Icons and Espresso

A Late Night with Schelling

2010-03-13T23:16:00.000-08:00

In his introduction to Ideen, Schelling writes,
"Nature is visible Spirit; Spirit is invisible Nature."

Hmmm, coming from the perspective of the Thomists gratias perfecit naturam (Grace perfects Nature), I'm intrigued as to the relations between the Spirit and Nature in regards to Grace. Schelling, you may have dissolved a dichotomy I didn't know I had, I don't know. It's 3 AM. We'll see in the morning.

Though I certainly did like, "Der Anfang und das Ende aller Philosophie ist - Freiheit."
("The Beginning and End of all Philosohpy is Freedom").

Much Work to Do

2010-03-13T22:28:00.000-08:00

Considering my diligent working through Hesse and my reading spontaneously dropped German phrases in theological and philosophical contexts, I think my German is coming along blessedly. But today I decided to let my introduce my Theological Major (advanced in years and reading) to my newly sprouting German Minor (still finding its way through the world) by introducing him to Hans, only to exclaim has I have done previously, that Hans, You've Done it Again!

I've been reading a lot of Hans Urs von Balthasar over my Spring Break (a couple articles or chapters a day) especially in his views on eschatology. I've been increasingly perturbed by the allusions of these theologians to his dissertation ,,Geschichte des eschatologischen Problems in der modernen deutschen Literatur'' (History of the Eschatological Problems in Modern German Literature). I've read so many quotes from it, but have searching in vain today and yesterday in finding it online . . . until now.
Why did I not think to look at Johannes Verlag (John's Publisher) for John's Dissertation? I found it here and hungrily began reading the abstract at the bottom, only to find my German vocab still has a long way to go before devouring the 270 Seiten (page) work. This self-inflicted theo-germanistic ass-kicking can be mine for the low-low price of 18 Euros. I'll keep my eyes peeled in Tübingen. This labor seems incredibly daunting, but for now its a labor a love, and a great theologian once said "Love Alone is Credible."

Heres my vocab from the abstract . . .

greifen (griff, gegriffen): to grab (er grieft)
enthüllen (enthüllte, enthüllt): to disclose
verbergen (verbarg, verborgen): to burry
beichte (beichtete, beichtet): to confess
jmdn. berufen (berieft, berufen): to appoint someone
etw. berufen: to convene something
fassen (faßte, gefaßt): to accomodate, conceive, believe, hold . . . oh fassen, wait til we put some prefixes on you.
ausführen (führte aus, ausgeführt): to accomplish
etw. vermögen (vermochte, vermocht/vermögen): to be able to do something
beanspruchen (beanspruchte, beansprucht): to claim, stress,
heranreifen (heifte heran, herangereift): to mature
vorwitzig: meddlesome
erstaunlich: amazing, astonishing
uferlos: shoreless
zähmbar: tamable
die Haltung: attitude
der Anlauf: attempt
die Erläuterung: commentary/explanation
die Fülle: abundance
das Zeugnis: the attestation, credentials pl., testimony
mangels + Gen.: for want of

Hesse: Im Presselschen Gartenhaus

2010-03-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

So with my studies in Tübingen 24 days away, I've decided to read a short story by one of Tübingen's most famous alums: Herman Hesse, the author of Steppenwolf, The Magic Mountain, and Siddartha. I've read Siddartha and loved the sparce and delicate language used by this German to illustrate a beautiful Asian atmosphere. Now I wanted to see what he would do with his alma mater of Tübingen.

Im Presselschen Gartenhaus is a short story that takes place in Tübingen in the shadow to the world-reknown seminary (das Stift) with detailed descriptions of the surrounding landscape (umliegende Lanschaft). Is there any better story for me to read? I mean really.

I found this sentence* in the first couple pages especially captivating. He tacks simple elaborative clauses (sometimes 3 or 4 at a time) on to objects in order to offer different shades of perspective (die Wahrnehmung). The shades are not complex in themselves, but taken as a whole, Hesse gives his world layers of interpretation. What results is a cadanced language with the simplicity of Hemmingway paired with the meandering quality of Kerouac, I think. I hope you enjoy it . . .

Wie eine bereitstehende Salzlösung oder ein kaltes, stilles Wintergewässer nur einer leisen Berührung bedarf, um plötzlich in Kristallen zusammenzuschießen und gebannt zu erstarren, so war mit jenem Schwalbenfluge dem jungen Dichtergemüt plötzlich der Neckar, die grüne Zeile der stillen Baumwipfel und die schwachdunstige Berglandschaft dahinter zu einem verklärten und geläuterten Bild erstarrt, das mit der erhobenen, feierlich milden Stimme einer höheren, dichterischen Wirklichkeit zu seinen zarten Sinnen sprach.

(This is Tübingen and the Neckar river running through it.)

This is a clunky translation of my own doing** . . .

"Like a ready-standing salt solution or a cold still wintery pond, needing only a quiet touch, which is suddenly beaten into crystals and banished to freeze, so it was to the young poetic mind with those swallow flights suddenly to the Neckar; the green silhouette of the still tree tops and the weakly hazy mountain countryside behind it, to a transfigured and cleansed picture solidified, speaking with the uplifted cheerful mild voice of a higher more poetic reality to his delicate senses."

*Yes that's just one sentence.
**It wasn't that hard to read in German, but trying to put it into English was a pain. I have a new found respect for translators.

Neue Musik (I)

2010-02-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

So I've fallen into total Deutschification this week, which resulted in me getting a new grammar book and three German CD's. This is no easy task. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down German music? I went to Laut.de and it took me forever to sort out the German bands lost in the shuffle of American groups. You'd think something called Laut.de would make it easy to find laut German musicians nein?

So I'll begin by introducing you to Clueso. Who is a very young looking, yet very talented and diverse musician. I bought his CD So Sehr Dabei which translates to "So very close." This is full of artful layerings of acoustic guitar, subtle integration of keyboard, weaving and sincere vocals, and often deep hooks and great syncopated drumming. I was surprised by the diversity of this album, especially coming from the position of an American looking desperately for something that isn't an antiquated political song or Rammstein. This is pretty laid back stuff but it can still shake you.

Barfuß (Barefoot): Listen to the depth in the acoustic layers.
Gewinner (Winner): These lyrics play off eachother really well (rhythmically and semantically) and the repetition leaves a great impression.
Keinen Zentimeter ("Not even a" centimeter) This song has a slightly rockier quality and a drastically lame video, sorry. Nice hook and blending of those rock textures between guitar, piano, and a dynamic drumset.

Enjoy.

An Evening at the Symphony (Movement II)

2010-02-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

The second half of the evening was Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Larry Rachleff, the conductor for the evening, prefaced it by asking the audience what they would feel if they were to "compose a piece to save your life." He explained Shostakovich found himself in a time where the atmosphere was stale as exhuberant joy was forced into Soviet shackles. Rather than composing a piece that conformed to Soviet rubrics, or write a piece of dreamy escapism, this piece embraced and illustrated Shostakovich's creative struggles against the Soviet censors.

The first movement was defined by the weaving of a creative spirit between the anthemic heralds, in the voices of the trumpets, as they blared behind the red lumbering giants of Communism. With the weaving of lyrical melodies and brooding undertones one can detect the mixture of Beauty and Brutality, which will wrestle with eachother throughout the work.
Movement I (I)
Movement I (II)With the advent of the second movement it felt as though the audience was sitting in on a Russian ballet with a most bizarre pair. There is a whimsical and almost unnerving character to this and one can imagine the Muse of Shostakovich as a Russian ballerina who finds herself paired with one of those lumbering Red Brutes from the first movement. The stubbornness of the Brute with ernest grace of the Dancer make for a tension that is undeniably moving.
Movement II

In the third movement, it is as though the audience finds the Dancer alone in her room with a break from the performance with the Brute. She rummages through her things and her memories and is moved to dance in her solitude. She dances as though no Reds will knock on her door and and cherishes a memory or maybe a hope of freedom. This poignant piece is not a perfect escape though, because one can see the great face of The Terror haunting her dream and breaking through her serenity and she finds the tension has taken root within herself. Her lonely reflection ends with the tinkering of a music box, where she finds a ballerina much like herself closed up, spinning around, in a glass cage; seeing out but not escaping.
Movement III (I)
Movement III (II)

Leaving the previous movement, the audience can see how Shostakovich could not shake this Devil from his thought and so resolved to grapple with it. The final movement gives the audience the impression that the Dancer will not be free and she must strive to be creative even within her pressing constrainsts. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsen say, "The line between good and evil runs through the heart of every human being" and so I see Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony as introducing man to the Struggle that happens within us all. It's especially inspiring how Shostakovich did not flee from this adversity, but rather faced it and incorporated it in his dramatic work. One leaves this piece seeing that every human soul has the ability to be like Shostakovich; to like a bird who is resolved to sing from a branch, a cage, and even from within a clenched fist.
Movement IV (I)
Movement IV (II)

An Evening at the Symphony (Movement I)

2010-02-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

The first half of the evening was led by the young violin virtouoso Augustin Hadelich as the symphony played Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Throughout the piece one could find that most romantic feeling of epervesence. There was a sprawling landscape of themes where one could find inspiration and adventure. This performance does wonders for a dreary soul in search of love and levity.

This piece did not understand the word descent. Floating melodies and harmonized lines were intent on ascending to a particular place in the heights of the imagination where one finds serenity and delight.

Hadelich exhibited a fine attention to warm tone whether he be playing blazing lines soaring to the heavens, or rummaging at the bottom of his fiddle for the next set of notes to cast upward. The entire piece seemed to be barrelling with exponential energy towards the edge of a cliff and as Hadelich played his last searing note he cast himself off, only to be greated by that great wave of applause, which cast him back on land demanding an encore.
Movement I (I)
Movement I (II)

Movement I (III)
Movement II
Movement III

This was good, but Shostakovich was where my heart laid this evening. So make it a quick intermission and get to Part II . . .

"You Stay Classy . . ."

2010-01-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

I took a week off from blogging and I think I should make a habit of doing that more often. If I plan on letting myself take breaks, and justify it with the idea of Sabbath, there is less buildup of Catholic guilt. It was good to breath some fresh air, develop inspiring ideas, and sit in on deep conversations, but in the meantime . . . it's time for Jazz.
Being a theologian I admit, I do love the realm of religious classical music: Bach is bombastic, Byrd is mezmorizing, Pärt is like Pentecost, and Gregorian Chant is on my playlist for running. But the mortar to my theological life is jazz.

Jazz is a beautiful form of music and I am so thankful for an evening of swing between thick tomes of dead languages and monolithic theologians. Chris Botti, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, usually fit the bill, but with Tübingen rapidly approaching I thought I'd get back into the German swing of things.

Frank Sinatra was cool, Sammy Davis Jr. was schnazzy, but Roger Cicero is just plain and simple a classy gent . . . and German, which obviously makes him easier on the ears. At least to me. Give him a listen and tell me that German and big band swing music do not go together.* So ladies find some pearls and gentlemen snag a fedora, and move your feet a bit; we're about to get classy.

Frauen regier'n die Welt (Women rule the World)

Ich atme ein (I breath in)

Das ganze ist ein Zoo (The whole life is a Zoo)

Tübi Wörter
die Gegend: area
teilen (teilte, geteilt): to share

*For some reason unknown to me, Cicero's new album is the same great jazz he usually does, but its in English. It's good jazz, but he's German. Why doesn't he sing in German? It's a beautiful language.

Authorship

2010-01-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

I've decided to write a novel. I don't care if I never finish it, but I do care that I start it. I was struck by the idea of writing a story about the lives of a couple guys and how one generation never thinks it will screw up as much as the previous generation, which is of course erroneous . . . they just screw up differently. But that's another post entirely. Story aside, let me just explain what its like to embark on this adventure into authorship . . .

As I started to develop and encounter my characters I was stuck by several things. Firstly, I was amazed at how my characters change. When I first looked into the eyes of my protagonist, I could hear a reader look over my shoulder and say "he has your eyes." It makes sense, he is from me, born of my experience. I am the father to this character, but before I know it, I can tell that he will grow up and have a life of his own.

Despite (Trotzdem) our varying paths, I will always have a connection to him, because we are family. As I work my way through the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, my casting off on Authorship illuminates my reading. The three brothers are called Alyosha, Ivan, and Dmitri Fyodorovich (Son of Fyodor) Karamazov. Yes they're narrative father is Fyodor Palvovich Karamazov, but existentially their father is Dostoevsky himself. Upon entering this communion of authorship, I see that all my favorite characters are not Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, but Bilbo and Frodo Tolkien. Not Dorian Gray, but Dorian Wilde, etc. etc. Some authors have a nuclear family of characters while others have generations to themselves.

Then there is the macrocosmic narrative. La Grande Histoire d'Histoire or Die Große Geschichte der Geschichte which means The Great Story of History, to which God is the Author with us.* With this, one understands that it is God's story, history is His-story. In this plot, we find tragedy, comedy, and always revelation of what reality is and who we are called to be. And though our plots meander and collide in a constant tumult of conflicts and resolutsion, my brief experience as an author tells me that God will always remember that day he created us. He will remember that day he held us in existence for the first time and said, "You have my eyes."

This is indeed, a novel experience . . .
___________________________________________________

Tübi Wörter
Nomina
die Gerechtigkeit: justice
die Einführung: introduction, advent, entering ("the leading of one")
Verben
bedenken (bedachte, hat bedacht): to consider, ponder
ändern (änderte, hat geändert): to change, alter

*Read G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man to understand the concept of Jesus as the central character of History. I am starting it this weekend upon my completion of The Brothers Karamazov. If you don't start reading it, at least pray that I finish it, because I've been meaning to read it for far too long.

76 To Go . . .

2010-01-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

I just got a countdown clock on my Dashboard, and in 76 days I will be mingling with Germans left and right . . .

I'd better dress for the occasion.

Tübi Wörter:
der Kreis: circle
übrigbleiben: to remain (blieb übrig, ist übriggeblieben)

Projekt Tübingen Woche III

2010-01-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

Take some time to ponder,
Before the day is done.

