The earlier post on Ethanol generated some spirited discussion over here at the Eagle and Child. It seems I should do more energy related topics (since the Arts series doesn't seem to be generating much interest -- never fear, I'm still plowing ahead with the arts -- it's a topic I'm interested in working out -- more on that tomorrow, perhaps).
Smythe (welcome to the Eagle and Child, by the way -- good to hear from old high school friends) made some very interesting comments about the impact of increased ethanol production on agriculture. Unless I miss my mark, her comments were based in real experiences in Brazil. Brazil moved to an ethanol based fuel system several years ago (see the wikipedia article) -- but one of the problems they encountered was in their agricultural practices. Many farmers in Brazil still practice slash and burn techniques that leave the soil depleted and pump a lot of smoke into the air. Of course, such practices were abandoned in the United States after the dust bowl travesty of the 1930s. But she raises an interesting point about unintended consequences coming froma spike in demand of one particular product.
John, on the other hand, took issue with the concept of government mandates driving this exploration into ethanol, preferring instead a market driven approach toward such fuels.
Both Smythe and John have points -- interestingly, the Cincinnati Enquirer had an article today demonstrating there is a market demand and the demand is driving exploration into more than simply ethanol. The article is about Proctor and Gamble's exploration into alternative sources of energy for fueling their supply chain. According to the article, increases in fuel expenses have cost this Fortune 500 company over $1.5 billion dollars in the past two years. They've been able to absorb the costs, but such costs are driving them into looking at alternatives. The first paragraph mentions a non-oil based steam plant that Proctor is building in Mexico to power almost all their operations in Mexico. "This unit in Apizaco, Mexico, will open this summer and will virtually eliminate P&G's reliance on the country's power grid. It's one of the early generations of what P&G hopes can be new energy sources for some of its plants that will help reduce its dependence on oil to generate steam and electricity."
However, being the shrewd outfit that P&G is, they are not putting all their eggs in one basket "Proctor is studying windmills in Europe, solar power in California, and even methane gas generated from a local landfill in the Midwest, said Keith Harrison, global product supply officer. The movement extends to raw materials as well. Procter has experiments underway in Malaysia and Indonesia to produce raw materials from palm oil that eventually could help make ingredients in shampoo, detergent, or other products."
If a market behemoth like Proctor is putting it's weight behind finding alternatives to petroleum use, you can bet a few things 1) they will likely succeed in generating a number of options that really work 2) they will develop a number of alternative lines of business in the energy providing sector -- likely spinning them off because they're not a part of their core consumer products business 3) somebody's going to make a lot of money -- and it will likely not be people in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Norway (top oil producing countries).
I feel the pain of rising energy costs as well -- we just purchased a new washer/dryer set (it was about time -- our old ones were wearing out). By choosing an upright washer, we save over 40% on the amount of water used -- and without an agitator, my shirts will suffer much less wear and tear. We also chose low energy consumption models, giving us a significant energy savings over the life of the washer/dryer. I've written earlier about use of compact flourescent bulbs in our home (we had our first one burn out yesterday -- after 6 years of use!).
Excelsior
Russell
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The Arts as Soulcraft: Love
Again -- these are preliminary thoughts, often disjointed and not well strung togehter -- I'm interested in your feedback/thoughts:
The first of the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians is Love. This shows that love takes primacy over all the other gifts – indeed, it seems as though all the other gifts grow naturally out of love.
I Corinthians 13 gives us the most penetrating view of love, though it is in danger of becoming cliché because of overuse at weddings. The statements about love could be taken as a litany of the other fruit of the spirit “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (v 4-7). So we see that love, in the primary place among the fruit of the spirit is the overriding feature.
However, the challenge here is that much of art’s efforts are all about love – defining love, exploring love, explaining love, encouraging, exhorting, and seducing. Simply because love is a subject of intellectual content of art, our approach to how art produces Godly love within us becomes much more tricky. We mustn’t confuse what particular artists have to say about love with the actuality of love as it is being worked out within us by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells us that the two great commandments are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And “Love your neighbor as yourself.” – he says “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (From Matthew 22:37-40). From this we see that love is oriented toward the other – it is not a sating of an inner itch. Love is not consumption of the other like a tasty morsel that momentarily slakes our appetite. Love is our becoming consumed with the reality of God and concerned with the dignity of humans made in God’s image.
