our day thinking about other things.

For example, maybe all of us need more time to think about the way we are living our lives.  Several times a week now the news coverage is about the obesity epidemic in America.  We do have some thoughts about that.  Maybe we are growing heavier because we no longer take time to think about what we are putting in our bodies.  A hundred years ago most of the day would have been devoted to thinking about food.  From weeding the garden in the morning to shelling beans, to baking bread, people were personally involved with the food that eventually went into their bodies.  Maybe we’re gaining weight not because we spend more time focused on food but because we don’t take time to consider it at all.