Ray Bradbury's 1957 book Dandelion Wine is a tale of small town Midwestern America through the eyes of a 12-year old boy. I picked it up after re-reading the more well-known Something Wicked This Way Comes, which comes after Dandelion Wine in the trilogy.

Yesterday, I read through the chapter on the 'Happiness Machine' that Leo Auffmann sets out to make. The idea hits him like a bolt of lightning, and he becomes obsessed on creating a machine that will bring people happiness. Interestingly, his wife (and others) don't see the need for such a device. After a frightening encounter with one of their children and the machine, Leo's wife Lena wants to try it out. Leo and the children hear her crying from outside the machine. Puzzled by the experience, here is Leo and Lena's conversation when she comes out:

“Oh, it's the saddest thing in the world!” she wailed. “I feel awful, terrible.” She climbed out through the door “First, there was Paris...”
“What's wrong with Paris?”
“I never even thought of being in Paris in my life. But now you got me thinking: Paris! So suddenly I want to be in Paris and I know I'm not!”
“It's almost as good, this machine.”
“No. Sitting in there, I knew. I thought, it's not real!”
“Stop crying, Mama.”
She looked at him with great dark wet eyes. “You had me dancing. We haven't danced in twenty years.”
“I'll take you dancing tomorrow night!”
“No, no! It's not important, it shouldn't be important. But your machine says it's important! So I believe! It'll be all right, Leo, after I cry some more.”
“What else?”
“What else? The machine says,'You're young.' I'm not. It lies, that Sadness Machine!”
“Sad in what way?”
His wife was quieter now. “Leo, the mistake you made is you forgot some hour, some day, we all got to climb out of that thing and go back to dirty dishes and the beds not made. While you're in that thing, sure, a sunset lasts forever almost, the air smells good, the temperature is fine. All the things you want to last, last. But outside, the children wait on lunch, the clothes need buttons. And then let's be frank, Leo, how long can you look at a sunset? Who wants a sunset to last? Who wants perfect temperature? Who wants air smelling good always? So after awhile, who would notice? Better, for a minute or two, a sunset. After that, let's have something else. People are like that, Leo. How could you forget?”
“Did I?”
“Sunsets we always liked because they only happen once and go away.”
“But Lena, that's sad.”
“No, if the sunset stayed and we got bored, that would be a real sadness. So two things you did you should never have. You made quick things go slow and stay around. You brought things faraway to our backyard where they don't belong, where they just tell you, 'No, you'll never travel, Lena Auffmann, Paris you'll never see! Rome you'll never visit.' But I always knew that, so why tell me?”

While reading this, I couldn't help but think, 'Bradbury prophesied smart phones and social media perfectly!' Lena's experience is the same as legions of others who report dissatisfaction and sadness with their own lives after being drawn in to the fake world of social media. The most poignant observation is, “It's not important, it shouldn't be important. But your machine says it's important! So I believe!”

Online (we don't see the term 'virtual reality' used often any longer) the relationships there aren't real. The experiences aren't real. The only thing seemingly real is the disappointment people face when they look at the reality of their lives against the false creations of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like. While not as dystopian as Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury saw the bleak future that awaited humanity as we traded the real for the imaginary. He was a genius.

In the remainder of the chapter, the Happiness Machine bursts into flame, destroying itself and the Auffmann's garage. In the aftermath, Leo sits on his front porch looking in to his family going out their ordinary, day-to-day lives and has the epiphany, “There it is...the Happiness Machine.”

Brilliant. Thank you, Mr. Bradbury.

#Bradbury #culture #life #reading

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency – the belief that the here and now is all there is.

— Allan Bloom (h/t: Cultural Offering)

#culture #life #quotes #reading

The same God who guides the stars in their courses, who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and keeps the stars perpetually burning with their fires—the same God has promised to supply thy strength. While he is able to do all these things, think not that he shall be unable to fulfill his own promise!”

— Charles Spurgeon

#life #quotes #theology

“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.”

So wrote the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, nearly 2000 years ago, in his short work, “On the Shortness of Life.” This fifteen page essay is definitely worth as many minutes of your day.

