k(no)w God

No God.

Why do we examine the ant? 

Why do we study the blue whale?

Why do we snorkel in the coral reef? 

Why does the starry sky fill us with awe?

Why can a memory bring with it tears & smiles?

Why does listening to a composition by Mozart feel like an escape?

Why does the heart soar at the sound of Andrea Bocelli’s voice?

Why do we dedicate buildings for the purpose of viewing art?

Why is the heart capable of containing so many secrets?

Why are worldly sites attributed the word “Wonder”?

Why do we coo at newborn babies?

Why do we cuddle puppies?

Why do we grow flowers?

Why do we plant lilacs?

Why do we let lies lie?

Know God.

standing in solidarity

I stand in solidarity with all the great teachers I have had through out my schooling, in Illinois and especially in Wisconsin. I stand with those who are part of unions because though I myself have never been in a union I understand that their OVERALL greater meaning and function is a good one. So to these protesters exercising their constitutional right to assemble, I stand with you.

Here are some good links about the greater implications of this issue:
Unions aren't to blame for Wisconsin's budget
Union Changes In Wisconsin Spark Protests
Burning Down Wisconsin: Worse Than Budget Busting

 Update 2/24/11:
I recently read an article by Bill O'Reilly of all people. He, even He! had a few positive things to say about unions. OMG

virtual rule #8

Virtual rule #8: Stop and think (Part 2)

"There is a simple rule by which...one...can at least refrain from being a pest or a bore. And the rule is merely to stop and think."-page 48, Etiquette In Society, In Business, In Politics and At Home, Emily Post

This above quote is from a chapter entitled "Conversation" in which I found convicting and enormously valuable communication advice. We have already addressed the importance of the internal check of stop and think when it comes to honoring others and respecting privacy. (For more info please refer to Virtual Rule #7) The virtual world gives us numerous ways of "speaking" without having to listen and that is one of its greatest downfalls. Let's look at some additional ways "stop and think" is an invaluable tool:

• Conveniences inconvenience - There was a time when communication was not as accessible. There was no telephone or email or instant texting; if you wanted to communicate something you would have to write a letter (the art of which is dying) and send it snail mail - through the post office. Or you would have to have a trusted associate relay the information for you. This inaccessibility caused communication to be more thoughtful, more shall we say, pondered. There is something about the handwritten note that conveys intimacy and fellowship in a way an email never will or can. (The tangibility of something to hold, the stationary paper, the stamped envelope, the personal penmanship - all these things are irreplaceable and something an email can't replicate.) The convenience of instant communication is at times its greatest inconvenience. Because we can communicate so vastly and quickly the window of pause to stop and think has dissolved. Remember in your virtual communications to slow down, ponder the words, meaning and motive in your communications. Perhaps step away for an hour from the "SEND" button; ponder the communicated information contained inside the email, text message, blog post... treat "SEND" as you would a stamp on a handwritten letter, for in our virtual world that is exactly what it is.
• Play to your audience -  "Would a young mother describe twenty or thirty cunning tricks and sayings of the baby to a bachelor who has been helplessly put beside her at dinner if she thought? She would know very well, alas! that not even a very dear friend would really care for more than a hors d'oeuvre of the subject, at the board of general conversation." (page 49, ibid.) This is a vital plus in the call of stop and think. Who has not at some point been bombarded with too much information and prattle from someone regarding their children, family, pets, career or education? Eh-ugh! there is no one at times more thoughtless than the new parent, the newly married (even the newly dating) or the highly educated. Talk of your fortunes, delights, even your troubles, whatever it may be, in moderation and with consideration, with that in mind you can never go wrong. Everyone, not even the closest of friends, need hear through Facebook or over coffee, of the twenty cute and adorable things your little bundle of joy did or about how every single thing in your life is perfect. Care and at times therefore spare your audience.

I remember in grade school learning the phrase "Stop, Drop & Roll" regarding what to do if you happen to catch fire. In communication remember the phrase "Stop and think" for then you never need roll to put out flames caused by thoughtlessness.

knit knot finished

I started knitting something... a couple years ago. It's a scarf and it's still unfinished. I don't remember how to begin again (knit terminology is casting on) so I can't start over and I don't know how to finish it up (knit term casting off); so I keep knitting what I know. It's a really long scarf now. I feel like this scarf is a pretty good metaphor for a period in my life called middling twenties. You can't go back and you can't go forward - it's limbo.

I hate limbo. When all plans are for naught, all good intentions remain just that and efforts produced lessons not sought but nonetheless real. Middling twenties. Learning to knit was a goal I made for myself and in the loosest sense it is accomplished. However I am stuck on the same piece I started, one color, one width, endless length. (In life I feel like I am stuck at the same place I started, same job, one pay grade and endless days of time clock punching.) I need to surrender the knitting needles to someone with more skill than I; I have long ago surrendered the ball of knotted yarn called "my life" and after much much patience, prayer and some shaming moments of self-pity, recent developments are giving me great hope.

No one knits alone, no one knits a scarf never to be seen or blanket never to give warmth, no one should. There is something intimate about knitting. It's an amazing process, the loose becoming the gathered. These middling twenties have been part of that process. I will finish what I started knitting but more importantly than that is the future hope that I will no longer be knotted up in life. It has been thus far the unplanned for events of life which have been the most meaningful and most heartbreaking. I wanted a straight and easy path, filled with light and lithe; instead the path has been steep and winding, filled with long periods of shadow. I don't know how much of what happens to us is in our own hands. I don't think I ever will understand how God's sovereignty and our free will meet; seriously, do I have real choice when God has full omnipotence? Sigh... alas... somethings are too much to grapple or grasp.

