Called to the Dance

While this society we have created is teeming with distractions, and is noisome and unsettling at every turn, we must not allow ourselves, in our hunger for relief, to be mere seekers of entertainment. Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is more distraction. We cannot thrive unless we are engaged. Even if it is something as simple as watching the rain and listening to the sound it makes on the roof, being attentive to such miracles is the perfect antidote to our nervous habits of scrolling through social media, watching videos of car crashes, and being upset by the news. In this light, soon enough, we will see that a basketball game, for example, is more than a clamorous race to the final buzzer to see who wins. It is a psychological drama, revealing the character of players and viewers alike: all are participants, who depend on each other to lift the contest into the realm of meaningful, memorable experience. And so in terms of our mental and physical health, distraction is a disease as dangerous as any other. Distracted en masse, we become dangerous to each other, and to the wild and wonderful earth we call home. That we are called to the dance is an irrefutable truth. So sing out, and clap your hands, while you are here, and while you still can.

[ 1947 ]