Pressure can tear things apart, right? If pressure is present in our hearts and our lives we soon all realize the result is pain … But in this age and time we have no room, no time and no longing for pain anymore. We are being educated and told that comfort is the life we need to pursue. We have pain killers for everything.
In my observation, one of these mass pain killers is the media, it has become a social pain killer, and its main goal is to entertain us out of our daily struggles. We entertain ourselves out of pain and instead watch, funny shows, crime shows, Docu-Dramas and so much more that we end up forgetting our struggles and the pressure we have and so are helped to avoid pain. Until we get to the place where we need pain again and watch movies where the pain is felt and identified only to walk away wondering whether we are better off!
Often suffering, struggle and despair on the screen, on paper, in books all try to show us that either there is hope, or that we are stuck and things will never get better and everything in between them. The soap opera of our social life and struggles are well set with “life goes on …” and pain is something one avoids or embraces.
a while back I went to see the movie Babel, It’s set in 3 locations of the world and tells 4 interconnected stories and lives in 4 languages, Its in Arabic and English which I understood, Spanish & Japanese which I did not, then the dutch subtitles which I did not fully comprehend either … so it was a sort of Babel experience! If you have not seen this movie I suggest you do, why? well because you will see what it means to be torn! As the story unfolds you are invited to deal with inner convictions of life’s struggles.
How often in a days short sequence do we find ourselves torn in decisions, relationships and emotions? How we want to better things and yet find ourselves torn in what is worth fighting for? or giving up declaring “it will never change”!
Maybe as time passes by we learn that maybe one choice is to be made at any given time, enveloped by our past experienced and drenched in a future full of Hope. we can only live a day at a time, if we try to live in more than one moment, more than one relationship or even more than one place … we will taste the bitterness of being torn. If we tried to live a moment at a time and make one decision at a time, we might be strong to tackle our days.
I close with this quote that I found online, that reflects my standard state of heart and mind …. As I further seek His peace in the chasm resulting often after being torn! Do we have any other choice, I wonder?
“We are torn between a craving to know and the despair of having known.”
great thoughts! puts words to what I sometimes feel but cant explain. and I agree with what you said on how we use Media to create something in us – to stimulate us – or to flee from something. pain scares me sometimes – especially because I dont really know how i will respond when i encounter deep pain. Jona wrote an essay on pain recently and published it on his blog: tousselah.blogspot.com – if you’re interested – Im sure he’d love to have your comments:)
I also watched the trailer for Babel and am looking forward to watch it — whenever it comes out here! looks very well done… wish we could watch and discuss it together… perhaps another time:)
finally i found your new blog, hehe. thanks for your comment. in regards to your post i have to say: well said (flattery not intended). in my opinion that torn-ness is exactly that middle ground, that fine line between two understandable sides, which often appears to me to be the “right” place to be. not to be indicisive, but be reflected and purposefully differentiated. yet that place leaves me torn between two identifiable sides, and keeps tearing as it so often is perceived as lukewarmness. and so it goes: pressure-torn-pain-hope-pressure…