Clutter

I really enjoy some pretty bad music. In fact I was almost late for work the other day because one of my favorites began booming over my sound system as I entered the parking lot. I almost took off on a McDonald’s run just to have a chance to let the music play itself out. Sometimes I forget to cover my tracks when I borrow Lorilee’s car and she has to listen to my music for five (5) seconds as she quickly turns her radio down and changes her channel.

Some of the best Bible verses have been eternally marred, in my mind, because of a well intentioned friend’s interest in converting me. I guess I might not mind a person quoting Bible verses to me so much if I felt they were speaking sincerely about their own experiences and not masking some subconscious need to make me more acceptable to themselves.

And it’s not just Christians who violate my boundaries with clutter. A few years ago I stumbled on a long lost friend from high school while surfing on the internet. We talked and talked. We met even though we live hundreds of miles apart. We spent the night talking, had a few beers together, and filled each other in on the last 25 years. Then I made the mistake of exchanging email addresses. From that day forward I received at least one joke per week in my email. I also had the benefit of another biweekly politically conservative pitch about how taxes are ruining our society and about how trickle down actually does work. My friend had never even asked me about how my own political persuasion had developed over the years. The sad fact is that I looked at almost every email he sent to me hoping for some note of encouragement or a tidbit about what was going on in his life. But none came; after a year of disappointment I blocked him. Through it all I’ve forgotten many of the good things that I know about my friend but I do remember the hoards of cyber junk.

It happened to me again this week. I met an old friend through my blog. We exchanged pictures of our families through email although we never actually talked. Then I somehow got loaded on his email list. Now I will put up with a small amount of Christian talk because I know we, Conservative Mennonites, have been taught from little up that our highest calling is to be missionaries to the lost world. When we were young we even needed to explain to the world how the clothes they wear, their sports, their entertainment, even their talk needed changing. Now it’s not quite so bad anymore but we are still trying to get people to change what they drink and smoke.

Anyway, I started getting political emails from my friend. The first one said something about how President Obama wasn’t really born in Hawaii and that we needed to send money to their organization so they could fund a lawsuit against the president to get him out of office once they figured out where he was really born. They were sorry that his grandmother had died because she is supposedly the only one who really knows that he wasn’t actually born in Hawaii. I am sure I am misquoting the email, so if you want to check the facts for yourself let me know and I will send the email to you. :-) Then the other morning I woke up at 4:00 AM unable to sleep. I got up, turned on my computer and there sat another email from my friend. I searched his email for one personal comment about what he was feeling or how he was doing. Much to my dismay it was a dreaded forward. The forward was from Alan Keyes speaking in Fort Wayne about how this is the end of democracy as we know it. Mr. Keyes went on to say that we probably won’t have an election in 2012 because of what is happening in President Obama’s administration. I read every word carefully and then I wrote a short response to my friend saying how I had voted for President Obama and that I have been pleased on a couple of occasions during President Obama’s first 100 days in office. Then I crossed a boundary although I knew exactly what sin I was committing. Give me a break – it was 4 o’clock in the morning. I hit “reply-all” instead of just sending the rebuttal back to my friend only. By 8:00 AM that morning, when I turned on my computer for real, I had already received at least two personal emails from my friend’s conservative Christian cronies. Of course they are all interested in following Christ. My friend did send an email out to his mailing list asking everyone to “Respect” his mailing list by not using the “Reply All” button. I never did get a personal note which was probably what I’d been hoping for all along. I sent an immediate apology to my friend although I feel the unimaginably strong temptation to quote a Bible verse right here and now. Oh well, committing just two sins in one week is not so bad I guess -- here it is: Mathew 7:3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? By the way, I had to call my dad to check the facts on this verse.

I know I have violated a lot of boundaries in my life. I want to start fresh and do my best to keep my space clear of clutter and my best not to violate other people’s space again.