COMMENTARY 

MARK SCHUMANN

As a student at Columbia Seminary in the late 1980s, I was fortunate to study under Walter Brueggemann, a leading Old Testament scholar.  Lately, I’ve been thinking of professor Brueggemann’s frequent reminders that the exodus experience is not unique to the Hebrews. We are all, Brueggemann says, alternately moving through states of orientation, disorientation and some new alignment.

When Brueggemann first proposed his paradigm, he spoke of the third stage as “reorientation.” But that term, he concluded, suggests that after working through major life changes, we are ultimately consigned to the same frame of mind and the same level of consciousness. Because he holds out hope for personal growth and change, Brueggemann began to speak of “new orientation.”

Take a leap of faith, or risk something on behalf of the Universe, as the New Agers put it, and you will never be the same. Open a business, commit to something larger than yourself, join with someone in marriage, replant yourself in a different community, embark on a new career, and you will be forever changed. These are just some of the many disorienting experiences of our lives.  Yes, we do always seem to come out on the other side, but we emerge, or are resurrected, as new creations.

Having just moved with my wife, Cheri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I am feeling about up to my sore shoulder in disorientation. At least a part of what has thrown me off, I hate to admit, has been going without reliable Internet service and cell phone coverage for nearly three weeks.

From time to time over the past few weeks, I have managed to remind myself that limited access to modern means of communication is, at least in the short term, as much a blessing as it is an inconvenience.

To be sure, going nearly three weeks without regular Internet access has limited my contributions to Inside Vero. But then, surely there are at least a few readers who have taken my silence as a welcome respite. As the Chinese sages ask, “Who’s to know what’s bad or good?”

Still largely disoriented, I am at least back in business – for now. I am receiving and posting community news, updating the current obituaries, catching up on Vero Beach news and planning for our next print edition, which will be out July 17.

Last night, Cheri and I watched for the first time Oprah Winfrey’s weekly program, “Super Soul Sunday.” Oprah interviewed Anne Lamott, an author of 27 books.  The courageously candid Lamott’s latest book is titled, “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Tree Essential Prayers.”

I appreciate and can resonate with Lamott’s message, especially given my current state of discombobulation. Last Thursday, I took my mountain bike out on the trail that passes behind our new home in Santa Fe. Less than a mile from our house, I went down a gully and over the handlebars.  I landed on my head and right shoulder, the same shoulder I dislocated a few years ago. I am sore, but nothing seems torn or broken.

Here I go again over the handlebars. Help!

I could have broken my neck but didn’t. Thanks!

Early this morning, my wife and I took a hike and caught yet another beautiful sunrise over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Wow!

Wherever I find myself – oriented, disoriented, or settling into some new orientation — I hope I can remember to keep saying “Help,” “Thanks,” and “Wow,” especially “Wow!”