Take a dozen or
fifteen thoughtful men, or women, add two cups of curiosity, a heaping
tablespoon of trust in each other, the same of willingness to share their
intellectual passions, then top this mixture with a well-whipped belief that
the recipe is appropriate for thoughtful minds, and you can build an
institution: a literary club. To paraphrase an old Chinese proverb,
“How will I know what I think about something until I consider it enough to
commit thoughts to paper?” From this can evolve a group of minds that
gladly reap the harvest of shared passions.
I belong to such
a group (in existence over 100 years) in Springfield, OH, and to another such
group at the Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, KS. The
Springfield group (ironically) calls itself The Young Men’s Literary Club.
Both groups now consist of old men, and both are having trouble getting
younger men to join. The membership is kept low in order that each
member, every 12-15 months, is expected to prepare and present a paper before
the group.
Unfortunately,
the fact that things change, evolve, is ever present. From this develops
the inevitable clash between human activities that should—because of their
great merit—endure and changes that society could well do without. Our
rapidly evolving culture, and the changes we are forcing both on the natural
and physical worlds and on human behavior patterns, are now threatening either
severe alterations in or the extinctions of many precious organisms, beliefs,
and institutions.
The two
institutions mentioned above are in this battle, one so serious that neither
may survive. But their endings will not matter to a society surging madly
toward a future about which it knows little, and worries less. A society not
considering the ramifications of its actions.
This unhealthy
state has developed for a variety of reasons, but the ones that come first to
mind are human communication and activity habits centered around television,
computers, and cell phones; the ability of the advertising world to push the
buttons that have turned us into a consumer-oriented culture; and the
relentless human search for convenience, comfort, and ease. Every day we become
more a nation of overweight, beer drinking, couch potatoes addicted to a
vicarious life style.
Consider the
selling job that such as the NFL, the NCAA, and TV producers have done on a
uncritical American public. Steve Almond, in a lengthy interview entitled
“The Church of the Gridiron,” in the September 2015 issue of The Sun
magazine, talks of the reasons for his ending his unabashed forty-year love
affair with football. He woke up and began to listen, watch, and consider
the array of negative results stemming from the over-zealous marketing of this
dangerous sport, turned business, elevated to mayhem, and metastasized into
mania.
Any civilization
worthy of the name will encourage brainstorming unrelated to paycheck. At
some point, unfortunately, our society will lament having lost the willingness
to honor those who would build intellectual bridges, to cherish those who would
strive to be counted among The Considered Women and Men.
-- Elder RiverSoul
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