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Yup. I can relate to this one!
It’s choosing to do something that you know will lead to the same old shit… not so much a blind alley as a very plain and obvious alley. with the feeling at the end that you have learned absolutely bugger all. again.
I don’t know about you, but I am certainly not holy enough to pray myself out of it. or whatever it is really holy people do.
What is it that really holy people do?
I once heard someone say of a famous post-evangelical turned church leader: “you’ve chosen to go down the cul de sac that is the Anglican church”.
A cul de sac is apparently another word for blind alley: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/396400.html
Just a thought…
Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
life often does feel like a blind alley though, doesn’t it? none of us know where we are truly going. we have hope, we have faith, but the best we see is through a glass darkly. it’s not about dogs and vomit it’s about the reality of our human experience being a constant not knowing what the outcomes will be even to our best laid plans.
Yes I can relate, too…there are just some times when you think there is some point to what we are doing…the rest of the time I just feel I’m on the same old treadmill. Feels more like the myth of Sisyphus than Groundhog Day.
Is he having a late night pee on the way back from the pub?
haha! it does look like that doesn’t it?
i agree with you carole. circles within circles, wheels within wheels, there is nothing new under the sun… etc… that’s not meant to sound depressing, it’s supposed to be a recognition of the way we very often experience life.
I remember reading Ecclesiastes as part of a study group. Everyone kept saying how depressing and cynical the writer was. Being my typical square peg in a round hole self, I was the only one who thought, “yeah, this guy speaks my language.” Not grumpy old (wo)man-dom, but rather enlightenment.
why are we all so afraid to face our demons? why are we scared to admit that shit is shit or that things are not going as planned? why does are faith make us feel like we should be constantly feeling victorious and unable to admit to crushing disappointment? i want real relationships, with people, the planet, god, my faith… i don’t want a spinned nonsense.
Yep, I’m with you on that, Jon. But I think people adopt a stoical attitude because otherwise it smacks of being ungrateful. I like possessing a varied emotional spectrum – it makes me feel more whole even if it is occasionally uncomfortable. With practice you can sometimes learn to ride the emotional spectrum.
A guy who was once Phil’s boss used to say when people asked him how things were going, “same shit, different depth!” I love that one!
yes. i wouldn’t for an instant say that i don’t experience joy and happiness… but the truth is, i experience sadness, fear, loss, disappointment just as deeply if not more. and my life is by no means a bad one… it’s just that i face difficulties every day that for the life of me i don’t know what the answers are. i don’t know how change might come about, i struggle to see any hope and i am for real in what feels very much like a blind alley.
Re 8; But spinned nonsense can be such splendid nonsense!
yep, have done this, and it’s quite a shock to realise how much damage you’ve done to your life by blindly following dead ends.
I also think churches can get stuck, trying to keep everything the same, meeting in places where people feel restricted and uncomfortable, putting an enormous amount of effort into making something ‘work’, that’s not really working, and only meeting the needs of the leadership
I recently joined a group where they do ‘a group inventory’, and ask ourselves where we’re not meeting the needs of people outside the group, where we are impenetrable cliquey, where we’re not welcoming. they were hard questions to look at, but I’ve been amazed – it’s bought such a sense of life and fun to the group
Sometimes, though, if you square your shoulders and plough down that blind alley (because the other options seem worse, usually), you find that there’s a door hidden at the end of it.
Following on from 13, – because either the blind alley isn’t the same as the previous one, or because you aren’t the same person as when you went down it before.
Yeah thou I walk down the blind alley of despair and loneliness this passage of repeated patterns will not o’er come me – for I know that even in the midst of such folly God’s love will lead me through to the light at the end, I will climb the fire-escape of faith and view the rooftops and see the glory of my Lord.
Marcus – love it!
continue fifty yards, i’m the first house on the left : \
chris@17: I’m your next door neighbour
we should have tea and cakes!
I was going to suggest we all came round and had a party – that would shake up that blind alley!
I sort of like blind alleys but not in a weird kinda way, you see I only have one thing left in life sometimes and thats hope. The hope that this time when I go down that alley (becuase I dont want to go down the same alley as everyone else) something good is going to come from it.
I think it would be a great name for a pub “the blind alley”
Yes, Dennis, of course you’re right – the blind alley doesn’t have to be be the same as up Shit Creek without a paddle! (Does this post now hold the record for the number of times the ‘sh’ word has been used?)
Why is up the creek bad and not down the creek?
Keep in mind my point of view is from a canoer who some of the tiem took day trips paddling up the river and drifting back to the put in point.
Okay, we have blind alleys, what about deaf alleys? Mute alleys? Lame alleys? Chronically ill alleys? Bipolar alleys?
Hmm, I didn’t just inhale too much of their catnip did I?
even though I walk the blind alleyways of life, you are with me
“my best efforts got me here” A.A.
duttyo, very good application.
Give a gold medal for that one!