Last Sunday several of the members of the drama team put on a dramatic interpretation of George Saunders' tale The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest it. It was fun to act out and one of the teaching pastors at the church wrote a message about community that went along with the skit we put up.
The first point made in the illustration of the message was this: Gapper happens. Gappers, you see, are an important part of the story. They are these bright orange creatures that kill goats. Goats are the means of survival for the people in the Village of Frip. For the purpose of the message the things that threaten our survival or overall health were labeled "gapper."
The pastor then went on to discuss how in today's society we've becoming increasingly self-sufficient. To a point of near isolation from any meaningful sense of belonging to community. He stated that this fact is due to the invention of the superhighway system and the ability we have to take our lives in several directions seemingly at the same instant. As a result we create small circles of interaction; places where we are a version of ourselves that exists only in that space and not in the other small circles we create for ourselves. Furthermore he continued, no one knows the people in the other circles. And we then become isolated. Alone. Left to deal with gappers independently.
His final point was that it takes a village to handle gappers. God did not create man to be alone. Nor did he create him to exist in small isolated circles pretending to be someone he isn't at every turn of the automobile. A hard reality to face in the fast-paced-my-way-or-the-highway world. But the very moral of the story I was privileged to act out last weekend is that living in community is God's desire and deign for His children. He knew we would not be able handle our gappers alone.
Gapper happens. No matter who or where you are. Do you have village that will help you handle your gappers?
Back in college, in 2004 when blogging was hardly even a thing yet, I was here. Blogging before blogging meant anything to anyone. You can look in the archives for my past writings, but it was much more like a journal in the past. When we started fundraising, I messed around with the idea of launching something new for this new phase of our journey but actually hated that idea. I am a sum of all of my life and so much of it is here already. So I'm keeping it here. At least for now.
My main focus these days is blogging about our newest journey into the bizarre and wonderful world of gestational surrogacy. Posts dated 2013 and forward will trend heavily toward that journey. I don't promise everything I write will be about though. There might be other things that sneak in occasionally.
Please come along our journey with us. As the saying goes, "The more, the merrier!"
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