Thematic Photographic 4: "Wood" v.1.0

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"Down the Rabbit Hole"
Somewhere on the North Carolina-Virginia border, February 2001 (Click to embiggen)

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This week's Thematic Photographic subject is "Wood", which is a longtime favorite of mine (minds out of the gutters people). Like last week's theme (glass) this is one that can take an almost infinite number of forms. During a quick perusal of the archives, this shot caught my eye probably because it's unusual (in my experience at least) to see such symmetry in a rotting stump. As far as I know, though, nothing more than the forces of nature produced my subject.

"Hollow Body Electric"
The Coffee Mill, Clayton, NC, July 2004 (Click to embiggen)

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This piece of wood, however, was very definitely shaped by man-made forces. If memory serves, this is a Gibson ES350 masterfully wielded by a local jazz artist whose proper name escapes me at the moment. I do remember the shot was taken at a small independent coffeehouse on the 4th of July 2004.

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Yesterday's post on the NRCAT anti-torture campaign elicited an interesting comment or two. Interesting enough that at least one of them bears some further discussion. My friend DB noted that if we put banners up protesting everything that was wrong in the world, we'd run out of space long before we ran out of problems to protest. And he's right. he's also right in pointing out that the banners themselves would start a whole new set of arguments over the banners themselves ... size, colors, placement, designs. And then there's the matter of deciding which causes or problems are banner-worthy. Which pretty well brings us right back to the beginning of why we needed the banners in the first place. Then we'd have the meta-banners -- the banners protesting the proliferation of banners. The possibilities are truly frightening.

But my purpose in bringing the subject up was less about the banners -- or even the wrongness of torture -- than it was about the disconnection of "religious" and "right". The two have been equated so much in the last several years -- by people on both sides of the aisle -- that it's almost become a truism that in order to be "religious" you must be "conservative" and support of the president and all he stands for.

The objective truth though, is probably quite different.

Studies published in the CIA World Factbook and the American Religious Identification Survey indicate that between 76.5% and 78.5% of Americans identify themselves¹ as "Christian" of one denomination or another. Another 12% identify themselves as "unaffiliated", and only 4% identify themselves as having "no religion at all". So if we have such an overwhelming majority of America calling itself Christian, then the only way to explain the disparity between those 76% who call themselves Christian and the President's steadily declining approval rating (currently between 23 and 29 percent depending on who you ask,sup>2) is that it is possible to be religious -- even Christian -- and still not support the current administration. Ironically, this 76% majority is often used by the Religious Right to bolster the argument that "America is a Christian nation, and as such should be guided by Christian principles". More ironically, I can agree with them on that point in theory. But I find myself still more in agreement with Gandhi when he said: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

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¹ The only statistics available on religious affiliations are from representative surveys. Unlike other countries, the United States does not include questions about religion in its census data and hasn't for over 50 years.

² The Polling Report.com is a good starting point for finding results. They track most of the major polls on a weekly basis and provide a snapshot of results from many sources.

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Latest Smoking Cessation News
Today is my first day on the Stage 2 patch, which cuts my "nicodone" dosage roughly in half. I was a little concerned that there'd be a repeat of the early withdrawal symptoms from when I first quit as a stepped down. I thought surely I'd at least feel stronger urges once the replacement dosage dropped. But happily, after about 18 of the first 24 hours of this stage I'm not noticing any significant difference. (For any of you lurking out there and contemplating this method of quitting, that's an important -- and very encouraging -- piece of news.)

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Another Memo I Didn't Get

On my way to work on Tuesday I spotted a banner outside the Methodist church up the street from my house. This isn't unusual, since churches frequently display such things to inform the public about various activities they have going on. What was unusual was the content of the banner itself. In simple white text (Courier New I believe it was) against a black background it read "torture is wrong".
Trinity Methodist Church - Austin, TX
Photo by Bonnie Tamres-Moore

Blink.

In an instant I went from the obvious thought ("Well duh!") to a much more sobering one. Why is it even necessary to make that statement? A few minutes later I realized that the Methodists weren't alone. The United Church of Christ farther down the road had the same black and white banner displayed outside its doors.

Being a master of the obvious, I began to sense a trend. Turns out this is part of a larger national campaign by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (http://www.nrcat.org/) involving (to date) over 300 churches and temples nationwide. According to the NRCAT website, seven churches in North Carolina are on board for the campaign which spans the month of June. I don't know if that includes the two I saw today or not. I pass both of these churches on my way to work every day, and I would have noticed these banners by now if they'd been there for any time at all. But NRCAT is still welcoming congregations on board and still has banners available, (or you can create your own!) so it's possible that these two were just late to the party.

What I find encouraging about this is that it's no longer possible to classify those opposed to the (ahem) "unconventional interrogation techniques" authorized by the Bush administration as "liberal extremists". These banners are hanging outside of churches attended by Good-God-Fearing-Christian-Folk. You know, the kind of folks we liberals supposedly have such disdain for. In the Bushist paradigm if you're opposed to things like wars of aggression or inhumane treatment of prisoners, you're a godless heathen. So this campaign is important in more ways than just protesting the use of torture.

It suggests that it's possible to be both a Christian and opposed to the unconscionable policies adopted by Washington. (Important note here: NRCAT is not composed of only Christian congregations, but for purposes of this discussion it's that demographic that will have the biggest impact.)

This break in the chain between "religious" and "right" may be the very thing that begins to bring America back to its center. For the last 8 years we've seen a polarization unparalleled at least in my lifetime, and perhaps since the Civil War. This is what happens when those in power lean radically to either side -- right or left. There's an automatic compensation by the opposing side, and the further one side goes, the further the other goes to counter it. And the moderate viewpoint disintegrates as that field of flux gains in strength. It's the law of action and reaction applied to a political dynamic rather than a physical one.

So this potential "awakening of the middle" is an encouraging sign. Bringing the politics of America back to a point closer to equilibrium will go a long, long way in moving the country forward, and re-establishing America as the Force For Good it once was (and purports itself to be now). If we're not working at cross purposes and expending so much energy fighting each other, we can actually accomplish some of those things that we all agree we need to accomplish.

Besides, the banners are right. Torture is wrong.
For more information

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And Because I Promised...
My dear, dear friend JC (love you girl!) nudged me yesterday and wanted an update on the smoking cessation program. That's when I realized I hadn't posted anything about it in several days. So maybe (hopefully?) that means it's not occupying so much of my thought process now. I digress.

I'm happy to report that as of 6PM this evening (that's Wednesday June 25 in case you're reading this after the fact) I will officially reach the two-week plateau. The next major hurdle will be stepping down to the Stage 2 version of the patch. The "nicodone treatment" gets cut by almost half between Stage 1 and Stage 2, but it's not supposed to be as difficult as the initial phase. It certainly can't be any worse than the first 72 hours.

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Happy Halloween! (some portions of this post previously recorded)
Blogger recently introduced a feature that's kinda cool. You can actually schedule your posts for publishing at some future date/time. Neat? You bet! Useful? Probably not if you need an alibi for something, but if you're headed to ... say... the Amazon Basin for a couple of weeks and want to make sure your blog is periodically updated... could be.

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Looks like I'm not the only one to figure out the power of positive blogging vis-a-vis tobacco cessation.
A recent visitor from Fredricksburg, VA spake unto Google saying: "i need a cigarette but i'm quitting"
And Google the Wise said unto him, looketh at these here sites.
The search returned approximately 612,000 hits.

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