Quiet Lives or Something Else?
There's a passage in the New Testament advising that we should lead quiet, peaceable lives. Some days I'm all for that; other days, though, I just wanna find a bullhorn loud enough to reach the whole world (or at least California) and do some hollering.
What does leading a quiet life mean? Does it mean you stay out of politics, that you don't make waves, that you don't do anything that shakes up the status quo? Does it mean you don't challenge people in how you live and what you say?
I really don't buy that. There must be a semantic issue here - some sort of definition or word that means something entirely different in our context versus the context of the ancient culture from where that thought originated.
I suppose a contented little fellow in the middle of Nebraska could one day write an essay on Balkan politics that could, theoretically, shake up the face of US foreign policy. Or he could wake up one night with a brand new theory of economics that alter banking and lending as we know it. That certainly wouldn't be a quiet life, yet he'd be leading a quiet life.
Eh. Whatever. Where's that bullhorn?
What does leading a quiet life mean? Does it mean you stay out of politics, that you don't make waves, that you don't do anything that shakes up the status quo? Does it mean you don't challenge people in how you live and what you say?
I really don't buy that. There must be a semantic issue here - some sort of definition or word that means something entirely different in our context versus the context of the ancient culture from where that thought originated.
I suppose a contented little fellow in the middle of Nebraska could one day write an essay on Balkan politics that could, theoretically, shake up the face of US foreign policy. Or he could wake up one night with a brand new theory of economics that alter banking and lending as we know it. That certainly wouldn't be a quiet life, yet he'd be leading a quiet life.
Eh. Whatever. Where's that bullhorn?
posted by ToadRocket at 4:27 PM
4 Comments:
RE your comment: Yea, those were the college days when I loved Ocean Blue. My husband and my first date was to one of their concerts and they did a great cover of There Is A Light by the Smiths. Pardon the memory lane . . .
I saw them play in Chicago back around 2000. Tiny venue called the Double Door. Very cool. Oed replaced their original guitarist after the second album, I think.
We just spent the weekend in an Amish town. I don't agree with everything I know of the Amish, but they seem to be living a quiet peaceful life.
Right, but my question would be: is that sort of life everything that it could be? I dunno. Pretty much impossible to answer from a human perspective.
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