September – last Monday gathering
I’m not a news-hound. Sometimes I wish I was; I think it would help me be better informed about what is going on in the world, and perhaps more thoughtful about my engagement with those matters. The good news for me is that our household has some people in it that do pay closer attention to world affairs than I do, and they tend to talk about what they are noticing. So, I am a bit more aware of the situation in Syria than I would be otherwise.
And I’m sceptical. I know that I can’t begin to comprehend the enormous complexity of what is going on in that conflict. But what I really don’t get is the way that the relationships, the “friendships” between nations play out in a situation like this. Rampant economic self-interest seems to be the order of the day, thinly disguised as concern for the innocent victims of atrocity. It makes me glad I’m not a world leader. (Come to think of it, that would be a disaster on all kinds of levels…)
It also makes me think that the mingling of the ideas of economics (which we touched on last week) and friendship is complicated and powerful, both on the macro and micro levels. And since I’ve already declared my incompetence on the macro level, this Monday evening (6:30, Frame Arts Warehouse, 318 Ross – probably the C Gallery) I want to dig around a bit in the idea of economic friendship as a doorway into the re-distribution of wealth and a way of telling the subversive story of the good news about God on the micro level; sort of the alter-ego of the chart Karen showed us two weeks ago regarding the “real” stats about who holds the wealth in the West.
Alright – that’s a long-ish blurb. Have a great, safe long weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday evening. By the way, this is our LAST MONDAY NIGHT GATHERING! Next week (September 8th) we will be meeting in the morning (10:30 a.m.; more info to follow next week).
Peace,
Tim Plett