Romantic Scribbles

Like many Americans I have been contemplating my involvement or lack thereof in issues such as environmental protection, business regulation, and overall consumer culture.  To complicate matters I have a growing suspicion that the way of consumerism practiced so effectively by myself and others is almost wholly incompatible with my espoused beliefs.  Enter the video I recently watched entitled The Story of Stuff.  The video allowed me to consider the human element packaged within every product I purchase.  Every product I buy comes packaged with a story.  I am forced to admit that the story behind many of these products is probably unpleasant, but I can’t really say which ones because I am wholly ignorant of the entire process.  Luckily for my conscious the story often remains pleasantly hidden.  If I desire I can remain ignorant of all the unsavory details.

The church has a pretty spotty record on human rights.  There have always been a few individuals willing to stand up and denounce corrupt and oppressive practices such as slavery and the like, but there have been many within the Christian community who are willing to remain uniformed and therefore complicit in practices completely incongruent with their professed beliefs.  I’m not sure God really cares how much money we give to church on Sunday or how much we give to charity in general if we continue to support modes of production that perpetually keep people oppressed and impoverished.  Padding our checkbooks with discount prices that come at the expense of others less fortunate seems wrong.  Whatever your stance on environmental issues in general, the human expense of consumerism should give us pause.  The Church in America has an opportunity to do something right in the world.  By supporting corporations and products that don’t engage in unethical production practices we could improve the standard of living around the world.  It may cost us a little more, but I think it might make Jesus happy.  The only problem is that it requires us to be informed about the story of our stuff.

1. This American Life

This is without a doubt my favorite new podcast. This America Life frequently inhabits the  number one position on the itunes podcast list. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it features a cluster of stories grouped around a central theme. The stories themselves are submitted from various writers and contributors. By getting their stories from a variety of individuals the show is diverse in its content. This morning while listening I found myself tearing up, at other times its funny, and sometimes it is provocative. As with anything I don’t always agree with the contributors, but I appreciate getting the opportunity to hear their perspective. Besides the stories are great. As people we love good stories and This American Life consistently delivers this.

2. The House on Boulevard Street

The House on Boulevard Street is the one of the only books of contemporary poetry that I can  honestly say I’ve read. I’ve always liked poetry, but when I read I always find myself running to prose. This book is different, it’s poetry with a narrative twist. It’s smart and humorous, it’s “high” art meeting “low” art, and its poetry for people who typically don’t ingest large quantities of poetry. The book is a collection of poems written by David Kirby. You can check out a review from the NY Times here. This is a book of poetry worth reading…even if you don’t like poetry.

3. Google Reader and Google Homepage

Google’s tools are more powerful than I thought. Google Reader is a good RSS feed reader. Google  homepage allows you to create a useful homepage to manage searches and frequently used sites. I don’t know why I never used them before, after all I love gmail. It is worth checking out. If you have a gmail account simply type in www.google.com/ig. Play around with it. There are plenty of customizations, and then you have a portable little space for your favorite web-related stuff.

Who-hoo we’ve hit 100 views.  I know it’s not a lot, but it’s not bad for a couple weeks worth of work.  Thanks for coming and thanks for coming back.  Leave a comment if you like and let me know what you’ve enjoyed, what you want to hear about in the future, or just say hello.  Make sure to subscribe and  feel free to tell your friends.

-Shawn

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Jacksonville…alone. It sucks. My summer job has me spending a lot of nights in hotels alone, and those of you who know me may know that I don’t do well alone. It has me thinking about home, missing it, and noticing how home has changed.

1. Let’s start with the literal.

As I drove down I-10 I started noticing this feeling of home-sickness. I passed the exit to my old house, drove down the interstate I formerly used to get school, passed by the building my mom used to work in and the hospital my sister had surgery in, and I could feel this oppressive home-sickness like a weight in my chest.. I’ve slowly realized over the years that I have never felt like I had a home since Jacksonville. Jacksonville was where I lived from middle school through high school, but in my freshman year of college my parents moved away. Since I’ve left I’ve met great people, had great houses, and been a part of good churches, but I have never had that stable settled feeling I had in Jacksonville. In Jacksonville I was certain that I was exactly where I was supposed to be–a feeling I have never been able to duplicate.

2. Home as an evolving concept.

Erica and I have bounced around a few times in the past few years, and yet for all our efforts none of those places have ever felt like home. Never did we feel like, this is it. Never, despite our best efforts were we able to put down roots and feel settled. And now when I think of home, I no longer think of a house, or a street, or a place; I think of a person. The idea of home has changed for me now. It no longer has a discernible locale, but instead, home is where Erica is. I hope to recapture that feeling I had growing up in Jacksonville–the certainty, the stability–but home as a concept has changed. I’m not sure if other people my age feel lost as often as I do. I kind of feel like by this time I should have worked that out. Instead I often think of myself as a wanderer –homeless– unsure of the next locale. But I find comfort in the fact that even if I never find another place like Jacksonville I have found my home. Home is wherever my wife is. If you’re reading this I miss you.

