But I got there last Friday night, courtesy of Les Miserables – Anne Hathaway’s Fantine, to be precise.

If you haven’t seen it, you should – even if you’re not a huge fan of musicals.  It’s not perfect, but . . . → Read More: I dreamed a dream…]]> Even though I’m a bit of a cry-er, it’s been a while since I shed tears to a DVD…

But I got there last Friday night, courtesy of Les Miserables – Anne Hathaway’s Fantine, to be precise.

If you haven’t seen it, you should – even if you’re not a huge fan of musicals.  It’s not perfect, but Les Mis is a classic and there are some wonderful moments.

And it is Anne’s version of I dreamed a dream that set me off.  I’ve seen the song done many times before, but never been moved like I was this time – perhaps it was the close-ups that made it more emotional.  She is just outstanding.  There has been the odd derogatory or cynical comment about the performance, but Oscars tend to speak for themselves…

The other thing that struck me – again, perhaps due to the close-ups – were the lyrics.  I’m not sure I’d taken the time to consider them before.  Here is an excerpt below:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame

I think it is a stunning description of living in a broken world.  Even for those of us who have a faith, that tension remains.

I have known the tasting of wine…  But I have also known the tigers coming at night.

I have not expressed myself with quite the desperation and desolation of Fantine.  But perhaps if my life had looked a little more like hers, I might have…

Universal Pictures have rightly removed all Youtube clips of the movie, so I can’t link to the song.

But you need to get it out and watch it.

So f***ing badly.

Last week I noted the recent “millionaire up-size” to the Monopoly board game and suggested that it might tell us something pretty interesting about what our culture values.  Some of you will have recognised the Monopoly Millionaire jingle as an adaptation from the 2009 song Billionaire by Travie McCoy (ft. Bruno . . . → Read More: Who wants to be a BILLIONAIRE…?!]]> Apparently Travie McCoy does.

So f***ing badly.

Last week I noted the recent “millionaire up-size” to the Monopoly board game and suggested that it might tell us something pretty interesting about what our culture values.  Some of you will have recognised the Monopoly Millionaire jingle as an adaptation from the 2009 song Billionaire by Travie McCoy (ft. Bruno Mars).

Singing about wanting or having lots of money is not new or novel.  Just last week a friend sent through the lyrics to one of Rihanna’s latest singles – Pour It Up:

Money make the world go round
I still got more money
Bands make your girl go down
I still got more money
Lot more where that came from
I still got more money
The look in yo eyes I know you want some
I still got more money…

…My fragrance on and they love my smell
I still got more money
So who cares about what I spend
I still got more money
My pocket’s deep, and they never end
I still got more money
I’m going dumb with all my friends
I still got more money

So nothing new there.  The greed, the comparison and the jealousy provocation have been pretty standard fare for rockers and rappers for a long time.  (Except maybe a 21st-century brashness about hinting how stupid we are to be financing her lifestyle with perfume and downloads…)

But re-listening to Travie McCoy’s Billionaire, it seems to be going further…

Oh, I swear, the world better prepare
For when I’m a billionaire… …

…Yeah, I would have a show like Oprah I would be the host of
Everyday Christmas, give Travie your wish list.
I’d probably pull an Angelina and Brad Pitt
And adopt a bunch of babies that ain’t never had sh*t.

Give away a few Mercedes, like here lady have this
And last but not least grant somebody their last wish.
It’s been a couple months since I’ve single so
You can call me Travie Claus minus the Ho Hos…  Get it?

Yes Travie, we get it.

The thing I thought was different re-listening to Billionaire is that it goes beyond the usual “I wanna buy lots of stuff for myself…or even for others…etc” to an almost Santa-Genie-Deity-”I’ll be the one granting your last wish” figure.  Check out the video below (language alert) and note the poignant moment when Travie gets to give a poor, unfortunate skater a brand new board after he, through no fault of his own, flies into a rage and smashes his first one.  It’s touching.

Travie’s description of the inspiration for the song is also interesting: “…if I was in the position to have a ridiculous amount of money, would I be selfish or selfless? I just took that concept and ran with it.” What’s interesting is how much self is still in this “selfless” version.  It might be packaged differently, but that makes it even scarier.  This isn’t just Travie the Billionaire.  This is something more in the realm of Travie the Fairy Godmother.

Travie the Omnipotent.  Travie the Transcendent.

Maybe I’m overstating it, but I think that’s quite a jump…

Yes, apparently it’s no longer incentive enough that you get to take your younger siblings to the cleaners when they land on your Park Lane – now they have to suffer the added indignity of watching you hit the $1M mother-lode first.

Maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy, . . . → Read More: Who wants to be a millionaire?]]> According to Hasbro’s Monopoly Millionaire – we all do.

