Disappointing Stories 2 (Campmeeting 2014)

Continuing our discussion of disappointment, this week we explore what happens after disappointment--the significance of the choices we make in response to overwhelming events, in response to the experience of being lost.  We talk about Rwanda, religious polarization in our society, music, heaven and what this has to do with God, faith and love.

Next week, we open the discussion further as we spend time discussing various stories that audience members share.

Enjoy!

Disappointing Stories 2

Community Discussion (Campmeeting 2015 Bonus)

Hey everybody.  I had the privilege of speaking in Comox Valley this weekend about loving our neighbours.  Unfortunately, in my focus on preparation, I forgot about posting another podcast.  Then Monday came, and I realized there were far more interesting things happening, at least in Canada.  So, I'm saving that podcast for this Friday.  In it, we talk about the conflict at the heart of community between telling a coherent narrative of our lives and identities and opening that narrative to change.

In the meantime, here's a recording I've been saving from the first of our Campmeeting podcasts.  After we finished recording the podcast, Community Questions, we spent time talking with some friends about various issues we had raised.  It's a little more raw than our regular discussions, but still quite interesting, I think.  Certainly not everyone in the world thinks like Dale or I, so you might appreciate hearing some different voices.

Enjoy!

Community Questions (Bonus)

The Third Way Conference Report Part 1

This report has been a little while coming. We recorded it a week ago, then I (Dale) misplaced the recorder.  The recorder has been found, so it is now my privilege to present to you our attempt to report on some of what we learnt on our trip to the Adventist Forums Conference, aka the Spectrum Conference.

This first session introduces the main theme of the conference and Brian McLaren's first two presentations.  The chief question was: in a world with so many beliefs and so many differences, how do we engage in a way that is compassionate and caring without simply giving up our own beliefs?  Part of the answer we found is changing the paradigm with which we approach difference.  Do we operate out of fear (of losing our identity) or out of love (as our identity)?

Spectrum Conference Report Part 1

Open Theism with Steve Mirkovich

We're finally back with a new podcast.  It was great seeing many of you at BC Campmeeting and recording a few podcasts while we were at it.  We look forward to meeting more of you at the Adventist Forum Conference coming up in September.

This week we're happy to feature a guest: Pastor Stevan Mirkovich from Vancouver.  I've known Steve since we were in junior high together.  He has wrestled long and hard with his faith and grown much in the journey--which is certainly not over.  He is recently returned from the first Open Theism conference, so we asked him to share what "open theism" means and why it is important to him.

Steve, thanks for sharing with us.  And thank you to the staff of the Lodge at Camp Hope for graciously opening a space for us to record.

Open Theism with Steve Mirkovich

We'll be back next week with another podcast.

God as Other: Why so Complicated?

Well, in Dale's absence, I've managed to find a podcast we recorded a while back but haven't released yet.  I think this is a good time for it.  Our discussion starts with a question: "If God is real, why doesn't He make himself known in a way that is obvious and unmistakable?"  This ties back into our discussion about reading the Bible as non-fiction, "Made for the Story", and my thesis.  This is a common question grounded in some assumptions about God and language and faith that don't make a lot of sense.  God wants a relationship--as such, he approaches us in ways that allow us to ignore or reject him.  He does not force himself upon us, and he speaks and appears in ways that require a response, without dictating a particular response.  That responsibility is vital to faith and life.  Ultimately, God appears as the "Great Other" who challenges our self-conceptions and doesn't always act in ways that are either comprehensible or desirable from our perspective.  But that is the great difficulty of loving another rather than yourself--different choices, different actions, different words.

Enjoy.

God as Other: Why so Complicated?

Hopefully, next week we will continue our discussion of the Bible as Nonfiction with an exploration of practices of good interpretation.

Freedom as Responsibility: David's Thesis Part 1

Release fail.  I apologize.  I've been sick and largely incapable of useful thought for the past few days, so the release is late.  Sorry.

This week is the first part of a discussion Dale and I had about my MA thesis.  If you're interested in reading it, let me know, but I will warn you that it is a dense 100 pages of critical theory.  This is the much simpler version.

In my thesis, I explored three wilderness nonfiction books: Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Peter Gzsowski's The Sacrament, and John and Jean Silverwood's Black Wave.  My question was "what is at stake in these stories that they each operate, at least partially, in an apologetic (explanatory) mode?"  My summary statement was that I was exploring "freedom as responsibility grounded in a recognition of mutual vulnerability and enacted as a contest for meaning."  The project allowed me to work through and articulate a number of ideas I've been wrestling with for the majority of my adult life, as such, it is probably my clearest articulation of the importance of story, the role it plays in our lives, and the importance and meaning of our engagement with it.  This ties back into much that we've discussed so far.