So how do the arts further the growth of love within the Christian disciple? It is far easier to tackle the challenge of the other fruit of the spirit because they are easier to define. As we look at each of the other fruit of the spirit, we will come to understand the answer to how the arts grow love within the disciple (and how to recognize counterfeit idolatry).
Yet there is one compelling piece we can talk about immediately – motivation. What is the driving factor in an artist creating or a layperson receiving art. Artists, like people in any other profession, are driven by a confusing mélange of motivations that manifest themselves in as many unique combinations as there are artists. But at any given time, certain motivations rise to the fore of one’s psychology – affecting the decision making process and personal behavior. It is these motiviations that are the first clue in whether an individual is a hero or a scoundrel (they are certainly not the last word, but they are the first clue).
Why does the artist create? Among the many reasons might be:
A need to express inner turmoils and longings and passions
A hunger for respect of peers.
An affinity with the perceived lifestyle those with the artistic temperament
A desire to change minds and make prophetic statements.
A satisfaction that arises from the pure fun of doing art
A longing for attention and affirmation from audiences.
A recognition of talents and desire to use them.
Why does the receiver take in art? Among the many reasons might be:
Cajoling from friends
A desire for distraction/entertainment
Agreement with a particular artist’s position
Enjoyment of being thought intellectual/artistic
Liking the way art makes them feel
A longing for a deeper understanding
A desire to learn how to better produce their own art.
However, for the Christian disciple, the desire to create art must always be infused with the desire to love God with all our heart and soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In an interview with World Magazine, author John Erickson touches on this overriding need; he was asked “You've said that you learned from parents and teachers that your ‘business is not books. It's nourishment.’ What do you mean by that?” to which he replied “People need good stories just as they need home-cooked meals, clean water, spiritual peace, and love. A good story is part of that process. It affirms divine order in the universe and justice in human affairs and makes people better than they were before they read it. If artists are more gifted than ordinary mortals (we keep hearing that they are), they should find order and harmony in human experience. That's what Bach and Handel did. Artists should nourish the spirit, not poison it.” (Interview from December 2, 2006 issue). If artists are to approach their task with love, then it needs to be about more than ego, prestige, and power. Nourishment is a fine model for considering the needs of others in the creation of art.
Then there is art that is simply for the glory of God – art that aims at reflecting beauty, truth, or goodness simply because it reflects well upon God. These too have their place in the soulcraft of the Christian artist.
Yet we mustn’t forget the receiver of art as well. How does one receive art lovingly? How does one approach a work of art with full understanding that there is a serious human being behind it with serious intent? Author Zadie Smith laments the consumer-driven laziness of receivers of art: “But the problem with readers, the idea we’re given of reading is that the model of a reader is the person watching a film, or watching television. So the greatest principle is, "I should sit here and I should be entertained." And the more classical model, which has completely taken away, is the idea of a reader as an amateur musician. An amateur musician who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don’t know, who they probably couldn’t comprehend entirely, and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you. That’s the incredibly unfashionable idea of reading. And yet when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put into it. It’s an old moral, but it’s completely true.” (from an interview on the KCRW program Bookworm, November 2006, emphasis mine). The radical idea here is that receivers of art give a gift to artists by attending thoughtfully, diligently, and indeed lovingly.
Attending to the work does not imply agreement with the message of a work nor does it imply enjoyment of the emotions aroused by the work. Attending to the work means that as a labor of love we seek to experience and understand. Francis Schaeffer, in the face of an anti-intellectual evangelicalism of the 1960’s, reminded evangelicals that we need to extend love and compassion to artists “These paintings, these poems and these demonstrations which we have been talking about are the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art? Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live, yet where is our compassion for them? There is nothing more ugly than an orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.” (The God Who is There, 36).
We might also consider that loving God by attending to the work does imply something beyond simply attending. I’m not sure if it would be evaluating the work or interpreting the work. Perhaps it would be deconstructing the work from within Christian worldview.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
Other links for the series and related posts:
The Arts as Soulcraft: Introduction
The Arts as Soulcraft: Patience
The first of the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians is Love. This shows that love takes primacy over all the other gifts – indeed, it seems as though all the other gifts grow naturally out of love.
I Corinthians 13 gives us the most penetrating view of love, though it is in danger of becoming cliché because of overuse at weddings. The statements about love could be taken as a litany of the other fruit of the spirit “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (v 4-7). So we see that love, in the primary place among the fruit of the spirit is the overriding feature.
