Site search
sponsored by
News
It’s all quite elementary really.
The wilderness should not be about money.
In “No Man is An Island,” Thomas Merton maintains: “Without a life of the Spirit, our whole existence becomes unsubstantial and illusory.”
In respect to Creation, he says: “All nature is meant to think of paradise.”
“Woods, fields, valleys, hills ... remind us that the world was first created as a paradise for the first Adam.”
“It is for each one to find out for himself the kind of work and environment in which he can best lead a spiritual life.”
“Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things.”
“Even with the best of intentions, a spiritual man finds himself exhausted and deadened and debased by the constant noise of machines ... the everlasting suggestions of advertising and propaganda.”
In Merton’s view then, consider present-day “city-life” in Vail and Eagle County.
In years past, those who recognized and understood the spiritual dimension of nature warned of the evils that could (and did) appear when (in Merton’s words): “Agitation — a condition of spirit that is quite normal in the world of business ... with its monstrous and inexhaustible drive” arrived with its “force of fear or elemental greed for money, pleasure, or power.”
“All this is the death of the interior life.”
“Occasional churchgoing and the recitation of hasty prayers have no power to cleanse this purulent wound.”
One then properly asks: “What of Vail’s spiritual paideia?” (paideia in Greek means the teaching element within the community).
If one correctly perceives development (especially high-end) as the principal sin and crime from which all other sins and crimes proceed in Eagle County, what may be said of this region’s spiritual leadership when development is actually endorsed as evidenced by the recent Minturn election.
Wholesale destruction of wildlife and the wilderness, accidental and intentional, has resulted from this “monstrous and inexhaustible drive” and its “force of fear or elemental greed for money, pleasure, or power.”
What may be said of their congregations who are employed (in any way) by these developments when they fail to “find for themselves the kind of work and environment in which they can best lead a spiritual life.”
Finally, what of the remainder: those among the “churchgoing,” occasional or otherwise, who carry the burden of wealth, comfort, and leisure.
While “agitating” oneself amidst Vail’s billion-dollar renewal, one might consider that a copy of Thomas Merton may be purchased for perhaps less than $10.
The wilderness should not be about money.
In “No Man is An Island,” Thomas Merton maintains: “Without a life of the Spirit, our whole existence becomes unsubstantial and illusory.”
In respect to Creation, he says: “All nature is meant to think of paradise.”
“Woods, fields, valleys, hills ... remind us that the world was first created as a paradise for the first Adam.”
“It is for each one to find out for himself the kind of work and environment in which he can best lead a spiritual life.”
“Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things.”
“Even with the best of intentions, a spiritual man finds himself exhausted and deadened and debased by the constant noise of machines ... the everlasting suggestions of advertising and propaganda.”
In Merton’s view then, consider present-day “city-life” in Vail and Eagle County.
In years past, those who recognized and understood the spiritual dimension of nature warned of the evils that could (and did) appear when (in Merton’s words): “Agitation — a condition of spirit that is quite normal in the world of business ... with its monstrous and inexhaustible drive” arrived with its “force of fear or elemental greed for money, pleasure, or power.”
“All this is the death of the interior life.”
“Occasional churchgoing and the recitation of hasty prayers have no power to cleanse this purulent wound.”
One then properly asks: “What of Vail’s spiritual paideia?” (paideia in Greek means the teaching element within the community).
If one correctly perceives development (especially high-end) as the principal sin and crime from which all other sins and crimes proceed in Eagle County, what may be said of this region’s spiritual leadership when development is actually endorsed as evidenced by the recent Minturn election.
Wholesale destruction of wildlife and the wilderness, accidental and intentional, has resulted from this “monstrous and inexhaustible drive” and its “force of fear or elemental greed for money, pleasure, or power.”
What may be said of their congregations who are employed (in any way) by these developments when they fail to “find for themselves the kind of work and environment in which they can best lead a spiritual life.”
Finally, what of the remainder: those among the “churchgoing,” occasional or otherwise, who carry the burden of wealth, comfort, and leisure.
While “agitating” oneself amidst Vail’s billion-dollar renewal, one might consider that a copy of Thomas Merton may be purchased for perhaps less than $10.
