Here is our thread for continued discussion of Living Into Focus by Arthur Boers. Here we’ll start covering chapter 8 and see how far we can get before the comments get crowded enough to make another thread. I found chapters 8-10 to be one of the most (maybe the most) thought-provoking sections of the entire book. This should be interesting.
I am enjoying reading the comments and sharing thoughts. It has been edifying.
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My thoughts on ch. 8:
1) His points about ‘netiquette’ are well taken.
2) I thought his point (on p. 116) about how our expectations of people are shaped by our expectations of technology were good: “We want quick, predictable, consistent, reliable responses…and when expectations are not met we may react by flaming with rage or rejection.”
My takeaway is that I need to consider whether I am treating people as if they are things to be used, and shaping my expectations accordingly. I am also reminded to deal with people in person whenever possible, rather than through technology.
My thoughts/interests in Chapter 8:
-“Road rage…in significant ways a technologically abetted- if not technologically induced- problem. This disorder is facilitated by how we interact on roads and expectations that our devices raise. Brian Ladd… “the freedom offered by the automobile encourages aggression.” -pg110
-“Anxious people and systems like to move in haste… A priority in conflict transformation is to remain calm… Email, however, encourages and abets impulsivity.” -Pg113
-On pg 115 Boers talks about internet aggression. I thought back to a previous chapter when he had mentioned the dopamine effect that becomes linked to checking one’s email compulsively. It made me wonder what kinds of chemical pay-offs we create in our body when we participate in internet fights. Is there a sort of adrenaline rush involved? Is the chemical conditioning similar to what we find in our love for action/thriller/horror films?
-“I have learned that whenever I’m tempted to say, ‘I don’t need this,’ I must pause and pay close attention because that may in fact be the very thing or person that I most need. It is when I engage criticism or unpleasantness within my relationships that I have the greatest potential for growth.” -Pg 117 Technology has definitely assisted me in avoiding conflict. This quote helps me to remember why one might choose to NOT avoid conflict.
Impulsiveness, chemical rushes, conflict causes and conflict avoidance. I think I’ve experienced every one of those via the internet…and cars.
Ch 8 Notes:
-“Letter writing is a form of communication that involves pauses and slow progress. It is a labor intensive and an invitation to be thoughtful and reflective.” -Pg 120
*I am reminded here of CS Lewis, who refused to use typewriters in his day, preferring instead a pen and inkwell. He said that the time it took to dip the pen helped create a meditative rhythm in his thinking. He also said that the noise of the typewriter was a distraction. (I can only imagine what he would have thought of the noise we endure today…) I can also testify to the difference in how I think through what I am going to write now that I can form it on a keyboard at lightning speed, and hit backspace whenever I should so desire. The way I think is very different from when I used to write everything by hand. I AM RESOLVING TO TAKE UP THE ART OF LETTER WRITING TO EXPLORE THIS FURTHER.
-Pg 111-112 Has good food for thought on the “quality time” catch phrase in relation to family time. I AM RESOLVING TO RECOGNIZE THE LIMITATIONS OF MY OWN LIFE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THIS, AND DECREASE SOME OF MY ATTEMPTS TO “CRAM MORE INTO MY WEEK.” That attitude leads to alot of poorly tended to activities. Of those activities, our time spent with people is the least of which that can afford being poorly tended to.
-“Pressures mount from all the duties that we feel obliged to honor and accomplish and the standards we feel compelled and urged to meet. This is the real reason for many gripes mentioned above: traffic jams, computer crashes, email spam, internet viruses. They are not merely annoyances but also true obstacles to fulfilling steadily mounting obligations… Technological exposure affects perception of time…” pg 112
* This reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day. He mentioned having purchased the newest edition of the iPhone. I asked if there were any monumental changes to the system. He said no, but went on to mention some aspects that would save him time, which attracted him to purchase the device. I remarked how those developments would only save him time until there was a large portion of society that ALSO HAD such capabilities. At that point, such capabilities would not save time, because they would become an expectation, and the free time afforded by them would be comandeered for MORE expectations. In this way, new technology often works like taking out a loan- you still eventually have to pay, and often with interest. Thus pressures increase as perception is warped.
-“It is harder and harder to find repair people willing to fix tape recorders, stereo systems, computers, answering machines, and microwaves. The few remaining repair people often give a predictable response that it would cost just as much to buy a new device as it would to try and fix the broken one. Our technically sophisticated inventions create insurmountable waste issues… I wonder if our attitude of obsolescence also frames the way we experience relationships.” -Pg117
*I often think about the issue of quality in relation to consumer goods but I HADN’T THOUGHT ABOUT OUR DISPOSABLE CULTURE’S SUGGESTIVE EFFECTS ON HUMAN INTERACTION. His statement reminds me of a scene in the book/movie “Fight Club” where the main character explains how on airplanes everything is served in single-servings, (food, drink, condiments, etc) including your “friends”. People act like friends when sitting next to each other on the flight. After the flight they go on with life, forgetting each other because they were just “single-serving friends.”
I like to say that there should be no such thing as ‘small talk.’ Lewis makes the point in the Weight of Glory that we have never spoken to a mere mortal. It’s hard to remember that when you know you’re never going to speak to someone again (or are you?).
Your point about letter writing is interesting. I’ve thought about this myself for some time. I’m a big Peyton Manning fan from way back and I’ve read over the years of his habit of hand writing notes of appreciation to people on a regular basis, and how much those notes have meant to people. That inspired me a while back to start hand writing some notes for my wife and kids, but I don’t do it often.
