Differing Perspectives

When I was in Boston the other day, I rode on the T, the city's mass transit system, something I've done a lot over the years.  I was struck by two things: how so many people were staring at the screens of their phones, and how, on the whole, young people seemed to be.  Here in the Upper Valley, they seem to be older.

I know that cities have always drawn the young and hungry; I remember when I was one of them.  I lived on Beacon Hill for almost a decade, but that now seems like a long time ago.  What happened?
Well, the obvious answer is I got older.  But as I've aged, I think I look at different things, value different priorities.  I had a strong urge to tell the young people that time goes by faster than we think it will, that they should seize life when the opportunities are comparatively endless, and that, yes, they should get off their phones (see yesterday's reflection).  But I didn't.  Instead I sat with my thoughts and considered what the day held in store for me.
Later that day I went to a board meeting and I was probably the youngest person there, other than the staff, and I'm not that young.  Different place, different perspective.  We should take advantage of these shifts to see things from multiple perspectives, not just the one with which we are most comfortable.  This Lent, let's pray for the flexibility to see God's world in all of it's glory and complexity.  Let's pray for forgiveness for our blinkered way of seeing that limits what we take in.


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