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February 28, 2007
Mmm, Mmm Healthy
Feel the warmth of the earthtones. Look at the amber glow of the heads of wheat, their rough husks housing plump, tough kernels, ready to be ground into hearty flour. Ah, the wholesomeness!
Here is an amusing blog entry mocking the recent move by Krispy Kreme to offer whole wheat doughnuts. Favorite quote: "You don't want to eat whole-wheat doughnuts because amber waves of grain are not to be mixed in with the pure, fluffy happiness that you are aiming for when you eat a damn doughnut."
In related news, one day I will actually do my "7 Days with a Starbucks Frappuccino" photo essay, but until then here is a quick peak into what's in your "coffee drinks." Make sure to check out all four pages. The dubious winner for calories and fat grams? White Hot Chocolate with whipped cream:
16 ounces
580 calories
28 fat grams
95 mg cholesterol
310 mg sodium
Oh, and Krispy Kremes nutritional info. Here you go.
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February 27, 2007
Winter Walk
cast out
only one way
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Tea and Sympathy...Actually it was Oatmeal
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February 26, 2007
Lucy is on Her Way!
Well, thank you, all of you who did, for the prayers for the recovery of my camera. Alas, I think she is gone for good. I am not sure of the purpose in things like this, in losing a camera due to sheer stupidity, other than learning to be more careful. However, I did take the time away from access to a fine camera to take stock a little about why I take pictures, to put into proper perspective the rearranging of pixels. I do not think my perspective was too much out of whack, but it was good to be reminded that all good gifts are on loan to us and that my significance comes from quite another Source than catching images, however lovely or true they may be.
Thank you also, friends, who have offered me loans of your cameras. That was very sweet. And special thanks to the friend who anonymously replaced one of the 5 or so CD's that were also tucked into my camera bag.
So, I briefly considered getting an upgrade, but the price was still hard to beat on my previous camera. And, so, in a week or so Gomer's sister, Lucy, will be here in all her glory. And, then, the romance will begin again.
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February 23, 2007
Twas Grace That Taught My Heart to Fear
I would encourage you all to catch Amazing Grace this weekend and help give it a good opening box office. And it is getting pretty good reviews. Joe Williams from the post did not like it because it did not focus on the perspective of slaves much at all. This may be a fair criticism, and perhaps a better, fuller movie could have been made, but Wilberforce is still well worth celebrating. Here is Joe's review and St. Louis movie times and locations. Here is a more positive review. And here is the trailer.
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February 21, 2007
An Intriguing Post
In this blogosphere suffused with personal opinion and emotion, it is rare to find posts that find the right balance in personal disclosure and combine it with perceptive insight or questioning, particularly in the area of relationships. My friend Laura's post of last summer (which was her second blog post period) accomplished this.
The picture above is Marc Chagall's interpretation of the verse that my friend Michaela uses to introduce her blog post which I find also meets the criteria I described in the first paragraph, and which I have asked her permission to link to from here.
Any thoughts on Michaela's take? You can post comments either here or there. And let me just recommend that you take deep breaths and read entire paragraphs before you come to conclusions.
Continue reading "An Intriguing Post"
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February 19, 2007
Lent Comes a Little Early
The picture above is the last artsy photo I took with my camera. In fact, I took only two more pictures, period, after this one (of a colleague getting some Valentine's Day flowers). Alas, the camera I often described as promiscuous has gone like Gomer. Hosea-like I have made some efforts for her recovery, but it is not looking promising.
At the beginning of a road trip on Thursday, whilst picking up a friend, I hopped out of the passenger seat of a two door car and placed my camera bag and a bag of muffins on top of the car. Rather too eagerly and quickly I hopped in the back seat, yes, forgetting to take what I had recently deposited on the roof. At our next stop to meet more friends, I asked "Hey, where are the muffins?" followed in short order by "Hey, where's my camera bag?" After several fruitless trips of retracing our route, we finally saw some birds rather eagerly pecking at a plastic bag, flattened on the road. Mmm, muffins. Sadly, the black camera bag was nowhere to be found. A passerby had said that they had seen it, however, so we scribbled some notes (offering a reward even) and headed off for our trip about an hour and a half late.
