Lili Krakowski on mon 29 oct 07
Oh, Lee
I think what I said was clear, and I am sorry you misunderstood so much.
Japanese tea bowls are sold and available everywhere. In one
sense.
But the uhr, essential teabowl has a special meaning, a cultural identity
the export product does not have--unless of course it is an actual original
authentic bowl.
I am not learned enough to know whether Zen is or is not a religion.
Because that depends on how religion is defined.
The little I know about the Japanese
concept of tea is from Kakuso Okkura's "Book of Tea." My impression is that
while
certainly tea has a secular aspect--as people just drinking it--it also has
a ceremonial side. It is rather like wine in the West. Drunk with meals,
drunk to celebrate, but also blessed and used in religions ceremonies.
I do not mean to get into a discussion.., here..but I want to make one thing
blindingly clear.
You write: "Why is you Seder dish more American than my
Japanese tea bowl? Can a Somalian or Ethiopian contribute to
American culture? Can a Hmong or Tibetan? Is the only valid culture
in America, culture that comes from Europe? Homey doesn't think
so..."
I never ever intimated, suggested, implied, hinted, and like that that
ANYTHING in
American culture is more American than anything else. Everyone who has set
foot
in this blessed land endowed this country with cultural treasures! And that
applies to
those who were "transported" here, to the slaves, to the refugees, as well
as
to those who came here out of their own free will.
What I said --and I believe--is that certain objects, those associated with
religious or similar rites and rituals have a special meaning outside of
themselves. Someone,
I thought it was Elizabeth, but cannot find the post, said the other day
that a crucifix is made
out of two sticks crossed at a right angle, but that not all sticks crossed
at right angles are crucifixes.
One of the wellsprings of our work I think, is thought, association, memory;
something in our
pre or subconscious that forms out taste, our viewpoint. So when you make a
teabowl
there is a long line of tradition looking over your shoulder, as there is
if I made a Seder platter.
(And, yes, it is a good thing one does not need
to be circumcised to make one. Or Jewish craftswomen would be in bad shape.)
If I meant to buy a lovely little bowl shaped like a Japanese teabowl
I would buy one anywhere. And if I wanted one for tea drunk not as a warm
cuppa' but
as a ceremonial drink I would go to a Japanese potter--live he here, there,
anywhere.
Let me add two random thoughts. Many years ago one of the Black activists,
I think
in fact a Black Panther --dashiki, sandals, Afro and all--took himself to
the part of
Africa his ancestors had been kidnapped from. He felt that he would
be coming home. After a relatively short time he came back home--to the US.
He wrote a moving book about his experience.
And then. Already more recent immigrants have imprinted their cultural
traditions on American culture. They have added their own mark on
their surroundings, and these are permeating into the general culture.
It is not just pizza and tacos and miso and like that--it is far more
and more subtle. And within the framework of religion it is churches
where the service is in Korean and the vestments reflect that culture.
On the Lower East Side of NYC there were many Lutheran Churches.
belonging to German immigrants. Then a fire aboard an
excursion boat --one of those very large ones that go up the Hudson--and
hired
by a church group--decimated the community. The Germans
moved to Yorkville...and the Jewish immigrants moved in.
So identifying Christian symbols were replaced by stars of David, and
like that. In the 1950s and 60s the Jews moved out, and many of these
synagogues were bought by Hispanic Evangelicals,. Out came
mallets and chisels again...As the Lower East Side has become and extension
of the Village, and renamed SoHo some groups have bought back and "restored"
at least one synagogue as an historical monument. THAT I think is
how American culture moves and changes. The same evolution goes on in
public libraries where
once around here there was English/Polish/Italian. And now books in
other languages are moving in....
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
Ottomail on mon 29 oct 07
Lilly.... do you remember The title or author of this book. It sounds
fascinating!
"I think
in fact a Black Panther --dashiki, sandals, Afro and all--took himself to
the part of
Africa his ancestors had been kidnapped from. He felt that he would
be coming home. After a relatively short time he came back home--to the US.
He wrote a moving book about his experience."
Otto
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