In quietness and rest...

A theme that regular readers will recognize has been swimming around my head these past few days and has been reinforced in three different ways.  It has to do with bringing a measure of balance and healing to our contemporary culture that is obsessed 
with greed. As Mother Teresa once said about America:  the most deadly disease here is not HIV/AIDS, but loneliness.  I see the boredom, loneliness, fear and despair born of an obsessive and shallow culture and three very different sources have spoken to this reality and stirred my thinking this past week. 

First, in the recent IMAGE Journal (http://imagejournal.org/) Gregory Wolfe's editorial addresses the effects on culture created under the dominion of "utilitarianism."  He notes that "in the mid-twentieth century, religious thinkers like Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr and Jacques Maritain could still share platforms at universities and conferences with their secular colleagues.  That almost never happens today - another legacy of the culture wars' politicization of public discourse."

He goes on to speculate about how rich a conversation between contemporary philosophers and artists could be if they were in dialogue with with thoughtful and creative theologians.  Wouldn't we all benefit from hearing the shared wisdom and points of disagreement between Anand Giridharadas and Mark Edmundson?  Giridharadas recently pointed out in the NY Times that there is "a strange resonance between two currently popular television programs, Downton Abbey and Girls."

One television show is about English aristocrats, crisp, proper, well-dressed even in bed. The other is about four young women, often lost and very often unclothed, in a setting quite different from Yorkshire:  Brooklyn, NY... In Downton Abbey the young are struggling for personal freedom in a highly regimented social order, whereas in Girls there is almost unlimited personal freedom - and yet there is a new thralldom. Girls is about atoms that desire in vain to form molecules; about sex lives that breed more confusion than excitement; about people with the liberty to choose every day, on various dimensions, whom to be - and who grow very tired of the choosing.

Edmundson, of the University of Virginia, is the author of "Notes on a Mono-Culture" in which in he writes that we now live in a realm where there is no vision or authority to call into question "the sway of utilitarianism... in pursuit of money and power.  (And in this) here's the discovery, you can get smart people to like mindless things (by) trashing high culture and associating junk with democracy."  Wouldn't it be fascinating and even useful to be a part a colloquy between these two thinkers?  Think of the rich insights concerning truth, compassion, justice and beauty might emerge from such a dialogue?  (You can read the entire essay by Wolfe here: http://imagejournal.org/page/journal/editorial-statements/courtyard-of-the-gentiles)

A second voice arrived in the form of a David Brooks' column in the NY Times, "Freedom Loses One" where the celebrated and thoughtful conservative shared his thoughts about marriage equality.  He begins by noting that:

Over the past 40 years, personal freedom has been on a nearly uninterrupted winning streak. In the 1960s, we saw a great expansion of social and lifestyle freedom. In the 1980s, we saw a great expansion of economic freedom. Since then, we’ve had everything from jeans commercials to rock anthems to political conventions celebrating freedom as the highest ideal. People are much more at liberty these days to follow their desires, unhampered by social convention, religious and ethnic traditions and legal restraints. The big thinkers down through the ages warned us this was going to have downsides. Alexis de Tocqueville and Emile Durkheim thought that if people are left perfectly free to pursue their individual desires, they will discover their desires are unlimited and unquenchable. They’ll turn inward and become self-absorbed. Society will become atomized. You’ll end up with more loneliness and less community.

 

What he is celebrating, however, is NOT the triumph of yet another freedom but rather a

movement towards constraint and the common good.  When "a representative of millions of gays and lesbians went to the Supreme Court and asked the court to help put limits on their own freedom of choice. They asked for marriage. Marriage is one of those institutions — along with religion and military service — that restricts freedom. Marriage is about making a commitment that binds you for decades to come. It narrows your options on how you will spend your time, money and attention."  His point is clear:  a significant portion of our people - gay and straight - are coming to the realization that just having MORE is not the goal of our existence.  Restraint, patience, cooperation and sharing are just as necessary as acquisition, yes?

 

Brooks resonates with me when he laments our current culture context wherein everything is measured against a bottom line; today freedom is simply another commodity to be bought and sold used and then discarded.  This is essentially the same critique against utilitarianism that Wolfe described.  Both writers yearn realistic ways for something deeper, something more creative and something more challenging to guide human behavior than just the pursuit of money and power.  They are, of course, talking about ways to nourish the soul and strengthen the common good. (For the entire David Brooks article, go to: http://www.nytimes. om/2013/04/02/ pinion/brooks-freedom-loses-one.html?_r=0&adxnnl= &ref=davidbrooks adxnnlx=1365179624-qv2EuMTwBt8/yh5fyEg2PQ)

The third source to touch my thinking came to me in the written reflections people sent following our recent Good Friday musical meditation called "disorientation."  To be sure, there are certain to be those who were uncomfortable with the way we combined edgy music, key readings from Christ's passion with silent prayer; that goes with the territory.  Still, I was stunned that we hit such a responsive chord with so many - inside the congregation and in the wider community - with this production.  One of many notes put it like this:

Last night’s service and performance was AMAZING! What a gift to be carried by the music you created on a deeply poignant emotional journey through human and spiritual history; pain and longing; surrender and hope. We were truly transported. Please thank all of your incredibly talented musicians for their willingness to be so vulnerable, and thank you for your willingness to transcend the typical to create something truly magical on Good Friday. It was conceptually brilliant and flawlessly delivered. You all touched our hearts, leaving us filled with tenderness, hope, and joy. We were blown away. We felt surrounded by and filled with love.  Please feel free to forward these comments to your band if you see fit… My deepest appreciation to all of you who contributed to last night. It was by far the best church service I have ever experienced. Thank you!

So here's my hunch:  in addition to playing and sharing with both passion and precision, our GF event helped those who gathered articulate what living in a shallow and utilitarian culture feels like at this moment in time.  What's more, it wasn't simply a critique of the status quo, but also an encounter with an alternative.  This is a vein we shall mine ever more deeply in the year to come.

This past week of rest and reflection has been valuable for my soul:  the weather has turned modestly warm, we've had time to let the puppy run and play, we've played some jazz and started to tend the lawn.  These words from the poet prophet, Isaiah, have been my companion during this mini-retreat:  For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:  In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.