Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Space (01/23/06)
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TITLE: Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Space | Previous Challenge Entry
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01/27/06 -
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It seems we spend our whole lives trying to carve out our own space. We Americans are especially arrogant about it, assuming that bigger always means better. We need wider roads, bigger houses, bigger cars. We can never seem to get enough space.
What is it about having more room that continually motivates us to seek out more? Are we really looking for more space, do we really think a Hummer will bring us happiness?
As we tear down nature’s beauty to impose our bigness, we continue to find ways to make our world smaller. In a global economy and the “flat” world of the Internet, we want more convenience and bigger roads to drive shorter distances to closer stores, crowding out the wide open spaces for suburbia and shopping malls.
After living in the “big” city, I couldn’t imagine my cousin’s life in Iowa. They lived on 150 acres, we had a postage-stamp sized yard. They had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest store, I could walk around the corner. Their “town” consisted of two stores and a handful of buildings – they didn’t even have a stoplight. Who could live in such a small world? I wondered each time I visited.
”You have to see this,” my cousin insisted during my last visit there. Oh great, I thought, she’s going to take me cow tipping or something. There’s absolutely nothing to see out in the middle of nowhere.
We walked out along the gravel road, away from the house. The night was crisp, my thin jacket was useless against the cold. “Where are we going?” I complained. “I’m freezing,” I told her through chattering teeth.
“Just come along a little ways further, to get the best view,” she told me. Crazy, I thought, the girl has gone mad. It was pitch dark, not a single house nearby. I didn’t even see any cows. I could barely see my own hand in front of my face as I wiggled my fingers and blew on them to keep warm. I had never experienced a darkness so complete, as if a black felt shade had been pulled over my eyes. I concentrated on my feet, trying to make out the road so I wouldn’t fall into one of the large ditches on either side of us.
“Listen,” she said, stopping suddenly. “Do you hear that?”
I stopped my crunching steps and listened for a moment. Yup, she’s crazy, I thought again. “Uh, no, actually, I don’t hear a thing,” I said, exasperated.
“Exactly,” she said proudly. “Just listen to that quiet.”
I opened my mouth to say some smart-aleck reply, but instead I stopped and really listened to the absence of sound. It was unnerving to a city girl like me. Then, looking up, I noticed the sky. “Wow!” I breathed, trying to take it all in.
“Yeah, right?” my cousin agreed. “Isn’t it magnificent?”
There in the smallest place I’d ever been, was the most immense sky I had ever seen. The whole universe spread wide on a tableau before us, bright twinkling stars in every direction. From horizon to horizon, an enormous domed view of the heavens in all their glory surrounded me.
“There they are,” my cousin told me, a smile in her voice, “all the angels and saints up above. Isn’t God amazing?” she asked breathlessly.
“Glory to God in the Highest,” I replied in awe, humbled by God’s greatness.
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