There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us, whether as explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction, or as fuel for ambition, or as a kind of reflexive secular religion that, paradoxically, unites us with others in a shared sense of complete isolation: you feel at home in the world only by never feeling at home in the world.
10 thoughts on “Sunday with Christian Wiman: Anxieties that have become useful to us”
> I reflexively distrust most criticisms of secularity
Ditto, but more because it is very often more of a criticism on author’s-take-on-secularlism-which-is-unlikely-to-be-represenatative-of-anything [especially if they come from the Evangelical corner].
This sounds more nuanced than that – – – and the Communion of Despair is certainly a thing; easily perceptible as the most privileged of the most wealthy generation in all of human history shriek and weep over . . . I’m not quite sure what.
I reflexively distrust most criticisms of secularity because historically its benefits far outweigh its problems but I can’t really respond without reading the book, but I do find it interesting to read a Christian complain about people not feeling home in the world.
…”explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction…” Yes. That’s me. I’m not exactly anxious, but I feel I was given so much by life/God/fate, and I’ve never done nearly enough with it. And in the words of an old folk song:
I’m a stranger here,
a stranger everywhere.
I could go home, but honey,
I’m a stranger there.
Even after years of therapy I am loathe to give up my anxieties. They are part of who I am.
There must be a calm person somewhere inside me just waiting……
bright flashes of thought.
catch this jigsaw as it breaks
pray that love may mend.
The Internet Monk Archives
> I reflexively distrust most criticisms of secularity
Ditto, but more because it is very often more of a criticism on author’s-take-on-secularlism-which-is-unlikely-to-be-represenatative-of-anything [especially if they come from the Evangelical corner].
This sounds more nuanced than that – – – and the Communion of Despair is certainly a thing; easily perceptible as the most privileged of the most wealthy generation in all of human history shriek and weep over . . . I’m not quite sure what.
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That’s great. That says it all.
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I reflexively distrust most criticisms of secularity because historically its benefits far outweigh its problems but I can’t really respond without reading the book, but I do find it interesting to read a Christian complain about people not feeling home in the world.
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> I’m a stranger here, … I’m a stranger there.
That’s good. It’s a plot twist in only four lines!
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…”explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction…” Yes. That’s me. I’m not exactly anxious, but I feel I was given so much by life/God/fate, and I’ve never done nearly enough with it. And in the words of an old folk song:
I’m a stranger here,
a stranger everywhere.
I could go home, but honey,
I’m a stranger there.
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A difficult thing to contemplate.
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Added to my To-Read list; the Communion of Despair is trending.
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Even after years of therapy I am loathe to give up my anxieties. They are part of who I am.
There must be a calm person somewhere inside me just waiting……
bright flashes of thought.
catch this jigsaw as it breaks
pray that love may mend.
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light fills the leaves
with its own weightless life
and sheds all their colors
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Useful anxieties? I don’t know. I don’t feel at home in the world because the world is never secure — but then, neither is home.
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