Leon, It is a wonder, and perhaps a troubling one, that you and I, halfway across the globe, can be staring the same cultural malaise in the eye. Such is our globalized, culture-eating time, I guess. Best to you.
Yes. There's the same malaise amongst so many people I know here. It's very difficult here for people to speak out too loudly about any injustices they see or make too loud a fuss, too many have been "disappeared" or pulled from their beds and silenced permanently.
Which is I think why I am so drawn to the work you are doing Adam. Because it's not a protest. But it is a protest.
My new homeland is also one of the most catholic in the world. I was raised a catholic but I was raised in a very social and community based church, very much I feel, like the old rural small town America that you call home (but much smaller). Here, so many of my friends and family have had childhood catholic indoctrination almost (and sometimes even) beaten into them, leaving many traumatised and needing therapy!
Fight Like An Animal had a great podcast last Christmas along maybe similar lines of what you've written here? He called it a biology of defeat. The story of Jesus, someone who tried and failed to liberate his people, whose story has been taken by the State and turned into a "story of sacred victimhood, in which dying is winning". "What does it say about a society if it venerates the image of someone being executed by the state for sedition? "
Wow, Leon. There's a lot in this. Thank you. I love that you can tell from afar that the work here is a protest of love, to build up rather than tear down. I've been thinking a lot about the term civil disobedience, and you may see a piece in the next bit titled civil(izational) disobedience. Any story of victimhood helps modernity keep chugging forward, it seems to me. The seduction of a victim narrative seems immensely powerful in our time. Heartbreakingly so.
Adam, thank you for sharing the piece about the conversion of the Indians. It's given me a new perspective on property ownership. Also, your story about Kitty touched my heart. your writing is achingly beautiful, as is your reading.
Thank you for your kid words, Leanne. That quote from Gates has been breaking my heart for years. It is something to imagine that people weren't eager to become consumers, that they had to be broken away from the commons, from living in an abundant world. A similar educational process may have been undertaken in Europe a thousand years earlier.
Gorgeous, Adam. I love it all, but this especially struck: "I keep imagining Yeshua with his hand extended, offering to walk his people out of civilization altogether. As the story goes, the society into which he was born turned down his radical invitation, continuing instead to convert a once-verdant and forested landscape into cities and dust..." That's it, isn't it: The last two thousand years in two sentences as long as a single breath.
Thank you for this beautiful story, Adam. Our elder brethen are a special gift. Please tell Kitty that her story is of great encouragement all the way over here in Stockholm.
Thank you, Carri. This wasn't the easiest one to write, to try to give voice to the tangle of repulsion and attraction to a tradition that, like it or not, is the one that grew me. Best, Adam
I guess it resonated because I relate to much of what you've said. Not an easy line to tread when articulating conflicting feelings. You've done that with grace.
Needed this, thank you always Adam
Leon, It is a wonder, and perhaps a troubling one, that you and I, halfway across the globe, can be staring the same cultural malaise in the eye. Such is our globalized, culture-eating time, I guess. Best to you.
Yes. There's the same malaise amongst so many people I know here. It's very difficult here for people to speak out too loudly about any injustices they see or make too loud a fuss, too many have been "disappeared" or pulled from their beds and silenced permanently.
Which is I think why I am so drawn to the work you are doing Adam. Because it's not a protest. But it is a protest.
My new homeland is also one of the most catholic in the world. I was raised a catholic but I was raised in a very social and community based church, very much I feel, like the old rural small town America that you call home (but much smaller). Here, so many of my friends and family have had childhood catholic indoctrination almost (and sometimes even) beaten into them, leaving many traumatised and needing therapy!
Fight Like An Animal had a great podcast last Christmas along maybe similar lines of what you've written here? He called it a biology of defeat. The story of Jesus, someone who tried and failed to liberate his people, whose story has been taken by the State and turned into a "story of sacred victimhood, in which dying is winning". "What does it say about a society if it venerates the image of someone being executed by the state for sedition? "
Wow, Leon. There's a lot in this. Thank you. I love that you can tell from afar that the work here is a protest of love, to build up rather than tear down. I've been thinking a lot about the term civil disobedience, and you may see a piece in the next bit titled civil(izational) disobedience. Any story of victimhood helps modernity keep chugging forward, it seems to me. The seduction of a victim narrative seems immensely powerful in our time. Heartbreakingly so.
Adam, thank you for sharing the piece about the conversion of the Indians. It's given me a new perspective on property ownership. Also, your story about Kitty touched my heart. your writing is achingly beautiful, as is your reading.
Thank you for your kid words, Leanne. That quote from Gates has been breaking my heart for years. It is something to imagine that people weren't eager to become consumers, that they had to be broken away from the commons, from living in an abundant world. A similar educational process may have been undertaken in Europe a thousand years earlier.
And in South Africa too, no doubt.
Gorgeous, Adam. I love it all, but this especially struck: "I keep imagining Yeshua with his hand extended, offering to walk his people out of civilization altogether. As the story goes, the society into which he was born turned down his radical invitation, continuing instead to convert a once-verdant and forested landscape into cities and dust..." That's it, isn't it: The last two thousand years in two sentences as long as a single breath.
Aw shucks, Graham. Thank you.
Thank you for this beautiful story, Adam. Our elder brethen are a special gift. Please tell Kitty that her story is of great encouragement all the way over here in Stockholm.
I will be sure to let her know, Mark. Thank you for this kind note. Adam
I'll be carrying around thoughts of Kitty through the week. Thank you Adam.
Hi Lausanne,
Thank you for the fun and silly dances the other evening! It was a pleasure to see and hear you at work. With care, Adam
Thank you for this , Adam. I so appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you, Carri. This wasn't the easiest one to write, to try to give voice to the tangle of repulsion and attraction to a tradition that, like it or not, is the one that grew me. Best, Adam
I guess it resonated because I relate to much of what you've said. Not an easy line to tread when articulating conflicting feelings. You've done that with grace.