Yes ... its another WOTE video! A few days ago I was sitting 8 rows from the stage watching Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart perform "No Mans Land". It was captivating, a brilliant portrayal of contrasting perspectives, fading memories, and difficult relationships as an intruder threatens the status quo ante of two men in their drink-laden old age. I still don't really understand it. A few days ago I awoke to a meeting of shattered emotions as colleagues wrestled with the fact that there was a climate change denier taking power in the White House, compounded by his character of egotistical misogyny, ethnic hatred, and lies. This was only another step in a year of events that are taking the world into scary instability. The vote for Trump was simply one more fear-driven vote of selfishness (Let’s be honest and call this fear what it really is: it’s the fear of your privilege being taken away - e.g. see here and here). I still don't really understand it. A few months ago I resigned from my church, in part because the trajectory had taken a 180° turn away from trying the utmost to meet those that "have a problem with how the Christians do church [which is] causing them to feel disconnected, uncomfortable, or unwanted." That an organization would choose to entrench barriers that prevent reaching those one is trying to serve is confounding. I was recently dining with my atheist friend and trying to explain why I was leaving my church; he was astounded that the institutional expression of my faith was not trying in every way possible to lower the barriers to someone like him. I still don't really understand it. To wrestle with this is to enter a no man's land: this is a place between sides, where one is exposed and vulnerable and survival necessitates understanding the other side (but not necessarily agreeing with them). It's where one says to those we meet "Hello from the other side", and we strive to build a dialogue. No Man's Land: I don't really understand it. This is a place we jump into to free our souls, where we sit naked in a savusauna, and are willing to be ridiculous. All to better be true to Truth. No Man's Land is just that: a place no-one owns, a place that exists, a place of danger to those with something to lose. The world is entering no man's land (again). Climate change is increasing pressures, the rich-poor divide is growing, power is being gathered as walls are built, new defenses constructed, and stability eroded - all by those who fear what they have to lose. Whether it's the hegemony of the privileged or the security of an institution's rituals - there is a fear of what will be personally lost. And all the while the poor and spiritually bankrupt are left in the dust. But Hold On, Listen to the Music, because We've Got a Message.
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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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