False Impression

It’s time for the last of the conferences. Br. Monday is already packed to return to the Abba’s. Let’s listen to the last thing the retreat master has to say…

It is a false impression, that easy sense we have that we know or can quickly know about other parts of the world, other cultures, other peoples. This false impression is created by the media and the Internet and rapid and comparatively effortless travel, given all the places we go and how quickly we get there. We should perhaps concentrate more on knowing and understanding better the place where we are. For examples, I am here: Mount Angel, in Oregon, in a wide valley, on a hill, near the Pacific coast and the big ocean. It is today, only today; and I am here, only here. Things are happening, unfolding–bad things, good things, circumstances. Nothing I try to do or think can abstract from where I am now. I must begin from here and from here search for the rest of the world.

Source: A Monk’s Alphabet by Jeremy Driscoll