Categories: general-nonsense, ranting
Date: 27 July 2010 13:00:05
Following two v. sensible comments on yesterdays blog here are my replies.
1) TAZ stands for Temporary Autonomous Zone and Wiki gives a bit of background, but not that much. Basically it refers to temporary spaces which are outside the control of "the system". There are sorts of issues with this which I can't be bothered to blog about.
2) In terms of A.'s comment which was: "Taz, Greenbelt whatever. What about the large number of Christians who work 9-5 (or 8-6+) Mon-Fri, need the weekend to catch up with housework and don’t get long academic holidays to swan around the country." my response is as follows.
On one level TAZ, Greenbelt and stuff in the "whatever" category because they are generally things which don't impact on the lives of alot of people. However, as ideas and spaces for discussion they do matter. Often discussions and things that people come across at places like Greenbelt filter down into local churches. For Methodists, for example, Greenbelt matters because it is something that the national church is investing money into....money that could be used to help other projects if it weren't being used for this. (Note I totally agree with the Methodist churches involvement with GB and intention to try and get more worship leaders, local preachers, deacons and presbyters to it to pick up ideas).
In terms of the other stuff....well I want to take this in two halves. Firstly, those working in academic settings. Yes they get longer holidays but those holidays are also often used for work. Certainly from my experience when I was working full time in FE and leaving the house at 7:15, getting into work at 8:15 and leaving between 5:00 and 5:30 to get home between 6 and 6:30 to cook tea and then work, marking and preparing, again from 7:30 - 10:00 (approx) most evenings then spending a large chunk of Saturday in the laundrette and trying to keep the flat from total disorganisation before doing church stuff and marking, prep on Sundays I understand the demands of those large numbers of Christians. The swanning around the country at weekends, which happened occassionally, was at that time often accompanied by marking and the cost of it was a less than spotless home. In terms of the holiday time Third Party and I have never, with the exception of the year I got a major tax return never been able to afford a "proper holiday". For Christians like us Greenbelt was important because over the last decade it has been our family holiday.When she was v. little Spring Harvest fulfilled a similar role because they were cheap enough for us to go to, once you take into account they have stuff going on and so you don't have to pay for extras. They also give discounts to people who are struggling. There are lots of Christians like us who have gone to these places because we can't afford a week away anywhere else. Therefore, I slightly resent the implication that those in academia get to do things others can't, it's not that simple. In terms of this year I have had to work my Greenbelt ticket, and Third Party is working hers. TP got to go to Glastonbury because of my dads job and indeed she has had to work it. This is how it is for many people, we don't simply swan off here and there, we get our breaks where we can and because of the hard work we do we sometimes find housework, beyond getting the washing done takes second place.
Anyway onto the "large number of Christians". I think they need to be honoured and valued more and need to be encouraged and helped to encounter the resources that those of us who are able can. TAZ and stuff is important to these people because they need spaces where they can be and do what they want without fear of having people telling them off, because it's not their cultural expression. Perhaps if more people got the spirit of these things we might have less people moving out the back door. That said for most people the daily stuggle of life, and church struggle of keeping the buildings together takes priority. It is a luxury of the middle classes to go beyond this. How do we deal with this? I don't know, the middle class indulgence of the church is a problem that we all know about and many of us contribute to. I know I might be part of that problem. That is one reason why my current potential homelessness, my experience earlier in my life as a depressed single mum living on income support (when I did incidently go to Spring Harvest precisely because I could go with a church group and it was cheap and I got a discount), my current inability to find a job are important...they help me understand. That said I know because I am part of a supportive network of friends, family and church that I will never know truly what it is like to struggle to survive totally without support or hope, and I will remain priviledged because of that support. I know that my exprience with the housing system will be different to those without literacy skills, without cultural understanding of the way "officialdom" works and you know what that is good because it makes me angry....angry because I know if I am struggling how much more will others struggle because of the system.
I am a hypocrite, I am living in lower middle class luxury,( despite my current circumstances), I do talk tosh which doesn't resonate with alot of people, I am wierd, but I do care, I care about the people who come and clean our churches, who sit on our finance and property committees, who make the tea and without whom we wouldn't have a church in this country. I care about God and love God but just do it in a different way sometimes thinking in a different way and having different discussions.
Um, not sure where that rant came from or what it actually was to do with, certainly not aimed at you A, more I think letting out something.....To those who are fed up with me or I frustrate look I use this blog to chat the shit going through my brain and sometimes as a space to respond to what others have written elsewhere, like I did with the TAZ stuff. Ultimately if you don't like it or don't like my life you don't have to read it!!!!