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<\/p>\nToday is my college\u2019s\u00a0 Commencement\u2013it is also Pentecost Sunday. In keeping with my attraction to trying to find something interesting in seemingly random occurrences, I\u2019m wondering what connections might be found beneath the surface of these two annual, by unrelated events. As it turns out, it\u2019s all about how one thinks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When my sons were young, one of the most important distinctions in their estimation, when food was the issue, was \u201cis it fast or slow food?\u201d In other words, how much of my important schedule is this eating event going to take up? Fast food\u2014McDonald\u2019s, Wendy\u2019s, or Burger King if going out; fish sticks, hot dogs, sandwiches if staying in\u2014was obviously preferred. Slow food\u2014any place where you have to sit down and wait if going out; anything involving more than five minutes of preparation time and that you would not be consuming in front of the television if eating in\u2014was acceptable only if given sufficient warning. Going out to a slow food restaurant required preparation, including which coloring books to bring, psychological calming techniques, a consideration of the expected guest list, and so on.<\/p>\n
The first slow food event that Jeanne and the boys ever attended together\u2014Thanksgiving dinner 1987 with my parents and me at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming\u2014was such a slow food event that Jeanne finally walked into the kitchen to find out why the hell the food was taking so long. My sons were impressed that any human being would have the nerve to do such a thing.<\/p>\n
They were not the only persons impressed that night, though. Jeanne still speaks on occasion about how remarkable it was that these two kids, eight and six, managed to keep themselves occupied without fidgeting or complaint for a much longer period of time than any human being should be required to wait for food. That\u2019s only because they knew how to prepare.<\/p>\n
A few\u00a0years ago, in his greeting to the thousands of people gathered for Providence College commencement at the Dunkin\u2019 Donuts Center, the President of the college gave one last reading assignment to the graduating seniors. \u201cYou must read\u00a0Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/i>\u00a0by Daniel Kahneman,\u201dFather Shanley\u00a0said. In this book, \u00a0Kahneman distinguishes between two types of thinking that all of us come equipped with as human beings.<\/p>\n
Fast thinking, on the one hand, is the intuitive, almost unconscious way that we tend to make quick, snap judgments about events, people, choices, and even our life paths. Relying on emotion, memory, and hard-wired rules of thumb, much of our daily existence runs on fast thinking autopilot. Slow thinking, on the other hand, is much more deliberate, conscious, attentive, self-aware, and, well, slower. One of the book reviewers on Amazon\u2019s site for this book writes that \u201cThe human mind is a hilariously muddled compromise between these incompatible modes of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of us rely on fast thinking most of the time, even though we know that such thinking is often inaccurate and shot through with bias and prejudice. The question is, Why do we do it? At least on the surface, the answer clearly is \u201cIt\u2019s easier.\u201d Slow thinking laboriously checks the facts against the appearances, critically evaluates information, but is extraordinarily lazy and easily distracted.<\/p>\n
Our slow thinking self is more than happy to turn things over to fast thinking simply because it conserves time and effort. Why take the time to consider the relevant details and nuances of a political candidate\u2019s positions when it is so much quicker and easier to label her as a \u201cconservative,\u201d a \u201cliberal,\u201d a \u201csocialist,\u201d or a \u201cTrumpite\u201d and move on? Why expend the effort to actually get to know this new colleague or neighbor when it is much simpler to label him as \u201cone of them\u201d and go to lunch?<\/p>\n
When the stakes are higher, when one\u2019s spiritual health and growth are the issue, the fast and slow distinction becomes far more than an interesting topic of conversation. Is the Christian life more like fast or slow food? Is it more like McDonald\u2019s or Le Cirque? The Christian narrative is full of fast food events\u2013Pentecost, Christmas, Easter\u2013instant gratification events at the heart of\u00a0belief\u00a0that are so filling and satisfying that one could imagine that this is the exclusive food that fuels the life of faith. Each of us has had our own fast food, Big Bird moments, times when the veil between the mundane human and glorious divine is pierced, even for a moment, in some unforgettable way. What more does one need?<\/p>\n
Plenty. Will Pentecost be enough to sustain those who experienced it when, weeks or months later, they are alone in chains waiting for torture or execution? Will your most spectacular Big Bird moment from the past be enough to get you through the stress of parenting, the tragedy of loss, a divorce, a lost job, an illness, or simply the daily grind?<\/p>\n
If slow food is analogous to delayed gratification, then much\u2014probably most\u2014of the life of faith is slow food. Waiting, attending, struggling, just being, all the time wondering if you are ever going to get food again. That conversion experience, that healing, that moment that you vibrated with the presence of God are all distant memories. And one cannot eat memories.<\/p>\n
Our fast thinking selves, applied to the spiritual life, decide that an occasional trip to the McDonald\u2019s of faith is good enough. A few milestones, both doctrinal and personal, become the sole sustenance of faith, bolstered by some quick and easy rules of thumb and prescribed ways of behaving. Go to church, say your prayers, maybe read your Bible on occasion. Our slow thinking selves are willing to concede that this has to be enough, because what else is there?<\/p>\n
The\u00a0answer lies in some of the food analogies that Jesus uses in the Gospels. \u201cI am the bread of life,\u201d he said. \u201cHe who believes in me shall never hunger.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhoever drinks the water I will give them will never be thirsty again,\u201d he tells the Samaritan woman at the well. The message of Pentecost completes the Incarnation story\u2014God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, is in us. The source of life, the food we need, is not in the fast food of events, of churches, nor is it in the slow food of waiting interminably for something to happen. It is in the regular, daily supply of nourishment that is in us \u201ca well of water, springing up into everlasting life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the hymns related to the Holy Spirit\u2014\u201cSpirit Divine, Attend Our Prayers,\u201d \u201cCome Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,\u201d \u201cSpirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart\u201d\u2013all appear to be petitions for God to show up, to pay attention. But Big Bird hasn\u2019t gone anywhere\u2014she is in us all the time. These texts call\u00a0us<\/b>\u00a0to attentiveness, to remembrance, to awareness that we have been provided with all the food we need. It\u2019s just a matter of consuming it, because it is never used up. We don\u2019t have to go shopping for the bread of life at either a fast or slow food establishment. It\u2019s with us all the time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is my college\u2019s\u00a0 Commencement\u2013it is also Pentecost Sunday. In keeping with my attraction to trying to find something interesting in seemingly random occurrences, I\u2019m wondering what connections might be found beneath the surface of these two annual, by unrelated events. As it turns out, it\u2019s all about how one thinks. When my sons were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":12275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,35,36,40,46,48,56,57,75,79,80],"tags":[169,222,533,287,530,388],"class_list":["post-12248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-change","category-christianity","category-faith","category-family","category-god","category-holy-spirit","category-human-nature","category-jeanne","category-jesus","category-politics","category-providence-college","category-religion-2","tag-christianity","tag-family","tag-graduation","tag-jeanne","tag-pentecost","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n