Ross... and I... and My Friend

A Day of Contemplation... without photos...


Ross was annoyed with the local priest who visited the school in the last few years of his chaplaincy... He was sad that the priest did not understand the youth, teenagers... and their concerns... He whispered; "The priest has no clue about the concerns of the young people... He lives in a world which does not exist any more... and above all...," Ross became agitated at this point, "he talks to them from above... as a God delegated authority..."
Ross was not happy... and he whispered when all were silent... For the administration the visit priest was part of the reality and they put up with him... They did not care about his messages and his approach to the students... They were consummate bureaucrats, like the apparatchiks of the Soviet Union, when I was growing up... The administration did not want to create waves... A calm sea was an asset for the anchored bureaucracy... waves were disturbing and they were avoided at all cost...  
Ross was not part of the bureaucracy... He tolerated them... But opposed them whenever the need was there... But on the issue of the priest, he talked to me... and otherwise kept his silence too... The issue was too much for him and he avoided it... I did not encourage him to rebel... After all, we were not young any more...! At times we colluded with the system by tolerating it... in silent despair... I was used to ignoring the priests and their homilies... specially the ones who thought that they are the God sanctioned authority on earth and their word (homilies) came as a diktat from a Soviet apparatchik... who had seen the light.
So my avoidance of the church... and Ross had began to attend a church close to a university in the downtown core... where the priest was talking sense as far as he was concerned... despite the fact that this priest was in a different religious tradition... a different denomination... Ross insisted; "This priest is talking sense and the other one talks and preaches nonsense..." I used his famous adage...and told him "Don't get upset... Remember, YOU are allowed... too..."

***

When I was growing up... smoking was in fashion... To be intellectual one had to smoke... To be a grown up one had to smoke... To be a man one had to smoke... Only whips and "mommy's boys" did not smoke... 
So I smoked too... and in order to relate to what Ross was saying... I told him about this priest from my childhood... The priest admonished us for smoking and his main thesis was that we are "corrupting the temple of God..." referring to our body... Of course it did not make much sense to us... We were young and rebellious... and smoked more our of spite... I became a heavy smoker... The priest would have much more sense if he had told us about the health hazards as it's done now... and maybe he would have had more success... But the priest did not talk to us... He admonished us and brought the commandments from Mount Sinai... as the messenger of God... and the young people did not listen to him, but rather mocked and fad fun with him...

***

My friend (former student) he emailed few times the last week... and commented on things that I wrote about my time with Ross...  

I read your latest post and some points sprung to mind. 

The first was about the homilies of semi-literate clergy. Throughout my years, I've obviously heard thousands of homilies from lots of priests and I've seen a lot of things I found to be wrong. I've seen everything from a priest starting with jokes and gossip from within the priesthood to a priest using his whole homily to berate the parish about not giving enough money. so yes, there are poor homilies but on the flip side, there are also powerful and motivational homilies. Personally, I find that I can relate to younger priests and their homilies easier because they can understand the youth better. The problem of youth losing interest in religion is probably the biggest problem that churches all over the world are facing and it's a problem they are all looking to solve. 

One problem that some youth struggle with is that they don't want to wake up early on Sunday mornings and maybe more importantly, they're scared or have the false assumption that going to church isn't cool. 

I think that's something we've somewhat solved in that we've brought all sorts of youth together, made new friends and made it a fun and cool place to spend your evening. You would have ended up spending your evening with the same friends anyways so just changing the venue makes no difference to us. 

On the topic of our youth group, and linking it to your spiritual retreat, we are also planning some sort of retreat. 

Your pictures of St. Benoit du Lac were beautiful and just seemed like a really peaceful place. 

I just want to mention that for me the St. Benoit du Lac experience worked because I was by myself... I did not want a group of people to entertain me... I just wanted to be by myself... and in peace... in tranquility...  and in harmony with my "I"... 

The experience in my solitude and alone-ness was wonderful... 

My friend also wrote...

I read your blog post and have a few comments for you. 

Firstly, I 10000% agree with Mr. Oakes in that a TV isn't at all necessary in life. I have one too, but it's really only for watching sports, when I have absolutely nothing to do, which is incredibly rare, or when I'm doing something else and want it to seem as if there is a world around me. It didn't matter too much what was on TV so long as the sounds I was hearing simulated the world while I was busy doing something important. 

TVs, despite all of the technological advances, will never even come close to matching experiencing anything in real life. Of the time I spend watching TV, 95% of it is to watch soccer and while I always get excited, angered and caught up in the game, it will never be able to match sitting/standing in the stadium. At times, the beauty of so many people coming together, singing and cheering to celebrate a sport yet being so competitive about it is impossible to put into words for me. 

