Editorial June 10, 1991 Issue

Coming home

Michael D. Rissler

One evening a friend was showing me photographs of a trip he had taken. The faces of the people, the lay of the landscape, the towns, the villages, and the marketplaces were fascinating. Then all of a sudden seeing these pictures caused me to look at my own life in an unexpected way.

Perhaps this happened because of something my friend said. "They show kindness and generosity," he observed. "And while they have little money, they make up for it with love."

I looked at the remaining photographs in a new way. Before, I had seen similarities between the tropical countryside of that land and places I remember in rural areas of Florida when I was a boy. But now I noticed, in looking at the photographs a second time, a culture that had few of the familiar things to which I had long grown accustomed in my own culture. The disparity caused me to realize how dependent we can become upon familiar objects. It was something of a shock. I realized how attached we can be to physical reference points and material objects. I felt a renewed need for spiritual progress and greater familiarity with the things of God, Spirit, in order to make me feel "at home."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Prayers for wise leadership