Snapshots of a Modest Life

Differences

The last two days in Barbados were spent discussing things that will be different when we get home, how we would notice things about our own culture that we didn't notice before visiting a foreign country. For me, the biggest thing is how informed we are as Americans. This sounds like a good thing, right? Well, having been in a "no stress, no pressure" bubble for five weeks, I can say with great conviction that I would rather not know. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Here are a few examples.

In the seven days that I have been home I have heard, seen...been absorbed by national and world events of all sorts. I have heard about a girl, kidnapped and found alive-her brother was not so lucky. I have heard about terrible explosions in the London mass transit system. I have heard about an Egyptian ambassador murdered by terrorists. I have heard about a hurricane bearing down on my state. I have heard about a girl missing in Aruba, her parents desperate to find her. Every day when I turn on my radio, TV or computer I see everything that is wrong in this world; a coup here, a kidnapping there. It is at moments like those that I think come soon, Jesus, come soon. Even good news, the wedding of a good friend, is overshadowed by the weather and storm clouds looming on the horizon.

I just returned from spending five weeks removed almost exclusively from television, radio and internet. I heard about the girl in Aruba, but briefly, and only because we were on a Caribbean island as well, and were instructed to be extra cautious. As I sat in the Miami Airport waiting for my connecting flight, I heard the voice of our president wafting across the busy waiting area on ever present CNN, and I thought I'm home. I'm home to a place where I will instantly hear of all of the bad things happening in the world, and none of the good.