The Corner

Work of the People: Author Brian McLaren discusses art, propaganda, and the worship industry

wikipedia defines worship as:

specific acts of religious praise, honour, or devotion, typically directed to a supernatural being such as a god or goddess. It is the informal term in English for what sociologists of religion call cultus, the body of practices and traditions that correspond to theology

and industry as:

the segment of economy concerned with production of goods

this video (available for free, appropriate enough) gets at the cheap manipulation that worship can so often fall into, the way that sentiment can be manipulated and devotion conjured

hat tip to Work of the People (via Jay V, via this email) an incredible collective which draws it name appropriately enough from:

Lit.ur.gy. noun. pl. liturgies. From the Greek word λειτουργια, (transliterated, “leitourgia”) meaning “the work of the people.” Liturgy may refer to, or include, elaborate formal rituals or simple daily activity. Liturgy unites the Christian Church; the Church comes together around liturgy to express its nature as a faithful and distinct people. Film in particular is one form of an emerging visual liturgy. Media has the ability to unite the Church, to tell stories shared by the Church, to mark the Church as distinct. The Church’s task is to create and share in liturgy. This is the work of the people.

Everything is Miscellaneous Talk @ Google Tech Talk

                 

If you have not had the chance to read David Weinberger's new book everythingismiscellaneous, this Google Tech Talk covers much of the high points. Weinberger explains how methods of categorization designed for physical objects fail when we can instead put things in multiple categoreis at once, and search them in many ways. This is no dry book on taxonomy, but has the insight and wit you'd expect from the author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and a former writer for Woody Allen.

Memorial Day 2007: Arlington West

 

While we were in Santa Barbara, we spent some time during the day & evening at Arlington West, a memorial that Santa Barbara Veterans for Peace have been hosting since 2003.  These organizers intend this to be:

a place to mourn, reflect, contemplate, grieve, and meditate, to honor and acknowledge those who have lost their lives, and to reflect upon the costs of war

It was literally right across the street from the hotel we were staying in, so we passed it by 6 or 7 times a day.  Spending time at this memorial was extremely moving - the anonymity of the American soldiers who have sacrificed for this war was especially emotional.  Here are some of my photos:

If you wanted to look at the ocean, you had to look thru this memorial.  It struck me just how easy it has become to look away from this war.  It also struck me that the only way to view the horizon - the future that our kids will inherit from us - is thru the burnt soil of violence & hatred that we live in right now.

As I reflected on this today, I was moved by a line from a Litany by Rev. Patricia Pearce, pastor of Tabernacle Church, Philadelphia  (full text below):

As we cast these ashes into the troubled water of our times, Transforming One, hear our plea that by your power they will make fertile the soil of our future and by your mercy nourish the seeds of peace.

contextless links

 

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Conservative religious leaders dominate media coverage. Below, a chart comparing media coverage of the top 10 most widely covered conservative (red) and progressive (blue) religious leaders:

From Burps Liberty

Subversion isn’t a marketing tool. It’s a path to change. We can’t lose site of that.

~ tara hunt

On Telling My Story

From panta rhei

Yesterday, I spent 30 minutes on the phone doing something I rarely do - telling my story.  One of the parts of me I can not quite sit with is that I prone to speeding out from who I am, running as fast as I can from the parts of my story that are un-resolved, scary or embarrass me.

The person who listened to my rambling did something that is just as unique - they engaged.  Too often in our go-go world, I find myself (and most of the world I live in) listening to talk back, processing data in a rush to generate a reply.  A story depends just as much on the listener as it does on the story-teller - in this case, the listener gave me a wonderful gift in their presence.

I thought of all this again last night as I read this piece in the NYT Science section This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It) By BENEDICT CAREY (full text below).  The truth in what these researchers have found gives me hope to inch out a bit more on this branch of telling my story:

By better understanding how life stories are built, this work suggests, people may be able to alter their own narrative, in small ways and perhaps large ones.

“When we first started studying life stories, people thought it was just idle curiosity — stories, isn’t that cool?” said Dan P. McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern and author of the 2006 book, “The Redemptive Self.” “Well, we find that these narratives guide behavior in every moment, and frame not only how we see the past but how we see ourselves in the future.”

