Balance is a tricky thing. You don't sort it out once then let it take care of itself for the next twenty years. And while there are different checks that help to maintain or move back to balance, it's always going to be an ongoing process.
Depending on how you're wired, if you're left to your own devices and inclinations, you'll either default to a lazy bugger who wishes they didn't struggle with procrastination, or to an over-committed, over-worked maniac. There's a continuum there, but most people are likely to be some darker or lighter shade of grey in the black and white that bounds each end of the scale.
For me, balance has always had to be an intentional thing. Left unattended I head towards the darker end of the scale (yet seem well capable of procrastination at the same time). I think that's called multi-skilled—or an affliction...possibly both.
The trouble is, there's so many fun things to do in life. So many opportunities, 'people to see and places to go', kilometres to run, books to read and stuff to write, work to do, quality conversations to have, people you'd love to invest in, and opportunities to serve God with our heart, soul and mind...but there's only 168 hours in a week. And 24 of those 168 hours he calls us to rest! If only so many of these things weren't enjoyable, fulfilling and inherently good. And if only some of them weren't so incredibly intoxicating.
We all have different sized engines. Our capacities are different. Some are exhausted by a 40-hour week, some thrive on double that. Comparisons aren't helpful although an understanding of our uniqueness is important.
Peter Brock appeared in a television commercial once that contained the line 'I've always said, bite off more than you can chew, then chew like hell'. Great fodder for the Type A's of the world. Also great fodder for dysfunction.
So, a couple of thoughts for the time-poor and balance-impaired to get back to where you once belonged: 1. Submit your schedule to God—He's got a better idea of balance than all of us put together.
2. Passionately pursue what's in you and then get into that stuff. Learn to say no to the alluring and essentially good things that come your way but are beyond either your capacity or your understanding of calling.
3. Get your head around the things that make your life spacious and are typical of your life in balance. Whether it's praying, reading, time alone with God, walking the dog, running, journaling or catching up with friends for coffee; have an understanding of what they are. Knowing what they are might give you a better chance of recognising the early warning signs of the balance shifting.
4. If you no longer have the time to do the things that give you pleasure, or you don't derive pleasure from the things that once did, it's time to make some changes.
5. Surround yourself with some people who know you and your capacity well enough to know when the fulcrum is shifting and needs readjustment. Make yourself accountable to them.
6. Be bold enough to question your load and realign and recalibrate. Create regular times to review so you can track how you're doing.
7. Know your capacity. Continue to grow your awareness of your tipping points.
8. Factor margin. Don't expect things not to grow. Don't expect to have perfect health all the time. Don't expect everything to track along like some controlled lab experiment. Have enough space to accommodate the ebb and flow of life while knowing that from time to time unaccounted for stuff comes along that blows the whole ship out of the water. There are times when you have to chew like crazy—don't drop your bundle, chew!
9. Teachers have DOTT time, others have TOIL or RDOs, make sure you've got yours.
10. Have the ability to name your Sabbath and the ways you keep it holy.
11. Don't use a list like this as a reason for saying 'no' to any new thing, but understand that commitments work in concert with everything else, not in isolation.
12. Understand motive. Some of the reasons you'll commit to stuff maybe a bit warped.
13. Perspective is a beautiful thing when it comes to balance. A change of location or context allows us to think things over again.
14. Don't beat yourself up. Unless you're some kind of freak, or comatose, you're likely to get out of whack every now and then.
Paul said in Galatians 6:4, ' Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.' The easiest thing to do in all of this is compare yourself to others as justification or to puff yourself up or deflate yourself. Don't. It's about who you are and the work you've been given.
Got to go...there's some re-aligning to do.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Got a bit on?
Get back to where you once belonged
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Work. Rest. Play.
Part Three: Play
Sure, it's taken me a while to get to Part Three, but I've had reasons: 1) What do you say about play if your work has a facet of play? 2) what do you say about play if you rest has a facet of play? and 3) the lack of intentionality about embracing the play component that would have got this post written earlier! Procrastination probably deserves a dishonorable mention as well.
I guess a good place to start would be with the intersection of work, rest and play.
If I only define work as 'that activity that generates an income that sustains me and my family' then I leave out a lot of 'work'. For as enjoyable and rewarding as some rest and play is, there's generally some work involved as well. As enjoyable as a good run might be (it would feature in my rest and play), it can be hard work as well. So, there'll always be overlap.
I think it takes work simply to make the space to play. Intentionality at least. To meet up with friends requires organisation, planning or spontaneity and coincidence. With the exception of coincidence, you've got to do something!
Anyway, back to play.
I scribbled down a bunch of reasons why 'play' is a better than good thing while I was waiting for someone the other day. I'm running with the loose definition of 'play' as some physical, spiritual, social or intellectual activity that invigorates, recreates or stimulates the mind, body or soul - yep, that's pretty broad.
Here we go:
1. Play takes us beyond ourselves
All work and no play can make Jack a dull boy. Healthy play (ie. non-destructive play) has the potential to drag us out of the introverted caves of our mind into spacious places.
2. Play breathes life into us
Without play, it's easy to furrow a pretty deep rut or dig a pretty deep hole that makes it difficult to look beyond ourselves. A rest/work/rest/work cycle has the habit of grinding us down by degrees. When we're acutely aware of what's going on, we can arrest the decline and be intentional but it's possible to dig so far down that we create a new normal where our lives as boring farts become so much 'us' that we know no different.
3. Play gives reason for rest.
If all work and no play make Jack dull, the solution isn't to ditch all the work and play all day. Work, rest and play operate in concert. Rest all day for too long and you'll probably end up in some disengaged, numb funk. Work all day for too long and you'll end up slowly or rapidly dislocating yourself from the world around you. Play all day for too long and you'll a) go broke pretty quickly, b) find that your play begins to lack meaning and purpose, c) find yourself chasing ever-greater 'highs' to top the last great experience.
I think there's a God-ordained rhythm at work with the trinity of work/rest/play that makes a lot of sense. Whether it's an unhealthy over-developed protestant work ethic or not, I find that I enjoy my play more when I've done a decent chunk of work to make sense of the play. After a long, hard week, play is something to revel in as a way to recreate and hit refresh. If it's been a tawdry week of work, I'm less inclined to even feel like playing—I'm more likely to continue the trend and waste away the weekend as well.