Let your mind wander,
Let yourself be young.

Let all your worries be assunder,
Remember to live in awe.

Never let the Heart surrender,
For, loving like Him, is your Law.

Manchmal, finde ich ein Eck in meinem Tag, wohin kann ich über Gedanken stoplern. In deisem Platz, weht die Luft frischer und man kann klarer sehen. Zu oft, zacken unsere Problemen uns dann bis unsere Seelen schreien aus, "Wo kann ich meinen Kopf liegen?" Aber oft, gibt die Welt keine Anwort und keinen Trost. Wenn du haltst, kannst du Trost finden.

Zu beginnen, muss man gemütlich sein. Mit einer Tasse des Tees und wenn er den Schutt des Tages vergäß, erhalte er eine Entwicklung im Leben. Wenn wir für dreißig Minuten pausen können, können wir Zartheit finden. In diesen, kann Gott uns ermutigen, und kann unsere Leidenschaft aufzeigen. Wenn wir halten, können wir über größe Segungen stoplern, die uns neues Leben und Richtung gibt.
Als unser Papst, Benedikt XVI, sagte . . .

"Am Anfang des Christseins steht nicht ein ethischer Entschluß oder eine große Idee, sondern die Begegnung mit einem Ereignis, mit einer Person, die unserem Leben einen neuen Horizont und damit seine entscheidende Richtung gibt."*

Nomina
I. die Zartheit: tenderness
II. die Entwicklung: development
III. die Leidenschaft: passion
IV. der Schutt: rubble
V. das Eck: the corner
VI. der Trost: comfort

Verben
I. zacken: to jab/point
II. jmdn. ermutigen (ermutigte, ermutigt): to encourage someone.
III. ausschreien (schrie aus, ausgeschrie'n): to cry out
IV. etw. erhalten (erhielt, erhalten): to achieve something
V. wehen (wehte, geweht): to blow
VI. über etw. stoplern (stolperte, gestolpert): to stumble over something

* "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."-Deus Caritas Est

Wälder

2010-01-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

How to begin a quaint Saturday Evening . . .
-Put on a pair of slippers and a cardigan or flannel to match those gemütlich old jeans that you love.
-Brew a pot of tea or coffee
-Set your favorite mug and a book you've always wanted to start/finish next to you
-Sip from your mug while listening to this song.

The rest is up to you.

Tübingen Wörter
Nomen: der Trost: comfort
Verb: über etw. stoplern (stolperte, gestolpert): to stumble over something

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousands words . . .

2010-01-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

. . . and sometimes it's worth a thousand explanations.

I know what you're thinking, but I, Sam Granger, Arts and Crafts Instructor extraordinaire, was actually hitting the ball. But for crying out loud, this picture is hilarious.

Tübingen Wörter
Nomen
-das Eck: the corner
Verb
-wehen (weht, geweht): to blow

Rhythmus und Zusammenklang

2010-01-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

Music is a good thing. Music is a very good thing. My mother put me through the torture of piano lessons when I was a kid (which I'm hoping to pick back up again now). Things got jazzier as I got into band and started playing the trombone (which is the most laid-back and awesome of all the brass; no valves, no keys, just a slide). I started playing guitar in 7th grade and have been playing ever since. I played bass guitar in marching band, and to this day I keep an acoustic guitar ("Laurië" after the poem Namárië by J.R.R. Tolkien *pushes up glasses*.) next to my desk (Schreibtisch).

I don't keep it there as a distraction from studies, but a source for my studies. When I look to my guitar I can hear warm tones in the wood. I know that there is a peaceful mystery that resides in that instrument, and playing guitar puts me in touch with it. When I write a paper, often times I look at it as an object to be dominated, but my musical experience teaches me something different. Art and music teach one creativity, taking notes and colors with various textures and strengths, and bringing them together in a new and inspiring order. The most important element that is brought together and synthesized in this union (Einigung) is the artist or musician himself.

When I play my guitar, I play with my guitar. Strings demand that I use my hands differently for different notes. My many fingers work together, plucking and fretting, coaxing tones out of the strings that resonates the wood and a harmony appears. Overtones work together to make a note that is bigger than a string or a piece of wood, and it's a beautiful thing. I stumble to put in to words, because as Gustav Mahler said, "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music."

Music is an art, but it deals with harmony and time in a way that art doesn't as much. There are times in my life when I feel dissonance between me and another, but I am more atune to it because I have played music, and I have sensed what real dissonance feels like. Deviation from harmony and deviation from rhythm do not create that sense of peace and awe that strikes a chord in the human soul. It is asinine in it's inability to ring with the rest of us.

There is a harmony to life where you find your place in the great Chord of Creation, you might have a high or a low note, but without you, we would be missing a voice.

There is a rhythm to life, where we come and go, either quickly or slowly, and find our place in time, ready to use our voice and leave until the score calls for us again.

"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence." Leopold Stokowski

Listen to music that makes you and something outside of you ring together (Zusammenklang). Today music is used to fill the background because we are uncomfortable with silence. When people listen to great music that makes sense to them and sense of them, they might say it was like a religious experience. I believe these people are usually more right than they know, because this music put them in touch with Beauty, and for a moment or two, they rang together. When one lets themselves become part of the music, they are laying aside their petty anxieties, they are sacrificing their voice for the good of the whole. Because God is Beautiful, they did for a moment see him, sing with him, and practice that communion of spirit and that union of diversity that the (spiritual life) requires.

If you need to work on your Harmony

If you need to work on your Rhythm

Tübingen Wörter
Nomina
I. die Leidenschaft: passion
II. der Schutt: rubble

Verben
I. ausschreien (schrie aus, ausgeschrie'n): to cry out
II. etw. erhalthen (erhielt, erhalten): to achieve something

Back to School

2010-01-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

Catholicism and Beer go very well together. This is proven again as I am living with a Catholic priest and going to land of Beer (Deutschland) ever-rapidly. The combination of Tübingen and living at Fr. Jim's is perhaps the best thing to academically ever happen to me.

Tübingen starts in April and that is where I am taking the bulk of my semesters courses. In the meantime, I'm putting my slippered feet up and reading Balthasar and Dostoevsky while taking half a German class and Church and Spirit with Marko (ecclesiology). I feel like I'm on break and its wonderous. This schedule and place are offering me many opportunities for me to grow in my prayer and my studies.

Because the school year is starting, I think everyone needs to know how they can let their mind breath during the time they aren't in class as well as to prepare them for their studies. So my suggestions for someone to academically revamp themselves are . . .

5 Supplements to Studies (according to Sam)

I. One good book of literature or poetry. Mine is Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, which I started over break. It's an interesting book that has a lot of great themes to wrestle with, that I wouldn't have really reflected upon had I not seen them in a narrative, which has real people dealing with real problems. You don't need to finish it while school is going on, but have it handy for when you need to take a break or have a spare moment. Consider always keeping this book in your bag. Also reading stimulates the imagination and encourages creativity whilst rejuvenating the soul.

