SOLITUDE
Yesterday our 17-year-old daughter told me that I must be getting old. She was noting the fact that I was sitting in the backyard watching the grass grow. (She didn't notice that I was also watching the orange trees blossom, the redwood trees sway in the breeze, and the scrub jays fight over ownership of the bird feeder.) What she doesn't realize is that I was into watching the grass grow when I was her age.

We live in a culture which is over-stimulated by visual and audio input. Even if it were all good it would still be overwhelming. And those of us on the introverted side (I'm just slightly there according to the MBTI) need a major break from all of that to get our bearings -- and to save our souls from being swallowed by the noise of life. Perhaps we even need to avoid the stimulation altogether. Anyone who is in the least bit counter-cultural is going to be into watching the grass. Even Jesus, at the height of his popularity, left it all behind at times to escape the noise.

Someone asked me last week if I had ever been to a Promise Keepers rally. I explained that I don't really like loud crowd experiences -- especially if they are built around a lot of hype. Frankly, I'm not very patient when I'm in a crowd. And I would never last at an NFL game (Although I've come to mildly enjoy sitting in the nose-bleed seats at a baseball game. Baseball is so much slower paced.) and would go nuts at a Christian pep rally. I realize that not everyone is wired like me -- and that's okay -- but someone has to grow old watching the grass grow. It might as well be me.