Last week I picked up Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas. The writing style of the letters is amazing. He intertwines colors and uses various handwriting styles. No wonder his family preserved them. I don’t think the effect would have been the same had he used Times New Roman and Comic Sans.
Besides all that, I have been watching my 8-year-old daughter improve her penmanship on an almost daily basis. It is an amazing thing to watch. It makes me think about my own penmanship, which I used to take pride in. At my work it seems like every teenager that we hire writes worse than an 8-year-old. A) They don’t write that much these days and B) they don’t really care.
I’m with you on this one.
Ch 9 Notes:
-“‘Public trust among strangers in social settings is eroding.’…but such [technological] connections tend to be tenuous, issue- or hobby-specific, and limited. Less and less are our relationships complex, ongoing, face-to-face, year-after-year… Our engagements with others are indirect, mediated through technologies.” -pg 112, 123
-“Jane Jacobs established that it is in the abundance of casual, informal, and impromptu street encounters that trust and security are built.” -Pg 124
*My wife, children, and I recently moved into a house. Before that we were always in apartments. It has been interesting to note how it was far easier for us to get to know our neighbors in apartments than in our own house. One of my neighbors listens to an mp3 player with noise-canceling earbuds EVERY TIME he comes outside. His wife only comes out via the garage, already in her car, windows up. My other neighbor only comes outside to talk on his phone, away from his elderly mother. In apartments, space confinement requires people to come outside more. Also, without garages, people naturally have to encounter each other more often in apartments.
-The conversation about the Pennsylvanian mining town, Rosetto, was very interesting. (Starts on pg 126.) I watched a presentation about “centenarians” once (people who live to 100 or more.) In it, one of the things noted was how important community and family were in all the places in the world where people showed high rates of longevity. Also, there was respect and purpose for the elderly in such places. This section further reinforced my previous resolution to spend QUANTITATIVE TIME with friends and family, not merely “qualitative time.”
-On pg 129 Arthur Boers talks about all the email prayer requests, etc he gets. At my church, they’ve had a difficult time getting people to show up for Wednesday prayer meetings. What they decided to do was have scheduled phone conference times on Wednesday to have a prayer meeting by phone… Luckily that didn’t last. One thing my wife pointed out was that in Boers examples, he never mentions getting pelted with prayers of praise or adoration about God. All prayer requests are needs. Often times it seems like people are just giving prayer requests as a holy form of complaining to their neighbor. I’ve observed this style of “share and prayer” complaining in almost every Christian community gathering I’ve been a part of. We are short on thanks, and long on complaints. Perhaps this is a significant factor to people feeling burdened by so much prayer email, and not wanting to attend a Wednesday night prayer group. I think Boer’s comments are valid here, but I also think what I’ve mentioned here also contributes to the issue.
-Burger King’s dropping a friend on Facebook for a sandwich gag was hilarious (pg 130) I just have to say… “Relationships that are not based on shared responsibilities, shared difficulties, and shared experience… are superficial and unsatisfactory. (pg 130)” I think this is one of the main reasons why short-term missions trips are REALLY so popular for modern people. For all the talk about their motivations being otherwise, I think such “mission trips” are actually compelling for people because of their desire to know and be known by others. On mission trips, a group of people can grow very tight through the sharing of responsibilities, difficulties, and experiences. I’ve known such groups to have reunions weeks or months after their couple-week trip to Zambia, or wherever. They make T-shirts, have special nicknames for each other, and are loaded with shared stories… The bummer is, they go back to the USA and pick things up in the exact same way in which they had left them.
-“None of this means that technology cannot help with communication or even build community.” (pg131) Yes, I agree. The way I’ve been thinking about it lately is that we need to be careful about the “illusion of cost-cutting.” Often times we think technology is a way to cut costs out of our life, whether those costs be money, time, effort or otherwise. The problem is, we usually cannot actually cut costs, we can only change currencies and defer payments. So we use technology to create cheaper garments. Seems like we’ve cut costs… Until we learn that the environment and the laborers pay a steep price. We buy white bread, and it costs a 5th of what we might have paid. Seems like we’ve cut costs… Until we learn what price our health pays. We get involved in a bunch of social networking. What a time and effort saver! Seems like we’ve cut costs… until we realize how we’ve paid a price in the depth of our relationships… So often we just shift costs around… Technology CAN help us, I believe, but we must ask when we use it where a cost went, when we seemingly reduced it with technology.
“Technology for turning devices off exists. Our willingness to use it is the issue. Rather than being perpetually available to others far away, let us choose to be present and attentive to the person nearby.” (pg 135) Great resolution.
-Robert Farrar Capon “The Supper of the Lamb” sounds like an interesting book
On technology as mediation: At some point Boers mentions a teacher who says his students look at him like a talking head on TV. They don’t even realize they are being rude when they ignore him and the like. He’s just so much background noise.
You mentioned face-to-face interaction and new neighbors who don’t interact. I have found the same thing, and have been guilty of that myself, many times. For some reason, reading your thoughts made me think about my job. I work in a locally owned retail pharmacy. We have several customers who have been with us since the store opened in the early 80s. We have others who are brand new; and others who simply come in to pay utility bills. The difference between these groups is amazing.
The older customers tend to linger and chat. They actually keep coming because of relationships. The newer ones often like the feel of a community pharmacy and they are looking for that same thing. The utility payment customers, however, drive us insane. They come in talking on their phones. They throw their keys and purses down on the counters. They stare at their phones as they hand you their money. Today I saw one totally ignore a clerk while he apologized to the person he was talking to on the phone for going into the store during his conversation. He never said a word to the clerk.
