contentment

What a wonderful and extraordinary week this has been. My family has had a great time contributing to the western world's commercialization of Christmas, of which I was the recipient of some really sweet gifts. My wife bought me a new Samsung Blackjack cell phone. I just wanted a phone that would double as an MP3 player, so the Blackjack is overkill for my purposes, but I am actually finding out that I needed one all along. I kind of feel like the Bushmen in the "God's Must Be Crazy."

If you remember they were quite content in their world finding that all their needs for shelter, food, water and friendship were met by living in harmony with the desert around them. Discontentment happened when a littering bushpilot discarded an empty Coke bottle over the village of bushmen. It seems that this introduction of American Capitalism caused quite a stir in this quiet little community in the Kalahari.

I think that the reason it created such a stir is because there was only one empty bottle discarded. Please don't interpret this to mean to litter more.

Recently, I have been doing my best to see if I can do without. I don't really mean fasting because I am not spiritual enough to be any good at that, but I mean just not wanting stuff. I am tired of stuff, and yet stuff has this appeal to me that just intoxicates me.

Here is what I mean. I may have needed a new phone. My old one was so scratched that I could not read the screen anymore. The call end button on it was getting to be very unreliable, and it had been lost in the pasture overnight in the rain recently. But still this phone was all I needed. I was practicing contentment, that is until Christmas came along. My wife being the loving gift giver that she is wanted me to have the best, and since I was long overdue for an upgrade, the best was reasonably affordable.

You see, it is not just that I got a great phone. I got a really cool phone. And by the way, I am not sure who runs the foundation that determines the coolness of all objects, but there is a foundation that does this kind of thing. How else can you explain the cool factor of things like Mini Coopers, Samsung Blackjacks, and Waverunners. Anyway, It is not just that I got a cool phone. I got one that is better than yours. That is what made me so gleeful. I had something cool that was cool partly because you did not have one.

The problem is that as a believer I am now going to have to square this new feeling of exclusiveness with my Lord's mandate of love for all people. Now, I am not saying that you are a sinner if you have a Blackjack cell phone. I am just saying that you are a sinner if you want to gloat in your newfound coolness and say na na na boo boo.

I suppose that I can be content as long as you don't get a phone cooler than mine.


Oh, Christmas pictures will requre some editing.