Attachment and Detachment
This is hastily written during a lunchbreak, and hopefully I will be able to return to it this evening and spell it out more (last night no internet service). But a quick read shows that Therese is really on track in the comments below.
Let me try to spell out attachment and detachment with an analogy.
I went out to my front yard this morning and saw six snow-white ibises strutting their way across the more-brown-than-green St. Augustine turf searching for food.
Let's first turn to attachment. Attachment says, "Oh, aren't they lovely, let me build a cage so I can always have six ibises on my front yard."
On the other hand, let us start with what detachment is NOT. It is not saying, "so what?" and then turning away and ignoring them, as it might seem to be. That is indifference, and, if not a sin, at least an imperfection. On the other hand detachment is, "Glory be to God for snow-white Ibis." And then, when they walk or soar away, we soar away with them, thankful for a brief moment, a "consolation" if you will from God, who sent us a message of the beauty of creation.
This is, admittedly, inept and rapid, please forgive me, but I will try to say more later. Though, the comments that are being made with respect to this are so profound and astute, I'm pleased to think that I probably won't need to say much.
But I do wish to further address Tom's concern in the comments below. Thanks for the great discussion everyone!
