from whence comes a vision...

Earlier this week, while still wandering in the mystery that is Montréal, I was buying groceries in a market off St. Laurent. While bagging my goodies, the young blonde clerk said, "I really like your bag." That caught me off-guard - the picture on the front is the Virgin of Guadalupe - and all day I had been wondering, "What are the metaphors and symbols that guide/shape contemporary people who do not embrace a faith tradition?" 

Over an extended lunch in a small park, you see, Di and I had joined another couple for an introduction to Québécois French. One insightful and naughty section took us through the curse words of this culture - and they are all religious terms signifying the long tension between hard-working, ordinary people and the Roman Catholic hierarchy. With an impish grin, our instructor told us that since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960's everyone uses these words to curse, but few know what they represent given the dramatic secularization of Québec society. We had fun explaining what the religious meanings of words like Tabernacle, Chalice, and stoles meant beyond their current curse value. McGill professor, Douglas John Hall, has written that within one generation there was a rapid collapse of public support for the Church in this province and asks: does this prefigure what secularization means for other Western nations? Walking home from the market I couldn't help but muse over the young clerk's appreciation for my grocery bag. What did she like about it? Why did she make the effort to say in both English and French that it was lovely? What value does the Mexican Virgin Mary hold for her? For others?

My curiosity continued as we hiked the Stations of the Cross yesterday in Oka. It is a two mile hike up the mountain dotted with seven small chapels telling the story of Christ's crucifixion. The view from the top looks out over forests, rivers, and the Adirondack mountains in the distance. Aesthetically it is well worth the effort and as the day evolved we encountered a handful of hikers who chose to do so: they were young and older, some clearly out for the exercise, others who found value in this embodied prayer. After the first chapel, Di and I wondered aloud about what metaphors, symbols, and clues give shape, form, and even meaning to this generation? 

Some have suggested the Leonard Cohen has become a secular saint. His devotion to poetry, beauty, struggle, sensuality, irony, and humility might be a clue. He certainly evokes sorrow and celebration simultaneously in songs like "Dance Me to the End of Love." He also freely borrows from Judaism and Christianity filtered through a lens of Western intellectual Zen Buddhism. But this is not the case for nearly a third of young America and probably more in Canada and Western Europe: they have no training or roots in spiritual traditions of any type. Walking slowly - and sometimes painfully - towards the top of this devotional mountain, feeling and thinking about the struggles of my journey through life, my own tradition clearly offers me clues about how to find meaning in the chaos. The liturgy of the Eucharist, the hymns, the texts, the various embodied prayers, icons and stories all help me sort out where I am on the road of life. So how do others without this grounding sort things out? Clearly, I have no idea... 

To be sure, I've read some of the studies conducted with the "nones" (none of the religious categories stated above) as well as SBNRs (spiritual but not religious) folk. Their analyses mention a mistrust of institutions, a desire for mysticism, and encounters with the holy. They also speak of a shared desire to live compassionately with a respect for the environment. But no one has identified the guiding symbols that give focus and direction to those living into this brave new world. The best clue I've come up with to date is mandolinist Chris Thile's new recording: Laysongs. (https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/09/16/chris-thile-laysongs-mandolin-review-241284) I want to listen to this carefully. If anyone who reads this has some other clues, please send me a note.