GEO Principle Blog

Ground travel can be opportunity for contemplation

I have written before about the importance of taking time for leisure. One of the great blessings of the Sabbath is that it forces a person to take a day's break at least once a week. It is so easy to allow your work schedule to completely consume all your time. Productivity is good, so it can be tempting to schedule every waking moment for some form of productive activity. However, without a certain amount of time for leisure, productivity eventually falls. Nobody can work all the time, nor should anyone attempt to.

One of the reasons leisure is so important is because it provides time for contemplation. It is usually during periods of relaxation that we find our minds free to consider bigger picture concerns. We can't think about things in context when we are constantly bogged down with deadlines, appointments and obligations. Most important actions start with thought. So if you are going to do anything meaningful in your life, on the job or at home, you need time to think about it first.

I have a strategy for making sure that I take time for contemplation. Every now and then, I will drive instead of fly to a meeting. Last week, I had a meeting in Chicago. That's 400 miles from Minneapolis, where I live. Typically, I'd fly. Fares are relatively low and it only takes about an hour to make the trip, perhaps two and a half hours, if you figure in the airport time getting through security and waiting at the gate. But that kind of travel is pretty intense. It is not leisurely. I don't get any time to let my mind wonder when I fly and plan my meeting schedule accordingly.

It takes me seven and a half hours to drive to Chicago. The route on the Interstate is very simple. I can drive, pay attention to the road, and still have a clear enough mind to think a bit. In the fall, I even get the bonus of beautiful landscape filled with changing color. It might sound silly to devote 15 hours to round-trip travel to Chicago -- something that should only take five hours -- but that gives me 10 hours for contemplation. That's ten hours to think -- out loud, if I choose. That is time for me to think about where I am in my life, the condition of my relationship with God, my family, and my work. Ideas and revelations emerge that otherwise would most likely have remained buried had I flown into O'Hare.

If you find yourself rushing to meetings in other cities, ask yourself whether you really need to rush. Consider alternatives, if you can. There are benefits to driving or taking a train.  

Gratitude and the moon landing

The 40th anniversary of the moon landing gives us an opportunity to look at an interesting example of someone bringing their faith to work. Shortly after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, Aldrin conducted a communion ceremony inside the Lunar Module.

I was a space fan as a kid when the Apollo program was in full swing, but I didn’t learn about this personal religious event until I read about it in volume 2 of Bill Bennett’s America, The Last Best Hope. A Washington Post writer comments on it as he reflected on the 40th anniversary. 

Aldrin brought wine and bread with him. He poured the wine into a cup and broke the bread. He asked Mission Control for silence so he could pray.

In a secular culture, Aldrin’s actions sound unusual, but I think they are appropriate for someone who has just arrived in a new world. After the flood in Genesis, we are told that Noah made an altar where he offered sacrifices to God. (Gen. 8:20) I would be willing to bet Christopher Columbus and later, the Pilgrims, made gestures of gratitude toward God upon landing in America.

“Eucharist,” the word many Christians use to refer to the sacrament of communion, comes from the Greek word that means “grateful” or “thankful.” It is entirely appropriate that Aldrin would be thankful to God for their safe travel to the surface of the moon.

Although communion rituals are unusual at work, gratefulness and thankfulness should not be. Particularly during recession where the unemployment rate in many states is north of 10 percent, employed folks should be grateful for their work. God provides for us through work (our own and others), and that is no small thing.

No matter where you go to work -– an office, a construction site, a school, a hospital, or even the moon –- take a moment to give thanks to God.

Where to place your faith

Big banks like Washington Mutual get taken over by the government and sold. Congress tries to bail out the financial system to the tune of $250 billion to $700 billion.Pundits predict the stock market could lose a third of its value this week.

These are powerful reminders about how fragile our comfortable American lifestyle is. Those who lived through the Great Depression know that things come and go, and that the wise don't get too attached to anything here on earth.

That's a tough lesson for those of us born long after the Depression. I grew up during the 1970s and 1980s, when it seemed like people had a lot of everything. Jobs and money was abundant during the later half of the 1990s. Almost everyone in the work world built a retirement portfolio consisting of appreciating securities in their 401(k) plans, pensions and other investments. Within the last year, a lot of the security offer by those securities has withered. Home values of plummeted. Equities are losing value. Banks are calling loans. A lot of the comfort we grew used to is disappearing. It's not pretty. If only we could all be as assured as Paul, the great evangelist. Here is what he wrote to the Philippians (4:11-13):

I have learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient. I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.

Paul is saying that whether he is in good times or bad times, he has found contentment, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. I think that is really a powerful message. Most of us find our contentment in our comfortable house, or in our nice car or fashionable clothes -- but those things come and go, oftentimes due to circumstances over which we have no control. God does not come and go. He is there no matter what happens in the financial markets. No matter how low the Dow Jones Industrials average sinks, God is there. Clearly, if your contentment is based on your relationship with God, you have a much better opportunity for lasting happiness than you do if you place it in something earthly.  

Thanks, Mr. Casserly

Bernie Casserly died last Thursday. He was 91.

Mr. Casserly, as I always called him, was a legend in local journalism circles. He was a reporter for 10 years for the Minneapolis Star before becoming editor of the Catholic Bulletin in 1957, a post he held until 1982. Mr. Casserly turned the Catholic Bulletin into a real newspaper, reporting on the developments of the Second Vatican Council and its implications during the 1960s and 1970s. For a journalist covering religion, there was no bigger story in the 20th Century. Today, the Catholic Bulletin is called the Catholic Spirit.

My parents subscribed to the weekly newspaper all the years I was growing up. Mom and Dad considered a subscription to the Bulletin to be as important for living the faith as sending us kids to parochial schools. As a high school kid, I would read Mr. Cassserly's columns. He impressed me so that I sent one of the first articles I wrote for my high school newspaper to him for a critique. He responded with advice I hold to this day. He told me I didn't need that "button" sentence at the end of the article. A button sentence is a superfluous closer, such as "and a good time was had by all." Of course, Mr. Casserly was right; I didn't need that sentence. Now, when I coach young writers, I give the same advice.

One of Mr. Casserly's sons, Charlie, went to high school with me and we became friends. He even worked for me for a short while in the 1990s. I haven't seen Charlie in a while but I suspect I will see him tonight at the wake.

I remember running into Mr. Casserly about two years ago. We got to talking about journalism. He was interested in blogs and we talked about how print was adapting to the internet. I was always impressed by the way Mr. Casserly stayed engaged in his craft. He wrote up until the end of his life. He wrote nationally syndicated columns until he was 89.

Mr. Casserly found a unique way to live his faith on the job. I am grateful for his contributions to journalism and to the Catholic community, both across the country and in the Twin Cities.