However, the challenge here is that much of art’s efforts are all about love – defining love, exploring love, explaining love, encouraging, exhorting, and seducing. Simply because love is a subject of intellectual content of art, our approach to how art produces Godly love within us becomes much more tricky. We mustn’t confuse what particular artists have to say about love with the actuality of love as it is being worked out within us by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells us that the two great commandments are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And “Love your neighbor as yourself.” – he says “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (From Matthew 22:37-40). From this we see that love is oriented toward the other – it is not a sating of an inner itch. Love is not consumption of the other like a tasty morsel that momentarily slakes our appetite. Love is our becoming consumed with the reality of God and concerned with the dignity of humans made in God’s image.
So how do the arts further the growth of love within the Christian disciple? It is far easier to tackle the challenge of the other fruit of the spirit because they are easier to define. As we look at each of the other fruit of the spirit, we will come to understand the answer to how the arts grow love within the disciple (and how to recognize counterfeit idolatry).
Yet there is one compelling piece we can talk about immediately – motivation. What is the driving factor in an artist creating or a layperson receiving art. Artists, like people in any other profession, are driven by a confusing mélange of motivations that manifest themselves in as many unique combinations as there are artists. But at any given time, certain motivations rise to the fore of one’s psychology – affecting the decision making process and personal behavior. It is these motiviations that are the first clue in whether an individual is a hero or a scoundrel (they are certainly not the last word, but they are the first clue).
Why does the artist create? Among the many reasons might be:
A need to express inner turmoils and longings and passions
A hunger for respect of peers.
An affinity with the perceived lifestyle those with the artistic temperament
A desire to change minds and make prophetic statements.
A satisfaction that arises from the pure fun of doing art
A longing for attention and affirmation from audiences.
A recognition of talents and desire to use them.
Why does the receiver take in art? Among the many reasons might be:
Cajoling from friends
A desire for distraction/entertainment
Agreement with a particular artist’s position
Enjoyment of being thought intellectual/artistic
Liking the way art makes them feel
A longing for a deeper understanding
A desire to learn how to better produce their own art.
However, for the Christian disciple, the desire to create art must always be infused with the desire to love God with all our heart and soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In an interview with World Magazine, author John Erickson touches on this overriding need; he was asked “You've said that you learned from parents and teachers that your ‘business is not books. It's nourishment.’ What do you mean by that?” to which he replied “People need good stories just as they need home-cooked meals, clean water, spiritual peace, and love. A good story is part of that process. It affirms divine order in the universe and justice in human affairs and makes people better than they were before they read it. If artists are more gifted than ordinary mortals (we keep hearing that they are), they should find order and harmony in human experience. That's what Bach and Handel did. Artists should nourish the spirit, not poison it.” (Interview from December 2, 2006 issue). If artists are to approach their task with love, then it needs to be about more than ego, prestige, and power. Nourishment is a fine model for considering the needs of others in the creation of art.
Then there is art that is simply for the glory of God – art that aims at reflecting beauty, truth, or goodness simply because it reflects well upon God. These too have their place in the soulcraft of the Christian artist.
Yet we mustn’t forget the receiver of art as well. How does one receive art lovingly? How does one approach a work of art with full understanding that there is a serious human being behind it with serious intent? Author Zadie Smith laments the consumer-driven laziness of receivers of art: “But the problem with readers, the idea we’re given of reading is that the model of a reader is the person watching a film, or watching television. So the greatest principle is, "I should sit here and I should be entertained." And the more classical model, which has completely taken away, is the idea of a reader as an amateur musician. An amateur musician who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don’t know, who they probably couldn’t comprehend entirely, and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you. That’s the incredibly unfashionable idea of reading. And yet when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put into it. It’s an old moral, but it’s completely true.” (from an interview on the KCRW program Bookworm, November 2006, emphasis mine). The radical idea here is that receivers of art give a gift to artists by attending thoughtfully, diligently, and indeed lovingly.
Attending to the work does not imply agreement with the message of a work nor does it imply enjoyment of the emotions aroused by the work. Attending to the work means that as a labor of love we seek to experience and understand. Francis Schaeffer, in the face of an anti-intellectual evangelicalism of the 1960’s, reminded evangelicals that we need to extend love and compassion to artists “These paintings, these poems and these demonstrations which we have been talking about are the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art? Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live, yet where is our compassion for them? There is nothing more ugly than an orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.” (The God Who is There, 36).