Indeed, ambiance is everything...

Now, while I agree with Mr. Oakes about the TV, I completely disagree with you about the car and "art" topic. I hope you don't take this as immature or as me looking for an argument but until somebody presents me a good reason as to why technology such as cars or planes can't be compared to art, I will not just change my mind in thinking that technology is falsely undermined. This topic has come up numerous times before with friends and that valid reason still hasn't come up so I'm hoping maybe you will be able to open my eyes to it, so to speak. 

So let me start with this question for you: what is art? What does something have to be/have to be considered art? You wrote "While the paintings and the statues ignite the imagination of people and lead them to a better and higher conception of life and its meaning (if it has any...!), the assembly of steel and plastic bring us to the material reality of life... One is spiritual and the other is based on greed and material..."

I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible artist and would have trouble drawing stick figures. In grade 12, I visited the ROM with my French class (the trip had nothing to do our curriculum) to visit the Picasso exhibit that was there for a short time. Considering my poor artistic ability, I may be biased in saying this but those paintings really didn't move or affect me at all. That was arguably one of the greater artists in history and I saw his paintings as nothing better than something that I would see painted at school, or something I could buy at an Ikea. The pretense of saying technology is all about greed while paintings are spiritual is completely false in my opinion. That brings me to another question: what makes Picasso's Version O worth $179 million more than if I were to draw a few people and colour them in? If paintings are truly spiritual, then all paintings would be similar in value, the same way all songs can be bought for about $1, regardless of who sang it or when. That's not the case however and it's not something art lovers are willing to admit to because then it blows their whole argument out of the water and makes them contradictory. A good example of this is a very good forgery, painting the exact same thing with the exact same materials. Can you now tell me that looking at the real painting versus the forgery, that you would feel that $179 million difference in the case of the Version O? I really don't think that you or anybody in this world can. Those who would lie and say that they would (aka art collectors) are liars and exactly why I don't agree with your spirituality of paintings argument. 

Regardless of monetary values, paintings simply don't speak to me in any way, shape or form and the distinction people have invented to distinguish "good" or "bad" art is a complete joke in my opinion. In my opinion, for somebody to be a true art lover, they would have to respect "masterpieces" such as the Version O just as much as a little child's drawing. If they want to claim inspiring imagination and meaning of life, they should respect both of those as well as they're just from a different point of view but that's not the case in today's greedy world. It doesn't help the fact that paintings are usually only done by one person and only one person takes credit for it. They also usually have to sign it to pat themselves on the back. Some could say that it's selfish to do so as it completely disregards who made that painting possible or what the inspiration is. Even in today's world, I find artists to think that they're better than the rest the same way that athletes do. In cars, singing, dancing, it's always a team and from my experience of being in a team that cares for you, it definitely brings you to the meaning of life, which is to share and experience the world with others. 

Despite my "revolt" against paintings as you said, and despite my complete lack of musical talents, I thoroughly enjoy music. I listen to it when walking, biking, working out, eating, studying, etc. I listen to music whenever possible and although I don't get the same transcendence that you do with one exception, I enjoy having music distract me from the world. It motivates me and I appreciate the work that has gone into making a song. The exception is the Champions League anthem while in the stadium. Having had the chance to watch a few Champions League games live over the past few years, the anthem played right before the game is something that brings shivers down my spine and because of that, even just hearing the song somewhere automatically puts a smile on my face. That is what "art" is supposed to be. That song inspires and motivates me the same way seeing and hearing a phenomenal car drive by. 

Art should be uplifting and transcendental... Cars maybe beautiful... but they pollute and they kill and the honking is still annoying...

We have a difference of opinion... and we are allowed... Just to quote my friend, Ross...

You also wrote in your blog that listening to Messiah during Christmas transcends you and takes you to a new world. I agree that it's amazing what music can do but can't you say the same thing about an airplane, another human marvel? A plane is a massive piece of metal weighing thousands of kg carrying hundreds of passengers around the world in mere hours with a lower accident rate than any other form of transportation in the world. It's thanks to planes that it's now feasible to see the whole world and to marvel in its beauty. If you emigrated from your home country in search of a better life, its thanks to planes that you can go and visit your family. Regardless of how much you may dislike cars, I am almost certain that every time your daughter from London comes to visit you, it puts a huge smile on your face and brings you peace and happiness. 

Dear friend,

Listening to Messiah has never killed a human... The tragedies with planes are numerous... Hijacking, killing, bombing... and polluting and the noise... It is beautiful and a technological marvel... But it will never beat the birds in the sky...