4. Play activates the body's rhythm
If you're in a deep hole, play can be the catalyst for extraction. I read a book last week that talked about a runner who, following a big marathon, spent the next twelve years being unable to race or train at the same level. In the end he was recommended a (legal) drug that effectively 'restarted his engine'. The analogy in the book was that he'd been like a truck ascending a hill stuck in a low gear—it didn't matter how hard he pressed the accelerator, it wasn't going to make much difference to the speed the truck traveled up the hill. What would change the speed was getting the truck to change into a different gear. The drug 'unstuck' the athlete.
I think play is helpful in getting 'unstuck' sometimes. It can remind us what it means to be fully human all over again. It can reset the rhythm of our body to enjoy the work/rest/play cycle in a way that's sustainable.
6. Play is contagious
Most play involves other people. There's an element of community, camaraderie or journey about it. Your decision to play can be the kick-starter for another person as well. Parties happen because someone (or a bunch of people) gets highly contagious with their play—in a good way.
7. Play = Rest (sometimes)
Often the things that wake us up through play invigorate us as well. There's rest embedded within some forms of play.
Final thoughts
Something that I realised as I ruminated over the whole work/rest/play deal was that we fill our time with some things that don't fit into any of these three categories. Procrastination certainly doesn't. There's a whole lot of TV watching that would fall in the 'mind-numbing category' rather than having a play or rest element.
And where does ministry fit into this? Work? Rest? Play? All three?
And how about parenting, relationships, volunteering, discipling or a bunch of other intrinsically worthwhile endeavours?
While rest and work may be necessary for our survival (physically and financially), without play it can yield a life that simply exists rather than one that embraces a spacious appreciation of people, creation and the essence of ourselves.
I think I'm discovering that I need each of these three and yet knowing you need something doesn't necessarily lead to action. There needs to be an intentionality as well. There's nothing attractive nor enjoyable about being a slob...but few people arrive at being a slob intentionally—it's a product of a myriad of non-decisions. Not just physical slobbery either, but mental slobbery as well. There's plenty of people who find themselves in front of seedy late-night infomercials and struggling with lustful thoughts because they didn't make the decision to go to bed 3 hours ago. Just a thought...
Work is good. Rest is good. Play is good. None should be exclusively flogged to death or it will flog you to death.
Yep, I'm out.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Top 5: Guitar Solos
Let's get the fly wheel moving before the doom loop takes over. It's Top 5 Thursday!
It's time to grab your axe, push up the doof-doof and party like it's 1999—ideally without making one skerric of noise. Air guitar is the only way to savour the aural pleasure of a genuinely great guitar solo (that's assuming you have to be doing anything beyond listening).
So, what's yours? Bit of Jimi? Bit of Jimmy? Bit of Eddie? Bit of Slash? Bit of Edge? Bit of Eric? Bit of Lyndsay? Bit of Mark? Bit of Steve?
Your call.
Yep, the Top 5 is back and we're on the hunt for classic guitar solos (at least as far as you're concerned).
Step up and swing hard (Pete Townshend-style).
Monday, August 27, 2007
Top 5: Australian Citizenship Questions
The federal government unveiled their likely guidelines for Australian citizenship yesterday.
Among the guidelines are 20 rudimentary questions (that will be asked randomly from a pool of 200 questions) that are likely to be asked were:
1. In what year did Federation take place?
2. Which day of the year is Australia Day?
3. Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia?
4. What is the first line of Australia's national anthem?
5. What is the floral emblem of Australia?
6. What is the population of Australia? (approx 21 million)
7. In what city is the Parliament House of the Commonwealth Parliament located?
8. Who is the Queen's representative in Australia?
9. How are Members of Parliament chosen?
10. Who do Members of Parliament represent?
11. After a federal election, who forms the new government?
12. What are the colours on the Australian flag?
13. Who is the head of the Australian Government?
14. What are the three levels of government in Australia?
15. In what year did the European settlement of Australia start?
16. Serving on a jury if required is a responsibility of Australian citizenship: true or false?
17. In Australia, everyone is free to practise the religion of their choice, or practise no religion: true of false?
18. To be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament you must be an Australian citizen: true or false?
19. As an Australian citizen, I have the right to register my baby born overseas as an Australian citizen: true or false?
20. Australian citizens aged 18 years or over are required to enrol on the electoral register: true or false?
I was thinking that we could probably add a few random questions of our own. Perhaps if we generate enough Top 5's amongst us, we'd have our own random 200.
Anyway, here's an initial 5 to get the ball rolling:
1. What was Don Bradman's Test batting average?
2. In Cold Chisel's 'Khe Sahn', how many quiet hours does it take to get to Hong Kong?
3. What is the average meat content of an Australian meat pie?
4. What name did Toyota give to their first crack at the 6 cylinder market?
5. When the first name of your town is Wagga, why do you have to say it twice?
Step up.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Raspy Bob gets his inflection and gathers no moss.
I saw Dylan live on Thursday night at the Burswood Dome.
Now, before I get going, there's a couple of things you need to face up to before you make your entry into a Dylan concert.
First, you're seeing one of the living legends and great poets of our time doing his thing. And, second: Bob's thing is Bob's thing.
There's a few more things you should know about a Dylan concert. Unless you make some serendipitous stumble of the highest order, you're probably going to be seeing him in a venue way larger than ideal. This was certainly true of the Burswood Dome (as it was when I saw him in 2002 at the Perth Entertainment Centre).
The next thing you need to understand is that you're not going to see a display of breathtaking pyrotechnics and laser lights. Nor will you see electrifying dance moves (although that seemingly rubber left leg can be kind of cute). Indeed, a slick stage is unlikely too—it's not often you see gear on stage at a big show these days, but you could spot Vox amplifiers from a mile off.
You're not coming to see some backing dancers in tight clothes gyrating behind the front man as he 'gets the audience jumpin', jumpin' either. And I realised some way in to the show that being able to do laid back from a position of absolute authenticity is way different to the disinterested charade paraded by some of the generations of artists that have followed in Bob's footsteps.
You shouldn't expect to develop a personal relationship with Bob either. Back in 2002, the extent of his conversing with the audience was a simple 'hello' (or complex? it was hard to tell by the intonation) after about the 10th song. During the day at work, we'd taken punts on the likely word count for Bob. One punter suggested an outrageous 23 words. I was optimistically rooting for 8.
And—final disclaimer—you're not coming to hear dulcet and supple vocal techniques paraded for your aural satisfaction.
But, let's face it, you signed up to see a Bob Dylan concert...you never expected to see or hear any of that stuff.
