The Corner

Pay Attention: a hope for more anthropology, less theology & marketing

Growing up in churchianity, I have spent a lot of time listening to discussion of theology and even more time discussing marketing.  I wish we could all take a fast from theology & marketing discussions in faith communities, and instead pay attention to anthropology:

 

image from  Trout Fishing in America

Anthropology is the study of human beings, in all places and at all times.  It is an irony to me of churchianity that the machine we have built often pays more attention to numbers or message or models than it does to human beings.

The Anthropologist is one of the three learning personas from the Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces Of Innovation.  In this sensational book, Kelley talks about some of the capacities of an anthropologist:

Anthropologists practice the Zen principle of “beginner’s mind.”
The anthropologist is, “unusually willing to set aside what they ‘know,’ looking past tradition and even their own preconceived notions. They have the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind.”

Anthropologists embrace human behavior with all its surprises
“They don’t judge, they observe. They empathize. Lifelong students of human behavior develop a genuine love of watching and talking to people…”

Anthropologists draw inferences by listening to their intuition.
“Anthropologists are not afraid to draw on their own instincts when developing hypotheses about the emotional underpinnings of observed human behavior.”

Anthropologists are willing to search for clues in the trash bin.
“The anthropologist looks for insights where they are least expected…even in the garbage, if that’s where learning is to be found. They look beyond the obvious, and seek inspiration in unusual places.”

This is compelling to me - and it is the polar opposite of what we expect when we raise up and train someone to take on a leadership role in a faith community.

Raise Your Voice: We are at risk of missing global targets to improve life in the poorest nations

The G20 summit begins in London tomorrow (April 1st) and carries thru the 2nd.  The most powerful men & women in the world will meet to try to reach a consensus on how to solve the global economic crisis.  Many reports suggest that this economic crisis threatens to reduce development assistance by at least $4.5 billion and push more than 50 million more people into poverty.

My hopes are captured in what The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said:

The G20 meeting takes place in an atmosphere of high expectation: many people believe that this is a moment for the world’s leaders to reaffirm their moral commitments to the welfare of all, especially the poorest, and to the care of the planet for future generations, as well as responding to the immediate challenges of securing a degree of financial stability. As religious leaders, we shall be praying that these expectations will be met and that the gathered politicians will be inspired to share a word of hope with all of us.

Salil Shetty, Global Director of the Millennium Campaign, an offshoot of the United Nations which lobbies governments to do their bit to meet the Millennium Development Goals, says less talk and more action are vital to achieve the goals by 2015.

"All the goals are at risk if we don't see significant progress at the G20 meeting," Shetty said in advance of the meetings.

I add my voice to the hopes expressed by composer and recent Oscar winner A.R. Rahman, who composed the song Pray for me Brother to draw attention to this moment :

Leonard Cohen ~ live version of Hallelujah

innovation draft

Most of my life, I have worked in change-resistant organizations, helping to foster innovation.  It's a wierd river to swim in, particularly when you are working inside of existing entities.

I found a lot of resonance with what Jack Martin Leith writes about in his post:

First, second and third generation innovation practice

Each successive generation of innovation practice incorporates earlier generations and reflects a different worldview, or mental model of reality.

Innovation Practice	Innovation 1	Innovation 2	Innovation 3
The way of the:	Engineer	Designer	Sorcerer
Corresponding Worldview	Worldview 1	Worldview 2	Worldview 3
The world is seen as:	A machine	A system	Energy

Björk - Declare Independence

"The dark around us, come,
Let us meet here together,
Members one of another,
Here in our holy room,
Here on our little floor,
Here in the daylit sky,
Rejoicing mind and eye,
Rejoining known and knower,
Light, leaf, foot, hand, and wing,
Such order as we know,
One household, high and low,
And all the earth shall sing. "

-Wendell Berry, From A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997

Gawker: What Kind of Media Zombie Are You?

Great analysis, with gobs of snark:

What Kind of Media Zombie Are You?

A fascinating new study of media consumption provides many insights, but they can all be summed up as: 20-somethings are sexting, 30-somethings are nerds, 40-somethings are online wingnuts, and we're all fucking zombies.