We might also consider that loving God by attending to the work does imply something beyond simply attending. I’m not sure if it would be evaluating the work or interpreting the work. Perhaps it would be deconstructing the work from within Christian worldview.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
Other links for the series and related posts:
The Arts as Soulcraft: Introduction
The Arts as Soulcraft: Patience
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Ethanol, Economics, and Environment
I've become very interested in the move to decrease our dependence upon foreign oil by moving toward ethanol. It seems that this should be an easy transition -- after all, Brazil has been running on sugar-cane based ethanol for several years. The city of Cincinnati transitioned to using Biodiesel in their public transit buses, and have saved almost half a million dollars, according to an article in the Enquirer on Tuesday:
Now on top of that, the Wall Street Journal reports that Governor Ahhhnold ordered California to cut at least 10% of carbon content in fuel by 2020 -- and 37 state governors are pushing for greater federal mandates for increased ethanol usage.
Ethanol use just makes good sense for consumers -- I'm hoping to hold out buying a new car until it's widely more available (listen up Detroit -- I don't plan on buying a new car until I can buy an ethanol using car). Ethanol use will pump more dollars back into our economy and it will be technology that we can export to other countries. It seems like a great win win for all involved.
If only I had bought Corn Futures.....
Excelsior
Russell
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, the agency that runs the
Metro bus service in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, estimates that it saved
almost $450,000 in 2006 by using biodiesel, which is fuel made from an
organic compound, such as soybeans. Metro's 390 buses used about 3.6 million
gallons of fuel last year - half of which was biodiesel. During warm months,
Metro fueled all buses with a blend made of up to 75 percent of biodiesel. It
switched back to 20 percent biodiesel blend in colder months because the
biodiesel can jell in cold weather. Ohio is the sixth-largest producer of
soybeans in the nation, and biodiesel burns cleaner and has fewer emissions than
standard diesel fuel.
Now on top of that, the Wall Street Journal reports that Governor Ahhhnold ordered California to cut at least 10% of carbon content in fuel by 2020 -- and 37 state governors are pushing for greater federal mandates for increased ethanol usage.
Ethanol use just makes good sense for consumers -- I'm hoping to hold out buying a new car until it's widely more available (listen up Detroit -- I don't plan on buying a new car until I can buy an ethanol using car). Ethanol use will pump more dollars back into our economy and it will be technology that we can export to other countries. It seems like a great win win for all involved.
If only I had bought Corn Futures.....
Excelsior
Russell
With One Voice: Reggie Kidd on Psalm 22
As we continue digesting Reggie Kidd's With One Voice, we come to his exposition of Psalm 22. Reggie covers some familiar territory here -- this is, after all, one of my favorite psalms to use during the Holy Week observances. It eerily prefigures what would happen to Christ on the cross. It is also a Psalm I use for comfort -- when I'm in deep distress, it helps me greatly to know that David was quite free in crying out to God "My God, My God why have you forsaken me". We have liberty to bring our anguish and disappointment and confusion to God. And strangely what happens for David, and what often happens for me, is that God uses the very act of crying out to bring healing and comfort -- thus the second half of the Psalm dealing with the feast celebrating God's deliverance.Reggie does bring up one very important factor that I hadn't considered before about this Psalm: the people who are invited to the celebration. He points out the counterbalancing sets: Israelites and the nations, the poor and the rich, the dead and the not yet born.
With the first set of Israelites and the nations, Reggie brings up the old Biblical truth of God's design to bless the nations and have them all come under the banner of Christ. He describes this theme as a "whisper" in the Old Testament, and this instance being one of the whispers.
The second set caught my attention -- the poor and the rich will be at the feast. I'm so used to churchly criticisms of the rich, that it's almost startling to hear that yes, there are indeed some God fearing rich folk who will be welcomed at the feast. Reggie is quick to remind us that there are other plenty of scriptures that warn against "satedness" and self satisfaction in wealth and riches. However, this little picture shows us that grace will indeed be extended to the wealthy as well.
