. The Hollows

I just gripped my first deck and I smiled because it looked nicer than the ones I've seen the boys do. There's something very satisfying about doing something right--the way it's supposed to be done.

There are certain things in life that have a pretty self-explanatory, common-sense blueprint.
Exhibit A: No one wants a deck with raggedy edges that'd cut their hands up.

I've been "reading" this book for the better part of the year (I'm not super-committed to it--I just like to experience it in pieces now and then). It's about the psychology and sociology of "counterculturalism" and has a lot to do with groups like the nazis, existentialists, hippies, punks, gen x-ers, etc. The guys who wrote it are researchers/professors/former punks, and apparently really into Fight Club. I think I see at least one reference to that book/film in every chapter. (Which is kind of funny now that I think of it, because on the same Chapters trip that I bought this book, Karl bought Fight Club.) It's legit though, because I wholeheartedly agree with them that it's been one of the finer pieces of the past decade reflecting and critiquing the psychosocial disposition of our current culture.

"Greeting someone politely, holding the door open, using the correct salad fork and adopting a benevolent demeanor all help to reassure others that there are no nasty surprises in store--that the interaction will unfold pretty much as it is supposed to."

I like this because it makes me think of little kids and how they are full of "nasty surprises" when they haven't been "sufficiently socialized." It can be very satisfying doing something "wrong"--the way it's "not supposed to be done..." Now, I'll be the first to proclaim the virtue of good manners and common sense--don't get me wrong--but I'll also be the first to pull the proverbial rug out from under your feet if I see you conforming to something that doesn't align with reality in its overarching sense. ("See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." -Col.2:8)

In our culture it's become far more than salad forks and taking turns and smiling. Conformity has become a cyclically-generated pandemic. And not just conformity to fashion trends and suburbia-utopia. What about spiritual conformity? In this fancy-free Americanized Wonderland, our parents have had the divine opportunity to lay out our little life clothes for us and a ridiculous amount of us have shrugged them on and headed out to play. I'm not entirely sure all these blueprints are showing us what we think we're building.



I can't get these verses out of my head lately and they seem to be haunting and taunting me. It's the feeling of a forgotten treasure waiting to be discovered in a place no one dares go to find it...

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."




I haven't had a decent conversation in months. I hope you all are faring better than me out there! <3