Yes, apparently it’s no longer incentive enough that you get to take your younger siblings to the cleaners when they land on your Park Lane – now they have to suffer the added indignity of watching you hit the $1M mother-lode first.

Maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy, but I think this 2012 variant of the game tells us something pretty basic about what our culture wants.  The clip is below, but I’ll let the background song lyrics and the following voice-over do some of the explaining…

I wanna be a millionaire…so very bad (so bad); Buy all of the things I never had.

A different city ev’ry night – oh I, I swear; The world better prepare,

For when I’m a millionaire.

“Now kids can play like millionaires with a fun, fast way to play the Monopoly game.  Be the first player to reach 1 million and win!

Fortune cards get you in the game faster, while Chance cards and Millionaire Lifestyle cards give you exciting moments throughout the game.

You can upgrade your mover to match your lifestyle as you move around the board.  First to a million wins!”

The ad features each of the playing youngsters in turn, briefly enjoying piles of money, Hummer cars, jets, diamonds and (even better) the attention of the other players.

Contrast that with the other Monopoly ad below – from 1981.  Here we have a group of strangers, stuck in an airport after a delayed flight becoming friends and actually helping each other over a game of Monopoly.  As a backup vocalist croons:  “Share a smile and your day seems a whole lot better; With Parker Brothers kind of fun brings people together” a warm, grandfatherly voice explains: “Monopoly’s been bringing people together for almost fifty years.  That’s how long we’ve been wheeling and dealing together, building hotels together and…going to jail together…”  >happy sigh<

A couple of casual observations in no particular order:

1. In the twenty-first-century, we all want to be millionaires.
2. Very badly.
3. We want to be millionaires very badly, so we can buy lots of stuff.
4. We deserve it, cos we never had it.
5. One of the best things about wealth is that it frees you from the pesky limitations of consistency and community, so that you can enjoy “a different city every night.”
6. Like everything else, boardgames are having to both speed up and add extra “exciting” features to hold our attention.  (One commentator noted that a game of the new version takes about 45 mins, compared to about 2-3 hours for the old…)
7. And finally, note the difference that playing each of the games is portrayed to have on relationships.  In 1981, the goal is that strangers become friends.  In Monopoly Millionaire, friends become “strangers”…  There is an allusion to the fact that one of the perceived benefits of becoming wealthy is that we actually get to distance ourselves from others.  Our wealth sets us apart.  “I swear, the world better prepare for when I’m a millionaire.” And the closer someone is to us, the more fun it is to feel the estrangement – the awkwardness- the jealousy.

A bit unfair?  Maybe, or……

Some of you will have recognised the lyrics of that Monopoly Millionaire ad from the song Billionaire by Travie McCoy (ft. Bruno Mars) – more on that in the next post.

This same path takes us to the very centre of who we are.

It has been at the core of the Catholic mystical tradition for centuries.

But outside of religious settings it has almost . . . → Read More: An unlikely path to God…?]]>

Many of the worlds religions believe that there is one simple path that leads us towards God.

This same path takes us to the very centre of who we are.

It has been at the core of the Catholic mystical tradition for centuries.

But outside of religious settings it has almost disappeared.

It’s called…. …. ….

…. …. ….silence.

So begins the fascinating BBC documentary series – The Big Silence.

The series follows five regular Brits as they join Benedictine monks and spiritual directors for an 8-day silent retreat.  Only one of them is a firm believer in God at the beginning… …but all five have an encounter of some sort or other by the end.

It is a fascinating series that I have only just discovered, but am finding to be a compelling (and challenging) watch.

In the last couple of months (prompted in part by some of the discussions that our group has been having as we work through The Hare and the Tortoise) I’ve found myself returning to a couple of questions:  Are we the first generation to experience continuous stimulation, literally from the moment we wake to the moment we collapse into bed?  And if so, what are the consequences of that relentless input going to be?

To put things into perspective (and I hope this isn’t oversharing!) one of my Lenten goals this year was to not take my iphone into the toilet.  Apparently not content to sit alone for even those few minutes, I would use it as a time for some precious multi-tasking – delete a few emails here…catch up on some news headlines there…

I realise that taking reading material into the small room is not new – even my grandparents had a stack of National Geographics and crossword puzzles to pass the time.  But somehow, in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on, there is something more demanding, more intrusive about a screen.

And we have screens in our faces a lot.

For centuries people have had times in their day without stimulus.  Intentional or unintentional times of reflection or meditation.  A long walk to the next village.  Mundane work around the house that needs to be done.  Sitting and waiting for a meal to cook; a late friend to arrive, a broken wagon wheel to be fixed…etc…etc…

I guess I am fascinated by the fact that not only have we squeezed out these big chunks of down time; we have managed to squeeze out even the smallest moments as well.  Literally every moment.  Bus 5 minutes late? – Pull out a book.  Meeting someone in a cafe? – flick through a magazine.  Waiting in the checkout line at the supermarket? – send off a text or two.

