Made You Look

Last updated on: March 2, 2024 at 3:55 pm by Fred Wooden

Made You Look 2024-03-02T15:55:01-05:00 Fred Wooden

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Call it bait and switch or just click bait, but a whole lot of the internet wants to say, “Made you look!” I am as susceptible as anyone, but resist and resent the idea that more likes and looks and clicks are what a blog is for. Sure, without an audience, what good is it? But is building the audience itself the point?

A Drop of Water in the Comprehensive Ocean

No doubt the internet and its children – blogs, vlogs, grams, toks – are primarily a kind of business; and business needs customers, and since time immemorial business needed to ‘make you look’ in order to sell. I get that.

But is this what Pilgrim Life is about? This blog has a very small readership because I am not adroit at making people look. For me Marley's Ghost — Thomas Raven the business aspect is but ‘a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean’ as Marley’s Ghost put it. Here, let me quote at length:

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge… “Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Let’s Get Wet

My first pilgrim walk was in 2012 across England, along the route of Hadrian’s Wall. It was early autumn and the weather was lovely, at first. Three days in, it rained, a lot. I had a raincoat, but if you are outdoors long enough in the rain you will get wet.

Fred in Israel Feb 4 2023

Fred pondering big wet rock he has to climb

I discovered something then, and on every walking pilgrimage I have taken: after 20 minutes you cannot get wetter. I also discovered that you can still walk. Which I have done in Spain and Peru and Michigan and New Mexico (snow that time) and Japan and France and Israel.

Pilgrim Life is to get wet, literally but also in the sense of entering the comprehensive ocean that is life. Contrary to the culture exemplified by “Made you look,” meaning pay attention to me, Pilgrim Life is to vanish into the comprehensive ocean, to do the looking not be the one looked at.

Of course, we cannot do that all the time. We have to look at things – work, bills, family, chores – but these are mere drops of water in the comprehensive ocean.

I have a bowl on my desk with pebbles from many of the places I have been. These remind of the times I was in the comprehensive ocean, especially when the drops seem to be more important.

So yes, look. I want to make you look, but not at me or this blog, but all around. Allow yourself to get thoroughly wet with the comprehensive ocean of life. For me, that requires getting up and going out. I cannot say what that is for you, but go find it. And when you get there, say hi for me.

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About W. Frederick Wooden

Fred (technically Weldon Frederick) Wooden is a late life author, because he spent over forty years as a clergyman in six churches spread over five states. While doing that he wrote sermons and columns and wondered if any of it would matter in the long run. His notes from various travels, short stories written for fun, a memoir that morphed into a novel, a year of writing haiku as a spiritual exercise, are all ripening into books now that he has more time to edit and revise. You can read more about the author here.

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