Stop The Presses

One of the most significant accomplishments in human history might be the invention of the printing press. The result was an explosion of information and knowledge that carried most of the world into the enlightenment. However, there is a shadow side and a cost to our advancement. It seems to me that we have become overly attached to our  "words" and to "text" - rather than direct experience. Words are symbols - not the real thing. We often project onto the "text" and live in confusion believing the "text" is the real thing.

The Cosmic Christ has now been reduced to a book. The Bible has become an idol.  The eternal "Word of God" has been reduced to squiggly lines on a page. Addictions to the "text" fuel fundamentalism. Christians are addicted to the Bible, to doctrine, to "text". Muslims are addicted to the Kuran. Political ideologues are addicted to the US Constitution. Atheists are addicted to the "word" of Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer. The result is a reduction to us as people; a reduction to life itself. I am very concerned how much of our lives are now lived virtually. The "text message" and the "email" and the "inter-web" continue our flight away from the direct experience of the real thing. We need the will to "Stop the Presses".  Put the book down, put the computer down, put the tablet and the smartphone down; interact with something and/or someone that is "real" and "present".

For my Episcopalian friends. I love the liturgy of our church. It is one of the major reasons that I'm an Episcopalian. However, and with that said, I feel our liturgy is way too wordy. Three lessons, the psalm, the sermon, the creed, the prayers of the people, long Eucharistic prayers - words, words, and more words.  I dream of a post modern liturgy that would provide less talk and more time for silence, for mystery, to breathe, to reflect, to interact, to move - for direct experience.

Hamlet, Act II, Scene II
     LORD POLONIUS:  What do you read, my lord?
     HAMLET:  Words, words, words.