Spirit Scholars

VISION 02 Meets CROWDSOURCING VI: IF "I am he as you are he as you are ME," then Where Are We?

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly. I'm crying."
-- The Beatles

"The Best lack all conviction, while the Worst / Are full of passionate intensity. / Surely some revelation is at hand"
-- W.B. Yeats

"God has shown strength with his arm, has scattered the Proud in the imaginations of their hearts. God has brought down the Powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the Lowly; he has filled the Hungry with good things -- and sent the Rich away empty."
-- Mary

Two thousand years later, Mary is right -- again.

Here at Spirit Scholars, we've been charting this cultural tsunami through the autumn, but the cacophony of year-end voices is demonstrating conclusively that what many of us (including Wired Magazine) call Crowdsourcing is emerging as The Most Important Cultural Trend of the year. Truth be told, if you read through our coverage of this trend, it's obvious that this shift in Cultural Authority -- from Professionals to All of Us -- has been unfolding for a long time.

(For instance, Click here to jump to our first Crowdsourcing article -- or Click here to read our coverage of YouTube, which turned out to be the technological harbinger of Crowdsourcing for many, especially when it became obvious just how much money that little online video venture was worth: Billions!)

THIS WEEK, though, anyone can see the Handwriting on these Walls. One only has to glance around the landscape this week to see that Crowdsourcing -- or whatever else people are calling it -- is truly triumphant.

So, HERE is our VISION-Starter question for today: Are we witnessing a wonderful Lifting Up of the Lowly, full of grace and creative compassion, OR are all of us are becoming Proud and Lost in our self-centered Imaginations -- OR as Yeats warned, are we seeing the ominous rise of the "Worst," using all their "Passionate Intensity" to reshape the world in their own image?

Not sure what Signs we're seeing? Well, in recent days, the New York Times and Time Magazine seem to have jointly fired the starter's pistol on the rising consensus -- and they've even occasionally fired pistols back and forth at each other over the trend. Click here to read our earlier story on the NYTimes' opening shot.

In retrospect, that early-December piece in the Times Arts section seems downright tentative compared with Time Magazine's controversial decision to award its now-legendary Person of the Year award to: YOU.

If you missed it, here's a brief snippet of Lev Grossman's Time Magazine cover story, explaining the concept. (And Time Magazine back issues now are easily available online, if you care to read the rest of the cover story.) But, here's just a brief quote from Grossman's piece: "The 'Great Man' theory of history ... took a serious beating this year. To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. ... But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."

HOWEVER, the team at the New York Times fired back a mighty salvo this past Sunday. Frank Rich, a former Time Magazine staffer himself, took aim squarely at that Person of the Year cover story and fired both barrels. First, he called it "a bountiful gift of mirth" and spent the entire first column of his Sunday piece scoffing at the Times editors.

Beyond the acidic opening, Rich had a serious point in this skewering. In the middle of his piece, he finally got to the heart of his argument: "As our country sinks deeper into a quagmire -- and even a conclusive Election Day repudiation of the war proves powerless to stop it -- we the people, and that includes, yes, you, will seek out any escape hatch we can find. In the Iraq era, the dropout nostrums of choice are not the drugs and drug culture of Vietnam but the equally self-gratifying and narcissistic pastimes of the Internet. Why not spend hour upon hour passionately venting in the blogosphere, as Time suggests, about our 'state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street'? Or an afternoon surfing from video to video on YouTube, where short-attention-span fluff is infinite? It's more fun than the nightly news, which, as Laura Bush reminded us this month, has been criminally lax in unearthing all those 'good things that are happening' in Baghdad."

To illustrate Rich's column, a large Barry Blitt sketch atop the page showed a comfortable, middle-aged American blissfully reading a magazine in his easy chair -- as his poor little dog looks anxiously out the window at flames rising and explosions rocking the world.

GULP! That's definitely 1 Vote for BOTH "Lost in our Imagination" AND  Yeats' "Worst" theories about what's unfolding.

As 2006 dwindles, more votes are falling like snowflakes in a Denver blizzard.

