"For educating characters you do not need a moral genius, but you do need a man who is wholly alive and able to communicate himself directly to his fellow beings. His aliveness streams out to them and affects them most strongly and purely when he has no thought of affecting them." Earlier he defines character as "the link between what this individual is and the sequence of his actions and attitudes." (Martin Buber in a speech called The Education of Character)
This is one of my all time famous quotes. It gives me hope and directs me in my pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge of many books and skills of rhetoric (quick mind and smooth tongue) are not central keys. When I read about a man "wholly alive" I imagine someone totally engaged in life, loving and caring for his family, meeting and seeing real people, taking care of responsibilities, actually praying and meeting with God. These are the things I am working on and pursuing.
(PS I do intend a second part to the beach walking ... just don't see myself having the time for another week or so).
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
TWO WAYS OF WALKING ON A BEACH
Part I
This morning I was walking on the beach with Cate, my 2 year old and here are some of the things I saw.
1. Undeveloped male body (skinny, maybe 15) and an over-developed female who were awkwardly flirting with the waves and each other.
2. Underdeveloped male body who had likely wasted hundreds of hours with weights so his body could be covered in tiny, but firm looking, muscles. He was playing dance music and talking with four bikini women.
3. A shirtless man wearing black cowboy boots and black jeans with a brown paper covered bottle at his side. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but I did wonder if he was alive, he was so deep in the sand.
4. Club La Veda with "party with thousands" on the sign and for some reason, the kind of ad billboards that you see at baseball games. I am disturbed at what games might be played there ... the main supporters were Trojan Condoms and American Eagle.
5. I saw other things not so bad, family playing together, leathered old people stretching out for another smoke, more bikini women.
It wasn't until we started back that I realized my daughter never saw any of these things. She was completely transfixed with delight and fear and wonder at the ocean waves. Or was looking down at her feet walking on the soft wet sand. There was something incredible and unusual before her eyes and feet and so she directed all attention toward the beautiful curiosity we call the beach.
I followed her lead and stared into the vastness of blue water and down at our wandering feet and down at her brown head. Wonder began to do its work and I felt more childlike. My daughter and I were both walking along the beach, but it took me watching her to be pulled into the present moment, a precious moment that would be over and done with within the week. The sea is vast and always moving. The waves roll and toss in joyful patterns, lapping at our feet and it took my daughter Cate to show me how to enjoy them.
This morning I was walking on the beach with Cate, my 2 year old and here are some of the things I saw.
1. Undeveloped male body (skinny, maybe 15) and an over-developed female who were awkwardly flirting with the waves and each other.
2. Underdeveloped male body who had likely wasted hundreds of hours with weights so his body could be covered in tiny, but firm looking, muscles. He was playing dance music and talking with four bikini women.
3. A shirtless man wearing black cowboy boots and black jeans with a brown paper covered bottle at his side. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but I did wonder if he was alive, he was so deep in the sand.
4. Club La Veda with "party with thousands" on the sign and for some reason, the kind of ad billboards that you see at baseball games. I am disturbed at what games might be played there ... the main supporters were Trojan Condoms and American Eagle.
5. I saw other things not so bad, family playing together, leathered old people stretching out for another smoke, more bikini women.
It wasn't until we started back that I realized my daughter never saw any of these things. She was completely transfixed with delight and fear and wonder at the ocean waves. Or was looking down at her feet walking on the soft wet sand. There was something incredible and unusual before her eyes and feet and so she directed all attention toward the beautiful curiosity we call the beach.
I followed her lead and stared into the vastness of blue water and down at our wandering feet and down at her brown head. Wonder began to do its work and I felt more childlike. My daughter and I were both walking along the beach, but it took me watching her to be pulled into the present moment, a precious moment that would be over and done with within the week. The sea is vast and always moving. The waves roll and toss in joyful patterns, lapping at our feet and it took my daughter Cate to show me how to enjoy them.
Monday, April 02, 2007
American Problems (are my problems)
A theory I have of late is that economy and capitalism, or more precisely the greedy men making all the money, are quite happy to push Americans (and maybe the whole world) toward more and more autonomy and individual choice, labeling it freedom. They have reason to do this on both sides of the equation. First, this creates loads of new business, not only through overbuying due to choice, but the service economy is booming due to the impoverishment of "relational capital." As more of us seek to increase our financial capital we do so at the expense of friends and family which increases our need to buy dinner, entertainment, sex, counsel and even kindness.