Before the advent of radio, television, the internet, social media, and any other number of time-wasting inventions, Seneca wrote to caution us against wasting the most precious gift given to each of us—time. We know from high school history that ancient Rome was not without its distractions, amusements, and temptations; however, at no time in history have mindless diversions ever been as prevalent as today. Everywhere we turn, it seems there is something vying for our attention, tempting us away from truly living and toward procrastination regarding the things that really matter. The antidote, according to Seneca, is to take advantage of our days, not working ourselves ragged in vain search of glory, productivity, or status, but pursuing those things that genuinely matter and will remain significant long after our mortal lives are through.

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last. You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.”

Carpe diem, we might say more succinctly.

Seneca's caution is not only (or even primarily) to the young, but to men of all ages. We must take stock of how we spend our days and use them wisely. For sooner than we expect, our blood will no longer flow hot and our lives on this earth shall end. God forbid we waste our years, which are more valuable than gold.

#life #philosophy

link: Was blind but now I see

When the Church got into the habit of making faith simple or easy and doctrine reasonable and flexible to fit the times and situations of the people, the pews emptied. But when the full measure of what faith is and requires was laid before the people, they took up the cross and followed Him. The easier and simpler we try to make faith and the easier and simpler we try to making following Him, the worse it will be for the Church. It is in the desperate doubt that has surveyed every other option and found none that the broken are restored, raised up from despair and disappointment to follow Him. It is in the hesitance before the call of God that saints are made from sinners and the strong forged from the weakest of stock. Make worship easy and simple and fun, they said. But they did not come and those who came did not bother to stay. But hold up the mystery of the faith and invite the doubts to rest in the arms of the one and only who has seen the Father and, well, the Church lives.

Pr. Peters has written another fantastic piece, this time on the difficulties of the Christian faith and the disastrous results that came with our attempts to make Christianity easy and appealing. This article is worth five minutes to read slowly and hours of consideration regarding how we put this into practice in our parishes.

#life #theology

Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words, That they may shoot in secret at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. They encourage themselves in an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “Who will see them?” They devise iniquities: “We have perfected a shrewd scheme.” Both the inward thought and the heart of man are deep. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they shall be wounded. So He will make them stumble over their own tongue; All who see them shall flee away. All men shall fear, And shall declare the work of God; For they shall wisely consider His doing. The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and trust in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory.

— Psalm 64 (NKJV)

This Psalm is perfect in light of the last few weeks' news—assassinations, murders, shootings, terror anniversaries, and the like. It needs no additional commentary. Re-read it. Pray. Trust in the Lord. Be ready.

Note: If you're not regularly reading through the Psalter, now is a great time to start. This was one of the Psalms for today using the traditional 30-day reading plan from the Book of Common Prayer and widely available online.

#culture #life #psalms

According to Pew Research:

Those 60 and older – a group increasingly populated by aging Baby Boomers – now spend more than half of their daily leisure time, four hours and 16 minutes, in front of screens, mostly watching TV or videos.

For the love of all things true, good, and beautiful (and for your own edification), put down that blasted phone and be rebellious...

Take a walk.

Pick up a book.

Do a crossword puzzle.

Write a real letter, on paper.

Listen to a record or CD.

Pet an animal.

Work in your garden.

Daydream.

Be bored.

Do something real.

...and enjoy it.

#life

Aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

— The Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4.11-12

Biblical Christianity, properly lived out, has always been counter-cultural, whether in the by-gone days of Christendom or in the nominally-Christian American culture in which many of us grew up. The difference between Christianity lived and the life epitomized, encouraged, and admired by our culture, however, has never been greater than it is today. While Scripture clearly does not call us to a life of isolated quietism, it also does not permit us to get dragged (or drag ourselves) into the swap that describes most of our culture and the ways in which we interact with it.

We would do well to reflect on what a disentangled life characterized by quiet, intentional labor would look life and how we can live that out in the midst of the bitter clamor and true laziness that describe so much of our culture.

#culture #life

There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot from that situation create something that is surpassingly good. He did it at the creation. He did it at the cross. He is doing it today.

— Handley Moule, Bishop of Durham

#quotes #theology #life

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.

— Flannery O'Connor

#quotes #life #theology