On Standing
They also serve
“Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power.”
Gregory Corso, from “Power”
Don’t just stand there, do something!
Reformers, uncultured warriors, and terribly reasonable people of all stripes are out in full force these days, and boy do they have something to tell you about.
Of course, to the untrained eye, we at Silver Door could be accused of such meddling. But ours is a much happier enterprise; if a crusade at all, this is one friendly to flaneurs and loafers, comprised not so much of the upwardly or downwardly mobile but by those sensitive souls who despite pretensions to the contrary are more likely to be found ambling about a flea market than conquering institutions.
Slowing down and a cup of tea. An hour by the fountain in spring. A lil’ nap. Would you like to hear a poem? Oh, no? That’s OK. Maybe next week.
Now, this isn’t some wholesale endorsement of sloth and “taking it easy” (I, like most men, am prone to scheming); it’s merely an acceptance of human limitation and weakness. Perhaps as nefarious as the serial reformer is the incessant optimizer. Both of these mad evangelists for anxiety will stop at nothing before they take away your extra cheesy pizza and right to vote.
In our present digitally mediated age of affluence, where frenetic activity is paradoxically wedded to the sedentary, we should strive to follow the royal path.
As the great poet wrote: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
To rise from one’s bed, from one’s chair, can be a little triumph. One stands at prayer in part because to sit, to recline, to lie on one’s bed is a small first step towards sleep, that little daily death where one can’t pray.
In China, there has emerged the “lying flat” online movement/meme, a kind of Diogenes inspired rejection of 72-hour work weeks and the relentless state sanctioned calls to “struggle” for the party’s economic flourishing.
It’s hard to fault rebellion against the machinification of the human person, though as impressed as Alexander may have been with Diogenes, the supine position doesn’t tend to inspire admiration for a reason.
And while the existential situation may seem marginally worse for our contemporaries to the East, we have a roughly equivalent “checking out” among our people, young and otherwise. Whether on Youtube or Tik Tok, we are most often presented with an image of someone from the waist up, talking into the camera. These images are typically taken in while we ourselves are seated, as well.
It is for good reason that during the Divine Liturgy the people are called to “Stand aright and hear the holy Gospel.” There is something quintessentially human about standing. And I don’t just mean “standing around” although there is something to be said for that. But to stand, to arise, particularly after one has fallen or been laid low, is a glorious thing.
And as we hurtle headlong into what appears an increasingly inhuman future, whether that is a cyborg or transhumanist flavored one (or both), the most basic human activities take on more profound and spiritual implications.
Again, I think of Milton’s renowned sonnet:
When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide; “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.”