Senior Moments

In keeping with the advice to "bloom where you're planted" (spring IS coming!) and Jeffs' encouragement to the sisters and brothers to "Preach it!", I thought I'd share with you my recent experience of what felt like preaching without the punch line- sometimes a very effective method of preaching peace.

Our local Senior Center holds a monthly "Clergy Tea" at which we clergy imbibe juice and nibble on cookies while hosting a discussion on a rotating basis. The discussion topics are set in advance in a very broad way, usually focusing on seasonal themes and how they interact with matters of faith and spirit. The Seniors who attend vary a lot; sometimes the group barely fits in a circle around the room and discussion is focused and lively; sometimes three people labor to fill the hour. Staying on topic is definitely optional. As a follow-up to a previously lively discussion, the topic I hosted was simply titled "Peacemaking". About a half dozen hardy folks braved what turned out to be the bitterest wind and cold we've had all winter to explore the idea of making peace. This is a group of Jewish and Christian folks with an occasional "other" thrown in; on the day in question we all claimed a Judeo-Christian foundation. Given the mix of faith traditions, I decided to work backward from what the cross shows us about ourselves to the issue of making peace and why that's so difficult, without focusing on the theological material itself.

Having participated in a number of peacemaking exercises, I have recognized a frustration with their limited effectiveness. Not that many of the strategies for peace aren't at least partially effective; many of them are very useful. What is frustrating is that it's like shoveling sand against the tide; they don't address the underlying problem. We began our discussion with what was intended to be a short presentation by me of "some interesting material about human nature" and why it's so hard to really make peace. I confess it took more time than I'd intended, but nonetheless people were alert, fascinated, and focused. There's just something about the basic truth of our human experience of mimesis that gathers us all up. Contrary to my self-imposed rule of not introducing a new vocabulary, I offered up the word "mimesis" as a new insight into what we're struggling with when we attempt to be people of peace. We waltzed through the insights of the "put 2 six year olds in a play room and what happens?" with ease; it was a breeze for everyone to identify the process because we've all been living it. As I've found before, we all like being able to give the right answer, and starting from this point builds in a receptivity to the rest of the framework. From there we moved on to the early human communities and the need to maintain safety within them which led to Girard's theoretical scene of violent scapegoating and the development of ritual and law. Only briefly did I mention the theological applications of the material, stating that there were enormous implications/applications within our Bibles, beginning with the Hebrew Scriptures and continuing in the Christian story. I also identified a primary focus of all religion as being the need to contain violence.  Our focus for this one hour was simply to gain insight into our own mimetic propensities.

The good news is that it worked; it worked really well. We laughed, we got serious, we shared experiences that illustrated the truth of the GMSM in our own lives. Working with just the experiences of daily living we were able to recognize our difficulties with making peace.  Once we were on board with the concept of mimesis we discussed the things that helped us bridge the gap between self/other that the GMSM fostered. We focused on experience and the difference that understanding one another makes. Stories were shared about times that experience based (in contrast to judgment based) conversation led to new understanding and connection. By the time we were through we had reviewed the structure of mimetic theory, learned to seek insight into ourselves/our behavior through this lens AND identified one way to do an end run around it so that we could expand our horizons and cooperate instead of compete with others who are different.

One story illustrates this.  Following worship, a feisty little woman barreled up the aisle to confront her pastor about one of the hymns that had been sung. "What was that HORRIBLE THING you made us sing this morning?" She was livid at what she described as a "draggy, whiny, sloooow!" piece of music that she had not enjoyed singing. As she spoke a second woman approached, placing her hand on the pastors arm. Her face was glowing as she said, "THANK YOU! Thank you so much for including that lovely hymn this morning!" The two women turned to face each other and quickly discovered they were responding to the same hymn. "What do you like about that hymn?" the first demanded of the second. "Oh, it's just lovely, so soft and soothing and haunting. I always feel like it brings me right into the presence of God."  The first woman glared at the second and said, "You're kidding! That hymn does that for you?" Turning to the pastor she said, "Okay. I'll sing it for her." We discussed this story as an example of how communicating about our experience instead of our opinions builds bridges. What the two women discovered they shared was a common desire/goal to experience the presence of God. [Note: I don't use the word desire when teaching this material due to it's highly eroticized common useage] That common denominator enabled the one to accept the other as being "like her" in her desire for a particular experience, and therefore a safe member of her community, instead of only unlike her in the choice of music. As we all know, peace in the music department is truly a blessing worth seeking.

For me, this experience was highly intriguing. Accustomed to focusing on things mimetic from a theological perspective, I wondered initially if I was "cheating" by choosing to come at it differently. I also wondered how these senior citizens would receive it. I am very gratified that the experience turned out to be constructive all round. The gospel message was extended in a new way to a new group of people. And despite our cultures preoccupation with senility, it is not true that all senior moments are joke-worthy. Those that I shared at this Clergy Tea were well worth savoring.

nancy hitt.