Prompt 49: May 1, 2025
The Prompt:
As we’ve continued to explore through this series, the myths we believe hide the consequences of our actions. So arrogantly, we think we know. Blindly, we race toward winning politics, while politics leaves its country to forgive its sins. History forgotten is sin forgiven.
In light of this, we have a few members travelling abroad this month. Whether you have similarly exciting vacations in mind or you want to ponder your own participation in culture, consider the following questions.
- How does living amidst an ancient culture’s artifacts change the way a culture experiences the world?
- Who should be entrusted to maintain historical artifacts?
- When we travel, should we revere the local customs above our own?
- How should the Church be engaged with political action, especially international politics?
- How does place affect our mode of perception within a culture?
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all
Context:
The Americas are inspired by the myth of being a New World to which Europeans could colonize and shape at-will toward the philosophical aspirations of the day. Because of that, the built environments of the western hemisphere, the architecture and infrastructure, were unburdened (uninspired) by a local tradition or population. The development that has occured over the last four-hundred years was primarily devoted to economy and resource extraction – every settlement a story of that ambition. The pioneer spirit is, in a sense, a liberation from convention, but also a dependence on growth of enterprise.
Liberation in this sense has driven the Western ethos further and further away from human ties, especially unchosen human ties, toward total personal satisfaction. The consequence of this individuation is the prioritization of mobility and personal expression. These economic forces cause a reduction of each place to accommodate the most common base desires, the most corporatized of which are fuel, leisure, and distraction. I am found guilty. There have been other cultures who were not motivated by radical individualism. Their legacy is felt in places that our ancestors left for the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
Notes:
- Shandon will be attending a conference in Zurich, Switzerland to celebrate 500 years of Anabaptist tradition. Many of these questions were inspired by his excitement for the trip.
- https://www.anabaptism500.ch/
- Shandon will be keeping a travel blog, found at the link below:
- https://shandon.classen.blog/
- Patrick will be travelling to the motherland of Ireland this month. He has also expressed similar excitement to ponder this topic while travelling.
- He will be sharing photos at the link below:
- https://patricksullivanphoto.com/
- I will be studying the home front in this prompt. I recently picked up a book Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West. I hope to personalize this prompt and focus on how the Wild West ethos shaped my home in Western Kansas.