Another Great Poem...

This is one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets, The Tiger by William Blake. Enjoy!

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The Power of Culture

Recently I posted comments on a book entitled, To Change the World by Dr. James Davison Hunter. In his book, Dr. Hunter questions the normative view of culture and every norm associated with it.

Culture is thought to be about hearts and minds, and to change culture one simply had to change the majority of hearts and minds. Dr. Hunters believes this is not the case at all. He, not only, challenges this notion but provides an alternative view of culture, which, after dwelling on it and re-reading that section of the book, I tend to agree with his analysis and subsequent theory on this.

Dr. Hunter believes that culture is a "normative order by which we comprehend others, the larger world and ourselves and through which we individually and collectively order our experiences." Dr. Hunter believes that the heart of culture is a "complex of norms" or as he has termed them, "commanding truths." Dr. Hunter believes that these "commanding truths" define the "shoulds and should nots of our experiences and the good and evil, the right and wrong, the appropriate and inappropriate, the honorable and the shameful. To put it succinctly, Dr. Hunter describes culture as a system of truth claims and moral obligations." To him culture is really about ideas.

If Dr. Hunter is right, and I believe that he is more right than wrong, then, what does this new view of culture say about the role of education in acquiring morality? Outside of the family, there is no greater teacher of morality than the educational institution. It is said that values and morals are caught more than taught, and that the act of catching comes from sheer hours of time spent in connection with others who already have values or are also catching values. The truth that we claim and the morality that we follow, from where do they come?

Truth and morality begin within the family, but as your child grows others begin to partner with you in this process despite your greatest protests. Teachers, friends, coaches and friend's parents start to become part of this process - not intentionally, of course. As your child's world expands, they begin to spend more time away from you and with others. They play, run and imagine in different ways and with different others. They interact with the world through their family, their friends, their teachers, their coaches, their mentors and their heroes. All of this affects the formation of their truth and their morality in a deep and impacting way. Eventually, a fabric is woven into a worldview that is, in essence, reality for all of us. Dr. Hunter believes this created worldview is so embedded in who we are that it is reality for all of us. He writes,

"[Worldview] is not just our view of what is right or wrong or true or false but our understanding of time, space, and identity - the very essence of reality as we experience it."

Dr. Hunter's view of culture is very different and very helpful to those of us who want to understand the power of culture and its impacting effect on all of us. He writes on what culture is,

"One must view culture, then not only as a normative order reflected in well established symbols, but also as the organization of human activity surrounding the production, distribution, manipulation, and administration of these symbols. Another way to say this is that culture is intrinsically dialectical. It is generated and exists at the interface between ideas and institutions; between the symbolic and the social and physical environment."

If it is indeed a battle of ideas and their relationships to all of us, and I am beginning to believe that it is, then the education we choose matters greatly. The power of culture is two-fold: culture is a powerful influence on who we are, and it is a power that can be changed by ideas and the people who promote them. Education is an important variable in their equation. Stay tuned for more comments on this very interesting topic! Blessings!

Memories

Memories tend to be paradoxical in nature, at least to me. When your young you are so busy making memories that you tend not to reflect back on any, but when you get older a picture like the one to the right can bring many racing back into your mind.

This is a picture of a road sign on the front lawn of the school that I attended in Monroe Bridge, Massachusetts. The school you can see in the background was a beautiful four room building with a library and the best gym around.

Monroe Bridge was a small town of 250 people during my childhood. Today, it is a struggling town of about 130. Many wonderful memories were made there. Those of us who grew up in Monroe Bridge grew up in a place and at a time when life was good. I can't remember locking our door at night or worrying about sleeping with the windows open. I remember walking to school in the morning... as an elementary student. I remember riding my bike 5 miles up the road with my friends and swimming at the "Cement Bridge" until dark with NO adult supervision. I remember playing hide-and-seek in the whole town with the flag pole of the school being base. I remember sliding at night on Monroe Hill. I remember winter river walks and winter forts in huge piles of snow Kenny made with the bucket loader. I know he was cleaning the town up after a winter storm, but, deep down, I knew he was making those huge piles of snow for us. I remember swimming in Rowe Pond on a hot summer day. I remember building yet another fort on the Mini-bike trails in the woods by the river. I remember playing basketball with a friend for hours on his hoop which used the public road as a court and never being distracted by one car. I have so many memories of Monroe Bridge to reflect on these days.

Monroe Bridge is a memory of a time when life was good. I often think is life not that good anymore, or am I too old to enjoy it in the way and in the manner that I did as a kid in Monroe Bridge. In recent years, I have recognized that the place may have had more to do with the goodness of life as a child than I once realized, but, just the same, I have no real answer to that question other than to strive to give my own children a bit of that same life. I think it is the right of every child to live a bit of life with no fear of the unknown and in the outdoors running and playing without the constraints of constant security.

