Striated versus Smooth Spaces
I
came across a new favourite quote today. “Christ’s commandment contains the
law, but the law does not contain Christ’s commandment. Therefore whoever fulfills
the commandments of Christ implicitly fulfills the commandments of the Law.” [1]
There
is a concept that is helpful for you to understand obedience to the Lord. This
concept is roughly called Striated versus Smooth Spaces. This idea comes to us
from two philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. I owe a personal
gratitude to one of my mentors Dr. Christopher Iwestel Kinman who introduced me to this concept. This concept is
that there are two kinds of spaces in life, smooth and striated. These spaces
are formed by striated and smooth lines.
Being
a prairie boy by heart, the prairies are an excellent example. Naturally, there
are no straight line on the prairies, with perhaps the exception of some
sections that have the horizon as being a straight line. The spaces in the
prairies are all contoured. Or at least they were until the settlers came.
With
the influx of the European came straight lines. This is offered as an example,
not a criticism. Straight lines allowed us to distinguish between the land that
is yours and the land that is mine. Thus, there is value in striated lines.
However, the value of striated lines is very limited. One only has to witness a
prairie storm to realize how limited straight lines are. There have also been
lawsuits over seed from one piece of land being blown to another piece of land.
It does not take long to realize that striated spaces are simply a product of
our imagination.
Likewise
life is full of smooth spaces. Yes, there are some absolutes, such as “Thou
shalt not kill.” Yet, how much violence is done by my considering some lives
are of less value than others? Is this not the basis of exploitation? That the
value of the life of the person who sews my blue jeans is less than mine. I may
not have been the person that directly exploits the worker, but does not my purchasing
those jeans exploit the person? Yes, I may not have murdered the person, but I
have diminished the person and made their life less.
God's desire does not fit well within stiated lines. When I read scripture I can see the hard and fast lines of "Thou shall not!" Yet, consider this rephrasing of Matthew 7.12 “The Law and the Prophets can be summed up in this, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus has moved us in understanding what is asked of us. Thus, my new favourite quote.
This
also works the other way. I consider my Muslim neighbour. Am I not called to
love him or her as myself? Am I not obligated to defend their right to worship
as they see fit as I would defend my Christian neighbour? Am I not obligated to
defend the right of a person to marry another even when I do not approve of
that marriage? Just to provide a different perspective to this, our neighbour’s
to the south did not protect interracial marriages until 1967. While in Canada,
interracial marriages may have never been illegal they did more than raise
eyebrows. In hindsight we can see the repugnace in shunning interracial
marriages. In his teachings.
Christ moved our understanding of obedience from
following a moral code to a deeper expression of love.
Anway, that is my opinion
[1]
Anonymous, Matthew 1 – 13 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; edited by
Manlio Simonetti; Downers Grove, Intervaristy 2001) pg 101.
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