The Greenhouse, the Strip Mall, or the Swamp

We are all becoming beings.

When we lived in Richmond, we lived behind Broad Street. Every big city has a Broad Street equivalent--Independence in Charlotte, Capital Boulevard in Raleigh, all of Northern Virginia. Broad Street is a monument to poor city planning. It is 7-Eleven after used car dealership after strip mall after strip club after strip mall after strip mall. There is absolutley nothing beautiful about Broad Street. It is utterly and totally efficient. Zero wasted space. It is productive. It is concrete. It is ugly.

Many of us, with our tendency towards achievement, busy-ness, getting things done, or climbing some sort of ladder are cultivating souls that look like Broad Street. We are do-ers, active, efficient even in our play or hobbies. There is no wasted space, no green space. And so after five, ten, twenty five, forty years of this, our souls look like Broad Street. We are all becoming beings.

Behind my house now there is a 'drainage' ditch. The word drainage is a bit of a euphemism in that it doesn't actually drain to anywhere. It pools in a stagnant, soupy mini-swamp just ten yards behind our property line. There it serves as a breeding ground for all sorts of creatures of our discontent, especially mosquitoes.

Some of us, with our penchant for the path of least resistance and tendency towards idleness and laziness, are cultivating souls that look like my swamp. There is nothing dynamic about what's going. The spark of life has been dulled by entertainment, diversion, distraction, indifference. And so we become lifeless souls, good for breeding only parasites of life. We are all becoming beings.

Wise, deep, gentle and passionate old people are a glorious thing. They do not become that way on accident. If you were to take the rhythms of your life and soul this week, extrapolate it over fifty-two weeks, multiply it times twenty, thirty, forty years, what kind of person would you be? What kind of soul would you have? What is the trajectory of your soul--the greenhouse, the strip mall, or the swamp?

Speaking of Richmond, we're headed there this afternoon for a wedding on Saturday, reconnecting with old friends and some fundraising...so I'm not sure if I'll squeeze another post in before the weekend.