I am praying still for a miracle (and you can rejoice with me when it happens), but if it does not and even if it does, I think I will go ahead and consider this as a part of Lent. I still have not figured out if I am going to do anything else in that regard or even what I think of Lent itself, but we shall see.
Do you all have any thoughts on Lent? Are there any things you are considering giving up (like the cigarettes above pressed into the cold, purifying snow), things which you are willing to share?
Oh, yeah, and the road trip? More on that later. Our time at our destination was great, but on a road trip with friends with silly and challenging things to talk about, road trip food, fun with snow and cell phones, and music for the interludes, well, the journey is of a piece with the destination.
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February 14, 2007
For Valentine's Day: Two From Brother Pastor
Two sermons on marriage providing context for the divorce passages of the Semon on the Mount:
_____________________
flock : congregation : priests : body
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SAPPY DAY INHALE VENT
As if any of us need additional time wasters. Here is one which you might find enjoyable, particularly if you like words. This highly sophisticated anagram generator is especially cool because it lets you specify word length, number of words, and words that must be in an anagram. Enjoy.
Oh, and this one? I think it would work better punctuated thusly
Sappy Day; Inhale, Vent.
Or, in other words Happy Valentine's Day.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
:)
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February 13, 2007
From the Day
windows
in the ride
the dead marshes
self portrait in snow
drifting
snow day for the shovels
st. francis
dialling down the day
shadow
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Four Views of a Stump
The photos below are not from this snowy day. No, the story of this snowy day is quite different and goes something like this. Last night, I go to sleep far later than I should. This morning, I call the school at 6ish to check if we're cancelled. No such luck. Looking out the window reveals only a drab brown world. I return to bed and, having trouble getting out of bed, call work and leave a message saying I am going to be late. I drive over. It begins to snow. And no one is here. It seems they called our snow day at 6:49am, which seems extraordinarily late to me. But, hey, its a snow day. A SNOW DAY!!!!!! I love the sound of that. Now, to actually use the gift well.
Here are pictures from a previous snowy day. It has been a good winter.
There's no days like snow days.
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February 9, 2007
Elemental
I think this is the first time in my five years of working at Lewis and Clark that the Mississippi has frozen over, or very nearly so. This is a picture from this morning. The view from the bridge itself was better, but I don't think the police would have liked me pullilng over much.
It seems like that in the years I spent in the area in my youth it would freeze over more often and we would get more snows of a winter as well. This winter has been great, though, with more snow, more cold weather, and ice on the river. Of course, not that the people of Calhoun County are enjoying it too much. However, I suppose that is part of the bargain when you choose to live in lovely Calhoun County, between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Go over on a ferry sometime, preferably on a bike, and check it out. It is lovely.
The ice in the river, though, is exciting to me, not just because it is because of the cold, but because it is a reminder that we truly are at the mercy of the elements and the God who controls them. The river is not closed at Alton, but barges have to break through chunks of ice that have built up because of the lock and dam and have begun to freeze together.
Last Friday night at 10pm, after a nice meal with the boys, Jesse and I decided to test drive his sweet, new ride (he can tell you about that). We ended all the way over north of Godfrey on the Great River Road. Jesse pulled up by the river and we got out, only to be greeted by the bright spotlight of a barge. It was a bit like being a deer in a headlight, and I was hoping not to hear any popping sounds. After the barge passed, in the cold, cold, cold moonlit night, we could hear the ice as it flowed by, brushing against the solid fringe of ice near the shore. It was one of those wild, lonely sounds that reminds you of your mortality and smallness. A little scary. Rather awful, in the proper sense of the word.
This second photo is a picture of a picture on my wall at work, which was taken 15 plus years ago in the upper peninsula of Michigan at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Cedar Campus. Which is like a long lost friend to me with whom I have lost connection. It is a lovely place for a vacation, in a family camp, Valentine's day weekend, or just camping.
Occassionally, standing next to Lake Huron, I would get a similar feeling to the one I got while listening to the ice, one which this picture somewhat conveys. Standing upon the shore, one is on the lip of a vast submerged canyon. Thinking of the cold vastness, of the icy depths, listening to the constant lapping of the waves against the rocks, puts "you" into perspective.
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Now Here Are Some Really Good Photos...
