Thursday, October 29, 2020

I am a millennial. Millennials are defined roughly as the generation born in the 1980s and early 1990s, folks who are now between their mid-20s and just about hitting 40 years old. Much ado has been made about our generation, a group of people who grew up through the dot-com boom, entered the workforce during or shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, and, of course, transitioned seamlessly into the age of smartphones and widespread internet access.

This is not a treatise about how our generation is aggrieved by wars and economic instability, or a complaint about how lazy and entitled we are, although there is probably truth to both of those tropes. No, this is a discussion of the bizarre sense of humor developed and, arguably, perfected, by this "online generation."

Yes, I'm talking about memes. You've surely seen them - pre-fabricated images with text attached, often providing a somewhat sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek comment about anything from dire political struggles to pop-culture SNAFUs. Early memes often included funny pictures of animals, from Grumpy Cat to Socially Awkward Penguin. Nowadays, memes have evolved into complex works of, um, "art" that are actually seriously studied by linguistic and anthropological scholars.

The beauty of memes, besides hopefully providing a chuckle, is the way they rely on symbolism and metaphor. Memes are not taken at face value, but offer humor or commentary based on the underlying meaning of the meme. A popular current example is the "jealous girlfriend meme." In this image, a couple is walking hand in hand. The male partner seems to look longingly at another woman, but his girlfriend has a shocked and affronted expression on her face, annoyed that her partner might have eyes for another woman.

Of course, in addition to being a millennial, I am also a Christian. And I will fully admit, I have a habit of reading my Bible every day, and instantly rethinking of the stories as memes like this one. In my version, the jealous girlfriend is the endlessly jealous God of the Old Testament. The wayward boyfriend, representing the Israelites, looks longingly at a golden calf idol. God is, of course, not pleased. While the true story in Exodus 32 offers a bit more detail, I can't help but chuckle at the meme version, succinctly capturing the feelings of all involved.

Certainly, memes are no replacement for serious scriptural study. However, I have found that pulling these stories into our twenty-first century context helps to shed new light. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of CoViD, I praise God for the value of humor and joy. When I struggle with a tough passage of scripture, sometimes I find a humorous way to portray it. Perhaps this is not the way to write a term paper, but it certainly gives me a much-needed smile!

Erin Richardson Severin