An Infrastructure of Hospitality

Insights and Reflections from a Weekend with Writers

“When I help you, I feel beautiful.”

This quote is one of the most memorable from a weekend full of memorable comments made by fellow writers at The Habit Writing Retreat. It was made by a grey haired woman who shared her struggle with chronic headaches, telling us that she had to rely on the helping hands of this community of writers to bring her to the retreat. While her suffering has led to a a thankful posture of reception, she noted that giving was also very important to her. When someone is sheepish or hesitant to accept her gift, she is denied the opportunity of feeling “beautiful.” Accepting the gift of another is also a gift to the giver.

This profound comment was made in the context of a conversation instigated by Jonathan Roger’s lecture on hospitality and writing. Just as we must give and receive hospitality to enter into embodied community, we must also do this to truly engage with the arts (both as creator as receiver).

The conversation around hospitality, humanity, faith, and art reminded me of a story I once heard Isaac Wardell (director of the Porter’s Gate Worship Project) tell about medieval Benedictine monasteries. The practice of hospitality at the entrance of a sixth century Benedictine monastery would be considered very subversive–and highly unsafe–in twenty-first century America. According to the Rule of St. Benedict, each monastery was to have a porter stationed at the front whose sole vocation was the welcoming of guests. The porter was not just a doorman; his job was to welcome Christ Himself when he came to visit. According to the Rule of Saint Benedict, “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, ‘I came as a guest, and you received Me’ (Matt. 25:35). And to all let due honor be shown, especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims.” The Benedictine porter was commanded to be humble, with “the head bowed or the whole body prostrated on the ground in adoration of Christ, who indeed is received in their persons.”All guests should be treated with dignity, respect, and kindness-- but especially “in the reception of the poor and of pilgrims the greatest care and solicitude should be shown, because it is especially in them that Christ is received”.

This porter was given a gift in the form of a job focused solely on being attentive to the truth that:

…Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.

This glorious Hopkins poem (which happens to be my favorite) is a reminder that both giving and receiving attention can be sacred acts. I was fascinated to learn this weekend from Jonathan Rogers that the English words “guest” and “host” are derived from the same Proto-Indo-European root word, “ghos-ti” which means “stranger, guest, host.” There is an inherent etymological connectedness between giving and receiving. Both can be welcome gifts–or acts of “hostility.”

Jonathan then related the to the Camino de Santiago, a network of pilgrim trails in NorthWestern Spain. This popular pilgrimage to the shrine of James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has been in place since the ninth century, but in early days, the routes could be very dangerous. In the hundreds of years since the first pilgrims began their treacherous journeys, the trails have transformed into spaces of welcome, refreshment, and replenishment for the sojourners. Jonathan called this an “infrastructure of hospitality,”and it is the very reason that the pilgrimages to the sacred site are still possible.

One of the retreat challenges was to think about how to implement an “infrastructure of hospitality” in our writing lives. In thinking about this, I remembered an interview with Canadian author and artist, Douglas Coupland, that I read when trawling through his archives at the UBC library in Vancouver. Coupland was an advisor to Steven Spielberg’s films AI and Minority Report because he has such an insight into images of the future in his work. In the interview, a reporter asked Coupland what it was like to work with Spielberg. Coupland’s response focused solely on Spielberg’s intense curiosity, which Coupland sees as the mark of a great artist.

Coupland continued by saying that any “artist” who seems aloof or as if he/she has already arrived is just a “hack” because it is curiosity that drives an artist.

Please note that I cannot locate the interview discussed above— so I am just paraphrasing from memory! It is not online; I saw a hardcopy in Coupland’s archives. If you would like to read more about Coupland’s brilliance, you can read my interview with him in Image Journal.

I love the idea that “curiosity” is what should drive any artist. This curiosity is closely connected with hospitality because you must be humble to be curious. If you are curious, you admit what you do not know. You take on a posture of childlike wonder, waiting to receive. I witnessed this genuine curiosity myself on my first visit to interview Douglas Coupland in his home. I told him how nervous I was (I had spent many years of my life writing on his work–which was the subject of my dissertation!), and he attempted to put me at ease. I noticed that he asked me almost as many questions as I asked him. And he TOOK NOTES. When I talked about the concept of post-secularism, he was fascinated and asked me for the names of some books on the topic. During another, more casual, visit, he asked me, “Do your students wear scrunchies? Have they made a comeback"?”. The point was that he was curious, and his curiosity was genuine. It was a gift to me as it enabled me to give even as I was taking. I now see that the “infrastructure of hospitality” is the way of the true artist, the lifelong learner with eyes full of wonder and curiosity.

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Speaking of childlike wonder, I am excited to soon discuss Dekalog I, directed by Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieślowski, with you all. The first live discussion for my “Theology & Philosophy in Art” class is on Saturday, May 24 at 2 pm ET. More info soon. On Monday, Feb. 19, I will share the first post for the course, which will include a recorded video discussion with Dr. Joe Kickasola, author of Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: the Liminal Image.

Please remember that this course and related posts are for paid subscribers. I hope you join us! I am excited to announce that Dr. Jemar Tisby, Rev. Tyler Burns, Professor Jeffery Overstreet, and others will be joining some of our conversations.

If you would like to start watching the course films, you can find the list HERE.

As always, thanks for reading!