So, with that out the way, on to the concert.
As Brad, Sherri and I walked across the park from where I work in Burswood to join the others we were Dylan-ing with, I commented that this would be a lousy concert to lay down the ultimatum that 'he better do such-and-such-a-song'. Let's just say the back catalogue is extensive.
We had tidy seats. Silver seats apparently. Beige buckets seats in reality, but well-positioned. I'm pretty sure that someone had lit up incense near our seats. Part of the territory I guess. It was a gentle reminder of Bob's roots and longevity.
He was announced in a similar way to a heavy-weight boxer making his entry into the ring to defend his title. The pre-recorded announcer skimmed Bob's life with intro something like 'Welcome to the stage a poet laureate of the ages. A man who defined the folk era of the 60s, who lost the 70s through substance abuse, who found Jesus in the 80s and reinvented himself in the 90s...'. There he was: 66-year old Raspy Bob inflecting away with a sensational ensemble of players who could well and truly cut it.
And we were off.
Bob and his band carved there way through a swag of songs with only enough time in between to remind themselves what was coming next. You get the feeling with Bob that the words and music are loosely connected at best. Depending on your take, Bob is either a sublime phraser of vocal lines...or he has scant regard for phrasing altogether. I'm not sure which.
It's a little tricky reeling off the set list for Bob. He can play a song that you heard for the first time when you were 10 years old (and many times since) yet you can be half way through the tune before you recognise it. I'm not sure whether every night is different, but there's a fresh interpretation both musically and vocally to so many tunes that you can find yourself mesmerised by the artistic convolution.
What I can tell you is that he and his band effortlessly sauntered through Tangled up in Blue, Lay, Lady, Lay; Don't Think Twice, Highway 61, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna fall, It Ain't Me, Babe. And I can tell you that one of the two encore songs was Like a Rolling Stone.
For the most part though, I found myself sitting there knowing that I was watching an artist who'd had a profound impact on the landscape of music for over 40 years. And that Bob had not only wandered through the wilderness in that time, but seen glimpses of the promised land. Occasionally I asked myself the question; 'why does someone come along to a Bob Dylan concert?'. Sure, the songs have stood the test of time and and the rich texture of his work has not wavered in decades (meandered, sure...but still remained textural!). I think the answer lies in the fact that people recognise greatness above hyperbole.
For the record Bob said three words on Thursday night (if we exclude his introduction of the players of the band). During the encore I was joking with Alsie (Brad's uncle) about the word count betting ring we had going at work. He told me that there were reports that in an earlier concert in the tour he had fixed on 'Thank you friends'. That's what we got—a three word count. It was plenty.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Work. Rest. Play.
Part Two: Rest
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
In Part One we were all about work. In Part Two we're talking about a Sabbath and a rest. Without wishing to warble the theology of the Old Testament, I'm wondering whether the two are very different things. Perhaps it's possible to enjoy them both on the same day, but it's worth figuring out the distinction as we go along.
Pretty much any biblical reference to the Sabbath that I mention here will be well known. And that's a pretty good place to start. We all know the premise that God was laying down within the story of His creation. So often though, the premise and praxis find trouble connecting. God hasn't had a break since so His rest was more likely a not-so-subtle nod and a wink in our direction rather the result of him being all tuckered out.
So, let's kick off with the Sabbath. It's always a good way to start or end a week (depending on how you've decided it makes the most sense or what church you've grown up in).The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.
Informed by a healthy Protestant work ethic (or unhealthy - depends on your worldview), I'd always figured that observing a Sabbath infered that you're working the other six days. That's not an unreasonable assumption, nor an unreasonable practice. Yet I read verses like Exodus 35:31 (It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance), and my opinion starts to waver.Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Our Sabbath is for God. It's not for our indulgence. It may be a day for serving Him in different ways (worship, hospitality, administration, justice, mercy...the list is long) or it may be a time for resting from those things (if they're what's work for us) so that we can keep a day holy. And what does keeping a day holy mean? It means a day dedicated and consecrated to Him. A day of rest probably isn't frenetic or ridden with anxiety—a day centred on God is unlikely to yield those outcomes.
While we're at it, is it good enough to say that we can rest and Sabbath on the same day, or are we indulging ourselves on God's clock? Without getting legalistic yet staying biblically faithful, what does a great sabbath look like? Even as I tap away I'm reminded of the Essenes, a bunch of hard core blokes before Jesus time, who believed that if Israel could just muster one perfect Sabbath, it would trigger the coming of the Messiah. Must have been a bummer when someone stuffed up...
The perfect Sabbath doesn't come from our legalism, the perfect Sabbath rest comes when we submit our all to the Lord, accepting joyfully his promised guidance through a “narrow way” to the Kingdom. It's when we rest from our own works, from all effort to justify ourselves. We confess ourselves to be imperfect and unworthy of Divine grace, and unable to make ourselves worthy. And we gratefully accept Divine mercy extended toward us in our redemption through Jesus.
So, if our Sabbath is a time for denying ourselves and seeking God, when does the rest come? Sure, we find our rest in God but, in the context of work, rest and play, where does the rest fit in.
Fortunately, we're not left with a Torah alone to navigate through our weeks. Jesus came to fulfill the law. And what does he say about the Sabbath? Far a start He declares himself Lord of the Sabbath. Then he puts the Sabbath in perspective by saying: "The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren't made to serve the Sabbath. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath. He's in charge!" (I'm not completely sure he said 'lackey'—I think that's Eugene's work.) You can tell me what you make of Jesus' words, but what I get out of it is that the practice of a Sabbath was designed to bring us back to God; a trigger for re-consecrating ourselves. The Sabbath is the period in the paragraph. It resets the meter of things.
So often, we deviate by degrees. We don't so much go awol and take out the guy who won't give us breakfast, more often we just veer a little, then a little more, to the left or right of true north. I think the Sabbath is intended to recalibrate our souls so that again we respond to our God. Maybe we haven't drifted at all. Maybe we're ready to raise the rafters with our God-songs and God-deeds, but maybe we need to raise our heads and bow our heads to discover His greatness and glory covering our brokenness. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said 'the sabbath was made for man'. I think this is what the Sabbath's all about.
And where does rest fit in?
Some of the activities and practices that become part of a well-intentioned Sabbath can make us blimmin' tired. They tire me sometimes. So, where does the rest fit in? If our Sabbaths are intended to be days of self-denial, when do we recover? While we work? On the job? Or is there room for rest somewhere or somehow else?
