What I would see
mid all the stress and tension of these days
what I would see beyond my pain and, seeing, praise
is how life works its way upon
our thick, opaque obduracy
presses down and pulls us out
to tissue-thin transparency:
yes, praise.
I would not choose to stretch this way.
Unwillingly I find myself drawn membrane-thin
so others can see through and in.
I would prefer to hold my dark
to guard my secrets safe behind
a studied public face –
but stretched reveal a larger life
admit a light beyond my own
and letting through these stronger, brighter rays
I praise.
Einstein
“Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up.”
Albert Einstein
Failures and mistakes
Leadership is “going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” (Winston Churchill)
Founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land, had a small plaque on his office wall which read: “A mistake is an event the full benefit of which you have not yet turned to your advantage.”
Victims of violence
We will listen, however painful the hearing,
For still there are women the world over
being raped
being whipped
being sold into slavery
being shamed
being silenced
being beaten
being broken
treated as worthless
treated as refuse.
Until there is not one last woman remaining
Who is a victim of violence…
Listen, then, in sorrow.
Listen in anger.
Listen to the texts of terror.
And let us commit ourselves to working for a world
in which such deeds may never happen again.
Slee, Nicola. Praying like a woman.p36-37. London, SPCK. 2004.
Mentoring
The power of our mentors is not necessarily in the models of good teaching they gave us … Their power is in their capacity to awaken a truth within us, a truth we can reclaim years later by recalling their impact on our lives.
In workshops I often ask people to introduce themselves by talking about a teacher who made a difference in their lives. …
Then I ask the question that opens to the deeper purpose of this exercise: not “what made your mentor great?” but “What is it about you that allowed great mentoring to happen?”
Mentoring is a mutuality that requires more than meeting the right student. In this encounter, not only are the qualities of the mentor revealed, but the qualities of the student are drawn out in a way that is equally revealing.
Parker Palmer (1998) The Courage to Teach. p21.
Lines of Thought
“I really don’t see the point of reading in straight lines. We don’t think like that and we don’t live like that. Our mental processes are closer to a maze than a motorway, every turning yields another turning, not symmetrical, not obvious. Not chaos either.”
Jeanette Winterton, 2001, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Vintage – quote picked up from Friday Mailing
Surplus of meaning
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| a work of art in the Cheshire countryside |
It has been good to be involved in the development of an Arts & Faith Network (for the Diocese of Chester), and to be “breathing space” at Stephen Broadbent’s studio yesterday with textile artists, stained glass artists, wordsmiths, dancers, painters, sculptors, actors, authors, poets, cooks, singers, preachers and “makers of pretty things”. Until yesterday the Network hadn’t been much more than an idea shared by a few people and it was difficult to put into words what it was about and what could happen. Now it has got legs, is on the road, and has its own story – “the day we met at Stephen and Lorraine’s, when our exploration of the interaction of arts and faith was facilitated by Simon Marsh with background percussion of water overflowing into a pond…..”
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| The (overflowing) River of Life sculpture by Stephen Broadbent at Warrington at the site of a terrorist bomb explosion which killed two children. |
There were so many good things, including a wonderful rendition of The Rose by Simon (spoken, not sung), and, we discovered a “surplus of meaning” as we joined our own creative endeavours to those of others. Surplus of meaning doesn’t mean that there is too much – rather, there is so much. The meaning of our insulation block sculptures co-mingled with the meaning given to them by others, with meaning pinned to meaning. Of course, Ricoeur was right. There is a surplus meaning as one meaning gives itself to another, transforming itself in the giving. Nothing we can do, or create can provide an adequate container for our meaning. Meaning is so abundant it has to overflow. It overflows into convivial and meaningful community, good times, great company.
There are, though, those in whom there is no sense of meaning – including some in this emerging network who described the meaninglessness of past experiences. Is this where art and faith come together, making sense when we are oppressively or depressively crushed?
Simon Marsh and Sarah Anderson have both posted on the Arts and Faith launch.
from Max Warren
When we approach the man of another faith than our own it will be in a spirit of expectancy to find how God has been speaking to him and what new understandings of the grace and love of God we may ourselves discover in this encounter. Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion, is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy. Else we may find ourselves treading on men’s dreams. More serious still, we may forget that God was here before our arrival.
Picked up from Simon Marsh’s blog.
>Excuse the repetition
>
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| SEAMS LIKE REPETITION a photo of a baseball from thesussman |
I can’t remember where I saw it, but … I can’t remember where I saw it. It was a blog post reminding me that repetition is no bad thing, but, I am sorry that I can’t remember where. My repeating myself may be boring.
But repetition may be of a totally different order. Repetition may be re-petition, signifying the return to a subject (any subject) petitioning them to be …. subject and agent. Repeating a subject is re-petitioning that subject for fresh meaning, or insight, or a bit more give. Young children often pester grandparents and parents to repeat the same story. They want to re-petition the story, re-questing the comfort, excitement, romance …… Couples repeat the story of how they first met. Communities and families re-mind themselves of who they are by re-petitioning their past stories to yield something to re-store their memory and identity. I want to repeat reading some books (East of Eden, Wild), some films (Dogville), some music (always Paul Simon or Leonard Cohen) because I am confident that they will reveal new things for me.
But the repetitive strain of meaninglessness that saps our vitality I can well do without – or is there some special grace (or love) which allows people to cheerfully and tirelessly repeat the same routine and tasks time and time again?
Repetition is fundamental to prayer. Repetitive rhythms (the prayer wheel), rosaries, postures and words are all reminders of our re-petitioning. Some give themselves to re-petitioning God through one line prayers for their whole lives. The Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” – is a one line prayer repeated over and over again. For some it is a life long re-petition. It is lifted from the story of the Pharisee and the Publican. According to the 19th century Russian spiritual writer, Theophan the Recluse, the prayer’s repetition begins as something on the lips and external to us, travels inwards by focusing the mind till it becomes the heart of who we are.
I wonder. Does genuine and sincere re-petitioning result in us taking the person, the thing, the story to heart? Is that how we come to care so much that we can bear the repetition?
>So beautiful …. so what
>Yesterday’s Fathers’ Day brought new sounds. Laura Marling’s I speak because I can, and Paul Simon’s latest album.
Paul Simon poses the interesting question about life. It can be “so beautiful”, or it can be “so what”. And that is the title of the album. Life is what you make it.
I’m just a rainbow in a bucket a coin dropped in a slot
I am an empty house on Weed Street
across the road from the vacant lot
You know life is what you make of it
so beautiful or so what.
Ain’t it strange the way we’re ignorant
how we seek out bad advice
how we jigger it and figure it
mistaking value for the price
and play a game with time and love
like a pair of rolling dice.
Elvis Costello has done a review at Huffington Post. It’s all well worth a listen – with great surprises throughout, including Paul singing through excerpts from the Golden Gate Gospel Train recorded in 1938 on the beautiful Love and Blessings, and a sermon from Revd J M Gates (including call and response) from 1941 in Getting Ready for Christmas Day.
Thanks lads. Now for the concert.
Grits and Grains 