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Faith and Fiction

January 9, 2017 / Comments Off on Faith and Fiction

“In my own experience, the ways God appears in our lives are elusive and ambiguous ways. There is always room for doubt in order, perhaps, that there will always be room to breathe. There is so much in life that hides God and denies the very possibility of God that there are times when it is hard not to deny God altogether.”

 

“The danger [with writing about saints] is that you start out with the idea that sainthood is something people achieve, that you get to be holy more or less the way you get to be an Eagle Scout.”

 

–The Clown in the Belfry (1992)

Billy

January 9, 2017 / Comments Off on Billy

Billy stared out the window of his office while the meeting continued on without him.

Last quarter’s numbers exceeded the proposed budget by 12%, although receivables are still lagging…

Billy had been running the company his father had started for the last fifteen years. Billy and Bill Sr. were never close. People around the office called Bill Sr. “Bull”. Bull made deals with handshakes, but broke a few hands along the way too. But the rock crushing business was like that. You couldn’t be weak. At least that’s what Bull always said.

Bull had sent Billy to college to study business, assuming he would take over the company one day. Billy was more interested in science, but Bull was a lot better at negotiations in those days.

An MBA, a wife, and two sons later, Billy was the youngest executive in the company. A sudden heart attack for Bull forced the company to draw up a clear succession plan and Billy became a thirty year old Vice President. A second heart attack made him an orphaned CEO.

Import sales are continuing to pick up on a month-by-month basis, with granite showing the largest gains…

Billy had done good things with the rock crushing company. He combined his ingenuity, passion for technology, and his father’s continued influence to grow the company into a nationally recognized name. He was the first in his region to start international operations and made opportunities where none existed.
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Culture Loss

January 9, 2017 / Comments Off on Culture Loss

This Christmas, our family got together for a dinner.

People walked in and out from 5pm to 9pm. Food was laid out buffet-style in the kitchen; eat as you want. I think my mom said a prayer and the grazing started. The food included snack sandwiches from Chick-fil-a, three pre-made trays from the local grocery store, store-bought dip, and exactly two homemade dishes.

Grandpa distributed checks to everyone. My aunt waited for someone to notice that she was engaged, which nearly didn’t happen until the end and happened with as minimal of a ruckus as possible. Then everyone left.

As it was going on and after it happened, I was struck how empty it all seemed. I shouldn’t complain; at least I have a family to gather with – more than my dad can say now. But at the same time, aside from gathering, it didn’t feel like much was going on.

Family culture and traditions are hard; they take work. They take planning, preparation, going to the grocery, sticking to it when no one else wants to anymore, motivating people like me to get up and do something. And they usually take a strong woman to keep them going.

Maybe this loss of culture is bigger than just my family. As our lives get more and more convenient, we gratefully give more and more of them over corporations and technology who want to do the work for us for a reasonable fee. Anytime something gets hard, it probably isn’t worth it anymore. We get used to easy. And anything that isn’t easy is harder than it used to be.

Previously, on Thanksgiving, Grandma and Grandpa gave all the kids a new ornament to hang on our trees, and we drew names for gifts – all the cousins in one hat, and all the aunts and uncles in another. We spent the rest of Thanksgiving trying to figure out who had whose name. Continue reading

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