A date in the calendar in Prague. The second ‘defenestration’ of Prague took place on this day (and date) 400 years ago. We were there today beneath the window where it took place on the same day and date, just separated by some 400 years. A small event when protestants took into their own hands dealing with ‘justice’ and throwing the three Catholic lords out of the window. Unbelievably all three survived, put down to the luck of falling on manure that broke the fall (the protestant version) or saved by the virgin Mary (Catholic version). This event is what sparked something much bigger, the outbreak of the devastating and continent-shaping thirty years war. This has been our focus for today.
A focus on the past is so important to deal with, and getting the focus ‘right’ between past and future is perhaps more important and also extremely challenging. In Prague there is a real sense that the city and nation should be setting the right time for Europe. We began today, and will on each successive morning, by meeting at the metronome on the hill overlooking the city. Marking a rhythm this large metronome replaced where the statue of Stalin was previously, and only placed there temporarily until they knew what to put there. If ever something spoke and cried out for something to fill it… and that is the issue, what will fill this space, where time is being marked?
That is the question for Europe. Leave it empty and there can only be a reversion to what has been before, so there is the necessity to call for the future reality to press in and fill the gap. This is a pressing issue for us in these days, as Prague is a clock for Europe, and it is some hours behind.
In Prague there is a gift / a pride / a knowing who they are of valuing truth. Both from a Christian point of view with the heritage of Jan Hus and others who held on to truth, and at a national level they too see themselves as founded on truth. But yesterday’s truth only gets us so far. Our last place to pray this morning was in a strategically placed jewellery shop whose owner is a believer. It was as we stood in the shop I saw that:
- Truth can anchor us in to what we have inherited, but
- only the imagination can open up the future.
Truth is important. It stimulates us but does not by itself lead to the future. It can anchor us but to move beyond, it is the imagination that has to be engaged. Truth says ‘do not let go of this’, but the imagination has to see a new community, a new way of living, a new value system. Once the fresh future is seen truth that we once held has to adapt, for we only ever see and believe in part. Fresh revelation is always waiting to break forth, and having held on to truth that both anchored us and got as far as we are now, we then find that that element of truth was (only) ‘truth as we understood it’. Fresh understanding has to update our truth. We can never update the Truth (a Person) but we can certainly update our understanding of truth.
Artists, the artistic community, the arts are vital for this to happen. They help the imagination grasp other possibilities, even other realities. If that can happen then not only what we once held on to so strongly gets adjusted, but there is the potential in the community to shift values that have been attached to things, to products and the like. There can be a revaluation. So a two-fold shout. Come on San Lorenzo! Come on you artists!
I and my colleagues wrote this for a Sustainable Education Conference in Tallinn in 2015 so academic in tone, but it reflects what you are praying for
Dare to Dream?: Role of inspiration and participation in moving towards a more hopeful future in landscape governance
A founding member of Ūdenszīmes, a Latvian NGO, is an example of an artist with a vision inspiring a small rural population, helping them to believe, the impossible, could happen. The NGO firstly sought the demolition of a dis-used dairy in the centre, with it its symbol of dereliction in the minds of the people and then initiated various community and art projects.
This has raised trust, encouraged collaboration and raised expectations. Today, after a period of seven years of action, this organisation stands at the threshold of daring to think of sustainable ways of raising finances through collaborative business initiatives. Destructive environmental behaviours and poor social cohesion are often an outworking of low self- esteem and past traumas. Particularly true for Central and Eastern Europe, which have faced severe socio-economic transitions. A lack of experience with constructive participation in decision-making and a reluctance to collaborate among communities are often barriers in achieving common environmental targets. Adopting sustainable landscape governance needs inspiration and participation more than mere information. It has to address minds by providing a toolkit to help frame problems and possible solutions, but it also has to address hearts as well. There is a need for innovative approaches to draw artists and story-tellers, scientists and therapeutic professions, conservationists and policymakers, the public and experts into a conversation to help formulate images of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, well connected to the landscape and the environment in which people live. This is not about portraying a utopia, but inspiring people and bringing hope. Without a dream of the future, without hope, it is unlikely people will be willing to make the tough changes needed to get there.
Whoops, you nearly got me pondering again, not done that for a while.
I was last in Prague in the Spring of 97 or 98, I was there for a small break and as much music as I could cram into a week (quite a lot as it happens). But it was the clocks that kept drawing my attention. I loved the city because it is so small that the best way to explore is to get lost, quite deliberately, find your way and along the way you find the city. But those darned clocks! I was especially struck (sorry) by the way so many of the clocks were built around small circulating tableaux of figures, as if time were just rhythmic history, repetitive, circular. I was uneasy about them. I wanted to argue with them. Instead they argued with me. The clocks went forwards and I didn’t notice so was late for a concert and missed the first half-hour. The art, in the end, won, hands down (sorry again? not really). That concert in the Dvorak hall was a celebration of the composer, and the first time I had heard his Te Deum performed. Overwhelming, certainly, by the end I didn’t know whether to jump up and down, fall flat on my face, cheer or even (so like me, not) dance my socks off. Dvorak was arguing back, triumphantly, writing his music in America, speaking to his homeland, telling it to move.
There are precious few good recordings of this piece, and none freely available. The best I can do is a link to a bearable performance, (performed by the same orchestra and chorus I heard that night) if anyone is interested, it should do the trick. The point to note, the Te Deum is a hymn of praise, but the musical form he chose is a slap in the face to the sort of religion that thinks the baby Jesus is a good thing. The commission to which he was responding was to celebrate the discovery of America, it follows a thematic passion for a new world, like his 9th symphony. But what is often missed is that whenever Dvorak wrote of his new world, he was calling to his old one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsZRfLKh1-M
What future we have hope for is key. Some Christian hope for the new world is not such good news for the present world, the place of privilege Martin wrote about not ordinarily being the place of urgency. Talk today and if nothing changes tomorrow then the status quo will sustain us for a little while longer at least while we place our hope in the future. Those walking within and with the place of urgency have tended to be the prophetic voices and and yes the artists, the musicians can open our eyes to things most of us just don’t see. Happy travels Martin.