U.S. News & World Report's Year-End cover story suggests -- thankfully -- that people should use their newfound Authority wisely. The U.S. News editors actually suggest that people start reading more books about the larger world, learn more about Islam and think about organizing grassroots book-discussion groups to increase our awareness of the larger world. Bravo to U.S. News for that strong word of advice!

But, there also are enough silly snowflakes to obscure such wisdom. Sometimes these little notes are so silly that we suspect they're really votes for the Beatles' absurdist hymn in which meanings tumble over each other until we lose all perspective.

A Low Point in New York Times coverage, for instance, appeared in this morning's special "Year in Food" section, which declared: "Professional chefs took a back seat to home cooks and home cooking in 2006." To be fair to Times writer Julia Moskin, there was a business-related point buried in her article -- that TV producers and publishers seem more interested, at the moment, in highlighting unknown cooks rather than already-famous ones. But much of Moskin's story was padded with New York snobbery and observations  too obvious to be called news (for instance, that circulation is growing for cooking magazines aimed at ordinary people). And the overall thrust of the story -- saluting the culinary skills of millions of Americans -- is virtually another voice in the choir of Time Magazine's own Hymn to Commoners, which the New York Times already had ridiculed on Sunday. Or, as the Beatles put it "I am he as you are he as ..."

If we sound inappropriately amused by all of this, then you've missed our purpose here at Spirit Scholars. We are provocative here, because our whole purpose at Spirit Scholars -- and the Ann Arbor-based Center for Spirituality in American Life -- is to scan the horizon for signs of changes in spirituality, culture, media and values. Our whole purpose is to slice through mists, throw open windows, hang up mirrors, encourage fresh strategies for enlarging and focusing our vision. And, then, we want to open up a safe forum for people to pause, reflect and, if they wish, comment by dropping us a line. (Feel free -- Click here to email your thoughts to us.)

So, we'll close VISION 02 / Crowdsourcing VI with one last Mirror: The Mirror of Galadriel from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." If you're a Rings fan, you know what we're talking about already. If not, this particular mirror is a basin of water that summons visions from the horizon. THE KEY to this mirror's power, however, is its mystery. Galadriel cannot predict what viewers will see in this mirror -- or whether what they see will actually unfold.

We like that image. It describes the little pool of reflective water that we're tending here -- just for You.

Christmas Shopping for Clarity: From Charity to Caffeine with Friends

"In my personal prayer life these days, there's one thing that I ask for ... Clarity."
-- Karl Pohrt, Buddhist scholar and founder of Ann Arbor's Shaman Drum Bookstore

Are we SHOPPING yet?

If so, Spirit Scholars has a few Shopping Tips, mainly focused on: Well, FOCUS.

Frankly, as most of us head through the holiday season, we wind up pretty much bleary-eyed and exhausted as we reach the "finish line" of New Year's Day. Come on, now, be honest! How many times has it felt almost like ... well, like a relief, just to get back to school or work after the holidays.

There's no magic wand to transform all that holiday hoopla (nor are we sure that we want to transform it all) -- but, hey, here at Spirit Scholars we are going to try our best, in coming weeks, to focus on what our Buddhist friends call: Mindfulness.

And, as another Buddhist sage, who is coming to Michigan to speak in mid-January, puts it: "Mindfulness is a straight and speedy path to happiness in my experience." (That's the voice of Geri Larkin, by the way. She's the author of the terrific upcoming book, "Chocolate Cake Sutra," and she'll be in Ann Arbor in person on January 17th -- but, more on Geri's visit later. Stay tuned for future articles on Geri's work.)

Right now, we're heading to the malls, right? So -- QUICK! What on earth would a Mindful, Focused shopping list -- that's aiming at greater Clarity about the world -- LOOK LIKE?

All right. Here are some ideas -- and, come on Spirit Scholars readers -- feel free to add Comments here or Email us directly with your own suggestions.

FIRST: Give charitably. Can't find a good cause, you say? Nawwww. You're just not looking. There are more than 3,000 houses of worship in southeast Michigan alone -- far more across the U.S. -- and every one of them has opportunities for giving at the holidays.

