holy crap.
how am i supposed to study and read and write papers when things like this are happening outside? honestly.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005
weather report
Tomorrow: Plentiful sunshine. High 58F. Winds light and variable.
got that? plentiful. boo yah.
got that? plentiful. boo yah.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
singing badly at the top of my lungs
last night we had a little reunion with my regent community group from last year.
songs karaoked (among many, but these were the best):
1. hey ya, outkast - which is pretty damn hard
2. we built this city, starship
3. livin' on a prayer, bon jovi
4. wannabe, spice girls
5. here i go again on my own, whitesnake
6. all group finale songs: bohemian rhapsody, queen and we didn't start the
fire, billy joel
(we got a perfect score of 100)
favorite lyric: "Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember, We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll"
if you come to vancouver, you too, could do this (unless your're in a rock band, so the excitement of karoke would escape you). and then have a wicked good hedgehog ice cream pie afterward. and hang out with me. i'm going to lose my voice - which is exactly how i sounded for the entire ponderosa summer.
songs karaoked (among many, but these were the best):
1. hey ya, outkast - which is pretty damn hard
2. we built this city, starship
3. livin' on a prayer, bon jovi
4. wannabe, spice girls
5. here i go again on my own, whitesnake
6. all group finale songs: bohemian rhapsody, queen and we didn't start the
fire, billy joel
(we got a perfect score of 100)
favorite lyric: "Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember, We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll"
if you come to vancouver, you too, could do this (unless your're in a rock band, so the excitement of karoke would escape you). and then have a wicked good hedgehog ice cream pie afterward. and hang out with me. i'm going to lose my voice - which is exactly how i sounded for the entire ponderosa summer.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
vacant landscape
the trees are bursting into bloom here and several of my friends are sniffling their way through allergy attacks. spring is here. and to my feeling, about 3 weeks too early. but i'm not complaining. i'll do that in august when everything has the potential to be kindling. i love seeing the trees change though, to check the new growth as i walk down my street to the bus stop.
we had a particularly moving chapel this past tuesday, as part of regent's 2 week "offering of the arts" celebration. for one of the songs we sang, photographs taken by a student were on the power point along with the lyrics.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of of hell thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shaves of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O come, Thou Lord of mightÂ
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times did'st give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
(Rev. Isaac Watts)
Seeing these photos along with these familiar lyrics brought me close to tears. amazing that the combination of these too things alone should elicit such a strong reaction, when alone it probably would not have been the case. still mulling my feelings over.
so far what i've got is this ... i was overcome with longing. longing for Jesus to return, longing for things to be made right, longing to experience redemption, longing to see justice done, longing for healing, longing for more, longing for God. as i have studied here, as i have grown, i bump up against this feeling and other related ones - brokenness, tension, sadness and so on. to put it simply ... I WANT MORE. not in the lame consumer wish-i-had-a-million-bucks kind of way. but more in the way of knowing that God created us for more than this - to feel more, to live more ... just more. i am wary of spirituality that makes it seem that you can be utterly satisfied here on earth right now, on your own power. and the longing, the desire for this to happen for the world just about makes me weep sometimes.
it's hard to feel this way. yet there is hope in it, there is comfort somehow. because it WILL happen someday. just like after every long hard winter, there is a spring, and it is beautiful.
hm. that's what i've though through so far, anyway. thoughts, anyone?
i'm fishin' for comments here. click on the comments thing in the corner and leave me some love.
we had a particularly moving chapel this past tuesday, as part of regent's 2 week "offering of the arts" celebration. for one of the songs we sang, photographs taken by a student were on the power point along with the lyrics.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of of hell thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shaves of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O come, Thou Lord of mightÂ
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times did'st give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
(Rev. Isaac Watts)
Seeing these photos along with these familiar lyrics brought me close to tears. amazing that the combination of these too things alone should elicit such a strong reaction, when alone it probably would not have been the case. still mulling my feelings over.
so far what i've got is this ... i was overcome with longing. longing for Jesus to return, longing for things to be made right, longing to experience redemption, longing to see justice done, longing for healing, longing for more, longing for God. as i have studied here, as i have grown, i bump up against this feeling and other related ones - brokenness, tension, sadness and so on. to put it simply ... I WANT MORE. not in the lame consumer wish-i-had-a-million-bucks kind of way. but more in the way of knowing that God created us for more than this - to feel more, to live more ... just more. i am wary of spirituality that makes it seem that you can be utterly satisfied here on earth right now, on your own power. and the longing, the desire for this to happen for the world just about makes me weep sometimes.
