sparking imagination
Sometimes, when saturated with national and global news, we tend to focus on that larger picture and neglect our main responsibility on the microlevel of our personal relationships and local community.
Voting and demonstrating about the larger issues are good and important community responsibilities, but most of our effectiveness is in the place where we live.
If you know the story of Peter walking on the water, you have a capsule full of insights into reality.
At this writing I have been living with the pain of a gout attack for about a week. As all who live with pain will say, “You don’t know what I feel unless you’ve been there.” Of course we all … Continued
I’m reading Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man (1955) in which he describes life transforming to more and more complexity and shows that life continues to grow beyond the outward form. As a prominent paleontologist and naturalist as well as Jesuit priest he believed life sciences should explore not only the outer forms – the skeletons that remain, the physical effects, the material world – but include the “within” – the imagination, consciousness, the spiritual.
Each of us can choose how far we will go as creators, which I believe is a collaboration with God. One source of clues for this belief is the ancient affirmations of Jesus spoken to a crowd on a hillside of Judea.
It is well known that affirming one’s children is key to their future success. But all parents work within limits based on their own parents’ limited ability to love and affirm. Even when we try to be affirming, our children … Continued
It does not take a very discerning analysis to conclude that the driving force of most human endeavor is focused on the material world. We are all living at some level of acquiring, managing, serving, or struggling with the material … Continued
In the wake of the scandalous hearings of Brett Kavanaugh’s assumption to the Supreme Court I re-read the story of the woman making a spectacle of herself by anointing Jesus’ feet at a very exclusive dinner party (Luke 7:36-50). I … Continued
Reading about Johannes Kepler’s given circumstances (1571-1630), buildings blocking his astronomical observations, having to move repeatedly to find new accommodations conducive to his work (Prague, Linz), the coming and going of his employers (government changes and rulers), troubles of warring … Continued
I am a late viewer of Leonardo DiCaprio’s important documentary “Before the Flood” (2016) . It starts with Hieronymus Bosch’s monumental artistic prophecy (painted between 1490 and 1510) of humanity’s degradation of the Creation and then documents the real, current day … Continued
