"If the unexamined life is not worth living,
the
unlived life is hardly worth examining."
(From an article
entitled "About Face--Why I'm Not On Facebook" by Steve
Baarendse, Associate Professor of English and Humanities at Columbia
International University in the May/June Touchstone magazine, . You can download a PDF of the article here by
permission of Touchstone Magazine.)
Many of you know my
wife Sharon is currently going through a round of chemo due to her battle
with breast cancer. Many have graciously commented on
Sharon's journal entries on CaringBridge and what an encouragement those entries are as
they walk on their own journey. I think at the root of this response is
that these people know it comes from a "lived life."
My point is
that Sharon is one of those people who has not been sitting on the sidelines of
life and waiting for things to happen. She is not one who tries to live life
vicariously through her kids, her husband or her Facebook page. Sharon is one
of those people, to quote Thoreau, who wants to "live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life." (Although
why this imagery is appealing I'll never know.)
The reason the
sharing of her experiences and insights touches people, I believe, is because
there is integrity. (The word integrity comes from the root word integer,
which refers to a "complete entity.") It doesn't mean she's
perfect. What it means is what you see is what you get.
Her life is integrated. She seldom compartmentalizes so she has a
spiritual life disconnected from an emotional life disconnected from a physical
life.
So Sharon is not one
of those whose unexamined life is not worth living. Nor is she one of
those whose unlived life is hardly worth examining. No, Sharon is one of
those rare individuals whose lived life is worth examining. Thank God she's
willing to allow us to do that in her journal entries. And she's been
kind enough to allow me that privilege for almost 40 years.
