Against The Geographical Cure
20 Responses to Against The Geographical Cure
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Orthodoxdj says:
It’s also true of churches and monasteries.
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Niall says:
Ain’t that the truth. One thing I notice very strongly in myself, and am trying to change, is that I seem to have an aversion to silence and stillness. I think this is true of a lot of people of my generation (I’m near the top end of Millennials). I have my own theories about why that should be, but it’s undoubtedly true that it exists.
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Mont D. Law says:
I’ve always preferred Gilda Radner.
Wherever you go, there you are.
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Saint Andeol says:
@ Niall:
I think it’s because Millennials have grown up in an unprecedented age of technology.
They’re used to having the ability to instantly access whatever information or entertainment strikes their fancy at any given time. It not only destroys the attention span, it creates a craving, an addiction for constant new sensory stimulation and input.
People laugh at the idea of “internet addiction”, but having anything you can think of always only a couple clicks away transforms moments of silence or inactivity from an opportunity for inner reflection into dead air between YouTube videos.
I’ve noticed it’s started to affect me a lot, and I’m pretty sure I’m too old to be an official Millennial (I’m 29). It’s sometimes hard for me to sit and listen to a song all the way through without feeling the compulsion to check some random websites. I’ll visit Rod’s blog several times a day, and the little rush I feel when there’s a new post, or new comments on a post I’ve been following, is a feeling that can feed an addiction.
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Clint says:
Many seekers find God in churches & monasteries.
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Rod Dreher says:
Many seekers find God in churches & monasteries.
Yes, but that’s not St. Nikon’s point. His point is that don’t assume that all you need to do to be saved is to change location. One way or another, you have to face yourself. You can’t run forever. The only way a place can save you is to get you away from things that are causing you problems, and make it easier for you to face yourself, and to overcome yourself.
Saint Andeol and Niall, I know exactly what you mean. I have developed a real addiction to the web. I notice that I will crawl into bed at night intending simply to update this blog before settling in with a book. Two hours later, I’m closing the computer down and getting ready to sleep, and I haven’t done anything but jump from site to site. I have nearly lost the ability to be alone with my thoughts, and focused. My prayer life has dwindled greatly because of this. It’s a serious problem for me, especially because my livelihood depends on the Internet.
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I’m the first to defend churches and monasteries. The point I was making is that holiness rests in one’s relationship with God. Sacred space is needed, but it cannot sure someone against someone’s will.
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*cure
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Peter B. Nelson says:
I suppose the converse is also true: A place cannot damn you… Because there is no place where you can flee from your savior, the Lord.
c.f. The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson.
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Yes,but that wasn’t Orthodoxdj’s point,to which I was responding.
“Orthodoxdj says: It’s also true of churches and monasteries.”
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AnotherBeliever says:
I’m coming off a several months (at least) stint of internet glut. It just got old after a while. It’s not like I’m never online, I check the news and my e-mail at lunch break at work, and since I commute by public transit, I read sites on my phone on the way to and from. But other than that, I’ve been going days at a time without logging on. Or only spending half an hour. Not missing much. In fact, I’m taking to dog for long walks, reading books, sleeping more, listening to the radio, sitting on the patio watching the sun go down. The internet’s great. But there’s no end to it. And no point in trying to find it.
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Roger says:
When it comes to Internet addiction, place matters. It certainly doesn’t save one from sin, but it does give the soul more rest, rest which gives room for prayer and meditation.
I’ve thrown my computer out of the window a few weeks ago. Only use Internet at work, and sometimes in the university library. I so much value the spiritual ‘liberty’ this has given me that I’m contemplating banning the Internet from my private life altogether.
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Joe Magarac says:
St. Nikon never visited Pittsburgh. It can save you.
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Rbr says:
Listen to “The Weight of Lies” by the Avett Brothers. It’s a song about this very thing, with beautiful harmonies.
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Mike W says:
He probaby didn’t read “My Side of the Mountain” either. I was convinced as a young boy that I could be saved from the ugliness that was my family if only I could flee to a hollowed out tree in the wilderness. A falcon for a pet would have been handy, too. Unfortunately, I wasn’t brave enough to give it a try.
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Rod, AnotherBeliever, just go here:
http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html
(There are a few others, but I like the simplicity of that one.)
I’ve decided to bookmark that page into the folder I visit most often (my blogs and daily reads) just as a gentle reminder when “random clicking” sets in to go there and follow the advice.
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Agree, and especially agree on Internet obsession.
But some places ARE better than others, and some may be better for saving yourself. We all need all the help we can get.
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I agree with you, Steve. We are embodied creatures, and our environment matters. I have had that experience on more than one occasion. I think we just have to be careful not to think that changing our environment will change everything that we don’t like about ourselves.
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Alf Kentigern says:
btw, the early Irish Christian philosopher Eriugena (influenced a lot by the Greek fathers) wrote about how God can metaphorically be termed the place of Creation.
A good reminder for us localist Front Porch Republic types.
A bloody good reminder for Dispensationalist “Christian” Zionists, too.
True Christians look forward to a heavenly country, a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God; the Lord dwells not in temples made with human hands; with the coming of Christ, we worship not on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in Spirit and in Truth.
Idolatry of land is no better than any other form thereof.