With the news feed always available via iphone it is easy to be tethered to stories of tragedy, large scale vistas of wrack-and-ruin, and the ridiculous.  Is not man both the tragic and the absurd animal?  For the sake of one’s mental health it is best to forego a glimpse at the news-feed freak show.  Atmospherics of chaos, anti-meaning are entailed in the images and the stories, because the sensational always sells.   Do I really want to swipe right the screen to have a look?

Spent the afternoon yesterday at a house-warming/birthday celebration for our daughter in law.  Our daughter and her partner recently purchased a home.  As you’d imagine the purchase was a major decision, a commitment founded upon months of weighing of purposes, and factors.  Now they have a spacious home, amply suited to their needs, with a nice back yard, within a short distance of other family members.  We were invited to celebrate this “rite of passage,” home ownership, as well as the birthday.  Members of both sides of the family brought good will to the party along with more than adequate selection of foods, beer and wine.  A good number of friends, that extended “family” of co-workers and fellow-travelers were also guests at the event. We celebrated.  The children played together in the yard, toasting marshmallows around a fire, throwing water balloons, tossing beam bags.  If a child has another child to play with, the odds are,  — good times follow.

We spent an extended time together; enough time to converse in some depth to learn what is important in the life of another person.  Two families are getting to know one another better, slowly, in the only way possible.  I’ll not soon forget the conversation with Matt about the relational dynamic between musicians, the high level of accountability that is demanded in the midst of a on-stage live performance.  He and I agreed the experience is not limited to the professional performer, but is a paradigm of life in general.  Then Brandon and I conversed about our memories and passion for old school muscle cars.  Maybe I will reconsider my decision on the possible purchase of a vintage Mustang pony car.

What was and is more real, the experience of food, of conversation, the learning of yesterdays housewarming party, or the evanescent never-ending news feed on my cell phone?  Which of these realities is more substantive, more enduring, more apt to create a world worth having, and a life worth living?

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