Living Wittily

The Snow Leopard and Extreme Pilgrim

Last night for the first time in ages I watched two consecutive TV programmes and greatly enjoyed them both. The first was a Natural World feature on my favourite animal, the snow leopard.(photo courtesy of here). The second was Extreme Pilgrim, the first of three programmes presented by a Church of England vicar looking for a sense of meaning, identity and inner peace, and doing so at the extreme edges of religious devotion in three of the world's great faith traditions. (See here)

My interest in the snow leopard goes back twenty or more years when I first read Peter Matthiessen's masterpiece, The Snow Leopard. The book isn't so much about the animal, as the quest to see the snow leopard in its native habitat, the Himalayas. The expedition to Nepal and into the mountains was a quest not only for a sight of the rarest of the big cats, but for a new sense of purpose and worth in living, following the death of Matthiessen's wife. It is that human quest for meaning in the midst of grieving, alongside the naturalist's search for the ultimate prize of seeing the wild, elusive beauty and the sovereign freedom of a creature perfectly at home in wilderness, that makes the book a moving account of human longing.

Last night's programme was about this magnificent animal - it's sovereign freedom now being eroded by encroaching human activity. The scientist who trapped a mother leopard and fitted it with a large non camouflaged radio collar, explained that the data uploaded to satellites would be invaluable in helping understand more about the snow leopard. I can see why that's important; information about movement, habitat, breeding, human intervention will enable more strategic and effective conservation measures in the future. But I was upset by the sight of this magnificently adapted cat, whose camouflage makes it all but invisible against mountain rocks and screes, having the handicap of a high profile collar while hunting for food.

Extreme Pilgrim was another kind of search altogether, and yet just like Matthiessen who is himself attracted to Buddhism, Peter Owen-Jones was drawn first to the famous but now tourist-driven Shaolin Temple, and then to a less commercialised monastery, in search of enlightenment, or at least the first stages of freedom from self absorbing attachment. The rigours of martial arts training took a heavy toll on a man who was unfit, and whose lifestyle by his own cofession was more about self-dissipation than self-discovery. I started off being impatient, not liking him much - but as the programme continued I began to sense that behind the camera-conscious presented self, was a man genuinely searching for a sense of self, and not sure if he would like what he might find. Several of those with whom he spoke exuded the kind of peaceful purposefulness that is perhaps only possible to those for whom peace is their purpose.

Sure there are arguments, discussions, dialogues - choose your noun - to be had between any two of the world's great faith traditions. But alongside the theology and philosophy, the practices and the devotions, the traditions and the cultures, there is sanctity, the person in process, the human life, personality, character, soul, - and their awareness of that which is sacred and transcendent. Sanctity is not an argument, it is testimony. Sanctity has a transparency that much other religious baggage lacks, and last night, more than once, the discipline and wisdom of Buddhist monks contrasted with the fragmented anxieties of a Christianity torn between, on the one hand western consumerism and its addictive habits of thought, and on the other, the deep realisation that you cannot serve both God and mammon. The question for the church in the West and North, may well be one of where we think our treasure is; and the story of the rich young ruler has an oblique but searingly true light to shine upon a Church anxiously possessive of status and its own survival, and unwilling to sell all it has, give it away to the poor, and follow after Jesus. The question where our treasure is, what we are most attached to, should not need to be asked of us by a Buddhist monk. That it was, and with such courteous deference, should suggest our need for humility and repentance as urgent prerequisites to mission.

When Christ-like living gets the world's attention, witness happens.

Saturday morning spent reading the paper at Moyna Jayne's while having breakfast. What a civilised way to start a weekend. Then for various reasons we found ourselves in one of our old stamping grounds - Whiteinch.

What used to be Whiteinch Baptist Church is now, of all things, an antiques auction room called Great Western Auctions, run by Anita Manning, auctioneer, of BBC Flog It! fame (pictured). So went in to have look cos there was a sale on. And there standing at the back, with TV cameras and all the other paraphernalia were the team from Flog It! Now I know of church buildings that have been converted into night clubs (at least two in Aberdeen), a garage repair shop, a furniture warehouse, restaurans, or flats, or even a small church converted into a family home. But an antique auction room? What does that say about the life expectancy of traditional expressions of church now considered antique?

When I went to Partick Baptist Church in 1976, the Whiteinch church had just closed and most of the membership joined the fellowship at Partick. Some of them were memorable characters, people of a generation now gone. As Whiteinch Baptist Church closed, these good folk, many of them getting on in years, were some of the first to feel the finality of sociological changes brought about by urban re-developments, secular affluence, changing social habits, and that crisis of confidence that has since seeped deeply into the mindset of Christians used to privileged respect from the wider society, and not used to being marginalised by more powerful and persuasive voices representing a quite different kind of gospel.

