Categories: uncategorized
Date: 29 April 2004 11:21:58
At http://www.jiwire.com/warchalking-introduction.htm there is a really interesting article about free access Wi-Fi network overflow hotspots. Ok, if you're not into all the techie geek jargon hang on in there. I found it interesting because it's a kind of metaphor for how we (...ok, some of us) are working out / developing / exploring / expanding our own spirituality. Let me explain. Warchalking is the name given to the activity of making chalk marks on buildings / sidewalks in places where Wi-Fi mobile users can pick up a signal from a wireless network located in an adjacent building. With me so far? So, instead of having to go to the fixed location of a internet cafe and paying the 20p per min tax (cost me £4:50 to check my e-mail in Whitby!) warchalking allows Wi-Fi users to locate and plug into the overflow of what's already there. With me? Good. So what's this doing on a blog about spirituality? Well, I think this is how many people are doing their spirituality. The Church (internet cafe / home connection) demands too high a price to be paid in terms of one's personal integrity, usually this is connected with the power stuctures of the Church. So, having decided against the ecclesiatical institutions as a viable way forward for the expression and exploration of those spiritual impulses, many now simply work with what is already out there in our cultural / technological environment. I like the idea of of warchalking as a way of letting others know where they can log-on too. Increasingly I find my own journey is informed by conversations, magazine / journal / web articles, exhibitions, installations, movies, novels, etc, etc. Inevitably I rarely discover these resources for myself, someone recommends a film, we go see it, or you read a blog about some artist and then you go away and check out their work for yourself. And I guess this way of working eventually leads you to see the world differently, because everything - potentially - is a source which can inform your spirituality. You just have to play about with it - reinterpret it, put it in a different context, subvert it, subtlely alter it, show it in a wider context, juxtapose it, etc, etc. I guess I'm interested in those areas that our religious impulses flow-out into after the death of Christianity, and doing theology from within those areas. Seems to make a whole lot more sense to me than doing it any other way. To see this life itself as our (re)source. To let our spirituality / theology be informed by what's around us in this world.