it's hard to feel this way. yet there is hope in it, there is comfort somehow. because it WILL happen someday. just like after every long hard winter, there is a spring, and it is beautiful.
hm. that's what i've though through so far, anyway. thoughts, anyone?
i'm fishin' for comments here. click on the comments thing in the corner and leave me some love.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
tired
i seem to have moved out of my post-vacation depression. papers, projects, reading, and tests loom, but i find myself immune to the stress. or perhaps apathetic. check back in a few weeks, i'm sure i'll be redlining then.
i spent most of the week working at the well. it's the coffeeshop on campus that gives me a really meager income. covers groceries and a beer here and there. if i don't feel like studying, i may as well be doing something else productive.
played another round of ultimate frisbee. my team remains undefeated, although this time around i didn't really contribute to the game. but as i've said before, i do enjoy being with friends and getting some exercise and getting muddy.
made a mexican lunch for some friends. turned out all right, i think. a good way to celebrate sabbath, a meal with friends. i crammed 8 people into my little basement apartment. i look forward to hosting again sometime.
i spent most of the week working at the well. it's the coffeeshop on campus that gives me a really meager income. covers groceries and a beer here and there. if i don't feel like studying, i may as well be doing something else productive.
played another round of ultimate frisbee. my team remains undefeated, although this time around i didn't really contribute to the game. but as i've said before, i do enjoy being with friends and getting some exercise and getting muddy.
made a mexican lunch for some friends. turned out all right, i think. a good way to celebrate sabbath, a meal with friends. i crammed 8 people into my little basement apartment. i look forward to hosting again sometime.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
frickin' huge
the human head weighs 8 pounds.
our cat bosco weighs 18 pounds.
she is the linebacker of cats. correction: she is the offensive lineman of cats, the big fat guy that somehow ends up with the fumbled football and rumbles in for a touchdown.
a little change of pace from my heavy thoughts of late.
our cat bosco weighs 18 pounds.
she is the linebacker of cats. correction: she is the offensive lineman of cats, the big fat guy that somehow ends up with the fumbled football and rumbles in for a touchdown.
a little change of pace from my heavy thoughts of late.
labyrinthine thoughts
while i was home, i made some time to go to grace cathedral in San Francisco (aka "the City" how those that live in the Bay area refer to SF). walked the labyrinth there. i guess it's one of those old traditions that has been getting renewed attention lately.
here's a bit of an explanation, according to the website (http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/)
Walking the Labyrinths at Grace Cathedral
The Labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint, found in all religious traditions in various forms around the world. By walking a replica of the Chartres labyrinth, laid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France around 1220, we are rediscovering a long-forgotten mystical tradition that is insisting to be reborn.
The labyrinth has only one path so there are no tricks to it and no dead ends. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives. It touches our sorrows and releases our joys. Walk it with an open mind and an open heart.
There are three stages of the walk:
Purgation (Releasing) ~ A releasing, a letting go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and distractions. A time to open the heart and quiet the mind.
Illumination (Receiving) ~ When you reach the center, stay there as long as you like. It is a place of meditation and prayer. Receive what is there for you to receive.
Union (Returning) ~ As you leave, following the same path out of the center as you came in, you enter the third stage, which is joining God, your Higher Power, or the healing forces at work in the world. Each time you walk the labyrinth you become more empowered to find and do the work you feel your soul reaching for.
i enjoyed the experience, though my brother was waiting for me so i didn't take as much time as i would have liked to. my life has been lacking times of pause lately.
the labyrinth reflects the inward/outward journey of life. as we go inward, in ourselves, which as i have been learning in school lately, also a journey upward, a reaching out to God. this direction in spirituality then enables us to go outward in the world.
the last few years of my life have been one of inward exploration, a growing understanding of myself, and who i am in God. and in turn this growth goes outward from me to those with whom i am in relationship.
to attempt to do life without one or the other of these actions doesn't work. leads to isolation or burnout. he's the True Vine. apart from him we can do nothing, be nothing, are nothing.
here's a bit of an explanation, according to the website (http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/)
Walking the Labyrinths at Grace Cathedral
The Labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint, found in all religious traditions in various forms around the world. By walking a replica of the Chartres labyrinth, laid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France around 1220, we are rediscovering a long-forgotten mystical tradition that is insisting to be reborn.