The one group of customers that we’re not getting is people my age (early 30s). A lot of us don’t need medicine. And the ones who do, I think, tend to prefer chain stores because they provide anonymity and less interaction. If you come to our store we will make it a point to know your name. We will get to know you if you allow us. Many don’t want that. Chesterton said that the adage ‘Man is born free but everywhere is in chains’ was a reference to chain stores. Boy was he ahead of his times. Chain stores have given people the liberty of not having to deal with people on a personal basis, which is actually a form of self-centered bondage.
Chain stores as a form of self-centered bondage. That is a supreme irony, since chain stores are connecting to more people than independents, but qualitatively are decreasing connection.
I’ve seen this in my work as well. When I used to be a sales rep for vitamins and herbs, I would visit large chains as well as independent “mom and pop shops”. The independents had solid customer basis and knew their customers much in the same fashion you are talking about- despite being in a major metropolitan area, (Dallas). The chain stores find new ways to become “more efficient” every year. They continue to implement “programs” and to have “protocols” for things, removing any need for human discernment.
Whole Foods Market is the most interesting example of this. They used to function alot like the mom and pop stores, but when Sprouts came onto the scene, they were forced to change their model somehow or go out of business. Sprouts replicated itself in multiple places throughout the city, all around Whole Foods. In so doing, they effectively cut them off from the business of people who shop at Whole Foods for convenience. Sprouts also ran advertising campaigns to appear cheaper than WFM, which was effective. They are actually not cheaper in almost all categories. Investment banking reports show this, (the recaps even say things like “we were surprised to find this out…”) Sprouts creates the illusion of value simply by NOT carrying high quality items, so when you are shopping there, you will never come across a sku and say “wow that is crazy-expensive, what an expensive store.”
Anyways, when Sprouts took off like wildfire, they really bit into Whole Foods Market’s business. Whole Foods Market reacted by becoming more like “the rest of the grocery stores” (including Sprouts) in order to stay in business. They started creating alot more stores, but the new stores were smaller and had way less to offer. This in turn meant that customers were routinely disappointed, and that with less revenue coming in, employees were paid less and required to work harder. Once WFM started this, they just kept going. They are implementing more and more “programs” and “cost-cutting” tools to stay competitive every year. It used to be that employees at WFM had job histories that went 10 and 20 years long. It was not unusual. Now their employees span the typical range of any grocery store- 6 months, a year, possibly 3 years for a more committed person.
I could talk alot about this, but suffice it to say I find WFM fascinating because they were a mom and pop that found a way to take elements of chain stores and do something compromised, but still largely satisfactory, and yet they couldn’t hold on to that model forever. Eventually with pressure from competition, and new managers that lacked the vision of the old guard, they succumbed to the same unpleasantries of most chain stores. Team members are still required to provide a quality of service that includes walking every customer directly to whatever item they ask the location of, but they now feel harried, rushing about trying to get everything done, with rapidly decreasing interest in the product they sell, the employees they work with, and the people they sell to. Most of them eat their lunches while working, if they eat at all, despite the fact that WFM is supposed to be all about nutrition. They eat organic, whole grain wheat and free-range meat, and they slam it down their throats while trying to “answer all their work emails”, etc.
Such employees could go work at the independents to find relief, but they wouldn’t pay them as much and they wouldn’t receive all those lovely “job benefits” that large corporations provide. “A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance.” -Wendell Berry
Great Berry quote.
We had a Whole Foods open here about a year ago. I’ve been there maybe two or three times. I was excited to check it out after it opened, but found It really feels like just another chain store to me. We have a locally owned organic, whole foods, vegan friendly place in town and it is totally different.
Again I quote Martyn Lloyd-Jones: ‘Institutions tend to become their opposites.’
My Thoughts/Interests in Ch 9
-The story of the two guys in separate cars listening to the same music was impactful. “They were oblivious to each other and their surroundings. They preferred the manufactured consolations of machinery.” (pg 122)
-“Even as families shrank during the last few decades, garages expanded…” (pg 123) The description makes me think of a shrine for an idol. Our garages are like a temple in which we place our cars, which represent the god-like powers of mobility, independence, control, and efficiency.
-“As reported in the American Scientific Review, a cross section of Americans in 1984 had around three confidants. Less than twenty years later, in 2004, those numbers dropped to the point where as many as one-fourth of Americans said they had no confidants…” -Pg 124 Of course, how do you confide in someone you treat with fleeting superficiality, and pragmatic, machine-like scrutinization?
-“Internet could be the ultimate isolating technology that further reduces our participation in communities even more than did automobiles and television before it.” -Pg 125 My husband and I are talking seriously about getting rid of our tv. One of the things that was brought up was how even without a TV, we can still have TV via live-streaming on the internet. We’ve actually talked to people who proudly told us how they didn’t watch TV, but we knew for a fact that they practically lived on their computer. We have entered a time where the TV can actually become a scapegoat, used to make us feel better about our obsessive and compulsive treatment of computers and the internet.
-“The contrasting experiences show that how we structure communities and employ technologies are crucially important.” -Pg126 This reminded me of the “New Urbanism” movement, which seeks to address this issue in city planning. The Mars Hill Audio does a nice anthology on this.
-“I am glad I can send an email saying, ‘Where can we meet?’ and we can sort that out. That makes sense. But a prayer request? I’m not sure it does. Poor judgement about technology destroyed the fabric of Christian community.” -Pg 128 This is an excellent distinguishing comment.
