Of Principles and Particulars

Last night I was at the Festival of Nations, which I haven't been to in years. It was a lot of fun - ate a lot of good food, did a little shopping in the international bazaar, watched plenty of wonderful dancing.

They would project a picture from the representative country on a screen behind and above each group as they danced. Many pictures were rather nondescript scenes of nature or of houses typical of that country, so that even if you'd been to the country you couldn't really say "Oh, that's __________."

Except for the German picture, which was unmistakably Dresden:



Which was cool but a little odd considering Dresden is in Saxony and the dancers were all dressed in traditional Bavarian costumes and were dancing traditional Bavarian folk dances.

It'd be like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band touring in a different country and having a picture of the Minneapolis skyline projected above them as they performed. In principle, same country. In particular, different regional customs and traditions.

Probably stood out to me more than usual because I'm wrapping up a semester in which we've done a lot of thinking about the importance of hearing the other into free speech and paying attention to their complex particularities, not painting people or congregations in overly broad strokes.