The labyrinth has only one path so there are no tricks to it and no dead ends. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives. It touches our sorrows and releases our joys. Walk it with an open mind and an open heart.
There are three stages of the walk:
Purgation (Releasing) ~ A releasing, a letting go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and distractions. A time to open the heart and quiet the mind.
Illumination (Receiving) ~ When you reach the center, stay there as long as you like. It is a place of meditation and prayer. Receive what is there for you to receive.
Union (Returning) ~ As you leave, following the same path out of the center as you came in, you enter the third stage, which is joining God, your Higher Power, or the healing forces at work in the world. Each time you walk the labyrinth you become more empowered to find and do the work you feel your soul reaching for.
i enjoyed the experience, though my brother was waiting for me so i didn't take as much time as i would have liked to. my life has been lacking times of pause lately.
the labyrinth reflects the inward/outward journey of life. as we go inward, in ourselves, which as i have been learning in school lately, also a journey upward, a reaching out to God. this direction in spirituality then enables us to go outward in the world.
the last few years of my life have been one of inward exploration, a growing understanding of myself, and who i am in God. and in turn this growth goes outward from me to those with whom i am in relationship.
to attempt to do life without one or the other of these actions doesn't work. leads to isolation or burnout. he's the True Vine. apart from him we can do nothing, be nothing, are nothing.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
a general state of ennui
perhaps my post yesterday seemed overly depressing. i was just mulling things over that have concerned me lately. it's not that i'm giving up on old friendships. i do treasure the ones that i have, even people that i haven't seen in forever. you can't go through life alone, you know? in fact, i'd go so far as to say that friends are really what i am most excited about in my life. which sounds incredibly cheesy, and who would really disagree with me anyway on that statement?
it just gets messy and hard sometimes. and you sometimes wonder if you have to continue in friendship when it's like that. sometimes it's good to stay in it an work it out and sometimes it's better to bail (or more accurately, there isn't really anything left of the relationship). the horns of a dilemma. and sometimes, friendship is more beautiful and amazing and easy. i just gotta scratch my head over the great variety, nuance and complexity in human interactions. we are strange creatures.
my reading break is almost over. i seem to have lost the motivation i had before i went home. so much for staying on top of things. i am ridden with guilt. well, kind of ridden. maybe half-ridden. at least i've been having fun.
today i played ultimate frisbee. i'm on an intramural team. fun times. sometimes it's just good to get outside, run around and break a sweat.
it just gets messy and hard sometimes. and you sometimes wonder if you have to continue in friendship when it's like that. sometimes it's good to stay in it an work it out and sometimes it's better to bail (or more accurately, there isn't really anything left of the relationship). the horns of a dilemma. and sometimes, friendship is more beautiful and amazing and easy. i just gotta scratch my head over the great variety, nuance and complexity in human interactions. we are strange creatures.
my reading break is almost over. i seem to have lost the motivation i had before i went home. so much for staying on top of things. i am ridden with guilt. well, kind of ridden. maybe half-ridden. at least i've been having fun.
today i played ultimate frisbee. i'm on an intramural team. fun times. sometimes it's just good to get outside, run around and break a sweat.
Friday, February 25, 2005
vacation lag
back in canada. strangely, it is sunnier here than it was in california. it rained half the time i was there, to my mild disappointment. somehow it is still brighter there when it's raining than when it is raining here. i don't get it.
after my late night writing the book review, i did very little school work. at first i felt guilty but then gave up on that and decided to just enjoy being home. enjoying myself at home involves hanging out with friends and a lot of eating. i just get so excited to eat at my old haunts and if the meal is with an old friend, so much the better. there's always the tension of wanting to have quality time with friends and overplanning and overextending myself. it's hard because there are a lot of people that i love dearly and it's just not humanly possible to see all of them. i'm lucky, in a way, to have so many friends.
another difficulty i have been considering lately is just how to maintain friendships over time. i have enough trouble keeping track of my friends here and i live in the same city as them and share the same small (1 building campus). we'll run into each other sooner or later, you know? not so with friends who are farther away.
