"Since sensationalism, power, and wealth dominate our cultural imaginations, we may not be willing to journey to the ephemeral, as the Japanese poets of old have, to see beauty in the disappearing lines or to see poetry in a drying puddle of water." - Mako Fujimura, Refractions.
100 Things I Know #3 – Sacrifice (Somehow) Is At The Heart of Love
Love is the pursuit of the highest good of and for the other. (It was Thomas Merton’s work that first gave me these words.) This must necessarily come into conflict with our own desires and pursuits. The needs and desires of the other must, at some point, trump our own needs and desires. The …
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100 Things I Know #16 – Symbols Have Force (The Confederate Battle Flag)
Whether it’s the cross of Christ, the Nazi Swastika, the Nike Swoosh, the Confederate Battle Flag, or the LGBT Rainbow, symbols express and capture ideas, movements, events, religions, economic and political forces. Raised symbols become rallying centers for people advocating for a cause, public expressions of shared passion and belief, points of gathering energy for …
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Listening to God
Read the post first, then click the image and listen to the song. It will make more sense... Listening to God is a strange idea. Seven billion people on the planet, all of them living and dying with needs, cries, joys, dances, and wars full of cruelties worthy of front page banner headlines. We …
On Being Overwhelmed
I haven’t been blogging because I haven’t known what to say. I still don’t. There are multiple conversations in culture that demand attention (just cruise your Flipboard for awhile), and to most of them, I simply say this: I don’t know the answers to the questions we’re facing. But not long ago, I read a …
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 …
