Shortly after "the Rents" came to visit, Cas and I took a weekend to see Jamie for a change in NYC. New York is an interesting place and I can see how it would be impossible to really get a feel for it in three days, but crazy enough we did! We visited many of the "spots" but our objective was more to just walk around and see people and feel the vibe. We walked around China Town, traipsed to the center of the Brooklyn Bridge and meandered through a farmers market. I recognize I could of course be wrong, and hope that I am, considering more than 8 million people live here, but it felt like the whole point of New York was to just sell crap.
Everywhere you looked and every possible crevice people had set up some kind of shop to peddle their wares. From knock-off bags and clothes to plastic wrapped toys scavenged from the bottoms of cereal and Cracker Jack Boxes, it was so overwhelming the combination of nausea and consumer euphoria was very confusing. And yet I can't help but recognize the similarities to communities and lifestyles all over this country, not least my own. It's good to get these perspectives time to time so I can better be aware of the choices I make in my purchasing habits and attitude towards consumerism. The simple lifestyle Cas and I have adopted can sometimes mislead us to believe we hold some kind of false benevolence that is completely undermined when we allow ourselves to judge. If we are to truly attempt to make this world a better place, we have to take our everyday, ordinary life - our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Although NY was a great experience and seeing new places is almost always exciting, we were very relieved to get back to the island, the quiet, and the simplicity.
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