Therese. Some call her a saint. I think she looks fairly normal.

Therese of Lisieux.  Called a saint by the Catholics (and perhaps some others).  Known as the "Little Flower."  And I'm not sure how I feel about her.

Shortly after arriving here and being granted a library card, I checked out a biography about Little Miss Therese.  (Not trying to be sacreligious here -- just thought it sounded appropriate.)  Having some background on her from previous study and conversation, I knew the gist of her "mantra", if you will, which was, primarily, to be little or unknown.

So, I won't delve in too much to what I perceived as a sort of spiritual masochism (because, let's face it -- she lived during the height of the Victorian era...), but rather focus on perhaps the one bit of her life that, if taken with a grain of salt, might be useful (to me.)

Let's start with a simple situation.

As per their definition, cities are crowded places.  This means that there are a lot of people having to co-exist in a relatively small area.  For example, walking down the street, one typically attempts to move out of the way when another person is approaching from the opposite direction.  (In the States, that means you veer toward the right, typically.  Here, I'm not sure.  We try going to the left, but it doesn't seem to help.  This dilemma should probably wait for another entry.)  However, as I'm sure happens in most cities these days, a person cannot walk anywhere without having to dodge between and around other citizens who are fully engaged in their personal hand-held devices whilst also trying to get somewhere.  I cannot count the number of times I have been trying to get out of the way for these technozombies, and yet they still manage to practically run me over.

So, here's where Little Miss T comes in.  If she were still around today, I think her perception (in a slightly perverse way) would be that it was a gift that either a) she got plowed down by a technozombie, b) had to take 10 steps out of her way to allow for technozombie to pass, or c) that in her attempt to get out of the way of technozombie, she stepped into a busy street and got nicked by a double decker bus (and broke her arm.)  She would likely say that she counted this experience as joy, because she was made little or invisible.

This simple situation takes place daily in my life.  Truth be told, I might have let one or two people run into me, in a sort of "serves you right" mentality.  Then there are other times when I move out of the way when I just get peeved, but then feel a little guilty, because maybe I should count it as joy to be "serving" others by considering them to be the "least of these."

Maybe I'm taking this all too far and it's not really a spiritual matter.  Anyone have any thoughts?