This first part ends with a question about why there must be a contest for meaning.  Part 2 answers next week.  Enjoy.

Freedom as Responsibility: David's Thesis Part 1

If anyone is interested in undertaking the reading of my most significant work thus far, it is available through the UVic Library website, here.

Part of the podcast is here.

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of our discussion of responding to violence in light of the Boston Bombings.  The first part didn't seem adequate and raised questions that both of us continued to think on.  We decided to address some of those questions in a second podcast.  It's not enough to say "forgive" in the face of sustained violence--we must find a way to respond that limits future violence without simply escalating force and violence.  If our only response to violence is escalating use of force and power, we do not address the problem.  However, we have to go deep to change this perspective.  Our response to violence is grounded in a number of stories about individuality, community, morality, freedom and God.  Our final question is does God merely do security theater as some contend?  This week, we try to explore some of those issues a little further.

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 2

In the future, we are aiming for Monday releases so we have time to prep the recordings over the weekend.  Sorry about the late podcast this week, but Muskwatch is hard at work revising his thesis after a successful defense.  Next week, we'll be back with The Truth About Stories, Part II.

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 1

Well, we had planned to release The Truth About Stories Part II this week, in which Dale explores a story about story that is particular meaningful to him.  That will be up in a few weeks.  However, it seemed more relevant to post a discussion we had about the recent Boston bombing.

First, I must express our sympathy for the people and communities impacted by this tragedy.  Life is not meant to contain such horrific pain and loss.  However, the stories we tell about loss and in response to loss are especially powerful and thus especially worthy of attention and consideration.  Too often, in our pain, we speak stories which only immortalize and extend the pain we have suffered rather than grapple with it and resolve it in any meaningful way.  As such, I must clarify that my sympathy also extends to the two young men involved, as well as their communities and to those involved in other less widely spoken stories, including the explosion in Texas and the Rehtaeh Parsons story.  We live in a broken and often brutally painful world and our response to that pain matters immensely.

This podcast focuses on the question of how we respond to vulnerability and loss, especially in terms of the stories set in motion by the nation-state and its representative authorities and authoritative speakers.  These are not easy questions and our exploration may prove unsettling to some, but I ask you to bear with us.  Given the complexity of these issues, we recorded a second podcast which, as per the poll results, we will release next week.  In the meantime, here you are:

Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 1

Or alternatively:

the same podcast on Spreaker

Why this forum?

Over the past good while myself and a a friend have been in the process of writing a book - or to be more accurate co-writing.  To be more accurate still would be to say that we've spent several hours each weak discussing everything that we want to write about, but very rarely writing.  This blog will be a way of giving us a forum to write in, to post some of our discussions, and to give others a chance to tell us how ridiculous we are.

The subject matter will vary across a few disciplines, but will always be linked back to one question - why?  If that's too broad, I could narrow it to the domains of critical theory, religion, love, narrative, story, friendship, language, and hiking.  Even narrower, subject matter will almost always be relevant to our own lives, and the stories that we interact with regularly - urban vs rural, academia vs "normal", Adventism, the outdoors, television, gaming, and board games. If that's too broad, you'll have to either read later things that I've written, or listen to the podcasts that I think we'll be posting in the near future.

Finally - the title of this blog.  I originally wanted to go with -ee-apachitayaan ninagataweyihchigan, which translates as "as I am using my mind" and is in the Michif language, one of the unifying tropes I use across my blogs.  On second thought (after being reminded that it's not really that easy to remember [only 14 syllables!]) I went with Taanshi, meaning Hey! or How's it going?, also in Michif, but roughly twelve syllables shorter.

The main reason I chose it here is because it seems that most blogs dealing with this sort of subject matter go for Latin names referring to some sort of religious concept, and I think it's silly.  Unfortunately the convention is so well established that I can't really think of an English title that I could use! So my act of rebellion has been to reject Latin in favour of a language that is the beautiful bastard child of French and Nehiyawewin, preserving many of the strengths of both, and differing most significantly from Latin in that it is not friendly to metaphysics of any kind, as in its syntax, morphology and culture it tends to ground discussion in bodily action, and concrete implementation.  I'll probably talk about this at some point.

Finally, please interact! If you post interesting questions here, and we find them interesting, we'll probably try to find our own answers to them and post them either as posts or as podcasts.

update: we have a new title! "Storying Life" so although I still love "taanshi", it's going to be the url, not the title from here on in.