In the end, all I want to say is that while I respect when anybody says that paintings move/transcend them, I will never understand it but I will respect their opinion. You may be right that cars can be dangerous but the thrill that you can experience will be infinitely more than anything you could ever possibly feel when looking at a painting. That's why the world has spent billions of dollars building roller coasters to try and replicate that thrill while ensuring a greater degree of safety. Even art lovers and the biggest doubters of technology usually enjoy roller coasters and those are just a small sample of what's possible in a car. Again, it may be dangerous at times, but driving can both calm me and completely exhilarate me and that is the beauty of cars. It may be the engineer in me talking but in the end, cars and paintings are very alike even if you may not like to hear that. They are both created be people using their, using materials from the earth, made to please people. Only differences are that cars can also serve an everyday purpose whbirds in the skyile they also take infinitely more time to make and that the audiences to which they cater to are different. Paintings please you and cars please me so what is then the difference besides the differing likes and dislikes every person on this earth has? I don't see any. I don't see your preferences as being wrong nor do I see mine as being wrong either. Those are simply the choices that we are entitled to make. There is no way that anybody could force me to like paintings the same way nobody could change your mind about cars but simply the fact that intelligent individuals can reason for either, is reason enough for me that both should be equally appreciated. 

Dear friend,

The difference in our approach is what makes the world go round... 

My solitude at the monastery... alone with myself and your retreat with a group of young people... are not the same...

Your trill of driving... is instant... temporal... and fleeting within the second... as far as I can grasp, it is materialistic... while my experience with a Van Gogh stays with me forever... and transcends both space and time... is intellectual... spiritual...

Also he writes in another email... 

Hello Sir, 

I am an avid follower of films as it takes you to another place. It let's you forget about everything else for 2 hours and just enjoy. However, I couldn't care less about any of the awards shows. But this issue of supposed racial prejudice is a joke. Like you said, whoever is the best actor, should win. Plain and simple. Black, white, asian, indian, it doesn't matter. Awards should be on merit. The quotas being proposed are trying to cover up the mediocrity and are a laughing matter in that with all of them fighting for "equality", they now want to be judged on an easier scale and have better chance. That's not equality but the sad truth of the matter is that we are heading there faster than we would like. 

Another interesting example is the NBA. I am an avid follower of the NBA and it is arguably my second favourite sport to watch. Being conservative, I would say about 80% of the players in the league are of african american descent. Does that trouble me at all? Not in the slightest. The best players deserve to play in the best league and they've earned the right to be there. Why don't these same black equality crusaders do something about the NBA? Because it's not an issue for them so why fix something that isn't broke as they say. And I don't want them to change it. Those players have fairly earned their right to be there and to keep the sport interesting, you have to have the best players, not players just to fill quotas. The same thing should be for these awards. 

I've obviously been reading your blog and it was a funny story that you let Mr. Oakes sleep through the play yet he managed to find a solution for a later date. I've never been to the Distillery District but my parents have been there numerous times during the Christmas season and have claimed that it is indeed beautiful and somewhat representative of Europe. 

One note, or rather rhetorical question I have is this white man's burden. I completely agree that the West is responsible for the wars but why does Europe have to pay for their mistakes, specifically Germany? Germany is single handedly holding Europe together, providing bailout packages to everybody who needs them, and just taking the lead in general for humanitarian actions. Why do they have to do that? What I really think is that the forces at work are still forcing Germany to pay for the World Wars. It's not uncommon in the USA and Canada that when you ask somebody the first thing that comes to mind when you say Germany, they'll almost always say Nazi. Why do they still have to pay for their mistakes almost a century later and others get away with things scott-free? I think I talked to you about this before but every year, a new group comes out asking for huge compensation for something they claimed happened back during the wars. Last year was Hugo Boss and Bayer for the hundredth time already with groups squeezing hundreds of millions of dollars, and they will never stop. This has to stop and somebody has to stand up to the USA specifically. Russia is too immature to do so and China's industry wouldn't exist without the USA. Germany has to lead the global charge in my opinion and is the only country reasonably capable to do so. For that to happen though, the stereotypical notion of Germany's past and the social perception of them has to change. 

The "their" above is not that clear... 
Young friend,
You have made good observations and definitely entitled to your way of looking at things... 
I am quite confused about the Hollywood-Oscar situation... For me everything must be based on merit and beauty... Quotas do promote mediocrity and I hate mediocrity... 
The "Golden Mean" is neither valuable nor meaningful... it's just a bureaucratic compromise to appeal to all, but satisfy no one... 
I respect your points of view... and as Ross said once and once again... You are allowed...

Continue writing... while doing so... you will realize that the best moments will come while you are alone by yourself and thinking and writing... Maybe even one day you will decide to have a seven-day solitude by yourself... at the wonderful Abbey of St. Benoit du Lac...