Whatsoever |
Whatsoever |
Imagine touching a window pane: what does it feel like? Cold, hard, smooth, transparent. It divides one side from the other. If it is in your home, the view through the window to the garden or nearby buildings will not change much. The light will alter, and perhaps the wind will blow some leaves but it is predictable and perhaps quite calming. If the pane of glass is the car windscreen or train window, the view changes quickly as the vehicle moves. It passes and is gone. If you are driving you have to notice and react to what you are seeing, but if you are a passenger you can let it pass by and pay attention or not. At the moment many of us spend much time in front of other panes of glass - on a computer or phone. We look through these windows for hours a day and so much flickers past - news, connections with people in emails and Zoom calls, tv, films, church services and concerts, newspapers, books, websites. We can choose where to turn our gaze but it is always through this glass screen. All of which set me thinking about texture. The hard, smooth, cold surface of glass is one texture, but is is very limiting and rather unforgiving. In this time when so much of life is mediated through a screen, and that screen can show so many different things in quick succession, how can depth, meaning be achieved? My take on this ‘pane of glass’ problem has been to think more about texture: how to deal with the ‘screen problem, the ‘pane of glass’ problem and to keep texture in life? Four ways of finding texture:TIME Just because I can do things on a computer or phone quickly and quite proficiently, doesn’t mean I have to. In the old days, not so long ago, if I had wanted to write something I would have to find a pen and paper, keeping abreast of the latest news would mean going out and buying a newspaper or waiting for the radio news bulletin; reading a book would mean buying it from a bookshop or borrowing from the library, taking it down from the shelf and finding a place where the light is good enough to read comfortably. Being in contact with friends would have meant writing letters, finding stamps and addresses, going to the post box and waiting for a reply. And photographs would be taken but then the film would have to be developed and returned and could only be shared with others if you had copies made. All that to say that the almost instantaneous jumping from one to another is very new, unlikely and can be dangerously distracting. It is not a coincidence that there are lots of apps designed to keep you focussed on your work. They essentially involve setting a timer and stopping you look at other things. Far more self discipline is now needed, if working on a digital devise, to stay focussed. Somehow we have to try and vary the pace, slow down a bit and savour what we are doing, seeing, hearing and writing. Occasionally have the luxury of going slower, taking longer over what could be very fast. Relish the minutes and even hours and sometimes just stop 'scrolling'. DEPTH Experiencing the world in three dimensions involves an appreciation of depth : the distance between that chair and the table for example. It is much harder to work out depth if it is mediated by a screen. Going into the depths of anything can be challenging but deeply rewarding. In the Bible, in Luke 5:4 Jesus said to Simon : ‘Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch”. For the fishermen on Lake Galilee fishing the depths forced them to listen and obey the instruction from Jesus, their nets had to be cast and then, importantly, the catch of fish to be hauled in. For us sat in our room with an internet connection it is possible to 'dig and delve' . For example, while reading a novel about Panama I can quickly look at a map of the country, Google the politicians mentioned and easily find out more about the author. However having started to dig it is easy to pop back up and move onto something else. The digging is temporary. But there are ways of going deeper that are more long lasting and ‘textured’. A film is about to be released called ‘The Dig’ which is about the archeological investigation which found the Sutton Hoo treasures. That sort of digging, going into the depths took enormous time and skill and concentration. t can be scary to go deeper. But is worthwhile. It is by daring to go deep that multiple textures appear. FEEL If images and ideas scroll through too fast behind the screen of glass it is very easy to have no feelings at all. The quantity becomes overwhelming and the ‘magazine’ quality (where terrible things appear alongside the trivial’) create a weary numbness. After a while being distracted and detached is second nature. However, it is possible, sometimes, to pause long enough to let the easily-received become something deeply felt and precious. This morning I received, as part of some family WhatsApp chatter, a photo taken of twin daughters, one comforting the other as she lay on a hospital bed eight years ago after a very serious operation. Later this morning I watched on the same computer the live streaming of a church service in Brighton when a paramedic in her NHS uniform led prayers for her colleagues and a young man leaving life of addiction showed his newfound faith in Jesus by being baptised. Each of these, appearing on this screen of glass, were there to be felt, if I allowed, and that feeling brings texture. FRAME Glass can’t stand on its own. If it did the edges would cut and the pane would fall and shatter. It needs a frame. It may be quite plain in a window, sturdy but well engineered on a computer, or quite ornate and wide around a mirrors or painting. I have two mirrors that have wonderful frames, each a work of art just as much as the mirror is useful. One has rather playful cherubs, the other in copper, has an inscription that "now we see in a glass darkly but then face to face' It is possible that the two dimensional flickering distracted world of the screen can also be given texture by making a frame around it. That could mean having buffer zones of time, to frame the ‘screen hours’. It could mean being more reflective, even journaling the activities that are taking place (email, zoom meeting, news feed, drawing….) at the end of the day. Frames can also be created by prayer. What is seen and understood, what arrests or disturbs or just fascinates can be ‘captured’ and prayed about. That prayer may look like wrestling (like Jacob and the angel), or waiting in silence. It may feel like sinking or like launching out. What it will always do is bring things to our Heavenly Father. His Holy Spirit works in extraordinary textured ways to work his purposes. FINDING TEXTURE IN A WORLD FULL OF SCREENS
As I have thought about framing, feeling, finding depth and giving time, I have felt more confident that there is texture still in my life. Although my days are spent alone in lockdown and many hours in front of the computer, the cold, hard, flat glass is not all that there is.. Rather, there is subtlety, wonder, reality and life to be found even here, even now.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WhatsoeverThe posts are 'postcards' on my journey through faith and art. The name 'Whatsoever' comes from Philippians 4:8 in the Bible : Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
|