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| My Home |
Hello again, it has been awhile. This thing called life keeps getting in the
way of things I want to do. It is a good
thing for the most part, but someone please tell me where does the time go when
we aren’t looking?
For some time now I have had something – as my grandmother
would say – stuck in my craw and have the need, well maybe just a strong desire,
to share it with you. It has become
obvious to me that we are consumers.
When I say we it is mostly referring to westerners because that is who I
am most familiar with, especially Americans from the United States. And when I say consumers it isn’t definition number
one; “One that consumes, especially one that acquires goods or services for
direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and
manufacturing” that I am referring to, it is definition number two; “A
heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food
chain.” Okay, not literally but metaphorically we are consumers, definition number
2…well maybe a little on the literal side as well.
When my husband and I got married (almost 33 years ago) his
parents lived in a very nice, rather expensive neighborhood, the best in
town. They have since moved away, but we
had the opportunity to visit this neighborhood a while back and I was
shocked. The homes were rundown, the
once beautiful yards were neglected, and to be honest it wasn’t a place I’d
want to live now. Even my own
neighborhood is disheartening. We moved
in to this lovely new neighborhood, with shiny new houses, decent looking
yards, and smiling neighborly faces. Ten
(just) years later some homes are in disrepair, some left unattended from three
outrageous storms, green organic matter growing on the sides of some homes,
parking on the grass instead of the driveways has left deep muddy ruts that
spill out on to the street. It is as if
some insect has begun to eat away at a beautiful plant.
This past summer, after having to clean up an exorbitantly
messy garage at my mom’s house left by others, my husband was heard telling one
of my nephews; “A real man leaves a place better than he found it.” This is not the only mark of a real man that
my husband has, but he was and is very right.
A real man, a real woman, an excellent person doesn’t consume everything
around them, they leave a place better than how they found it.
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| Detroit |
But I have been looking around my circle of influence and
see people just consuming the life out of everything they have. They buy a house, it’s lovely, and they are
so excited and set everything in place.
Before long things start to break down, walls get scratched or scuffed,
the siding gets mildewed, the excitement wears off, and nothing is done to fix
or improve things. Let’s face it, the
second law of thermodynamics (order to disorder) is always in play. But we don’t want to take the time to fix
things, or improve things, it’s too much trouble. We’ll just live here for a while, run the
place down to the point we don’t like it anymore, and buy a new house in a
different neighborhood. Who cares if we
leave the neighborhood looking crummy, we aren’t going to live there anyway. Have
you seen picture from Detroit lately?
There was a whole lot of consuming going on there and it is as if a
swarm of locusts swooped in and devoured everything.
And I ask, when did we stop leaving a place, our home, our
yard, our park, our city, our county, our state, even our country better than
we found it. I think of our founding
fathers and those that came before us, taking a place with nothing and building
an empire. The brave people who decided
to move west to a wilderness never experienced before, making it home. Have you been to Charleston, SC? Old buildings made to stand for a long time,
cared for and kept up. Do we build
anything like that today? Most things
today are built to be consumed. And even
our relationships are being consumed then tossed away. Friendships that last as long as I’m getting
something out of it. Or marriages that
last only as long as my needs are being met…consume then move on.
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| Charleston, SC |
I want to encourage all of us to think on this; leave a
place better than how we found it. Not
just our homes and community but where we work…yes, leaving work today a better
place than when you came in this morning, what a concept. This extends even to
our relationships. Philippians 2:3-4 “Do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
significant than yourselves. (4) Let
each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of
others.” Instead of consuming
everything in sight, using it, getting out of it all that I can and then moving
on, I want to leave every place better than I found it.
