Kate Tucker "Let me go" ‘How can we understand the miserable failure of contemporary thinking to come to grips with what now confronts us?’ Breathe it in Hold my breath I don’t have the heart To live without it Don’t get involved Problem solved Leave it on the table What’s the difference Def: "evocative": Bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind This is about two great abysses; one spiritual, one material. I love things that are evocative: if you want to influence my thinking, use means that are evocative and I'll respond strongly. When you evoke something in me, you're stimulating my mind to match my past experiences with what is being presented: I seek analogies, draw parallels, construct metaphors, build parables. And when that happens my mind and my feelings work together to create a whole that is far greater than the sum of the parts. I don't know what the above video does for you; I find it deeply evocative, and it makes me envious because I know am inadequate to achieve the same. Between the words that don't complete a picture, music that drives through enveloping harmonies, and visuals communicating something about which one is not entirely sure, there is a reality I yearn to touch. It is a life long regret that I am not more effective in evoking. I mentioned at the start that there are two great abysses that the video evokes in my mind. The first is material - standing on the abyss of the functional failure of society. I'm not talking of the rise in nationalism, nor Trump or Brexit, and not even the arrogance of society's illogical and paradoxical relativism that cries with absolute fervor "all is relative". The material abyss is climate change! I can almost hear how that evokes a dismissive "huh" from some people (at least I can evoke something!). However, the reality is that the world is on a trajectory where for many locations in the world the future average summer temperature of a cold summer will be warmer than the warmest summers you've ever experienced now. And this trajectory will reach that point within the next 4-5 decades! The implications are tragic, let alone all the linked consequences: ecosystem failures, health, heat stress, migration, sea level rise, inundation of the world's major coastal cities, etc., etc. You think that's an exaggeration? Think again. We are standing on the edge of this abyss. We have perhaps 20 years to substantially reverse our course if we are to manage (not avoid) the growing impacts. And the world says? "Don’t get involved, Problem solved, Leave it on the table, What’s the difference" The spiritual abyss is a little more complicated. Yes, I could be referring to the gap to God. But actually, what is evoked in me is the chasm between church and society. If you have been following my thinking over the months you'll know the existential crisis I am having with the church. On the one hand I echo the video and say of the church "(I) Breathe it in, Hold my breath, I don’t have the heart, To live without it. It’s my fault, It’s your fault, If you don’t give a damn, Forget about it" (and I follow that with the chorus). For the institution of the church is building a canyon between themselves and the world. I was asked recently to be in a video and speak about climate change as a scientist and as a Christian. The target audience was to be the "evangelical community". The problem I have is that speaking to them as a scientist and a Christian is to align myself with a cultural Christianity that has lost the dynamics of a connection to God, let alone its connection to society. Instead, the cultural Christian institutions seem set on building barriers to external influences that would disturb their cultural equanimity. If I communicate on climate change as a Christian and as a scientist, why would I want to speak to this closeted culture? There are far more effective points of influence I can engage with that can help the world take a step back from the abyss. This evangelical cultural resistance to the world is not about any perceived dangers of diluting theology, but a fear of breaking down the barriers in order to bring relevance. Theology is already being diluted because it is not being lived; protectionism creates destruction. Conversely, theology that is lived is sharpened and purified. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but the very existence of exceptions prove the rule! It is interesting to think that throughout the history of the church seismic shifts in the institution have gone hand-in-hand with seismic shifts in society. If there has ever been a seismic shift in society, it is now; individualism, relativism, and a virtualized world of global connectivity that has transformed relationships, responsibility, and community. Perhaps what I see in the church of today is the shaking from the first seismic tremors? Breathe it in
Hold my breath I don’t have the heart To live without it It’s my fault It’s your fault If you don’t give a damn Forget about it I won’t call it bad You know I wanted more than that You know I gave it all I had You just let it go like that Find a fire to light Go set your flares off in the night I’ll be miles out of sight Cause you just let me go like that Don’t get involved Problem solved Leave it on the table What’s the difference I look at you You look at me But we can’t see the forest For the distance Oh the distance I won’t call it bad You know I wanted more than that You know I gave it all I had You just let it go like that Find a fire to light Go set your flares off in the night I’ll be miles out of sight Cause you just let me go like that You go you go You go on down You dream you dream You dream out loud You eat your heart out Everytime
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Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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