I don't even know how to process all that has gone on lately. If you were to ask me a year ago what life would be like now, I would never have guessed. A year ago seems like two or three years ago. Three or four months ago seems like another decade. Time seems like it's flying by so fast, too.
I was pumping gas at the Grub Mart on Gay & Glenn the other day. Standing there, I thought about how this place connected so many memories and people. I used to walk there to buy pop tarts when I was a sophomore. That was over a decade ago. In the intervening time, the place became associated with different people I had been with there, in totally different circumstances. Most of these people had never met, nor ever knew of each other. And I realized that the common tie between these people was not the gas station, but me.
Without me, all of these disparate entities in the world would have nothing connecting them. Or, well, not significant connections. And it seemed like I was a static entity, and the other entities were moving and changing entities that came and went. I was like an old tree, and many birds who will never know or see each other came to rest on my branches through the years.
I had a moment like this in class just today. We're talking about how to do Apologetics like St. Peter says with "all gentleness and reverence" so I was bringing up Brother Micah (I don't know if you remember him, he would come to to "open air preaching" which amount to lots of yelling and name calling. I had the realization that it has been a decade now since I was a student!
ReplyDeleteIt's very difficult to have gentle and nuanced discussions with anyone these days. Perhaps Brother Micah was the precursor.
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