Why did I name this blog “Rebelling Against Indifference”? Because it is one of the maxims by which I try to live my life.
When I first heard the phrase “rebel against your own indifference” being tossed around about two years ago, it caught my attention. When www.relevantmagazine.com created a t-shirt with that phrase on the front, I immediately bought one.
I did some research to find out where it came from and found it originated (at least in recent memory) with Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a prophet for our generation, who uttered it during the 2001 Commencement address of Harvard University. Here is the relevant part of his speech:
Music was like an alarm clock for me as a teenager and still keeps me from falling asleep in the comfort of my freedom.
Rock music to me is rebel music. But rebelling against what? In the Fifties it was sexual mores and double standards. In the Sixties it was the Vietnam War and racial and social inequality. What are we rebelling against now?
If I am honest, I’m rebelling against my own indifference. I am rebelling against the idea that the world is the way the world is and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. So I’m trying to do a damned thing.
So why did I name my blog “Rebelling Against Indifference”? Because I want to be someone who gives a damn. I want to live every day remembering I can change things, I don’t have to sit back and watch the world go by. I can help address social concerns, such as hunger and disease and lack of clean water. I can continue to grow in every area of my life; I don’t have to grow complacent. I don’t have to let my spiritual life become stagnant but can continue to seek the truth, can “hunger and thirst after righteousness”.
What about you? If you were asked to state the philosophies by which you live your life, what would you say?
My philosophy: live like a pirate. Dress up in yer pirate garb and run around with a machete in your hand, chopping anything you find and yell “ARGH! I’m a pirate!” at everyone you see.
There’s a deeper meaning behind that. Anyone wanna guess?
Can’t figure out the pirate thing…But I think probably the biggest plank in my eye is indifference…but how do you take it out? I can give some money away, I can volunteer here and there, I Know I need to care, really care, but I don’t know how…or is it I don’t really want to?
I would say we don’t really want to care. It’s so much easier just to talk about it, and maybe volunteer once or twice a year to placate our conscience.
So how do we start? Maybe by actually starting, by letting our lives be interrupted, by allowing ourselves to be inconvienced. So try to go out this week and do something. Pretend for a moment that the gospel is truly relevant and applicable to our daily lives, and try to show it to others.