St. Maximos' Hut

A recent visit to the island of Nevis (part of St. Kitts and Nevis) gave me a chance to reflect on the nature of our goal-oriented society. Nevis is a small island (about 32 sq. miles) with about 10,000 people living on it. Things move at a slow pace and many people there have a relaxed attitude toward life. It's a beautiful place (also home to what the locals claim is the oldest church in the Americas and the first church built specifically for blacks and whites to worship together, although the blacks invited into the latter were the slaves of the builder) and it is easy to see why it might be tempting to experience life at a slower pace.

By comparison, American life seems frenetic. We're always striving to do more (earn more money, accomplish another project, etc.)

Now, I certainly didn't notice people in Nevis devoting their leisure to, say, Bible study. (It's possible that there was a lot of that going on, along with the more visible activity of sitting on the beach with a beer - maybe those people had all memorized lots of Scripture and were trading quotes or something). But it's not clear to me that a life with more time spent contemplating the beauty of God's creation, which is evident all around us, even in North East Ohio, isn't better than a race to get all the things on our to-do list done.