I Want to See Mountains Again

Anytime I travel by airplane I think about the opening scene of the film Love Actually (Click here for Clip) where they talk about the beauty of airport arrivals showing loved ones reconnecting after who knows how long. Perhaps most fittingly on this trip, I think about the notion of love being all around us because I am traveling after being at a dear friends wedding. A wedding at the Red Butte Gardens (Click here to see their website), a beautiful venue that gave me insights I never realized I was lacking. However seeing the sunset behind the mountains bathing the horizon in a pinkish gold I began to understand even more that not only was I surrounded by love, but by immense beauty as well.

While I truly love to travel I am also a massive homebody and find myself increasingly introverted and more specifically introspective when traveling. From sitting at the airport to the flight, the Uber rides, and aimlessly wandering I find myself to be far more contemplative in these moments than I typically am in my everyday life. When the trip includes Mountains I find myself to be even more struck by the wonder and awe that surrounds me. As I sat eating lunch in the Salt Lake City International Airport I had a beautiful view of the mountain range that Salt Lake as a city hugs (See photo below, thanks to United/Dan Ingram for letting me fly the friendly skies).

Having arrived very late in the evening Friday to Salt Lake I didn't fully understand the immense and as my Uber driver described it "undeniable" beauty of the city. It wasn't until I was in the light of day Saturday that I truly began to comprehend where it was that I found myself.

Now naturally in true nerd fashion Anytime I spent time simply sitting gazing at the mountains I could hear nothing but Bilbo Baggins voice in my head saying "I want to see mountains again, mountains Gandalf!" (Click Here for Clip) more and more I find myself relating to Bilbo more and more... perhaps 26 is the new 111.

Even more truly in nerd fashion, last nights wedding reception afforded me the opportunity to catch up with a grad school friend I had not seen since grad school. Having been separated for years now we took the opportunity to take a deep dive into some of our latest and greatest theological thoughts and insights (some may call heresies). Specifically, I recall us talking about the closeness of God and how we as humans created in the image and likeness of God, bearing an imprint of the creator on our souls could not possible physically distance ourselves from God. Yet at the same time, it is very possible for us to distance ourselves from God. In failing to recognize the love and beauty that is around us and within us it becomes at times natural to distance ourselves from God, yes I know how cliche and cheesy religious hopeful that sounded... I almost vomited a little when I wrote it, even so, I actually do believe it.

I believe it because the love and beauty don't have to be the touchy-feely hallmark love and beauty. Whenever traveling or finding myself with extended amounts of free time I tend to fill it by listening to podcasts. Today I was still reflecting on the above conversation when listening to a podcast that referenced and played a clip of Chopin's Prelude in E Minor (Click Here). The podcast commented on how it is exceptionally sad. One of the hosts of the podcast sad incredibly sad yet hopeful and the other retorted and said no it's not all that hopeful at all. In hearing that I thought to myself yes it is incredibly sad and no it's not hopeful, because it doesn't have to be. Even in its sadness, it is truly exceptionally beautiful.

While some may find it difficult to believe the song is both sad and beautiful at the same time, I welcome the complexity of such a belief. Just as I welcome the complex reality that while God may never be far I may still create distance.


Peace and Blessings Always
~M

Blessings

Earlier today I was talking about a program that provides middle school students with food to take home at the end of the day. The program is called Backpack Blessings. With this being at a public school, I paused and wondered if this were not inappropriate and a subtle form of proselytization upon unaware younglings. I was of course quickly reminded that the students needed food and were getting food so I shouldn't spend too much time being bothered by the name seeing as it would seem they picked the name based on the alliteration... A writing tool I find at times captivating and in other instances tremendously lazy. 

(If anyone wonders why I'm such a strong supporter of keeping things such as prayer out of public schools I'll let you read what my friend Toby had to say about this, Click Here).

As I continued to think however I began to wonder if I didn't also have an issue with the use of the term blessing in this instance altogether. Should the charity of others be considered a blessing? With this question on my mind, I went to my office on a Friday night to begin looking for a definition of the term blessing. 

It was then that I was easily able to find and understand a bit more why I may have had pause in this casual, alliterative, lazy use of the term blessing. First I checked the YOUCAT and found the following, "a blessing is something that comes from God (Latin benedicere; Greek eu-logein = to call good); to bless is a divine, life-giving, and life-preserving action." 

While I found this to be a good starting point, I was not satisfied. So naturally, I turned to the actual Catechism of the Catholic Church for what I hoped to be a more detailed definition. "A blessing or benediction is a prayer invoking God’s power and care upon some person, place, or undertaking. The prayer of benediction acknowledges God as the source of all blessing. Some blessings confer a permanent status: consecration of persons to God, or setting things apart for liturgical usage." 

Here again, I found this to be more detailed and certainly more in-depth, but I did not find satisfaction. 

What I did come to realize is how limited my view on blessings had become. In part, because I grew up with these definitions defining not only what I believed, but what most of those around me knew. A blessing is from God and we are lucky and should thank God if we find ourselves in his good graces. 

Yet what if we took the term blessing and removed the religious implications? Yes, I understand that in doing this I want to completely change the meaning of the word from its origins to mean something else and perhaps I should simply look to use a different word, but instead I've decided to try and craft my own definition of the term. 

I would like to propose that we give the term freedom to mean any type of favor, kindness, charity, and/or love that is shown. In this way, I hope that we can recognize one another as blessings ourselves to one another, as well as recognizing our actions of love and kindness toward one another as kindness. Now perhaps what I'm suggesting is simply a realization or recognition of the divine, the imago Dei, or image of God within all of us that was imprinted upon us and within us by the creator... Which of course I think is true, but perhaps for now on this Friday evening I can keep things a bit more simplified and just leave you all with a blessing of brevity. 

I am curious how you might define blessing.

Peace and Blessings Always

~M

A favorite image of mine just for fun