Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 June 2005 21:22:17
Have decided the story may or maynot continue, having worked out after todays installment I think I am just ready for a change. Basically I've done the non-Sociology part I took on to just get a job for four years and need a change. The course is just my escape route.
So anyway back to the interesting stuff (?)
Have just watched Spirituality Shopper which was a really interesting programme.
The senario is this you give somebody four different religious practices which they have to incorporate into their lives for a month and see if this has any effect on their life. (Anyone see a thread in current UK tv?)
In this case the four practices were:
Buddist meditation
Christian Lent (Giving up hair straightners, having to walk to the tube station and giving something back to your community, somehow)
Sufi Dervish dancing (if I've spelt that right)
Jewish Shabbat (liberal variety)
I thought it was a really interesting programme on a number of levels:
1) In a late (or post) modern world spirituality gives us chance to chill / redefine our boundaries / face ourselves as we are rather than how we hope to be
2) In contempory culture we have a choice and can take the best from a variety of religious traditions, without having to take on a specific belief system. There is more of a chance to see the common ground between different traditions
3) If people give spirituality a chance they, if the recent crop of programmes are to be believed, apparently find some kind of higher force.
If there is one good thing about these programmes (& I believe there are many) it appears in our network society spirituality has the potential to start reconnecting people both with themselves (giving more self-acceptance) and others (rebuilding the concept of community with others, in a variety of forms).