Catcher ...

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22, spoken by the character Holden Caulfield

The first time I read this book was back in Delhi when my dear (playwright)  friend Nicholas Karkonger, whom I deeply love, gifted me this book on my 20th Bday. It changed the way I viewed life, art and people forever.

The story as some of us know, is in a narrative of Holden Caulfield and his dissatisfied, messed up if I dare say messed up life and how it slowly progresses as he finds meaning and purpose in life. 

There are a thousand ways to interpret this infamous quote, by Holden or rather by Salinger, but now, with just 3 weeks left to graduate from "Seminary" I realise that yes- this is what I've always wanted, and what I will be doing, and what I hope to do, with the one life that I have. Perhaps through theology, perhaps through the arts, perhaps through life, but yes this made sense, and it has a purpose and a meaning. It is profound and aligns with the Nazareth manifesto we find in Luke 4:16, and Isaiah 61:1.

I want to be that 'Catcher' in a huge field where there are thousands of crazy youths playing around, with no one around to guide, lead, or hold them. And if they are going to fall or jump off the 'cliff' and are running towards the 'cliff' I want to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I want to do- just be the catcher.