Monroe Bridge gave many of us that right years longer than most, and I, for one, count myself blessed for having experienced it as long as I did. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but finding that picture today brought many memories back of old Monroe Bridge and most of those memories were good. And, when most of your past memories are good, well, that is more than one deserves. Blessings!

To Change the World

James Davison Hunter has written a book entitled, To Change the World, which may be one of the most important books written in the last twenty years. You will have a hard time finding it, but it is worth the search.

Hunter presents his views on culture and Christianity in his book via three essays: Christianity and World-Changing, Rethinking Power and Toward a New City Commons: Reflections on a Theology of Faithful Presence.

In this book his traces the history of Christianity and culture and makes some strong statements about why western Christianity has not impacted culture in a greater way. He then goes into culture and actually redefines it. He refutes this whole idea of culture being about hearts and minds and moves into the concept of culture actually being about ideas. Hunter then makes seven propositions on culture.

His last essay is where he makes his case for his proposal of and calling for"faithful presence." The book is well written and powerful. It will produce additional ideas and movements in the areas of Christianity and culture. I will not even attempt to summarize the ideas presented inside this book as they are many and deep.

If there is one book that you do buy this year make sure it is this book. You will need to set some time aside to read it slowly as it contains important concepts that will demand all of your attention. Blessings!

The Lost Art of Dialogue

It seems, and I am only speaking from my warped perspective here, but all the same... it still seems that we are losing this whole concept of dialogue. What do I mean?

I wish to address two issues in this little diatribe of mine: the first relates to dialogue as in discussion, and the second, relates to dialogue as it relates to discovery of truth.

What is a dialogue? To begin with the basics, a dialogue is a discussion between two or more people, and this discussion, if we dig just a little deeper, deals with much more than words. A dialogue is a conversation between two or more people over dinner, coffee or a game. It took place in a room with people sitting around each other because words were only part of a dialogue. Words were accompanied by expressions, body posture, countenance and so many more no verbal forms of communication that were equally important in the dialogue. It was the primary form of entertainment for a long period of time, but today it is slowly dying, and we all should be very concerned (see the second issue).

What I see today is too many of us listening to our Ipods, MP3 players, Ipads and Kindles and not talking to our fellow men and women. Now, I do not think these things are inherently evil, but I do think that they, like anything else, if taken to the extreme are detrimental. And, frankly, we are reaching that point. I was flying home from Arizona last year and decided to do a little self survey as I was waiting for my plane. What I wanted to find out was how many people were listening to some device in their own little world versus how many people were having conversations with their fellow man. What I found was disturbing. The only people having conversations were those engaged with gate attendants or those traveling together. All others were doing one of three things: talking on a cell phone, listening to an Ipod or MP3 Player or working on a laptop. As far as I could tell - there were no conversations taking place between strangers at my gate. To me, this is disturbing on several fronts, but with little space left, let's move to my second issue.

When defining dialogue there is another definition that accompanies the first, and it goes like this:

"to discuss areas of disagreement frankly in order to resolve them."

Dialogue is "the" main component in resolution, and that dialogue must take place face-to-face. Jesus, in Matthew 18:15, instructed us to go to our brother in order to resolve conflict. This "going" implies sitting down face-to-face and discussing one's differences in order to resolve them. This couples with Jesus' famous statement instructing his Believers that when two or three gather in his name He is with them, He, being Jesus, who proclaimed that He was the way, the truth and the life. Dialogue, whether you believe in Jesus or not, is the pathway to resolution and truth. As it disappears, our abilities to resolve our issues disappear as do our abilities to make good decisions that lead to some sort of truth.

There will be those who offer the question: what about texting? What about it? I believe it is a poor substitute for actual dialogue or conversation. Why? Texting allows only the word part of communication. Dialogue is so much more; to limit it to only words is not really communicating. When we communicate via texting or even email we tend to be more extreme. We tend to be much more polar either way. Sitting across the table from another in dialogue tends to force both parties towards are more amicable exchange, and the end result is a better exchange of information and ultimately a true and closer relationship.

My last point is this: dialogue is a form of thinking in highest of categories. Sitting down and exchanging ideas with someone who does not share your original ideas in a loving and calm manner benefits both parties because two minds are better than one. Eliminating dialogue eliminates the ability to think in these higher categories and forms polarized parties not willing to compromise for the greater good on anything because it detracts from what their own party believes, and that is exactly what we find in our political process today.

The dialogue is something we should work on each day, especially those of us in Christ. Next time your out strike up a conversation with someone you don't know with the goal of getting to know them and adding to what you do not know. It will be hard at first, but I promise, it will get easier as it becomes a habit once again. Blessings!