Reflections On A Trip

TUES., JUNE 23, 1998, 6:56 AM
FARM, STUDY

It was just a pleasant and uneventful drive across three states, with the old Cadillac performing perfectly. Your concern for the age of this fine old car had you keep your speed at just about 55, which, you find, is quite slow for the Interstate. So, symbolically, you were the old driver in the old car, being passed by small, new cars with, you assume young drivers AND huge, powerful trucks, representing the age of which you are not quite a part. You are not yet “old-old”, but this was another symbolic indication that this fast moving world… at least the culture of which you are a participant… is passing you by.

The meeting, which was the purpose of the trip, had some of the same “flavor”. The five of you oldtimers and your old “employee” (whose work was the only reason for the meeting) were taken to task in an “almost” painful way by the young Board member, Penny, who wants her organization to “inherit” Bob. She is vigorous and “pushy”, and she made clear that her Board would never go for the loose organization and “creative budgeting” that has seemed fine to you oldsters. Again, note the contrast between that hard-driving, “righteous” aspect of your culture and the more “mellow” attitudes and behaviors (yes, I do like that term “mellow” and what it represents) of those of you who have run the course and fought the fight.

I want you to reflect on this experience and the “reality” it symbolized. On the one hand the old must give way to the young. Your energies and visions are not quite sufficient for what this culture demands. Progress is important! Get out of the way!

On the other hand (and I always recognize at least one “other hand”) yours is not “My kind of culture” nor one I want you absorbed in and affected by. Oh, you had your days of striving – to coach successfully, to be a recognized faculty member at a prestige University, and to carve out a career that was nationally recognized. And, both ironically and symbolically, you did it in the alcohol field, of which these two organizations – F.A.C.E. and A.R.I.S. – are participants. But now it is time to reflect upon and contemplate this “field” and its “place” in the whole.

You drive through “busy” traffic to be part of a “busy” meeting, but now you are back to this quiet place, where you, under My influence (yes, Holy Spirit!), are moving toward semi-monk status… a “semi-life”, at least, of contemplation melded with mellow, non-frantic activity that maintains the rustic beauty of this Farm, your “place to be”.

As I had you contemplate, on your return trip, alcohol can be seen as a rather terrible problem (as some of the board members see it) or as just a part of modern American life that does produce some harm and suffering. It is part of My created earth scene, and I see its positive value, along with the harm to which it contributes. (And you know that a couple of your senior, fellow board members, as devoted Christian servants of Mine, could never accept such a statement, particularly as attributed to Me. Such is the diversity I have created, and that I love.)

You are interested in some of what Bob writes… and you can admit that there needs to be some opposition to “big Alcohol” (big Al!?), but increasingly you see this as just one of oh, so many fights that should be fought… or is this your best use of the earth time you have? When you contemplate even a sample of the “problems” that you could be helping to solve it is numbing.