As I might have mentioned earlier, finding places to go the bathroom had been one of my primary concerns before I set out along The Way – mostly due to the fact that I was never very flexible to begin with, and that my then 52 year old body had been beaten up pretty well by that point; meaning that “squatting in the woods” in any time of need was not going to be a viable option. In essence, whenever it was going to be “time to go” I was going to need a restroom. Interestingly enough, this fear – like so many of our fears – turned out to be almost completely unfounded, as restrooms seemed to either regularly or almost magically appear whenever my body demanded them.. And yet on this particular early morning, the same could not be said. It was just before 7am on this glorious day, and while walking along the roadway I suddenly had to go – and I mean really had to go. And the only place in sight at the time was the Holston Baptist Church, which happened (Thank God! – pun both intended and, at the time, wholeheartedly meant) to have a sole car parked in front of its otherwise normally closed doors. And yet much to my disappointment, that car belonged to an extremely friendly handyman, who would have allowed me to use the church’s restroom, except that it was fully our of commission and he was there that morning to begin repairing the same. Not knowing what else to do, I simply headed around the church, leaned against its back wall, did my business, and then (as reverently as I could in my less than dignified state) buried the same. And then what did I see when rounding the corner to head back out onto The Way but the church’s primary sign – a sign that boldly (and almost provokingly) referenced the wisdom of Galatians 6:1*, asking me where I would be sowing my seeds that day, and what would be their harvest? :O :O :O

*The questions posed were amusing enough, but the text of Galatians 6:1-5 proved to be just as amusing to the context of this pseudo-brazen (mis)adventure. Consider: “My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in any transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of true gentleness, all while taking care that you yourselves are not tempted [to similarly transgress]. Bear one another’s burdens joyfully, and in this way fulfill the Law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they indeed deceive themselves. All must test their own work and their own work alone; for then that work, rather than their neighbor’s, will become a source for inspiration. [For we each must tend our own gardens, and] we all must carry our own loads.”

“One of the Western world’s most serious problems is the tension between the group and the individual. For our culture trains people in individualism while demanding that they live forever in groups, and large groups at that. How intriguing then that Christians monks are almost all trained to live in viable intimate community. The question becomes, Why? Isn’t the eremitical life the life of complete perfection and total dedication to God – a life of spiritual oneness that borders on becoming a full-on isolation with the Divine? For some of them the answer is yes, and yet not for most. Most social beings – religiously devout or otherwise, are meant to find their sanctification by living under the penumbra of societal interplay. It is the community that forms community values and virtues in us all. It is the community that provides the arena for the higher virtues of compassion and caring and generosity and kindness. It is from the community that we get an example of a life lived well. It is in the community that all teaching becomes real. It is in the community that structure and mutual respect or ordinance and regulation become gifts rather than instruments of oppression. It is only in the community that we really learn to listen to the voice of God in one another and to see the face of God in the other as well as in ourselves. It is only in community that we can learn to wield patience as well as power. And it is only in community that we can learn to obey the command to wholeheartedly serve one another.” ~ via Joan Chittister

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt