[Michael's note: futzing on my computer. I see Growl spit out a notice for Evernote. No surprise, since that's what I was fiddling with while waiting for [blah blah blah]. And then I saw the post. Hey, wait-a-sec! I don’t remember copy-pasting these three bookmarks. And then I looked at the three links that I thought important enough to throw into my fail-safe “@research-TODO-no-really-i-mean-it-this-time-1111″ folder. And I looked at the *when*.

and not that my participation is important or interesting or pertinent but there are other people in the same ‘league’. and this league has a message board where people can call each other names and tell them that they and their team suck and will lose. in fantasy of course. so its a little bit of smoke blowing.  i dont know all the people in the league.  but some people post on the message board more than others. and one of the gentlemen that i dont know at all came to the board with a question regarding THE ONE THAT BRINGS RAIN CLOUDS…OR NOT. here is his statement:
I’ve given up thinking God is ever going to even things out. By the way, biblical scholars: what is the story with King David. Why was he called a man after God’s own heart when he had a man killed just to be with his wife? How does he walk away relatively unscathed? I mean, If I did that…… And, I’d expect my children to hate me, you know?

Anyway, the point is—-give me a turn at being God—instant justice! No killers walking free. bernie madoff would be missing hands instead of his highrise. There would be very few Democrats. dean would lose a fantasy game more than every now and then.

A: i wouldnt say david walked away relatively unscathed.  children died. children killed each other. children raped each other and then killed each other. i dont know that all that was a result of his actions or could be considered ‘punishment?’ but i dont think they are not unrelated.

B: instant justice.  this is the more important question. god is a god of justice. the bible speaks to that. but god is also a god of grace. do justice and grace contradict each other. as far as the bible goes-potentially a just thing would be for us to be punished for our sins instead of receiving grace through geezus. god wants a blood sacrifice for sin.  it is not inherently ‘just’ for one man (jesus) to receive punishment for another’s malice or sin or tax fraud. it is not just for me to go to jail for bernie madoff. even if i volunteer myself up. god’s sorting things out may  not be according to what we perceive as just since he allowed the aforementioned sacrifice of jesus to take place.

so instead of focusing on ‘justice’ or hammurabi’s code, what did happen.  one thing that i think david shows throughout the bible is humility. and to maybe clarify what i mean by that would be to state that humility is being honest. david, many times, came to god pleading with an ‘oh crap i’m a mess and im in a mess and what do i do now help’ kind of statement (psalms). he came to the point that he was  honest about his situation and didnt try to conceal his mess.  maybe bernie madoff would be considered a man after god’s own heart if he brought humility to the table. maybe he’s headed there.
all that to say that maybe god values humility over morality. grace over justice. the new testament letters begin with admonitions of grace and peace not justice and vindication. maybe grace is ‘just’ in god’s economy or vocabulary. mankind is given the freedom to redeem itself through some other way than punishment. b/c thats obviously not working.  i’m not saying anarchy. but i’m saying that the way we perceive others operating from their mess (murder, taxes, porn, sloth) should have grace shared with them. and it is the responsibility of those that have grace to dispense it. not throw money at it or ignore it or try to punish it in hopes that social darwinism will clean out the riff raff. the poor will always be here…in spirit and otherwise.

and i suppose my opinion is to be taken with a grain of salt. or sand. or mood enhancing drugs.

[from an old email exchange]

(While listening to http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/04/21 )
—-===—
We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us. - Marshall McLuhan

Matthew 26:52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

Matthew 7:1-2 (NET) “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.

Matthew 6:22-23 (NET) “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Phillipians 4:8 (MSG) Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious–the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

The deva said,
Who is the most dangerous thief?
What is the most precious treasure?
Who can capture the heavens and the earth?
Where is the securest treasure-trove?

The Blessed One replied,
The most dangerous thief is unwholesome thought;
the most precious treasure is virtue;
the heavens and the earth may be captured by the mind’s eye;
surpassing rebirth locates the securest treasure-trove.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

The artist is the only person; his antennae pick up these messages before anybody. So he is always thought of as being way ahead of his time because he lives in the present. (Marshall McLuhan 1970)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_dynamics
http://www.43folders.com/2009/01/27/creativity-pattern

Donald Miller is one who skillfully beholds the beautiful in those who seemingly do not share his Christian faith. He lifts up the truth and beauty of those who are often attacked or ridiculed by the IMC (”institutionalized mainline church”).

