random thought roundup

threads of things I've been thinking about for the past few days:

- So one of the things I did during this busy and fulfilling weekend was see the Tim Miller-Brandeis students workshop piece. I was really impressed, I though the pieces were really honest and touching, everyone had good presence and nice pacing on their monologues, and it reminded me of the good parts of my high school Ensemble experience. One thing I found very interesting was the fact that many of my friends were going to see the new Harry Potter movie, which by all (second-hand) accounts is very much an end-of-childhood narrative, a tentative yet inevitable step out of their enchanted world into one more dangerous (you know, romantic rejection, magical death-matches, the usual adolescent bildungsroman). With that backdrop in mind, I guess I was really struck by the coming-of-age nature of most of the students' stories- growing into a more fearless self, manifested into a butchier aesthetic, for my lovely friend Sarah, or literally growing out of a nurturing Indian household, or shaving one's head to symbolically join the circle of bald and highly accomplished men in one's family. Nothing new under the sun to circle back to the coming of age narrative, but as a theme it merged the very specific Brandeis performance with the blockbuster film being watched at that very same moment by my friends.

- I'm starting to get to the bottom of my private fascination with liberal Christianity (as a phenomenon, not a personal path). Frankly I'm a little creeped out by the assumption that I think is at the bottom of said interest. Basically, I'm worried that I assume that anyone who works for social justice typically does so ONLY out of their own experience of injustice or lack of privilege, That is the reason I basically take Jewish liberalism for granted (though of course that's changing) and the reason I essentially see the social justice activism of wealthy, white, educated males like William Sloane Coffin as somehow purer in their motives, purer because it must be more ideological since their sense of injustice is less rooted in personal experience. Part of me feels like, OK, so what? but part of me thinks this is deeply disturbing, because it valorizes people of privilege for transcending their privilege (while probably still benefiting from it) over people who actually suffer from oppression.

- A lot of theatre-going recently for me, which is interesting only because, chicken-or-egg-you-decide, I have some interest in performing in something next semester- Vagina Monologues, maybe, or a play, whatever. I haven't done so since high school, so it's interesting that now I want to get back in the game. I guess the combined effect of Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Tim Miller, both solo show and ensemble work, and something else I can't quite remember is to reignite my interest in performing instead of spectating.

-Wonderful article on C.S. Lewis in this week's New Yorker (see? another liberal Christian figure occupying my fascination).
I think I really like Adam Gopnik.

-Shout out to Becky S! I had a blast with you this week. I wish I knew how to quit YOU! No I don't- you can be the Heath Ledger to my Jake Gyllenhaal anytime.