The preacher said a couple of weeks ago that the sea has always been a symbol of chaos. Last night, I went surfing. Not just for the fun of it. It's time for the annual ramp up toward my January class, that audacious thing having to do with a "Christian Aesthetic", whatever that might …
A Call for Syllabus Ideas
The title of the university class is this: The Arts and Culture: A Christian Aesthetic. It’s in January, is one week long, 8-5 for five days straight, beginning Monday, and there’s a two-three hour final on Friday afternoon. I’ve been teaching this class for ten years, a couple of years on my own, and the …
“Transformation is Possible”
My coaching assignment from three weeks ago was to reflect on what I'd like people to say about me when I die. My report on that reflection is due today, and frankly, though I've put a good bit of time into thinking about it, I don't have it done. It's a funny question, more troublesome …
Making Worlds
We encounter the world through our senses. Light hits the eye’s photoreceptors and the optical information starts its split-second journey toward the visual cortex in the occipital lobe, then on to the frontal cortex, and perception begins. Same with sound, smell, taste, and touch; the various systems involved in each leap into action as stimuli …
Seeing a Master – Andrew Wyeth’s Helga
So we're taking one day a month for spiritual retreat and renewal, and I hadn't gotten to mine yet, so yesterday, I took half a day. I spent the early morning reading from the prophet Isaiah and from Matthew's gospel, then went on to Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, and then to poetry by …
JEFF BERRYMAN 