July 27, 2013
SOMETIMES THE THING IS TOO SIMPLE:
Desperate for deeper things (The Rev. Thomas C. Leinbach, July 27, 2013, Cape Cod Times)[I]t was with great interest that I recently read a review of Mark Helprin's new novel, "In Sunlight and in Shadows," a tribute of sorts to New York. In it, the author artfully invokes an insider's perspective on that singularly unique city.
For instance, in describing a gathering of theater people, Helprin writes: "Wary of embarrassment, wanting to shine, lonely, fiercely competitive, savagely ambitious, and as tense as pulled crossbows, they were the typical guests at a New York dinner party "¦"
As the scene unfolds, the author draws our attention to a partygoer, a woman named Andrea, who observes longingly from across the room a couple very much in love:
"'I wish I had someone who would talk to me that way, as if no one else were in the room,'" she says, "not caring how vulnerable she might appear in the eyes of her friends and acquaintances, for she had no one who would (talk to her that way), and at that moment she would have traded everything in the world that was clever for one simple thing that was true."
That reminded me of a Manhattan party I attended during my first year in seminary. I was talking to an acquaintance I had known in Boston, she and her husband being friends of a friend.
Our conversation had been moving along swimmingly until she asked what I was studying at Yale. I told her I was at the Divinity School. With that, her eyes widened with alarm, and, turning quickly on her heels, she strode out of the room without saying another word. [...]
It is so often the case that we spend time with the people God has given us in mostly superficial ways. We engage in small talk, but miss those aspects of ourselves that are most significant, most real. As a pastor, I'm invited to share in precisely these things, which I've found to be a precious gift.
On the whole I believe our culture is, despite its resistance, desperate for these deeper things, which, come to think of it, is perhaps not all that different from any period in history.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 27, 2013 10:17 AM
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