Then the third set started ringing my bell. I've spent the better half of 2006 making a case for our covenant responsibilities to one another across the generations, and here Reggie takes it even further. Both the dead and the not yet born also have a place at the table. “In Christ, the dead and the living make up one community of praise....David understood that whenever any of us comes along in the timeline, and from whatever angle, we are there to serve those who come after us. The yet-to-be are part of our song as well as those who have died in God.” (83) This thought alone could fill up a whole series of blog posts -- in what ways do we truly give our antecedents a place at the table -- do we truly honor the faith of the saints of the past, or do we pay it lip service so that we can inhabit their house and plunder their riches for our own gain. In like manner, do we truly think ahead for the next generation, or do we concern ourselves with sating our present needs, with no heed for the long term viability of culture or the church. How much do we really see ourselves in continuity with the saints of the past and future-- and more importantly, is our continuity based in our shared song of praise? Good stuff here, Reggie!
“In a sense Psalm 22 is the theological center of the book of Psalms. Like Israel’s pilgrimage it begins in lonliness and dejection and ends, on the far side of God’s miraculous intervention in comradeship and elation.” (86) Reggie sums up here by turning to the heart once again -- I would have liked stories of how David's (and Christ's) song have tangibly brought comfort to some beloved saint -- but that's not a serious flaw, just a stylistic preference. All told, this chapter presents us solid material, continuing on his Worship Theology of the Heart.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
With One Voice: The Singing Savior
With One Voice: The Psalms
With One Voice: David -- Israel's Sweet Singer and Architect of Praise
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
The Arts as Soulcraft: Patience
See the introduction to this series:
As we look at the arts as one of the vehicles through which the Holy Spirit can grow the fruit of the spirit within us, we start with Patience (mainly because that's what's bouncing through my mind right now). In many ways, patience is the quality of waiting rather than grasping. However it is not a waiting in lethargy. Patience does not imply that we sit around waiting for something to happen. Patience implies waiting in expectation, but without anxiety. Patience comes in taking action, knowing that your actions will bear fruit in some unidentified way down the road in the future. Patience is the investor who sets aside a little bit of money every month for twenty years until a nest egg is built. Patience is the person who lets go of the dream of looking like a cover model, and begins to exercise every day, knowing that these actions will have a cumulative effect of contributing to good health. Patience is the scholar who collects articles and tidbits and thoughts in her files, knowing that someday down the road, those files may produce a treasure in the form of a book, project, or new insight. Patience is in the parent, who endures unfair anger and frustration from his child because he knows that the discipline he is exerting will pay off in unexpected yet beneficial ways down the road.
For the Christian, patience is ultimately rooted in the sovereignty of God. Our ground for patience is in trusting that no matter how baffling or confusing the situation, no matter how much we are hurt or aching, the Master Architect and Lover of our Souls, the Living God ultimately has all things in his hand. Such knowledge doesn’t dispel our anxieties with waiting with a magic wand. No, it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to apply that knowledge to our hearts. And the arts can be used as a vehicle for such application.
The artist who creates must learn the discipline of patience. Bending the materials of the craft to the will takes patience and diligence and a willingness to surrender. For every theatrical production, there are countless hours of rehearsal. Actors work diligently to build the inner worlds of their characters and then to work out their gestures, mannerisms, vocal patterns, emotional responses, poise. Meanwhile a legion of costume designers, set designers, lighting designers and other technicians work diligently to create a space that supports the vision of the play, rather than distracting from it. The director works long hours tying these various threads together. And all this for a few ephemeral hours to entertain and delight the audience. It takes tremendous patience to endure the weeks and weeks of rehearsal – but it is patience with expectation – there will come a show. The exact outcome of the show is uncertain – will it be a stunning success, will it flop. Will anyone come at all? In the performing arts, there is always the element of the unexpected. Patience is rooted in both expectation and uncertainty. The truly patient must accept the circumstances of the moment. Whether you have an audience of 10 or 1000, they deserve the best show that you can put on. Technical glitches should not derail the performance – for the show must go on.
