EPISODE 342: WE GONNA ROYGBIV THIS MOTHER DOWN
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
On Wednesday evening I had to go get the ingredients for the stuffing I was making for Thanksgiving. And I drive into the Ralph’s lot, and I am immediately sure I am going to get into a car accident. Seriously, driving in a supermarket parking lot the day before Thanksgiving is like flying your souped up starship through an asteroid belt where all the asteroids are either anxious or angry.
(And yes, in this analogy I am both Han Solo and for some reason using the Millennium Falcon to get groceries. Let it go, it's totally reasonable. Even flyboys gotta eat.)
I barely make into a spot before the destruction that I could so clearly feel coming for me exploded past. And I walk back the half mile or so to the supermarket itself, dodging cars and other debris. (Just Discovered Supermarket Nightmare Pro Tip: Instead of walking down the alleys the cars pull in and out of, get thee to the islands/empty space between sets of cars that are already parked. I don’t know if they’re safer or not, but they definitely make you feel better.)
And I walk in, knowing it’s going to be crazy but relieved because I have survived so far and also I have only a few ingredients to get. And as soon as I get in the door I have the crazy impulse not to worry right away about getting what I need, but instead to just take a moment and savor being here with all these people right now.
I know that sounds nuts. No one enjoys holiday shopping. One endures it and walks away with things whose value to you will hopefully help you quickly forget the trauma you went through to get it. (Don’t tell me it’s a coincidence that the things people wait all night in line for are video game consoles and televisions. Calgon/Red Dead Redemption II, take me away.)
But that’s how I felt. Like a Handmaid that’s been locked in her room for months for getting mouthy and then gets to put on her wings and go to the grocery store to buy crappy canned beans with her friends.
(I spent most of the last week watching The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2, and now I can’t get it out of my head. #UnderHisEye.)
And so seriously, I just sort of wandered the aisles a bit, trying to take it all in. The little girl riding on the front of the cart while her brother looked on. Two women who clearly were complete strangers sharing recipes. A middle aged guy giving a big hello and hug to a friend he and his family have just run into. Don’t get me wrong, it was hardly idyllic, the rows were crowded and some people had definitely opted for “I am keeping my head down because this is freaking me out and if I don’t look you in the eye you have to cede me the right of way” survival mode. Also, it turns out even when a supermarket is busy it’s hard to people watch, because that is just not a thing that you do in supermarkets, you big weirdo.
But you know, that impulse to just wander around and savor remained so strong even after that I actually went out of my way to do a little shopping in the hellscape which is Black Friday. It was challenging in a whole different way-- Note to self: You fool no one but yourself when you say you’re going to Best Buy “just to people watch”. But again, there were these little moments, usually of kids jumping around with/pulling on/wandering away from their parents, that just sort of popped out for their beauty and simplicity.
What’s the lesson? Not sure, but Current Theory: When I am pried free from my own agenda (now comes with free set of blinders!), there’s a lot of great stuff to see. Like maybe if Han and Leia and Chewie and the gang hadn’t been in such a hurry to get through the asteroid belt they would have seen some pretty wonderful things. The ballet of flying asteroids itself, really, is kind of amazing.
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When I visit Australia I usually spend time with a Jesuit named Joe Sobb. It was his parish I wrote about last Christmastime, where they did Christmas Eve outside as a sort of picnic in a park and as he preached in the backyards nearby children flew up and down on their trampolines.
Almost every day that I’ve stayed with Joe we end up at the supermarket. In a rectory where there’s just a couple guys, you don’t want to buy too much at once, perhaps. But honestly I think Joe also just likes going to the grocery store, burbling away as he gets a couple things and having a fun couple words with his friends the cashiers.
It’s like it’s a way of being a part of community, not doing anything spectacular or being somehow a leader, but just continuing to show up and asking it to make a place for you. Maybe the real banquet isn’t the one you make the stuffing for but the one where you have to trust that you’ll be invited.
