What This Moment Means To Me

By Andrew R. Duckworth

When I mention that we seem to be in a liminal moment, perhaps I should be more clear. Practically every moment is liminal to someone. Events happen all the time and we seem to be always in a state between two events. And just like when the newly graduated senior from high school goes through that transition time between graduation and entering college there are still events that happen in between, we seem to be in a moment of transition between two events where other events occur. Which two events? I can’t tell you. I don’t know the future and determining where a dramatic shift began is… difficult at best. If times were simple, discernment would be simple. But we do not live in simple times. Everything seems to be growing in complexity. Society is more complex than it was yesterday, and the same can be said of the job market, the political landscape, etc.

Our current moment means waiting anxiously at a train station, unsure of where the train might take us, but realizing that we must move somewhere. Perhaps rather than taking the train, we should walk. I’ve long felt that we must slow down societally. After so much sprinting, why not take a breather? Unfortunately, nowadays, we have little control over this. So much of what happens day to day depends on a response. A lack of response can potentially mean the course of our lives is altered so drastically, we find ourselves lost and struggling to keep up. Our responses can pause or change what happens next.

Growing up in the nineties, it didn’t feel this way. I wasn’t an adult then, so perhaps it is naivety on my part. Our lives seem busier, more loaded with choices and questions. Most children do not have to contend with such choices and questions, so, naturally, it may be the result of increased maturity over the years that has brought me to this attitude of life where everything seems much more congested. Suddenly, in adulthood, you have a stake in the affairs that surround you and a lot more depends on your choices. Suddenly, it is no longer about you. The neighbor down the street might be affected by a choice you make, unknowingly to both. Would it make a difference if you knew?… more questions.

Nowadays, more questions exist than answers and they are complex questions that demand complex thought. Nowadays, there is rarely a moment of simplicity and when such moments occur they’re hardly recognizable due to the overload of events that takes place. And because we have become so fast-paced, everything seems to have followed close behind. Nowadays, content with large messages is designed to fit 90 seconds. To hell with context, to hell with objections. We are told that the contemporary attention span can’t deal with anything longer or that it is unwanted. To this I say, and pardon the expression, “what bullshit!” I sat through the last Avatar film with no problems. I like long-form conversational podcasts. I would rather have longer content. Short, 90-second clips seem cheap to me, a quick way to capture attention and not much else. Films that are not pieces in a large franchise are cut to 90 minutes. It is a mistake. To suggest that people can’t handle more than 90 minutes or 90 seconds is to ignore the popularity of the long-form podcast which seems to be growing in popularity.

When I listen to the voices of control, those who wish to dictate the current moment to those around them, they say that tradition is on its way out. For a while, it seemed this way, sadly. Yet, one cannot ignore the drive towards tradition from those who are not of the millennial generation. There is a hunger for tradition, even with the larger voices attempting to drown it out with whatever flavor they’ve cooked up for the week or the day. In all of us, there is a drive for structure and order in spite of this chaotic time we find ourselves in. Perhaps it is the chaos of our time that helps to drive this. I can only speak for myself when I say that I long for tradition in the spiritual sense and in every other way. The sacred traditions of the Mass, for example. For those not familiar with Catholicism or the Orthodox tradition, as well as some Protestant traditions, the Mass is structured in a unique way, all of it culminating in the blessed sacrament, the centerpiece of the Mass. It is a time of remembrance, embrace, acceptance of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. For some, it may seem too rigid. But who ever dictated that “rigidness” in all of its forms is unnecessary or “bad”? In many ways “rigidness” promotes order. So long as this rigidness is not dictated or enforced to the larger population, what is wrong with such rigidness? Nothing. In fact, the structure provided by the Mass can help order ourselves towards something larger than ourselves.

The moment we find ourselves in calls for a certain return to “rigidness,” for us to remember the time before the internet, before the endless amount of distractions we find both left and right. Perhaps rather than stand on chairs lifting our voices above all others, now should be a time of silence and contemplation, a time to take a seat and reflect… should we have the time for such an occasion.