-“These justifiably heartwarming stories are powerful examples of technology supporting and reinforcing community. I do not underestimate or dismiss their significance. But notice what they have in common. In each instance- high school reunion, Kaarina’s care from friends during a quarantine, Gayle’s connecting with grieving families and alumni- technology is used to build on relationships that were already in place.” -Pg 131, 132 This was a great take-away
-“‘Child,’ she said again, ‘can’t take shortcuts if you want friends in this world. Shortcuts don’t mix with love.'” -Pg 134 “Shortcuts don’t mix with love.” Great maxim.
-“…what we do at our home tables is vitally connected to what Christians do during the Eucharist; both are examples of what he [Borgmann] calls the “culture of the table.’ Borgmann sees meals as one of the most important issues for family life today. He said, ‘Yes , fornication is bad, adultery is bad, but not sitting down to dinner is worse.'” -Pg 135 Wow. Powerful statement. ‘Culture of the table” is another good take-away phrase.
Great, great, great observations. Thank you. Ya’ll are making this book much more engaging for me.
“Is this community? Maggie Jackson, citing Barry Wellman, a researcher of social networks, calls this ‘networked individualism.’ Connections are thin, based on little information and not much history…(p. 133).
I was struck by the phrase ‘networked individualism.’ It really rings true to my experience.
I quite all social media back in January because I realized that I was really just a troll. It was a way of eavesdropping on, and being eavesdropped on by, old friends. I wasn’t really interesting in having relationships with these people for the most part. There were a handful of exceptions. I had some old friends reach out to me as well. When they find out I’m now a preacher and have been married for over a decade most of them freak out anyway.
‘Networking’ is a computer metaphor. It’s mechanical. Should we be surprised then when we deal with it mechanically. People become pictures and posts rather than flesh and bones. They become vacation photos and selfies. They become career ambitions and resumes.
I was in college when Facebook was created. I had a Myspace prior to that because I was an avid music collector, but I didn’t utilize any of the “social networking” parts. When Facebook came out, my girlfriend at the time wanted me to sign up so she could put “in a relationship with” me. I didn’t find this compelling, but she eventually just created an account FOR me so she could do this. Later I began to get all these notifications of people trying to “friend” me, or whatever. For a brief time, this was fascinating. I thought I really had a bunch of people who wanted to connect with me from days past. I would become their “friend” on facebook, and then send them a message, much like you might write a letter to somebody, trying to engage with them. 90% of those people didn’t write back. I was just part of their friend collection. It took a while to understand this. Then they started adding goofy games and whatnot to facebook and I closed my account. I have only collected more reasons since then to stay away. (Of course facebook makes it so you only have to sign in, and your account is once more active… that must be rough for facebook junkies trying to kick the habit…)
My wife had a facebook account up till a year ago. I kept complaining that her time spent observing people through it was an engagement with a contrived mirage. She gave the same excuse alot of old people give me when they announce they have a facebook and feel they must defend themselves on this matter- its the only way I have to keep up with friends. (I hear old people say they keep up with their grandkids this way….)
Eventually my wife decided to run an experiment to see what she really thought about facebook, and conducted a sort of facebook fast. At the end, she didn’t find she had really missed anything, but instead found she had gained depth in other areas of her life. At this point she put up a message on her facebook that gave her email and phone number for anyone that would want to reach out to her in the future, stating that she was going to close her account. She left this up for a month. Out of hundreds of people, nobody said anything.
These days if you need to “find” somebody, you can use plenty of internet services to track them down- regardless of if they have a Facebook (for better or for worse.) And if you cannot keep up with somebody unless the effort involved is the almost-zero required for Facebook, then maybe you shouldn’t even do that. And if you are so busy doing almost-zero with zillions of people, maybe you WON’T have time to REALLY keep up with the people that matter to you. Facebook is like being put on a meal plan with just enough nutrients to keep you alive, and alot of empty calories to keep your stomach from feeling hungry. You are guaranteed life, but not the abundant life. Because it gives you your “fix’, you may never realize that you are missing a qualitatively superior experience.
“It is a pity we have stripped so many walls of their crucifixes and put up so many clocks in their place. We are surely more punctual than our ancestors, but we are spiritually poorer. Contemplating a crucifix, many of our forebears had a different idea of how to make use of time. A crucifix may not tell the hour, but it offers crucial advice about what to do with the moment we are living in” (p. 141).
I wanted to write a post about this quote tonight but I am struggling. I’m not a huge fan of crucifixes. But the point is well-taken.
Does this quote jump out at either of you?
This quote did strike me. It reminded me of something Doug Wilson likes to say, “We become like what we worship.” Which he pulls from Psalm 115 among other places. There is a kind of worship that is occurring when we adorn the walls of our house, it can be quite subtle yet it impacts us every single day. It becomes a part of us and our lives, we are oriented by it.
Yeah, it jumped off for both of us. Infact, chapter 10 hit us the heaviest. We’ve been reading the book aloud together, which has provided alot of discussion. This chapter took us a long time to get through because of all we needed to talk about.
My first thought was of all the people I’ve met who have those kitchy cross collections on their walls in their homes. Random crosses collected from Hobby Lobby or Mardels or something… I probably shouldn’t get started on that one…
My second thought was about our previous talk about icons. Again, I think the key is the quality of interaction. Symbolic images are easily misunderstood and abused. Shusaku Endo’s book “Silence” covers this issue pretty well, I think. Just researching what happened to the “hidden Christians” of Japan after Japan closed its boarders to missionaries, really drives home the point of what danger is at work with iconic imagery.
