the in-between

I, like most people, attempt to make sense of the world through forms of "splitting." We like black and white thinking, gray is uncomfortable. Often, children use splitting as a defense mechanism: "When a two year old looks at the world, they see things as going entirely their way, or as a disaster. Mom is here, and feeding me, so she must be good. Mom is in the other room, she therefore doesn't exist (object constancy) so she has abandoned me, and is bad."*
This kinetic dualism we juggle justifies our realities- if I want to feel good about one decision, I have to make all other options bad. If my religion is right, all others are wrong. If my country's form of government is the best, all others are unacceptable. Essentially, splitting is the inability to stay in the "in-between" without an anxiety that paralyzes us.
Good Bye Lenin! is a film that doesn't let you split- I'll try not to spoil the plot. For me, the message of the film was that every victory contains a loss. Life behind the "Iron Curtain" wasn't ALL-bad and the "freedom" to "westernize" wasn't ALL-good. Wherever people end up living, they always create beauty and meaning. When the structure for that lifestyle changes, often much of the circumstantial beauty and meaning disappears. The passing of that regime was filled with ambivalence: it's nice to be able to travel and eat Burger King, but the nostalgia for life as it was is also present.
All of this made me wonder how much psychological splitting our nation had to do feel justified in our decision to launch a "pre-emptive strike" against a "potential threat." It's difficult to harm another when we are fully conscious of their dignity and depravity. It's easy when they are ALL-bad. Further, what routines, lifestyles, habits of being and traditions are no longer for some people. How much beauty and meaning had been created behind that "Iron Curtain" that is now lost forever?
But I guess it doesn't matter, we've given them "democracy"...

arbol de vida

inspired by the conversation here- i love the idea of an image being birthed out of dialog around another image. thanks for helping me create with your comments!

this piece now hangs in the warm canadian home of my brother-in-law's wife's parents.

oh come oh come emmanuel

stream sufjan's 5 christmas albums (have your self a folky folky christmas...)
great santa post by chuck (low art? poor taste? dying myth?)
old post by aaron that needs more conversation (santa and western materialism)
what does christmas mean today?
as the president wants to boost the military presence in iraq?
in the wake of aids awareness day...
the call to each of us to bear christ is upon us,
as we embody the incarnation anew in this broken world.
peace on earth = relationality restored.

predestination and omnipotence

I'm reading a book called "the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism," written by German economist/sociologist Max Weber in approximately 1905. It's a story about theological shifts changing the world forever...
Weber goes back to Calvin in the 16th century and describes his Protestantism as founded upon two theological pillars: a view of God as primarily transcendent and all powerful, and a view of soteriology emphasizing predestination and divine election. The combination of these two concepts, says Weber, led logically to "massive fatalism, loneliness, and anxiety among the faithful." Reformulations of Calvin's teachings in the next century led believers to eventually "uphold an ethos of 'world mastery' and to orient their entire lives toward work and material success."
"God desired action in strict conformity with His commandments and laws. Yet virtuous conduct, in light of the sinful character of the human species, proved difficult. Indeed, taming all wants and physical desires, and then orienting life in a consistent fashion to His laws, required heroic efforts of discipline."
"If they proved capable of mastering their selfish desires and leading righteous, dignified lives oriented unequivocally to God's commandments, then they could assume that the capacity to do so had been in fact bestowed upon them by their deity, who after all was omniscient and all-powerful."
If they could achieve this lifestyle, the crucial question- "am I among the saved?" - would be answered affirmatively and thus "held in check the tremendous anxiety and fatalism that resulted logically from the doctrine of predestination. Simultaneously, this gave birth to a frame of mind that Weber saw as specifically Puritan: the tempered, dispassionate, and restrained disposition that completely tamed the self and lead to a systematic rationalization of life."
Such was the fodder out of which was born the religion that "baptized" work and "idolized" vocation making all other areas of life secondary or trivial. This Protestant work ethic would be the mindset of the founding fathers of this country and eventually birth the vision of the "American Dream" out of which would come the United States of Capitalism.
Theology is dangerous.

exhibit invite

Manger Art is an annual Art Show to benefit the two-thirds world. This year the focus is on the invisible children and the exhibit will be up and for sale for three months (December 16-March 10) at The Levi Room, 23302 56TH Ave W, Mountlake Ter, WA. This morning I dropped of my contributions which will hang amidst an array of fantastic work by other local artists. If you can make it, swing by on the opening night (Dec. 16th @ 6pm) for live music and inspiring visuals.

the sounds of fall 2006...

this was the soundtrack: David Bazan: Fewer Moving Parts... Damien Jurado: Now That I'm In Your Shadow... The Album Leaf: Into the Blue Again... Cat Power: The Greatest... The Decemberists: The Crain Wife... Jose Gonzalez: Veneer... M Ward: Post-War... Tungg: Mother's Daughters... Sigur Ros: Takk... my gratitude goes out to people who make beautiful music.

come

yesterday was a global awareness day for AIDS. tomorrow is the first Sunday of the Advent season which is a period marked by waiting, longing and hope for the Messiah. that they would be so near and that the one would come before the other is disruptive and seems theologically important.