You might be starting to understand why I was wanting the relative sanctuary of the toilet back.

I’ve attached the first part of The Big Silence below.  Take a look and if you get hooked, the whole series is on Youtube.  It’s only two and half hours total, and well worth the watch.

In the meantime, let us know below what you do to escape stimulation…

Sam Burrows is one of those fresh contributors.  He writes regularly for a couple of blogs already and so from time to time we will pinch a piece and post it here too.  Just like we have pinched . . . → Read More: Introducing Sam Burrows…]]> As we mentioned back in February, we will be welcoming some fresh contributors to the Conversations blog this year…

Sam Burrows is one of those fresh contributors.  He writes regularly for a couple of blogs already and so from time to time we will pinch a piece and post it here too.  Just like we have pinched this bio…

Sam Burrows is an ex-Middle School teacher (he made it out alive) who is currently working in Young Adult ministry while completing a Graduate Diploma in Theology at Laidlaw College. In his spare time he likes to pretend to be a rock star and writes for enjoyment and in order to impress a potential wife.

Sam has been a long-term fan of Compass…and Compass has been a long-term fan of Sam.

Below is a piece that he wrote recently entitled I am the Man.  It’s in a similar vein to some of the conversations about Authentic maleness and femaleness that we had with Jack and Judy Balswick when they visited last year.  And it’s funny.  Enjoy.

I am the Man.

Puberty has been a wonderful gift to me. Although it never ended up giving me any height, it has given me a lot hair. In the best places too. I’ve acquired the ability to grow facial hair with above average coverage and I’m always more than a little bit pleased when I can see my chest hair making a guest appearance in photos. It’s turning into a sweet rug under this shirt of mine.

I’m very aware that the main reason this gives me so much satisfaction is because I believe that being hairy makes me manly. What’s more manly than a beard? Being hairy is up there with driving a Jeep, eating steak and Colin Meads.

Once you really start giving it some thought, there is an incredibly prescriptive script in New Zealand directing us humans of the male genre in our behaviour. We’re supposed to be the quiet fixer-uppers, the rural pioneer blokes, the doers rather than the thinkers, the breadwinners, the agricultural heroes, the rugby players. The practical guys. The outdoorsmen. For all our societal change, being a man in our country is still dominated by a culture of the body, not of the mind. We’ve even got a yoghurt marketed as “Real man food, man.” (Get a grip, Mammoth Supply Co.)

This is typical of the West, and echoes what Richard Brannon concluded is ‘our culture’s blueprint of manhood’: No Sissy Stuff, The Big Wheel, The Sturdy Oak and Give ‘em Hell. And that’s fine for those that fit within this Bruce Willis loving definition. But for everyone else, this picture is marginalising, promotes subordination and diminishes the amazing pluralism of humanity for half of the population. So yippee ki yay.

The “Christian Dude”

I would love to be able to report that the church is doing a great job of subverting this patriarchal and oppressive version of manhood, but it seems that some voices from within Christendom are unaware of just how conditioned they are by the culture around them. Go to your local Christian bookstore and next to the Hillsong catalogue and inspirational posters of bible verses and cute cats you will find that books about being a godly man have become hugely popular. R.W. Connell notes that most of this is “a mixture of pop-psychology, amateur history and ill-tempered myth-making.”

… Why link the idea of masculinity to pictures like this when it only pertains to such a small percentage of the population? Connell goes on to ask some important questions: “What is ‘normative’ about a norm that hardly anyone meets? Are we to say the majority of men are unmasculine? How do we assay the toughness needed to resist the norm of toughness, or the heroism needed to come out as gay?”

Jesus: Behold the Man

What is most alarming about all of this is that these claims are made completely independent of what Jesus revealed through his humanity. It is to make God in Bloke’s image. There is no freedom in this. It puts pressure on men to conform to a stereotype and disregard authenticity.

Jesus came as a man and didn’t seem that interested in being a bloke, in exerting His ‘wild power’. He didn’t seem to feel the need to assert His dominance or encourage systems that forced women into submission. The Kiwi Bloke construct is a world away from the Jesus that Paul described in Philippians 2:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

Wait. Jesus was obedient? Did that mean he submitted? Sounds a bit feminine to me. Let’s start our conversations of masculinity, and actually, humanity here. Let’s liberate ourselves from narratives placing men and women in a power struggle and resist the compulsion to have to be Hugh Jackman.

And just so you know, I have written this whole article sitting in public drinking a large mocchacino with two marshmallows, and I refuse to be ashamed. I might even eat a salad next.

“Know the gospel; know the culture; translate.”

I have always really liked the Compass tag-line above, but from time to time it raises the question for me: “Just how much culture should I be translating?!”  In his book – The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness – Tim Chester describes the pressure we can often feel to ‘know . . . → Read More: The pressure to culturally keep up with the Jones’s…]]>  

“Know the gospel; know the culture; translate.”