when you take into account how we all are constantly changing and growing, relationships will be changing and growing. being with a friend that you feel comfortable around - it may not always be this way. my analogy right now is that we change, like computer software versions (i hate that i'm drawing this connection with computers but roll with it), 2.0, 3.0, and so on. and if we haven't talked in a while, we think we're still dealling with friend 2.0, when they're really version 8.0. weirdness ensues. i think this happens all the time, even to married people who see each other everyday. what the heck do you do with that? sometimes i think human interactions are amazingly simple and then amazingly complex at the same time. and it is where we experience grace and love and mercy.
after my late night writing the book review, i did very little school work. at first i felt guilty but then gave up on that and decided to just enjoy being home. enjoying myself at home involves hanging out with friends and a lot of eating. i just get so excited to eat at my old haunts and if the meal is with an old friend, so much the better. there's always the tension of wanting to have quality time with friends and overplanning and overextending myself. it's hard because there are a lot of people that i love dearly and it's just not humanly possible to see all of them. i'm lucky, in a way, to have so many friends.
another difficulty i have been considering lately is just how to maintain friendships over time. i have enough trouble keeping track of my friends here and i live in the same city as them and share the same small (1 building campus). we'll run into each other sooner or later, you know? not so with friends who are farther away.
when you take into account how we all are constantly changing and growing, relationships will be changing and growing. being with a friend that you feel comfortable around - it may not always be this way. my analogy right now is that we change, like computer software versions (i hate that i'm drawing this connection with computers but roll with it), 2.0, 3.0, and so on. and if we haven't talked in a while, we think we're still dealling with friend 2.0, when they're really version 8.0. weirdness ensues. i think this happens all the time, even to married people who see each other everyday. what the heck do you do with that? sometimes i think human interactions are amazingly simple and then amazingly complex at the same time. and it is where we experience grace and love and mercy.
Friday, February 18, 2005
efficiency - who needs it?
home in california. just finished a short book review for my historical roots of evangelical spirituality class. a bit delerious now, but i thought i'd let you in on my creative process...
7:30 sit down at computer
7:30-8:30 check email, surf web, chat with friends
8:30-9 begin to write paper, while watching "she's all that on the tv behind me (tricky, but it can be done)
9-9:15 celebrate writing 2 paragraphs by polishing off the last of the chocolate malted crunch ice cream i found in the fridge (the joy of being home and with a fully stocked fridge)
9:15-10 write while channel surfing
10-10:30 the simpsons
10:30-11 more channel surfing (i don't have a tv at school, this is quite exciting, it's like i'm amish and have come to the big city)
11-1 begin writing in earnest
1 brother comes home
1:15 brother and i eat a tombstone pizza
2:15 finish paper while listening to the garden state soundtrack, email paper to friend to turn in at school for me
3 wonder why i'm still up and feeling faintly gross at eating a pepperoni pizza now
good to be home. raining though. but much warmer than vancouver.
burrito count: 1, immediately after getting picked up from the airport. cactus taqueria in the SF castro district, bitchin' salsa
7:30 sit down at computer
7:30-8:30 check email, surf web, chat with friends
8:30-9 begin to write paper, while watching "she's all that on the tv behind me (tricky, but it can be done)
9-9:15 celebrate writing 2 paragraphs by polishing off the last of the chocolate malted crunch ice cream i found in the fridge (the joy of being home and with a fully stocked fridge)
9:15-10 write while channel surfing
10-10:30 the simpsons
10:30-11 more channel surfing (i don't have a tv at school, this is quite exciting, it's like i'm amish and have come to the big city)
11-1 begin writing in earnest
1 brother comes home
1:15 brother and i eat a tombstone pizza
2:15 finish paper while listening to the garden state soundtrack, email paper to friend to turn in at school for me
3 wonder why i'm still up and feeling faintly gross at eating a pepperoni pizza now
good to be home. raining though. but much warmer than vancouver.
burrito count: 1, immediately after getting picked up from the airport. cactus taqueria in the SF castro district, bitchin' salsa
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
procrastination
check this out:
http://gangstaname.com/pirate_name.php
i know there are lots more different name generators out there. but i just ran across this one and it has a few different genres. there's significant other pet names too, but what's the point of that if you don't have a significant other to do that for you in the first place? also there's taxi driver, but i decided that it was a bit racist and ignorant. the mafia one kind of bites.
