burst of beaden

when i grow up i want to do art like jon klassen. i know you arn't supposed to copy peoples' art but, hell...
these two are not exemplary of his full breadth of talent (go to his site), but i just love what he's doing with them. his work is minimalist, clean and he brilliantly combines words and images with cleverness, playfulness and precision.

eating: an industrial or agricultrual act?

Wendell Berry, amongst many other amazing things, is an intentional sustenance farmer whose essays I've recently fallen in love with. He offers a thoughtful critique of the urban consumer for whom food is an abstract thought. “The industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land,” who has become passive, uncritical and dependent. He goes on to say, "Both eater and eaten are thus in exile from biological reality. And the result is a kind of solitude, unprecedented in human experience, in which the eater may think of eating as, first, a purely commercial transaction between him and a supplier and then as a purely appetitive transaction between him and his food." I look forward to reading some of his poetry and novels. Do you have a favorite Berry poem or novel?

Quotes from "The Pleasures of Eating," in What Are People For? (New York: North Point Press, 1990), 146, 148.
Photo credit: Bryan Schutmaat

recent sylas quotables

"Samuel is my rock and roll, and I am his hero!"

"Dad, when I get out of the bathtub, I can feel my skin coming back on to me!"

(hiding under the bed) "Dad, pray to God that you can find me and I'll pop out!"

"I want to name the baby Avenue."

niños

Variations on Life and Death

Currently, I'm participating in an art show called 'Variations on Life and Death' featuring 3 artists from the Art Institute of Seattle and 10 artists from Mars Hill Graduate School. It is on display for the season of lent at MHGS. The artist reception [which I unfortunately can't attend] is Friday, March 20th from 6:00-8:00pm. I encourage you to swing by, there is some exceptional work on display.

worship in a violent world

one important thing my studies at mhgs have taught me is to read outside of my tradition. i'm finding that more than often i am surprised and benefit greatly from the various perspectives and angles on things. currently i'm reading james allison's undergoing god and was very much drawn in by his second chapter, called "worship in a violent world." it was originally a talk he gave and the full transcript is here if you want to read it (recommended). in the chapter prior, allison does some groundwork to cast a vision of God as "I Am"- a God who is not "over and against" other gods, who is not merely "one of the gods." this removes all anxiousness, competition and violence from his theology, replacing it with an invitation into deep rest, into the being of God. his vision for worship flows out of this: "Christian worship is predicated on the understanding that there is nothing left to achieve." (40) allison contrasts True Worship to the nuremberg ralleys of nazi germany- which in structure and intent look frightenly like most modernday worship services (and this is something he never says flat out, but the similarities are obvious)- and this is a form of worship he calls "dangerous and dehumanizing." these are some quotes that jumped out at me:

• "...Any given liturgical action, act of worship, is something to help us on the way, it is not an end in itself. If you like, it is designed to be learned as a discipline to help us inhabit more fully the creative life story, which we are gradually and peacefully receiving, of leaving the world of 'worship', the world of principalities and powers. Unlike [worship as we have come to know it], it is not designed to take us outside our ordinary life, but to enable us to dwell more freely and creatively within it, a lifelong therapy for distorted desire." (39)

• "Any liturgical act is a staging post in a journey, and should point towards the dwelling within that journey. It is an induction into a more fully inhabited, more conscious, and freer creation of that journey, which is itself the bringing about of the Kingdom of God on earth, not a temporary excision from the journey in order to engage in something ecstatic." (40)

• "When people tell me that they find Mass boring, I want to say to them: it's supposed to be boring, or at least seriously underwhelming. It's a long term education in becoming un-excited, since only that will enable us to dwell in a quiet bliss which doesn't abstract from our present or our surroundings or our neighbour, but which increases our attention, our presence and our appreciation for what is around us. The build up to a sacrifice is exciting, the dwelling in gratitude that the sacrifice has already happened, and that we've been forgiven for and through it is, in terms of excitement, a long drawn-out let-down." (45-46)

• "...if the True Worship of the True God looks like the worship of a god, or if they look more like each other than unlike, then we have fooled ourselves... In short we have been lazy, and settled for more of the same with a different name." (35)

current soundtrack: nostalgia

[lent]

if you are observing lent, please read todd's fantastic post on what it has been for him and his wife to enter the lenten journey under the orthodox church. todd's writting is always personaly engaging and theologically stimulating. thanks for blogging todd.