Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302180134
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cody Lowe
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GO AHEAD AND BEAT YOUR DRUMS
It's my job to take people's religious beliefs seriously, and I do. Actually, I did even before it was my job.I respect the effort and thought most people put into the adoption of a system of religious belief - or their rejection of one.
Somewhere a few years ago, however, people got the idea that "spiritual" experiences were always tantamount to "religious" experiences and that they deserved the same kind of deference we give the latter.
We are inundated with the "spiritual." Virtually any kind of experience can be "spiritual." And that's OK with me.
If I want to espouse (as I once did) that a trip to Walt Disney World is a kind of "spiritual" experience, I can. Some people agreed, some recognized that my tongue was in my cheek for part of the article, some could not understand how any "spiritual" person could uphold anything in that crass cacophony of capitalism as "good."
Some just laughed at the idea that anyone could be so naive or silly or stupid to even suggest such a thing - especially in print.
That's also OK with me because I'm in such good company having people laugh at what I consider "spiritual."
I was reminded recently that sometimes it's hard for people not to chuckle or snort or be bewildered when they read about others' "spiritual" experiences as well.
Take, for instance, the "Iron Joan" phenomenon we reported on in this newspaper a couple of weeks ago.
Almost everybody must have heard by now about the book "Iron John" and how author Robert Bly encouraged men to find that suppressed inner "wildman" and release him. Among the ways to get the man out was through drumming. Preferably in the woods, with other men. Drumming brings the primitive out.
The book and its premise came in for plenty of heat, from women especially. "Murphy Brown" was a prime example in the episode where the character took over the men's lodge meeting after berating its inhabitants for looking and acting so silly.
America loved it. We couldn't help it. It just seemed so ludicrous: Men were becoming too feminine so they needed to get naked and drum up a little aggression?
A lot of women doubted it.
Until now.
Now we have women's groups getting into the drumming thing, too. They deny it has anything to do with old Iron John, but it sure sounds a lot like Iron Joan trying to get out.
Among the quotes from the story we ran on women's drumming: "Women [are] discovering drumming as a means of spiritual transformation, stress relief and personal growth. . . . Our culture does not allow women to make noise. . . . Drumming is like something we're not supposed to do, and it feels great. . . . Many of us were afraid. . . . Drumming is about reclaiming and recapturing the feminine divine."
Now it would be PI (politically incorrect) to suggest that Murphy Brown ought to jump on this trend, too.
But I'm going to.
If this was funny when men did it, it ought to be funny when women do it. Murphy could have a field day.
She probably won't.
And that's a shame. By making feminist theology - if that's what drumming is - out-of-bounds for humor opens it up to all sorts of risks. Like being taken too seriously.
If it feels good, loosens up the neck and shoulder muscles, and you want to do it, fine. If you want to theorize and speculate on the "spiritual" explanations of why it feels good, fine. If you want to try to talk others into trying it, fine.
But neither men nor women drummers should get mad if other people laugh. That is how some of the rest of us "reclaim and recapture" the divine.
Cody Lowe reports on issues of religion and ethics for this newspaper.