I suspect it is true in many other art forms. How many hours of practice and training go into the mastery of an instrument. How many nights are spent before the strings of the guitar begin to produce a rush of harmonious music rather than a staccato shotgun of sound. The great puritan preacher William Gurnall, in his funeral oration for Elizabeth Dowager Countess of Clare, uses this image of playing a complex instrument as a way of indicating the spiritual journey for those to whom much has been given:
“The more strings an instrument has, the more art is required to handle it well; the larger the field is, the more labor it will cost him who is to till it. In a word, the greater the servant’s charge is, and the more business which lies upon his hands, the more care is necessary to tend it; and where the care must be great, the labor cannot be little, because care itself is one of the greatest labors.” (6)
Gurnall’s point is that the art, care, and labor involved in learning an artistic craft, maintaining property, or engaging in business is but a training ground for the spiritual labor of the Christian. And he makes the case in this funeral oration, that the labor has its sweetness from the anticipated reward. The patience arises from its roots of expectation. Thus, the title of this oration is “The Christian’s Labor and Reward”
And yet the arts also afford a training ground in patience for the receiver of the arts. Henri Nouwen in his book Return of the Prodigal demonstrates this. He talks of his obsession with Rembrand’s Return of the Prodigal. When He finally was able to take a trip to St. Petersburg, he was able to arrange a visit to the Hermitage to see the great masterwork – but because of the great lines out front he was frustrated in his attempts to draw close to it. Finally, through a friend, he was able to arrange an expedited intrance into the museum and preferential treatment to be able to sit and examine the painting. He spent 8 hours over the course of two days sitting and examining this painting –watching the light play across it at different times of day. Meditating on the faces of the various people depicted. Savoring every nuance like a freshly picked basket of strawberries – sweet and juicy and lush on the lips. He was surrounded by a thousand masterpieces all through the museum, but rather than hurrying through each room to make sure he saw everything – rather than treating the museum as an all you can eat buffet into which he must stuff as much into his intellectual maw as he can – he treated the painting as a gourmet meal to be savored and explored and relished.
And the savoring paid off dividends handsomely in understanding – and ultimately in the production of the book. Art positively invites the receiver to attend to it – and if we’re patient in the attending, then we reap rewards – even if ultimately we decide we don’t like the work, or we decide we like it, but that it’s not a “great” work.
More to come -- I look forward to your thoughts.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
As we look at the arts as one of the vehicles through which the Holy Spirit can grow the fruit of the spirit within us, we start with Patience (mainly because that's what's bouncing through my mind right now). In many ways, patience is the quality of waiting rather than grasping. However it is not a waiting in lethargy. Patience does not imply that we sit around waiting for something to happen. Patience implies waiting in expectation, but without anxiety. Patience comes in taking action, knowing that your actions will bear fruit in some unidentified way down the road in the future. Patience is the investor who sets aside a little bit of money every month for twenty years until a nest egg is built. Patience is the person who lets go of the dream of looking like a cover model, and begins to exercise every day, knowing that these actions will have a cumulative effect of contributing to good health. Patience is the scholar who collects articles and tidbits and thoughts in her files, knowing that someday down the road, those files may produce a treasure in the form of a book, project, or new insight. Patience is in the parent, who endures unfair anger and frustration from his child because he knows that the discipline he is exerting will pay off in unexpected yet beneficial ways down the road.
For the Christian, patience is ultimately rooted in the sovereignty of God. Our ground for patience is in trusting that no matter how baffling or confusing the situation, no matter how much we are hurt or aching, the Master Architect and Lover of our Souls, the Living God ultimately has all things in his hand. Such knowledge doesn’t dispel our anxieties with waiting with a magic wand. No, it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to apply that knowledge to our hearts. And the arts can be used as a vehicle for such application.
The artist who creates must learn the discipline of patience. Bending the materials of the craft to the will takes patience and diligence and a willingness to surrender. For every theatrical production, there are countless hours of rehearsal. Actors work diligently to build the inner worlds of their characters and then to work out their gestures, mannerisms, vocal patterns, emotional responses, poise. Meanwhile a legion of costume designers, set designers, lighting designers and other technicians work diligently to create a space that supports the vision of the play, rather than distracting from it. The director works long hours tying these various threads together. And all this for a few ephemeral hours to entertain and delight the audience. It takes tremendous patience to endure the weeks and weeks of rehearsal – but it is patience with expectation – there will come a show. The exact outcome of the show is uncertain – will it be a stunning success, will it flop. Will anyone come at all? In the performing arts, there is always the element of the unexpected. Patience is rooted in both expectation and uncertainty. The truly patient must accept the circumstances of the moment. Whether you have an audience of 10 or 1000, they deserve the best show that you can put on. Technical glitches should not derail the performance – for the show must go on.