Below is a prize winning photo about the war in Lebanon this past summer. It is rather bitingly ironic, and I think pictures well the contrasts one often sees in the third world between the haves and have nots, often living right next to one another, though in this case, I do not think the Israeli bombs were too particular. Click on the image below for more award winning shots.
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February 8, 2007
Multimedia Eclectic-From the Hard Drive
creep one
who you calling ugly
eve's dilemma
here comes the sun
le charme de sud
there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains
creep two
perfect for piecing quilts
Grandma's Hands
Grandma's hands were smooth and white
When I was a child.
And labored long at tasks untold
From dawn till well past setting sun,
And sometimes cuffed me into line
Along with words though stern, still kind
To make a young boy wise.
And when I'd grown
They'd labor still
Well into the night
With untold thimbled needle thrusts
Punctuating time.
But then they were but skin on bones
That would wrinkle up in mine
As hand in hand we'd talk and sit;
I'd listen with delight,
To tales of life and love and woe
And watch those transparent hands in mine
And see the blood go coursing by.
Grandma's hands were smooth and white
When I was a child.
another snowbug
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February 7, 2007
Crashing to Earth
Here is a more knowledgable and eloquently stated blog post on the sad astronaut story and the BBC News story where I got the reference to the blog.
These days, I am teaching a class on mythology and tried to give my students some examples of cultural myths, not falsities (though they might present false images of how things are) but stories we tell or characters we create to reinforce our cultural values. I cited the cowboy and the self-made person and the American dream as examples. And the astronaut would have worked really well, too, as an example.
The movie The Right Stuff did peal back the veneer a bit on astronauts even way back in the 1980's while, rightly, highlighting their amazing achievements too.
Myth making is an incredible thing. I am aware of and intrigued by how it works, and yet often still dazzled by its effects. Take for example the productions of Hollywood and the amazing NFL Films.
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February 6, 2007
Wherever You Go; There You Are
I like this phrase. It reminds me that a simple move to another place, while providing new scenery and potentially new possibilities, doesn't fundamentally change who one is. One day I will finish (and start) my poem "Rand McNally" about this topic, which has been in the works for, oh, maybe 8 years.
Somewhat humorously, but also very sadly, this phrase also applies to humanity. We tend to put folk like astronauts on a pedestal, especially in the early, heady days of the 1960s and 70s, but as this story shows, yes, wherever we go even as a race, there we are. At least she looks good in orange jumpsuits!
And now, from the International Space Station....Jerry Springer.
C. S. Lewis, who lived to see only the very beginnings of our ventures into space was very pessimistic about the entire enterprise, not because he feared we wouldn't succeed, but because he feared we would. This attitude is also reflected in his space trilogy.
Prelude to Space
An Epithaliamium
So Man, grown vigorous now,
Holds himself ripe to breed,
Daily devises how
To ejaculate his seed
And boldly fertilize
The black womb of the unconsenting skies.
Some now alive expect
(I am told) to see the large,
Steel member grow erect,
Turgid with the fierce charge
Of our whole planet's skill,
Courage, wealth, knowledge, concentrated will,
Straining with lust to stamp
Our likeness on the abyss-
Bombs, gallows, Belsen camp,
Pox, polio, Thais' kiss
Or Judas', Moloch's fires
And Torquemada's (sons resemble sires).
Shall we, when the grim shape
Roars upward, dance and sing?
Yes: if we honour rape,
If we take pride to Ring
So bountifully on space
The sperm of our long woes, our large disgrace.
Science-fiction Cradlesong
By and by Man will try
To get out into the sky,
Sailing far beyond the air
From Down and Here to Up and There.
Stars and sky, sky and stars
Make us feel the prison bars.
Suppose it done. Now we ride
Closed in steel, up there, outside
Through our port-holes see the vast
Heaven-scape go rushing past.
Shall we? All that meets the eye
Is sky and stars, stars and sky.
Points of light with black between
Hang like a painted scene
Motionless, no nearer there
Than on Earth, everywhere
Equidistant from our ship.
Heaven has given us the slip.
Hush, be still. Outer space
Is a concept, not a place.
Try no more. Where we are
Never can be sky or star.
From prison, in a prison, we fly;
There's no way into the sky.
More Lewis poems
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Hey, astronauts, are you a man who lives as a woman or a woman who lives as a man? Is the International Space Station cramping your syle? If so, call Jerry at 1-888-321-5356
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