twilighttreader:
"The ironic thing is that you can turn on the TV and see any number of celebrities and such who are patently not Christians sporting the iconography, be it with tattoos or "bling" or whatever. Why this girl things that inking a cross on her shoulder is making such a bold statement is really beyond me."
well, "this girl" was once upon a time a good friend of mine, so I should preface with a dear affection for an old friend. but. I also have pretensions towards being an intellectual. and i think ideas are important. so here's what I think.
Why? because trendy things entail a safe and easy form of "meaningful" self-expression when one leaves college and enters law/grad/hard knocks school and discovers the sheer difficulty of actually doing anything even minutely creative or important--of simply surviving in a system of pragmatic acquiesence to forces beyond your control.
It's a cog in a wheel in a transmission in a factory "sticking it to the man" without actually losing it's coveted little coggish place or recognizing its utter dependence on the system. Refuge through empty symbolism which you convince yourself is important. a lot of religious fervor works like that. Self-convincing action to artificially enliven a disappointing futility and rescue the self-concept from the oppression of being considered pretty insignificant by forces like nature and macroeconomic systems and socialized mass behavior.
Identity through contrived spiritual experiences. A coping mechanism in the place of humility.
Of course, I'm probably reading my own experiences and psychology right on top of hers. She may be validly experiencing something very spiritual, something she chose to express from deep conviction of its importance. For her sake I sincerely hope so. Because if not, she's compensating around an important bit of reality rather than facing it. And as we learn in the medical profession, compensation without action to address a threat is a losing game.
And for my sake, I hope she never reads this :)
1 comment:
Dan, for brevity's sake, reread the above opinion. I agree.
I have done similar things recently. I identify with your friend because I have often been in the same spot. What I think she is doing is marking herself for her own benefit. Whatever, the above reader summed it all up rather nicely.
I understand that you have some doubts, I did too when I first heard about it. But honestly neither one of us knows enough to judge what she has done. It is between her, God, and her close friends.
Anyway, I hope your recovery is going along nicely . . . . Can't wait to see you again!
Dave
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