II. Find prominent author in your study and "become their disciple," as Dr. Marshall told me. I'm letting Hans Urs von Balthasar take me under his wing this semester as I read his enlightening little tome Love Alone is Credible. As an artist, I've always been sensitive to the Beauty of God and His Creation, and so I have an affinity for Balthasar's theology (I'll see how far I can get in it, but starting off, things are going swimmingly). We all need perspective (Wahrnehumung: a place to take truth) in our studies, so find someone who agrees with you and stand from their spot and dwell there (εθος: ethos means dwelling place) and contemplate a mystery with them.

III. Get a daily prayer schedule. I book end my day with Christian Prayer with Morning Prayer (after waking or breakfast), Evening Prayer (after dinner), and Night Prayer (beside). The attention I pay to God directly correlates to the direction I pay my friends. If I can't take time to talk to God, turn my problems over to him, ask for encouragement, solution, and spiritual growth, everyone else will suffer. I would make them deal with my problems that I should've talked about with God. I believe we need friends for encouragement and guidance, but if God doesn't take the brunt of it you're asking another human being to, and our friends have crosses of their own to bear.

IV. Enjoy your favorite beverage. Fr. likes to have tea everyday at the same time to give some order, relaxation, and recreation to his day. Taking time out for a warm cup of tea or a thick mug of coffee is very much recreation to me. It re-creates me, brings me back together when my day tries to scatter me. Don't just drink it, but enjoy it. Try and pick a time of day where you can enjoy a cup or two. Whether it's in the morning before it all gets going, the afternoon for a little break, or at night to wind down, we need to little pleasures like these to structure our day. You'll discover that a cup of something warm is often a simple pleasure but a profound joy. You may also enjoy einen Maß with Pope Benedikt as pictured above. Look how he savors it and contemplates the grand mysteries of life, God, and reality over at liter of glorious brew.

V. Wake up earlier. Chesterton once wrote, "Daybreak is a never-ending glory, getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance," and this is often the case true, but it shouldn't be. So often we feel that our days roll exponentially faster and it's hard to stay on top of this ball. Getting up early is so satisfying, because you're up and moving while the world still has the wool pulled over its eyes. Going to daily Mass at St. Thomas (7:30am AQ folks, 8pm Wednesdays) starts my day with a sense of peace and holiness. I just think, before Aquinas was awake, I was with my Lord. Even on days when I don't get to go to morning Mass, I still feel satisfied watching the world wake and welcoming friends and even the sun to this new day with a cheerful "Good morning!" How many people would have a better day if it started before work did?

I hope these can help you throughout this new semester. I'm trying them on myself. God bless with life, prayer, work, and studies.

Tübingen Wörter
Nomina
Zartheit: tenderness
Entwicklung: development

Verben
zacken: to jab/point
jmdn. ermutigen (ermutigte, ermutigt): to encourage someone.

Projekt Tübingen: Woche II

2010-01-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Find something to marvel . . .
Find etwas zu staunen . . .

This week my words were more abstract and dealing with ideas of holiness and mystery. Two great tastes that taste great together (Zwei gute Geschmäcker, die zusammen gut schmecken).

To clarify, I think a mystery is anything that encourages someone to ascend to a place they don't understand with a sense of wonder. Entering into a conversation with Mystery and with friends is what brings us together into a harmonious existence.

Who are your friends? If you look, we like to surround ourselves with people who are amazed with life and are inspired by how fresh existence is. Amaze is one of those great overused words. This about it, if we are amazed with life, that means we've realized we are in the maze of life. This labyrinthine life of ours twists and turns and amazing friends show us (aufzeigen) that life is not so simple, but that it's beautifully intricate and artfully crafted.

If we pass on anything to our friends, families, and future generations, it should be a sense of wonder, which means a sense that life is worth pondering. We work, we play, we do all sorts of activities, but in the end we need to pass down that we're built to contemplate. We are built to wander and wonder in this maze with our fellow contemplators (friends), enjoy it until the golden thread leads us out, because it is indeed a beautiful bewilderment.

Wörter
I. die Vergnügung: pleasure
II. das Geheimnis: mystery
III. der Zusammenklang: Harmony
IV. die Überlieferung: tradition or lore
V. die Wahrnehmung: Perception
VI. die Seligkeit: blessedness

Verben
I. ersetzen (ersetzte, ersetzt): to exchange
II. reden (redete, geredet): discourse
III. etw. an jmdn. weitergeben (gab weiter, weitergegeben): to pass something down to someone
IV. aufzeigen (zeigte auf, aufgezeigt): To demonstrate something
V. sich verlieren (verlor, verloren): to wander off, to be lost.
VI. jmd./etw. werden (wurde/ward, geworden): to become something

Der Abstaz

Nimmst du Vergnüngung wann du mit einem Geheimnis redest? Seit dem Anfung, haben Leute die Überlieferung des Geheimnnisse weitergegeben. Philosophen und Theologen haben Wahrnehmungen über den Geheimnissen unseres Lebens ersatz. Warum bin ich hier? Wer bin ich? Wie kann ich gut leben? Die Unterhaltung* der Frage bringt verschiedene Leute im Zusammenklang, weil sie Wahrheit und Klarheit** zu aufzeigen hoffen. Deshalb kann man eher sich finden als sich verlieren. Zusammenklang gibt den Leute die Seligkeit, die sich werden kann. Sie kann man heiliger, weiser, und fröhlicher werden. Wenn man mit Geheimnis redet, kann er Vergnüngen haben, weil es man eine neue Wahrnehmung gibt.

*Conversation
**Truth and Clarity

Wörter
I. die Vergnügung: pleasure
II. das Geheimnis: mystery
III. der Zusammenklang: Harmony
IV. die Überlieferung: tradition or lore
V. die Wahrnehmung: Perception
VI. die Seligkeit: blessedness

Verben
I. ersetzen (ersetzte, ersetzt): to exchange
II. reden (redete, geredet): discourse
III. etw. an jmdn. weitergeben (gab weiter, weitergegeben): to pass something down to someone
IV. aufzeigen (zeigte auf, aufgezeigt): To demonstrate something
V. sich verlieren (verlor, verloren): to wander off, to be lost.
VI. jmd./etw. werden (wurde/ward, geworden): to become something

Hans, You've Done It Again!

2010-01-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

My favorite theologian is Hans Urs von Balthasar. Being an artist, I've always been attracted to the beautiful and that's what I love about Balthasar. He says that yes God is Truth and Goodness, but He is also Beauty Incarnate . . . Love Incarnate.

As Fr. John Cihak stated . . .

"Talk of truth is often met with a yawn, and an assertion about what is good is met with a stare of incomprehension. Darkened to what is true and good, the post-modern heart is still captivated by beauty revealing love, and this may be the road to Christ for many citizens of the post-modern world."*

This is an elaborate echo of Dostoevsky's famously captivating line: "The world will be saved through beauty."

The fact that God is beautiful vivifies and engages the senses in the theological conversation (and conversion) that illuminates the Truth and Goodness of God revealing their Union with their sister Beauty. Balthasar's theology embraces the entire theologian, the entire human person, in order to bring him to fruition in terms of his thought, his prayer, and his love. In Seeing the Form (the the first volume of his 15 volume magnum opus that recapitulates enough cultural, theological, and philosophical material to crumble most bookshelves under its weight) Balthasar states . . .

