Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

$23k/year tuition folkshttps://twitter.com/UnionSeminary/status/1174000941667880960 …

Tuition aside, this can be a useful contemplative exercise.

People stewing in their own disembodied guilt is not only not useful, it's anti-useful. And in this case, disturbingly performative.

Who says it's disembodied - prayer is usually quite embodied - and why just focus on the guilt? They also mention grief, joy, regret, and sorrow. Is it not good to create a space to reflect on our unhealthy relationship to our ecological substructure?

I say so, I see a general theme there, and no, it's really not good. People who talk to plants in earnest in their own time wind up in hospitals, for good reason. People who do this in groups are playing out a performance of contrition for each other, and now for Twitter, too.

I especially like the dirt spread on the floor, despite the plants being potted decor. I wonder if anyone in the room has ever actually grown a plant that produced something for them.

You are choosing to focus on the performative aspect, which is fair enough, that is part of it. But they are not delusionally talking to plants, they are creating a setting that can evoke an interpersonal and contemplative experience.

I understand why people manufacture these experiences for themselves. There's a lot of social capital to be gained from performative guilt these days, and I'm 0% surprised that people are getting creative in the way they grab for it. They're not delusional, they're just fake.