At the same time, symbolism in imagery is almost unavoidable, extending well beyond “official icons”. We tacitly create symbols naturally in our own life. People will show you collections of sentimental stuff and tell you what they “mean” to them. They’ve made symbols. A church building itself is a symbol, whether it has a cross on it or not. And religious paintings are always symbolic in some sense, whether it is “The Last Supper” or one of Mokoto Fujimura’s abstract works. Even our clothing speaks symbolically of who we are, (unless we all wear the uniforms…)
So if we outright deny icons due to their symbolic potential alone, we have alot of other symbolic things we must be willing to deny as well, and I don’t think we are willing to do this. I think icons, (crosses included) are a yellow light issue. Why are you using it, and how?
If this is understood to be true, then the problem now becomes an issue of “veneration.” In what way are you holding this item with respect? Is the cross itself magical, containing some sort of self-contained power that must be respected? Or is a sign of something greater and beyond, thus we respect it OUT OF respect for the One whom it represents? The point here is that it cannot become a magic talisman for a vampire movie.
There are probably still alot of problems with how people interact with crosses, but there are alot of problems with how people view the symbolic meaning of trees and bushes too. Yet I stilI have trees and bushes in my yard, regardless. I’m not willing to lose the richness found for myself and others in trees and bushes just because Wiccans exist, (or even just plain moderns…) Imagery, including crosses, can be an informative aid in an abstract form, (if nothing else,) and I’m not willing to drop them, because some poor fool thought to worship the creation rather than the Creator.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten on this issue thus far. Honestly, I don’t think I have EVER heard the issues of icons addressed in ANY church sermon, book, etc. I welcome further thought, for or against.
If all this is accepted as true, then in regards to the quote you mentioned, I would say that crosses are very powerful abstract aids to the ineffable qualities of our understanding of God. One’s response to such objects will be directly proportional to one’s other experiences with God, primarily in the Bible and seeking to live by the Spirit. This means you cannot teach somebody about God by having them stare at a cross all day until it reveals its hidden meaning, and that heathens will have little reaction to staring at Christian symbols.
One’s intuitive emotions communicate to us from our experiences and understandings through images. In doing so, we often arrive at NEW understandings. This is a prime benefit from meditating upon an image, and at the same time a prime danger. The danger comes when we start analytically trying to add meaning and understanding where it doesn’t belong. A person who looks at a Greek sculpture might be given feelings of awe. These feelings are partially informed by what awesome interactions they have had in life prior to this viewing, and how they understood them. If aliens existed and came to earth, I don’t think they would feel “awe” necessarily at seeing a Greek sculpture, unless something from their world helped to inform this. Now these feelings of awe, though tied to previous understanding, are actually something new entirely. It is a new sense of awe, conjured up via the artwork at hand. This feeling begs our analysis, and it is when we engage with this analysis, that we often screw up. How many people in trying to “understand” art have added meaning where there was not any? You listen to some art curators talk about artwork and it is obvious that they are adding junk-thought to the experience of the art. This is not to say that analysis couldn’t yield something, but that this is where the trouble really begins when we really start “thinking” about symbols.
So when we consider how meditating on the cross, and how such a meditation affects our experience with time itself, hopefully we will not think to emotionally venerate the cross, like a voodoo relic, nor analytically imply things that have nothing to do with the cross. Hopefully, the Word of God, and our daily life being indwelled by the Spirit, will interact with the symbol to yield new experiential knowledge of “time,” amongst other things. What those yields are, depends on where you are in your faith.
OK, got a little catch-up to do here. We finished the book today. Best bit of non-fiction I think I’ve read this year, thus far.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES:
****This chapter was easily our favorite chapter. We took forever to get through it because we had so much to discuss. It really struck us close to heart.
-Boer’s opens up suggesting that part of why we are so busy is because we LIKE IT. I found this to be a chillingly true observation. It was fascinating to see him document how society has projected for itself a day in which it would work less, and then ran as hard as it could against that idea. We wrap our self-worth up in how “productive” we are. Few adults wants to respond to the question “How’s it been going?” with “Easy. Haven’t been doing much of anything.” Kids talk about how bored they are, but adults typically do not wan’t to be seen as some sort of sluggard do-nothing. Instead we wear our stress like a Boy Scout wears his merit badges to a court of honor ceremony. What really cracked me in the head here was all that Christopher Perrin has said, (repeating the words of others,) about the concept of “schola,” and how in order for us to learn well, we must be at leisure. If learning is a part of fixing the crazy-anxiety state of our world, and we are allergic to the very setting most conducive to learning, what hope is there?
-The commentary about clocks having been invented by monks “who wanted to devote themselves more rigorously to God;” was enlightening. What a huge irony, as Neil Postman points out, that “it ended as the technology of greatest use to men who wished to devote themselves to the accumulation of money.” (Pg. 141) Along these same lines, it was interesting to see him comment on the railroad’s involvement in the hijacking of our perception of time, and the suggestion that the biggest problem is how we spend our discretionary time.
-On pg 143, we hear about an experiment done on Princeton seminarian students, regarding time and the Good Samaritan. This was a very impactful illustration to meditate on. “…’empathy and compassion’ both need ‘a calm, attentive mind.'” (pg144)
-“The connection between consumerism and busyness is not accidental or coincidental.” (Pg144) Boers goes on to highlight the early 20th century agenda of industry to war against leisure… again, I think of the loss of “schola” here.
