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ojovivo
Janaina Medeiros
Cosimo Galluzzi
we're not kids anymore.
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noise dept.
trying on a metaphor
Kaledo Art
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#extradirty
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roma★
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@pluralawesome
Kiese Laymon and Tressie McMillan Cottom on vulnerability, revision and love.
"But I also, within that art, you talk about the things that you personally give up as you revise your relationship to the things you love and to the world."
trying to talk about God :: trying to make a picture that looks like an actual sunset
you politely ask me not to die and i promise not to
from Superbly Situated by Robert Hershon
New Year's Day after
This new year's eve mostly just sprinted by - we held an event in the place where I work, and the week before was completely devoted to trying to clothesline the party into some illusion of order. Midnight itself I spent on the phone with a towing company, trying to convince a man named Greg that I was, in fact, authorized to request that he remove vehicles from the parking lot behind our building. Moment of silence for Greg, working for a towing company of one of the coldest NYE in recent memory.
Anyway, all of this is to say that generally I have a lot of time to think about resolutions, and more particularly how I will describe them to my friends and family. This year I didn't! And I found myself responding in surprising ways when people asked me how I'd decided to improve myself. Turns out I want to develop a practice of daily gratitude! I was a little taken aback by those words when I found them in my mouth. But after they emerged, I followed them to Target, and bought a little pack of spiral bound notecards, and dedicated myself to being that horrible, boring person who everyday writes down what they are grateful for. Wish me luck.
If I could be one half as full of grateful feelings as this guy I would be happy: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20162
oh wow
good things/bad things? http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2013/07/30/engaging-religion-at-the-department-of-state/
"engaging" religion as a state department aim seems p slippery
Roden Crater
Image from trendland.com
The first time I read about James Turrell, I had my Rothko-reaction, like, oh great! Yes, spiritual landscapes through massive blocks of color, meditative spaces, whatever.
Which was so so stupid of me.
Because then I read this piece and I fell totally totally in love with the descriptions of the art in the piece, and of Turrell's relationship to his major project, which is building a "celestial observatory" out of a crater(!). He wants it to be reminiscent of the pyramids! Of Machu Picchu! He's been working on it for 30 years, and he learned how to keep cattle (sort of) to maintain the land, and he is clearly a wonderful obsessive who people say things like this about: [Chuck] Close is among the most famous living painters, but when he looks at an artist like Turrell, it sometimes makes him skeptical of his own fame. “It makes me wonder if I’m making pabulum for the masses,” he said with a laugh.
The best part of the article (for me) is when they talk about surrender, and how when you walk into one of Turrell's structures you have to be prepared to shed some parts of your yourself in order to participate in the experience. Sufis talk about surrender a lot, of course, and it's always been a fascinating idea to me, this idea of active surrender. Submerging yourself in this passive state.
Anyway, here's the little Art 21 on Turrell's work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9-m_4MoKwjQ
New Directions in the Study of Prayer
love this, very excited.
Zingers from political scientists
"In a recent symposium on American Grace, another commentator suggested that there are historians waiting to attack us in a dark alley because of this line, and that we probably regret ever having written it.
To the contrary, we have no regrets—although we have both decided to avoid dark alleys, at least when we know there might be historians around."
Tom, will you climb on top of the dumpster and steal the sun for me? It’s just hanging there and I want it.
from Litany by Carolyn Creedon
Somebody wants you
One thing that can be completely reassuring as a young person in This Economy is that even though employers decidedly don't want you, churches decidedly do. Particularly: liberal churches would kill to have you and all your friends filling their pews, giving time and money and energy to building the life of the church. If you've ever attended a service alone and are between the ages of 18-35, I bet you've experienced the full court press of love and affection offered up to us. With one-third of all Americans in that age range declaring themselves to have no religious affiliation (more than any other group in the history of Pew, ever) a number of churches are growing increasingly uncomfortable (desperate maybe?) when they consider their longevity.
