"Real Vacations"
"Real Vacations"
There are two types of passivity. First, there’s laziness. That is largely avoidance, an aimless kind of moving around and saying, “I gotta rest.” Why is it that so much recreation we take is not really re-creation? It does not really renew our spirit. A lot that people call a vacation is simply diversion, or distraction from a life that is already one big distraction. It’s finding another kind of stimulation we have. We say, I’m not gonna do anything, I’m on vacation. But that isn’t the true recreation that re-creates, the true vacation that vacates the overstuffed apartment.
A real vacation should encourage real inner passivity. True leisure, true emptiness, is, in fact, a vigilance, a listening, a waiting. It’s a strong inner activity. And the irony is, this kind of passivity is the most disciplined activity. Thus the contemplatives were often the greatest activists.
Freedom comes when you can be and let be. Then you appear to be passive, but in fact you’re operating out of a strong inner activity. On the other hand, some people who are really moving and achieving are not really active people at all. They’re extremely passive people, following the collective herd of trends and dictated fashions, deaf and dumb inside.
from The Price of Peoplehood by Richard Rohr
There are two types of passivity. First, there’s laziness. That is largely avoidance, an aimless kind of moving around and saying, “I gotta rest.” Why is it that so much recreation we take is not really re-creation? It does not really renew our spirit. A lot that people call a vacation is simply diversion, or distraction from a life that is already one big distraction. It’s finding another kind of stimulation we have. We say, I’m not gonna do anything, I’m on vacation. But that isn’t the true recreation that re-creates, the true vacation that vacates the overstuffed apartment.
A real vacation should encourage real inner passivity. True leisure, true emptiness, is, in fact, a vigilance, a listening, a waiting. It’s a strong inner activity. And the irony is, this kind of passivity is the most disciplined activity. Thus the contemplatives were often the greatest activists.
Freedom comes when you can be and let be. Then you appear to be passive, but in fact you’re operating out of a strong inner activity. On the other hand, some people who are really moving and achieving are not really active people at all. They’re extremely passive people, following the collective herd of trends and dictated fashions, deaf and dumb inside.
from The Price of Peoplehood by Richard Rohr
posted by LuisVelasco @ 9:03 AM
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