The Scenery of Sameness: Find Joys in Unexpected Places

I was reading some of Malcolm Guite’s work, where he lamented the sameness of American housing and hotels when he came to North America. I can only imagine the imprecations of a poet when receiving the same gray-carpeted reception everywhere he goes. Malcolm may wish to consider the lovely Airbnbs spread around the country with delightful scenery and an array of colors enough to satisfy a poet’s wishes.

But it was his reference to Chesterton that caught my attention. The rotund Catholic satirist observed that “an inconvenience is simply an adventure wrongly considered.” Paul was already in this business when he wrote to the Ephesians that wisdom guides you to redeem the time. The redemption of time means that inconveniences don’t exist. If you find yourself stuck at a mechanic shop for an additional hour, is that an inconvenience or an opportunity to learn, grow, and walk in wisdom (Eph. 5)? Is our Calvinism so cold and stale?

I told a friend recently that one of my hobbies in 2022 was exploring airport restaurants. It was unmistakably the busiest year of my life, but we managed to enjoy so many great scenes and view those “inconveniences” as opportunities to explore new foods, visit new places, and use the sameness of places as a temporary headquarter of rest. I have tried to remember the fascinating conversations I had with people on airplanes and at conferences. Though there was a sense of repetitiveness in many of my traveling rituals, the new things I learned, the stories I listened to, and the music we sang heightened the whole experience.

This may be why there are hymns for travel in the Christian tradition. Think of the 6th-century poem, “Be Thou My Vision,” an ode to the God who sees all things. The hymn-writer asks that God would provide meaning in all his doings, that he would reshape his priorities (“Thou and thou only, first in my heart…”). Perhaps God gives us “inconveniences” to train us to walk in his wisdom and word.

We can find newness wherever we are, rightly considering our places. We can always find adventures in inconvenient places. We can redeem the time in unexpected ways, even if surrounded by the scenery of sameness.