Age of anxiety

After Matthew 6:25-34 

You see the ads on television,

momentary flashes across the screen,

the ones for the new car, the vacation,

the diet soda, the prescription drug

(fine print mentioned breathlessly),

all aimed at desire, at parting you

from your money or your vote.

You nod or shrug or smile or frown

and the vision gives way to desire,

meets the reality of what’s in the bank,

gives way to a new burst of desire, and

you see the wife and kids sigh over

the promise of a vacation and reality

gives way to the slight sense of anxiety

over what might happen if you don’t

get that vacation, new car, diet soda, 

or prescription (with its fire-hose

description of the fine print), and how

the lives of your family will constrict,

and so you wonder if you can afford

a loan (interest rates are low, after all)

on top of the car payment and

the mortgage and the rise in the price

of groceries and everything else,

that electric bill just took a hefty jump,

and you really need to make

that credit card payment but, oh man,

that vacation would be fantastic, and

then you hear your son say, “Dad,

can we go throw the football?”

 

Photograph by Kasper Rasmussen via Unsplash. Used with permission.