Regarding a World Gone Mad

16,000 policemen on the streets, 1,100 arrest in four nights, over $150 million in damages to be paid for by British taxpayers. Those are just some of the numbers from the continuing riots going on in the U.K. right now. For the past four nights, Britain has been torn asunder by gangs of youth looting and destroying everything in their path. The government has had to boost police presence to massive levels, and it has even gotten so bad that Parliament has had its vacation cancelled (you know its bad when the government cancels vacations).

Supposedly, all this chaos is due to the police shooting of a young black man in London. However, many news outlets are starting to realize that the true causes for this unrest lie much deeper. Anthony Faiola, in an article for the Washington Post, says

"Whatever the reason, the riots have exposed a desperate youth culture buried inside British society, with people linked to one another as never before through text messaging and social networking sites...

The violence in Britain has differed from the kind of politically charged protests seen recently in Greece and Spain in response to hard economic times. In Britain, the rage has appeared blind, apolitical and profoundly selfish. Looters set alight a historic department store, a Sony distribution center and tiny, family-owned groceries. They have burned the bikes of poor residents and the cars of richer ones. One gang of masked thugs burst into a fashionable Notting Hill eatery to rob diners, clashing with restaurant workers wielding rolling pins. Other rioters simply fought one another."

Faiola does seem to start hinting at what I think is the real problem here, and that is "a breakdown of family values years in the making." For years now, Great Britain has been on the forefront of secular humanism. It legalized abortion in 1967, and allowed for homosexual "civil partnerships" in 2004. It has prided itself on getting rid of Christian culture in place of the new humanism.

And this is where it has come. Laws favoring abortion and homosexual unions were supposed to make the U.K. a better society. They were supposed to be laws that let people live how they wanted with who they wanted. In a word, they were supposed to give people the chance to be happy. Instead, though, the secularism behind these laws has created a vast emptiness within the hearts of Great Britain's youth. This upcoming generation has been taught to deny God, to deny His love, and now the emptiness in their heart is showing forth in these riots, which are almost becoming a past time in Great Britain.

As a society, the U.K. has turned away from God and towards consumerism. In response, the youth now send text messages that say, "Everyone run wild, all of London and others are invited! Pure terror and havoc & Free stuff. Just smash shop windows and cart out da stuff u want!" We are witnessing what happens when man looks for fulfillment in all things but God. Eventually he wakes up and realizes his deep unhappiness. Then, he turns to anger and rage as means to fill the hole.

We must pray for the U.K., and we must take warning here in the states. The U.K. is several steps ahead of us, but we're on the same road as them. I hope these riots may be a lesson for us, that the lies of the culture of death do not bring happiness but only anger. Only Christ can bring true happiness, and true peace.

Ups, Downs, and All Arounds: Part 2

Family is truly an amazing thing. It's spectacular to think that we are placed with people to grow up with, people whom we have literally known our entire lives. We're given parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins to love and serve throughout our lives. We're given the opportunity to watch them grow and develop, to watch them change and mature. The family is a good that God has given us so that we might see what it's like when persons truly know and love each other. And we must come to know what this is like, so that we might come to know the Triune God.

In today's modern world, though, it has become the norm for families to live thousands of miles apart. In the past, it was more traditional for marriages to occur between a man and a woman of a local community. By "marrying local," as it were, the large majority of people continued to live around their family. However, modern means of transportation have largely changed that. Today, people move around very easily and often end up far from families. Don't get me wrong, without modern transportation I couldn't have gone to Christendom, and a small town boy from Illinois might not have met the woman of his dreams from Michigan! I simply wish to point out that while modern transportation has made life easier in some ways, it has also made it harder.

Thus, on the one hand, our trip up to New Hampshire was only made possible by modern transportation. On the other hand, though, the trip was also made necessary by the willingness to live far apart that modern transportation tends to engender.  It's interesting how the same thing can bring so many blessings and yet also so many difficulties.

In the end, though, the trip up to New Hampshire was an incredible blessing. We were able to spend 3 full days with Freddie, Nicole, and the kids, even after the fiasco of the ride up. Much of this time was spent in conversation - in beautiful reflections, jokes, stories and even a few debates. Most mornings we were able to sit around leisurely in the kitchen and just talk. The afternoons were spent visiting other family, friends in the area, and even traveling to Liz's childhood home. This hour long trip out to Tilton and Hill, NH was particularly fun. When your married, it's an incredible blessing to be able to glimpse a part of your spouse's life that occurred years before the two of you had ever met. You hear stories, of course, about those places. As you become a member of your spouse's family you're bound to hear a large number of stories. So, for me to actually see where these stories happened was a great blessing.

The whole time we were up there, it really struck me what beautiful families God has placed in Liz and I's life. Many families have serious divisions in them, and I pray for these families with my whole heart. It was not meant to be so. But in Liz and I's case, we realized that though we may be far from some of our family, they are still truly family. We don't stop being a family because of distance. We're too close to them. And it fills me with joy to think that, God-willing, one day we'll all be present together in from of Him Who Is, and we'll know each other in a more true light. Until then, trips to New Hampshire, Michigan, Illinois and just down the road in Virginia remain glimpses of the life to come.

The Antithesis of Ennui

I'm currently re-reading John Senior's the death of Christian Culture. For anyone who hasn't read it, I definitely encourage you to pick it up since Senior has a true mastery of contemporary thought (well, somewhat contemporary, the book was first published in 1978). Among the many topics that Senior tackles in his book is the subject of ennui. Very early on (which tells you how far I've gotten through it so far) Senior identifies ennui as one of the key characteristics of the modern age.

Indeed, it seems this boredom with the world is everywhere we look, and not just in the non-Catholic circles. So many people today seem to have a "weariness" or, as Senior describes it, a "nausea" when it comes to life. I know that I experience this. There are days where I feel like doing the same old thing is just tiresome. Working, doing dishes, paying bills, it all seems to take its toll. I look back at my college days, filled with so little responsibility and so much fun, and I think, "Wow, being fully grown-up now is boring."

Of course, this isn't what I really think of my life. Starting a family has been the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's a constant source of joy and thanksgiving. But it struck me as I was reading Senior's work that the antithesis to ennui was exactly what I find in my family: the joys of day to day life. Ennui is rooted in a disgust of being, in a disgust of existence. But most especially, it seems to be a disgust in the every day existence. The ennui-infected modern age flees from the every day to look for the extraordinary. It is in constant search of the new and exciting experience.

True joy, though, is not found in life's new and fleeting experiences, but is found rather in the living out of the daily experience. All the things that matter most to us - God, Church, family, friends, community - are experienced mostly in daily living. An archetype for truly human and Christian daily living is found in the "hidden" years of Christ's life. For 30 years Jesus lived, worked, loved, and prayed the daily life. Our Savior spent this time rejoicing in creation, rejoicing in the ordinary. These years of Our Savior's life were the complete antithesis to ennui and to the resulting perpetual search for the new. He spent such a large portion of his life doing his daily duty, and we can hardly think that this time was wasted. I, at least, am often tempted to think these years were purely a preparation, like he was in a waiting room for 30 years before beginning his public ministry. No, he must have truly lived out human existence during this time.

I think its important to remember this. I know it is for me - doing many of the same things day in and day out. Our Lord's first 30 years of life remind me that I need to cultivate this spirit of joy in the everyday. I have my moments where I believe I do in fact accomplish this, but this type of living is something that is a continual commitment. Indeed, I think it has to be a daily commitment, one that is rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. All of us Catholics, myself especially, need to live in that house in Nazareth on a day to day basis. This truly Christian life is so very opposed to ennui.