"We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past — whether he admits it or not — can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love." (p. 18)

Though he is apparently overwhelming in his scope and depth, he is thoughtfully energetic and inspiring, as though he were a marathon runner encouraging you ever step of your way on an afternoon jog. I would gladly take 200 pgs of Balthasar of 30 pgs of some theologians I've come by in my studies. He is work would be daunting if it were not for the conciseness and agility of his thought and his creative and quotable delivery. But what results is a progression of thought that is exponentially broad and deep which disposes the theologian to contemplation. Personally the wonder Balthasar inspires in me, reminds me that theology is as St. Anslem described it fides quarens intellectum or "faith seeking understanding," as he engenders faith that embraces his intellectum joyously.

Today in his Love Alone is Credible I swear Hans was praying for me. For the first time in my history of studying German, I read something within a scholarly without needing a dictionary, and kept on going edified and delighted (the grammar was a little odd, but I got it pretty quick). He quoted a poem both beautiful and lyrical . . .

"Wird Christus tausendmal zu Bethelem geboren
Und nicht in dir, du bleibst doch ewiglich verloren . . .
Das Kreuz zu Golgotha kann dich nicht von dem Bösen,
Wo es nicht auch in dir wird aufgericht', erlösen."**

Or translated . . .
"If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem,
but not in you, you would remain lost forever . . .
The Cross on Golgotha cannot redeem you from evil,
if it is not raised up also in you."

Here I just wanted to talk about how happy I was that I read nice chunk of German poetry (Gedichte) fluently in a scholarly work, and off I went spilling digital ink in the name of Beauty. Sounds like something Hans would do.

Anyway, he's a man of towering intellect and culture, but his theology is so lovingly, prayerfully, and creatively crafted that these truths can be accessible to anyone with a little translation.

Tübingen Wörter
I. die Wahrnehmung: Perception (literally: "from where one takes their truth")
II. sich verlieren (verlor, verloren): to wander off, to be lost.

*My thanks to the blog Love Alone is Believable for bringing this quote to my attention.

**Notice how the verb erlösen (to save/ransom/deliver) was put off until the end of the sentence. This does several things I. It's grammatically correct II. It keeps the rhyme and rhythm in tact III. It causes a bit of suspense, where one can ponder "What can't the Cross do to Evil in me?" only to have salvation be the last resounding word in the line. The imagery of the poem is self is captivating (Raising the Cross of Golgotha in oneself) but the rhythm reinforces the theology in a very pleasing and edifying form.

Mad Men

2010-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

I don't watch television during school. I never figured out what channels are what when I moved to Grand Rapids and never bothered, because I have theology and Dostoevsky to read. But in my experience on the Art of Manliness

I started hearing about this show called Mad Men on AMC. Now I love classic movies and so I trusted that the show was equally loveable (I mean it was mentioned on the Art of Manliness after all). Over break, between waking at 1pm and lounging in my slippers, I started watching full episodes

of Mad Men and am enjoying it.

The show is set in the 1950's and centers around these guys who work in an advertising firm. The center character is Don Draper, pictured above, who has a wife kids and a good job in the advertising industry. He also has a mistress. Nobody's perfect, and that's the whole point of the show.

Now if you're a feminist, watching a series about 1950's androcentic society probably is not the top thing on your list, but even you gals should check it out. The guys in this show are both scoundrels and gentlemen. It offers you a glimpse at what a different culture it was back then. Housewives being nervous wrecks, men thinking that every "doll" they saw was at their disposal, disconnection and affection between parents and children was sporadic, not to mention the whole business of women drinking and smoking while they were pregnant (The Surgeon General wasn't so big back then).

It offers a moving portrait of a flawed time. Hopefully we can look back and resurrect the classy and chilvalrous elements from this period, while also casting off the utilitarian sexuality and general stoicism. Watching the show I'm interested in seeing how these intricately flawed characters are able to bring themselves together again, because Lord knows we all have tendencies that impede our journey towards order, unity, and communion. They're flawed characters: they're human characters.

I also loved the fact that you can Mad Men Yourself

, whether you're a lady or a gentleman. Give it a shot, they can be pretty spot on . . .

Tübingen Wörter
Wort: das Geheimnnis: mystery
Verb: reden (redete, geredet): to discourse

Art and Sam

2010-01-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

I've been an artist all my life (sketching predominantly) . . .

I think it's because my full name is Samuel Ward Granger. Ward is "draw" spelled backwards and I've been doing that since before I can remember. Today someone in the Art of Manliness caused me to ask "What is art according to Sam?" "Where did I get my sense of aesthetics?" I hope to define where I started and look where I'm going artistically.

I've always been a bit fan of Albrecht Dürer and his wood cuts, because of his ability to create depth with definitive lines. There is a staunch Germanic character to his work that nonetheless is very intricate . . .

I've always enjoyed Salvador Dalì's work. I appreciate how though his subject matter is at times ridiculous, he always treats it with depth, detail, and sincerity. That makes it surreal rather than absurd (also known as why bother? ).

My roommate (Owen Fifield) is a Fine Art's major and I've been enjoying his work because he does incredible photography with a great sense of depth and also deals with complex and simple subject matter with the same attention and sincerity . . .

As I grew to appreciate the robustness of my Catholicism and especially Eastern Catholicism/Orthodoxy, I got into Iconography. I appreciate how icons don't pretend to be real images, they try to be symbols or signs that direct you to a higher reality. They facilitate prayer and that practical element makes for some beautiful functional art, especially if you see them in a church . . .

I also became a huge fan of Mikhail Nesterov, who incorporated iconographic elements in his scenes of Russian life. This offers the viewer an awesome look at how intertwined the live of Russian peasants and the presence of icons had become. If you're interested in Russian history focusing on the cultural inspiration of Orthodoxy read The Icon and the Axe. Or just look at Nesterov paintings . . .

I think art is something I can take out of me. I look at everything artistically. I've drawn long enough to have an eye for depth, contrast, and texture. I think of the labor and love that goes into anything someone does in terms of how a devoted artist gives himself for his work. There comes a time in life when one needs to stop debating beliefs and morality, long enough to look back on life and say, "It's a beautiful thing."

Tübingen Wörter
Wort: die Seligkeit: blessedness
Verb: jmd./etw. werden (wurde/ward, geworden): to become something

Folk Stories

2010-01-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today my mother, the dental hygientist, cleaned my teeth. In order to kill some time while the fluoride settled into my enamel, I decided to stop by the local antique shop. I love antique shops, but this one stands heads-and-tails above the others I've stopped in, because it has a guy selling classic guitars next door. I've been meaning to do this since I came back home to Allegan and I leave tomorrow morning, so it was about time I went there. I left my acoustic in Grand Rapids and though I've been enjoying my Malden Karma and the jazzy tone of my Mesa Boogie F-30, I truly need to be folksy.

I love the sound of wood, string, and fingers playing off each other. There are times when you're playing that perfect acoustic guitar and you feel as though every note you play leaves the guitar swelling to harmonize with all the other musical ideas and flaws in your own soul. It's a simple thing. I bought of one of those guitars from this guy last year and it's always at hand.

