The Fruits of Solitude

 

The Fruits of Solitude

     While cycling across South Dakota I have been reading “The Solace of Fierce Landscapes; Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality” by Belden C. Lane.  He writes of the contributions the desert monks have made to our understanding of the human condition.  Nearly everyone I have ever known has spent most of their lives seeking, enjoying, and deriving sustenance from living in the midst of comfort and security.  Lane, in his work, speaks of those who have learned something of themselves by intentionally entering a landscape of discomfort and insecurity.   Though his point of reference are deserts and mountains,  his observation also applies to cycling across the prairies of South Dakota. 

      He speaks of the value of “true indifference” which comes from harsh landscapes.  “False indifference” is the antithesis of compassion which is sought and found in an attempt to numb ourselves from the anxieties which bombard our lives.  He writes:

     “…False indifference is the scourge of domesticated Christianity, tired and worn out, readily accommodating itself to its culture, bowing the social pressures of the status quo.  It remains so tame as to fear nothing so much as the disdain of all sophisticated unbelief.  This is the indifference that allows the church to abandon its call to radical obedience to Christ in the world.  It becomes the driving force behind every injustice, allowing dominant cultural forms to remain unchallenged by people too indifferent to care.

      But indifference properly understood can become a source of profoundly liberating power.  Adopted a discipline of ignoring what is not important, in light of the truth of the gospel; it becomes a countercultural influence of great significance.  People who pay attention to what matters most in their lives, and who learn to ignore everything else, assume a freedom that is highly creative as well as potentially dangerous in contemporary society.  Having abandoned everything of insignificance, they have nothing to lose….were Christians (and others) to practice this stubborn desert discipline today; they would find a freedom that is refreshing and contagious to some, but also threatening and intolerable to others.  Unjust societal structures and people addicted to power will not tolerate being ignored.  They are profoundly threatened by those not subject to their influence, those no longer playing by the accepted rules.  To cease to be driven by the fear of what other people think is to become a threat to the world as we know it.  Only at great personal risk one becomes indifferent to the accepted standards and expectation of the dominant culture.”

    A dear friend recently texted me asking if I get bored peddling all day across the prairies.  Perhaps, but I have come to realize that boredom is not a bad thing.  Boredom can be generative and creative.  The elevated heart rate caused by cardio vascular exercise, combined with not having a computer screen in front of me for long periods of time, allows my mind to more clearly discern what is most important to me and develop a true indifference to the rest.

      Yesterday I stepped on a scale for the first time in a month.  I discovered to my astonishment that I have lost 12 pounds.  This is due not only to daily peddling, but also to the fact that my eating options are limited and I am not experiencing hunger.  It appears that cycling all day does not cause as much of an appetite for food as does sending emails, reading books, chairing meetings, organizing events, and making complex and often unsatisfying decisions.