I reported a while back that my wife and I had gone on an Alaskan cruise in July, a first time experience for both of us. We had a great time traveling for a week from Seattle to Juneau and other ports, looking out upon the glacial beauty of the Inside Passage. It was good for us in ways we had not imagined and it gave us time to talk about many things, some personal, some global.We had long wanted to take a cruise but had not actively pursued it. Then one day back in January we were listening to A Prairie Home Companion, a favorite radio show we tune in each week on NPR. An eclectic mix of music and comedy, the show stars Garrison Keillor, a funky philosopher/writer/musician who stirs his homespun tales into a tasty stew of cultural commentary, political satire, and poignant slices of life. The music is in many ways the heart of it and it comes from many directions--country, jazz, pop, folk, even classical at times.
Listening that day we discovered that Keillor and his show had chartered a ship and were taking a cruise with 1500 or so listeners of the program. The convergence of a Holland America cruise line and A Prairie Home Companion theme was something we couldn't resist. We signed up.
It isn't often that one can experience the wisdom of the prairie in the vast open waters of the sea. But people from diverse backgrounds formed community, became friends, talked about shared values and sometimes about conflicting ones. On this huge ship with its grand dining room and spacious lounges we found ourselves thinking at times about the simple, yet important things. In the lavish comfort of a luxury cruise line there was still opportunity to ponder the deeper human questions.
Even so, we could not fully escape the world's realities. As we walked the deck or sat comfortably in chairs looking out to the sea, the frightening sounds of air raid sirens and incoming missiles played hauntingly through television speakers as CNN broadcast continual coverage of the war in Lebanon and Israel.
But through it all it was the music that provided the zestful foundation of what happened that week, pulling us from our inbred rationality and luring us to dance. The lyrics were sprinkled liberally into the stew, some of them words that might suck desperately for life if spoken, but miraculously gave life when sung.
I know there are moral complexities here. It's easy for people who can afford a cruise to talk about a needy world while eating an elegant five course dinner. The irony is not lost on me, nor has it been in the past when I have had to balance what one sees during many trips into the developing world with the fact that I wanted my own kids to go to college and have a good life, something impossible in many cultures.
But still... I continue to believe that something redemptive does happen when one takes a slice of the prairie to the glacial beauty of the sea. Nothing gets resolved, to be sure. But Powder Milk Biscuits and Lutheran guilt and news from Lake Wobegon (all concepts very familiar to APHC listeners) have something to contribute to the dialogue that must occur in this broken, yet beautiful world.
If the prairie can come to the sea just imagine what else is possible. The city to the farm? The rich to the poor? The gay to the straight? The pit bull to the cocker spaniel? The Muslim to the Christian?
It makes one want to climb aboard the ship of human hope, sprinkle in some music, break bread at a common table, tell some stories, and talk about where we've each come from, what we've each seen and heard. Maybe then we can come to know something of each other. In that way, through our shared stories, the prairie truly could talk to the sea, and likewise the sea to the prairie. What a world that would be!
All aboard?
Technorati Tags: cruises peace community
What a wonderful dream, Grant. If community can be built among diverse people on board a huge cruise ship, there is always hope it can be done in neighborhoods, communities, states, nations and the world.
ReplyDeleteThat is my hope anyhow.
At least I will continue to try to build community in my community and the ones I serve. It can only be done one community at a time anyhow.
If each of us does what we are able to do, it can eventually get done.
How difficult is it, really, to establish community even among diverse people in a controlled atmosphere? How do you establish community in your community where you don't share a table, or gather around the lounge chairs? One of my greatest childhood memories was of youth camps. The week spent at camp was always one of the best weeks of my life. However, when I got home there was such a let down and such confusion as to how to go forward with my life and yet embrace the feelings I had just shared. I feel that same let down and confusion today when I leave my church community, or my special friends community, or my work community. How do we share and spread that sense of community in our communities?
ReplyDeleteHow difficult is it, really, to establish community even among diverse people in a controlled atmosphere? How do you establish community in your community where you don't share a table, or gather around the lounge chairs? One of my greatest childhood memories was of youth camps. The week spent at camp was always one of the best weeks of my life. However, when I got home there was such a let down and such confusion as to how to go forward with my life and yet embrace the feelings I had just shared. I feel that same let down and confusion today when I leave my church community, or my special friends community, or my work community. How do we share and spread that sense of community in our communities?
ReplyDeleteHow do you establish a community in which people already feel that their community has betrayed them in some way or let them down somehow? Like those living in poverty and violence?
ReplyDeleteIt seems simple to establish community in a controlled atmosphere, as "wondering" said, where everyone's needs are met. Margie, what happens in neighborhoods, states, and nations where people are struggling to simply survive?
I think the thing to do is for us to use our influence anywhere and anytime we are able. We are all able to do something.
ReplyDeleteMy dream is to help establish a program to help the poor and those living in poverty to prepare for the work force. Education, in my opinion, is the only way out of poverty unless one has really special gifts. So many that I see in my work do not even have a high school education or a GED and without those, most people simply dead end.
I think it is up to those who "have" to help the "have nots" with their needs, not always by giving them what they want but to help them train to work to get it for themselves. That's what they really need.
In those places, it is up to those who "have" to help the "have nots" get what they need.
ReplyDeleteMany times what they really need is education of some kind so they can hold down a job.
Many of those I see in my office have no high school diploma or even a GED.
Without those elementary tools, they cannot even find a decent job.
It's not up to us to give them what they want, only what they need to help themselves get their wants...with education or with job training.