Culture Making with Andy Crouch 4: Conservation
By Trevin Wax on Jan 7, 2009 in Interviews | 
Print This Post | Share (Twitter, Email, Facebook)
All this week, I’m publishing an interview with Andy Crouch – author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
Trevin Wax: You make a distinction between cultivation and creation of culture. You define cultivation as “conservation.”
What are some cultural aspects of our world today that you believe we should work to conserve for future generations?
Andy Crouch: Ah, I have a long list.
Words—words well chosen and well spoken.
Languages—especially languages of minority cultures that are in danger of dying out because they are not economically advantageous.
Heirloom apples and tomatoes—cultivated by previous generations and until recently in great danger of being eclipsed by tasteless products designed for easy transport.
Music making—the skill of creating one’s own music, however amateur in form, rather than simply becoming dependent on professionals to fill my iPod with tunes. Specifically, singing—when I was a boy in the 1970s, the entire crowd sang the national anthem at baseball games. Our country has forgotten how to sing. God help us if the Christians forget how to sing as well, but I fear that is happening.
Silence and darkness—those are not cultural artifacts, exactly, but they are parts of the created world that allow us to experience our smallness and see the stars.
Painting—the skill with brush and palette that goes deeper than photography ever can in representing, but also transcending, the visual world.
Improv comedy—the best kind, the kind that doesn’t go for cheap laughs with dirty jokes but depends on trust and creativity among the performers and can create moments of side-splitting joy.
Bulgogi, tamales, India pale ale, viognier, falafel, garlic butter naan. Baseball with no designated hitter.
Trevin Wax: Tomorrow, Andy will tell us why we should beware of “world-changers.” We’ll also discuss the cultural power of Christ’s resurrection.
© Copyright by Trevin Wax | Print This Post | Share (Twitter, Email, Facebook)
I triumphantly raised my hands when I read “Baseball with no designated hitter.” I’ve been arguing against the DH for years and people always look at me cross-eyed.
I’m sure countless readers could add to the list Andy has generated and I’m sure his list isn’t exhaustive for himself either. But here’s my two cents :
I’d like to add “Poetry”. Given Andy’s recognition of the importance of words and languages, there has been a debasing of poetry – at least in the US – for several decades now. Poetry resides primarily in academia and coffee shops. Contrast this with the cultures of the Middle East, where the success of “Prince of Poets” – an American Idol-esque contest show which pits poets against each other for text-messaged votes – is equivalent to its American counterpart.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9009.shtml
In the church, the Psalms are one of the most loved books. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are two poetic works that do a great service to Christian imagination. In the last 100 years, poets like T.S Eliot (a confessing Christian) and Hilda Doolittle (with her work “The Flowering of the Rod”, a poetic exploration of the woman with the alabaster jar) have given Christian thought their place in the written arts. I think the Church – for its own edification – should endeavor to conserve poetry for the world – or, at least, the Western World.
folknotions | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
Western Culture:
Checkers and a few other board games that can be played anytime anywhere without electricity.
Certain American recipes… not burgers and fries, but grandmom’s kind stuff, off the farm. “Fried green tomatoes”, corn on the cob.
Poetry, sure! My brother-in-law was severely injured in Feb. 2008. He loved to recite it. He has sufffered a severe head injury in addition to much other physical damage. We are exercising his mind. This is one of the ways… therapy.
John Joseph | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
How about the family dinner table or families for that matter?
And meeting places–parks, coffee shops, churches–where people in the community can get together to be a community sharing stories, jokes, songs, smiles…
deets johnson | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
I confess it’s too early in the thread to make this observation, but I’m curious to see what patterns — commonalities — emerge in those cultural aspects that we sense are worth preserving. What characteristics are common in those things that are worth preserving vs. those that will quickly fade?
So far, I’d suggest that purity, simplicity, substance, and legacy are some of the common aspects.
Clay Anderson | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
I would add the glorious pig, especially when properly barbequed.
Rick Bennett | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply