My thoughts today have been all over place... from the time I walked out to check the peeling of the eucalyptus tree until I sat down to construct my journal for today. In between the eucalyptus tree and the journal Margaret and I went to check out the pottery fair in Balboa Park.
Already acquainted with the writings of Ivan Illich, I was prompted by my friend Ben Christensen and by Harvey Cox’s book The Future of Faith to look more closely at Illich, who died in 2002. I could probably go on for pages writing about Illich’s amazing life and how much his writing has informed my own thinking; however, this little journal entry focuses on one small bit of his insight into “what it’s all about” that he learned and shared. When he established out of sheer determination and will the Centre for Intercultural Documentation (CIDOC) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, he said it was to be, in his words, “A free club for the search of surprise, a place where people go who want to have help in redefining their questions rather than completing the answers they have gotten.” Wow!
When Illich later felt that the CIDOC had become too institutionalized, the antithesis of what it was established to do, he disbanded it.
So... there we have it. The reason to get up in the morning...
I want that mindspace delicately balanced
between A-haaa and Wow,
the moment of surprise followed by awe.
Don’t misunderstand...
It’s not always a safe place to be.
It’s what happens when the doctor
comes in after the examination
and confirms the beginning of new life
or with worried brow says
life as you’ve known it is over.
5 comments:
As I understand Illich, one of the most important surprises he was trying to be open to was that of the Other - the surprise of encountering another person fully and taking them at their word. In a world full of photographs and shaped so by Marxist and Freudian analysis, for instance, which pre-dispose us and encourage us to believe we understand others better than they understand themselves, it is very hard to experience this kind of surprise, Illich wrote. He had great faith in the Gospel, which he read in a quite radical and, well, surprising way, and that faith was the source of this openness, I think. He paid especial attention to the story of the Samaritan, who is quite surprised at his response - a feeling deep in his gut, as Illich describes it - to the wounded Jew he encounters by the side of the road. He is moved to take care of this beaten-up guy from another tribe - and this guy alone, whose presence and plight have surprised him. The Jew is not to be taken care of because he is a member of the class of all Jews or all wounded or some other surprise-negating category of anonymous person defined by a law or tradition or, as might well be the case in modern times, by professional planners and managers. Somehow, the Samaritan has been offered a gift, namely the opportunity to care for, or love, another person. (There is no "ought to" about it, as the usual interpretation of this story goes.) And in this moment of encountering and being moved by and relating fully to the Other, the Samaritan re-enacts, if only for a flickering instant, the Christian Revelation.
I am able to re-tell Illich's version and interpretation not because I am a Christian per se but because I have read a book called Rivers North of the Future, by David Cayley, which is essentially Illich's last set of interviews - his last testament, as the book's subtitle puts it. And here, Illich makes clear how his Christian faith underpins and informs all of his earlier analysis of institutions and technologies, albeit tacitly. (He had always made a point of not specifying or relying on his faith to make his powerful arguments about schooling or medicine, for instance, though obviously, his connection to the Church was no secret. I always detected hints of his belief glowing beneath his analysis - a profound faith in humanity and distrust of hierarchy, for instance - even if I was not smart enough to connect all the dots.) Rivers North is a fascinating book, especially for anyone who is familiar with Illich's story and previous books.
You are right, the surprises in life are not always pleasant. But even before reading this book, I have always taken Illich's call to be open to surprise, especially as one approaches death, as profoundly life-affirming and hopeful. Who knows what one will experience or think in one's final moments - it may be revelatory in some way. Ultimately, I think he was urging us to be alive, at this moment, and to celebrate that ongoing moment - and to avoid being defined and entrapped by self-serving institutions (including, and perhaps especially, the Church) that, in general, want to make us into mere consumers of their professionally-defined services.
Winslow,
My delight/surprise today is your comment on Illich. I am encouraging a group of friends who get together to discuss Harvey Cox's new book, "The Future of Faith"
to read your statement. Thanks.
Jerral
Winslow notes that Illich's Christian faith underpins and informs all of his earlier analysis of institutions and technologies.....W. sees "hints of his belief glowing beneath his analysis."
Would Illich have had access to that without the self-serving institution--the church? The church has been the vessel to bring that to him and finally to us.
The challenge: to make the institution less self-serving.
Illich made the point often that the nature of institutions is that they become self-serving. I take W's observation about the church being a self-serving institution with the same understanding that I bring to Robert Frost's declaration that his life's work was a "lover's quarrel with the world."
I will have to think about whether or not my "belief" was delivered to me by the church. I like to think that at some point "belief" became less dogmatic and rigid for me as it was replaced by mature faith.
I am taking all of this in and find it so fascinating. :)
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