A day in the park

You should have heard the crowd. The announcer began: "The temperature in Boston right now is... 31 degrees -- and 26 degrees with the windchill. In Fort Myers, it's 81!" A roar goes up as thousands of current and sometime New Englanders (Red Sox fans all) pump their fists into the air. They are so happy to be warm! So am I.

Everyone around us here at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers was from Boston -- or so it seemed. Most had lived there at one time or another in their life. It's a decidedly older crowd than Fenway, although there are certainly some children and people in their 20s, too. At around 6,000 people, it's also much more intimate even than Fenway, and it can be eerily silent during lulls in the play. Not when the Sox make a good play, however.

It was a good day for the Sox, starting with a 14-0 win over Northeastern University. The game ended after the 6th inning. I couldn't tell if that was out of some sense of mercy -- or whether that's what they always do when they play the college kids. Then this evening, we left at about 9 pm in the 5th inning with the Sox ahead of the Cincinnati Reds 13-1. Clay Buckholz pitched three scoreless innings in the beginning. Love that kid. It was fun seeing some of the new folks on the field. In the game against Northeastern, I was really impressed with Angel Chavez, who was picked up in January from the Dodgers organization where he has been playing AAA ball. He hit a gram slam in the first inning, and another homer in the 3rd. Made some great plays from 3rd base, too. Keep your eye on this guy.

What I really, really liked about today was that I didn't have to be anywhere else except right here. Even took a little nap during the first game at around 3 pm. You know, I really think people are supposed to take naps in the afternoon. The Mexicans have it right! Why have I always felt that little twinge of guilt when I start nodding off in the afternoon? Didn't feel it today. No to-do list. Nowhere I had to be. No one wondering if I was going to get the article or the pastoral visit or the sermon done.

I had started the morning off by rereading some passages in Abraham Joshua Heschel's Sabbath. He talks about the two dimensions of time and space, and the obsession we have in technological societies particularly with space, i.e. the material world. His premise is that by paying so much attention to space, we neglect the importance of time, and when we do not master time (as we seek to do with space), time masters us.

So true. Just listen to what people say when you ask how they are. "Busy." Please forgive me if you've ever given that answer when I've asked how you are, but it really is sad. Or the other one, in response to "how has your day been?" "Productive." A temporal question, a material response. Life cannot be all about doing and accomplishing things, surely. Where's the sense of delight in being itself? Lots to think about in the coming weeks and months of sabbath time.

There's gotta be more time for a day in the park once in a while. Maybe even a nap in the afternoon.

Solitude

Carolyn and I walked out of 29 Central Street at four o’clock this morning to go for a week’s vacation in Florida to begin my six-month sabbatical. (Thank you, Iris, for the ride to the airport! You are a dear!) Walking through the airport Carolyn asked me how it felt not to have to “go to work” for the next six months. That had not really sunk in for me, frankly. Not yet anyway. I’m still thinking about all the last minute projects yesterday – and the things I didn’t get to. I do wonder if I’ll get beyond those kinds of thoughts. Six months should be long enough to get some distance on the relentless activity of ministry in a busy parish. We’ll see.

We settled in on the plane and I pulled out my first bit of reading – Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude. Didn’t take but the first few pages for me to begin to settle down, take a big deep breath, and begin to feel the enormous potential in this time apart. He starts out:

There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us. When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve. It must therefore die. There is no greater misery than to mistake this fruitless death for the true, fruitful and sacrificial “death” by which we enter into life.

I’m hooked. I read it over four or five times. What is the “unreality” I have been feeding on? Activity itself? Ambition? Desire to please others? The “standing and praying in the synagogues and at the street corners so that they may be seen by others” of Ash Wednesday’s gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)? Could that be me?

Sabbatical is a time to go into my closet, shut the door, and “pray to my Father who sees in secret” – the place where the “vital relation with realities outside and above us” that Merton refers to must happen. Stepping apart and gaining a different perspective on the routines to which I have become habituated should help.

I have a hunch that the things that leave me exhausted and spent are part of the “unreality” – and that the things that lead to joy and contentment and peace are more consistent with the reality. Ah yes! – “finding and sharing my joy in life and ministry” – the theme I chose for my sabbatical months ago. I do hope to pay attention to all of this in the coming months.

Before I get too serious, however, I should remember that we came here to have some fun! And we do intend to do that. Red Sox tomorrow – two games! Northeastern University in the afternoon, and Cincinnati Reds in the evening.

Go Sox!