Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

Maybe Curt Schilling will become your new neighbor. He's interesting and smart and self-aware- just ask him.

 

Just for Curt. Williamson County might be a good place for him. Southaven, MS might be even better.

 

He won’t do Southaven because I guarantee part of the dudebro appeal was no state income tax. You could probably talk him into a McMansion with acreage in far western Fayette County that probably belonged to one of the Tent City protestors way back when before the people who didn’t want to pay for Germantown schools decided to colonize it.

 

And yes, this is now Thoughts and Prayers: The Tennessee Inside Jokes Thread.

 

Nashville is the Ernest T. Bass of large southern cities. Funny thing is, we think Nashville is your Meemaw's version of Tennessee Williams. ("All of that stuff about the women in his plays actually being men is just longhair university Commie nonsense! He just never found the right girl.") Or Shelby Foote.

 

I once had a guy from Obion County tell me to get out of the sticks.
I looked at him and said, "Do you know where you live?"

 

Nashville is Jethro Bodine. Country come to town but is convinced it is slick.

 

Nothing touched the trigger but the Devil's right hand.

 

Got Bodined?

 

A lot of people may know how to belong to a group, but they (and anyone else) may never know it, because what people don't know how to do -- or rather, what they don't want to do, and what you really have to do before church or any other organized group has any real impact -- is to actually fully commit to one.

My church's pastor has often said that if you want know what people value, look at how/where they spend their money, and their time. In the bluntest, most real sense, I find that thought to be absolutely right.

And I know, even for myself -- someone who's pretty religious and spiritual and who has been quite involved in my church -- the hardest thing is the getting together with regular (usually weekly), small-group gatherings, and just getting myself to go. That's not because I don't learn a lot and don't usually enjoy myself once I've done it, but just because, most the time, I'd rather just be by myself. My natural inclination is to be more introverted than extroverted, more selfish, in an individualistic kind of way, than totally giving to others. I'm not shy, exactly, just careful and choosy in most things, with an aversion to the being locked-in that real commitment entails.

This is a lot of people's basic problem in making a real commitment to a strictly voluntary group, i.e. something not related to work/a job, where a certain level of commitment is actually required.

 

Groups need selfless, to-some-small-degree transactional leaders. People who have to accept they’re gonna get a little less from the group because they put in the mundane work of leading it, being faithful, etc. having a light hand, if you will. It’s the best way to sustain it.

because we live in a fairly performative, emotional culture, though, there’s a thirst for dynamic leaders in groups - brilliant, hot and cold, moody, mercurial types. Those groups are harder to hold together.

And, yes, when you put a boundary on commitment - even with the word “commitment” - people are less apt to do it. Better for the group to have consistency, and for those who aren’t big flakes, a place to show up consistently.

 

The king is back. Bow down.