I will spare you the REM video for this song because it's a stretch to make it applicable to what I am thinking, other than the strange story of Dan Rather being mugged in Central Park by a crazy guy asking Dan for the frequency codes the news media was using to control him.
Every time I think of this song I think of the difficulty we all have in communicating. I find myself often wanting to say: What's the frequency Kenneth?....but I am sure all that would get me is strange looks and I don't know that it would help me or the other in communicating?
I read a book a few weeks ago written by Jacques Ellul called The Humiliation of The Word and it deals with the difficulty we find ourselves in when it comes to language and our attempts to use it. One of the things he points out is that we have become a people that have been so shaped by Images. It has really sparked some thinking in me as to how images do have a way of shutting down thinking. To understand the spoken word it takes time and effort. To understand a picture like we are so governed by due to tv, magazines, movies, books as so on, it takes little or no thought at all. We see an image and we think we know what is going on.
Having been so shaped by images, even when we hear the spoken word, pictures begin to run none stop in our head, ( if they had ever stopped in the first place) and this makes 'listening' to the other most difficult if not impossible. But even beyond that, this unbroken stream of images that runs in our brains none stop make understanding the word most difficult.
This creates much difficulty for us when the only thing true that exists is the Word that proceeds from God's mouth. It becomes even more complicated for us now when we have been so shaped to live by what we see (images, pictures, and the visible world) when living a life of faith is living by what we don't see.
I want to learn to communicate in a better way. But even if I am capable of accomplishing that, the minute I say it or write it, it enters the realm of interpretation and the images it brings to life in the listener's mind. At that point we begin the adventure of slogging through the mixed frequencies all over again.
Confusing?
5 comments:
Kent,
I really liked this, maybe in sharing later tonight we can unpack this a bit more :)
I wonder if what you are trying to share here is why Paul after his conversion,and regaining his sight, and nearly being killed, it says he did the following...
But even before I was born, God had chosen me. He was kind and had decided to show me his Son, so that I would announce his message to the Gentiles.
I didn't talk this over with anyone.I didn't say a word, not even to the men in Jerusalem who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went at once to Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
And yet it was 14 years later he did present himself to the brothers in Jerusalem, in obedience to the spirit.
Maybe it was imperitive for Him to get away so that Father by His spirit could flesh out what later became his message, Christ in you..it is no longer i, but Christ.
I'm wondering as we continue to experience His total loving acceptance, it may in fact purge displace the stuff that so easily seems to trip us up?
Rich
This seems to be the dance of life. One speaks, one hears and what is created in the conversation is something both need, but it does come through on different frequencies. I wonder if every culture is image based more than we have realized because Jesus used parables for a mental picture. People have always given visual form to ideas and concepts in order to understand them....the golden calf?
It can be frustrating to feel misunderstood or misinterpreted, but maybe that's the beauty of it? I have often said something to have the other person say, "oh, blah blah blah!" like they had an epiphany, but I'm left wondering how they got THAT from what I said. I've learned to let it go and allow whatever it was they needed to hear be what it was.
I think it may tie in to the idea of God working through the communication rather than us trying to force our own perception on the other person. Maybe...
What Rich said was wonderful! I can surely see the need for clarity and attention to effective communication when explaining a core spiritual truth is on the line. Dear Paul...what an instrument.
My friend and I used to throw our hands up and say, "What's the point in communicating at all? How does it ever get from one person's brain, out through their mouth, and into the other's brain, intact in any way, shape or form?" That's probably a bit overdramatic, but I do tend to agree.
I wonder how we shall communicate in ages to come? :)
Kentster? Kentster? Are you okay? It's awfully ... quiet around here :)
Everything is just fine around here.
Maybe I will post something later tonight?
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