I suspect it is true in many other art forms. How many hours of practice and training go into the mastery of an instrument. How many nights are spent before the strings of the guitar begin to produce a rush of harmonious music rather than a staccato shotgun of sound. The great puritan preacher William Gurnall, in his funeral oration for Elizabeth Dowager Countess of Clare, uses this image of playing a complex instrument as a way of indicating the spiritual journey for those to whom much has been given:
“The more strings an instrument has, the more art is required to handle it well; the larger the field is, the more labor it will cost him who is to till it. In a word, the greater the servant’s charge is, and the more business which lies upon his hands, the more care is necessary to tend it; and where the care must be great, the labor cannot be little, because care itself is one of the greatest labors.” (6)
Gurnall’s point is that the art, care, and labor involved in learning an artistic craft, maintaining property, or engaging in business is but a training ground for the spiritual labor of the Christian. And he makes the case in this funeral oration, that the labor has its sweetness from the anticipated reward. The patience arises from its roots of expectation. Thus, the title of this oration is “The Christian’s Labor and Reward”
And yet the arts also afford a training ground in patience for the receiver of the arts. Henri Nouwen in his book Return of the Prodigal demonstrates this. He talks of his obsession with Rembrand’s Return of the Prodigal. When He finally was able to take a trip to St. Petersburg, he was able to arrange a visit to the Hermitage to see the great masterwork – but because of the great lines out front he was frustrated in his attempts to draw close to it. Finally, through a friend, he was able to arrange an expedited intrance into the museum and preferential treatment to be able to sit and examine the painting. He spent 8 hours over the course of two days sitting and examining this painting –watching the light play across it at different times of day. Meditating on the faces of the various people depicted. Savoring every nuance like a freshly picked basket of strawberries – sweet and juicy and lush on the lips. He was surrounded by a thousand masterpieces all through the museum, but rather than hurrying through each room to make sure he saw everything – rather than treating the museum as an all you can eat buffet into which he must stuff as much into his intellectual maw as he can – he treated the painting as a gourmet meal to be savored and explored and relished.
And the savoring paid off dividends handsomely in understanding – and ultimately in the production of the book. Art positively invites the receiver to attend to it – and if we’re patient in the attending, then we reap rewards – even if ultimately we decide we don’t like the work, or we decide we like it, but that it’s not a “great” work.
More to come -- I look forward to your thoughts.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
Sunday, January 07, 2007
2007 Weblog Awards
It's time again for the 2007 Weblog Awards -- here are my nominees for this year -- I encourage each of you to pay a visit and encourage our fellow bloggers:
Best British Weblog: Adrian Warnock
Best Canadian Weblog: Tim Challies
Best American Weblog: Blogotional
Best Photography: Search the Sea
Best Political Blog: The Crunchy Con
Here are my nominees for last year - all of them still high quality.
Be sure to visit the nominations page and nominate your favorites.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
Best British Weblog: Adrian Warnock
Best Canadian Weblog: Tim Challies
Best American Weblog: Blogotional
Best Photography: Search the Sea
Best Political Blog: The Crunchy Con
Here are my nominees for last year - all of them still high quality.
Be sure to visit the nominations page and nominate your favorites.
Soli Deo Gloria
Russell
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Now Playing: Charlotte's Web and Eragon
Among the many things did while on vacation in SC was going to see movies -- actual movies in the movie theater -- with popcorn and everything.
First was Charlotte's Web -- the new live action adaptation of EB White's classic book. I must confess, I thought they were going to botch this terribly. But I liked it a lot better than the cartoon version from the 70s (the cartoon was produced by Hannah Barbera -- and it used the same vocal talent that they used in Johnny Quest and Scooby Doo. I always wondered why Mr. Zuckerman sounded like he was about to say "and I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling spider!"). It had just the right blend of sentiment and seriousness about life on a farm. This production also showed us why Charlotte has such affection for Wilbur -- for it was only Wilbur who saw beauty in her (everyone else saw a frightful creature). Beau Bridges does a fine turn as the country doctor who tries to convince Fern's mother that the little girl isn't crazy for talking with animals; he tells her that she's a normal girl and that sadly she'll grow out of it. All said, a fine effort and worth the time.