And on the other side of things, if we are split off from any deep human connection, specifically our spouse and children, even in a philosophical way, we are of better use to the companies of employment. With no one staying home with the children (that is another booming service) we have nearly doubled the work force. Beyond that, with no philosophical or religious lines drawn to protect the family, coupled with our desperate need to own all the new technology and services, the new cars and new houses, we will overwork and travel and relocate and are at the mercy of the companies will. All this we call freedom and democracy.
Wendell Berry comments that feminism may very well have "liberated" women from the home, but it has enslaved both men and women to the heirarchy of corporations. The average woman of the past was never as inhumanly treated as the typical employee and also was never as unquestionably obedient.
But before you (or I) let American capitalism form itself into a demonic giant pulling strings and drunk with power, consider this: Capitalism is not such an all encompassing philosophy and the business men are not that interested or capable of that level of control. They just keep an eye out for any opportunity to make a buck.
But what is all this rambling anyway. I have only cleverly asserted manivolent ideas about a pejorative entity. I have just capitalized on the cheap amen that America has gone way wrong and that big business (i.e. Whitie or The Man) are the source of our problem. I have not offered one shred of insight into the real problem, us, human beings. Why do we do these things? Why do we create such a culture? How can we see it change or be part of the change?
This is the point that I think too many modern writers are unwilling to concede to Jesus and the Bible and the secondary sources that stream from it. Jesus usually doesn't seem that concerned about these clever assessments of the larger problems. Instead of getting high fives for seeing through the Roman Empire or even the system of priests, he was able to cut right to the human heart of the individual and by doing so is able to cut to our hearts as well. Let us be clear, Jesus did want priest's to stop eating up the widows and orphans, but he knew that the real problem was the evil sea rumbling inside their chest ... that evil systems weren't evil systems, but the creation of fallen men.
I imagine he would turn and chastise all of us who continue to serve "the man" so we can have everything for ourselves. It is us that have the problem in that we don't lose our lives to save it ... we are all spending money trying to save our lives and so we find them completely lost and enslaved (to sin and system and systems of sin). We are all in need of repentance if the world is to change ... we must give our lives to community and family in order to serve Jesus.
And on the other side of things, if we are split off from any deep human connection, specifically our spouse and children, even in a philosophical way, we are of better use to the companies of employment. With no one staying home with the children (that is another booming service) we have nearly doubled the work force. Beyond that, with no philosophical or religious lines drawn to protect the family, coupled with our desperate need to own all the new technology and services, the new cars and new houses, we will overwork and travel and relocate and are at the mercy of the companies will. All this we call freedom and democracy.
Wendell Berry comments that feminism may very well have "liberated" women from the home, but it has enslaved both men and women to the heirarchy of corporations. The average woman of the past was never as inhumanly treated as the typical employee and also was never as unquestionably obedient.
But before you (or I) let American capitalism form itself into a demonic giant pulling strings and drunk with power, consider this: Capitalism is not such an all encompassing philosophy and the business men are not that interested or capable of that level of control. They just keep an eye out for any opportunity to make a buck.
But what is all this rambling anyway. I have only cleverly asserted manivolent ideas about a pejorative entity. I have just capitalized on the cheap amen that America has gone way wrong and that big business (i.e. Whitie or The Man) are the source of our problem. I have not offered one shred of insight into the real problem, us, human beings. Why do we do these things? Why do we create such a culture? How can we see it change or be part of the change?
This is the point that I think too many modern writers are unwilling to concede to Jesus and the Bible and the secondary sources that stream from it. Jesus usually doesn't seem that concerned about these clever assessments of the larger problems. Instead of getting high fives for seeing through the Roman Empire or even the system of priests, he was able to cut right to the human heart of the individual and by doing so is able to cut to our hearts as well. Let us be clear, Jesus did want priest's to stop eating up the widows and orphans, but he knew that the real problem was the evil sea rumbling inside their chest ... that evil systems weren't evil systems, but the creation of fallen men.
I imagine he would turn and chastise all of us who continue to serve "the man" so we can have everything for ourselves. It is us that have the problem in that we don't lose our lives to save it ... we are all spending money trying to save our lives and so we find them completely lost and enslaved (to sin and system and systems of sin). We are all in need of repentance if the world is to change ... we must give our lives to community and family in order to serve Jesus.
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