MAKER FAIRE 2007: enthusiasm unleashed

One of the things that I've never gotten used to in my 10 years in the Bay Area is the cool remove that most people take as their default affect.   People wear this cool remove like a black t-shirt from Banana Republic, following the other hipsters in a tour that stays above the fray.

Growing up in Texas, then living in New York for a while, I am used to people being more comfortable with enthusiasm, rather than holding back.  You never have to wonder what someone from the Bronx or West Texas is passionate about - they traffic in their excitement just as surely as they move about in a cab or pick-up truck.

This weekend I spent a big portion of Saturday and Sunday about a sort of support group for enthusiasm, for people whose zeal can actually approach a mix of frenzy & joy.  We went to MAKER FAIRE 2007,  a gathering that exceeds its own hype as an event that "celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset." 

Here are two loops I've assembled, trying to give you a feel for it:

Walking around, soaking up the craft and hand work of people's passions, I was reminded of a quote from that male tear-jerker Field of Dreams :

Shoeless Joe Jackson: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: No, it's Iowa.

I've been in festivals or gatherings like this before - Greenbelt comes to mind - where for a moment, that thin membrane between heaven & earth seems to vanish, where the enthusiasm is so thick you can smell.  In history,  an enthusiast is a person possessed by a God.  I met a lot of those folks this weekend - robot hackers, craft mafia members, renegade book-binders, knitting drummers, even a human-powered, nose-picking spectacle.

It may be Iowa or heaven - it really does not matter.  I've smelled the enthusiasm  - I can not wait for the MAKER FAIRE 2007 in my soon-to-be hometown Austin on Oct. 20 & 21, 2007 at the Travis County Fairgrounds.

Welcoming Poverty into our Stories

From camera_rwanda

For far too long, our prosperity mindset has pushed poverty & homelessness out of our vision of what we should care about.  When I last lived in Texas, out then Senator Phil Gramm was fond of saying that "those in the wagon
should get out and help the rest of us pull the wagon". Sigh...

So it makes my soul soar to read this:

After years as 'dirty word,' poverty a campaign issue again

As this weaves into our stories again, welcoming in the stranger we have shut out - I rememebr the word of  Dr René Padilla:

“Poverty is powerlessness. It is about people being unable to meet their basic human needs. Most often this is due to a lack of opportunity in a society marked by oppression and injustice which has led to disempowerment. The poor and the non-poor are created in the image of God. They are designed to grow into mature human beings able to meet their own socioeconomic, personal, social, cultural and spiritual needs. Poverty is powerlessness to fulfil that God-give role.”

This weekend, I could not shake it.  Fear sticks to you like discarded gum on hot asphalt.

We live in an orderly place - you can depend on that when you choose to reside in a suburb.  Our local community had its annual celebration - Hometown Days - this weekend.  A parade of public schools, community leaders and goofy artifacts of being together - clowns, bands and the Lion's Club.

Cancer is a disease of disorder - at the cell level, things stop working the way they are meant to.  My friend is healthy, he is kind, he is the type of fellow who coaches your kid's soccer team or gives you a ride to the airport.  He and  his wife have adopted twice - given the kind of parents they are, they should probably adopt 20 kids.

Order fears disorder.  The very idea of it threatens what order brings.

I am scared - for my friend and his family.  I should not be - hope is something we can hold for one another.

But I can not shake the fear.

contextless links

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Steely Dan - The Making of "Peg"
Make your own Pope hat
 Coolest Workspace Contest: Battle of the organizers - Lifehacker
DevilDucky - Family Guy: Republican Talking Points
Pursue the Passion
 Psychology Today: Field Guide to the Loner: The Real Insiders
Threat Alert Jesus
 The Nine Biggest Myths of the Workplace by Penelope Trunk

To Remake the World by Paul Hawken:

Inspiration is not garnered from litanies of what is flawed; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. Healing the wounds of the Earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party. It is not a liberal or conservative activity. It is a sacred act.