Please allow me some time to indulge in self-reflection.
I mentioned in my last post that I have been struggling with my relationship to popular culture lately. In truth, my love of television and other entertainment media had been a big part of my identity for a very long time. And I do still love TV – I am very excited for the return of Fringe on Friday as well as some of the other shows that I have been enjoying. But the way I interact with those things has fundamentally changed and I have been trying to figure out what that means for me.
When Jason at the Wild Hunt was on vacation toward the end of last year he tapped me as one of the guest posters. I was honored by this and was happy to be able to post about a project that is very dear to me. As one of the contributors on The Juggler I could have easily done a post about the importance of pop-culture depictions of paganism, but something else was really tugging at my soul. I wrote primarily about our trip to South Africa but also about how I am currently downsizing my life to be able to live off the grid in a 120 square foot house. I was kind of shocked by the responses. Many people were supportive of our mission to help the kids in South Africa, but there was an entire thread about whether or not it made rational sense to move into a house that small and live in that way. I was surprised because the post was not really about off the grid living in a tiny house but more about how the processing of transitioning my life led me to a place in my life where I was open to opportunities that I had never before considered. In any case, whether one focuses on living in a tiny house or on traveling to a foreign country to help orphans, my life is fundamentally changing.
And in that life, I am trying to reconcile my relationship with pop culture. Every time I sit down to write about this television show or that commerical or a movie that is coming out, I can’t help but let doubt cloud my thoughts. What is the point? Who cares? How does that matter to anyone? And then I stop. I can’t even get past typing an introductory sentence. My personal evolution is very positive. I had never been the person to volunteer or give to charities but I find myself wanting to spend a lot of time brainstorming fundraising ideas or planning the shelter. That I love television as much as I do speaks to the fact that transitioning to a simpler life will be difficult without access to cable and those forms of entertainment. I won’t be able to easily tune in to Once Upon A Time at 8pm on Sundays next year and it is not panic inducing for me, though it might have been a year ago. Now I thinking of things I can do with my time to enjoy the simple life: gardening, cooking, canning, brewing, more building, or helping to raise money for the Zulu Orphan Alliance. Doing those things aren’t inherantly better or worse than watching televion, they are just very different and I am at a crossroads in my life and looking forward to traveling down this new path.
Living the simple life does not mean I am going to be cut off from the world. In fact, there are many modern conveniences that are making this transition possible. Being able to read my books on a kindle app or listen to music through my iPod are essential to living in such a small space. We have internet access and I’m not giving up social networking or blogging as they are very important to my journey. But I keep wondering how pop-culture entertainment can fit into my new life. How does it actually matter?
That is my question for you, Jugglers. What do our readers want for the future of this blog? We have some amazing writers puting out some amazing information on books, movies, music, television…you name it. Does it matter to you as a reader? How are you interacting with these things in your lives? What do you want to read about? How does it matter to our communites? How does it help us grow and evolve? How does pop-culture serve us?