Want to check out a cool Web-based presentation of charitable giving? Kensington Community Church in Troy, Michigan, is always setting trends in multi-media programs. Click here to jump over to Kensington's Web site. There's always a lot worth checking out on their site. In addition to listings for Kensington's mind-boggling schedule of TWENTY-TWO Christmas Eve and Christmas EVE-Eve services, there's a link on the main page right now to "Make a Difference." One click away are carefully packaged charitable offerings, virtually wrapped and ready to go. Now, that's cool to make giving so easy to see, select -- and articulate to friends.

But, please -- give through your own charitable causes. Kensington's presentation is just an idea of how one big congregation is wrapping such gifts this season.

SECOND: Give a book. Spirit Scholars is LOADED with great book ideas -- from our mini-reviews in the margins of our main page here to articles sprinkled throughout our entire site. Simply click on the Books or Publishing categories for more ideas.

OR -- and this is pretty cool, we think: Put a couple of friends in your car and drive them over to the State and Liberty area of Ann Arbor. Tell them your gift to them is an afternoon of coffee (or cocoa), conversation and browsing in Karl's Shaman Drum bookstore. (Now, don't worry -- if your friends fear that they can't find anything to read in Karl's shop, then the enormous flagship Border's store is just 1 block away -- so there's always a safety net under this little Christmas Act.)

But, getting back to Karl's shop for a moment. Friends of the Center for Spirituality in Ann Arbor already know that Karl and his shop have been working with Center events through the autumn of 2006 -- and, in 2007, we're going to be working together even more closely.

Here's how Karl explains the spiritual linkage with world literature (in very practical terms): "I think that if we would all spend more time reading the best literature written by people from other parts of the world, then we're much less likely to want to rush over there some day and kill them, right?"

Yes, right! In fact, we may even feel moved to want to HELP people whose lives we've 'read about'!

Karl's virtually an Ann Arbor institution himself and his shop really is a temple of literary reflection. (That's enough praise, we think.) Just GO -- fill your car with friends and immerse yourself in books, coffee and conversation for an entire, relaxed afternoon. (Psst -- here's one more Spirit Scholars secret for visitors "touring" this part of Ann Arbor: The Starbuck's at State and Liberty is actually the Center for Spirituality's World Headquarters! So, we KNOW there's always a good vibe there, aimed at greater clarity. And, no, it's not just the caffeine!)

THIRD: Give a movie. Our spiritual world is so Audio and Visual now that cinema has just as a great a power to touch our minds and hearts as words, these days.

We've got a few mini-reviews of DVDs on our site already. But, why not expand your vision in some cool ways this holiday season -- perhaps both backward and forward -- both inward and outward. So, here are two final suggestions for finding films that will increase your global clarity:

Check out Facets Video, a Chicago-based, non-profit organization (founded back in 1975) that promotes the distribution and sale of international and classic videos that are tough to find almost anywhere else. Facets is a cool organization that, among other things, promotes an international Children's Film Festival every year. Click here to visit their site, although their Web page sometimes loads a little slowly. It's because there's usually so much movie news on their front page. This weekend, for instance, there are notes about Australian aboriginal film, plus a new documentary underway about Jimmy Carter, plus there's an item about the landmark release of a new DVD version of G.W. Pabst's classic German film, "Pandora's Box." In our view, watching Pabst's great star Louise Brooks in this classic, we think, qualifies as reflection on multiple spiritual planes.

OR -- Check out classic American films. Some really fun early films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have just been re-released on DVD in time for Christmas, especially the wonderful "Story of Vernon and Irene Castle." Sure, it's in black and white, but peering back into our cultural past is a great way to reflect on how we all got to the point we've reached today. And, for Baby Boomers this Christmas, Roy Disney is offering four new boxed collections of those vivid short-features about the natural world that we all grew up on in the 1950s. Volume 1 has "Beaver Valley," for instance, a nostalgic gem from 1950 that Disney re-ran for years. For Boomers who grew up watching these shows, these are early and indelible entries in our own visual lexicon.

