Comments on: What We’re Going Through: Anna Deavere Smith

By: potter

potter — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:17:36 +0000

The New York Times had a good article/review on her show, also with a short mp3 interview: What Does Grace Mean to You?

By: faux_pseudo

faux_pseudo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:51:44 +0000

I would have to say that this episode had its ups and downs. It had its complex thoughts and its emotional moments. Her dropping into one personality to another did cause issues for me. I would be listening, tune out for 30 seconds to take care of something else and had trouble finding out what was going on because the guest that had been on wasn’t there anymore. I guess that makes her very talented but didn’t make for easy listening in an hour long format when life’s distractions are bound to creep in.

By: potter

potter — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:01:35 +0000

Anna Deveare Smith is a genius, the way she climbs into another skin and sees out. What a perfect moment to focus on “grace”! This is not a term I use, not coming from a Christian background, but I recognized it in the stories she told ( her exquisite “taste”) about kindness and caring, not allowing another to be in darkness, calming the fear the moments before death arrives. This gave me the chills b/c I know it is really what life is about. Maybe we know and see life best at those moments.

So since a lot everyone here has related it to the “crisis” we are in let’s welcome it as an opportunity to ride the wave with grace and get out of ourselves to worry a bit more about the whole world we live in and how it works and might work a little better. Thanks for the reset.

By: bft

bft — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:43:04 +0000

In the conversation presented, it didn’t sound to me like Ann Richards found her chi, it sounded like she took someone’s word for it.

By: avygravy

avygravy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:46:28 +0000

Enkerli:
What I am really interested in is the question:
What might the consequences be in cultures that do not have any inkling of the concept of “grace”? In other words, what happens in cultures in which “forgiveness” is an alien or even despised concept? How far and in what direction can such culture move since it is inevitable that ALL cultures/individuals will come face to face at some time sooner or later with experiences/circumstances that demand having access to “grace” and being enabled to extend “grace”. In this sense, is not “grace” a universal concept applicable across all cultures and worthy of being accessed by and extended to ALL cultures/individuals?

By: enkerli

enkerli — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:02:06 +0000

Nice job of pointing out the cultural specificity of the way “grace” is conceived. What’s especially nice about the way this concept was handled is that it wasn’t about putting Christian ideals on top of other values. Neither was it, obviously, about denigrating the importance of those ideals for a number of people about whom we care deeply.
Neat!

By: avygravy

avygravy — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:41:54 +0000

Listening to this conversation was a very strange experience. I had almost given up on the notion of “grace” having impact in a materialistic, hypermodern, injustice-laden universe. But Anna is embodied wisdom that demonstrates that grace remains not only amazing but also abundant in the deep, dark corners of human experiences of suffering.
Which brings me to my central point that grace is “help of the helpless” and the suffering, the marginalised, the abandoned and the voiceless, the “poor in spirit”.
The Wall Street meltdown scares the shit out of everyone but it is concerned with the workings of Mammon, the anti-thesis of Grace. Perhaps one hopes that “grace” will deliver America and the world from the mess brought about by the naked pursuit of power and materialism through cut-throat competition and hegemonistic practices.
But grace more often than not appears to the victims of injustice (the weary and heavy laden) than its perpetrators. If grace does appear to the perpetrator, it would lead to metanoia (repentance). I personally believe that grace is that which reveals the goodness of God to a needy person and it leads to repentance and deep into a process of personal transformation into the likeness of the supreme embodiment of the author and end-result of grace, Jesus Christ.
We know of Rwanda. But the present is often the continuum of the evil holocausts of the past. In this context, I would present the introductory paragraphs of the Tehelka news story on the on-going campaign of murder, intimidation and persecution by Hindu fascists belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishat and the Bajrang Dal of the marginalised Dalit (untouchable) Christians in the Indian state of Orissa as an example of grace working powerfully in the face of tribulations.

“”WHEN THEY came for Narmada Digal, she wasn’t there. She had fled, five children and mother-inlaw in tow, to the safety of the jungles a kilometre away. So, they set about what she left behind. A framed picture of Jesus, a Bible in Oriya, utensils in the kitchen, some clothes, and linen. By the time Narmada tiptoed back, her home was gone. What was left was still hot from the ashes, and smoking. The neighbours came to commiserate. Narmada took a good look, stood erect, and pulled her sari over her head. She began to pray.

“Lord, forgive us our sins. Jesus, you are the only one. Save us from our misfortune. Free us, Lord.” The words are tumbling out. Narmada’s children have joined her. She is weeping as she pleads for deliverance. So is everybody else. It’s a simple bond that no human wrath can sever, a woman and her God. “I will die. But I won’t stop being a Christian,” Narmada says.”

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne130908CoverStory.asp

Situations may be complex and problems almost insurmountable. But grace is another word for simplicity of faith in the man Christ Jesus and what he represents for all time.

By: shaman

shaman — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:53:55 +0000

Listening to this conversation was like getting back on an old, but comfortable bicycle in the back of the garage. A solemn reminder of how narrow the path has been in this material age.

Grace and Wisdom are intertwined.
The abject poverty of the Bush years is the utter absence of either.

By: orangescissor

orangescissor — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:44:36 +0000

Wow, what a wonderful way of speaking about our times! Hearing Anna Deavere Smith analyse the market meltdown and the state of American society on a more spiritual level really made me reflect on how superficial these crisis moments are as we experience on the net or live TV. Although, this may be the end of a particular banking structure, we should also be asking how do the market crashes really affect us, our families, and our relationships in the world.

After a heavy fix of cable news last night and hearing this program the next morning, I’d rather keep my eyes what is happening to the world around me. After all, despite hearing about how the market crash is going to “hit main street”, what is “main street” really like, does it exist? Don’t we live in a time in which globalized financial networks and de-industrialization are moving us past the “main street”…hasn’t “main street”, in some sense, already crashed? Who and what are we really saving with a the new financial legislation? What do we mean when we say we’re scared that the market is going to hit “main street” when it is already known that inner city and rural communities in the U.S. have already been marginalized in the networked global economy for quite some time now?

By: nother

nother — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:47:32 +0000

“A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.”
-Frederick Douglass

Anna Deavere Smith is obviously an astute listener, and in my book that automatically makes her worth listening to.

What a wonderful thing, to contemplate grace. The first thing that pops in my head about grace is a lack of a “woe is me” quotient. It’s about starting from the idea that we all suffer…and moving from there, as opposed to having all roads lead to a rational for lamentation.

It’s the wide grin and sweet cackle of a Desmond Tutu; it’s the pink blush of my mom’s cheek when complimented on her new hairdo; it’s the do hoohoo woowoowoo wat…of a Lady Ella scat.

It’s difficult to define the word “grace,” when words have so little to do with it.

“When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.”
-Chief Aupumut, Mohican. 1725