anyway, here are my results:
pirate name - Ambiguous Joan Blythe
gangsta name - Secret Bitch Ass
this one made me and my friend sara laugh really hard. the hell? this is the worst gangsta name i have ever heard. i would be the one that would get beat up by all the other gangstas.
okay, i will now go write a book review concerning the rise of evangelicalism. i love the different facets of my life.
http://gangstaname.com/pirate_name.php
i know there are lots more different name generators out there. but i just ran across this one and it has a few different genres. there's significant other pet names too, but what's the point of that if you don't have a significant other to do that for you in the first place? also there's taxi driver, but i decided that it was a bit racist and ignorant. the mafia one kind of bites.
anyway, here are my results:
pirate name - Ambiguous Joan Blythe
gangsta name - Secret Bitch Ass
this one made me and my friend sara laugh really hard. the hell? this is the worst gangsta name i have ever heard. i would be the one that would get beat up by all the other gangstas.
okay, i will now go write a book review concerning the rise of evangelicalism. i love the different facets of my life.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
sunshiney days
it's weird to be so emotionally ruled by the weather. it's been sunny for the past week and a half and i am happy to be alive. of course it's also frickin' cold, but i'll take that to be able to see that things are not shaded grey or shrouded in half-darkness. spring is coming, i can feel it.
have lots to do before i take off for home on thursday, but blogging just seemed like an appropriate way to be in denial of my workload. rough outline for a research paper - not a hard thing to do, but hard to get organize my thoughts. and also a book review - which will be easy enough when i get around to it. ugh.
on other levels... been considering the impassible/unchanging nature of God. we accept this to be true on some level i think, yet what to do with the fact that he became incarnate and also is eternally branded by the scars he suffered to save us? did he change? my profs say yes, knowing that this is somewhat heretical to say. i think i agree with them. fascinating.
have lots to do before i take off for home on thursday, but blogging just seemed like an appropriate way to be in denial of my workload. rough outline for a research paper - not a hard thing to do, but hard to get organize my thoughts. and also a book review - which will be easy enough when i get around to it. ugh.
on other levels... been considering the impassible/unchanging nature of God. we accept this to be true on some level i think, yet what to do with the fact that he became incarnate and also is eternally branded by the scars he suffered to save us? did he change? my profs say yes, knowing that this is somewhat heretical to say. i think i agree with them. fascinating.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
some witty title that i can't come up with right now because my brain is full
in less than a week i will be home for a friend's wedding and hanging out a little bit. and eating burritos. tacos. cuisine of the mexican variety.
the other night i went to a mexican food place for this same friend who is getting married because it was her birthday (she's having a big month). it was so so. they only gave the first round of chips and salsa for free. if you wanted more, they'd charge you. unbelievable.
in the library to do some research. reading lots of good stuff about the church (for my class called "re-evangelization of the first world church" or something like that - i prefer to call it em-powering the church for world domination"). we're examining how church is done these days, and the identity of the church (which is in crisis, but then again we're always in crisis. my prof said, "we're always living in the best of times and the worst of times.").
the other class i am doing tons of reading for is "historical roots of evangelical spirituality." that's a long name too, for which i have not come up with a witty nickname. the two classes are overlapping nicely with each other. been reading a lot of john wesley, george whitefield and this week it's jonathan edwards. they were really church fathers for the evangelical church in north america, in many good ways, and it appears in dysfunctional ways. just like biological parents.
i want my new ibook. this person i am dealing with now in apple customer relations is kind of an ass. not outrightly so, because then i could confront him and do an outraged customer thing, but more in a sly, i know more than you about this auto-mechanic kind of way. i realize now how attached i am to technology, and it somewhat disturbs me.
well... off to research stuff. i've been in grad school for 5 semesters now and still feel like i'm wandering around the library without really knowing what to do.
the other night i went to a mexican food place for this same friend who is getting married because it was her birthday (she's having a big month). it was so so. they only gave the first round of chips and salsa for free. if you wanted more, they'd charge you. unbelievable.
in the library to do some research. reading lots of good stuff about the church (for my class called "re-evangelization of the first world church" or something like that - i prefer to call it em-powering the church for world domination"). we're examining how church is done these days, and the identity of the church (which is in crisis, but then again we're always in crisis. my prof said, "we're always living in the best of times and the worst of times.").
