On Notice

This is my "On Notice" Board. My sons have turned me on to the Colbert Report. I don't get to watch it much but one of the pieces on the show that has attracted me is the two boards he uses. The first board is the "On Notice" Board and the second one is the "Dead to Me" Board. While they seem self-explanatory enough, let me just say that the first board is those things which are getting under his skin and the second board is for those that he isn't going to even acknowledge their existence any more.

I've been feeling like an "On Notice" Board would come in handy around the house, as we all have things that get under our skin. I could have added many more of course. I could have a board just for theological terms that get under my skin. I could have a board just for the way in which it seems to me that the Christian church wastes the wonderful gifts of the spirit in the lives of the people of our congregations and communities. I could talk about the way the church treats the poor. The way that Christianity and the larger society tends to ignore racism and homophobia all in the interest of being "nice." It's just that it's really difficult to fill all those out on the little bit of room you have with an "On Notice" Board.

But what I like about it best of all is that it is a way in which I can laugh at things that make me all too angry. And that laughter ends up helping. It reminds me of the "minjung theology" from Korean tradition. One of the center pieces of this theology is a making fun of the powers that attempt to rule our lives. David James Duncan writes about it in his book God Laughs & Plays as well when he tells a story which concludes, "Those Lizard People, they think they run everything." That is certainly in the spirit of minjung theology and the concept of han. I hate ever feeling like a victim of the powers of this world or other people who try (deliberately or not so deliberately) to drive me nuts. And this is one of the ways to handle this.

One of the things I really appreciate about Stephen Colbert is his attempt to poke fun at things that make so many of us angry. And in the laughter, hope is revived.

So I offer my list which through the magic of the Internet I was able to upload so that it appears that the Colbert Report list is my own! What's on your list (or who)?