From the moment I submitted last week’s article about avoiding technological gifts this holiday, I started worrying. I might offend some readers whose lives are made better by technology and who are delighted by what these devices can do. I know that anything I write has the potential to ruffle feathers, and that I can’t possibly appeal to all people, all of the time, but I don’t want to offend anyone when sharing my views. I want to inspire and encourage and give hope. My way isn’t the only way to do things, and for some it may be counterintuitive. I honor our differences and know that I can learn from them. And yet, I worried.
In an effort to diffuse the anguish that hovered about me, I decided to go on a hike around the lake at Rock Cut State Park on Sunday. And something happened there that gave me some perspective.
I had a couple of free hours and decided some peace and quiet in nature would be the perfect balm to my restlessness from sitting in front of the computer, writing, and fretting. It was a picturesque day, unseasonably warm with cloud-dappled sun, droves of geese and ducks lazily floating on the water amidst fishermen and bobbing branches. I was walking briskly to excise my unease, breathing deeply and deep in thought when all of a sudden I was assaulted by deafening pop music. It was coming from a radio that was being carried by one of a group of guys who were walking the trail far behind me. They were raucously hollering and whooping it up on their hike, and their fracas was amplified by the water that separated us.
One might assume that it’s common sense that people go to hike at the state park to get away from the sounds of society, but perhaps it isn’t. Perhaps it’s just my own sense of the situation, and my perspective was getting in the way of being open-hearted toward them.
They were a good distance behind me, so it would have taken more time than I had to wait for them to pass me by and get out of earshot. So I took some more deep breaths and told myself: “Well, while it definitely takes away from the tranquility of the experience, it doesn’t take from the beauty.” I proceeded to breathe even more calmly and tried to think from their perspective. Perhaps they wanted to get out into nature on this beautiful December day and thought that bringing some music along would make it even better! And hey, why don’t we play it really loudly so that the other hikers can enjoy it too! Maybe they thought they were being considerate of those who didn’t have any music to accompany them on their excursion.
It wasn’t my only chance to hike around the lake at Rock Cut. It was still a beautiful day and despite the assault to my ears, my senses of sight, touch and smell were buoyed.
That’s when I realized that if I could be kind and give grace to the pop music hikers, so too could I give myself grace for potentially offending some of my readers. The thing that makes the world most beautiful to me is the diversity – in nature, in people, in personalities, in perspectives. We won’t love them all, but if they were all the same, what a boring world it would be. So along with the non-battery operated gifts under the tree this year, I’m going to put a little grace in my own stocking.