i’m a twenty-something starting this journey called life. i’m getting married in february to my one true love and i have a voice in my head whispering “mission…”
We have the internet at my house again! I don’t have to trek to coffee shops and other places to work after hours! Yay! In other news — I had my foot x-rayed this afternoon in the city. Luckily no break, just soft tissue damage likely indicating severely strained ligaments. 4 advil x 3 times a day x a couple of weeks will hopefully do the trick (hopefully). In other, other news — vacation starts Thursday. While I will still have work to do, the break from everyday routine will be nice.
Friday night I went with Dr. Chris to see I Am Legend — the new Will Smith movie. Those that have only seen the trailer might be surprised to discover that it is a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. Unlike most zombie movies though, it is not excessive in its violence nor is it the centerpiece of the movie. Rather, the character of Dr. Neville is the focus (and his drive to save humanity).
The cinematic themes were certainly interesting. Will Smith did a fantastic job portraying a man deprived of human contact for years. It was certainly interesting to watch the psychological breakdown of one plagued by his own echoing voice by day (and the scream of vampiric zombies by night). His relationship with man’s best friend (Sammy, a german shepherd) and the mannequins he’s placed around common haunts is intriguing, particularly as they begin to breakdown.
Another interesting thread is rooted in the spiritual side of things. The good doctor passes numerous “God is for us!” signs. He himself shows no signs of faith though until the very end. Instead he approaches the tragedy at first as man undoing himself irregardless of God (“God didn’t do this; we did”). Within this worldview, nature isn’t in the hand of a sovereign God; humanity (or probably better put: science) is king. Salvation cannot be found though apart from a higher, guiding force, forcing Dr. Neville to confront a faith he never had. And just as with any story seriously examining salvation themes, a sacrifice is required.
All things considered I really enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t nearly as violent as other zombie movies I’ve seen, yet it was able to explore similar themes. The acting was superb as well. Smith does a fantastic job sharing the screen with just himself. There were downsides though. I was hoping for a highly level of intensity. Stylistically, intensity can draw you into a film much more easily than an even keel pace. And while the film makers did a good job of intermixing back story with the film’s present, I felt the story could have been better presented. Overall I’d give it 3.5-4 stars out of 5 (the final verdict is still out for me) and recommend anyone see it.
So our yard no longer looks exactly like a mild warzone. Instead, an orc village comes to mind. I’m working on getting pics up, but imagine a yard fenced in by stacks and stacks of limbs. And that’s our house.
We spent the better part of Saturday working to get things like this. We started in our yard, doing about a third of the backyard and all of our front yard. We then broke for lunch (triple options all around) and headed to a friends to do his backyard. Then back to our house to finish our backyard (truth be told my foot was killing me by this point so I had to slow down…it’s getting x-rayed on Monday so hopefully that’ll get cleared up soon).
Sunday will probably contain much of the same. A trip to campus is the first thing on the agenda (3rd Sunday maintenance) and then to cluster where we’ll go around and clear some neighborhood folk’s lawns. Should be good times.
Well — that’s a brief rundown of what’s going on around these points. I’m still without internet (and that’s not likely to change any time soon) so I’ll probably be scarce on the interwebs. Ya’ll will understand though, I’m sure.
The second chapter, titled Fear and the Moral Life, starts with the question: what does fear do to us? The answer to this question has its beginnings in the moral nature of fear as fear is a basic emotion which isn’t morally neutral (this is not to say fear is bad, but that it, like all other strong emotions has a moral edge to it). A culture of fear plays off of these emotions in a rather morally dubious way. Rather than putting fear into its appropriate place (reaction to a temporary threat) it becomes the lens through which we see the world (we are constantly in danger). And essentially, our drive for self-preservation becomes our means of self-destruction.To further expound on the morally dubious dilemma created, an ethic of safety becomes the common bond in cultures plagued by fear. Being morally dubious, ethics of safety (1) cast suspicion on everything (the stranger seises to become our neighbor), (2) creates a need for a preemptive fight response (an innocent electrician is shot in the head because he looks like a terrorist), and (3) cause accumulation of that which makes us secure (rationalization for greed).This basically sums what I got from chapter two. Now, onto the study questions…
How are fears taught in our society?
The home is the first place anyone will learn fear. Generally speaking, kids will take on the fears of their parents (and other relatives) starting from an early age. More and more though we live in a culture shaped increasingly by media. The first chapter of the book talks about fear selling and media outlets have mastered this art. Also the speech and actions of public officials guide the fears of communities.
Do you or those around you live by an ethic of safety?
Now is an interesting time to answer this question in Norman, plagued as we were by ice and the looming threat of snow. Walking into [walmart][1] or [target][2] makes this ethic visible (particularly the accumulation piece in those stores). The other pieces (as well as accumulation) I see visible in how Americans approach the world (generally speaking, suspicion is cast on all Arabs, the whole war on terror preemptive fighting, and the pressure to accumulate wealth weighs quite heavy — I couldn’t count on my fingers the number of conversations I’ve had about this supposed need).
Amazing. He definitively finds out about Iran suspending arms production in August and in October is still claiming they are doing it and pushing for WWIII. He wants an Iraq cluster all over again. And his rhetoric sounds no different than Clinton trying to define “is”. With each passing day I’m more disappointed that I actually voted for him.
