I am sitting in a chair. But not just any chair. I have somehow found my way into the seat that begat all other seats. The armrests are at a perfect height, and made of a deliciously soft rubber. The cushion beneath me employs a gentle concave structure; it supports without being loud about it. And the back is firm, holding my posture with comfortable rigidity, yet sliding backwards to allow me my occasional stretch or semi-recumbent daydream.
Who designed this thing? Where is the genius who made it possible? Come here so I can bow at your feet, you have fashioned the Sistine Chapel of desk chairs. You may think such praise is odd for just a chair, Dear Reader, but I know you’ve gone through having a bad one. It ruins everything: the squirming, the sore feeling when you get up, that loud squeak every time you shift your weight. To accomplish a great chair is to provide an invaluable component of any workday. There are so many places in life where excellence is not properly recognized, even though they are often invaluable for healthy living. Why do we lavish praise on splotches of paint on a canvas, and not the guy right next to us who changes our life for the better? What has the Mona Lisa done for you lately?
Unrelated note, I’m sure many of you share my conviction that family values are crucial for a healthy, moral society. If that’s the case, may I humbly request that you go grab yourself the new TIME Magazine, which features a front-page article called “Unfaithfully Yours,” by Caitlin Flanagan. The article is a master stroke, a bruising essay on the waywardness of our society’s priorities, and a desperate call for us to change our lackadaisical attitude towards marriage and parenthood. Don’t worry, you’re not in for some Bill O’Reilly scream-fest, it’s just forceful honesty in a time when that is desperately needed.
Look it up.
Hey Rew! I just read the Time article aloud to Dad, as we drove through Michigan and Ohio in the RV. Excellent article, and something that needed to be written about. Some comments from us: (1) no mention of the importance of faith, or even shared values, in making marriages last for a lifetime. The statistics do show that faith-shared-marriages have much better longevity. The author does point out that it is not easy to make a relationship survive through all the challenges of a lifetime–even more reason we think, then, to call on and rely on God’s help rather than try to depend on human abilities alone. (2) Dad also made the observation that a substantial factor in the downward spiral for marriages was the commencement in the early 60s of the self-absorbed sex-ridden Playboy “philosophy” and its embrace by many as the “aggressive” answer to “silly Victorian values.” (3) Finally, on dealing with temptation. One thing the author mentions, in regard to Sanford, is that he chose to begin this “innocent” close relationship with a woman other than his wife and chose at that point to be unfaithful–even though the sexual intimacy came later. Dealing with temptation successfully is all about early intervention. The Bible tells a young man not to even go past the street of the immoral woman. Sanford tried to go down that street but not become ensnared–it doesn’t work that way.
There are circumstances in which divorce is the better choice–think about your Aunt Martha Nelle’s situation, for instance. But this is a good article for everyone to read and think about.