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Backward Movement
Responding to our issue on the Enbridge oil pipeline, this issue asks whether we need to rethink progress. Today, we are confronted with accelerated movement toward cheaper, faster, newer, hipper, bigger. Progress is synonymous with production, and financial gain is understood as forward movement. But, if there is one thing that we learn from Christ's sacrifice and weakness, it is that progress is not always a forward, linear movement.
The Oil in Our Veins
On March 30, 2013, the Hermitage Community, a contemplative retreat center in Three Rivers, Michigan, held a service of confession, lament and hope in preparation for the construction of a new Enbridge crude oil pipeline that will cut through the center on its way from Canada to a refinery in Indiana. Another service took place the same day on a section of the pipeline in Manitoba. This issue contains some of the material that was presented at the Hermitage service, as well as reflections inspired by it.
Imagining Imagination 2
Imagination enables us to transform our current reality and empowers the passion to question the status quo. Increasingly, however, it seems that we are living in a world that commodifies imagination. We look to figures like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney as idolized imaginers, yet forget those path-blazing dissenters who yearn for justice, beauty and hospitality in our very neighborhoods. This week's topic focuses on re-claiming imagination through our everyday actions.
Imagining Imagination
Imagination enables us to transform our current reality and empowers the passion to question the status quo. Increasingly, however, it seems that we are living in a world that commodifies imagination. We look to figures like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney as idolized imaginers, yet forget those path-blazing dissenters who yearn for justice, beauty and hospitality in our very neighborhoods. This week's topic focuses on re-claiming imagination through our everyday actions.
The State I'm In
...Or province or county: whatever term we use to describe our geographical area, the boundaries that surround us shape us. And in fact, we attempt to define each other by geography: someone from Maryland is assumed to have a different character than someone from Alberta. Whether the state we grew up in, or the state that we've chosen, how do these places define us?
The local newspaper, an endangered species of late, has been a critical chronicler of places around the world, recording the life of many communities in a way no history book ever would. What is the role of print journalism in your community, and in society at large? Beyond journalism, what is the role of books in a digital age?
(In)Efficiency 2
The Industrial Revolution may have given us a gazillion useful objects, but it also radically re-shaped our expectations about human purpose and the use of time. When has efficiency improved your life in a meaningful way? When has inefficiency been the better way?
(In)Efficiency
The Industrial Revolution may have given us a gazillion useful objects, but it also radically re-shaped our expectations about human purpose and the use of time. When has efficiency improved your life in a meaningful way? When has inefficiency been the better way?
First World Problems
Whether the term is used to put things in perspective or to ironically dismiss the luxuries of privilege, the notion of “first world problems” calls to attention the great economic and cultural differences that exist in our diverse, complex world. How should we approach the problems of our world, whether first, second, third or otherwise?
Let’s Get Together 10
Celebrating ten years of publishing catapult magazine with our annual issue on the gift of community.
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