Daily Transformation with Donnie Sands

This week we have another campmeeting special.  Our friend Donnie Sands wanted to do a podcast exploring the question of how we live in a state of continual growth or transformation, rather than stagnation.  Put another way, how do we live in a continually process of wayfaring?  Not simply in idea, but in practice.  What came of this is a deeply personal account of Donnie's experience overcoming anxiety, depression and stress in his own life--his own search for transformation, for practical means of wayfaring.

Just for (potential) naysayers, I feel I should add the caveat that this is a particularly speculative podcast, not in terms of ideas, but in terms of an explanation of techniques that have been effective.  There is no one way forward, no universal technique of personal transformation, no single practice that if we just repeat it ad nauseum will somehow result in a life of meaning and consequence and "transformation."  Life is a little more interesting than that (thank goodness).  That being said, I hope you enjoy our exploration.  Next week will continue this topic with a round table discussion.

Enjoy!

Daily Transformation with Donnie Sands

Lines: How we travel - how we live

When I go out my door and begin travelling, how do I view what I am doing? I can be starting a journey from point A to point B, or going for a walk, or a drive, or maybe even both. According to Tim Ingold, in his book "Lines: A Brief History", the way in which we view these journeys can correspond to the way in which we view many other aspects of our life, as well as how we live and remember our lives.

In this podcast, David and I tell stories about our own experiences with lines, and present, discuss, and argue about the question of transport versus wayfaring, or put another way, how we conceive of lines, and how that impacts our lives.  We also relate the question to our own lives, and to questions we encounter as Christians, or as simply humans.

So how do you view your daily commute, or your walk to work? And what does this viewpoint tell you about the rest of your life?

Lines: How we travel - how we live

This podcast ties in to, and builds on the ideas begun with our podcasts "The Truth about Stories" Part 1 and  Part 2. 

You can listen to this podcast on Spreaker as well at this link.

The Truth About Stories, Part 1

One of the most influential books for me, giving shape to how I view the world, was Tom King's book The Truth about Stories - which he gave as the 2003 Massey lectures.  In his book he starts with a creation story, looking at how the story impacts how we view the world, and how the story shapes how we view stories themselves.  Among everything else in this wonderful book,  he states that "the truth about stories is that that's all we are." In other words, what we are as people, is the nexus of all the stories that we live in, our relationships, and our developing ideas.  In part 1 of this two-part podcast David and I try to explain how this idea impacts our thinking, starting an exploration of what the stories of our culture are, and some of the implications for how we give meaning to our lives.

The truth about stories discussion, part 1

And if you prefer, the same, but on "Spreaker"

If you enjoyed this discussion, we return to it from a different angle in The Truth About Stories Part.

Made for the Story?

One of the ways to start talking about something is to, well, start talking about it.  To that end, here is the first in a long series of podcasts! Unfortunately I pulled out the mic when we were already a little bit into the conversation, so here's an intro.

We were talking about Jacques Ellul's book On Freedom, Love, and Power in the context of a discussion about how we use stories, especially in a culture where we have stories that can tell us what to do in every decision.  Do we view our myths and stories as boundaries, boxes, that we must live in, or do are they less boundaries and more guides?  Do we have a mixture of the two?  Our discussion is here:

     Were we made for the story, or the story made for us?

     And a second link via Spreaker with it's own forum for comments

And an addendum - here are links and citations to some of the texts and stories referenced in the course of the the discussion.

     Brown, Wendy. States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Vol. 120. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

     As it Happens interview with Tariq Ali on the death of Hugo Chavez

     Ellul, Jacques. On Freedom, Love, and Power. University of Toronto Press, 2010.

     Ingold, Tim. Lines:: A Brief History. Routledge, 2007.

     Selmanovic, Samir. It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. Jossey-Bass, 2009.

     The Hebrew Yeshua versus the Greek Jesus, a presentation by Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew

     Choice: a podcast from Radiolab.

Many of the other stories referenced, The Bible, Rambo, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hurt Locker, and The Hobbit you'll have to find for yourself, as well as the two works by Joss Whedon referenced, Firefly and Angel.