Color-Man, 20 June, the Adriatic Sea
LACK. Sam and I have spoken the word to each other countless times on this trip. Just now as I wrote it my stomach growled. This trip began on a tight budget, and it is even tighter now after yesterday's loss. We spent nearly two euros on food today: half a loaf of bread and an apple. They are delicasies. The bread has lasted us all day. We relish it now in small bits with honey, saved in packets from a free hostel breakfast in Rome.
After two days that began with terror and have settled into lack, we are finally on board the long-awaited ferry to Greece. As I watch the World Cup projected on the ship deck's wall, two sun-weathered Greeks feast on skewered meat, big gulps of beer, and settle back with their cigars. Yet somehow they're not happy. The food no longer excites. They are coldly content.
I am content. We are on the road again. We've counted our losses and moved on. What is left from our debacle is a better understanding of lack and a greater hope in God's providence. Psalm 126 says that "when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream." I've dreamed of this trip for years, and for two days it seemed to be falling apart. But my hope was restored, and I can tell you that dreams are even better on this side. I know now that misfortune has made us taste our fortunes in a fresh, new way.
In Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith tastes nothing but gray soup, oily gin, and crumbling cigarettes for years. Finally, he escapes the metallic world and brews his first, real, coffee-bean coffee: "The smell was so powerful and exciting...What was even better than the taste of the coffee was the silky texture given to it but the sugar." Winston wasn't numb to those tastes; he was starving for them and to him, it was beautiful.
At home, I could stick my hands into the pantry at any hour, and fill my belly. And meals are a real event in our house. I don't think that many Americans have ever experienced true want. My needs have always been met bountifully.
But each experience of lack reminds me how good is a choice meal. Each growl in my young stomach makes me cherich the bread and honey all the more. I've fasted before, and I will fast again. It does the heart and soul tremendous good to need something.
Drew
After two days that began with terror and have settled into lack, we are finally on board the long-awaited ferry to Greece. As I watch the World Cup projected on the ship deck's wall, two sun-weathered Greeks feast on skewered meat, big gulps of beer, and settle back with their cigars. Yet somehow they're not happy. The food no longer excites. They are coldly content.
I am content. We are on the road again. We've counted our losses and moved on. What is left from our debacle is a better understanding of lack and a greater hope in God's providence. Psalm 126 says that "when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream." I've dreamed of this trip for years, and for two days it seemed to be falling apart. But my hope was restored, and I can tell you that dreams are even better on this side. I know now that misfortune has made us taste our fortunes in a fresh, new way.
In Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith tastes nothing but gray soup, oily gin, and crumbling cigarettes for years. Finally, he escapes the metallic world and brews his first, real, coffee-bean coffee: "The smell was so powerful and exciting...What was even better than the taste of the coffee was the silky texture given to it but the sugar." Winston wasn't numb to those tastes; he was starving for them and to him, it was beautiful.
At home, I could stick my hands into the pantry at any hour, and fill my belly. And meals are a real event in our house. I don't think that many Americans have ever experienced true want. My needs have always been met bountifully.
But each experience of lack reminds me how good is a choice meal. Each growl in my young stomach makes me cherich the bread and honey all the more. I've fasted before, and I will fast again. It does the heart and soul tremendous good to need something.
Drew
posted by Unknown at 2:04 AM
1 Comments:
you two got GOOD words. thank you, I needed to be reminded to look for the Lack and the Family in my life...
and opportunities to escape the man-eating giants just beyond the bend.
referred by: adam.
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