I have always really liked the Compass tag-line above, but from time to time it raises the question for me: “Just how much culture should I be translating?!”  In his book – The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness – Tim Chester describes the pressure we can often feel to ‘know the culture.’

“My wife is a fan of Jan Austen.  There’s nothing she likes more than sitting in a hot bath, reading Mansfield Park for the 27th time.  I’ve only managed to read a couple of the Austen novels – with great pleasure I should add.  But I get confused about which two novels they are since the plots are so similar.  It is, of course, shameful not to have read all the novels of Jane Austen.  And the novels of Thomas Hardy, George Elliot, Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens.  What – you’ve not read Ulysses by James Joyce!  And that’s just the dead people.  How will you hold your own at dinner parties if you’ve not read the Booker prize shortlist?  And you need a working knowledge of popular music; the less popular the popular music the better.  It’s hard work being a ‘culture vulture.’  It takes long hours of careful dedication – plus an aptitude for bluffing.  So much of this is driven not by a delight in literature, films and music, but by the desire to impress others.  We want to hold our own in the competition to be culturally cool.  We don’t want to be exposed.  We’re afraid of what others might think of us.”

It’s funny, but it’s also painfully accurate.  I might be the only one, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I can recall watching movies or reading books knowing that I was going to enjoy telling people what I had watched/read more than I had enjoyed the actual watching/reading itself…

Tim Chester goes on to suggest that all of this behaviour can be the result of caring too much about what people think of us.  And it can contribute to the frantic busyness that his book seeks to challenge.

I have always been pretty good at resisting the temptation to say ‘yes’ to too much – even if I think people might be disappointed.  But I have not been nearly so good at resisting the much more subtle tidal wave of cultural pressure to keep up and ‘know’ stuff…

How about you?  Let us know below what some of the areas are in which you have felt this same cultural pressure.

Having spent most of the Easter long-weekend at the beach, I have been reminded of our close relationship.  We fished and swam in it.  We ski-ed on it.  I even drank a little of it.

From another angle, although I originally studied biological sciences, I had forgotten most of the unique qualities of water until . . . → Read More: In praise of water]]> I love water.

Having spent most of the Easter long-weekend at the beach, I have been reminded of our close relationship.  We fished and swam in it.  We ski-ed on it.  I even drank a little of it.

From another angle, although I originally studied biological sciences, I had forgotten most of the unique qualities of water until I came across the creative little clip below.  Searching around for more information on some of those qualities,  I found this at the Institute for Creation Research.  I don’t agree with everything on the ICR site, but I liked their summary on water.

“Water is unique in that it can absorb enormous amounts of heat without a large alteration in its temperature. Its heat absorption level is about ten times as great as steel. During the day, the earth’s bodies of water rapidly soak up enormous amounts of heat; thus, the earth stays fairly cool. At night, they release the vast amounts of heat that they absorbed during the day, which, combined with atmospheric effects, keeps most of the surface from freezing solid at night. If it were not for the tremendous amounts of water on the earth, far greater day and night temperature variations would exist. Many parts of the surface would be hot enough to boil water during the day, and the same parts would be cold enough to freeze water at night. Because water is an excellent temperature stabilizer, the large oceans on earth are vital for life to exist on earth.

In contrast to virtually all other materials (the rare exceptions include rubber and antimony), water contracts when cooled only until it reaches 4 degrees Celsius. Then it amazingly expands until it freezes. Thus, because of this anomaly, the ice that forms in seas, oceans, and lakes stays near the surface, where the sun heats it during the day and the warm water below melts it in the summer. This and the Coriolis effect, which produces ocean currents, ensure that most of the ocean stays in a liquid form, allowing the myriads of water creatures to live.”

Another reason to stay in love with it.

Check out this brilliant paper animation clip on the “Life Cycle” of a drop of water…

He has recently returned home from Europe where, among other things, he facilitated a leadership retreat in the Swiss Alps and delivered a TED talk entitled “Grounded questions. Rich stories. Deep change.” The talk is below – . . . → Read More: Mark Strom’s TED talk – LIVE!]]> Many of you will know Mark Strom through his involvement with Compass on both sides of the Tasman.

He has recently returned home from Europe where, among other things, he facilitated a leadership retreat in the Swiss Alps and delivered a TED talk entitled “Grounded questions. Rich stories. Deep change.” The talk is below – some of you will remember the practice run at Compass NZ in January.

If you happen to be in Auckland next Monday, 8 April, we have asked him to deliver the final version of that TED talk in person!  We have also asked him to reflect a bit on the process.  As Christians we can sometimes feel enormous pressure to not waste public opportunities like this.  So…what should a faithful response look like?!

It’s going to be a great night, so if you think you can make it along, visit the Facebook event and RSVP.