Lines of The Times

I’ve been thinking about lines lately. Yes, lines. It may sound odd, but It’s an interesting, and engaging thought and awareness exercise. You’ll find them everywhere.

Lines create chaos, and they create order. They make boundaries not to cross, and also paths to walk. They impose limits yet define infinity. They transport substance across distance, and the straighter sorts find the shortest way. They move things, they halt things. They imprison, and they set free. They define our reality, and our mentality. Their shapes mean something and yet, their meaning shapes something.

A designed line on the sidewalk brings relief to the whole, but an unwanted line in a window is compromise to the whole. Lines of life are thrown to the drowning. Metal lines pointed to the sky gather the lines of lightning. The fuel line on the dash causes such anxiety. The line in the grocery story is none better. The lines of math bring plenty or empty. The line in the sand is the ultimate of division, but the sand in a line is where everyone likes to vacation. We yearn for a straight line, unless it’s a heartbeat.

What of time? Our ancient elders looked to creation's lines of shadow from the sun for its meaning. We’ve now become subservient to artificial lines of our own making. The hands of the clock, the segments of the digital numbers, the equidistant marks of minutes and seconds. As Lewis Mumford noted in Technics and Civilization, the clock lines we’ve idolized as time have made us time keepers, then savers, then servants. The lines of time control everything and demand our constant attention.

Lines are everywhere. It's overwhelming when you start to notice.

Just as physical lines shape our world, the lines we draw in language shape how we speak, feel, and relate. This very conversation between author and reader could not be had. The lines of electricity have carried the lines of my intent beyond my home to your’s on a thousand mile journey through countless buildings, heights, depths, and devices. It has enabled the lines of our thinking to intersect for a brief moment.

The past few weeks, I've noticed so many lines and have taken so many photos. It has been wonderful and terrifying at the same time. Yet, of all the lines I've noticed, there are two that stand out the most. They both consist of a line and a dot – one, the exclamation point, the other, the question mark.

Think of the how their shape mimics the shape of our communication when we use them. Think about the dramatic effects they cause. Two simple lines of language. Both have points. These just might be the most consequential lines of our times.

The exclamation, a proud postured and tall line making its point to the world. So too are we when we exclaim our deepest emotion. We straighten our bodies and our fingers. We stamp our feet or pound our fist on the dot of our idea. Everyone must receive our emphatic announcement. Of course, this is a generalization, and there are cases otherwise. But nonetheless, we know the pride of the exclamation point. The exclamation line rallies those who agree with its point, but oh, how it divides those who don't.

Then comes the question mark. Its shape is not like the exclamation. Its line is bowed over in humility. It doesn’t seek to declare, but to inquire. Its direction is self-examining. Its utterance is of its lack and need of another. Yes, again, this is a generalization as a question of rhetoric can be a prideful exclamation. But, a true mark of asking, curved to itself to examine, while drawing others in to the point, brings us together to understand one another like no other line. This line is most absent in our world.

Listening and asking more questions than making points is a cure for a thousand ails in our culture. I challenge you to use more question marks than exclamation points. I also challenge you to look around, up and down and notice the lines around you in Creation and man-made structures. Then look inward and notice the lines God has put in you for your purpose.