Think we're kidding about that here at Spirit Scholars? Nope. No less a scholar than Steven Mintz, author of "Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood," argues that one reason we all grew our hair long in the 1960s and pulled on rough-hewn clothes was that, in 1955, we were indelibly marked by Disney's "Davy Crockett."

But, hey -- the spiritual influence of Disney and Davy Crockett is a Spirit Scholars article for another day.

So -- go on! Get off line, load up the car. Grab some coffee. Talk with friends.

And, as you do, let your eyes adjust to new visions awaiting just around the corner!

From the 1st Christmas Card to Today: Making our wish lists, and checking them twice ...

We're big fans of Charles Dickens here at Spirit Scholars and, especially at Christmas time, Dickens' relentless concern for the plight of the most needy gets its moment in the media limelight. The etching at right depicts old Ebenezer Scrooge finally confronted by images of real need in his nightmarish journey toward salvation. (Click here to read our earlier article about what Dickens can teach us all about diversity.)

Unfortunately, Dickens' razor-sharp stories often are muted by our own nostalgia. It's hard to look at a production of "Christmas Carol" with fresh enough eyes to appreciate how stark and pointed Dickens' tale really was to its original audience.

But, NOW, we've got several fresh cultural reminders of the truth that the best Christmas gifts really are those that reaffirm our connection with humanity and, in particular, God's timeless preference for helping the downtrodden to find justice.

The first reminder we've already explored in several articles: Catherine Hardwicke's amazing new film, "The Nativity Story." Frankly, days after having previewed this film, its message resonates in one's memory with as much subversive force as Jesus' own preaching. That second half of Mary's Magnificat -- all that stuff Mary declares about Jesus coming into the world to lift up the lowliest of people (echoing Isaiah and other prophetic voices of old) -- well, it's a provocative message even 2,000 years later.

The SECOND reminder is fresh news that photographer Linda Solomon's innovative project for the Salvation Army continues into a fresh Christmas season. Solomon distributes cameras and encourages children from homeless families to create their own Christmas "wish lists." Rather than begging for the hottest clothes, the coolest toys or the yummiest foods -- it turns out that these kids eloquently express their hearts' desires for very basic things. They'd like a solid roof over head, a safe playground, the return of a long-lost parent, the chance to attend school and get good grades -- and the chance to grow up and have a good marriage someday. Click here if you'd like to jump to a Salvation Army-sponsored overview of Solomon's project, which now has been transformed into a series of fund-raising Christmas cards featuring the children's photographs. It's an innovative -- and downright prophetic -- way to express this timeless message.

Then, the THIRD reminder hit us today, thanks to the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. It turns out that they've got a rather amazing archive of antique Christmas cards, including what may be the first mass-produced Christmas card, published in 1843. (Click here to jump to SMU's Web site where you can click on this smaller image and load up a high-resolution image of the original card.)

According to the SMU summary: "The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, the English painter John Calcott Horsley (1808-1882). Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting card because he was too busy to engage in the traditional English custom of writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and family. The card pre-dated color printing so it was hand-colored."

Then, here's the key point: What did Cole and his artistic friend decide to show on this card? "The card is divided into three panels with the center panel depicting a family drinking wine at a celebration and the flanking panels illustrating charitable acts of feeding and clothing the poor."

Enough reminders, dear readers? From Isaiah to Mary's song, from a modern film to a modern photography project -- all resonating with images from Dickens and the earliest holiday cards.

Already made your Christmas list this year? Well, maybe it's time to be "checking it twice."

Happy THANKSGIVING!

Knowing Spirit Scholars' affection for cinema, a friend asked if he could borrow a sack of films on DVD to enjoy with his family over the holiday weekend. He and his wife recently made a Catholic pilgrimage to Rome and they wanted "All Italian Cinema." So, we fixed them up with the likes of Fellini's "Amarcord" and a few other classics.

Their taste was most fortunate, because the sad truth is: Hollywood hasn't done much with Thanksgiving.