In his November 11, 2007 message at Mars Hill, Donald Miller chooses a Robert McKee quotation as the closing thought for his sermon. (Miller indicated light-heartedly earlier in the message that he didn’t know if “McKee hated God or just Christians,” but that McKee was “pretty much a devout atheist.”)

Miller, quoting McKee:

Write every day. Line by line, page by page, hour by hour.

Do this despite fear. For, above all else — above imagination and skill — what the world asks of you is courage. Courage to risk rejection, ridicule, and failure.

As you follow the quest to find stories full of meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully, but write boldly.

Then, like the hero from the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.

Miller then offers as a concluding prayer, “God you have given us a pen inked [with your] blood. It’s our life. We want those stories [we write with our life] to absolutely glorify You. We want them to point to You. We praise you, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

The message Miller shared is a sermon that shows how our life narrative, the story written by every action we make as we live our lives,

When lived wrongly, our life-story can be a light hidden from those in need of love. Worse, the story we tell can be a not-asked-for blinding light, a light offensively thrust into the eyes of those who, for now, either do not need it, or are unable to receive it.

When lived rightly, our lives can be part of the story that glorifies God, one that can help others to open their eyes to the light of His love.

I am filled with wonder at Miller’s ability to dive again and again into he writings of McKee and bring forth so many precious pearls of divine wisdom.

(Full disclosure: I’ve got issues, a sour-taste left from past-IMC negativity. Take that bad story, reverse it, and then Merlin Mann it into a positive story: God is so graceful that He can take my hang-ups and use them as one more way to open my eyes wider in wonder at the growing awareness that His Truth and Beauty is everywhere I am able to mindfully look)

Miller, drawing on an insight from Robert McKee:

“The final cause of the decline of story runs very deep. Values, the positive and negative charges of life [...] are in decline. Story is being affected by this.

Values are the soul of our art. Writers shape story around their perception of what is worth living for and what is worth dying for[...]. Justice, truth, beauty, love: the essential values.

Ours is an age that has moral and ethical cynicism, relativism, subjectivism — a great confusion of values.

As the family disintegrates and sexual antagonisms rise — who, for example feels he understands the nature of love? If you do have a conviction, how do you express that conviction to an ever-increasing skeptical audience?

This erosion of values has brought about with it an erosion of story.”

Miller relates a discovery while writing creatively:

I’ve been trying to write this novel. I’d wake up in the morning and know what I wanted to write, know what I wanted the characters to do, and it’s weird, the characters kept trying to do things I didn’t want them to do. Ok, so, I highlight-delete.

I think, just for a moment, I understood God a little.

It’s like God says to me, “Don, people are dying in Africa. What are you going to do?”

And I say “God, I’m gonna buy a Volvo.”

“Don. We’re trying to write a good story here.”

It’s like we take what God has been saying to us and we turn and say to God, “God, I know how to write a better story!” And when we grab the pen out of God’s hand, what we’re really saying is, “God, I’m too afraid.” Or, “I’m scared.” Or, “I want this pleasure.”

When we take the pen out of God’s hand, the story we write is always a story that, sorry kids, sucks. We’ve just gotta trust Him, believe that He knows what He’s doing and that the story He wants for us  is a life worth living.

» Continue reading “Live Your Life as a Story Worth Telling”

‘how vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live!’ thoreau.

