When I was in middle school, I remember being exposed to several things for the first time that I had previously been kept away from. One of these things was R-rated movies, the other was secular music. Come to think of it, I can’t quite disagree with the conservative mentality my parents had in raising their children. One of the first times I heard rap from Eminem, it hit me in a unique kind of way; with the F-word not being a part of my vocabulary, it was even less something that I heard in the music I listened to. Looking back, it really surprised me at the quantity of profanity he was able to fit into a single sentence while still carrying on a beat.
Growing older, I have realized just how desensitized life has made me to some of these minor details. I once heard a sermon from a youth pastor about the harms of being desensitized to the world. At that time, I didn’t quite understand it because I was still very sensitve to the things that should have made me cringe inside. Even to this day, my mother still cringes when she hears certain colorful words. Being older, I can now appreciate the significance of the fact that she still hurts hearing words that ought never be uttered out of our mouths.
One can only wonder what our lives would look like had we never stepped into the zone of comfort with that which we ought not be comfortable with. How would our world look if maritial infidelity were seen for the harmful weapon it is, or racial injustice seen as human rights violation rather than a social issue, abortion seen as the slaughter it is rather than ‘choice’.
We’ve come quite far.
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