The 'Real World' - Thoughts from a drugged up girl!!
What is the 'real world'? Where is the 'real world'? Who is in the 'real world'?
We were sat watching "Friend Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" last night (just what you need after a morning at the dentist!) and some of the things in that film made me wonder. I know that I am thinking a lot about the 'real world' at the moment, because in 6 months time I will finish my job on Iona and have to go elsewhere, do something else, be with other people... It's an uneasy thought just now.
"I wouldn't be afraid of death if I was you. I'd be more afraid of driving in rush hour traffic."
Is this what the world is like? Do we have to be afraid of driving in rush hour traffic? Surely there are bigger things in the world that we can try to change. I don't think rush hour should be a priority of ours to avoid and be afraid of in our daily life. We can't avoid death. We all know that. We can avoid rush hour. We all know that. So why do we become afraid of things that actually we can change, with a bit of effort?
I'm slightly afraid of the idea of living in a city after living on a very small remote island for two years. So, I won't be afraid. I will change my life so I don't have to live in a city centre. Yes, I will likely still live somewhere busy and loud, but maybe I can avoid the centre of town where I find it too much. I love the city. But at this moment in time I don't love it to live in, just to be in it. What's wrong with living out of town and commuting in if I need to?
But the biggest worry is who. Who do I live with? Who else would like to live out of the city centre, where there are more fields and birds than ambulances and shops? After living in community for two years, where we live together in a small space, where we eat together, where we work together, where we worship together, where we socialise together, where we cook together, where everything we do revolves around the people around us, where those people may not be people we'd naturally choose to live with and share our lives with - who do we live with and share life with after here? How do we balance time with each person in our life? How do we balance time for ourselves? How do we balance work and social life? It's hard here to do all of that. Very hard. But is it harder here, or harder there? Where is there? Anywhere that isn't here, in the present time and space.
I think I could blab here for quite some time, releasing thoughts and emotions and feelings and concerns and joys... But I only really wanted to make a couple of points...
Wherever or whatever the 'real world' is - it's up to us, individually and collectively. The work, the people, the worship, the socialising, the place... it's all the 'real world' for us each day. Whatever we make our lives - that is what is 'real'.
We don't have to be afraid of things we can change, we can influence, we can amend. There are things we can't change and things we can change. It's our decision to be afraid, or not. The changes we make can be what we are afraid of, and then we can take responsibility of why we are afraid of them.
"See, now is a time for courage. I guess you already know that there are angels masquerading as people walking around this planet..."
Share life and be life, and it will be real.
