Profanity

profane: adj.; marked by contempt or irreverence for what is sacred

We live in a world where not much is special. I started thinking about this today because I got an email forward entitled “Sights You May Not See in a Lifetime,” and it contained pictures of things like a killer whale nosing up to a boat where a dog was looking over the side, a leopard sitting on top of a woman’s car, an African man lying beside a baby elephant inside of a tent… I don’t know if any of these pictures were photoshopped, but I do know that I scrolled down quickly, not taking the time to look at any of them with wonder. I didn’t need to. After all, if I decide that I want to see an African man lying beside a baby elephant inside of a tent, all I have to do is find that email and scroll to that picture. And if I erase the email, a few keystrokes and clicks on Google should do the trick. The same thing is true of falling stars, rainbows, woodpeckers, romance… a click on the Internet, a drive to Blockbuster, or a subscription to National Geographic can completely alleviate my imagination’s longing to stand in awe and to wonder. I have access to everything, and that can make the most sacred things profane. But I don’t want to shut down that part of myself.

When everything is accessible, it’s hard to find anything sacred. Profanity is prevalent.

My point is not to rip on wealth or technology. My point is to acknowledge my need to intentionally separate the shadows from what they represent, to make myself stop when I see sacred things, to allow myself to have my breath taken away and my mind cleared of the schedule it tries so hard to keep. I have a fantastic picture of Manuel Antonio National Park on my computer, but it doesn’t come close to capturing the actual beauty I have seen there. I love books and movies like The Scarlet Pimpernel and Ever After and The Sound of Music, but they can never compare to the actual beauty, agony, and mystery of my real-life love, if I will just take the time to be aware of it. I have access to endless stories of courage and truth that give me goose-bumps because they’re so grand, but they are nothing compared to the actual feelings I have (good and bad) when I am faced with a choice that requires courage or truth. I don’t want to live life in these shadows. I want to be at the place where they don’t satisfy me but where they do just the opposite: awaken in me longings for real things – real beauty, real romance, and real life.

I would like profanity to slowly seep out of my life. I would like to find the wonder that my world has never much encouraged me to have. I would like to be taken in by raindrops and ladybugs and hugs, and I would like to live in that kind of sacredness every day.