Article December 6, 2004 Issue

PRAYER OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE

A SPIRITUALITY.COM COMMENTARY

THERE WAS A TIME—THOUGH IT SEEMS SO LONG AGO — WHEN THE AVERAGE citizen could live in a bubble of "out of sight, out of mind." But television, which literally means "sight from afar," and its cousin the Internet have crowded people's lives with momentous images far outside the bubble. So many of the sights from afar are disturbing, portraying degrees of inhumanity inconceivable to the average person. Bombings, beheadings, and abuse come to seem almost commonplace.

It's understandable why one would want to fortify the bubble, make it more opaque, pull it closer and closer to maintain focus on the immediate, local scene. After all, there is plenty in one's personal sphere to command attention: Pets get lost, or loved ones get ill; people seek to gain or lose a mate, to lose weight, or find a job.

And yet, pressing as these local concerns may be, it's becoming harder and harder not to feel the burden of the post 9/11 world.

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