And what is rest to you? Because my guess it's different for each of us. My first thought when I hear the word 'rest' is a good sleep, but in the context of recalibration and rejuvenation it's quite different. A restful weekend for me (the best place to get me some rest) would probably contain a decent run, some writing, breakfast at a café, a bit of reading, some cricket or AFL viewing while lying on the floor, and some cooking. If I put my head on the pillow on a Sunday having worked some or all of these around some Sabbath action, I'd be well-rested.
That needn't be you. I think my brother-in-law would stick pretty rigidly to 'a good sleep' as a definition for rest. And his not wrong. Some people would find a few hours of shopping restful. Yeah, that's not me. The big deal about resting well is figuring out what you classify as 'activities of rest' and practicing them.
I know some excellent 'resters' (see the above paragraph for an example). I don't mean that they're lazy. They work hard in their jobs, they offer themselves freely outside of their working lives, but they know how to rest and when to rest. Either they've figured out or wrestled with the biblical principle of the Sabbath and grown in the discipline of rest, or they're naturally predisposed.
Both a Sabbath and a scheduled time of rest require discipline. It often requires discipline to do things that ultimately or immediately restore us. I don't think that's contradictory, it's just life. Sometimes we're so lazy we don't even do the things that give us rest. Weird, but true.
Work requires rest. And rest assumes that we go back to work. And somewhere in there we've got to play a bit as well. So as not to get all dull and stuff.
Until we play, rest up!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Work. Rest. Play.
Part One: Work
A couple of stories I read and heard a couple of weeks back got me thinking about the logical rhythm of life we were created to live as opposed to the contrived, distorted and perhaps more artificial version to which we've adapted in our third millennium convalescence.
The first story I heard was about the prevalence of diabetes due to poor diet. Effectively, obesity-induced bad health.
The second was the effective treatment of severe depression amongst middle-aged men.
And the third was the treatment of the most appropriate treatment for women enduring the effects of menopause in their middle-age.
Each of these stories were utterly independent of each other yet, perhaps predictably to some, the treatment for the relief, reduction, or apprehension of these conditions was the same: exercise. In fact, in the case of the depressed cohort, exercise outperformed the most effective drug by quite a margin.
It got me thinking about the nature of our lifestyle in 2007 versus God's original intention for us. Before I wind back the clock and get all agrarian on you, I just want to talk about pattern and rhythm. Largely because what we've done, through great, convenient, time-saving, life-giving advancements, is create an environment that allows us to ignore the work, rest, play rhythms of life.
Where do I start?
Let's start with this: work is good. A hard day's work is good. And a hard day's labour is great. God followed a 6 day on, 1 day off pattern and it worked pretty well for him. The creation story tells of no plant having sprung up in the field because man wasn't yet available to work the soil. The concept of work is pre-fall. That's to say: it's consistent with a humanity fully restored to its creator. Genesis 2 reads: The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
This is one of the 538 references to work in the NIV. Admittedly not all of them are in the context of work that I'm talking here, but you can bet that a whole bunch of them are.
When a gaggle of slackers in the church at Thessalonica (I can't come up with a better collective noun for slackers than gaggle on the fly) decide that Jesus is coming soon so they best give up their day jobs and wait for the rapture, Paul rains on their tedious parade and says: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." Paul was a bit of a worker too.
Solomon was also partial to a little work. He has the Proverbs 31 woman pretty much running the universe on her own and throws out a stern rebuke or warning to the idle in Proverbs 6 with this little gem: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
I don't really need advocates for the idea of work though, I just need a little more justification for the benefits. This is where it will get a little tough to keep the 3 parts of the Mars Bar separate. And that's appropriate, because from get-go God has been all about integration. The idea that work, rest and play should be connected and overlap is a little obvious. For the sake of a three-part strategy though, let's try and contain this post to work.
While I'm no medical practitioner (not even a closet one) I reckon the reason behind exercise being a solutions to a multitude of maladies has a whole lot to do with endorphins. Endorphins are a by-product of hard labour. And they make you feel good. They have an analgaesic effect Prolonged physical exercise will do it for you although a bunch of scientists have hypothesised that the high comes comes as much from completing a challenge as it does from exertion. Either way, it works for me. Through their analgesic effect on the body, the release of endorphins results in a state of euphoria for the satisfied receiver.
So here's what I'm thinking: in the rhythm of life that we were created to enjoy, our work was part of the healthy mind/healthy body balance. While my work is largely sedentary and needs to be supplemented with exercise to attain this balance, the rhythm of life back in the day would have yielded a bunch of endorphins each day. Dad went off to work and worked hard. Dad was fit. Dad ate plenty because he was hungry from a hard day's work. But he was also blimmin' satisfied in his labour. The endorphins released by his effort and accomplishments made sure of it.
Obviously it's not all about work. For a start that wouldn't make for a trinity of posts. And it would eventualy make Jack a dull boy—though perhaps not as quickly as all play and no work would.
I've got to stop as my body clock is calling for the second installment of the series right now.
Before I go though, what's your experience of work? Does it energise you? Reward you? If you're in an active job, do you come home tired and satisfied...or just plain tired. And how is it linked to your spirituality and your relationships. Is it connected or is it separate? How do you address the sedentary nature of your job with a body that craves endorphins for its own sanity?
Monday, August 6, 2007
Send it down
Last Friday, there was 2136,000,000 litres less in our dams compared to 2006. Today, there's 172,000,000 more in our dams than this time last year. (The black line below tells the tale)
Rain's a great thing. Nah, really, it is. Just saying...
Sunday, August 5, 2007
The Writers' Bloc
It's hard to find an easy answer to what releases a writer to write and what makes one retreat. In talking to a few Ensemblees lately though, it seems as if we may have clammed up en masse—a collective writers bloc/k.
I love the scene in Adaptation where Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage) attempts to sit down and write. What transpires is a marvelous internal dialogue between conflicting voices that come up with a bunch of reasons why he needs to write...and yet things aren't quite right.To begin... To begin... How to start? I'm hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. So I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana nut. That's a good muffin.
For a few minutes, Kaufman considers all the possible reasons for his blockage: the position of his desk, his general writing location, his level of tiredness, and his hunger. They're more explanations than causes though.
