Thoughts in the night in Brno
#############################

:date: 2006-10-15T00:00:00
:category: faith
:tags: Brno, humility, desertstream

The title is (as usual) totally meaningless, just that I am sitting in
the hotel room in Brno, while being on the orientation training for Red
Hat and I am thinking about what to write here.

Long time went away since I wrote the previous paragraph, but now its
existence comes handy, so I will totally shamelessly misuse it for my
purposes.

These are the thoughts which went to me when I was in Brno for my
official interview with Red Hat and which then continued in the
following weeks when I begun to work for them. Of course my expectations
from Brno were largely influenced by the experience of my father’s ten
years in Brno. However, after ten years spent in the Boston area (and
a year in San Francisco, many years before that), outside of Prague,
I could see that there is a lot of life even in the areas which are not
that beautiful as Prague and even that there are more important things
in life then living in the most beautiful city in the world (which among
other cities certainly includes Prague, but I just couldn’t include
Boston there). I found out that working the job I like, having friends,
etc. is actually much more important than living in Prague. I know that
for the most of you this conclusion seems to be pretty banal, but
flip-side of living in Prague, is that one gets really hooked on its
beauty and is not able to imagine life behind its borders. So I believe
I was coming into Brno with at least slightly more open eyes than could
be expected given my genealogy.

I was thinking then also about my accountability interviews with Chi-Ray
Chien. One of the most important discoveries in my first years of the
Living Waters was to really accept in the depths of my heart, that I am
one of the 250,000 of students in the Boston area and not much more
else. And that it is totally OK to be like that. That I don’t have to be
(and I don’t have to pretend to be) the most exceptional of all scholars
who were walking the face of the Earth. If I will be the best Matěj Cepl
I manage to be and if I stay focused on this goal, then everything is
all right.

After some thinking about what is interesting in Brno and what not,
I saw very clearly that it is actually absolutely and totally the same
as me with being just one of many many students in the Boston. If the
citizens of Brno (and I think, it relates more to the affluent and
influential members of the Brno community—who made my father crazy just
when he hears the sound of the name of the city), so if the citizens of
Brno humbly accept in their hearts the fact, that Brno is one of many (I
don’t know, fifty?) half-million cities in the Europe and nothing more,
than they could suddenly taste freedom in this attitude. And of course,
it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t use all their effort to be the best
Brno they manage to be. It doesn’t mean that I would have anything
against “Husa na provázkur” or abundant supply of culture in Brno per
se. Of course, the question arises who is paying for it and whether it
is not paid from the state money which could be used better in something
else than in paying oversupply of theaters, but that’s different
question. When I am saying that they should accept the fact, that they
are nothing more than one of many half-million cities in Europe, it
means nothing about their effort to be the best half-million city in
Europe (whatever it means).

And yet another thought came immediately after that. That we people of
Prague are in the exactly same situation. Unless we accept the fact that
we are one of many many million-plus cities in Europe, and nothing more,
then we are same idiots we love to hate on people from Brno. Yeah, it
happens, that it is probably one of the most beautiful cities
architecturally in the world, but what does it mean for my life in
Prague else then number of tourists who come here? Yes, I am living in
the very center of Prague and working five minutes walk from home (so
far, we will have to move soon), but what does it mean for things
I found in Boston to be more important for life like my wife and
children, my job, my culture, my church, my calling and ministry in
life? Yes, I like it here (and there is nothing wrong with that), but
necessary answer to the previous question is that nothing fundamental
would change if I had all these things somewhere in the center of
Africa.