Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Here's a Discussion I'd Love to Have . . .

I have no idea if this book is any good, but I'd love to get some of my most thoughtful friends together for a discussion of just this article alone!

And just in case you are not even tempted to follow the link, here are a few teaser quotes:

'Sanity does not immediately strike us as a fascinating idea the way madness does,' he says, leaning forward in his chair, his eyes closing in concentration as they will throughout our conversation, 'even as an alternative word to mad, sane is so blank. But, it seems to me that either madness is another word for human nature, and that we are all very strange and life is, as it were, maddening, or, we are capable of actually being something else. Now, what is that something else? That is what I am trying to explore and I think that it is actually very obscure, and neglected.'

. . . we take our sanity for granted, that only when it is dramatically ruptured - by grief, depression, breakdown - do we think about it at all. Like Bill Wyman's famous definition of a great bass player - you would only realise how good he was if he were to stop playing mid-song - sanity is defined mainly though its absence.

'One of the more distracting things about capitalist culture,' he says, with total seriousness, 'is that there is no stupor, no time to vegetate. What I would suggest is more time wasting, less stimulation. We need time to lie fallow like we did in childhood, so we can recuperate. Rather than be constantly told what you want and be pressurised to go after it, I think we would benefit greatly from spells of vaguely restless boredom in which desire can crystallise.'

4 comments:

some chick said...

on a whim today I clicked a link to your blog and CAN I TELL YOU HOW HAPPY I AM THAT YOU ARE BLOGGING AGAIN!?!?!?

i hope that gets it across. I'd be in your book club. I'd be your social justice partner. but i live kinda far away now.

i've found a surprising lack of strong female spiritual voices here (although the ones who are here are good) and it makes me that much more grateful for yours.

i hope you're keeping up with us. we're coming to texas in october and will be swinging through Houston. We'll have to get together so you can meet the new addition (if he ever decides to be birthed...)

kristen

Finding the Happy said...

Count me in on the discussion...albeit long distance. As one who has chosen to live fallow for a time, I can attest to the richness it has brought back into my life.

KC said...

Good to hear from both you two! Kristen I met some folks you know when I went to Tommy's conference in Dallas. Laura from CityChurch? When she and artist were talking about a birthing center I took a chance that your paths had collided. PLEASE call me when you are in town. I want to see both the already born (Judah of course) and the yet to be!!!!!

some chick said...

Well, Pastor Laura is Citychurch' s pastor, and we know each other. Lara might have been there as well, and she was the office manager at the birth center where I worked. She's the one who hired me to work there.

small world. I mean, obvious world, sometimes, but still small.

of course, we also know tommy well.