-“In the 1970’s, Ivan Illich noted that cars are also responsible for ‘time spent in hospitals, traffic courts and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy.’ He calculated that given all the hours we devote to cars, we actually are only moving about five miles per hour; in other words, about the speed that many people walk.” -pg 145 While the reliability of the research highlighted here might have been a bit questionable, the point is still very well taken, and is darkly comedic.
-“Administrators sometimes claim that email ‘saves time,’ but what it actually does is offload tasks from some people onto others. As institutions cut support staff, others are expected to do the work.” -Pg 146 This is an idea I’ve been mulling over for a while- that there is often an illusion in the concept of “cost cutting.” We think we are saving, but really we are just changing the form of currency involved in cost. So in the clothing industry we make cheap clothing, and people save money. However, in reality, the clothing isn’t any cheaper, the cost is just taken out of the environment via pollution, and out of children’s vitality in sweat shops. This is just one example.
-There is a fleeting note by Linda Breen Pierce about driving fast in cars causing “a rush of sensory perceptions.” This is seen as a negative thing because it makes it hard for you to focus on driving. The word “sensory perceptions” made me think about all the “SPD” cases they are now labeling. SPD means “sensory processing disorder.” There was a time recently when I volunteered at an occupational therapy clinic for children, as I was considering a career as an OT. At the clinic, they focused almost solely on kids with SPD. Apparently they had an enormous number of kids with varying degrees of the problem, from kids who just seemed to be acting up in school, to kids with Asperger’s or Autism. It seems that “a rush of sensory perceptions” marks a ton of the activities we engage in now- whether child or adult. We put people in expensive treatment for the effects of this now, but are we at all willing to admit to the lifestyle contributions?
-“Human brains are not wired to pay attention to more than one thing at once.” pg 148 I’ve heard this concept proclaimed in so many ways, and yet most people seem unable and unwilling to respond accordingly. Far from struggling with applying the wisdom of such knowledge, most people whom I have encountered that know this, seem to only care to use it as an excuse for failures in multitasking in their life. It does not seem to compel people to STOP multitasking… The Thich Nhat Hanh quote on pg 149 was helpful, where he discusses focusing on the dishes while washing the dishes lest we become people who are “sucked away into the future- and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.” I know this to be true from experience. I’ve gotten in stressed out modes in my life where I was so eager to get everything “prepared” that I was never just experiencing the actual moments I was engaging in. The play “Our Town” does an extraordinary job highlighting this issue.
– On pg 151 the observation that “…the only people who take adequate breaks are smokers” is brought up. This is also something I’ve recently noticed. Human beings seem to be bound to many focal practices by chemical addictions. Cigarettes require that people take breaks, and often create little bonding experiences for the people outside smoking. Coffee has created its own culture in which highly stimulated people sit around and converse in buildings that are set up often times for leisurely socializing. People could do any of this outside of addiction, but they don’t. As Jacques Ellul says “Man or woman in the technological society has suppressed the natural respites in their rhythm… The time for choosing, adapting and collection oneself no longer exist.”
***The key to this chapter on time is found at the very end, where he states that he isn’t interested in legalism, but in rediscovering “life-giving rhythms so we can all live richer, more satisfying lives, enjoying one another and the many graces that God offers.” I think the word “rhythm” is the perfect word to describe largely what he is after.
I’ll try to respond to your comments and post my own final thoughts tonight and tomorrow. I’ve been doing some traveling for work this week, so it’s been tough. I think I have four or five specific quotes that I want to post about. Thanks for inviting me to work through the book with you.
Sounds great. I don’t think we are on any timeline here. Don’t feel like I’m sitting here anticipating some sort of immediacy in your response. By all means, take whatever time it takes.
Thanks for your encouragement and engagement; it’s a blessing.I’d hate for this blog to become one of those practices (for anyone, including me!) that defeats the whole purpose of the book we’ve been reading.
I like, and was edified, by everything you wrote here. Thank you.
On the issue of ‘liking’ business, I’ve realized this about myself for quite a while, but it’s really hit home lately. Up until August, for the past two years, I was working full time, preaching almost every Sunday, and taking 12 hours a semester working toward a degree. So, I graduated in August, and now I have all this ‘spare time’ on my hands…
But this ties into the idea of ‘rhythms.’ My rhythms are so screwed up it’s ridiculous. I’ve basically lived on 4 hours of sleep a night for the past few years. Sometimes, on my bad days, I almost expect Tyler Durden to show up.
I’ve been convicted about this for a long time, I’ve written about it, I’ve talked to my wife and church elders about it. I’ve read books about it. I’ve prayed about it. I tell myself repeatedly that the issue at hand is self-idolatry. I think I need to be ever awake, which is something only God, who ‘slumbers not nor sleeps’ is capable of. Yet I persist. And the fact of the matter is, I persist because I like it. It allows me to look down on lazy people. It allows me to have a high view of myself. It’s sin through and through. And I need books like this to remind me that I need to rest.
I’ve been reading John Owen’s book on the Sabbath lately and it’s just been driving it home more. So, yeah, all that just came out when I started typing. It’s an issue. Your thoughts are helping me to further work through it.
One more thing on rhythms. Obviously day and night, and the seasons, show us that God has ordained rhythms. Electricity just seems to make it too easy to cast them off. We can make it warm, we can make it light. And so we do. Its good for me to be conscious that I’m fighting against those rhythms.
