Peter Martin
Care Crosses the River-2
6/18/11
The second passage that really caught my eye was a short one. It is called “Rescue Without Sinking” in the section What Is Perhaps Lost. At first, I looked at it and it talks about how there are a lot of people in life who think that their meaning in life is rescuing others, so they make others believe that they are lost.
My immediate reaction was the obvious, religion. Clearly religion gets pretty deep into the rescue without sinking waters. Then I thought about it a little more charities, news, and more. I realized that most everyone is involved in something where they “rescue” those who may not be in need of rescuing. Yes, there are obviously exceptions to this, there are some who really don’t know that they need to be rescued, but why not keep it that way. Sometimes being rescued just brings further complications into your life.
Without getting into the touchy subjects I mentioned above, there were a few things that crossed my mind about “being rescued.” The first thing to pop out was salesmen. Then I narrowed it down. What have we been sold that we use every day, that “rescued” us. Cell phones. Not just any cell phones, but smartphones. I know that there is some statistic out there about the number of people with smartphones, but they have become more and more common. If you asked someone 10 years ago, do you want a device that you can put into your pocket that will make it possible for any person to reach you at any time of day, not just by phone call, but e-mail too? I would have said when I’m done with work for the day, I want to just go home and forget about it. No, not anymore. Yes, smartphones can be useful, but the more I think about it, we got “rescued” by smartphones. If I never knew they existed, and no one had ever shown me, I would be happy to know that I have a while to respond to e-mails, because no one knows when I’m going to be near a computer. When you walk into a wireless phone store today, the very first thing they do, is show you to the smartphones. They sell you on all the things they can do, and how you won’t be able to live without one, but in reality, they are just selling you something that is going to make your life not only more complicated, but cost you more money.
The world is full of people who try to rescue you. Sometimes, this is not always a bad thing. Many times, though, people are trying to rescue you just to they can feel better about themselves. People will continue to be rescued from things that they don’t need rescuing from, the key is to be able to spot it, and know when you don’t need to be rescued.
I thought you made a very interesting connection to this piece. I never really thought that salesmen attempted to rescue us by selling us smartphones, but after reading your argument it makes sense. I thought you did a good job connecting the language in the text to a modern reality and experience everyone seems to understand in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteGood post. I also thought about charities and religion, but the idea of salesmen and phones was a great connection. In reality, there is always someone wanting to save you from soming; whether it be a storm or from boredom, everyone needs to be saved. But just because they claim to be saving you, doesnt mean they have your best intrests at heart. An idea that pops to mind are our elected officials. They make prosises to fix all our problems and to help us. They do this to gain power and standing (sometimes). Again, as you said, the idea here is to make sure you spot this and take action in an appropriate manner.
ReplyDelete