Continuing the series. What I don’t include here are posts related to saints or particular topics that I’m collecting thematically (books, movies, TC, synod on synodality on synodalism in the synod, etc). Those are grouped at the end of each post as I move through the year.
So, March.
I never really liked Dr. Seuss much, anyway. (3/3)
Remember when book banning was bad? Remember when parents who didn’t want, say, in my day, Go Ask Alice or Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret on the shelves were excoriated for narrow-mindedness? Or every classroom and library scuffle since then in which those who wanted to limit children’s access to books were told that it was wrong to shelter kids from ideas and realities? That they just needed to toughen up for the real world? When, yes, concerned parents were told…great art will…startle and make us angry and force us to think through our assumptions and convictions?
No, let’s not forget that.
Banned Book Week should be interesting this year
Scratch that. It won’t be. It never is.
When the primary mode of reaction and analysis to literature becomes …”How does this make you feel?” and “What’s your reaction to this?”
At that point, you have set up a system which prioritizes the impact of a piece of art on your emotions and your very person.
And you have, right there, set in motion the endless cycle of cultural reaction grounded in offense and affirmation. You’ve not even given individuals the chance to learn how to interpret culture in any other framework.
Trip to Great Stone Door, Tennessee (3/12)
It seems to me to be a very accurate account of how faith grows and develops – in response to questions and challenges in which we are forced to examine our encounter with God, who we think God is, exactly, open ourselves more and more to him until finally, we meet him again, having been through the ringer, from within and without, and can finally put our ultimate trust, no matter what others say we should do, in the One who touched us way back when.
There are two streams of conversation I’ve been having about this over the years. The first, related to Church, has been, essentially, glad to see churches (we’re talking Catholic here) use the tools to get information out there. But – but – I’ve been wary of parishes, dioceses and other entities viewing content on a screen as a replacement for one-on-one engagement. I’ve said it over and over again – for example here – your “digital outreach” is worth nothing if you don’t prioritize face-to-face outreach. Always. To recognize digital outreach, not only as a gift but as a temptation – a gift of being able to reach more people with some sort of content, but also the temptation to take the easier road – because throwing stuff out there for a bunch of anonymous eyes is a lot easier than knocking on someone’s door, encountering their pain and really and truly accompanying them on their journey.
The truth is, we do live a story. It’s really one of the most important gifts we give our children, as family and on a social and cultural level as well. This is the story of creation, of human being. You’re a part of it. Do something.
The question is…what? And…what story?
Deplatform and Cancel the Problematic (3/22)
For if confronting the limitations and even evil mixed in with the good of the past can teach us anything, it seems it should be, not Memory Hole…but rather, to consider how right all of these people thought they were, how noble their aspirations were seen to be, and indeed, what good did come out of their actions – and, knowing how both right and wrong they were – to bring an acceptance of that same possibility of being both right and terribly wrong to our own actions and views in the present moment.
Charlotte was Both 