Context is Everything

Over this past weekend I attended my 20th high school reunion. Honestly, it has placed me in a rather contemplative mood. There has been much taking stock and self-analyzing introspection, some of which I have had to toss and some of which has actually been pretty healthy.

To my wife (for whom I will not reveal which of her reunions we last attended, mainly because she knows where I sleep, unguarded and defenseless) this was one of the first times she had spent any extended time around this group of people with whom I shared much of my formative youth.

Afterwards, as we were driving away, having spent many hours reliving old war stories and laughing at tales of youth and immaturity (some of which I pray my children never, ever hear about) I asked her for her observations on the day.

“There was a lot of storytelling,” she replied. She went on to explain that at her last reunion (which shall remain numerically unidentified) she and her classmates spent much of their time catching up on life since graduation. They spoke of marriage, kids, careers, etc. With my class, however, we spent the majority of our time simply reliving the tales of a shared childhood, reflecting on a common heritage and experience.

5 random things my wife better understands about me after having attended my 20th reunion:

1. Why I like country music so much. (including why I know the words to every Hank Jr. song ever written.)
2. Why I have a serious aversion to certain beverages.
3. Why I can dance slightly better than the average (suburban, white, PCA) bear. (Thanks Roiant)
4. Why I should never, ever be trusted around unattended, classic muscle cars with keys in the ignition. (Sorry Lee. But, man, that car could fly.)
5. Why I still, after all these years, enjoy watching re-runs of “The Dukes of Hazzard”. (CMT, I owe you a debt of gratitude I could never repay. P.S. my wife hates you.)

What Susie received, as an outsider to this group, was a context which illuminated a greater understanding of the whole. In short, by taking in the greater context, she walked away with a greater understanding of her husband.

A subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood.

Honestly, all of this may completely bore you to death. In reality, however, acknowledging the relationship between right context and right understanding is vital to our overall comprehension of, well, pretty much everything.

Coming up next: I will attempt the intellectual, acrobatic high-wire act of connecting the above, quasi-ridiculous article with a somewhat more serious discussion of how an inadequate comprehension of Biblical context has led to an incomplete understanding of and application of the Gospel.