A Discovery Walk Through the New York Times
I am convinced that life is full of incidents and expressions that sustain us. This isn’t a mushy conviction that seeks to see light where there is none. Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be any. And I don’t think any of us can force it, ‘power of positive thinking’ aside. Side note: Bobby Knight’s new book is called “The Power of Negative Thinking.” Back to the subject which is to share some of my experience in reading today’s newspaper.
I read the local newspaper daily. On rare occasions something speaks to my experiences, my thoughts, or my feelings. Most the time, however, I make a very quick trip from the main through the business sections, with most of my time spent on the Word Jumble. It’s at best cotton candy entertainment. I walk away having only superficial disappointment or occasional pleasure at what the politicians may or may not have done around WIsconsin or Milwaukee. A cartoon here or there can put a smile on my face. It really isn’t much of a source of sustenance. It’s a kind of news, but nothing of much consequence.
On the other hand, I also read on line the Opinions and Columnists of the New York Times as well as movie and book reviews on a daily basis. If I get to the library or coffee shop on Fridays, I read almost everything in the Times. An hour or so will pass and I have often have a notebook filled with quotable material.
Today, Friday March 8, 2013 is bonus day. The writers invited me to think more deeply about something, to contemplate an insight or to consider a new understanding. When that happens, I experience the newspaper as a vital part of my reflective life, those things that expose ‘the heart of the matter’ to me.
What I share here is NOT analysis from a political point of view. That is my one disclaimer. We are so immersed, dwarfed, and falsely guided by political distortion that I do not find sustaining values in that realm. The Times may be seen as a ‘liberal’ newspaper, but that is not the message I share here today.
Perhaps, however, the values I do hold become apparent by my sharing the trip I did today through the New York Times. And, to be clear, this is the shortened version, lucky you.
A Column
In the Orthodox Surge, David Brooks takes us to a Jewish Orthodox ‘Whole Foods’ type food market in Brooklyn called Pomegranate. As we walk with him through the aisles of the store he explains how the store is not just a place to get the week’s groceries. It is more importantly a corner stone of community, It works hand in glove with those who have committed themselves to the Orthodox Society. His point is this:
“Those of us in secular America live in a culture that takes the supremacy of individual autonomy as a given. Life is a journey. You choose your own path. You can live in the city or the suburbs, be a Wiccan or a biker.”
In contrast, he says in describing this rapidly growing Orthodox community (with a birth rate due to a much higher marriage rate) will soon be the largest in New York City:
“The laws in this view (Orthodox community) make for a decent society. They give structure to everyday life. They infuse everyday acts with spiritual significance. They build community. They regulate desires. The moderate religious zeal, making religion an everyday practical reality.”
Brooks’ concluding paragraph reads:
“All of us navigate certain tensions, between community and mobility, autonomy and moral order. Mainstream Americas have gravitated toward one set of solutions. The families stuffing their groceries into their Honda Odyssey minivans in the Pomegranate parking lot represents a challenging counterculture. Mostly, I notice how incredibly self-confident they are. Once dismissed as relics, they now feel like the future.”
I, nor I suspect, Mr. Brooks are going to drop everything and rush to join (and I’m not sure we’d be welcome) this community. However, it wouldn’t likely do much harm for us to be willing to ask ourselves the questions this raises about our own values, commitments and life style. While having severe limitations as a model lifestyle for most of us, being open to learning from this and others offering alternatives to much of the lifestyle that has become ‘American’, may be a very good idea.
And that’s the ‘heart of the matter.’
Another Column
In Our Wait-and-See Culture Robert J. Abramson provides his window into our responses to ‘incidentalomas’, the unexpected finds by doctors who are giving us an exam for one thing and find another. In his case his exam revealed a ‘low malignant potential’ for a cyst on his pancreas. He is told to wait 6 months and come back for another test.
His concern about these six months is the anxiety waiting in the unknown produces.
“An increasing number of people are finding themselves in this ‘follow up in six months’ mode and experiencing the same attending anxiety. The idea of waiting is in itself an existential experience.”
His fear is that we are developing a ‘follow up’ culture that makes the future, already unpredictable, an “I’m ok now, but what about the future?” frame of mind.
And, in part,his closing paragraph:
“And yet, as disturbing as it is, it also provides an opportunity to live our lives to the fullest each day. As some Eastern philosophies tells us, life is like a river, in perpetual motion, and when we flow with it we attain a level of tranquility.
.....my hope is that we can come to terms with the river, make friends with it, and allow it to teach us to be present in the here and now.”
And that’s the ‘heart of the matter.’
A Movie Review
A.O. Scott’s review of The We and I tells a story of what happens on the fictional BX66 busline rumbling through the Bronx over a six hour period. Its subjects are primarily the students who get on and off the bus, the lives they bring to and share on the bus, and what emerges from those relationships. “At certain stops the bus or subway car will be flooded with adolescents releasing their pent-up energies in a confined space.”
What happens he says will test “even tolerant oldtimers to think grouchy thoughts. What’s the matter with kids these days?”
This is without doubt a difficult film to watch, however, I am struck by Scott’s concluding thoughts:
“And as much as it revels in meanness--the wit of a well-timed put-down and the joy of a good prank--”The We and I” is finally more interested in love, and in the sweetness that peeks out from beneath the bravado and sarcasm. It has such a generous curiosity about life, and such a commitment to the group’s dynamics.....”
“It is also like.......a valentine to New York as too few travelers (or, for that matter, residents) see it: crowded, loud, and rough, but with room for everyone. And if you listen closely, you’ll hear the poetry in the noise.”
Most of us will never see this film. I may not either. Yet, Scott’s final words can be applied to my daily life. It invites me again to consider a kind of hospitality that seeks only situations in which we are comfortable and people who are just like us.
I benefit greatly from this kind of ‘news’ and other media as well. I don’t have to sit around wringing my hands asking if there is meaning in life. And that’s the ‘heart of the matter.’
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