A search of the mighty IMDB database turns up almost nothing in a century of cinema that could be called a bona fide, feature-length Thanksgiving classic. The best film we can recommend, in fact, is the quirky "Home for the Holidays," by Jodie Foster. If you haven't seen it, the plot is a typical tale of odd-ball relatives trying to bridge long-running family feuds to enjoy a holiday reunion. Given Foster's wise hand at the helm, it's a cut way above "National Lampoon" satires, but it's not exactly Shakespeare.

Fortunately, Encyclopedia Britannica Online weighed in with some fascinating trivia today.

For instance: The colonists who held the original Thanksgiving feast four centuries ago almost certainly ate more geese and ducks than turkey. And when the Wampanogs showed up, scaring the colonists out of their socks at first, the menu expanded. The Indians most likely added eels and shellfish.

And here's a feminist note: Everybody we've talked to casually credits President Lincoln with formalizing the holiday on Oct. 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. What they frequently forget to mention, Britannica reports, is that there was a woman behind this terrific idea.

  She was Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of the popular magazine called "Godey's Lady's Book." She lobbied Lincoln until the president agreed that this idea probably had "legs," as we say now in marketing. Hale's other claim to fame? As a poet, she penned the famous "Mary Had a Little Lamb" way back in 1830.

There truly is a Web site for every occasion and, today, we ran across Thanksgiving World, a festive little site stuffed with late-November wisdom. The best quote spotted on the site? It was from songwriter Irving Berlin: "Got no checkbooks! Got no banks! Still I'd like to express my thanks: I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night." Unfortunately, we can't find the song from which this little morsel was plucked. Perhaps one of our readers will spot it and add a Comment or Email us the musical origin.

But we'll close this little holiday note with an excerpt from the lengthy Thanksgiving message emailed out to writers nationwide by Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine. He offers this wise reminder:

In my daily life, I'm often distracted from noticing the marvels and miracles that surround me. There is so much to accomplish, so many hurdles to jump, so much that I feel needs attending. I sometimes get so involved in the immediate tasks that I lose sight of the larger amazing realities that abound in my life.

That danger lurks for this Thanksgiving? I'll become immersed in the details, the event of it, the sharing of it, and the loneliness of it, the disappointments at moments of potential closeness not fully actualized, as well as in the moments of joyous connection to my immediate friends and family, and that I'll not take the time for real celebration.

So, CELEBRATE! Or, if you have -- and want to reflect with our Quirky Crew here at Spirit Scholars to unwind and expand your horizons -- then, HEY, welcome aboard and ... READ ON!

Bacon and Eggs for the Soul: The Exhilaration of Conversation

I’ve just returned from a breakfast conversation that lasted for two and a half hours!

It could have lasted longer but I had a luncheon date that I had to keep.  We still had much to talk about together but it would have to wait another meeting.  That was a little sad to realize, but the greater gladness was that we had two and a half hours of animated conversation on numerous topics that made us both rejoice that we were together.
I was exhilarated as I left our conversation.

I thoroughly enjoyed our sharing because it was a fervent, varied, and engaging dialogue without hesitation or hidden agenda. After several months of being apart, both of us wanted to share with each other about our lives and our intellectual and spiritual explorations.

We talked about our vocations and our projects. We talked about our families. We talked about running as a sport and power-walking at a YMCA. We talked about our religious journeys and our mutual skepticism about organized Protestantism. We talked about our evolving maturity.

Do you begin to get the picture?  The greatest reward from our time together was the opportunity to share with another human being the movements and bendings of my life and to hear my friend’s version of living these days. It was exhilarating; it was magical; it was intimate.

That last adjective is the key. We shared without fear of judgment or reprisal. We experienced our mutual curiosity about the other’s journey through life. And by doing so, we experienced the fleeting joy of genuine friendship. 

It doesn’t happen very often. But it is wonderful when it does. And I wanted to share it with you, our readers. I hope you are having such experiences too. And if you want to share with us at the Center, simply post a Comment to this blog (just below) or click here to email me. Here’s to more conversational exhilaration!

Posted by Al Bamsey