Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Sam DeFlitch
A Reflection on Nonsense
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to see Bread and Puppet’s “Finished Waiting” tour in Newmarket. Bread and Puppet, founded in the 1960s, is a politically active puppet theater based in Glover, Vermont. They are known for their activism and wide range of shows, from tightly-composed theater pieces to grand outdoor pageants with audience participation.
The “Finished Waiting” performance relied heavily on the repetition of a few stark phrases, among them “when I am finished waiting” and “then I go” and “then I see.” A huge emphasis was placed on sense vs. nonsense—with much of the performance challenging our conventionally-held perceptions of what “makes sense.” Who determines and codifies conventional wisdom? What’s acceptable? Why do strangest, most horrific assumptions—for example, that the threat of mutually-assured destruction deters war—make sense to us?
I’ve been meditating on this sense vs. nonsense concept a lot lately. I’m wondering about the creative potential of nonsense. How can we lean into strange words and ideas to imagine a new world? After all, Joshua Krugman, Bread and Puppet actor, notes that “One of the great advantages of puppet theater is its inherent ridiculousness.”
I think that embrace of the nonsensical, of the ridiculous, can really be a holy act. Earlier this year, I read Josh Tiessen’s essay on “holy weirdness.” In it, he notes that, “Great art doesn’t flourish in a culture of creative and theological homogeneity” and that, while embracing the weirdness of our faith can be disarming, it’s also an imperative. For Tiessen, art that is mysterious, or full of “organic whimsy” or even alarming, can invite us into the fantastic strangeness of our faith. And that, in turn, can open us to the power of the possible.
As we approach Holy Week, I’m inviting myself to lean into this holy weirdness. Look at this empty tomb! Sense tells us there’s a logical explanation. Yet to accept that Christ has truly risen—this is fantastic nonsense, this is creative ridiculousness. This laughs at our assumptions and challenges our conventional wisdom. It’s frightening and strange and, like the Big Face of Bread and Puppet, it stares right at us. I love it very much.