Because I Can

Normally, I would be sitting in my Old Testament Criticism class right now. However, it is Thanksgiving Break, which means that today I have a (gasp!) free day! I have been sorely in need for a day like this for some time, because since Labor Day, I think, I have had to either work or go to class every day. The various obligations in my life have used up all my time and have dictated the way that I spend each day. But today is different. Today I could wake up and think "This day is mine; from this moment until I go to bed today, I can do whatever I want."

About a year and a half ago, I moved to Cincinnati. This is the first time that I have lived in a major city, and I was very excited to come because I really like cities. I especially like the "downtown feel" of major cities, and whenever I visit one, I like walking the sidewalks and looking up at the buildings and seeing the people. Since I moved to Cincinnati, though, I never actually went downtown (except to go to Reds games). I guess I always felt weird about taking a trip downtown. I wouldn't know what to do there, and I hate to pay for parking.

But on this day of unlimited possibilities, I decided it was time to mix things up and head to downtown Cincinnati for the afternoon. And it's been a really good day, to be honest. I walked around for a bit, visiting the giant bronze fountain the stands at the center of the city. I went to a burger place I had heard about to get lunch, only to discover it was closed down, so I instead ate at a burrito place nearby. I watched all of the white-collar business professionals scurrying about--the men in their slacks and ties, and the women in their skirts and heels--and I thought about how to them, I probably look like a Caulfieldesque vagabond. I walked around the outside of Great American Ballpark, where my beloved Reds play during the summertime, and I hoped to play a game of catch with Joey Votto if I bumped into him, bu the wasn't around. I sat on a bench in a park that sits on the Ohio River and read for an hour or two. I did the same thing at a riverfront park when I lived in Oregon for a summer, and it was nice to be in an environment with a similar feel, though there were a lot less hippies wandering around.

As I sat on that bench reading, I looked across the river into Kentucky and saw a Barnes & Noble on the other side. So after a while, I thought, "I should walk over to that Barnes and Noble and look around." But then my more rational side questoined that proposal. "Why would I do that? Do I really need to?" And the answer was, "No...I don't have to. But I can."

So now I'm sitting in that Barnes & Noble, sipping a Starbucks Chai Latte and looking out the window at downtown Cincinnati, reflecting on an afternoon that has been perhaps a little aimless, but that has been needed. I had no real reason to venture downtown among the office buildings busy people making the world run on their smartphones. But I came...because I can.

I think that from time to time, we all need to do something, just because we can. It's a shame that those opportunities don't come up more frequently for most of us. When you're a little kid, you have an imagination and you dream of endless possibilities of adventures you can go on, but you can't, because you're parents won't let you be out too late. When you exit that phase of life and become an adult, you finally gain that independence from parents' restrictions  but then you have work-obligations in their place. And when you get old and retire, you have freedom from the responsibilities of work, but you're aging body doesn't allow you to do what you once could.

You spend so much of your life bound to other things that determine what you can and can't do. There are so few occasions in which you can say, "I'm doing this, just because I can." And when those rare occasions do come, I think we need to take advantage of them. What I find happening in my own life far too often is that, when I do have some real free time at my disposal, I tend to waste it. I sit on the couch and watch reruns. I get stuck in routines instead of doing something new.

I think God makes us to be dreamers and to be adventurers. But so many times, we settle for being much less than that. We get caught up in the routines and in what we're used to instead of exploring something new. We lose that childlike wonder at what undiscovered amusements the world might hold. It is too rare that we set out and say, "I'm going to do this, just because I can."

I've really enjoyed today. I need more days like this. And maybe you do as well. And so, before my laptop battery dies, and before I begin the lengthy hike back to the parking garage that is housing my car, I want to leave you with a simple encouragement: When you get those brief windows of time that you are free from the obligations on your time, do something different. Go to a new place. Meet new people. Try a new restaurant. Date a new blogger.

Why? Simply because you can.