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Saw this from Richard Rohr this week. It seems connected.
Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance. It’s a way of living in the Presence, living in awareness of the Presence, and even enjoying the Presence. The contemplative is not just aware of God’s Loving Presence, but trusts, allows, and delights in it.
Faith in God is not just faith to believe in spiritual ideas. It’s to have confidence in Love itself. It’s to have confidence in reality itself. At its core, reality is okay. God is in it.
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(Having said that, my stuffing – my mom’s recipe -- did get unexpectedly high marks on Thursday. It didn’t really look done, but it tasted great. One guy I live with said it was the best stuffing he’d had since his own mother’s. Nice going, Mom! #NomNomNom #MayTheLordOpenMyBelly #BlessedBetheFruitofPepperidgeFarm)
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Say what you will about a Cthulhu Thanksgiving,
But Everybody Gets a Wing, a Claw or a Tentacle.
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Short one this week. Sorry about that. Holidays holidayin', and some busy writing days to boot. (I actually spent Monday amidst the burnt hills of Malibu reporting for America. Some tough days in California right now...)
But I did find a couple really great links. Get our your hankies...
The last couple years I've posted British department store John Lewis's Christmastime ad, because they are designed to crack open the ossified parts of heart and make you feel all the things, and I need that.
This year’s installment is a doozy. (You’ll think you get the point right from the jump, but hold your horses, Serena. This Handmaid’s got surprises.)
Another great thing the UK does every is a telethon called “Children in Need”. Part of their shtick is to get popular British TV shows to do a little mini-episode or something else for the event. Doctor Who often pitches in, and this year’s contribution, man did it get to me.
Have you been watching the new Doctor Who? It’s the first season with a woman in the lead, and it’s really been fascinating to watch. The show’s much more a collaboration among the characters, for one thing; the Doctor regularly asks for advice and others’ opinions.
But the really interesting thing is, many of the episodes are focused on social outsiders, like Rosa Parks, or people who are generally forgotten, like the workers at the Amazon fulfillment centers or the millions who died when the U.K. decided to split India into India and Pakistan. Some have criticized the new season as being “political” as a result, but to me it seems more like the natural effect of having a non-straight white male in the role. People who have experienced marginalization not only have a different point of view on the world, they are able to see different groups of people within it that others have missed or ignored.
If you watch that video you’ll see for yourself a whole other amazing impact of a female Doctor...
Lastly, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Chuck Wendig. He is a fiction writer well known for some Star Wars novels he’s done. He’s also very outspoken about politics and life in general.
Last week on Twitter he gave 25 Reasons Why to Keep Making Things. It’s very salty – buyer beware – but really wonderful; I highly recommend it on days when things seem dark.
A couple favorites:
1. ... A book, a piece of art, even an excellent meal – it’s a doorway out. It’s the tunnel dug out behind the Rita Hayworth poster in your prison cell.
7. Because what you do is bigger than what’s going on. What you make is about tomorrow, so the cuckoo bananapantsness of today must not stop you.
8. Because what you make will outlast this ungovernable #%@*&^!. What you make are mountains. We will cling to their peaks. And when the Tides of Stupid recede, the mountains of what you made will remain.
19. Because when you make things, you learn things, and education is good.
24. Because art is beauty. Stories, poetry, craftwork, food, it’s all beautiful and this ugly world needs a dollop of beauty. There is beauty in both the act and the result of making stuff. So kick the !%!*#&! out of the sky with an aggressive rainbow counterattack.
There’s always someone going on about how bad things are. And fair enough; the truth is often not awesome. Case in point:
But you’ve got some dollops of beauty to share, too, and so do I. And who doesn’t want to kick !%!% out of the sky from time to time with an aggressive rainbow counterattack.
How about you take the red, orange and yellow stripes, and I’ll do the green, indigo and blue.
Cool?
Here we go.