I went in and chatted with John and fiddled with his guitars for about two hours today. He has a wall of vintage guitars that it seems there aren't two from the same decade and style. He likes the odd guitars and especially likes to take broken ones and have them restored. Some of these guitars are beautiful and yet he found them in shards. He said he could sell them for three times what they're worth, but he doesn't because he knows that someone was meant to come in and buy those guitars. Each one of those guitars is praying for someone to take them home, show them love, and make beautiful music. It sounds like a romantic comedy, but only if you don't play guitar.

John's an eclectic fellow and he has about as many stories as his guitars do. I noticed he had a few ethnic instruments including a couple bouzikis which is an instrument used in Celtic and Greek music that I've been meaning to get my hands on for a while. John was happy to oblige. After I had my fun for a while, I handed it over to him telling him I'd love to hear him play a bit. He played a few jigs and reels that would make anyone raise a pint of Guinness and stomp their foot. Getting to know him a little more, he told me about his stories as a UN soldier and his delight in sharing in an other's culture (except for the French because they're "the most inhospitable bastards" one could ever meet "especially if they knew you were American"). He told me about Irish pub songs, German cooking, and a particularly charming episode where he got a a bunch of Welsh guys to sing a sweet song in Crymraeg in the middle of a crowded farmer's market.

He told me that in 1972 he lost feeling in his left hand, and thusly lost the ability to play guitar. He said there was a point where he had this very (beautiful) bouzouki over his head ready to crack it into splinters and firewood. Today he doesn't claim to play well, but every note of that Irish jigs sounded positively blessed to me.

You can see in his humble eyes and jolly bearded grin that he's a man who's overcome that frustration and found a peaceful place in the world where grace comes rushing from strummed strings and the mouths of a few laughing friends. That's a good place to be.

. . .

Tübingen Wörter
Wörter:
I. der Zusammenklang: Harmony (literally translated as "that which rings together.")
II. die Überlieferung: tradition or lore
Verben
I. etw. an jmdn. weitergeben (gab weiter, weitergegeben): to pass something down to someone
II. aufzeigen (zeigte auf, aufgezeigt): To demonstrate something

Inglourious Basterds

2010-01-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

So today I watched Inglorious Basterds and finally have found a Quentin Tarantino movie that didn't want me to stab my television until a comical amount of ridiculous bloodflow erupted. There was plenty of German and French to sink ones teeth into (including some awesomely butchered Italian via-Brad Pitt). I suggest it.

American Trailer
German Trailer

The trailer has some good parts. But there's just something so wrong about Brad Pitt's character speaking German so well that doesn't make sense.

Tübingen Wörter
Wort: die Vergnügung: pleasure
Verb: ersetzen (ersetzte, ersetzt): to exchange

Erster Tübingenabsatz

2010-01-03T12:48:00.001-08:00

So today is Sunday and I'm going to take all the words gathered throughout the week and assemble them into some kind of paragraph. If this German Catholic paragraph isn't good enough for you, I brought along the pope and he's about as German Catholic as one can get.

Have a blessed week.

Woche I

In meiner Kinderzeit, habe ich deutsches Essen gegessen. Meine Großeltern haben für mich immer Sauerkraut, Wurst, und Spinat gekocht. Sie haben das mir gegeben, aber sie haben auch mir meinen Glaube gegeben.
Ich bin in der romanisch-kathölische Kirche getauft. Wann ich ein Jung war, habe ich zur Messe gedient. Durch meinem Leben, habe ich immer Räucherwerk gerochen, und das riech mir wie Heiligkeit. Ich habe die Kerzen ausgelöscht und habe Belustigung der Katholischwitzern genommen. Ich finde Freude über die Messe und gehe täglich. Es gibt eine große Auswirkung wie in der Messe, kann ich meinen Gott bekommen, den mich geschöpf hat. Ich staune über ihn. Er leucht und er ist eine Kerze, die ich kann nicht auslöschen.

Wörter
I. die Kinderzeit: childhood
II. der Spinat: spinach
III. die Kerze: Candle
IV. die Heiligkeit: Holiness
V. die Auswirkung: Impact
VI. die Belustigung: Merryment or Amusement

Verben
I. taufen (taufte, hat getauft): to baptize
II. riechen (roch, hat gerochen): to smell
III. aus.löschen (löschte aus, ausgelöscht): To extinguish or annihilate
IV. leuchten (leuchtete, geleuchtet): to shine
V. schöpfen (schöfte, geschöpft): to create (something)
VI. staunen (staunte, gestaunt): to be amazed

Rejuvenate Yourself

2010-01-02T20:07:00.001-08:00

Rejuvenate: To make young or fresh again; to restore to youth or to the appearance of youth; (also) to give new life to; to refresh, reinvigorate (OED).

Iuvenis, youth, Kinderzeit. It's a good thing. Rejuvenation, being made young again, requires recreation. So many people think recreation means wasting time. Not the case. Recreation means being made again. Sports, art, prayer, music, conversations . . . basically anything can be made into recreation if you make enough room for grace. Recreation turns a moment becomes a beginning. It makes you wonder, it makes you excited, it makes you want to live fresh.

Sometimes you just need to break out the crayons and remember what it's like to have a world of possibilities open to you.

Usually I just listen to Breathe Owl Breathe . . .
Breathe Owl Breathe

Tübingen Wörter
Wort: die Belustigung: Merryment or Amusement
Verb: staunen (staunte, gestaunt): to be amazed

From the Study to the Studio

2010-01-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Today my dad and I fixed my windshield wipers so that they squirt. My manliness has been wanting to fix something for a while and it reveled in the chance to tinker with my dad. There was a oily-handed hi-five which sealed this male bonding.

My manliness has also been hungry for steak, which it's getting tonight. I'm gonna help Mutti (mom) with the mushrooms, potatoes, and such. So my manhood is edified while I'm also bonding and cooking with my mom. Score.

Despite all these domestic delights, I've been distracted by GR. I started looking at houses for next year. I'm so excited because the Grand Rapids around Aquinas has so many eclectic and quaint houses. Please God, let us find one with a fireplace. I found one that was on Hollister that I thought was pretty cool. It's a charming red house with a ample front porch (a must). I've seen it before . . . it's right next to Rowsters.

That revelation unfortunately turned me to the thought that I'm almost out of coffee. Scheiße. I miss making coffee. Being in a place where I can waft the aroma of roasting coffee. Where touchingly extracted espresso and velvety milk are right at hand. I love letting coffee be my medium and my craft and me being an artisan.

I remember a friend of mine constantly reminds me that I should be an Art major, but artistry, your aesthetic perspective, is something you take with you where ever you go. In his Poetics, Aristotle recognizes that in life you can live your life in thinking, doing, or creating. The creative life is the poetic life (poiētiké).His poetic life synthesizes all sorts of words, ideas, things, and experiences in order to be “a beginning of change in something else.”

I see theology as a medium. I like to turn my study into my studio. Theology should strike people as beautiful, because as Dostoevsky wrote "The world will be saved through beauty." I haven't drawn as much as I would like, but be it theology, conversations, life, or even coffee I don't think I've ever stopped trying to be an artist.

