Staged...

Staged

Theology in the Trenches

By Kathleen Kjolhaug

 

“I could never decorate people’s homes for a living. People live differently than how homes are staged, and I just could never do it.”

That said from a professional home stager. What’s a professional home stager? It’s a person who helps get homes ready to sell. People clear out their clutter and that’s when the staging begins. Handy little towels here, a pretty vase there, a splash of color draped throughout, and a decorative piece hung in sync. Staging makes the person looking for a home, want to buy it.

We used to frame it with words such as making it a cozy living space, but today’s terminology crashes head on with philosophies of old…that being…staging makes it out to be just that…a stage. A performance on stage is where our thoughts run. Acting is another term linked to staging. Playing a role upon the stage is acting. Acting isn’t real, and thus anything linked to staging can imprint upon one as something fake…an act.

However, when we clean up our house for company, is that staging? When we put out fresh towels, is that staging? When we put a smile upon our faces in public when in fowl moods at home, is that staging? When we sound pleasant upon the phone just after speaking a bit gruff to others nearby, is that staging? When putting on clean clothes after a full day’s work in the garden, is that staging?

I suppose it is. Then again, so is fixing up a table to look nice for supper, and that is called presentation. “Presentation is everything,” so they say. So, what’s my point?

Perhaps my point is more in the form of a question. Need we see real life, real time in a crash course upon entering into one’s home? Not really would be my vote, and a little staging today was simply yesterday’s etiquette. It sends a message that we are glad you’re here and because you are, we at least stuffed all of the stuff in the back room for the moment. It’s called atmosphere…ambiance…and many other terms. It’s called getting ready and cleaning up the joint. It’s called walking into a store and having something look so nice that you want to buy it because what you are buying is clean, orderly, and inspirational. You buy it because you want that kind of décor. You want the order that you see displayed upon the shelf.

In the long run…is it important? Perhaps not, but in the short term what we want is to be able to see past the clutter in life so we might dream a dream or two. It’s called inspiration…hope for a potential unleashed that is not yet seen. Hope beckons for just a bit of respite so for a moment…just a moment…all of the crazy mixed up order of things has a place. Call it staging…call it presentation…but what it is…is something that can bring to life...streaming thought beyond the reality of the everyday clutter that seems to abound all around.

You died a messy death Lord. But then they cleaned You up, wrapped You in linen, and laid You in a tomb. It was protocol…and it was far from staged.…far more real than any event possible. Through that, your Holy Spirit continues to bring inspiration so we may have life and have it more abundantly.  Amen.