The *average* person spends 8.5 hours a day in front of some sort of media screen. That's more than the average person sleeps! An hour of that, one full hour, every single day, is ads. And 99% of our video-watching is on TV. Fuck you, Tube! Demographically, we're all drooling brainwashed playthings in our own special ways:

The data shows that 18-to-24-year-olds - generally college students and new entrants into the work force - watch the smallest amount of live TV of any age group (three and a half hours a day), spend the most time text messaging (29 minutes a day) and watch the most online video (5.5 minutes a day).

Slightly older viewers, those ages 25 to 34, spend the most time of any group watching DVD or VCR videos. People ages 35 to 44 spend more time on the Web than other groups, 74 minutes a day on average. The next demographic, 45 to 54 years old, spends the most time on e-mail. Consumers over the age of 65 watch the most live TV, according to the research.

A fascinating new study of media consumption provides many insights, but they can all be summed up as: 20-somethings are sexting, 30-somethings are nerds, 40-somethings are online wingnuts, and we're all fucking zombies.

The *average* person spends 8.5 hours a day in front of some sort of media screen. That's more than the average person sleeps! An hour of that, one full hour, every single day, is ads. And 99% of our video-watching is on TV. Fuck you, Tube! Demographically, we're all drooling brainwashed playthings in our own special ways:

The data shows that 18-to-24-year-olds - generally college students and new entrants into the work force - watch the smallest amount of live TV of any age group (three and a half hours a day), spend the most time text messaging (29 minutes a day) and watch the most online video (5.5 minutes a day).

Slightly older viewers, those ages 25 to 34, spend the most time of any group watching DVD or VCR videos. People ages 35 to 44 spend more time on the Web than other groups, 74 minutes a day on average. The next demographic, 45 to 54 years old, spends the most time on e-mail. Consumers over the age of 65 watch the most live TV, according to the research.

pray as one reflection #5: This love is reciting me like a backwards rhyme

Our faith community is spending much of Lent praying as one, taking stock of our journey with God in a Jesus way.  This fifth week, our focus is:

we will love ourselves as God loves us

Love is a word that is used so much, it almost means nothing.  In the last hour, it's been said or written or texted or blogged or tweeted billions of times.  We say it in relation to people, to things, to places, to ideas.  There is peanut butter that I proclaim my love for just as quickly as I say I love a friend.

Most of the time, love costs me absolutely nothing - it's noise in a empty room, echoing down the hall like dropped keys.  When I look in my daughters' eyes, love tugs at me and changes me, more like the image I was made in.  When Lisa & I move together in love, there is something more than just us, more than the feelings we hold and the things we know.

Loving as God loves - a God who is love.  The Triune God, who moves together in love, who beckons us to literally make love, to create in love.

That is something that means something, that costs something, that leaves us changed and yearning.  One of my fav singer-songwriters  Sandra McCracken  gets at this mystery of love in the lyrics of her song Storehouse:

This love is reciting me like a backwards rhyme
The more than you lose of yourself the more you find
Take me out of myself, and into
The Clothes of royalty
love has taken me...

There is this kind of backwards rhyme in communities that gather in faith and doubt, that gather to practice and remember.   While it runs counter to the zero sum world we make to distract ourselves, there is so much truth in the Great Economy that tells us that the more we lose, the more we find.

When I look at our faith community in the context of this kind of love, loving as God loves, I am struck that this love is not what binds us together, but rather something that we hand over, confounding the modern ideas of boundaries and rules of affection & protection.  We love those that hurt us and those we hurt, the crazies, the criminals, the stock broken and real estate broker.  That love messes us up, it takes us out of myself, into our selves.  We are clothed as royalty, all dressed up from a banquet we were invited to after the better folks turned down the invite.

In the masterwork The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe , there is a great scene when the Pevensie kids enter another world.  Love has taken them, transformed them, clothed them as royalty - so much so that they are oddities in a kingdom of talking animals.  I love this simple dialogue:

Susan Pevensie: Why are they all staring at us?
Lucy Pevensie: Maybe they think you look funny.

That is what love does - it makes up look funny.

blip.fm

cool mashup  - sorta like the lovechild of twitter & last.fm: