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July 29, 2007
Green
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Coming Home at Dusk
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Courthouse
This is not really a commentary of any sort. I was just intrigued by the shape of the razor wire and the Federal Courthouse happened to be in the background.
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That Game Was Awes!
...as my flatmate Nathan would abbeviate it. Could I have witnessed the turning point of the Cardinals season? Hmm. Not likely, but one can hope. And I will take three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game any day. The boys ran out of the dugout at the end of the game like it was the World Series.
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July 27, 2007
An Evening in the Garden
On Wednesday evening our house church went to the Whitaker Music Festival in the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Good music, good food, delightful company, and, of course, the garden itself at dusk. This photo shoot was on a quick run through and on several of the pictures I did not get the focus right. Still, there are some nice shots. Click on the picture above to see more.
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July 25, 2007
Hear, Hear!
This post is to raise a glass to the sentiment in this post, and to show that, yes, they do clean up rather well. God's richest blessings upon you, Lloyd and Heather.
Oh, and the later two shots do have a fair amount of photo processing skullduggery. But, hey, it's a special occassion.
And then there was this (though this happened before all the glowy dancing)...
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July 21, 2007
The Big Day...What's a Groomsmen to Do
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A Little of the Far East Along Manchester
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July 19, 2007
Thunderhead from the Park
A couple of weeks ago, after some stirring games of racquetball, I walked with David Lim over to the Muny, and despite my general sweaty and stinkiness which seemed to stand out all the more for walking amongst fresh Muny goers, I persisted in getting some shots of this stunning cloud before heading to home and cleanliness. Now, that's dedication to one's art.
I need to get a better photo editing program so I can work on the dark bits of the picture whilst leaving the light bits alone. These look fine, but still I have lost a fair bit of detail from the clouds. Here is the cloud over the course of about half an hour as it changed its shape, though the first picture may have been a different cloud. There are slightly different color effects on each of these pictures. Apologies.
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July 18, 2007
We Are Not Pregnant, Part Deux
In the aforementioned conversation about sympathetic male pregnancy, or a similar one at another time, I cannot precisely remember, I came up with an idea, which my friend, H, promised to illustrate. Here, just in time to supplement yesterday's post, is H's fine handiwork. Make sure you look at them in order. There is this and then this.
Brilliant. Thanks, H, for that lovely execution.
P.S. Here is the Dassler edit of that last drawing. And remember, gents, if you ever find yourself at the business end of that particular scalpel, don't try to be macho or cheap out and think you can recover without the aid a of jock (or "athletic supporter," if you will, which is a funny name isn't it, because it rather sounds like that would be a member of the booster club or something), because you can't, and it ain't pretty. Or so I've heard. There's a reason God let the women have the babies, because we're pretty much wusses when it comes to pain. Which reminds me of best practical joke that I thought of but didn't execute. When, er, shall we say, someone close to me had this procedure done, I really wanted to stop by Walmart and bring him a cap gun so that, in the short run, at least he would have something he could get up, and then also he could get used to, you know, only shooting blanks. I did tell about this intended gift, but somehow he didn't think it very funny.
Apologies for that PG-13 moment on an otherwise PG blog.
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July 17, 2007
We Are Not Pregnant...
...and other reflections on gender from a fairly conservative source.
Several months ago after house church, several of us discussed the pros and cons of the phrase "We are pregnant." I am not a fan. Here is an article from the editior of Christianity Today reflecting on gender roles. I have read it and several other articles as I work at my new library job. And, I must confess, it felt a bit like coming home. I am not saying that I will agree with everything that will be articulated in Christianity Today, but I think what was refreshing to me today was once again reading theological thought, clearly expressed without the need for constant qualification and apology.
I think that is the direction in which I want to go, not back to simple closed-mindedness, insensitivity, judgemenatlism, and rigidity mind you, but to take along with me lessons I have learned, and to articulate my understanding of truth confidently. Why should that be such a radical thing to even articulate?
In many ways I think that this recalibration that has occurred in myself over the course of a number of years is merely a microcosm of changes that have been occurring in evangelical Christianity at large. For example, I believe the engagement with culture and current social and global concerns currently engaged in by a magazine such as Christianity Todaywould seldom have appeared on its pages in the 1980's. That is my sense of it at least.
Here is another article on the spreading canker of the prosperity gospel in the church in Africa, and it is a canker. Yet, the picture is never as simple as I would like to make it, as God is working even amidst the mess of such teaching, bringing people to himself, and yes even teaching some folk to better their lives and to share with others. Huh, how about that. And what is another of the draws of this movement for Africans? It scratches a distinctly African itch to be in touch with the supernatural. And, with care and discernment but without our overbearing desire to be in control, I bet we could learn a little something in that department.
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July 16, 2007
A Passage to America
In preparing for a non-western literature class which I teach, I read a short essay by the Indian writer R. K. Narayan. It was about a visit he had made to America and the situation of Indian immigrants in this society. This last paragraph struck me as something of an indictment of our culture and, more pointedly, of how the church is not really distinct from it at all. This essay was written in 1985. I think in some ways our cultural life in America has become more holistic and multi-cultural since that time, but at the same time consistently more and more materialistic as well, a strange combination. I am not saying I agree with all that follows, and perhaps it paints with a bit of a broad brush, but it does provide some food for thought. Here is Narayan:
"Ultimately, America and India are profoundly different in attitude and philosophy, though it would be wonderful if they could complement each other's values. Indian philosophy stresses austerity and unencumbered, uncomplicated day-to-day living. America's emphasis, on the other hand, is on material acquisition and the limitless pursuit of prosperity. From childhood an Indian is brought up on the notion that austerity and a contended life are good; a certain otherworldliness is inculcated through a grandmother's tales, the discourses at the temple hall, and moral books. The American temperament, on the contrary, is pragmatic. The American has a robust indifference to eternity. "Attend church on Sunday and listen to the sermon, but don't bother about the future," he seems to say. Also, he seems to echo Omar Khayyam's philosophy: "Dead yesterday and unborn tomorrow, why fret about them if today be sweet?" He works hard and earnestly, acquires wealth and enjoys life. He has no time to worry about the afterlife, only taking care to draw up a proper will and trusting the funeral home to take care of the rest. The Indian in America who is not able to live wholeheartedly on this basis finds himself in a halfway house; he is unable to overcome his conflicts while physically flourishing on American soil. One may hope that the next generation of American-grown Indians will do better by accepting the American climate spontaneously or, alternatively, returning to India to a live a different life."
Those are interesting choices that Narayan offers at the end of that paragraph. Are there any others? This all reminded me a great deal of the movie The Namesake. Also, do you think Narayan is right about Americans? "The American has a robust indifference to eternity." Wow.
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July 13, 2007
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhoods of North St. Louis
This past wednesday, I took the day off of work to take some pictures for Harambee, a youth training program affiliated with my church. Youth are given training, and work either mowing lawns (for the younger children) or doing tuckpointing (for the older children). The children are given a decent wage, get to interact with mentor/supervisors, receive Biblical wisdom for life and work and salvation, and get to be a part of an effort to provide widows and the poor with important services to demonstrate the love of Christ through the church.
Here are some pictures from journeys through various neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are full of photographic possibilities, from architectural details to lovely urban gardens to human interest shots. I want to resist the impulse, which is definitely there, to simply get some artsy shots and to take from the neighborhood. Not that such picture taking is necessary wrong, but it would be better to have a care for and connection with the people who live there. Here are just a few shots that I managed to get that were not part of my main mission, along with several of the children's handiwork.
gordon's house
message is a bit off, but good artwork
"
an old photographic subject of mine
may refinement never quash the impulse toward beauty
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Another One Bites the Dust-A Batchelor Party
We played cute little games and made Worku a toilet paper tuxedo. We cried a little; giggled a lot.
Not! But we did have a nice manly time at Tucker's, the place for steaks. And, mmm, they were good. Plus, a little drink. Some good stories. Only a little advice. A prayer from elder Eddie. Brilliant. Alas, there were no cigars.
Yes, and amidst it all we were able to celebrate that institution, which, while suffering much derision in our culture and being as hard as the dickens and so saddeningly so often abandoned, is one God's bests gifts. Or so I hear ;)
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July 10, 2007
More Dragonfly and Their Surrounds
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July 09, 2007
Hard to Get
You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened by the hurt
Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said
Still I'm so scared, I'm holding my breath
While You're up there just playing hard to get
You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then
Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat
Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You're up there just playing hard to get?
And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained
And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know
Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret
I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get
-courtesy of Rich from the Jesus Record.
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July 06, 2007
Church
in...but not of
but our citizenship is in heaven. and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ
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July 05, 2007
Summer
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Glory Above the Strip Mall
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July 03, 2007
beauty and truth
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Pied Beauty & God's Grandeur
As I put up my new banner with the dragonfly which is looking slightly to the right, I want to share a poem that greatly shaped my aesthetics when I read it in graduate school and wrote a paper on it. It taught me to see the beauty of the variegated, the assymetrical, the diverse, and to give praise to the creator. The poem is by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Pied Beauty
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Also, do you ever get despondent over the mess that humanity seems to be making of the planet? Do you get weary because of the sadness of history? Then, perhaps another poem by Hopkins may remind you of the presence and grandeur that we Christians believe is still undergirding it all (or brooding it over it), the person who is still shaping a billion, billion stories to his good purposes. One day all things will be made new. Rest in that thought.
And, oh yeah, this second poem is a sonnet, I suppose, but of a different form than I am accustomed to writing.
God's Grandeur
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
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July 02, 2007
Focus, Dassler-Son, Focus!
Oh, man, I need a Mr. Miyagi in all sorts of ways. However, just now I am having real difficulties in figuring out the fine tuning of my focusing. It looks fine when it is on the tiny screen at the back of the camera, but then fuzzy when I get it home. It is hampering me from getting accepted at this site, which I really am shooting for. For example, in the first two shots below, I missed nice cicada shots (even it it was a dead cicada that was posed) because the focus is slightly off. In the first mushroom shot, the focus is on the bottom when it should be on the top. I think I've got it right in the last one, though. The pictures look OK at this size, but its not good enough, eh? I guess it's back to "Wax on! Wax off!"
Oh, a late addition, which is close, but just not quite right. I have to tell you, fish are hard to catch (puntended).
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By Special Request, Too
So, who might this special request be for? Let's just say that it's the squeaky wheel which gets the oil. In fairness, though, I should note that this squeaky wheel put her request in a while ago.
This is the juggler/jester at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Evidently, he does pretty much the same routine every year, just in a different get-up. Still, I think he is very good and entertaining. Alas, I was not patient enough to stay until he juggled the flaming torches. Socializing called.
Off topic a bit, but is the "too" in the title supposed to be set off by a comma? It is in sentences such as "Peter, too, came to dinner," but not in "too much." Just curious.
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