I haven’t written much about life lately. Truth be told I’ve been busy enough with fairly mundane things that there hasn’t been much worthy of writing about. For those interested in a lighter update though, perhaps this will appease you.
This weekend was one of the nicer weekends I’ve had in awhile. Thursday night the Lebeau’s and I had our own version of the FinerThings Club. We didn’t exactly dress up, but we did have veggie lasagna rolls, baby greens with walnuts, cranberries and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing and a Blackstone pinot noir wine. The Blackstone is one of the finer pinot noir’s that I have had — I highly recommend it if you ever come across it. While at dinner Cathleen mentioned her graduation and they invited me along to keep Justin company (and provide a bit of a buffer for the family). So that’s what I did Friday night. We left town about 5:15 and got back 10ish and it was a lot more fun than any of us expected.
Saturday morning was spent troubleshooting computer problems in Purcell. After a quick trip through Mardel’s, the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and reading. That night I headed to some friends for chicken chili and the big 12 championship game. OU of course won decisively and are now headed to the Fiesta Bowl. I slept in on Sunday, did some laundry and cleaning, went to church and then spent the evening with some friends. Last night (Monday) I also made some really good peppermint cookies. I’ve got leftovers if you like that sort of thing…Anyways there’s a brief life update for those interested.
After doing some freelance work this morning, I stopped by Mardel’s to see if there were any sales happening. There really weren’t any but there was a book that caught my eye: Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear by Scot Bader-Saye. As I said, the title struck me so I picked it up to take a look at the back. The description read much as I expected it would after seeing the title. There were a couple of things though that immediately grabbed me: it is edited by the author of another book I’m reading now and loving (Torture and Eucharist) and it is promoted by two other authors I highly respect so I ended up picking it up. One nice thing about this book is that it includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter so it gives me something to explore and write about here. And so that is what I’ll do, starting with chapter 1, Fear for Profit.
Chapter 1 starts by examining how fear is sold in our culture. Fear, like sex, is a primal drive in humanity and appeals to us at a real basic level (just as sex/lust does). That makes fear quite profitable. Just look at any media source — stories are designed to draw us in using fear (*look what happened to X and here’s what you can do to prevent it from happening to you!, etc, ad nauseam). I worked in an office that for six months required CNN being on all day everyday; watching it that much made this point easy to see. Media isn’t the only source of fear peddling — our government uses it as well (the example given in the book regards the Bush’s administration linking Hussein to 9/11 to escalate public support of an invasion) as does the church (think how in some evangelical circles individuals are calling for an increased separation from the world at large and peddling products to go along with it). And with that briefest of chapter descriptions, discussion questions:
George Gerbner describes a “mean world syndrome.” Does this hold true in your experiences?
First of all, a definition. The “mean world syndrome” comes from a study of TV and violence. The study sought to link TV viewing to violent tendencies but instead found TV viewing better linked to an exaggerated fearfulness. And in my experiences I would say that this definitely holds true. Even just thinking back to the six months were I was constantly bombarded with CNN, there were many times when I’d have to get up and find somewhere else to work (or risk a director’s wrath and just turn off the TV). Even before reading this book or hearing the phrase “mean world syndrome” the pushing of fear by media is something that myself and co-workers discussed many times.
How can we avoid being manipulated by fear mongering?
I’ll give three things that immediately come to mind. The first I alluded to above: clear your mind every once in awhile. Turn off the TV. Go outside and forget about everything you may have seen and/or heard. Remove yourself from it for at least a spell. The second follows along with the first: be diligent in renewing your mind constantly (hopefully putting yourself in a place to pick out the manipulation). Being a spiritual person my how-to for this point would be prayer, meditation, scripture and community involvement and while I think this works best it might look different for other folks. The third is a simple call to wisdom: take a serious look at the issues presented definitely but know what matters and what doesn’t. Know that you can make numbers say whatever you want them to. Know that just because something happens every once in awhile doesn’t mean its every going to happen to you. (In truth for many of the things the media presents us with the likely hood of it happening is less than 1% and isn’t something we should even be bothered by)
Is the fear of hell as used in evangelism a legitimate use of fear?
Now this is something I’ve written of before. My short and sweet answer is no. My drawn out answer speaks to two areas: evangelism in the New Testament as well as personal example. First of all, evangelism in the NT: when Jesus came up beside someone His words were “Repent for the kingdom is near!” not “Repent or you’ll burn in hell!” This is off the top of my head but I can’t think of a circumstance where fear is used as a valid means of evangelization. Now for the second area, personal example: the story of one friend immediately comes to mind. He told me of growing up in a SB church and having hell thrust down his throat. He told me of being so scared that of course he did what the preacher said to do. He then talked of growing up and realizing how ridiculous it was that he was still afraid and how much he DIDN’T want to be involved in the church because of the fear they produced. His isn’t the only story like that that I’ve encountered. I’ve known many who have been completely turned off to the church because of this notion of fear and many who have walked away from the church because they saw and knew nothing of God other than fear and wanted no part. I see fear as having no legitimate part in evangelism.
Feel free to leave answers too if you are up for interacting…
