David Blanton (Topic of my Own Choosing)

While on a trip in California (I have mentioned this same trip in other blogs) I became aware of a feeling of disenchantment shared by fellow hitch-hikers and vagabonds. One guy I met outside of a cafe in San Francisco had been having a particularly difficult time. After going up to a festival in Oregon, he had been living life on the road, hitch-hiking and sleeping in abandoned buildings and cheap hostels. A week before I talked to him at the cafe, someone had stolen all of his possessions, leaving him with just the clothes on his back. I gave him some food and directed him to a place where I knew he could get a meal and a sleeping bag, but I knew he needed more than physical shelter. When he came back he began sharing more of his story. More than anything, he admitted that he just wanted to get home and escape the mess he had found himself in. What had started off as an exhilarating adventure with friends to hear some of their favorite music artists ended in the hopeless feeling of being stuck on the side of the road without a ride, without food, and far from home. Unfortunately at the time I couldn't help him much because I had found myself in an equally precarious position. I felt the same feeling of disenchantment with the life of adventure and freedom I had imagined. I felt alone and hopeless instead.

Disenchantment is frequent in spiritual journeys. Elijah was fed by ravens in the middle of a desert and later had to flee for his life after proving the existence of YHWH by calling down fire on a mountain. Disappointed expectations is an understatement. It is humbling and discouraging, wearing on an individual's psyche. Of course, the situation we find ourselves in is less important than our response, for our response is the only thing that we can control in these situations. More than that, we wonder why these events happen?

I wonder why our society (or at least a portion of it) has developed such an idealistic perception of life on the road as a gloriously freeing experience. There are certainly beautiful aspects of escaping some of modern life's demands, but it is surely not as glorious chalked it up to be, especially for the friend I made at the cafe. Have you experienced this feeling of disenchantment? What caused it and how did you respond? Do you have resolution?