PS Sorry for the sappiness…I really should not be sent off this often alone.

Bill Bishop author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded Americans is Tearing us Apart was recently on Talk of the Nation. (Check out the blog entry or the podcast.) His book talks about how America is dividing itself along political lines down to the neighborhood’s they live in, the places they work, and the clubs they belong to.  Forget about red and blue states and think red and blue neighborhoods.  It’s not as if communities are announcing their ideological positions, but people gravitate towards like-minded people. While this is a natural human tendency, America is segregating itself in unprecedented numbers. So what’s the big deal, people like to live and work around people who agree with them?

The problem, Bishop argues, is that this separation has created so much space that the lines of discourse have disappeared. We no longer rub shoulders with those who think differently from us and, therefore, we no longer understand them.  Rubbing shoulders, Bishops says helps us moderate our own ideas, see the other side in debates, and promotes a democratic state.  Separation, however, leads to radicalization. Conservatives lean farther right and liberals lean further left and the gap between them grows. The two groups just cannot understand the other group’s perspective.

So who is the most segregated group in America?  Grad Students.  Grad students, argues Bishop, have the fewest number of positions represented.  If you have been in a grad school lately this is not a surprise.  Radicalization is the norm, and the ability to understand divergent viewpoints is seldom practiced.  (It reminds me of the class where I heard another student say, “You know Conservatives and Republicans are kind of like Christians–I know they are out there, but I don’t know any.” This was statement of pride, but it should be disheartening. ) My personal grad school experience has shown me that there are actually more diverse positions represented, but there is certainly one dominant position that consciously or unconsciously seeks to silence the others.  People who disagree do not speak from fear.  This too is a product of segregation.  Bishop says when a liberal or conservative unwittingly stumbles into the camp of their ideological opposite, they tend to withdraw from society and political discourse due to fear of its repercussions.  How can we have democracy without open dialogue?  Now despite the ways in which this group think can become frustrating, I have actually enjoyed grad school and grown intellectually from the experience. Furthermore, I can’t fault grad school for doing what I did willing as an undergrad.

As I undergrad I choose a small, private, religious institution.  My undergrad experience was exactly the type of ideologically segregation Bishop talks about.  I do not regret the decision, just like in grad school I enjoyed it and grew intellectually.  But my further life experiences have taught me that I need contact with people who do not think like me.  Grad school allowed me experience new modes of thought and understand positions that my undergrad experience was unable to facilitate. Again I do not regret it, instead I am grateful for the collection of my life’s experience.  Bishop’s interview simply articulated what I had already been feeling–without open and honest dialogue it is difficult or impossible to understand other perspectives.  News, books, movies, and television cannot teach you how the “outside world” thinks.  There seems to be no exchange for simply befriending people who disagree with you and listening to their position.

P.S.  Bishop closes the interview with a mention of the Emergent Church.  Bishop studied places like churches and other voluntary social groups for his book, and found something suprising in Emerging Churches.  Emergen Churches, he found, were composed of politically conservative and liberal individuals and represent a wide variety of viewpoints.  How do they do it?  By being nice to each other, being willing to listen, and willing to believe that perhaps they do not have all the answers.  Sounds like a decent strategy to me.

Hey I thought I might share a few links to some of my favorite things…

1. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

This is quite the popular blog, but I am still surprised when I meet a friend who hasn’t heard of it.  (You know something white people like…witty, ironic blogs that allow you to waste hours on the internet.)  It’s smart, it’s irreverent, and it undermines concepts of race.  Enjoy.

2. http://www.pandora.com/

Another well known site, but I just discovered it recently–thanks Erica.  This site lets you put in a few artists, or songs, and then builds a radio station from what it calls the music genome project.  You can share it with your friends on facebook, send it to your iphone, or just stream it on your computer while you work on something else.  I’ve basically stopped listening to the radio in my car, and this is a great way to get exposed to new music.

3. http://technorati.com/

So I’m trying to do this whole blog thing and I’m trying to do it right.  Enter technorati.  There you can find blogs worth reading, register and track certain blogs and subjects, and claim your own blog pushing it to a wider reading audience.  Great tool, great way to wade through the growing tangle of the blogosphere, and it’s free.