My guess is that for most, the number one enemy of unbridled writing is time. Pretty obvious I guess. Writing is generally the product of thought. And talking, reading and listening. Rumination, meditation and contemplation. Lots of 'shuns' all over the place that gestate and give birth to written expression.
These things take time.
So, while the Ensemble loosens the bowels of their minds with the fibre of contemplation and motivation, why not start talking? What gets you unstuck? Assuming you figure that writing stuff down is a better-than-average means of processing the gear in our internal and external worlds, what gets you un-stuck when you become a tad constipated?
I figure we could all use a little help...
Top 5: All-time favourite albums
Wish, the magazine that gets tucked inside my copy of The Australian on the first Friday of each month, included a "High Five" (as they called it) of all-time favourite albums from some musicians and industry-folk. Some of them also nominated a guilty pleasure—a CD to which they were sheepishly attracted.
It didn't take much of a leap to figure that this should step up as Cacophony's next Top 5. Before we get there though, some Top 5's from some folk you may know:
Tex Perkins
1. Sticky Fingers: The Rolling Stones
2. Loaded: The Velvet Underground
3. Tonight's the Night: Neil Young
4. Raw Power: Iggy & the Stooges
5. Clear Spot: Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band
Guilty Pleasure
Jesus Christ Superstar (Soundtrack)
Marcia Hines
1. Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Beatles
2. Tutu: Miles Davis
3. Face Value: Phil Collins
4. Talking Book: Stevie Wonder
5. Luther Vandross: any album
Arnold Frollows
1. Kind of Blue: Miles Davis
2. What's going on: Marvin Gaye
3. Astral Weeks: Van Morrison
4. Hejira: Joni Mitchell
5. The Harder they Come: (Soundtrack)
Guilty Pleasure
Hotel California: The Eagles
Sarah Blasko
1. Debut: Bjork
2. To Bring you my love: PJ Harvey
3. Amnesiac: Radiohead
4. Dirty: Sonic Youth
5. Talking Heads: 77 Talking Heads
Guilty Pleasure
Neither Fish nor Flesh Terence Trent d'Arby
Simon Elliott
1. U2: The Joshua Tree
2. Making Movies: Dire Straits
3. Gossip: Paul Kelly
3a: Rumours: Fleetwood Mac (just following on the with the loose lips)
4. Enlightenment: Van Morrison
5. The Bends: Radiohead
Guilty Pleasure (not really, just one more)
Brood: My Friend the Chocolate
So: Peter Gabriel
Simon's twin
1. David Grey: White Ladder
2. Oh, Mercy: Bob Dylan
3. Mercury Falling: Sting
4. Woodface: Crowded House
5. Glo: Delirious?
Guilty Pleasure
Difficult Loves: Weddings, Parties, Anything
So—step right up and swing hard. No wrong answers (other than those listed above).
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Yep, she's here
Now I know this site is not intended to be a personal column for the events of life, but I'm bowing to public encouragement to introduce you to a friend of mine.
Here's Molly Grace Shakespeare Elliott. Molly entered the world at 11.52am on August 26, 2007. She weighed in at 3210grams and stretched out to 50.5cm when it mattered. She's got a less than comfortable head (35.5cm) in the clinches but it's covered with plenty of hair. She hasn't said much so far.
We're more than happy to have her stay at our place for a while...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Top 5: Leaders of the Bible, Leaders of the World
I've been preparing to lecture a unit on leadership over the last couple of days. The first couple of weeks is spent reviewing some of the great leaders of the Bible and some fine leaders throughout history. So I thought I'd throw it out there. Butter up with two separate Top 5's: one for biblical leaders and another for giants of leadership through history.
As far as criteria goes, the only criteria is that you consider them a leader. Feel free to add words of clarification or even what you admire about their leadership but, like any leader, don't feel that it's a particular stereotype of leadership that qualifies them for a list like this.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Greatness.
From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1601:
"...Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em"
(Malvolio)
Given that the overwhelming majority of the population considers themselves 'above average', which one of Malvolio's three options are you?
Better still, what have you got to say about greatness?
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Climate change mayhem.
With all the news on TV lately about the extreme weather conditions affecting parts of Australia, we shouldn't forget that Perth has its share of devastating weather too.
Here's a photo illustrating the damage caused to a friend of a friend's home from the storm that passed through Perth on the weekend. It really makes you appreciate what you have, and reminds us not to take things for granted.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
If I lived in the US I'd be buying a phone today...
Today would be the day I joined a long line and bought myself a new phone. Nah, truth is I'd probably wait until the noise died down or order it on line. Heck, it's only a phone after all. That's not really true—it's an iPhone! And there's just a little hype surrounding the launch.
In the last six months, Apple’s iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the “Jesus phone.” All of this before a single consumer has even touched the thing.
I'm happy to wait though. It builds character. Passionate patience Paul called it. I shouldn't get too excited...they'll probably sign up '3' as the network of choice.
Still, it might be fun. And my phone's already surrendered.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Spacious Miracles
Think quick: which of Jesus' miracles do you remember first? There's no winning answer, just something to get us off and running.
In an internal monologue (probably a dialogue given there was Q&A involved) during my Sunday morning run, I settled on one...
Riverview had a Miracle Offering Day on Sunday for all our Riverview Trust initiatives and while I was considering what I might talk about with the team I lead as a foray into leading our church in worship, I got thinking miracles.
My answer took me back to Year 9 at Wesley. Before I get there though, the miracle:Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
I want to write a few words about Jesus feeding the 5000 but first, let me just say this: my theological understanding of what went on is fairly simple. Jesus took the lunch of a boy who was willing to give sacrificially and blessed it. Something miraculous and supernatural took place that was inaugurated by Jesus and activated by the obedience and faithfulness of the disciples. The food didn't multiply upon being blessed, it multiplied upon distribution. While there's plenty of significance to be gleaned from the miracle, I just want to leave my understanding of it there for the moment.
I guess it was a neat and salutary message to selfish school boys. Heretical in my humble opinion, but neat and salutary nonetheless.
As I reflected on this on Sunday morning, I realised that whether or not it was accurate to the events that might have taken place 2000 years ago, the notion of behaving spaciously was demonstrated in the telling.
Our words and our action inspire and grow, or deflate and diminish those around us. Our attitudes are contagious. And, from that perspective, we're all leaders. We're all capable of building up or tearing down. Unintentionally or intentionally.
The Apostle Paul recalled a principle regularly considered in Proverbs when talking to the church at Corinth:Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop.