"An artist cannot fail. It is a success just to be one."
-CH Cooley (Thanks to Richard App for telling me this)

Tübingen Wörter
Wort: die Auswirkung: Impact
Verb: schöpfen (schöpfte, geschöpft): to create (something)

Das Neujahr kommt . . .

2009-12-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

So it's almost midnight and I find myself balanced on the precipice of 2010 held together in hope for a new year. This year has been incredibly stretching and at times exhausting, but I know it's all for future holiness. I am leaving 2009 healthy, simpler, and more compassionate.

Tonight I stuck with my recent trend of spending time with the family. I read Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov in my new black slippers while drinking French Pressed Tanzanian coffee. After Mass and Vitale's pizza (God Bless Augustino, all his Sicilian siblings, and their ridiculously good pizza) my brother went off to his friend's house, and Mom, Dad, and I went downstairs to eat chocolate pudding in fancy glasses and watch "Up." I just about cried . . . 3 times . . . in the first 5 minutes.

Carl (the old guy) gives me, someone caught up in the demands of scholarly expectations, so much hope that rejuvenation is my vocation. Being young, no matter how old I am, is my New Year's resolution. Not to be ignorant or naïve, but to be hopeful and imaginative. I pray to see my God not in the theology books under my nose, but amongst the stars, in my fellow human beings, and his moving in nature. So often we shut of our senses assuming that we have enough experience to make our own decisions, but kids don't. They're porous persons who open their senses to world where its expected that they be in awe. When did we decide that it was unadult or not mature to be in awe?

(Ball Drop happened, I tinked a Two Hearted Ale with my mom and dad)

Jim Carrey is on Conan right now. He was my comedic hero as I was growing up. There were so many times when I used his jokes, his voices, his movements, etc. He inspired my sense of humor for so long, that youth and Jim Carrey are not far off to me. There were times when I would make jokes that no one laughed at, but I didn't care, because I bet Jim would've laughed. Besides you can always fall on your face in front of your friends. That was the comedic equivalent to "sing like no one is listening, dance like no one is watching, etc."and it kept me open. It kept me talking. It kept me listening. It kept me in this great conversation, or rather joke, that was going on between me and everyone else; me and God.

What if we went into this year thinking it's going to be a comedy rather than a tragedy? We might be doing something right.

Tübingen Wörter:
Wort: die Heiligkeit: Holiness
Verb: leuchten (leuchtete, geleuchtet): To shine

Daily Deutsch III

2009-12-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

Heutes deutsches Wort: die Kerze: Candle
Heutes deutsches Verb: aus.löschen (löschte aus, ausgelöscht): To extinguish or annihilate

Here's a beautiful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke,

Lösch mir die Augen aus: ich kann dich sehn,
wirf mir die Ohren zu: ich kann dich hören,
und ohne Füße kann ich zu dir gehn,
und ohne Mund noch kann ich dich beschwören.
Brich mir die Arme ab, ich fasse dich
mit meinem Herzen wie mit einer Hand,
halt mir das Herz zu, und mein Hirn wird schlagen,
und wirfst du in mein Hirn den Brand,
so werd ich dich auf meinem Blute tragen.

Extinguish my sight, and I can still see you;
plug up my ears, and I can still hear;
even without feet I can walk toward you,
and without mouth I can still implore.
Break off my arms, and I will hold you
with my heart as if it were a hand;
strangle my heart, and my brain will still throb;
and should you set fire to my brain,
I still can carry you with my blood.

Tübingenvorbereitung: Tag I

2009-12-29T10:36:00.000-08:00

Heute, sind meine zwei deutsche Wörter . . .
I. die Kinderzeit: childhood
II. der Spinat: spinach

Meine zwei deutsche Verben sind . . .
I. taufen (taufte, hat getauft): to baptize
II. an.riechen (roch an, hat angerochen): to smell

Projekt Tübingen

2009-12-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

So, I'm studying abroad in April to the Universität in Tübingen, which is in South-West Germany. I've never thought about studying abroad until this year. My parents said that they were going on a family vacation in Germany, or as my grandparents called it, "zeh olt country." I figured I would rather stay there for 3 months and snag a German minor, rather than just going on vacation for a week.

My reasons for going to Deutschland, besides connecting with my heritage.
I. Get a German minor, which will really help me with my Theology major. Proficiency in German means I can read philosophers like Nietzsche, Husserl, and Heidegger and theologians like Ratzinger and Balthasar in their original language. Right on.
II. Pope Benedict XVI was the chair of Theology at the Uni Tübingen and I might get to audit a theology class while I'm there.
III. Bike through Southern Germany and camp.
IV. Learn Hochdeutsch (standard German) as well as dabble in dialects such as Schwäbisch, Allemanisch, and Bayerisch (what my grandfather grew up speaking).

Recently (kürzlich), I figured I need to build up my vocab and "verbcab" before going. Not a lot of people know this, but German is pretty frustrating for English speakers. The English lexicon is primarily Romantic (French/Latin) and has forgotten the difficulties of Germanic grammar and replaced much of their Germanic vocabulary. I haven't found a German word of the day program yet, so I've devised my own.

Every day (täglich)
I. One German Word
II. One German Verb

Except Sunday. Sunday is when I take my 6 words and verbs and use them in a paragraph.
I'm a day behind so I'm going to do two today.
I hope to do this every day, so I can be able to articulate the beauty that is Tübingen in the beauty that is the German language. What you think German's ugly? Psssh, I beg to differ.

A Pond for Ponderings

2009-12-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

So up until this point, I have not really been blogging . . . sadly. I've been posting short papers that I wrote and thought were fun. Dante and Yoga being two interests of mine. As I go through my Junior Year at Aquinas, my papers are only getting bigger and bigger, so I think I'll actually use my blog to blog. I'm assuming most people wouldn't want to browse through miles of me writing about ecclesiological models with comparative theological analysis through various philosophical lenses. Some might, but not everyone's as sick as me in that regard.

I watched Julie & Julia last night and I loved it. I want to cook so much right now. Somebody buy me Julia Child's French cookbook. The best thing about that movie, to me, was the simple pleasure she had in expressing her thoughts in some ordered fashion, while cooking allowed her to do the same.

I hope that this place will be a Pond for Ponderings. That's what I call my Moleskine journals. Pond is the key word. It's not an ocean for whales and sharks. It's not a stream that has no time to stop and reflect. It's a simple place, with simple fish, and simple pleasures.

The whole idea is that when you're fishing you might catch a small fish. The only problem is that if you keep doing that, you only catch the same size fish, everyday.
In my pond when I catch an fish, I toss it back. I let it swim, grow, mingle with other fish, and multiply. You can only catch bigger fish if you toss the smaller ones back.

The same thing goes for ideas. Everyone needs a place where they can catch some ideas and toss 'em back.

I hope I can come back to this and see how they've grown. I hope I can come back to this and see how I've grown. Cogito ergo sum. Think holy; be holy. Think good; be good.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov 23:7).

Who knows what a simple thought or a simple man might grow into . . .