4.  Talk of the Nation

So my job has has me driving back and forth to Mobile, AL every week, a 4 hour drive.  When I drive long distances I get tired if I listen to music, so I have been building my podcast library.   One of my favorites has been Talk of Nation which is an NPR radio show dealing with politics, books, news, technology, etc.  It’s well done, it’s guests are knowledgeable, and they try to get experts who represent diverse opinions.  What’s even better is they try to keep the conversation from degrading into an argument or empty rhetoric.

Well those items should keep you busy for a couple of days.  I’ll post some more soon.

-Shawn

IPhone 3G!!! As I pulled up to the AT&T store at approximately 5:00 AM that was the sound I was greeted to. A slightly intoxicated?, boisterous, fratboy inhabiting position 7 in the line welcomed everyone who arrived with a shout, “IPhone 3G!!! You ready for this? Can you handle the power of the 3G?” I assured him I was and settled down in position number 8 waiting for the doors to open at 8:00 AM.

I had promised Erica that for her birthday I would get her a new IPhone. She waited two months for the next generation phone and therefore, I assumed it was my duty to make sure she had to wait no longer. I crawled out of bed at 4:15, brushed my teeth and headed down to make sure I would secure her birthday present as soon as possible.

Typically I hate these types of lines, and generally refuse to wait in them. Alas, the things we do for love. As I said, I arrived at 5:00 and brought a host of items to work on. Books I needed to read, a journal to take some notes, and my ipod with some podcasts I wanted to listen to. Basically hours of entertainment and productivity. However, an early morning IPhone line is not conducive place to work. The gentleman at the front of the line had been in line since noon of the day before with two friends. When you have been in line for 17 hours and there are only three left to go, the excitement is too much to bear. The line was a buzz of excitement.

Now I know you are probably picturing a line full of acne-encrusted uber nerds, but it was surprisingly diverse. Behind me in line was a girl from FSU, a finance major, who did not bear any of the typical markings of nerdom. There were successful business people, middle-aged people, a grandma with her grandson, a lot of college students, and then the group that you knew seldom saw the light of day due to their more robust lives lived in World of Warcraft.

The frat boy next to me, who had a surprising mastery of the English language—in one sentence he dropped the F-bomb as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and proper noun, amazing I know—told us all how excited he was about his new IPhone. Now with the power of 3G he could download and stream porn straight to his phone. If only the IPhone could produce alcohol he would never be far from his only true friends in the world. Steve Jobs would be proud.

Seriously though as time wore on I put down my books and started listening to what people had to say. It was disheartening. Frequently I heard people saying, “This is going to be the best day of my life.” Many people had taken the day off work to secure the IPhone and then the rest of the day to play with it. Many described the acts of violence they were willing to commit if someone bought the last 16GB black one in front of them or if the store clerk gave them any lip. (Mostly this consisted of “I’ll kick him in the face/balls or the good old fashioned I’ll kill that *insert any random expletive*.) They described how awesome Steve Jobs was, how great this phone was going to be, and how this experience was, simply put, “awesome.” 3 solid hours of dreaming, salivating, and fretting over the phone. Would they have enough? Am I eligible for an upgrade? The dude in front of me better not buy the last one. Then, the smiles that spread over the faces when they finally got one, some close to tears and shaking with excitement. The others outside pressed to the window waiting their turn, hoping that the one they wanted would not be sold out. The jubilation as someone exited the store waving their new purchase proudly for the eager on-lookers. The reception of the still-waiting crowd mixed with both obvious jealousy and awe. I’ll admit when they handed me that little black beauty at 8:27 AM I was excited, and maybe if it were for me I would have understood. After all there is nothing wrong with purchasing an IPhone. I would not mind purchasing one for myself someday, but if I do I’m sure it will not rank as one of the best days of my life. Cool perhaps, but not life-changing.

Overall the experience was funny, it was unique, but ultimately sad. This is who we are. 7 days after the fireworks of July 4th it can seem a little harder to be proud to be American.

As I was making my weekly drive to Mobile, AL I enjoyed my routine podcast of This America Life.  This week’s topic was entitled “By Proxy”.  The show looked at various stories of people who choose (sometimes unconsciously) to stand in for others and serve as their spokesperson.  The episode began with an illustration of two friends who found themselves in a heated argument, only later to realize they were arguing positions that they had inherited from previous boyfriends/girlfriends.  In short they choose to stand in for someone else and argue a point they knew little about only to realize later that they really did not care that much about the topic.

It got me thinking about how many times I have walked into a discussion that quickly denigrated into an argument for a point I had inherited and cared little or knew little about.  The more I thought the more I realized how many of those arguments were of a theological nature.  Frequently I had stood in for some professor, preacher, or theologian and argued vehemently for their position in their absence.  I’m sure that’s not what they wanted.  After all they frequently warned me to do my own research and come to my own position.  But why waste all that time thinking when an expert has already done the hard work for you and told what he or she believes?  Why not just grab their ideas and make them your own?  Isn’t that what education is?