I vote yes to miracles that can only be explained through the supernatural. I also vote yes to the authority of Jesus to be the steward of those unexplainable signs and wonders. Yet I also vote yes to the (often miraculous) notion that you and I, through going about our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life with eyes on eternity, can change the flavour of the world around us. We can be positively contagious. There's truth in it.
Live creatively friends.
(PS. On reflection, 'water into wine' was probably my 'top of mind' miracle...but I don't have a Year 9 story about water into wine. And that's appropriate.)
Friday, June 22, 2007
Scratching lyrical (A communal Top 5)
There are moments of magnificence and beauty when the breath of our creator God seems to infuse the mind of the created in a sublime way. Through the crafting of words, a song lyric can capture or recall experiences, people, emotions and time in a way that cuts through the clutter with alarming simplicity. Sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes the reverse happens. Alas, some lyrics become memorable because of their abuse of our curious language.
That's what this Top 5 is all about. The one-liners within songs that make us start searching for sharp objects. They're either cheap rhymes, banal notions or just plain English. A few decades back, a band called Supertramp wrote a song called 'It's raining again'. The sad thing is, it often gets played on some commercial FM radio stations - usually when it's raining again. Brilliant. The song houses the heartfelt cry 'Come on you little fighter, no need to get uptight-er'.
Among other things, this Top 5 is likely to demonstrate that we're equally capable of recalling the dross as we are gold.
So, bring it on. A communal Top 5 or 55 of chalkboard-scratchy one-liners where the writer should have really gone into a room for all of mirrors before saying, 'I think I'll pick up a royalty cheque for this'.
PS. It's more than possible to still like a song that contains a hideous lyric. Tough but possible. Perhaps redemption has stories to tell.
The Communal Top 5:
1. Come on you little fighter, no need to get uptight-er
(Supertramp, 'It's Raining Again')
2. Excuse me forgetting, but these things I do. You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue. Anyway the thing is, what I really mean: those are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen
(Elton John, 'Your Song')
3. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em.
(Neil Diamond, "High Rolling Man")
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Cacophony Interviews: June 2007
Darren Hanlon, Singer/Songwriter
A few weeks back, on a retreat at New Norcia, I woke on a Saturday morning to some animated voices not far from my door. A few blokes were talking about the Australian music industry. One of those blokes seemed to have a pretty good idea what he was talking about. In my semi-conscious state I remember taking some guesses as to who that was. It was obviously a recording artist who toured a fair bit, but beyond that I didn't have much to go by.
Later in the day, I discovered Darren Hanlon was the guy who had been doing the talking. Curiously, Abbot Placid was the one who told me that Darren was staying in the Monastery Guesthouse and further, he would be giving a short 'performance' to the parishioners after mass on Sunday morning.
For those who are strangers to Darren's work, here's a couple of clips to get you on the page:
And this link will get you to his MySpace.
Genres can be uncomfortable pigeon-holes, but there's plenty that's acoustic and folk-rock about Darren and you can fill in your own categories beyond that. If I was adding a pigeon-hole for Darren, it might be the 'quirky' hole. There's a intricate humour and rich tapestry to many of the word-pictures and stories that find there way in Darren's songs that are both endearing and self-deprecating (interesting how often one of those attributes triggers the other).
To give you some idea where Darren fits into the Australian music pantheon...the answer is: somewhere. Each of his 14 albums/EPs have racked up around 10,000 sales.
After dinner on Saturday night, Darren and I caught up for a two-and something hour conversation about a bunch of stuff that become the guts of this June edition of The Cacophony Interviews. Darren was happy to step up to the Cacophony plate and I was happy to do some pitching.
C: Right off the bat, what brings you to New Norcia?
DH: A bit of a whim really. I've been up to my ears in music administration gear for the last few months and I wanted to move from an admin head space to a writing head space. A change of location helps.
(complete with some dodgy details, here's how the Courier Mail reported it)
C: Sure, but New Norcia? You're from Gympie in Queensland aren't you?
DH: I grew up in Gympie, but I've been living in Sydney for a few years now. And New Norcia? Well, it's a bit of a story. My first choice was Prague but the money wasn't there to get that far away. A year or two back I was touring Australia with my band. When we got to Perth a friend gave me a call from Meekatharra. She's a teacher up there and she was hoping we might be able to come and sing for the kids. We obliged and headed for Meeka. On the way we drove through New Norcia. I remember thinking as we drove through that we'd just barged in on some movie set with all these Spanish buildings in the middle of the countryside. It stuck in my memory as a great place to come back to. And here I am...slightly more affordable than Prague.
C: Is there a spiritual context for you to be paying a visit to a Monastery?
DH: I grew up in Gympie as an altar boy. I was in church Saturday and Sunday morning. I don't go to church these days, but I love the tradition of it all. It brings back a whole lot of memories for me.
C: What stopped you?
DH: Well, I think I just stopped getting much out of it. I still go to church now and then. Often when I'm touring I'll go along to the church of the country town where I am. A while back the church I grew up in made some renovations to make it more modern. I didn't like that much. I thought that was missing the point thinking that a better building would draw a bigger crowd. I think I got a bit disenchanted with it all. I find I'm more spiritual away from the church then inside it.
Having said all that, I love liturgy. I find it quite hypnotic. I have to confess, I've got some great ideas for songs while being transported by the hypnotic effect of the liturgy!
C: How does Jesus fit into the picture?
DH: I think I regard him as more of a feeling than a person. There's often a spiritual theme or element within a lot of my songs, but I'm not hammering it at all.
C: What are the dominant stomping grounds for your lyrics?
DH: The usual stuff I guess. Girls...personal politics...Australiana and country towns, friends and incidents, tributes and encouragements.
C: Do you follow a rigorous process in your songwriting or is it more organic?
DH: It's not really a formula or necessarily a natural progression. I'll often develop a groove and work from there. I often write in multiples and can have a few songs going at any one time. Often, as I'm working on one, the framework, basis, or chorus for another can fall out. I think you the act of giving attention to the process of songwriting puts you in the path of more songs.
C: You seem to have a great affinity with country Australia. Fair call?
DH: For sure. I love escaping to towns and cities. There's a richness in the character of country towns and the folks that live in them that is often missed in the larger cities. A lot of my friends are envious that I come back from touring with such interesting stories or people I've met along the way. I think it's more that I tour in places where there are a whole lot of interesting people.
