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| Not a bad place to be stopped |
I got stopped the other day whilst walking through Hyde
Park. Some guy said “hi” whilst I was walking past him.
I was daydreaming at the time so it took me a second or two to actually
stop, turn around and say “hi”
back. He then introduced himself and why
he decided to stop me. He was a middle
aged man with dark frizzy hair that was short at the front and sides but long
at the back. He looked quite friendly, although
he generally had a weathered looking face, rough hands and somewhat untidy
clothes that made him look very poor. He
had these brilliant blue eyes, though one of them was bloodshot.
At first, I thought he was going to ask me for money, but it
turned out he was actually a devote Christian who was going around spreading
the word of God. He asked me what I was
doing, what my story was and what I thought about doing in the future. I told him I was a traveller and that I
wanted to see the world. He started off
by saying that there was “nothing wrong
with that” and that is was a “good
thing for young people to do”, but he did then start to criticise my choice
of life.
He said “people who
travel, are travelling because they are not content with their life’s and they
are searching for something to fill their life’s” or he said something on
those lines. He then continued “perhaps what you should be looking for is
more spiritual enlightenment, rather than physical”. He then went on to quote some passes from
the bible (even though at the start he promised he wouldn’t) and talk about his
life and how he got involved with God.
The content
life
I
supposed some of what he was saying was true.
If I was completely content with my life in England I wouldn’t have come
all the way out here to Australia. Maybe
I am searching for something? But what
is a content life? Some people might say
England is the best country in the world to live in, others may say Australia
is, but you couldn’t possibly say anything like that if you haven’t tried to
live in every other country.
I read in a
book somewhere about this theory called “learned happiness” which is the theory
about people (and animals) becoming content with their surroundings. The example the book gave was about this zoo
that owned a bear. At the start the bear
lived in a small cage. The zoo didn’t
want this for the bear so they raised money and in the end managed to create a
large enclosure for the bear with rocks, trees and even a waterfall. And what happened to the bear when they
introduced him into his new enclosure?
He stayed in an area that was the same size of his small cage until the
day he died; because that was the area the bear had become content with.
So I guess what I am
trying to say is you shouldn’t be afraid of what is not familiar. The same book also gave me a quote, that “uncertainty
is the key to a satisfying life”. If
everything in life was certain and there were never any surprises, then life
would quickly become dull (for me it would anyway).
Student of
the world
Another thing the religious dude
said to me that I disagreed with was the fact that he disapproved of me
travelling and seeing the world, instead he recommended that I should consider
doing more spiritual exploration rather than global exploration. And maybe I should be open minded to the more
spiritual exploration. But my
counter-argument I wanted to say to him was “if God created the world, then
I want to see as much of it as I can, and surely God would be happy that I am
taking such an interest in his creation”.
I didn’t say any of this to the dude, I wish I did but I was getting a
bit impatient of his recited bible verses and I wanted to end the conversation. I was just walking home and I wasn’t in the right
frame of mind to have a deep intellectual conversation about religion and my
choice of life style.
So I told him that I needed to
head off and I would “think about things”.
He gave me a little booklet to read that contained yet more bible
verses, we then shook hands and went our separate ways.
Overall I don’t mind being
stopped by people like this. I am always
interested to hear people’s stories and opinions, but maybe not quite on a
Sunday afternoon when I have a mild hangover.
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| Some bedtime reading, courtesy of the Jesus People. |
