Comments on: ★ Bowling for Mediocrity

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:04:18 +0000

I see some ways this can be related to the church today. The lack of desire and motivation, the refusal to scrap old ways of thinking and priorities, and the avoidance of the discomfort in learning new things. Hmmm. There might just be a blog post lurking.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:05:00 +0000

Woody – yes i like your statement that just because something sort of works doesn’t mean that its right. That’s just the problem with most things. They work just well enough to convince us to think that its a good idea to keep doing them. If we don’t think critically about our lives, we’ll just keep on getting by with things that aren’t so bad, they’re just not good enough.

Wezlo – yes, agreed that most of us aren’t waking up wondering how we can be mediocre. But, i know in my life i am well aware of a lot of the ways i am willfully giving into being mediocre.

By: wezlo

wezlo — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:59:10 +0000

Yup, Epicurean Philosophy has won the day. Heck, even the exercise and fitness kick that folks are into are all about the avoidance of pain. I never hear about people wanting to get in shape so they are able to be a blessing in the world.

I’m not sure it’s willful mediocrity as it is a willful attempt to, as I said, “avoid pain.” People are willing to go far enough to develop a reasonable cathartic bubble around their lives – and then bounce around in them. They didn’t wake up and say, “You know, I want to be mediocre the rest of my life!” The looked at the world and said, “How can I be ‘safe?’”

By: Woody

Woody — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:32:47 +0000

Interesting article, and so true, i do think bowling as hard as you can is a macho thing, and we try to do it becuase we figure, just maybe with the right amount of violent crashing we will somehow knock all the balls down….doesn’t work, and now that we are older, it just hurts.

I do like the correlation, that we have gotten stuck in a rut of i do it this way so it must be good, maybe not the best way, or even the right way, but it sort of works. The truth is though that just because something sort of works doesn’t mean it’s right, i think we all need to spend time learning to do life right, relationships, priorities, spirituality, all these things are important and we should take the time to learn how to do them right, not just hope that the same old way will work.

i also think it speaks to our selfish lazy behavioral patterns, we dont want to put any effort into something that is not instantly gratifying.