I’ve often pondered what it means that we have and experience so much “climate control” in our day to day lives. We see how people groups that live in specific types of climates seem to biologically adapt over time to better cope with their circumstances, (like becoming tan in sunny places, or tending to carry more weight in colder places.) I wonder what kinds of adaptions our future generations are receiving from people who spent the majority of their lives in windless, sunless, environments at a placid 70ish degrees, hunched over at desks, staring all day. We’ve had a couple generations of this now in some cases… I just wonder….
Regarding your tendency to overwork yourself, disregarding rhythm, I wonder if you have achieved any kind of historical awareness for yourself as to why you gravitate toward such patterns? You mentioned alot of what you think is the spirit behind the action, but I wonder if you’ve been able to place where you picked up that spirit? Knowledge of origin has its uses. Just reading the history in the Bible not only helps us understand our own similar situations, but helps us understand how we got into some of what our world is mixed up in. It tells the story of origin, purposefully.
I have a tendency to work too intensely. I don’t think I prefer constant business, but I do prefer to go at things fast and furious WHEN I am going at them. This can produce anger and anxiety, among other things. (It certainly doesn’t produce longevity in one’s tasks, haha.) Over the years there have been several people and places that I’ve become aware of as having influenced me in this regard. This has in turn lead to a better understanding of the “spirit” behind my attitude. When looking at history, I think it is important to respond by owning one’s own history as appropriate, rather than use it as a sort of carte blanch blaming-log.
Taking the example of my own life, there came a day when I was able to see how some of the intensity I carry was modeled by my parents. Knowing this, gave me all sorts of opportunities. I could look back and ask why I felt attracted to their model of work, or what I thought might be behind their attitude, and did I share some of those same feelings? I’ve even talked with them about it, to hear their insights. I also could have decided to be angry at my parents for their “bad lessons”, but that’s just bitterness, and it completely ignores my own compliancy in my education.
I dunno. I find myself wanting to write alot to explain myself here, because this sounds really close to something modern psychology does, and I don’t wan’t to sound like I am endorsing a “blame others” sort of historical review. Hopefully some of this makes sense. I only mention it, because I sympathize with the frustrations of slugging through one’s longstanding weaknesses, and you’ve already mentioned attending to many of the other channels of Grace that God provides in such circumstances.
On the overworking: I really think it stems to some of my early influences in the faith. Someone gave me a bunch of Charles Spurgeon books when I first became a believer. I read a ton of his sermons, I read about his life, I read about all of his work, and how he was willing to pour himself out for Christ (which probably led to his early death in his 50’s). I wanted to emulate that. Also, in my very first seminary class, our teacher talked about intense Bible study as a form of Christian Hedonism – we do this because we are the ‘eccentric’ ones who really love this. That’s really it. I enjoy everything I do. I want to do it.
Peyton Manning was also a big influence on me. I was a junior high and high school QB and I wanted to be just like him. I wanted his willingness to prepare, his work ethic. I tell other preachers that the drive, determination, and hours Manning puts into his work should make us blush about our sermon preparation. Seeing a guy like him strive for such excellence in his profession makes me want to do the same. I want to read every book I can get my hands on; I want to be thoroughly prepared for every sermon and every situation. It’s just that I know I won’t stay young enough to keep up this pace forever, and I know that God not only gives permission, but commands us, to rest.
After I read this earlier I randomly thought about an old Andy Griffith Show episode I hadn’t seen in years. My wife and I just finished watching it and it’s pretty much what I remembered: a parable about busyness and sabbath. It’s actually pretty profound. Check it out some time if you get a chance and let me know your thoughts (I don’t know if your an Andy Griffith fan, if so you may have already seen it):
CHAPTER 11 NOTES:
(I’ll try to be more concise with this chapter…)
-Early in the book, around pg 163 there is a discussion about our culture’s tendency to “advertise the Elsewhere” and how this encourages us to believe not only that “the grass is always greener elsewhere” but that “only elsewhere truly counts.” This resonated with me. As a kid, I was always envious of the kids who’s dad’s were in the military and had to move around alot. I felt insecure until the day I graduated from highschool about having lived my whole life in one place. Kids who had lived in numerous places were seen as “in the know” and those who had not were simply NOT “in the know.” In my early twenties I went on an extended road trip across most of the western portion of the united states. Everywhere I went, whether large cities or small, famous cities, or obscure cities, I hung out with the local kids. I was struck by the fact that in EVERY single place I went, the kids talked about what a bummer their city was, and they all had plans to move “elsewhere.” This didn’t cause be to conclude that “all cities are the same” but that “all of humanity has a tendency to take what they have for granite.” Arthur Boers has helped me to see that media and marketing plays off of this tendency very strongly, exacerbating it.
-“‘Decades of research have shown that in urban areas, PPI- people-plant interaction- results in reduced stress and anger, lower blood pressure and higher sense of self-worth for individuals, as well as higher property values, reduced crime and increased neighborliness.'” -Pg 167 Then on Pg 168: “‘You’ll likely never see a slick commercial for nature therapy as you do for the latest antidepressant pharmaceuticals.'” This was a provocative section for me. I believe this was also where he brings up the heat wave that killed people in Chicago because they wouldn’t leave their homes, having no common-space to go to. I’ve often noted how sometimes in businesses you find fake potted plants. Worst yet is when I find them OUTSIDE, and worst still when I find them outside of people’s homes. This tells me alot of things, many of them bad, but one of the more positive things it tells me is that people feel within themselves a NEED to be near God’s creation. Even with all the work they have done to screw up or drown out this feeling, they cannot fight it. Those pots with fake plants could have just as easily been crummy plastic sculptures, but there is something compelling about the design of God’s plants that drove those people to pick plastic plants- even though the connection had been distorted enough to allow them to settle for plastic. I’ve also noticed though the years of living in apartments, how often people would walk their dogs next to a nearby creek. Often nearby creek would be full of garbage, stagnant in places, dry in other places, and altogether lacking in significant beauty. Why walk down to the creek? I think there is something about our innate connection to God’s creation that drives us to it, even when we don’t understand, even His creation is obscured.
