WHAT WE'RE READING LATELY

July 25, 2024

Michael and I are thoroughly loving Mike Mason’s new book, Same Old, Same New: The Consolation of the Ordinary. Mike, a Canadian, says he doesn’t write books - he writes sentences. It’s rich and thought provoking, especially in a time where most souls need a slow down and reset.

 

Here’s a snippet from Chapter 74 on SUFFERING.

 

Life is amazing. And then, it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary . . . And it’s breathtakingly beautiful. ~ L.R. Knost

To really appreciate the ordinaries, we must take a hard look at the hard things in our lives, for what is hardest is the very fact of their ordinariness. If we have a common disease like cancer, how can we pretend to be better than anyone else?

If we can’t sleep at night, how can we make anything special of our days? If we lose our job, how can we contribute something important to the world?

Nothing is more ordinary than suffering. From the outside, suffering may sometimes appear dramatic, but on the inside it is plain as dirt. Its very plainness is part of what makes it painful. Suffering reduces us to the humiliation of being lumped with the masses. Everyone suffers, but when it is our turn we think, Why is this happening to me? Haven't my good life and my faith distinguished me, earning me a reprieve from trials? Apparently not. It galls us to have to suffer like anyone else, and the galling is part of the suffering, indeed perhaps the worst part. The real tragedy of any ordeal is that we don't want to be having it.