(Hanlon's most recent album, Fingertips and Mountaintops, features pianist and trumpeter Cory Gray as well as Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval. It was recorded almost entirely at the charming old Majestic Theatre in Pomona in rural Queensland.)
C: You don't just visit country towns either...you get around don't you?
DH: Yeah, we've played in lots of Eastern European countries. Estonia, Latvia...and some of your more traditional European cities.
C: Estonia? What do they think they're coming to?
DH: They're just mad keen Australian pop-music fans. To an extent they're coming because I'm from Australia but, over time, you get a following as well.
C: Are there many at the shows?
DH: We regularly play to 500+ in places around Estonia and Latvia so it's a fair crowd. There's a bunch of Aussie musos who now tour that circuit. We'll probably crowd out the market soon, but there's been a neat little niche for us all because of how many of us have toured around there.
C: Do you get recognised much around the place?
DH: Nah - a couple of times in places like Paris and London or New York, an Australian might recognise me but I'm really not that much of a big deal.
C: Are you ambitious?
DH: Yeah. Not in that I want to be famous and earn millions, but in that I love the exciting life of adventure that is touring, traveling and playing around the place.
C: Is there a dream?
DH: This is it really. The whole moving from town to town and city to city playing my music. You can keep the whole music admin thing - that's not part of the dream - but the regular rhythm of playing gigs and interesting places, that's more like it.
C: I read somewhere that you're a fellow fan of the Moleskine...
DH: A huge fan. I'm a notebook geek. I just like carrying them around. Sometimes I find them too sacred to write in so I use Spirex notebooks for lyrics and lists and stuff. But Moleskines, they're beautiful.
(What proceeded was a homage to the Moleskine Notebook...but you've heard it all before on this site so I'll spare you.)
C: I heard you talking this morning about your friend who has sold a bunch of records and her experiences in the music industry.
DH: We were talking about staying independent or going to the big label. From my point of view, being independent is a great way to go. I live with a girl called Sarah Blasko who's on a major label, so it's good to see the differences. She's doing amazingly well - she's got a really good deal. But I'm friends with a lot of people on other labels and basically they're not seeing any money and it's very hard to make a living because, from what I've heard, the record company will charge you for everything and it's a difficult road to take. Then again, you become famous instantly. Whereas if you're independent, you own everything and one of the great things is that you don't owe anyone any money. So even though I don't have the money to make a $30,000 video clip or spend a lot of money on recording, at the end of the day if I sell cds, the money's mine and I don't owe any big label. The other good thing about Australia is that a lot of our big bands are independent. John Butler, The Whitlams and The Waifs are all independent and have all got where they are from hard work.
I've just got all my stuff up on iTunes too.
C: How does that work?
DH: I'm still working it out really. I used to be with an indie label called Candle Records but they've recently folded - hence all the admin. Apple just have the normal royalty deal - it's simply another avenue for getting your music out there. I've got a whole heap of papers I need to sign and stuff. Admin...
C: Has coming New Norcia helped you get away from all that?
DH: Pretty much. The internet connection in the Guesthouse Library has been a Godsend. With a tour coming up, there's a constant need for communication for locking in dates and gigs around the place. I actually got an email tonight from a mate who's touring around Europe when I'll be there and wants me to do some supports with him. It's been good to have that internet lifeline here to keep the ball rolling.
C: Out of interest, how do you go with vocal health?
DH: Hmmm...not too bad. I got pretty sick - actually, really sick just before my last tour and had to cancel the whole tour.
C: What happened?
DH: I started getting these fevers and pains in the chest. I just wrote it off to start with, but they got worse and worse. One night, while I was at home with my folks in Gympie, it just started to get worse. I'm not one to make much of a deal but I said to parents that I thought I'd better get to a hospital—the pain was unbearable. We went to the hospital in Lismore and they sent me on to Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. I still remember being wheeled in to the hospital and the nurses seeming more interested in whether I was the Darren Hanlon who sung 'Punk's not dead' than whether or not I was staying alive. It was a blessing that Prince Charles is one of the foremost coronary care hospitals in the country because the doctors said that I was not long off a serious/fatal heart attack.
C: What was it?
DH: They did a bunch of tests without finding out too much. It's some form of auto-immune disease and it absolutely wiped me out. It wiped out a tour and it delayed the recording of the album in a big way. I remember in May 06 I was back into Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney because I had fluid on my lungs as a result of the condition. I'd been pretty lousy and had been in a hospital bed for 3-4 days. Problem was, I was supporting Lior at the Enmore Theatre and I couldn't cancel - I really needed the money from that gig to survive. It was a good paying gig. I told the doctors I had to do the gig. They thought I was crazy but said if I left for the soundcheck/gig and came straight back to my bed, they'd look the other way. When I got there I told them to turn off the smoke machines because I couldn't breathe with them on. I survived the soundcheck but just before I was about to go on some friends came out the back where I was struggling to get up to tell me that there was heaps of smoke machine action. I went ballistic at them and told them (not so gently) they'd be get them off or they were going to have a dead guy on their hands. I survived the gig (just), got back to hospital and got paid.
C: How is it now?
DH: Well, after a while they tried steroids which had some pretty bizarre side effects. I was awake for about three days and had one of my most prolific stretches of songwriting ever, but I wanted to get off them as soon as I could. They certainly helped though. Along the way, a natropath told me going of pretty much all sugar would be a big help as well. They were right, so it's no beer for me anymore (which is a bugger, 'cause I love beer). Laura Imbruglia told me around the same time that Daniel Johns had got a lot of benefit for his reactive arthritis condition by getting heaps of Omega-3 from fish. I now eat plenty of tuna and different fish and it seems to be keeping it under control. It's an ongoing thing though...
C: So, with the health pretty much under control a cliché question: where do you see yourself five years from now?
DH: Hopefully making records of integrity or doing something creative. Most likely doing what I'm doing today.
C: Thanks for talking mate. You've got a big gig tomorrow. Better get a good night's sleep.
DH: Yeah - it's a bit weird. It's certainly my first gig in a monastery. I'm a bit nervous. What do I play?
C: Whatever you want!
DH: Do you even know where I'm playing?
C: No, but I'm sure it'll be fun
(Darren played to a packed room of about 30 people; curious on-lookers, bewildered monks and a couple of people who occasionally tapped their feet. It was fun for sure.)
Darren's Touching Elbows Tour comes to Mojos (237 Queen Victoria St, North Fremantle) this Saturday, June 16. You can buy your tickets right here.