-“A crucial difference between reality and virtual experience is that the latter is at the consumer’s control and disposal.” -Pg 169
-“It shouldn’t be a surprise that our loss of intimate friends coincides with unprecedented mobility, celebration of asynchronous communication, and use of devices that keep drawing our focus and attention to the distant and far away.” -Pg 170 I remember when, as a young teenager, I had to make plans ahead of time with friends in order to do anything with them. By the time I graduated from high school most kids my age had cell phones, and most activities were engaged in without ANY prior planning. I remember observing how this was translating into a failure to seize many of the opportunities that came about because we were not looking ahead to their occurrence, but were only living in a reactionary sort of way. Our socializing suffered from asynchronous communication and mobility.
When I read Boer’s quote (I can’t remember who he was quoting and I don’t have the book in front of me) about wanting to be ‘right here, right now,’ I thought about the old football coach Marv Levy (Buffalo Bills). He used to ask his players, before every game, ‘Where would your rather be than right here, right now?’ I always thought (as a kid) that if I was an NFL player that would be true for me. But can it be true in the middle of a tough workday that is going about the same as yesterday’s tough workday? Only if you are focally aware of what you are doing. I’ve always liked Garth’s line from Wayne’s Word: ‘Live in the now!’ I have to tell myself that all the time.
I like your comment on fake plants. That’s helpful. It’s interesting that our sinful nature comes into play in all of this:
1) On being right here, right now. I wonder if we use heaven as an excuse for this at times. I once had a conversation with a lady about heaven. I brought up the last two chapters in Revelation and made the point that ‘Jesus who died shall be satisfied/and earth and heav’n be one.’ That we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth. That ‘heaven’ is only a temporary place. That God has eternal plans for this earth. She was highly offended and let me know it. She pretty much said: ‘Earth, been there, done that, don’t want it.’ That goes to Chesterton’s point in Orthodoxy about suicide. I don’t think he’s exactly right, but I think he makes a valid point. With all the great things around us, we still somehow think it’s not good enough for us.
2) On the plants: We’ll deny ourselves the beauty of what God has made and then make cheap imitations. There’s no telling how many applications we could make of that point.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES:
-“As Harold and Walter remind me, it takes very little effort to encounter wonder again. All you ned to do is sit still, listen, go to the woods, pay attention, walk, slow down.” -Pg 179
-“It is easy to get cranky about uncritical use of technology. So it’s helpful to remember the wisdom of the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria: ‘Be compassionate, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.'” -Pg 182
-“Borgmann developed four focal affirmations that he now uses with students, asking when they were last able to affirm the following:
-There is no place I would rather be.
-There is nothing I would rather do.
-There is no one I would rather be with.
-This I will remember well.” -pg 185
-“Once you have acquired a certain knowledge of experience, you must walk alone.” -Jacques Ellul pg 188
-“Those who wish to live differently and deliberately need circles of like-minded folks who reinforce in us the priorities we want to honor.” -pg 191
-“When unclear about fundamental priorities, urgency becomes the default position. Daily decisions develop their own momentum or are determined by the fundamental decisions of others.” -pg 191
-“William James argued that character growth had everythin to do with deliberately cultivated habits. He had four recommendations for habit formation.
-First, initiate new habits with determined commitment.
-Second, do not allow exceptions to habits until the habits are firmly established.
-Third, never hesitate to practice the habit that you have chosen.
-Fourth, do small things every day to remind you of the habit’s priority.” -pg 193
-“Ultimately, we cannot rein in technology use with rules, limits, or fences. As Albert Borgmannn says, ‘Technology will be appropriated… not when it is enclosed in boundaries but when it is related to a center.’ Elsewhere he notes, ‘The answer is not to find a line, but to remember and invigorate those centers in our lives that engage our place, our time, and the people around us.'” -Pg 200 This made me think of Matthew 12:43-45
There’s that quote that I somehow distilled to ‘right here, right now.’
I planned on, and will, write a post on finding a center rather than simply drawing lines. I think that’s a great way of putting an important principle. I can see how the Matthew passage is relevant. You can’t just kill sin, for it will necessarily be replaced. That’s why for every call to put off the old man there is also a call to put on the new man. Jonathan Edwards liked to say that there must be a grace for every vice. If not vices will simply be replaced by new vices.
“There must be a grace for every vice.” That is an excellent way to put it.
CONCLUSION:
I don’t think I have any real notes for the conclusion chapter. However, for my own conclusion, I intend on writing down
1) What are my focal concerns?
2)What are my focal practices?
3) Where am I including fundamental decisions in my life?
4) Where am I including daily decisions in my life?
5) Where are the concepts of awe, reverence, and wonder incorporated in my life?
6) What ways can I lower or higher the “threshold” of practices?
7) What ways can I engage in abstaining choices, discriminating choices, and restraining choices?
Great stuff. You’ve really engaged this book (and not just the book, you’ve engaged yourself with truth).