the other class i am doing tons of reading for is "historical roots of evangelical spirituality." that's a long name too, for which i have not come up with a witty nickname. the two classes are overlapping nicely with each other. been reading a lot of john wesley, george whitefield and this week it's jonathan edwards. they were really church fathers for the evangelical church in north america, in many good ways, and it appears in dysfunctional ways. just like biological parents.
i want my new ibook. this person i am dealing with now in apple customer relations is kind of an ass. not outrightly so, because then i could confront him and do an outraged customer thing, but more in a sly, i know more than you about this auto-mechanic kind of way. i realize now how attached i am to technology, and it somewhat disturbs me.
well... off to research stuff. i've been in grad school for 5 semesters now and still feel like i'm wandering around the library without really knowing what to do.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
new ibook
haven't posted in a while because my old ibook has broken down again. i called apple and complained because this is the 4th time that my logic board has given me problems. they were very helpful and are replacing my ibook G3 with a new ibook G4 that baby on the right there. for free. nice.
it's a pretty sweet deal, i get a major upgrade in computer quality. hopefully, they'll get it to me soon. it puts a bit of a crimp in my studies, and my emailing and posting and general procrastination.
entering the fifth week of our twelve-week semester. time is flying by. so much good information to absorb and sift through. will post some of these thoughts soon.
it is sunny here today! i'd forgotten how blue the sky is.
it's a pretty sweet deal, i get a major upgrade in computer quality. hopefully, they'll get it to me soon. it puts a bit of a crimp in my studies, and my emailing and posting and general procrastination.
entering the fifth week of our twelve-week semester. time is flying by. so much good information to absorb and sift through. will post some of these thoughts soon.
it is sunny here today! i'd forgotten how blue the sky is.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
drawn into eternity
one of the classes i'm taking this semester is called christian imagination. i don't know exactly how to describe the class this is what it says on the syllabus:
"Our intention in this class is to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the Christian Gospel and the human imagination: that is, all of those ways of expression and communication which depend primarily on images. Imagesâ do not refer only to the visual, but to any meaning-full appeal to the senses. So another name for the course might be "Christian aesthetics": we are concerned not only with "the arts", but with the life of the senses generally, and how it relates to our life in Christ. (The opposite of "aesthetic" is not "rational" or "logical": it is rather "an-aesthetic"). Any Christian who lives in and through a body is encouraged to take the course."
anyway, we're focusing on art, on creating, and what that has to do with our faith, with God, with his incarnation. Christian aesthetics. it's been pretty cool so far. i'm thinking it will encourage my creativity and writing.
last night we learned a bit about icons. the danger in creating an image of God, is that you are potentially creating an idol, because God can't really be captured on paper, in paint, in scuplture. in Islam, there is a great fear of this, so there is no imagery involved in that religion.
with that in mind, we are creatures that think in the form of images, even words, which are formed in visual ways (tractor ---> tract --> "pull apart" can't you just see the earth beeing pulled apart with that word?) images are important. (this is a horrendous abbreviation of a 3 hour lecture by the way, so i'm probably leaving good stuff out)
so we looked at icons, "windows on eternity" he called them. not meant to be exact representations, because who could do that anyway? but to remind us that there are things greater than ourselves.
this picture i posted is by rublev, "the Holy Trinity". the interesting thing about it, is the composition of the picture, the lines, the vanishing point (art terms i don't really know how to explain) are in the front of the picture, at the bottom. not at the top or behind the father son and holy spirit. the effect here draws you into the painting. the viewer is drawn in to the scene and you join the trinity at the table. the miracle of being in relationship with God. simply beautiful.
