SCN          
  • Home
  • Our Pastor
  • Ministries
    • Small Groups
    • Youth Ministries
    • Children's Ministries
    • Connection Opportunities
  • Missions
  • Resources & Media
    • About Us
    • Giving
    • Photo Archives >
      • "Resolution" signing Nov. 18, 2012
      • Tornado Relief Journal
    • Sermon Archives >
      • July 2013
      • June 2013
      • May 2013
      • April 2013
      • March 2013
      • February 2013
      • January 2013
      • "Anticipate" Series
      • Nov. 2012
      • Oct. 2012
      • Courageous
      • Ashes to Fire Sermon Series
      • 40 Days of Love Series
      • Dec 2011- Jan 2012
    • Forms
  • Contact Us

Individual or Indivisible? Lamenting the Loss of a Collective Conscious

11/3/2011

0 Comments

 
I know I am weird, but I love Christmas music at any time of year.  And my son has inherited my weirdness.  So it was anything but weird today when, as we worked on building a booth for the sound system at our church, we chose a Christmas song list on the iPod to accompany our work.

This particular list had some of the truly golden oldies with selections from such greats as Bing Cosby and Frank Sinatra. One song caused a momentary work stoppage.  It was a recording that was put to what was known as a “V Disc” according to the voice coming over the airwaves.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, a “V-Disc (
"V" for Victory) was a morale-boosting initiative involving the production of several series of recordings during the World War II era by special arrangement between the United States government and various private U.S. record companies.” The voice I was hearing identified itself as “General Reynolds of Special Forces.”

The sound and tones of the production – the narration especially – were that of the classic radio broadcasts of the era. As the narration gave way to an introduction by Frank Sinatra with some wonderful words of appreciation and inspiration for the troops overseas, my mind wandered to what the experience was like back when, for better or worse, individuals had a much, much more limited selection of communication vehicles and even of vehicles (e.g. channels or stations) within a given vehicle (radio or television)?  What was it like to be part of a nation that, even if everyone in your house, neighborhood, city, or state tuned in to a different station, odds were pretty good you would find a fair number of people who had watched the same channel? And I couldn’t help but think that the nation had a much stronger sense of a collective conscious back when common denominators were much more common.  That perhaps we were a stronger nation when we had broadcasts instead of podcasts – when we collectively and consciously came to the tables in homes, at coffee shops, and in school rooms, at the same time from the same vantage point rather than the multitude of disjointed, diatribes coursing across the digital spectrum these days.

After sharing words of encouragement and offering a Christmas blessing, Frank crooned a classic carol, no doubt aimed at bringing war-weary veterans together.   I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of remorse for a nation that grows increasingly more individual and increasingly less indivisible.  It’s not so much the “I” inspired technology that saddens me as the philosophy that is either propagating it or being propagated by it.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture












    Welcome to Daily Grinds
    I chose “Daily Grinds” for a name because everyone has them. For some they show up at the workplace, for others it is on the freeway, maybe at school. “The Grind” comes to us all at some point, and in some ways at every point in our lives. Of course, these grinds aren’t always bitter and burdensome. Sometimes the daily grinds are evidence of the most positive moments in our lives – the satisfaction of a difficult job well done, confidence hammered out on the anvil of much preparation. And sometimes, quite unexpectedly, "the grind" gifts us with moments of grace – some monumental like the birth of a child, others more mundane, like a great cup of coffee and some casual conversation with a good friend. In fact, I came across a website for a coffee company in New York called, The Daily Grind, that confirmed my inspiration.  Perhaps sifting through the “grounds” of my day-to-day will give you a glimpse into your own Daily Grind.

    Picture

    About Dom

    Just your average guy (ok - a little below average in the height department!) that is trying to make my way in this world.  I have been the pastor of SCN since 1998 and just celebrated 22 years of marriage to my wife, Heather, (obviously way above average in the wife department!) on September 2nd.  Aside from sardines and anchovies, there isn't much I don't enjoy in life.

    Archives

    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Follow this blog
Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from sean_oliver