Currently I've been listening to safe in the steep cliffs, an album by Emancipator. I find that music without lyrics can be the most thought-stimulating for me. The meaning is my own, conjured from within (partly, the elements of the music definitely guide the feelings).
It is a good album - definitely on the sad side. It makes me incredibly contemplative. I will need a happier album soon!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Peace, please.
I just watched the movie UP - yes I'm way behind the times I know. I've been thinking so much about what it means to be a human being lately... It is getting exhausting. I read the first chapter of War and Peace (I would like to finish it someday...) and this also has been churning the gears in my brain.
First of all, UP is a story of a boy who meets a girl and they have dreams and aspirations - but life gets busy and they grow old and never meet those dreams and aspirations. It is a compelling story about how little time we have to really achieve what is important for us in life.
War and Peace (chapter one anyhow) appears to be making the case that war is possibly the greatest abomination known to humanity - and I have to agree. I cannot fathom what in a human being allows us to make butchers of each other. Perhaps it is not what is in us, but what we lack. The absolute horror of war is so real to me, the reality that we, as peoples, send warriors to destroy each other and determine who will survive. How does it ever come to this? How does it ever become the case that two groups of people decide that the best course of action is to annihilate each other?
I've been rolling this concept of power around in my mind a lot lately. There is a bumper sticker I saw that makes the claim, "No well-behaved woman has ever made history". Now I think that the point being made here is that women need to stand up for their equality, and that to do so will make them stand out as 'bad'. What is interesting to me though, is that the argument makes a couple suppositions that I don't really agree with. First of all, do we want to make history? There are a great many people who weren't well-behaved and made history (Pol Pot, Idi Amin), and anyone wanting that kind of reputation is already dubious from my perspective. So I disagree with the assumed claim that to make history is desirable.
Secondly, I disagree with the claim as a whole! Mother Theresa? Florence Nightingale? Clara Barton? Marie Curie? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that women shouldn't desire or even work towards equality. All I'm saying is that the bumper sticker takes a concept and tries to wrap it up in one sentence, which isn't worded too well. I think it might be more effective if it read, "Women for equality", or even, "Equal rights for women". I just get the impression that the "No well-behaved woman has ever made history" quote is inflammatory; women should seek to be disruptive if they want to be known. I disagree that this is the most effective way about it. Perhaps in seeking equality they may become disruptive, however the starting point is different.
This has been part of a larger theme in my mind that people feel the need to show 'power' through how much they can disrupt others' lives. I've been thinking lately, that this is not real power. Of course it looks like power when people exert their will over others. Is this really power though?
From a Christian perspective, I have to say no. As a Christian, and believing that God is the ultimate power, I would say that real, good, power is in the interest of giving and sustaining life. What was it that made Jesus powerful to those around Him? His ability to give and sustain life - healing the blind and sick, casting out demons from the afflicted, raising from the dead..... these are all to give and sustain life. Even feeding the 5,000. And what was Jesus's ultimate purpose in coming to us? To die, so that we might have life.
This ultimately leads me to thoughts on life and death in general, and my ability to play a role in this dynamic whenever it comes up. I am little able to give life (I take care of some plants... and they do ok) and am more able to take it (any of us are capable of dealing out death in some capacity, whether it is an insect, animal, or human being). It leads me to thoughts that wars are the most abhorrent events that can take place in human history.
A friend of mine (a Christian friend) asked me recently if I thought that we should have a National Guard, or a military force of some sort. I said of course I do, that yes we should indeed. And now, I go back on myself. Why did I say that? What are we really telling the world here? We are a Christian nation that looks no different from any other nation - we destroy and kill just as any other nation does. You know what is really funny? When Jesus walked in Israel, everyone expected him to take the throne, and kick Rome out of Israel. To lead an army, to make Israel rise up like any other nation and kill and destroy the people that disagreed with them. Instead, Jesus said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesars"! Can you believe it?!?! Imagine telling this to Americans today! Render to America what is America's. Render to the Lord what is the Lord's.
First of all, UP is a story of a boy who meets a girl and they have dreams and aspirations - but life gets busy and they grow old and never meet those dreams and aspirations. It is a compelling story about how little time we have to really achieve what is important for us in life.
War and Peace (chapter one anyhow) appears to be making the case that war is possibly the greatest abomination known to humanity - and I have to agree. I cannot fathom what in a human being allows us to make butchers of each other. Perhaps it is not what is in us, but what we lack. The absolute horror of war is so real to me, the reality that we, as peoples, send warriors to destroy each other and determine who will survive. How does it ever come to this? How does it ever become the case that two groups of people decide that the best course of action is to annihilate each other?
I've been rolling this concept of power around in my mind a lot lately. There is a bumper sticker I saw that makes the claim, "No well-behaved woman has ever made history". Now I think that the point being made here is that women need to stand up for their equality, and that to do so will make them stand out as 'bad'. What is interesting to me though, is that the argument makes a couple suppositions that I don't really agree with. First of all, do we want to make history? There are a great many people who weren't well-behaved and made history (Pol Pot, Idi Amin), and anyone wanting that kind of reputation is already dubious from my perspective. So I disagree with the assumed claim that to make history is desirable.
Secondly, I disagree with the claim as a whole! Mother Theresa? Florence Nightingale? Clara Barton? Marie Curie? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that women shouldn't desire or even work towards equality. All I'm saying is that the bumper sticker takes a concept and tries to wrap it up in one sentence, which isn't worded too well. I think it might be more effective if it read, "Women for equality", or even, "Equal rights for women". I just get the impression that the "No well-behaved woman has ever made history" quote is inflammatory; women should seek to be disruptive if they want to be known. I disagree that this is the most effective way about it. Perhaps in seeking equality they may become disruptive, however the starting point is different.
This has been part of a larger theme in my mind that people feel the need to show 'power' through how much they can disrupt others' lives. I've been thinking lately, that this is not real power. Of course it looks like power when people exert their will over others. Is this really power though?
From a Christian perspective, I have to say no. As a Christian, and believing that God is the ultimate power, I would say that real, good, power is in the interest of giving and sustaining life. What was it that made Jesus powerful to those around Him? His ability to give and sustain life - healing the blind and sick, casting out demons from the afflicted, raising from the dead..... these are all to give and sustain life. Even feeding the 5,000. And what was Jesus's ultimate purpose in coming to us? To die, so that we might have life.
This ultimately leads me to thoughts on life and death in general, and my ability to play a role in this dynamic whenever it comes up. I am little able to give life (I take care of some plants... and they do ok) and am more able to take it (any of us are capable of dealing out death in some capacity, whether it is an insect, animal, or human being). It leads me to thoughts that wars are the most abhorrent events that can take place in human history.
A friend of mine (a Christian friend) asked me recently if I thought that we should have a National Guard, or a military force of some sort. I said of course I do, that yes we should indeed. And now, I go back on myself. Why did I say that? What are we really telling the world here? We are a Christian nation that looks no different from any other nation - we destroy and kill just as any other nation does. You know what is really funny? When Jesus walked in Israel, everyone expected him to take the throne, and kick Rome out of Israel. To lead an army, to make Israel rise up like any other nation and kill and destroy the people that disagreed with them. Instead, Jesus said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesars"! Can you believe it?!?! Imagine telling this to Americans today! Render to America what is America's. Render to the Lord what is the Lord's.
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