"Our intention in this class is to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the Christian Gospel and the human imagination: that is, all of those ways of expression and communication which depend primarily on images. Imagesâ do not refer only to the visual, but to any meaning-full appeal to the senses. So another name for the course might be "Christian aesthetics": we are concerned not only with "the arts", but with the life of the senses generally, and how it relates to our life in Christ. (The opposite of "aesthetic" is not "rational" or "logical": it is rather "an-aesthetic"). Any Christian who lives in and through a body is encouraged to take the course."
anyway, we're focusing on art, on creating, and what that has to do with our faith, with God, with his incarnation. Christian aesthetics. it's been pretty cool so far. i'm thinking it will encourage my creativity and writing.
last night we learned a bit about icons. the danger in creating an image of God, is that you are potentially creating an idol, because God can't really be captured on paper, in paint, in scuplture. in Islam, there is a great fear of this, so there is no imagery involved in that religion.
with that in mind, we are creatures that think in the form of images, even words, which are formed in visual ways (tractor ---> tract --> "pull apart" can't you just see the earth beeing pulled apart with that word?) images are important. (this is a horrendous abbreviation of a 3 hour lecture by the way, so i'm probably leaving good stuff out)
so we looked at icons, "windows on eternity" he called them. not meant to be exact representations, because who could do that anyway? but to remind us that there are things greater than ourselves.
this picture i posted is by rublev, "the Holy Trinity". the interesting thing about it, is the composition of the picture, the lines, the vanishing point (art terms i don't really know how to explain) are in the front of the picture, at the bottom. not at the top or behind the father son and holy spirit. the effect here draws you into the painting. the viewer is drawn in to the scene and you join the trinity at the table. the miracle of being in relationship with God. simply beautiful.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Saturday, January 22, 2005
living underwater
it has rained pretty solidly for the past week. flooding, landslides, soggy jeans, the whole mess. welcome to vancouver. were this a year ago, i would say, welcome to the pacific northwest. but i have since been learned about geography (not to mention being scolded by my canadian friends) to learn that relative to the rest of the country, vancouver is barely northwest of anything. if anything, vancouver is the canadian southwest. say, like san diego in america. oh how i wish i was in san diego. at least then i would have learned to surf by now, or fattened myself up on many a burrito. mmm... burritos.
i just saw the movie garden state. good film. made me think a lot. watching the "special features", zach braff talks about the storm towards the end of the movie (don't worry i'm not giving anything away). he says (not verbatim) that going through the storm is cold and gloomy and hard, but on the other side of it is spring, new birth, and the characters are changed through the experience. true, true. right now, it is hard for me to believe my socks will ever be dry or that i will see the sun again. it is hard for me to see what is on the other side of my experience at regent, to understand why i am going through the things i am going through now, to understand why i am writing pages of papers and reading hundreds of pages of books. because somewhere on the side of this, the sun will break through, i will finish writing and i will be a different person than i am now. sometimes i wish i could just take a hiatus from being me, go back 10 years or ahead 10 years and meet myself and see what i'm like. because sometimes i think i'm going in circles, being crazy old me, even though i know that's not really true.
the relentless rain, cold and grayness also makes it difficult to appreciate everyday. i suppose in la, where it's sunny all the time, it would make each day unique too. but here, i'd just like to hibernate until the bright exciting parts. i don't really want to live that way, like i'm blanking out the way i sometimes do in class lectures until something grabs my attention. i need something to break the monotony i suppose.
the coffee shop where i get my free wireless connection (with the purchase of a wicked good rooibos tea) is closing now. wrapping up but will continue this thought later on.
i just saw the movie garden state. good film. made me think a lot. watching the "special features", zach braff talks about the storm towards the end of the movie (don't worry i'm not giving anything away). he says (not verbatim) that going through the storm is cold and gloomy and hard, but on the other side of it is spring, new birth, and the characters are changed through the experience. true, true. right now, it is hard for me to believe my socks will ever be dry or that i will see the sun again. it is hard for me to see what is on the other side of my experience at regent, to understand why i am going through the things i am going through now, to understand why i am writing pages of papers and reading hundreds of pages of books. because somewhere on the side of this, the sun will break through, i will finish writing and i will be a different person than i am now. sometimes i wish i could just take a hiatus from being me, go back 10 years or ahead 10 years and meet myself and see what i'm like. because sometimes i think i'm going in circles, being crazy old me, even though i know that's not really true.
the relentless rain, cold and grayness also makes it difficult to appreciate everyday. i suppose in la, where it's sunny all the time, it would make each day unique too. but here, i'd just like to hibernate until the bright exciting parts. i don't really want to live that way, like i'm blanking out the way i sometimes do in class lectures until something grabs my attention. i need something to break the monotony i suppose.
the coffee shop where i get my free wireless connection (with the purchase of a wicked good rooibos tea) is closing now. wrapping up but will continue this thought later on.
Monday, January 10, 2005
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