Can we all stop using the word "vibrant", please.
I have mixed feelings about the film Braveheart but one line that I do like is when Mel Gibson as William Wallace rides out to the parley on the battlefield at Stirling and says "Ah'm goin tae pick a fight". I have waited for a propitious moment to pick this one, fearful of being seen as attacking any particular person who has recently used the word "vibrant" in print (in fact, only today I saw two examples) but I dive in because scarcely a day goes by without seeing something described as vibrant.
Politicians, Bishops, schools, supermarkets, councils, advertising agencies, the local environmental and climate change awareness group, the police, social services, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, nowadays describe themselves, their activities or their "communities" as vibrant.
Are the communities vibrating or quivering in some way?
16 comments:
Thanks for this post, Father. And can I just say what a pleasure it is to read such an edifying and vibrant blog...
...or perhaps not...
;-p
Father: Vibrant doesn't just mean vibrating; but also pulsating and oscillating.
It's a sound analogy to the heartbeat of a community etc: Alive!
YES. THANK YOU for this. For me, "vibrant" has come to connote "enthusiastically heterodox," particularly when applied to anything Church-related. I have a similar reaction to "pastoral."
And can we add 'iconic' to the list, please, unless we are speaking of an icon?
Vibrant is correctly used to mean bright or lively...are you objecting to overuse?
"Vibrant" already comes in at no.32 on the list of Dicta Damnata -
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/06/14/the-banned-list-top-100/
guys ... How are you? I'm good ... appropriate ... train station ...
Along similar lines, it appears that brutal murders and shocking crimes only take place in 'close-knit communities' ...
So, Fr. Finegan, do you have a vibrant community? :P
Did you know that a collection of coffins could be both "bespoke" and "vibrant"? No, nor did I until I heard it on the radio this morning. The collection is currently on display at the Southbank Centre.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22vibrant%20*%20coffins%22%20%22southbank%22
I don't know about vibrating or quivering, Father, but I get the feeling there are some communities that are definitely wobbling. :-)
A variety - indeed, a range of responses amounting to a smorgasbord, is appropriate to your thoughtful contribution.
We must include inclusivity and respond with responsiveness, whilst discerning the way forward fully welcoming a diversity of views in an effective and efficient co-operation in our ecumenical faith journey.
We must seek to involve everybody at the appropriate level in planning and decision-making (subsidiarity). In all this we shall aim to be an example of best practice.
Perhaps you could run a workshop which would explore these concepts in an inter-faith dialogue with other faith communities.
Thus we could be empowered to develop our lay ministry through living, deepening and extending, an enrichment of the values expressed in the context of the existing mission statement of the Bishops of England and Wales. We must endeavour to celebrate a renewed pastoral charism leading to a new and better understanding of the ancient tradition of the 1960s.We must seek to involve everybody at the appropriate level in planning and decision-making (subsidiarity).
In all this we shall aim to be an example of best practice, while spending what is left of our leisure time on blogs attacking uber-traditionalists..Er
Behind the word, isn't there a substantive problem in the overexcited mindset it represents? Happy, smiley, looking good, feeling good...
Yuk!
I agree.
My back massager is "vibrant", not the Church.
Another I can't stand is when someone says " you folks, or folks".
I think of really subpar guitar noise twanging in church when I hear this.
[1]"Vibrant liturgy" hessian/polyester-draped, guitar-strumming/high-pitched caterwalling-accompanied hug-fest
[2]"Vibrant community" - crime-ridden hellhole where civilisation has broken down. Somewhere the person describing it as "vibrant" (e.g. MP, Chief Constable)chooses not to live.
[3] "Vibrant diocese" bereft of Catholic teaching/praxis
I understand that Alex Salmond is proposing to screen 'Braveheart' on the night before his proposed referendum. Having seen the film, I accept that the battle scenes wre good, although the rest was historical tosh. The last fifteen minutes were worth waiting for, at least from an English point of view!
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