My Gran takes a craft class on Tuesdays. She came home today with good word; five minutes later I had a finished scarf. One never knows how or when a knot in life will be undone. xo

virtual rule #7

Virtual Rule #7: Stop and think (Part 1)

"Nearly all the faults or mistakes in conversation are caused by not thinking."

Emily Post

MARK
"I was drunk and angry and stupid."
MARYLIN
"And blogging."
MARK
"And blogging."

from The Social Network

When does a conversation end? Do we let the conversations we participate in end when we leave them or do we at times replay them over and over, keeping them alive and current? In the virtual word we live in, we can say things about people and even to people themselves in very indirect ways. Maybe we recall something we wish we had said during the conversation or maybe we were to chicken to say what we were really thinking so we "converse" virtually - indirectly - publicizing the private all behind the mask of the web. We get to say what we want to say but don't have to necessarily care about the response. This is dangerous. 

Does there need to be two participating parties for there to be a conversation? At one time, yes I think there did but no longer is that the case. I blog. I blog to the entire world, in a way conversing with the world. The world does not respond, the world does not take whole notice but yet here I am jabbering (typing) along. I am conversing and though I am not CNN, Oprah, or Katie Couric - the reach of my words is not on that scale - nonetheless my blog of words is out there to be heard, to be read, to be commented on. If I go postal and type a bunch of ranting, raving, thoughtless, nonsensical drivel - I am not only being a poor writer, I am being a poor conversationalist. Using the web as a tool to aim words at a target who has no ability to participate is cowardly. This blog is part of my dialogue not with one specific individual but all. If I take private dialogue and post it publicly, I degrade the value of that dialogue and dilute away an intimate relationship.

Stop and think Emily tells us and that is true in all facets of life. We communicate in ways unthought of 50 years ago, even as little as 10 years ago. When we leave another with whom we have been speaking we must not take that private conversation and publicize it. If there is more to say, we save it for whom it needs to be said or we let it go all together. Integrity once damaged is an impossibility to completely restore; stop and think before throwing yours away.

versatile / marching 2 my own verse

I love jazz. I love opera. Looking at my iTunes collection I also apparently love alternative, punk, alternative-punk, rock, singer songwriter, r&b, classical, and country. My music selection is versatile: does that make me versatile? Are there other areas of my life in which this versatility comes through?

I feel like there are times when "versatile" is a dirty word; it's given a bad rap. Sometimes when someone calls you "versatile" what they really mean is you are flaky, flighty, ungrounded. Is liking a lot of things equivalent to liking nothing? There is a difference between a pianist and a master pianist, there is a difference between a student of art and an artist; one who dedicates their life to one thing is different from the occasional dabbler. I like music but I also like literature; I like literature but I also like film; I like film but I also like shopping (I don't know). Out of all the subjects in life, what we like out of them and why says something about us according to the world, but is that true? Does my driving a Chevy or forgetting to bring my Eco-bags to Walmart say something about who I am? If I use plastic and not paper is that worthy of hanging? If I buy foreign and far instead of local and near am I less in some way?

Our musical likes define us like scent markers but should they? The movie Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - is dedicated to how a persons choice in music correlates not only to how "cool" they are as an individual but they're ability to find an equally "cool" mate. Characterization based upon a song selection is nonsense, isn't it? TV shows like Criminal Minds and Lie to Me, in which they profile an entire person based upon the way they appear in a photograph or the way the fold their hands in their lap, are giving me a complex. Who among us doesn't make premature, erroneous judgments based upon little things? And because we do it to others, we know they do it to us. Who doesn't start thinking that little trivial things like hair color, haircut, clothing choice, car brand define them? We need to examine what we are defined by.

volatile violet valentine

"You cannot save people, you can only love them." - The Diary Of Anais Nin, Volume Two (1934-1939)

I don't know the context from which the above quote was taken which makes it easy to attribute to it my own context. Yet maybe this is the type of quote that needs no context for the statement itself is its context. "You cannot save people, you can only love them." All alone the sentence implies so much; timely experience, wisdom gained from error, knowledge coming from pain, heartbreak perhaps, a resigning acceptance to an uncomfortable truth which once accepted bringing a type of peace, like a release from a weighing burden. All this I see in these nine words.

Is the statement true? Is saving people not something we're capable of? Doesn't loving someone imply by default a desire if not a willingness to save them? Can you really love someone and not desire to save them; save them from danger, save them from hurt, save them from regret, even at times save them from themselves? Are desires for saving necessary even if ultimate saving itself isn't up to us? The questions could go on and on with many answers or with none.

Upon thought it occurred to me that the word save can have two meanings: save as in rescue or save as in store up. It gives new meaning to the first half of the sentence, "You cannot save people"; you cannot store up people, hold people in reserve for personal use, no matter what the reason. Unlike an organism suspended in formaldehyde for preservation, people aren't meant to be stored/saved up. Unlike a shirt or a pen bought at a half price sale, people aren't meant to be reduced and bargained. People are meant to be actively, presently, continually loved; love existing in past memory but not current reality is an impossibility perhaps. Maybe that is the meaning...I don't know.

The statement "You cannot save people, you can only love them" takes on new meaning when applied to Christ; for loving is all tied into the saving. In the end I hold that though I myself can save no one, I can help them; because I love them I can help them and anything less is not love it's hypocrisy. Help them eternally and presently, spiritually and physically, individually and relationally. Without care, concern, and active affection, theere is no love.

Where red meets blue there's violet; where love meets care there's Christ. Can you see that? God tell me you see it.