Praying + Falling Asleep = In My Dreams Jesus Is Funny

i have thirty minutes of cosmos to impregnate.  today i am tired. sleepy. melatonin was taken to ensure a thorough night’s sleep and it is lingering. numbing the good and the bad. not even the prospects of food have brought me out of this. and its 2pm.  so i’m thoroughly engrossed in a mental place that is not myself. neither manic nor depressive. static. pondering thoughts of hollow interactions in a class full of morons. interpersonal communication will talk about romantic relationships today. and i will offer none of myself.  i am romantic and relational, but today those thoughts cannot be coaxed out of me for any reason. and to expect something outside of myself (on a spiritual level) to prompt anything would be absurd.  that is today in a nutshell. and to take the metaphor a little more literally imagine a very tiny version of me actually in a peanut shell. but taking a nap. with the finest sheets and blankets  you could purchase at your local bed bath and beyond.  and i’ve even studied literature today. which should prompt something on a spiritual level. and i even read today. read of my own accord. ” the little white bird in the corner near his feet is talking to him, but he is deaf and the voice of the bird is inside him and he does not know whether he is talking to himself or whether he has become the little white bird himself.”  and that statement does nothing but confuse my already waning sense of ‘reality’ that loneliness brings about from a college campus. especially when you are old. barriers and whatnot.
i fully realize that this will make even the most inebriated or ‘prone to hallucinations’ person say ‘what the!’ but its me today. a scream on pause. i fully intend to medicate myself with high fructose corn syrup and caffeine when this is all over. and ive embraced the depression that normally follows this class and its glossing over and illumination of my relational deficiencies.  i’ve only had one granola bar today. total. surely that hasnt helped.
bathe them and bring them to me.

*the title of a chapter in ‘the wisdom of the heart’ by h. miller

Nut grafs are especially important for readers who skim the news and don’t bother to read entire news articles. They can get the gist of the entire article in a single graf. Nut grafs force journalists to take every bit of information, quote, opinion number and fact they acquired in the news gathering process and then digest it all into a single graf. It’s been said the only things harder is giving birth and making an Obama cabinet member pay taxes.

 Essential, the fruit of a journalist’s hard work and effort (and never mind the endurance of having to sit through an entire four-hour subcommittee meeting through dinner) is summarized in a few words.

Nowadays, this is called a Twitter update.

via #20 nut grafs .

Ok, I know this is supposed to be a humorous observation, but HOLY CRAP!!! It’s never occurred to me that we are training an ENTIRE WORL-WIDE GENERATION to become journalists, experts at sharing what’s new.

Now, IF ONLY there were something good they could share the taste of…. (HINT HINT HINT)

I would love to see a “for the people” translation of the Vedas or the Qur’an. Anyone know of anything? Compare Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message with the King James.

this whole thing of being. and where we are. not what we’re doing. it takes years to understand that concept. at least for me.  that what constitutes the here and now is a mental state of being. awareness of energy. a lack of silence. the complexities of the intermingling of them all. i dont have the gift of surrender. not yet. somehow it is found in all this .  ‘the greatest miracle is that discovery that all is miraculous.’ a concept that brings on a fury of brain connections. noise visuals sound. the decomposition of all that is natural(?)  compared to what is man made. what does it all have to say.  it brings more validity to the concept of art. a creation out of silence. not a construct made for efficiency. ‘man as the efficient misfit.’ incalculable truth in that statement. and its natural entropy is this machine connecting machines becoming one vast interlocking machine of a machine. and where am i but here. alone in the machine. covered in grease and oil and transmission fluid and radiator fluid. overheating. exhaustion from the machine. the machine that revs up at around 2pm . and grinds on me. grinds on my attempts to become salient of my sins. my needs? suffering from unnamable desperation. but it has a name. how has the psychology of a man in his thirties become aware of this nonsense. what worse regret. to find this out later in life and to have realized the wasting that took place. the futility. or now. and choosing to be futile. to cover myself in the grease of the machine. what prevents my  mind from actualizing the freedom i can describe. what prevents my mind from feeling different. there are 200 people within my peripheral vision at present. and within each of them a mind. maybe. wouldn’t some kind of cliche have been engrained in us at this age to propel us away from the machines. surely there are forces working against each other. one to give the message and one to molest it and turn it into an artifice. for those who have ears let them hear. ‘these luminaries (geezus and boodah and them) conveyed that there is no need for these laws of ours, these codes and conventions, these books of learning, these armies and navies, these rockets and spaceships, these thousand and one impedimentia which weigh us down, keep us apart, and bring us sickness and death. we need only to behave as brothers and sisters, follow our hearts  not our minds.’

and yet alone. and i suppose, once again, that to attempt to counter the solitude would answer some of these questions.