Oases of Sanity

Monday Devotion

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.”

Psalm 1:3

Thanks to the hospitality of the Hawthorne Gospel Church in Hawthorne, New Jersey, Lisa and I got to spend two days in New York City without the kids.  Since we had already visited the city with our children, we were able to do more “grown-up” things.  Lisa wanted to find some “funky shops”; we thought we should take in a Broadway or off-Broadway play and eat at some exotic ethnic restaurants.

Even though I’ve been to New York several times, it’s hard to get used to Times Square, particularly at night.  There’s a desperate grab for your attention, and the tacky commercialism hits you from all directions.  At night, eighty-foot video advertisements shine on buildings, gigantic billboards light up, and 3-D sculptures hawk the latest cell phones and cars.  Then there are the eccentric people, such as the colorfully dressed religious groups passing out literature, or the “Naked Cowboy”—a guy who wears barely legal briefs, covered by his guitar, and charges you to have your picture taken with him (we politely declined).

We attended two plays, one of which at the time was considered to be the best and biggest play on Broadway.  Everybody we talked to said, “If you’re going to see only one play, you need to see this one.”  We saw it—and we felt shocked at its raunchiness.  As people filed out of the theater, raving over the performance. We thought we were living in a world where everything had been turned upside down.  “Are we really that out of touch?” we asked each other.