Harnessing the Negative Energy

Wanna hear something I love? I love what's happening within my generation. (Wanna know something I hate? All this talk about 'my generation'. Wasn't that wrapped with The Who, oh, about two generations ago? What does "a generation" even mean anymore? Silly. Ahem...) What's happening? We're learning how to harness the irony, the sarcasm and the cynicism for good not evil. Weird, huh?

Who would have thought that was even possible?

But it is! There's no better way to discredit all the unnecessary things that people are trying get you to buy into, or to face the deep injustices of the world then pricking the over-inflated balloon with a sharp sarcasm needle.

Drowning in Words

I'm not a reader. Not by default. I mean I consume a large amount of information in written form, but I don't actually like the process of reading. And the Christian world seems to be veritably bursting with it right now. Each book's title becomes a symbol, and suddenly people are speaking a symbolic language that may as well be a foreign tongue. People are using titles to summarise entire philosophies, and are debating them without even offering their bullet points to the uninitiated.

Is all this verbiage really serving a purpose? I mean, even if I could, I wouldn't write a book right this moment because it would be lost in the clamour. I guess I'm glad that there is some level of thinking represented in all the writing and reading going on. But I heard something very insightful recently: reading is often the surrogate for experience. Well, in a way that's obvious, because that's the very reason for reading at all. Sometimes though that psuedo discovery prevents investigation. And lack of investigation almost always leads to lack of action.

If you're not a reader, I'm okay with that. And I apologise that you've had to wade your way through all these words... Now let's do something!

Materialism in an Immaterial World

There is a new movement afoot to help the church find its voice. But what is this field of Communications we're all being touched by? It's challenging to explain because it is so intangible. And because the church is now trying to redefine itself from the world's perspective, its communication is rapidly modified through experimentation. Corporations have become quite adept at the elusive art of marketing. The church? Not so much.

That's strange though, because current marketing is as adept at tapping into the ethereal as the physical, which is just what the church is about. In fact, the marketing tactics in the world have, to a very large extent, simply been co-opted from church. It's not science. Or new age. It's a desperate new materialism. As people have their minds placated with shinier, fancier trinkets, either their souls are lulled to sleep, or the only thing they can taste is their dissatisfaction.

How many times recently have you seen a product sold on its specifications? Um, none. Well maybe mention is made of "time-release this" or "micro-whatever that" (microscrubbers?). But in advertising, invocations are made to a feeling, an experience, or something equally indefinable. This is true of everything from the most abstract services (think financial advising) to the most concrete products (like, for example, concrete). People are approaching exhaustion what with the myriad of complicated emotional appeals being made. "Buy our vacuum-cleaner and you will feel empowered." "Some of our gasoline profits fund eco-friendly fuel development, so you can feel good about your SUV's 15mpg." "Our body wash will make you feel like this naked supermodel doing her best otter imitation." It's all about the association of experience, and very little to do with reality. And the message and the medium are appropriately connected.

Virtual reality is a pretty much passe term already. That's because we're so steeped in it, it needs no further reference or definition. It's not just the internet, though it has connected many of communication technologies. ("For more, check out the site...") And technology has democratised communication. $3,000 worth of video tools can achieve over 90% of the production value of the studio execs who wear $3,000 wristwatches. Music recording and production have seen similar changes. Then of course the web is the perfect all-in-one promotion-to-distribution channel, and it's pennies per glass. (Interesting to note that its costs continue to tailspin even as travel costs skyrocket. It's a stick and carrot for virtual experience.)

But as people find themselves increasingly crammed full with the intangible, the elusive and the abstract, their souls become ever hungrier for truth. Thus the church finds itself in a unique space. It has always been ambidextrous in the deeply real and transcendantly intangible, therefore the world's quest should find no greater fulfillment. Our challenge is to be eloquent where the world is fluent, and in its language to continually proclaim our eternal hope.

Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

I have to admit this: what I was really expecting from this movie was "Little Miss Lukemia Patient" whose 'fragile, tiny spirit of bravery would conquer all odds'. It turns out, the only thing right I got out of that preconception was the 'all odds' part.

This is actually a very well realised story about a disfunctional family that needs to take a road trip. That in itself is deeply contrived, and yet it doesn't exactly ever feel contrived. In fact, at any given point in the story, I wasn't jarred by something being either too absurd or too simplistic to be believable. And if you just look at the basic plot points, that's a remarkable achievement! And while the plot is charming, it's the characters that grab your attention. We're introduced to each by her or his particular vice or foible. That's a particularly brilliant step, because if you know someone's habit, you know her deepest secret. And we go on to know each of these characters pretty well.

As we're introduced to a socially awkward set of circumstances, I feared another Napoleon Dynamite. And then when I discovered that Little Miss Sunshine is actually the name of one of those ghastly child beauty pageants, I feared the film would turn into a celluloid callamity a la Christopher Guest (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, etc.). And yet it carefully navigated between the absurdity of the situation and the reality of its characters, miraculously staying true to both.

And along the way, Sunshine certainly has some fun with the whole pretentious, gritty and character-maiming potential humans all share. How could it not? But every point it makes about what life means (or what it doesn't) is a gentle point. Overall this is not a neat, tidy and safe little story. Rather it's carefully, gently and occasionally brutally honest. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself!

Subtle Tolerance (No More!)

I asked a group of leaders recently if, as the world 'gets smaller', they've noticed a change in our culture toward being more adopting and accepting of other cultures. They explained that it's not a merger, as much as it is a peaceful co-existence. People tend to go to extremes on one side or the other. One attitude is that they're too different for us to ever completely understand -- they do their thing, and we do ours. The other is that they watch Hollywood movies and wear Nike shoes, so they're just like us! As per usual, the truth is somewhere in between...

Here is a point that I cannot stress enough. When people are dropped into North America, they are met with a high-paced, frenetic culture, for which they have no context and no filters. Advertising (and for that matter any message) has had to continue to compete with media desensitisation that the media have themselves caused. It's an arms race between the populace's apathy and the shimmering cool, extreme, quirky, funny, whatever. A the newcomers fall for it. Hard!

Here's a perfect example of the culture clash: An immigrant kid watches The Family Guy and doesn't get that it's funny because it is so absurdly opposed to the values of our day. Instead she takes it as a literal interpretation of North American life, and ends up saying something entirely inappriopriate (which, depending on the situation, may or may not be uproariously funny) and unfortunately has no clue what she's done.

It seems a little strange to me that traveling to other continents to see otherness is so wildly popular, while going next door isn't. We need to do more to integrate newcomers into their brave-new-world. They are shaping it, and are being shaped by it, whether we are invested in it or not. I say let's help!

(With increased sensitivity to this issue, I've heard of one church in particular starting this type of outreach. It's a large church with plenty of resources at its disposal, so I hope it does the effort justice. I would like to add that there is room for everyone to participate: One church can't reach everyone!)