And then I thought of cable news.  Rhetoric…More Rhetoric…Mind-numbing Rhetoric.  Rhetoric is not a dirty word.  It’s simply the science and art of speaking effectively.  When employed by positive forces its beautiful–breath-taking.  But when in the hands of the public media, it can be chilling.  Drilling off the coast is our only hope, we’re winning the war in Iraq, no we’re losing, no we won the war this is something different, Barak Obama hates America (where is his flag pin?), the separation of Church and State means…, we’re in a recession—but higher taxes will fix it, no I mean reducing property taxes. I don’t have the time to do the research so I might as well just believe what they tell me.  (And now that are they even more ideologically aligned I know which ones I’m supposed to believe.  Thanks Fox!  You just saved me hours thinking.)

Perhaps uncritically accepting the ideas of others is not education…

Back to theology.  I have had plenty of proxy arguments with people’s former pastor, or their granddad, or their childhood youth minister.  You know those arguments where you realize quickly that it is hopeless simply because it is not based on logic or reason.  They believe it because they learned it from someone who probably meant more to them than you ever could.  (Of course it did not help that I was arguing for my professors, my youth ministers, for what my parents passed on to me.)  Stop.  Think.  No more proxy arguments. (That is a note to myself, but apply it to yourself if you feel so inclined.)  What about discussions where we both put the dusty baggage of ill-formed inherited positions and talk like honest people with honest questions?

(Then again you probably should not take my word for it, but see if this makes sense to you.)

Idealistically yours,

Shawn

PS. This might work for more than theology, but baby steps.

If you looked at Sunday’s New York Times you may have noticed an article by Stanley Fish.  The article itself discusses the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v Heller.  It is interesting, but it made me painfully aware how ill-equipped I would have been to engage with this article a few years ago.  Fish utilizes his editorial not to talk so much about the politics of gun control, but instead to demonstrate a principle of literary theory.  (Stanley Fish was influential in a theory known as reader-response theory, you can read his Wikipedia entry at the link above.)  Fish argues that while the court may have been divided 5-to-4 in the decision, in fact they all agreed in their approach to the text.  Decribing them as intentionalists, Fish argues that they all approach a text in attempt to find out what the author was intending to put forth and form their opinions from there.

To be clear I am not advocating Fish’s implied critique of the Justices’ approach.  My point is once you know some literary theory you begin to see how often it crops up and how foundational it is to many current popular theories.  The Emergent Church is built in part on certain literary assumptions.  What disturbs me is that as an undergraduate I learned absolutely no literary theory.  In fact when theory was briefly discussed it was often as a source of ridicule.  (Sort of like diet philosophy, or thinking for the weak-minded.  The type of stuff that could be defeated with a wave ofthe marker and a hasty syllogism.)  If you find the theories of people like Fish to be mistaken then engage with them, don’t avoid them.  No doubt many of my colleagues in the Evangelical Movement ae intriguied by the Emergent writers, shouldn’t they know the theoretical foundations that guide their hermeneutic?

PS.  When I left my undergraduate institution they warned me not to go off to grad school and complain about all the things they did not teach me but should have.  For the most part I have abided by that warning.  I appreciated the education I received, and continue to find it extremely helpful.  But as I continue to study I am convinced that there are many writers that I should have been more familair with, and many of these write in the realm of literary theory.  The intellectual challenges of today’s Christians are not coming from Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley, they are coming more and more from people who know and utilize literary theory.

I don’t blame them for the movies they play, afterall they’re not responsible for the content.  I don’t blame them for the $100.00 an ounce popcorn, I mean times are tough for the corporations too.  I don’t even blame them for staffing an entire legion of drooling undead, I mean for $7.00 an hour I don’t expect to be greeted by the warmth of the living.  Tonight, however, AMC has crossed the line.  As I stepped to the counter to buy my usual duo of tickets–one adult and one student–the lethargic, disgruntled entity selling tickets informed me that they no longer sold student tickets.  Granted I know its sad that I’m twenty-eight and still in school, but grad school and I are in a committed relationship.  One of the few perks of my never-ending academic career has been the continued student discount.  Take that away and what is there to live for?  Education, nature, love, service, faith, please!  Without my $2.00 discount on movies the world has gone gray and my popcorn is without taste.  (A teardrop stains my keyboard.)  Sure the tickets are $4.75 Monday through Thursday, but who goes to the movies on Monday night.  I’m not retired or that socially hopeless.  Down with AMC!  All hail Netflix!