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A footnote: I read in the music press over the weekend that Darren plans to record his next album at New Norcia based on his experience at the monastery.
Friday, June 8, 2007
In praise of the caffeinated beverage
Part Two: The Third Place
Much has been written about the Third Place. I'm just going to throw it out there rather than get all academic on its ass.
The notion is simple. We live and sleep, we work, and we do whatever else we do. Our home is our first place (live and sleep). Our workplaces/study-places are our second place (work). And that leaves our Third Place—our other place (or places). These are the places where community is cultivated and enjoyed. Probably a place to be renewed or revived. And definitely a place to hang.
The Third Place comes with challenges and opportunities for Jesus-lovers.
For centuries, the Third Place was the church. Traveling through old towns across Europe you see the same agglomeration of functions and buildings again and again. The church was (or is) the centrepiece of the town. In older Australian towns it's often the Town Centre or Town Hall. Predominantly though, in towns the world over, it's the church right there at the fulcrum. It was the dominant meeting place and the dominant place to invest your disposable time. When you weren't working and weren't sleeping or feeding your family, you were active in your local church.
Many years later, Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks made a critical observation: we've lost our Third Place. We still have homes, we still have jobs. But we've become insulated from the world by those first two places and we've begun to view the church as irrelevant. It has ceased to be the critical Third Place it once was. And it's left an unoccupied void for many.
In his book, The Great Good Place: cafés, bookstores, bars, coffeeshops, hair salons and other hangouts at the heart of community, Ray Oldenburg investigates and explains the Third Place that Shultz found essential to the success of Starbucks. The Third Place, says Oldenburg, is where people congregate to find a sense of community outside of the home and workplace. By their nature, humans have a desperate need for somewhere to meet friends or take solace in the familiarity of both people and their surroundings.
Shultz sought to create Starbucks as a viable Third Place. Whatever you think about Starbucks isn't particularly relevant here. The deal is: Third Places are important because community is important.
A host of emergent church blogs talk about the significance of the café as the Third Place. I think the deal is that God colours can emerge wherever we are. Rather than working out how we can turn cafés into churches (not that it's a bad idea) or capture a caffeinated crowd and get 'em into church, I think we need to bring Jesus into our Third Places—wherever they are. The café is without doubt a Third Place. So is your favourite bar, or pub, or hair salon, or sporting club. Wherever you spend a chunk of your non-work, non-home time and enjoy or create community—that's your Third Place.
The important thing is to have one (or some).
The church is a brilliant Third Place. In its beauty, Third Places don't come as spectacular as the church. For Jesus-followers they're a a contextualisation of what's pre-eminent in our First and Second-places. But they're not the only Third Places. It's just as possible for churches to fail as vital Third Places too, so I'm not assuming that church equals great Third Place.
Jesus had Third Places. They were all over the shop. Mostly other people's houses. Friends, tax collectors et. al. He spent time in the synagogues too and, as an itinerant, called home wherever he lay his hat. Jesus formed, challenged and created community wherever he went and in many ways redefined what was acceptable as a Third Place—before we started calling it a 'Third Place'.
Here's another interesting thought to ponder: the size of your triangle.
There's an obvious triangle to be formed by the connection of your work, home and Third Place/s. There's no prescription here, but if you work in Joondalup, live in Mandurah and have a Third Place in Mundaring, chances are you true Third Place is probably your car. The proximity of your places is in large part about convenience, but it's also about community. Asking your next-door neighbour along to church (or a coffee) in Mundaring might be a bit of a stretch, but five minutes away?, that's not too much of a challenge.
There's an intentionality in urban planning these days to engender community and facilitate the Third Place. I think we need to play our part too. Some of the most vibrant communities are either villages or built around the principles of a village—a small collective of homes and businesses that share their lives together. It's not as though there's a magic distance for the dimension of a triangle that will produce community. It's more that there's a social, environmental and economic priority or benefit to keeping the distance low.
There's a balance that's created by having distinct places. The ideal isn't to live in the basement of the church where you work. Good on you if you do, but you'd be best to find a place beyond those walls where you can a) get some sunlight and b) enjoy and be part of building community.
It's easy enough to have a 100 metre triangle yet remain utterly disconnected from those around you. So, I figure, it's more about being intentional in our decision making. Intentional in building community and intentional in finding your Third Place. And intentional (or thoughtful) about the proximity of those places.
There's way more to chew over as far as Third Places go. Plenty that's already been written from a variety of perspectives. I'm just adding to the commentary really. Like you.
Got a Third Place? Looking for one?
In praise of the caffeinated beverage
Part One: Luxury
This post has been brewing for a little while now. If it was an espresso, this could turn it a little bitter. It's not an espresso though, it's a bunch of words that are in part homage and in part sociology.
Caffeine must surely be one of life's richest pleasures. With equal blends of romance, puritanical pleasure, sensory stimulation, social lubrication and sheer indulgence, a dose of caffeine in your preferred configuration kicks goals on a bunch of levels. It's surely the most fun you can have in a cup (although I do remember some photos my parents took at Disneyland on some Madhatter's Tea Cup ride...but that's a bit of a tangent).
I don't intend to wax on about coffee for a whole lot of paragraphs—we're recruiting more eminent spokespeople to look after that in forthcoming posts.
I have two coffee-connected thoughts and then I'm done. Two thoughts, two posts.
Thought One: Coffee is a low-cost luxury
This is my slither of a thought. Whether you own half of Turkmenistan, Brazil or Ethiopia, or you study at the government's pleasure, a cup of coffee will cost you roughly the same amount of money. And it can transport you wherever you'd like to go. There's a romance activated by a short macchiato created from beans grown in countries that I haven't been to that doesn't require a plane flight.
Around $3-4 (depending on whether you're having a coffee or a warm milk shake) will give you the excuse to meet up with someone and the lubricant for the conversation. It will provide the prop to hold on to for those awkward moments and grasp with steadying assurance during unfolding revelations or ecstacy. A friend of mine and me effectively rented a booth at a café in Leederville one public holiday for 6 hours. The rent was about $1/hour for the two coffees (and numerous waters) we had for the duration. That's great value right there.
It's breathtaking and liberating the permission a little cup gives you to write, to talk, to journal, to read and to dream. And you can do all of these alone or accompanied. Your choice. It's coffee—it's up to you.
In a time when luxury is often displayed with big ticket items, coffee stands head and shoulders above them all as a little piece of repeatable luxury in a cup.