A few weeks ago my girlfriend was lamenting about how much she loved Buzzfeed. For those of you who don’t know what Buzzfeed is I will attempt to explain. To the best of my knowledge Buzzfeed is essentially a website that makes ridiculous (albeit cute) lists. Opening up the website at this moment I see articles such as “9 unexpected animal sounds” and “13 things to do with a broken arm” you get the poingt. Before my more prudent half mentioned Buzzfeed, I I had a working knowledge of the website, but after learning about her affinity for the site I began to pay more attention to it’s content.
Specifically I started to note how often articles (or whatever you want to call them) from Buzzfeed seemed to be the topic of Facebook posts. It is really sort of fascinating. I challenge you to you to your Facebook newsfeed right now and I bet that within the first 20 or so posts that there is a Buzzfeed article.
The reason that I mention this ever-so-popular website, is because I believe that it truly is a reflection of my generation. It is short, photo based, and never ending. It most definitely backs up my theory that my peers now view words more as a means of accompanying photos not vice versa. In particular I noticed that a lot of the posts I saw on Facebook were lists of things you had to do or places that you must go (i.e. 23 things to do instead of getting married at 23 or 25 places to visit before you are 25). Now don’t get me wrong I actually enjoy these posts, but my enjoyment opened up my eyes and exposed a huge weakness of mine: as a hopeless romantic I am addicted to place, circumstance, and ambiance.
For the majority of my life I dreamt of adventure. I saw myself traveling to all of the places that I read about in books. I was always 20,000 leagues under the sea with Jules Verne or stuck on an island with Robinson Crusoe and I could not wait until I was old enough to go on adventures of my own.
Guess what? I grew up, traveled the world, experienced a lot of things, and met tons of amazing people on the way. It was great. My adventures were everything that I could have imagined as a child and then some. But inside me, even after all of the wonderful experiences I had, I was still searching. I was, in a way overcome with sadness because I realized that the experiences no matter how stunning don’t result in fulfillment.
It was at this point that I was at my lowest. Inevitatbly fleeing my sadness and insecurities I returned to the only home I’ve ever found solace in, books. I was living in Florence at the time and the particular book that I picked up was Dante’s Divine Comedy and within it’s pages I discovered a manifesto of introspective discovery of the self. As Beatrice lead Dante through the 7 story Mt. Purgartorio, I began to realize that there was a vast and undiscovered world within me and I held the key.
Later I would discover this world to be my soul. My transcendent being. I remember reading somewhere shortly after that through getting to know oneself, you are truly growing in relationship with God. He is so intertwined into the fabric of our being that the higher we climb, the better we understand our creator.
It is in the same way that one grows in understanding of an artist the more time you spend in admiration of his work. I may have never met Melville or Michelangelo, but I have a sense of who they were after spending time with my nose in Moby Dick or my eyes fixated upon The David.
Getting back to Buzzfeed, I guess I just wanted to touch on the fact that so often we spend our lives dreaming about the 21 places on our list we need to visit before we turn 21. All the while ignoring the most beautiful of God’s creations……. ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong, explore the world. But don’t be afraid to shut of the phone, turn out the lights, sit down on the floor, and spend some time in silences getting to know who you are. This is the way that I came to know God.
One of my favorite authors Thomas Merton puts it best when he says, “We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what the do or what they have - for their usefulness."
So take the time out of your day and just be. The best part is that it is free. You don’t have to be religious, just open. Sometimes the greatest discoveries that you make are the ones that you were not looking for.
So take the time out of your day and just be. The best part is that it is free. You don’t have to be religious, just open. Sometimes the greatest discoveries that you make are the ones that you were not looking for.
In Christ,
Logan D. Cox
I dig it Logan. Keep doing your thing.
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