Run past the finish line, I was told. Endings are better than beginnings, a wise man said. Finish well, the old saying goes. Problem is, beginnings come much easier to me. Maybe to all of us. When watching actors audition, there is a moment I wait for, look for, anticipate with great hope. It's the …
Thoughtful Creatives, Resonance, and Hospitality
This past weekend was a game-changer. At the end of a pretty bumpy road just outside of Cle Elum sits a place called Chalet Talley, and there I spent a couple of days in the company of dear friends I'd never met before. It began with a ninety minute ride from Seattle with a …
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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 …
Sacred vs. Secular
Here's a question...help me out here: we use the terms "sacred" and "secular" to categorize certain events, phenomenon, and experiences. Skipping the obvious, that these can be helpful categories in distinguishing various lens' by which we see the world, how do you define, and differentiate between, "sacred" and "secular"? Are they helpful distinctions, or should …
To Write for God
Thomas Merton said (and I'm paraphrasing without my source in front of me) to write for yourself is in the end, sickening. To write for others is more noble, but the only way to speak to many, truthfully and well, is to write for God. There's lots to write about. Man of La Mancha opens …
JEFF BERRYMAN 