Michael and Becca Hughes came over to the Friday night dinner. They are moving into the neighborhood, just down the street, so we are very happy to have them with us. But they also came over because Michael and I are doing some music tomorrow in worship: “He Reached Down,” an Iris Dement song; “Moses Put Your Shoes On,” a kind of fast bluegrass number; and Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me, Lord?” I am playing mandolin on the first and last, which is an instrument I am really getting to love. Luckily, Michael can carry a lot of the load, so I just show up and play a few chords—cause that’s all I know…
Around the dinner table, Michael, Rebecca, Melissa, Jessie and I got into a discussion that started out on how if you love the medieval period (and Michael and Becca did some architecture studies in Italy), this “postmodern” thing is no surprise. They may be nothing more postmodern, Michael said, than a baptistery he saw in… and I can’t remember the city! I agree; the cathedral of Notre Dame—postmodern. James Joyce knew that the Pearl-poem was more “modern” than his novel, Ulysses.
We got into crop biodiversity. And the slow food movement. And why the slow food movement has not necessarily invaded other aspects of our lives—such as relationships, or work. Michael opined that it’s because of a perfect storm that happened in urban planning and house development: cars, air conditioning, and t.v. Cars have us going all over, abandoning the “places” of our lives for significant stretches. AC means no more big porches. And t.v. means you look at the box, and you don’t have to talk to anyone.
Can technology aid the slowing down? So far it doesn’t look good. My Blackberry does if I make it—that is, I get more done during the day and turn it off at night. Otherwise, I ended up doing stuff I did not finish at home. Michael and I were on youtube looking up Bob Dylan and Bill Monroe. So there’s a chance to use it for a purpose besides something that is just done alone.
It will take some real thinking about how to slow down.
1 comment:
Yeah, there was a lot post-modern about the Middle Ages, I agree. I think the Canterbury Tales are also post-modern in some ways--the ventriloquism, the fracturing of perspectives. On the other hand, at least when you're talking about Europe it would be hard to say that the Middle Ages are truly post-modern, because they were very Christian. So, finally, they thought there was a true God whom all the diverse signs in the world referenced. There's a Julian Wasserman book that talks about this, though I can't think offhand of the name. You might know it, anyway. If post-modernism is about the ultimate absence of a referent-- the assertion that "a Messiah by definition never arrives"--then medieval European types believed the opposite. Now, me, I wouldn't say that a post-modern perspective is necessarily incompatible with most of Christianity, but that's probably only because I am a Buddhist and like to have things both ways.
Re your post below, science fiction! Do you know Iain Banks's culture series? Ideologically, you would probably hate it, but it's kind of neat in that whole "look at all these strange kinds of creatures living together" sort of way. I also love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for that. My favorite one lately though is Margaret Atwood's _Oryx and Crake_. If you don't know it, I think you might like it--it's less preachy than her other stuff, and just generally better. And it's kind of in line with what all you like to bang on about on this here blog. ;-)
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