Time for more thoughts out loud about organized religion. And other forms of incompetence. Sure to piss someone off. (No flame wars, please.)
Last night I was lured to see a film that, given its provenance, would have been shot -- and, hence, should have been screened -- in standard Academy ratio:
What I got was a projected Blu-ray, in a perfectly square format, which produced sharp anamorphosis along the vertical axis, as the sides were forcibly squished in. After thirty minutes, I left.
I'm sure everyone else was perfectly happy. This is the curse of those who know, while those who do not know are supremely content in their blissful ignorance. It is all-too-easy to apply the same principle to liturgy: "However, as I have argued many times before, the average Catholic in the pew would hardly know the difference." Those who protest are labelled non-constructive "squabblers."
Given certain facts about me and about the world, this augurs strongly for Eastern Christianity after all. I can now assume the position of the blissfully ignorant, as I don't know a troparion from a kontakion. Instead of marching out of church in a huff, I can simply rest content in what it is not.
That is my new pattern for happiness: At least, it is not that. “Pray as you can, not as you wish you could.”
Bravo! I believe the principle is: Agree with me = discussion; disagree with me = squabble.
ReplyDeleteIt's a form of elitism, isn't it? It goes hand-in-hand with clericalism. The contempt for the mere laity. The attitude that says: "Let's put on some crap 1962 liturgy, dress it in lace and call it Tradition. People will never know!"
ReplyDeleteI see myself as saying things that rather a lot of people think.