The presence of a TV crew in a former Baptist Church building, recording an episode of daytime TV devoted to discovering we can get money by selling pieces of our family or personal heritage, was an irony not lost on me. Somewhere along the line, that part of us that valued the past, respected our heritage, and relativised money in the scale of values, has been subverted. In a neat reversal of Jesus' words, selling granny's china and grandad's medals becomes an act of secular wisdom, a pragmatic realisation of resources, which can go towards the new flat screen telly. 

Store up for yourselves treasure on earth, for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Don't store up treasure in heaven - you might never see it.

But then again. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing to let things go that are no longer useful, or that used to be important in the life of a previous generation. If there was an edition of Flog It! that specialised in helping us to trade in on, and change into usable currency, some of our religious practices and ways of being Christian and approaches to Christian community, what would we be prepared to flog? What in our traditional ways of doing things, should be let go so that the resources they tie up can be used differently? What is now antique about the way we represent Jesus to the world? What would contemporary discipleship look like?

If we could relinquish our hold on granny's china (or its ecclesial equivalent), I can become quite cheerful about the prospects for Christian witness. If as Jesus disciples we actually live within his teaching, act out of a character formed and transformed by habits of following Jesus that are somewhere near the values of the Sermon on the Mount, and speak and act out of a world-view that has Calvary in the background and the empty tomb in the foreground, then we might just be strange enough in our lifestyle, character and conversation to attract attention. And when Christlike living gets the world's attention, witness happens!

Warning - prolonged rant, Part I

Every month we pay our TV Licence by direct debit. As a fully paid up licence holder I am entitled to express my response to Micahel Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, who makes the unqualified assumption he knows what I want. He says, and I quote,

"What [the public] want to hear...is every pound is being squeezed to get the maximum value. And the BBC is going to be more disctinctive in the future. The BBC needs to be more distinctive doing things that other people don't do, and also those things it does do, doing them in a distinctive way."

I am SO tired of the asumption that what I (a member of the public) want is value for money at all costs. And I am even MORE tired of the assumption that value is index linked to pounds sterling. I value the BBC for reasons that have nothing to do with money. In any case, value for money is such a subjective judgement. I happen to think that a couple of million spent producing quality drama is better value than half that amount spent on reality TV productions. Dr Who or X Factor, which is best value for money?

Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philarmonic or Spooks? Eastenders or Panorama, Casualty or Newsnight? Or again, take televised sport. The major sporting occasions are not value for money if it means the BBC has to outbid huge commerical interests to bring major events to terrestrial TV, and thus slash the budget for other forms of TV programme much more representative, educational, culturally significant - all of which are themselves fairly subjective judgements. And I am, unabashedly, fitba daft masel', like!

I'm not against reducing wasteful spending; or reviewing staff levels in relation to technological change; nor am I critical of any major public institution which must change in order to remain effective, adaptable and secure in its cultural and social role as an institution supported by and accountable to, the public. The BBC has an obligation to be financially prudent, but also a duty to preserve its fundamental values - which are not all financially calculable. Yes, include value for money in discussions about value; but also include values which are not indexed to finance, which indeed might cost significantly in order to preserve and promote precisely these values.

Like reporting on violence against Buddhist monks in Burma; or attempted genocide by stealth in Darfur; or the double standards of objecting to nuclear development in developing countries while new generations of nuclear weapons are commanding major budgets in the West. That kind of reporting will never be value for money - it's too important for that. So don't make value for money, filthy lucre, the benchmark value of any public I belong to.

Less factual, news based programmes is one of the key proposals, and where staff cuts will be deepest, according to the BBC's own News Programme. Now whatever else I expect, and value, from the BBC, naive as it may seem, I expect quality reporting which is politically independent, accurate and current, reflective of the realities in our world and informed about how they impinge upon our own cultural, social and political life. I expect the BBC to have some of the best correspondents, some of the most informed and reflective minds engaging with the events, people and circumstances that shape our history as today's news becomes yesterday. Good quality news coverage, factual documentaries whether political, current afairs, the arts, natural history or whatever, should not be reduced to release funds for more populist agendas. This is the hard dilemma of major educational and public institutions - do you give what is demanded, or seek to offer that which influences the culture out of which such demands come? Should the agenda be populist or elitist? Important questions - and not to be short-circuited by reducing everything to making sure every pound is squeezed to get value for money. There are other, more valuable values to be cherished.

I know, there is another side to all of this - but maybe Part II tomorrow.

Play it again

Just watched Jo Brand on the new BBC programme Play it Again. She accepted the challenge to learn the organ in four months, and play Bach's Toccata on the five manual organ at the Royal Albert in London, in front of 8,000 people at the Christmas carol extravaganza. Along the way she played on the Blackpool Wurlitzer for some ballroom dancers,(see picture), and played Ave Maria at a wedding - and re-connected with her mother through the music.

