‘Mountains and Molehills’ 2024 original. Pencil and pen on paper. 29.7x42cm. Enquire for print queries alanabosgra@gmail.com
I recently jotted a note down in my phone when I was out and about (I usually do that so I can come back later and explore the idea when I have time) and I wrote a brief list of something that bothered me during a social interaction. Here’s the list of the things that I perceived which bothered me:
-Lack of imagination
-Judgement (lack of or unwillingness to understand)
-Close mindedness
-Falseness
I think few things trigger more frustration and existential sadness in me than encountering these things in others. It is alienating and deflating to be around unwarranted judgement..or comments that are based on untruths…or a severe lack of imagination or willingness to understand another persons viewpoint… all of these are pretty much my idea of a bad time (If I hear comments like “Conservatives are all X” or “Progressives are all X” I immediately sense that no serious reflection or nuance will come out of that person’s mouth… No one is “all” anything and people deserve the dignity of being understood, even if you seek to understand and then ultimately disagree with their view). Anyway, after writing this, I thought about the broader cultural moment and broader attitudes particularly Christians (or not even just us- conservatives, and also at this moment, Jews) are facing. I’ve used the concept of mountains (sometimes perhaps large issues and hills to die on) and molehills (smaller less consequential issues) to have a look at these.
I am particularly struggling over ignorant comments I hear in person and on social media (molehills) that I believe are just false and perpetuate untrue stereotypes; but what do you do when challenging that feels like rocking the boat or being disagreeable? How do you respond when the person who may have said those things doesn’t actually have any awareness of the impact of them? I don’t really have answers to my questions yet. Do you let blatant lies go unchecked? Do you wish the person who said them reflected a little more critically on their point of view? Do you wish they realised their ignorance is hurtful? Do you wish there was even a common ground to be able to have that conversation? Do you wish people in some settings you’re in were not so close minded and hostile towards your faith? Do you actually say something? Do you overlook it and recognise their ignorance might also come from their personal experience and maybe even a place of pain? Do you pray for that person, and remember they are allowed the dignity to be wrong? Do you defend what you believe to be true at the cost of social niceties? Or let it slide silently and let it eat you up..? Is it just a little molehill, or does the series of molehills ignored accumulate over time to feel like a mountain? Unfortunately, I have observed that typically, conservative or faith based people tend be less forthright and clear in addressing these tensions and perhaps it is to our own detriment…
What Is Required To Distinguish Between What Is A Mountain And What Is A Molehill?
Discernment. We don’t need to be reactionary to every single comment or attitude in our culture that opposes goodness, truth and beauty (because let’s face it, whatever ideology opposes God also opposes these things too).
We can dislike and disagree fundamentally with the molehills, but we don’t need to lose sleep over them. For example, I am thinking right now of some of the performances in the Paris Olympic opening ceremony that without question were explicit in promoting a fluid and boundary-less sexual ethic..Pagan ancient Greece, anyone? Actually super on brand for the origins of the Olympics. Not only that, but it was also a fairly explicit inversion and mockery of Christian imagery. I find that distasteful, disappointing, unnecessary, predictable, dull, and not beautiful, but it doesn’t need to be the hill I die on. It’s just the natural consequence of valuing ‘inclusion’ (how you very narrowly choose to define that) over the value of beauty (good art is beautiful), truth and goodness. I already know what I value, and the cultural attitudes being promoted in stuff like that doesn’t change what I already know I stand on and why.
Some molehills can be left alone. We just don’t need to be keyboard warriors trying to stomp on every single molehill we come across. If we waste effort kicking over every molehill we see, we become like distracted idiots and are not energised for the proper task before us. We aren’t called to angrily kick over molehills without wisdom. We also just don’t have the time realistically to make every molehill into a mountain.
My drawing presupposes the existence of actual mountains. They are there, regardless of cultural gaslighting that suggests there are no mountains, that it’s a flat perfect landscape, ‘you do you’, there is no good or evil, it’s relative…that gentle lull into apathy. That is just not true. There are serious issues to address and hills to climb. Evil is evil because it hurts people, and people matter and have value. There is a uniquely Judeo-Christian philosophical basis for why we believe in the existence of good and evil and why we therefore recognise the mountains (evils worth standing against).
Mountain climbers have a unique vantage point in that they have perspective. They can factor multiple ideas into their point of view before making sweeping judgements (not to say judgement as a concept is all bad, it’s not; but making right judgement based on a full picture of the landscape is the aim, not just judgment born of prejudice and ignorance).
I’d love to start some reflection and dialogue on this:
what are the mountains people of faith face today, in 2024?
What are the molehills? How do you tell the difference? How do you respond to both of these?
How do you know what to leave and what to face, address, treat as a mountain?
What strengthens you to face the journey you’ve been called to?
What fills you with confidence and hope in the face of maybe many, many mountains?
If you have advice for me I am all ears…
My current thought is to approach the situations that bother me with exactly the opposite of the qualities that bother me eg: remaining curious about someone’s dogmatic point of view… being imaginative about how they came to their ideas… suspending judgement of the person even if I judge an idea (distinguishing between people and ideas) avoiding sweeping stereotypes at all times.. seeking to get to the heart of issues instead of taking offence at what I can see on the surface… continuing to pursue goodness and truth..
Lani x