As someone who is super into church, I'm sad about this, of course. But I'm also really interested in it as a phenomenon, and I'm discouraged by my denomination's attempts to figure it out. Did that flyer up top make you want to attend a UU worship service? Does the promise of pizza(!) and game nights(!) with other young adults? Is it possibly true that you already have friends, and if you are making the time in your schedule to attend worship you would like to discuss religion and your own spirituality?
This is the thing that I think has changed in liberal religion - the idea that a church isn't a place where you go to be with other people, but a place you go to be more with yourself.
What I've heard from older friends is that church used to be not just a place but also a badge and a tool. You attended a certain church to demonstrate your identity, to meet like-minded people, and to participate in a community of your choice. I hate to be all, "The Internet!" but I think it is accurate to say that it is easier now to participate in an intellectual community of your choosing than it ever has been before. If that's not what we're offering in church (and this is more a UU-specific problem) what is it exactly that we have to give?
Things that can be quantified vs. things that can't.
A few weeks ago, the church where I work handed every congregant in the pews a 3 page survey called the "Spiritual Maturity Instrument." It has more than 50 questions that survey participants can answer on a scale of 1-10, and is designed to measure spiritual growth and development. Statements on the survey include: "I see beauty all around me" and "I feel happier when I believe I am leading a moral life."
I found myself having some feelings about this, the majority of which are along the lines of SIGH. I am all about science-y inquiry into things that are squishy - I'm reading a book about evangelical prayer now that is just amazingly good - but I wonder what exactly the question was that prompted this survey. Was it, "How do people in our congregations respond to questions about spiritual growth framed in this particular language?" or was it, "Are we growing our spirits as a congregation?" There were so so many judgments and pushes embedded in those questions, and it made me wonder how the results will be used, and what they will reinforce.
Brené Brown! When I interned with Hennepin County Community Corrections, we used her curriculum for groups of women. Her description of the shame spiral maybe is the single most useful idea I've worked through since college.
Whoever does not thank people has not thanked God.
Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), according to the Hadith related by al-Bukhari, al-Adab al-Mufrad (via revnaomiking)
Gratitude
did a feralgiving dance around our bonfire as we burned effigies of patriarchy & capitalism that we made
told parents we would be eating “hearts of our enemies” they said “ok”
This is the way my sister and I manifested our gratitude. On the real I am very thankful to have her in my life.
Some people can drink heavily and pray so well! Isn't acknowledging that you don't know how to do it the most important thing?
This man is one of them:
DRUNK SONNET 1 I'M A LITTLE HUNGRY BUT DRUNK I WANT FORGIVENESS IN A BEEHIVE LIKE A DOG WITH THE BENDS IN THE ARCTIC AND COVERED IN ICE FURS MY FIRST PRAYER TO GOD WENT I DON'T KNOW IF I'M DOING THIS RIGHT MY LAST PRAYER TO GOD WENT I KNOW FOR A FACT I'M NOT DOING THIS RIGHT I CAN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT AND AT DAY I DONT' WANT AWAKE AND A BODY THAT RUSTS INTO HARD AND AND UNBELIEVABLE I WILL BE NOT ALIVE FOREVER EXCEPT FOR THE DRY BED MY HANDS ARE TOO SMALL TO CARRY WHATEVER THIS IS ACTUALLY, A HABIT OF DOLPHINS THAT LIVE IN CAPTIVITY TO EAT FISH OUT OF BUCKETS AND SLEEP IN THE SALT AND THE WATER
From the excellent Metaphysical Drinking: http://metaphysicaldrinking.blogspot.com/2009/01/drunk-sonnets.html
Something from another man who was not super interested in Earth.
I'm always really interested in the myth of the visionary -- Sun Ra maybe is a good example? This is a man who preached that his musicianship was a divine gift, but in practice locked his band in his house for daily 8-12 hour practice sessions.
The question: how much of all of this is showmanship, how much is inspiration, how much does it matter? Are prophets allowed to work towards grace or are they required to spring into being with the full text inside them?