Eragon was a different story. At first, I expected great things. Then the IMDB comments dissuaded me from going at all, indicating that it was horrible -- worse than the third tier 1970s fantasy efforts like Kull and the Conan series. But brother Jack talked me into going. What we have in this film is basically Star Wars with dragons instead of lightsabers: young orphan boy being raised by his uncle finds himself in posession of an object stolen from the evil emperor by a beautiful princess. The mysterious wise stranger takes young orphan boy under his wing after his uncle is killed by the minions of the emperor's dark and mystical right hand man. As they flee from the faceless hordes of the emperors minions, the wise stranger teaches the boy about the mysterious powers that he has access to and reveals that the boy is the last hope to resucitate an ancient order of heroes. The wise mentor dies while saving the life of the young hero, leaving the boy on his own. The tale ends as the boy takes his place leading the climactic battle in which he confronts the dark and mystical right hand man of the emperor and defeats him. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Some serious problems here -- the book is 500 pages, the film under two hours. The pacing of the film is all off because they've had to abbreviate and quicken so much of the story. John Malkovich's talent is wasted in his role as the emperor -- his stage direction seems to have been "stand there -- now clench your jaw and try to shout". Similarly, most of the villanous characters seem cut out of cardboard. The hero Eragon is charming -- and the computer graphics dragon is outstanding -- some of the best graphics work I've seen. Jeremy Irons puts in a fine performance as Brom, the wise mentor. All told, this is an average work -- not too bad, but not great either.
Excelsior.
Russell
First was Charlotte's Web -- the new live action adaptation of EB White's classic book. I must confess, I thought they were going to botch this terribly. But I liked it a lot better than the cartoon version from the 70s (the cartoon was produced by Hannah Barbera -- and it used the same vocal talent that they used in Johnny Quest and Scooby Doo. I always wondered why Mr. Zuckerman sounded like he was about to say "and I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling spider!"). It had just the right blend of sentiment and seriousness about life on a farm. This production also showed us why Charlotte has such affection for Wilbur -- for it was only Wilbur who saw beauty in her (everyone else saw a frightful creature). Beau Bridges does a fine turn as the country doctor who tries to convince Fern's mother that the little girl isn't crazy for talking with animals; he tells her that she's a normal girl and that sadly she'll grow out of it. All said, a fine effort and worth the time.
Eragon was a different story. At first, I expected great things. Then the IMDB comments dissuaded me from going at all, indicating that it was horrible -- worse than the third tier 1970s fantasy efforts like Kull and the Conan series. But brother Jack talked me into going. What we have in this film is basically Star Wars with dragons instead of lightsabers: young orphan boy being raised by his uncle finds himself in posession of an object stolen from the evil emperor by a beautiful princess. The mysterious wise stranger takes young orphan boy under his wing after his uncle is killed by the minions of the emperor's dark and mystical right hand man. As they flee from the faceless hordes of the emperors minions, the wise stranger teaches the boy about the mysterious powers that he has access to and reveals that the boy is the last hope to resucitate an ancient order of heroes. The wise mentor dies while saving the life of the young hero, leaving the boy on his own. The tale ends as the boy takes his place leading the climactic battle in which he confronts the dark and mystical right hand man of the emperor and defeats him. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Some serious problems here -- the book is 500 pages, the film under two hours. The pacing of the film is all off because they've had to abbreviate and quicken so much of the story. John Malkovich's talent is wasted in his role as the emperor -- his stage direction seems to have been "stand there -- now clench your jaw and try to shout". Similarly, most of the villanous characters seem cut out of cardboard. The hero Eragon is charming -- and the computer graphics dragon is outstanding -- some of the best graphics work I've seen. Jeremy Irons puts in a fine performance as Brom, the wise mentor. All told, this is an average work -- not too bad, but not great either.
Excelsior.
Russell
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to you all!
I've been in my hometown of Columbia, SC enjoying catching up with family and friends. Posting will still be kind of sparse for the next couple of days, but I wanted to remind you all to cheer for Wake Forest (my alma mater) in the Orange Bowl tomorrow.
And did any of you see Boise State's performance against Oklahoma? Glorious --easily the most exciting game I've seen this year.
See you soon.
Excelsior
Russell
I've been in my hometown of Columbia, SC enjoying catching up with family and friends. Posting will still be kind of sparse for the next couple of days, but I wanted to remind you all to cheer for Wake Forest (my alma mater) in the Orange Bowl tomorrow.
And did any of you see Boise State's performance against Oklahoma? Glorious --easily the most exciting game I've seen this year.
See you soon.
Excelsior
Russell
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