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Getting The Cultural Picture

Some thoughts after reading this insert from Andy's, "Culture Making" webpage...

The culture of each building, and the culture of the more abstract sphere they represent—retail, water treatment, banking, undergraduate education, and so on—has its own history of making and remaking, of possibility and impossibility. Many things that are entirely possible in a cafeteria—say, a food fight—are all but impossible in a dentist’s office, and vice versa. —Culture Making, p.44

...I thought about Ken Davis' imagery in his comedy acts. One of which he tells about a moment when he is sharing a certain style of comedy with kids--something to the effect that halfway through a story he blurts out a loud yell and makes them jump, elbow each other, laugh and point at each other... Ken then states you get quite a different reaction if you do the same thing at a nursing home.

Somehow painting an image in peoples' minds is an art. How to juxtapose two created images and make people laugh about it using words is an amazing skill.

Even shorter phrases can make you use your imagination and cock your head in wonder. Try this one:

"Culture is what you make of the finger bowl."

After cocking my head and tilting it back i laughed at the various considerations that came to my imagination of people and culture. First, how i as an american famer would look it (and what would be furnished) and I look at it say "Yum!". Some may see how a fingerbowl is being used with unwashed hands and say, "Yuk!". Take this literally and if you were a canibal... you get the picture?

And that's the point: Getting the picture. In our society today the engaging of imaginations is relentless. But why can't we develop the skill of doing this in the church? I think this is what the real meaning of "visioneering" is = helping people SEE what you are saying. This is a HUGE area for us to redeem in our society--yes, redeem, like coupons (pronounced "koo-pons" in some circles--i say it 'Q-pons'). We redeem coupons to "get it"--and where do we usually get coupons? Usually free from somewhere. And I think that makes it fun.

Try another:
"Can you smell the color 9?"
Language does have limits as well as our imagination to communicate what we've experienced. What do you think?

References: http://www.culture-making.com/
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