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The Year of Living Superficially

July 5, 2011 By rutheverhart 5 Comments

All of my life I have been “deep.” When I was in high school, people would say to me, “You’re really deep” and I took that as a compliment. Then I went to college and seminary and became a minister. Being a minister is a deep profession. You deal with the serious, the profound. You attend to the meaning, which is to say the fundamental thing that lies beneath other things. You hear stories of crisis and offer up a prayer. You listen deeply and make careful suggestions. When you choose music, you are often creating a soundtrack for the serious events of life: baptisms, ordinations, funerals. When you choose movies, you are often looking for dramas that probe the meaning of life and offer up helpful fodder for sermons.

All of that is good.

But change is good too. And there is more to me than depth! I can be superficial too.

So I have decided to embark on a Year of Living Superficially. To that end, I have:

~ deleted all the serious titles from my Netflix queue and replaced them with comedies

~ resolved not to listen to music by serious old dudes (think Bruce Cockburn, Steven Stills, Gordon Lightfoot) or serious young chicks (think Lucinda Williams or Patti Griffin) or, for that matter, music by serious young dudes or serious old chicks

~ resolved to quit reading any book that is not enjoyable

Let’s see if I can do it!

Send along other suggestions that will help me lighten up, would you?

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Beth says

    July 11, 2011 at 9:57 am

    I love this, too (and I’m sure Lucinda Williams would love being called young ;-). I bet once you’ve skated lightly for a year, you’ll plunge even deeper when you take a dive.

    Reply
  2. Jules says

    July 8, 2011 at 9:29 am

    I stopped wearing my “serious” clothes. The first thing of this nature I did was throw out all my pantihose. Bought yoga pants and fuzzy slippers. (It was winter in the upper midwest.)

    Reply
  3. Susan says

    July 5, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Oh no! I just sent you an e-mail about participating in something serious!! But it could just as easily be fun, silly, and superficial too! I am a big fan of all three….

    Reply
  4. Laura says

    July 5, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    I love this, Ruth, and wish you well. I have not been quite so *intentional* about leaving behind depth for a while, but I have certainly done so. Maybe the opposite of deep is not superficial, but light. As in, not heavy. But also as in, sunny! So maybe you are embarking on a year of living lightly. Whatever, enjoy!

    Reply
    • rutheverhart says

      July 6, 2011 at 7:57 am

      Laura, I like the word “lightly” as opposed to “superficially” very much. I may indeed use this idea. My image is of a water-skeeter as opposed to, say, a fish.

      Reply

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