Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Maybe you’ve seen them at the doctor’s office while sitting there, just waiting for your appointment. Or maybe you subscribe to one or more of those magazines that contain full color ads of faraway places you’d just love to visit someday. I picked up one the other day and noticed an ad for the town I live in and it almost made me want to buy a ticket for the place I live and am already at—it looked so good. But that’s what ads are supposed to do, entice us to indulge in whatever they are trying to sell.
I try to take a daily walk, following one of four routes that have become part of my routine. They vary depending upon how much energy I want to expend or just the randomness of the day. One crosses a creek very close to my house which winds its way through the suburbs, unnoticed by the majority most of the time. But since I was walking and not rushing past in my car, I had the time to notice this beaver dam, recently constructed and doing what it was designed to do.
A bit surprised, I stopped for closer inspection since I didn’t expect to see one so close by. And it was then I thought of those glossy ads promoting Shangri-La to the would-be taker. Not that rodent-chewed-sticks is everyone’s idea of the ideal, but you get the idea.
When I compare the idyllic description offered in the magazine and the day to day routine of normalcy, I’m left with two conflicting thoughts. The first is to question whether my eyes are even open to the wonders that surround me. Has the predictable produced the mundane? The second line of thought appealed to my cynical nature – What if those grand and glorious depictions offered at the end of Revelation describing Heaven and the New Earth are just glossies put there by some slick advertising agent? It’s then I remember that John’s training and specialty was fishing, not marketing. Strange, the things we find comfort in.