Cruise ships are full of activity: meet the Shrek family for breakfast. Learn how to Samba after lunch. Play bingo before dinner. Smoke cigars. Dance to Michael Jackson tunes after the midnight buffet. Shop. Play cards. Join a tournament. Learn how to mix drinks. Watch a movie. Climb a rock wall. Get the picture?
What surprised me about this cruise was the “single and solo travelers'” get together. There was one scheduled each day of my 7 day experience. The place? The bar. Single travelers can’t meet, it seems,
unless they are in a place that serves massive quantities of alcohol. There was no similar gathering for women, the military or hot sauce aficionados. The meetings did not take place in the gym, the theatre or one of the ship’s numerous restaurants. The singles met in the bar.
I did not join the party. I felt too much like a closet anthropologist, watching a species’ habits in order to report on them later.
What do cruise ships, churches, and your maternal grandmother think that all singles want? They all assume that we want to meet other singles—ultimately, so that we won’t remain single. There must be more to the single life than trying to get out of it.
Jesus tells us to come to Him when we are feeling lonely, disconnected and burdened. He promises us that we will find what we need in Him. We won’t get a hook up, but we will learn about ourselves when we seek Him.
Singles, it seems to me, need to feel connected to someone, to something greater, in order to feel alive and valued. We run the risk of being self absorbed and selfish in our interests, in the allocation of our talents, in the use of our gifts and our time. The world desperately needs committed singles. Those of us who do not have children have an almost unlimited amount of time to devote to our soup kitchens, our prisons, our hospitals, our nursing homes. We can reach out to the lonely, the left out and the lost.
Our churches (and our cruise lines) have the right idea about connecting us, but not just to bars. We need to connect to our destiny--and what a glorious adventure that will be.
Bon voyage!
What surprised me about this cruise was the “single and solo travelers'” get together. There was one scheduled each day of my 7 day experience. The place? The bar. Single travelers can’t meet, it seems,
unless they are in a place that serves massive quantities of alcohol. There was no similar gathering for women, the military or hot sauce aficionados. The meetings did not take place in the gym, the theatre or one of the ship’s numerous restaurants. The singles met in the bar.
I did not join the party. I felt too much like a closet anthropologist, watching a species’ habits in order to report on them later.
What do cruise ships, churches, and your maternal grandmother think that all singles want? They all assume that we want to meet other singles—ultimately, so that we won’t remain single. There must be more to the single life than trying to get out of it.
Jesus tells us to come to Him when we are feeling lonely, disconnected and burdened. He promises us that we will find what we need in Him. We won’t get a hook up, but we will learn about ourselves when we seek Him.
Singles, it seems to me, need to feel connected to someone, to something greater, in order to feel alive and valued. We run the risk of being self absorbed and selfish in our interests, in the allocation of our talents, in the use of our gifts and our time. The world desperately needs committed singles. Those of us who do not have children have an almost unlimited amount of time to devote to our soup kitchens, our prisons, our hospitals, our nursing homes. We can reach out to the lonely, the left out and the lost.
Our churches (and our cruise lines) have the right idea about connecting us, but not just to bars. We need to connect to our destiny--and what a glorious adventure that will be.
Bon voyage!
