Featured image is of the ropes used by “tiraboleiros” to operate the botafumeiro at the pilgrim’s mass in the cathedral. It’s a pretty incredible sight. It’s a 60+ kg, 1.5 M tall, silver plated incense burner suspended on a rope from a pulley in the central dome of the cathedral. They fill it with burning charcoal and incense, and get it swinging- up to a 65 meter wide arc, getting up to 21 meters high at the ends and at an angle of up to 82 degrees from vertical… and speeds of up to 68 km/h. It’s a memorable experience. The Cathedral is packed with pilgrims, all the stops are pulled out on the organ, 8 guys in red robes are pulling on this rope, and at the other end is a flaming metal cage full of fire and smoke whistling just past the top of your head at 40+ mph.
OK, some other stuff I’m thinking about… most of which tie back to thoughts on narrative, and also tangentially relate to pilgrimage.
(So… this is personal weird stuff. I think I’m writing it mostly to document and sort out stuff. The blog is a good vehicle for it cause I also try and hold myself to some standards- generally not to be completely incoherent and reasonably clear. Venture ahead if you’re so inclined to subject yourself to all the emotional, overwrought, insane shit that I feel like is important or something.)
- On narrative and relationship-
- What do I love about a person? I think there’s a difference between loving a person for what they do, as supposed to who they are. Perhaps it’s the difference between loving someone for what they can do for you (or how you can use them or how they’re obstructing your agenda,) versus what their story is. Instrumental worth vs. intrinsic worth- in the language of ethics. In the language of pilgrimage- maybe it’s the difference in between the destination and the journey. Adopting language from “The Anatomy of Peace,” it’s also the difference in between seeing a person or an object- or having a heart of peace or a heart of war.
- Narratives can have an important effect on the objectification or personification/personalization of individuals. Reductionist, categorical, simplistic ways of seeing people tend to facilitate the objectification of persons, whereas hearing real-world stories tends to do the opposite, and make persons… persons. Simplification facilitates a kind of self-justification and rationalization that complexity and narrative does not really coexist very well with.
- A related point that I think I really care about… is the role of technology and immersive, interactive, and networked forms of media on transmission of narratives. In particular gaming… things like MMORPGs. I believe that currently, there’s nothing more powerful than immersive gaming experiences to transmit and allow for people to interact with and enter into narratives… and technology allows for that not only be deeper, but also to be shared with others. See for example, a game called “That Dragon, Cancer.” I also generally believe that the only real way to peace and redemption is through entering into the narratives of our enemies. As a result, I believe that gaming could be a powerful instrument or medium for peacemaking, in that I believe it could be a way to allow people to enter into the narratives of others they have a heart of war towards.
- Narrative also as a framework for seeing my personal relationships- now I find myself asking… when our stories intersect, and I have a part in your story now… what kind of character am I? What did I, (or do I,) bring to your story? Am I helpful? Hurtful? Affirming? Degrading- (of your humanity and dignity)? Now that you’re in my story, what kind of character are you in mine? How will I remember you? Who are the heroes, who are the tragedies…
- (…And is the story accurate? The truthfulness of the stories we tell ourselves about … ourselves and others, might be pretty warped sometimes. That’s a whole ‘nother problem to wrestle with- goes back to some Brene Brown “Rising Strong” stuff.)
- Another … thing… is just the question of who we keep in our stories and who we let fade away…
- Narrative and loneliness- It occurred to me that amongst other things, I think loneliness is when our stories go unheard, and when experiences go unshared. -The thing is, really sharing stories and showing who you are is scary vulnerable… I honestly can’t think of many times I’ve really done that. Really shown my heart, who I am… the uncensored version of my story. The scary part is how someone can react to the deep stuff… they can judge or scold, which is bad… but not as painful as being indifferent or dismissive I don’t think. They can also understand and care too…
- Narrative, relationships, and commitment- it’s a tough one, especially when trying to parse out the balance of addiction/possession (ideas following from Gerald May’s book The Awakened Heart.) Someone once told me that marriage is just when people have a common dream. I think my version of that is common story… we’d both be writing our own stories, but we both see our individual stories as being a shared story that we both write together… and we’re both central characters in each others stories… and we both see the end of the story with each other in it. There’s something about the independence of having our own stories that’s important, but equally important is the mutuality/reciprocity of including the other in our story, and allowing for the other to participate in how my story goes and vice versa….
- Relationships and redemption as the merging of narratives- Both in the sense of human relationships, but also I think with all of nature overall, (and also deity…) I think we’re all seeking, and are meant to be part of stories bigger than ourselves. Not only in terms of relationships with other people, but in terms of something universal- something that has to do with “creation.” There’s various expressions of that-for example, the tendency or desire for people to want to merge their narratives into that of bigger things, everything from sports teams, to bands, to national identity/history, to the culture of celebrity. What are the bigger stories that we are a part of, or want to be a part of? Justice? Grace? Power? …what’s the epic we want to be a part of?
- Scripture: Narrative or law? (By scripture I generally mean religious/sacred texts, but honestly I don’t even think it’s that clear. Some people seem to treat the Constitution as if it’s some kind of sacred mystical text- conversely, to me, Les Miserables is more meaningful to me than parts of the Bible, particularly what it reveals to me about the power of law vs. the power of grace. That’s a whole different topic though.)
- Scripture as narrative:
- Universal, and valid across cultures and time. The story is validated by, or consistent with universal themes and values.
- Narratives as an invitation to greatness and beauty, or to be part of something great or beautiful. As an inspiration for personal/relational change. Transcends conceptions of justice or fairness.
- Scripture as law:
- Relative to specific cultures. The laws are self-validating, and reference themselves as a proof of their own legitimacy and authority. Specific rules/regulations are not necessarily consistent with universal themes/values or across time.
- Scripture as law, generally used to coerce behavioral changes. Usually fear and power based. Can be misappropriated, misinterpreted by different groups to justify different conceptions of morality and justice… (often for manipulating big groups of people.)
- Scripture as narrative:
- Narrative and other art- music and visual art. I think narrative is more essential in a way, in that music and art are powerful tools in the service of telling stories. (So are other media including film and video games.) The Benjamin Zander TED talk is pretty influential to me in terms of understanding music as narrative- his point about Shakespeare and Chopin being meaningless if there’s no story; i.e. if there’s just a beginning and an end… It’s very similar to the point about pilgrimage. It’s like seeing pilgrimage as prelude by Chopin or a story by Shakespeare… it’s not about the resolution of a scale or conclusion of a plot, it’s how you got there. That being said, the thing about art and music is that it can also do the core/essential thing about narrative, but without story: and that’s to transmit emotion. To transmit beauty – or in some cases heavy stuff. It’s the stuff that’s not reducible to numbers and words… and probably the stuff that make us human.
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