As good a reality celebrity programme as I've seen - human and humane, funny and moving, and a fine example of how TV can provide insight into people's loves and fears and hopes and vulnerabilities, their loveability and annoying traits. And all without being either vulgar or voyeuristic, and leaving me at least with a feeling of admiration and contentment that, but for a couple of wobbles, she pulled it off!

Humankind cannot bear very much reality. (Eliot)

An English College is trying to attract adults back into education by offering a course on BB - yep, Big Brother.  The cultural impact, the significance of celebrity, the nature of vicariously enjoying other people's fear, aggression, verbal wrangling, psychological warfare, alliance making, mickey taking, the whole package of what is ironically called Reality TV. Put that term into a search engine and you will come up with scores of articles from Time, New Yorker, a whole cluster of respectable broadsheets, offering serious social and cultural comment on one of the most powerful media developments in years. And now you can do the course.

The attraction of Reality TV, Big Brother, Temptation, Pop Idol, I'm a Celebrity etc, is explained by cultural commentators in various ways. Fascination with the psychology of trust and betrayal, a voyeuristic interest in other people's problems, desire for status and fame being nurtured by watching unknowns suddenly become famous, or infamous - depending on the article, and the vested interests of the writers, you takes your choice.

Made me wonder though, what does a church that believes in the reality of Jesus, have to say to a culture and its people, saturated in manufactured experience, fascinated by lives not their own, absorbed into the world of cctv video-gossip and relationships driven by the desire for audience approval? Would it be possible to win BB without being selfish? Could you survive if you acted in the best interests of others? Is truthfulness and sincerity an assett or a liability? How far does big brother dehumanise relationships by pushing contestants to forms of rivalry that require calculated alliances and personal betrayals? And what is taking place when BB creates a context of proximity to others and invasive spying from the outside - for one thing a worldview in which every 'other' is a rival for the prize.

Maybe the first thing the church is able to offer our culture is an unembarrassed sense of moral realism (NOT MORALISM) - all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Why be surprised by the relatively mild form of sinfulness that can be exposed by Reality TV? Maybe sin is one of the few truths that reality TV does accurately portray. Our original sin of putting self at the centre of the universe; the sin of Cain, jealous of his brother; the human capacity to dehumanise others who are a threat to our purposes and ambitions; our love of approval, even if it is bought by fundamental dishonesty....... and so on.

But a second offering from church to our culture is evidence of communities where we seriously resist all that makes Reality TV so precisely accurate in its portrayal of post-modern self absorption.  Yes, I know, post-modernity is resistant to any concept of the self - but in reality, the less sure we are that we have a self, the more frantically we go searching for who then we really are.

Whatever else the cross of Jesus means to the Christian, it is the place where we truly discover who we are, who God is. And there we discover too, that the reality of God and the reality of our sin, are taken into the deep purposeful love of God and we are given back the self God made us ( and is making us) to be, in Christ.

For freedom Christ has set you free - stand fast therefore in the liberty of Christ! In that freedom, there is created space for love, capacity for compassion, energy for peaceable peacemaking conversation, commitment to forgiveness, joy in the other's blessing, celebration of the other's gifts, defence of the other's worth - now that is reality. But whether it would make peak viewing........?

Building a new life

Watched last night's episode of Build a New Life in the Country. You can read more about it on the programme website, http://homes.five.tv/jsp/5hmain.jsp?lnk=451

A Whitby middle aged couple bought a ruined farmsteading and bastel house and spent a year making it habitable. Reminded of my own early years in old farm cottages, some of them needing major renovation in days before makeovers. But this project was in a different league. No roof, with decades of weather damage,it was an 18th century bastel house - that's a fortified farm house on the Scottish borders to deter Scottish cattle stealers! Walls 2-3 feet thick, and parts of the floor feet deep in centuries of dung, muck and rubble; the cows shared the building nights and winters to protect them from the Lowland rustlers.

It takes a combination of desire, acquired skills, co-operation, muscle and perhaps a little oddness, to envision such a ruin transformed into a dream home. Centuries of dung removed, tons of concrete laid by hand, the stone tiling roof rebuilt, floors, windows, electricty, plumbing, the lot. As an example of a marriage of minds and sharing of a life project it was simply inspirational - and I was moved by the indomitable, resilient, optimism of this pair - and the way they simply, 'got on with it', through snow, flooding that washed their building materials away, and serial night shifts of hard graft.

This would be the place to get homiletical and expand on dilapidation and ruin as metaphor of life, and how vision and passion can make the impossible achievable - but that would be to look for spiritual lessons. And it trivialises the realities this programme was about. It was about stone tiles, hung floors, bolted cross beams, hard packed dung requiring pick-axes, a 50 odd year old 5 foot grandmother revelling in the power of a power hammer. Lord Macleod's doctrine of creation was deeply biblical because he took matter, the sheer materiality of this world, with theological seriousness. That's what I saw happening last night - two people tackling ruined chaos with creative energy fired by a vision of the beautiful. Great television!