Spirals of violence
It has been brought to my attention that people often come into tension with one another. This is not good or bad, it just is a result of different people encountering one another in a situation. Tension happens, but how we respond to that tension is what defines our character.
There is a story as old as the South about the Hatfields and McCoys. Honestly, I have never heard a specific story about these families, but I do know why they are a part of the Southern lore. They hated one another and had knockdown massive feuds with one another - often resulting in violence. As it has been told to me the dispute over who owned a pig was the seed by which members of one family was killed by members of the other family in retaliation.
All of which began over was the rightful owner of a pig.
Folklore or not, we can see these actions happen all around us; especially with children.
Child 'a' will be sitting too close for child 'b's liking. Child 'b' pushes child 'a' away and yells he is too close. Child 'a' hits child 'b' as a reaction for the pushing. Child 'b' cries and both call for the mother. Both explain that the other started the whole episode and they are innocent.
While this is a fictional account, it is not an untrue situation in many families.
These examples of the Southern families and children arguing over who "started it", are both embodiments of what I identify as a 'spiral' of violence. The action begins and then quickly spirals out of control until the parties involved do not even recall what the initial conflict was about.
Spirals are all around us. In fact I bet you could name a couple in your own life experience. Perhaps you were involved in a spiral yourself, even unintentionally.
Spirals are one way in which humanity deals with the tension or conflict we encounter. But it is not the only way...
There is a story as old as the South about the Hatfields and McCoys. Honestly, I have never heard a specific story about these families, but I do know why they are a part of the Southern lore. They hated one another and had knockdown massive feuds with one another - often resulting in violence. As it has been told to me the dispute over who owned a pig was the seed by which members of one family was killed by members of the other family in retaliation.
All of which began over was the rightful owner of a pig.
Folklore or not, we can see these actions happen all around us; especially with children.
Child 'a' will be sitting too close for child 'b's liking. Child 'b' pushes child 'a' away and yells he is too close. Child 'a' hits child 'b' as a reaction for the pushing. Child 'b' cries and both call for the mother. Both explain that the other started the whole episode and they are innocent.
While this is a fictional account, it is not an untrue situation in many families.
These examples of the Southern families and children arguing over who "started it", are both embodiments of what I identify as a 'spiral' of violence. The action begins and then quickly spirals out of control until the parties involved do not even recall what the initial conflict was about.
Spirals are all around us. In fact I bet you could name a couple in your own life experience. Perhaps you were involved in a spiral yourself, even unintentionally.
Spirals are one way in which humanity deals with the tension or conflict we encounter. But it is not the only way...
Spirals, Circles, and Cones
Over the past year or so I have been working on and with a metaphor for how I read the Bible, understand the message of Jesus, and embody out my spirituality.
This metaphor may well be established somewhere already and I would greatly appreciate any one to point me in that direction. This metaphor is built off of my understanding of the work of Rene Girard as well as Charles Bellinger and James Alison; all three of which had some of the greatest impact on my seminary experience.
The following posts are going to outline, briefly, this metaphor in hopes that I might begin to receive feedback. It is my hope (dream) one day to have this put into a format for others to share or add to.
Without getting into the entire Girardian lens, I will say perhaps the dominate issue I struggle with in spirituality is dealing with violence. How do we resolve violence in the world? Is violence good? Is violence bad? What does Jesus or the Bible reveal to us about the human condition and the role of violence within that condition?
Basically, I desire to share with others something that has changed my life over the next several posts.
This metaphor may well be established somewhere already and I would greatly appreciate any one to point me in that direction. This metaphor is built off of my understanding of the work of Rene Girard as well as Charles Bellinger and James Alison; all three of which had some of the greatest impact on my seminary experience.
The following posts are going to outline, briefly, this metaphor in hopes that I might begin to receive feedback. It is my hope (dream) one day to have this put into a format for others to share or add to.
Without getting into the entire Girardian lens, I will say perhaps the dominate issue I struggle with in spirituality is dealing with violence. How do we resolve violence in the world? Is violence good? Is violence bad? What does Jesus or the Bible reveal to us about the human condition and the role of violence within that condition?
Basically, I desire to share with others something that has changed my life over the next several posts.
Theology and Marshmallows
After watching this I was thinking about how this may resemble Christanity in some people's minds. In that we are to hold out for the really good stuff late (the afterlife). At the sametime I was very impressed with the way the kids were able to delay their gratification and get that second mellow. There is a strong undertone in Christanity to delay instant gratification. I guess it depends on where you are at the moment in your view of religion will determine how you apply this to religion.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.