What I Missed In Life

My grandson shared a bit he read today saying that before McDonald's added McNuggets to their menu they had offered a similar product, deep-fried onion bits, back in the 1980s. My wife remarked that she remembered having seen them during her travels. I commented that I had no memory of them at all, and then we noted that, in some ways, we missed the '80s because we lived in a town where the nearest McDonald's was 300 miles away and the only TV we had was a single Canadian station with a weak signal.

I'm currently reading "Hallelujah Anyway" by Anne Lamott. I persevered through the first few chapters of her course language and whining about the bad things she's experienced in life. The world seen through her eyes is different from my own. Her experience of the past, her current situation, her prospects for the future are all unique to her. Gender and geography separate us, though not generation. I've learned to look beyond all that to see that there is something to learn there, something of value to me. Among those "somethings" is a realization that I've missed much more than onion nuggets. Her reference to Paul Simon's "Graceland" sent me off on several hours of exploring music that had floated past me then, only a part of which I was aware; and a new discovery of the controversies surrounding that album. I quit paying attention to popular music in the early '70s, and by the time "Graceland" came around I had pretty much abandoned contemporary Christian music as well. If it wasn't on NPR radio there's a good chance I knew nothing about it during the next 25 years or so. Even if it was on NPR, if it had to do with sports or entertainment or "lifestyle" I probably ignored it. Even that contact with the outside world all but stopped in 2010 when I was no longer commuting an hour and a half to work each day.

Whatever happened at church was the most significant contact I had (actually, still have) outside the home. If the song wasn't in The Salvation Army Songbook I probably knew nothing about it. When the new songbook was published I knew almost none of the new additions, even though many of them had been popularized on Christian radio stations over the intervening years. I have, without consciously intending to, pretty much separated myself the popular culture that surrounds me, both within and without the church. I had become a holy¹ man, but not a monk or a recluse, living in the world but almost detached from it.

I have missed much in this life. Much that is desirable, but much also that is hurtful. Anne Lamott has me counting my blessings, to be sure; but maybe more significantly I am counting the curses as well. I am seeing, in my difficulty to identify with the problems of her life, the blessedness of being blessed. I haven't struggled to overcome addictions, I've had a stable loving relationship with a single partner for more than four decades, my childhood memories are far more positive than negative, I've never been homeless or desperately poor. I could have been blessed with many more difficulties, trials, and curses.

I have missed much, and I am blessed. What must I now do? Do justice, love kindness ( חָ֫סֶד (checed)², walk humbly.³

=> 1 - holy: separated or set apart, dedicated to a particular purpose; sacred | 2 - חָ֫סֶד (checed): Lovingkindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness, goodness | 3 - Micah 6:8

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📅 c: 2018-09-16 21:41 ✏️ e: 2025-01-03 22:17

🏷 tags: #blessings #curses #poverty #isolation