Where's the Sign?

 I wasn't planning on writing again today, but a few things have been on my mind.  So much as a matter of fact that I am having one of those moments trying to figure out how to sort everything out.  I am in my second week of summer break from teaching, and I am also starting a certification program in Instruction and Leadership to enhance my professional skills, but to be honest that overwhelms me a bit too.  One of the courses I am taking has to do with the application of technology to the classroom, and to be honest I am a bit weak in that area because I am not what you would call a tech-savvy person.  I can navigate my way around a computer, and have rudimentary knowledge of a few things to function in that regard, but that is about it.  My housemate, James, is more versed in those areas as that is what he is doing his undergraduate degree in.  However, he would be of little help with the course I have because that requires posting a discussion, and then responding to two classmates about it.  I am in the process now of trying to figure out how to do that. Which prefaces today's discussion.

A few years back, a well-known comedian I enjoy watching and hearing by the name of Bill Engvall came up with a shtick called "Here's Your Sign," and part of it was pointing out a stupid question to something and then giving a clever answer - although Engvall is often called a "redneck comedian," to be honest the conventional wisdom he communicates in his routine is something that will make you pause and think.  I am trying to think of one of his more witty examples but for some reason they are eluding me right now - that is my "sign" that I am getting older, and I have been noticing it more in the past few years.  Signs serve an important purpose in life - they identify things, point you to a destination you are traveling to, and also serve as directional aids.  Without signs of some nature, we would all be in trouble in all honesty.  The theological definition of a sign is something that points beyond itself to a greater reality, and in a sense it is sort of directional as well.  So, when the sign is either absent or for some reason you don't see it, you end up confused. Now, let's get back to where I am at today.

Since last October, I have felt like I am traveling a back road without a road map, and there seems to have also been a conspicuous absence of directional signs too.  Oh, once in a while I get some idea of what I am doing, but for the most part I have felt like I have been suspended in Jello for the past several months.  There are several factors I want to look at which are contributing to this bit of mental limbo I am in, as in desperately seeking the sign I need, I wonder if somehow I am missing it.  

To begin, my teaching position has been keeping me really busy.  I am thankful for the summer break because in all honesty I was feeling somewhat worn out from my first full year teaching school, and in keeping busy I haven't been able to pay attention as much to things I probably should be.   Imagine driving on a busy city street like say, Russell Street in downtown Baltimore.  All the traffic, road work, and everything else means that a driver needs to stay extra vigilant on the street.  However, if you are driving on a busy street like that, you become too focused on the task and may miss a vital directional sign to get you on the path to the destination you are traveling to.  Work has been like that with me over the past several months, and frankly I feel like I am still trying to catch up to myself now.  When I read Josef Pieper's book about the vital role of leisure in our lives and the sin of acedia, and this has caused in turn a sort of atomization of society, John Horvat notes it the following way in his book Return to Order:

"In our crowded cities, many are lonely.  In our interconnected world, there are those who feel entirely isolated, tormented by apathy, boredom, and restlessness. Is it any wonder we cannot unite to find solutions? Is it any wonder that so many feel abandoned and full of anxiety?" (John Horvat, Return to Order. York, PA: York Press, 2013. 88)

What Horvat has addressed is the very definition of acedia - the idolization of busy work and distraction that causes one to lose focus.  And, the demands placed on us by society - our landlords, our jobs, our education, etc. - contribute to this lack of culture.  We are driving in a busy downtown venue but are missing the directional signs to know where we are going, so we are becoming lost in the milieu.  I once felt like that in Corporate America too for the many years I did office work, but who would have thought it would happen teaching at a Catholic school.  But, there is more, so let's go there.

One of the biggest casualties of a life of busyness is that if you are a person of faith, your religious life suffers.  Between being worn out from work and dealing with porch pirates stealing deliveries at your home, etc., your prayer life suffers.  God is the one who gives us many of the directional signs we seek and need, but we miss them because everything else has our focus and not him.  Since COVID and the orchestrated pandemic associated with it, I have probably missed more church in the past 5 years than I have in the previous 20.  We missed this Sunday - the Feast of Corpus Christi - as a matter of fact because of these damned porch pirates stealing things off our own doorstep - dishonest and evil parasites like porch pirates don't just steal your packages, but they also steal your peace of mind and quality of life.  Our focus has been on the porch pirates instead of on our eternal souls, and that is costing us dearly.  Satan does that to us as well - he creates distractions so we get thrown off balance, and then he can effectively neutralize us.  That was the lesson in Matthew 14 of Jesus walking on water that he was trying to teach St. Peter.  Peter wanted to go to Jesus on the stormy sea, and Jesus told him to come to him.  While Peter was focused on Jesus, he was successful, but as soon as a distraction like the howling wind came, he lost focus and began to sink in the turbulent water.  We see it also in stories such as The Lord of the Rings, where Frodo and Sam were being led by the creature Gollum through a bog, and in that bog were dead bodies from many battles.  As long as Frodo and Sam stayed on the path and didn't let the sight of the bog distract them, they had a clear passage.  However, when they started to stray off the path, they risked joining the corpses in that bog.  Now, in life maybe our stakes are not that high, but they still have consequences.  If you are so focused on the traffic and other distractions, you will miss the sign telling you where you need to go.  Then, Lord only knows where you will end up.  Signs therefore are integral to our life pilgrimage as well, and we have to pay attention to those signs and not the distractions of life in order to stay on the right track.  However, if you are like me, you learn that many times the hard way, as you wander off the path and end up someplace you don't want to be.  While it is not hard to get back on the path you should be on, it could take time to get back there.  So, we need to look for those signs and follow them. 

That is essentially what I wanted to share today, and I will more than likely be writing more over the summer as I have both the time and inspiration to do so.  Thanks again for reading, and will see you next visit.