Posted by giveawayboy on April 03, 2005 at 13:26:28:
In Reply to: ready to cash out again posted by cav on April 02, 2005 at 20:12:53:
: I read this link. You know, it reminded me of that time in my life. In those years, I was beginning to really develop my personal beliefs. It was a powerful time for me where I saw institutions crumble in my estimation and experienced many new things. I remember how this sort of "radical" Christian music (radical as in it wasn't popular with most established churches and challenged the church itself) played a vital role in opening me to the possibility that there were Christians who weren't so steeped and jaded in their own traditions. That there was this perpetual renewal of faith in the midst of the ever-corrupting politics of the church. I've been out of that scene for a long time as life changed: kids, homes, work, etc. And the old venues for it in Tampa faded away. But I miss it greatly. Is it still around? I mean I know Christian music is bigger and more diverse than ever, but are there still any radical limit-pushing bands whose messages are true even if the church and their own fans don't like it? Whose style isn't just knocking off the popular secular music? I haven't heard any in years. It's got to still be out there. Whose connected? Where are the outlets...websites, magazines, venues, etc?
John, I don't know where those venues are. I'm totally cut off from it. I'm more aware these days of things being online (which I think is problematic). These days I keep running into guys like Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson of THE LAND INSTITUTE, who I feel are doing something great, but who are farmers and poets and essayists, but not necessarily alternative musicians. I wish I could find the backdoor to the creative things which are happening again. My main connections were Crossover/Parallel Universe and Rod Bennett, WONDER Magazine editor, who used to do the creative type stuff for CORNERSTONE. After he became Catholic, he started doing the Catholic circuit, but I think he still may do things for Cornerstone. Just not sure. Maybe PJ could help you here. He's up on the music stuff.
: It's not as if I want to go back to the past, but being isolated culturally and relationally for so long has allowed me to examine things and coming back to the US will be an opportunity to live in a different way. I definitely don't want the lifestyle I had before I left. A lack of vigilence and conviction had slowly allowed me to erode into the very thing I swore I never wanted, even as I recognized it happening. (It's not as if I had this awful life, but from my intended course it had diverged greatly and the path was leading further away, thus making me more and more unhappy. I had to jump across the world to get back on the right way.)Anyone else have this same experience?
I've seen a wave of this. First moving to Atlanta and then again to Boulder, got me out of my false sense of knowing who I was. It got me out of settling into a pattern of living that was comfortable. Since returning home I did two radical things which helped me in many ways. The first was moving into THE PINK PALACE w Marcos. He and I practiced a simple way of life there that constantly brought us to our spiritual roots. We were constantly restructuring and pruning things. The life of simple prayer and spiritual reading which we practiced, combined with an open attitude to visitors allowed us to constantly revisit the ordinary and hallow it again and again. The second radical thing I did was to refuse the use of a car for quite some time. It seems odd that now when gas is hovering around $3 a gallon that I'd seek now of all times to get a car, but for at least a few years it has helped me greatly to live a simpler life and a joyful one. Although I had to do without many comforts as a result, I learned so much about myself in the process. I really reconnected with actual life. I began to see things I would have missed out on with the car lifestyle I was used to living. I'm not saying that having a car is somehow unheroic or anything. All I'm saying is that my Japan might have been isolating myself from the car culture aroud me. And Tampa is a hard place to do that. To be honest, if I were not thinking of attending school in the near future, I'd most likely stick with the lifestyle I'm living now. I prefer it. I've never been happier in my life. And that's the truth. I'm very close to contacting Wes Jackson and seeing what it would take to go join him and the others in Kansas. Hahaha! We'll see.
Bill