Correlations Between Yoga and The Christian Life

2009-10-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yoga is the practice of bringing together. In Sanskrit, yoga means binding or bringing together (it is the root from which we get our work yoke). It brings together the body’s movements with breath, the yogi’s attention to the present moment, and the yogi’s spirit with the yogi’s body. It is intended to even bring the yogi’s spirit in touch with a greater spiritual reality. Yoga as an Eastern practice is viewed with suspicion in the Christian West, but the discipline and insight yoga has to offer should not be so easily dismissed.

The bringing together soul and body by being aware of ones breath is nothing foreign to Christianity. Breath in Greek and Hebrew, which author the Christian canon, is rendered pneuma and rûakh. These words represent wind, breath, and spirit, and this poetic language show that the Western mind and yoga have common ground.

Attentiveness to breathing is often the starting point for Christian meditation as well. The Hesychastes begin with awareness of breath, so that they can understand the rhythm that their body is giving them. With this in mind they can orient themselves toward hesychasis or contemplative silence and stillness.

Christians need reorientation, because to do otherwise is to sin. The Greek and Hebrew words for sin are h’amartia and khattah represent deviating, missing the mark, or moving without proper orientation. This moral failure results from ignoring the order given by God to his creatures. Christians are constantly trying to bind themselves back to this moral order. This is most perfectly done by conforming ones will to the divine will. Christian anthropology teaches that humans are created imago Dei, and thusly they are the image, the reflection of the divine. A mirror that does not perfectly reflect is a bad mirror, so deviation and distortion violate a person’s humanity.

Yoga can teach Christians how to be aware of their alignment. Yoga is analogous to the spiritual life, and so if one can be bind ones body and soul in harmony, they will have a model to do the same in their spiritual life. Yoga is a penetrating process were one begins to practice even off the mat. Awareness of breath and body continue and a person is constantly realigning or deepening in everyday life.

The reason yoga is often viewed with suspicion in the Christian West is due to its relation to Hindu and Buddhist culture. Christians are often afraid that mantras and other practices within yoga will lead to Buddhism or Hinduism, which is not necessarily the case. One element of Hindu philosophy that must be understood cautiously is the word yoga, and what does it mean by bringing together? When one discovers that Atman and Brahman is the same thing, a fusion takes place where the selfless person is absorbed into the divine. This is a different understanding that the Christian idea of communion. Communion is brought about by the fact that there are many persons co-existing, for persons can love each other. This is the reason why the Christian God is a Trinity of three persons in one nature. Communion respects the dignity of individual persons while recognizing the common nature that unifies them.

In yoga, one could say communion is an applicable concept, because ones breath and ones movements may be brought together, but that does not mean that the lungs or the muscles cease to have their individual dignity. It is the fact that different things come together in synergy that makes yoga so beautiful.

One Christian motto (of the Benedictine monks) is ora et labora (pray and work). Yoga is a discipline that can help teach one how to unify together how one prays with how one works. This closes the gaps and binds together a person’s moments of prayer into a constant prayer. Prayer cease to be some activity one does now and again, but becomes something that one is. Yoga has the potential to teach Christians the idea of “practice.” It can teach them that the spiritual life is an on going process of awareness and re-alignment constantly in a world that is so often deviating and distorting.

Dante's Purgatorio

2008-12-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

Purgatorio: A Place for the Purification of All Pilgrims and Poets.

"e canterò di quel secondo regno
dove l'umano spirito si purga
e di salire al ciel diventa degno."*

Dante Alighieri is the poet who composed the Divina Commedia to illustrate vividly the afterlife. He is also the pilgrim within story traversing the bowels of Hell to the heights of Heaven, in search of a place where Christians can rest their heads. He is the Poet and the Pilgrim and is an Everyman, in whom the audience discovers that they are poets and pilgrims as well. Dante demonstrates that Christianity is a call to transformation. This Christian call is to purgation or purification, in order that man may be received in a more perfect communion. In Dante, the audience sees that they too are looking for divine peace and eternal rest and the Purgatorio is the means through which poets and pilgrims can transform their human tragedy into divine comedy and arrive at their proper conclusion.

Man finds himself stranded in creation and sets out in life as a poet and pilgrim. He is given a quill of free will and his life is an allotment of paper in which to craft his story. From here he embarks on his journey, traversing an unfamiliar and even hostile world attempting to reach his destination. He strives to find a place to rest his head and to pen his final chapter. Dante’s journey is oriented according to the Christian destination, which is communion with God.

Inferno demonstrates the fate of those who held a devotion to creatures. Those who lived moved and had their being in vices find themselves bound in an existence entitled with the words “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” (Inferno III: 9). They are tormented by the realization that creation cannot offer the relief, love, or life they seek. This is what the Greeks called αμαρτια or “missing the mark,” and what the Christians called sin. This inability for an object (including man) to reach its end is the overarching tragedy of mankind that many poets and philosophers have articulated throughout history.

Paradiso demonstrates the fate of those who held a devotion to the Creator. By ordering their lives according to the End, or their origin and conclusion, finite creatures find themselves within infinite love. This realm is where the sound of those celebrating never ceases, and this ceaseless jubilation within God punctuates Dante’s epic poem and renders it a divine comedy.

Dante discovers in order to avoid crafting a tragedy and to arrive at a divine comedy the human spirit must be “made clean, and become worthy to ascend to Heaven” (Purgatorio I: 4-6). This purging or purifying is the vocation of all Christians, because it is necessary to be pure in order to be received into divine communion. Sin is an impurity that distracts one from this full communion. The nature of Purgatory is to allow the soul purity, “for is would not be right to go with eyes, obscured by any cloud” (Purgatorio I: 97-99).

“We are pilgrims even as you are” (Purgatorio II: 63).

With these words Virgil reveals that the story of Purgatorio is the story of all men. Because all are called to communion, all must undergo purgation or purifying suffering. Just like the Church Militant on Earth, the Church Suffering in Purgatory are saints in potentia and are completing the perfection of their soul’s purity begun on Earth with the help of God’s grace. This is seen as Dante describes the constant chants and prayers used both on Earth and in Purgatory. Upon entering Purgatory they chant “In exitu Israël de Aegypto” heralding their deliverance from the sinful world (Purgatorio II: 46). They chant Miseres in penance and the Salve Regina for intercession (Purgatorio V: 23, VII: 82-84). They fervently and elaborately recite the Our Father as they continue grow in divine communion through their divine adoption (Purgatorio XI: 1-24). By sharing the chants and prayers of the Church Militant, the Church Suffering is a didactic role model for the living.

“I will have to wait outside while the heavens, revolve around me . . . unless prayer rising from a heart that lives, in grace comes to my help before then” (Purgatorio IV: 130-134).

Dante frequently witnesses souls in Purgatory pleading for prayers of intercession of expediate their journey to Paradise. These pleas increase the audience’s understanding of what is shared between those in Purgatory and those on Earth. They share the same hope of future communion in their κοινωνία, or communion of spirit found within the Christian community. This helps bring Dante’s audience into fuller communion not only with God, but also with each other. Here the Church is edified and strengthened through intercession through a common faith, a common hope of Paradise, and a common love for each other and God. This echoes back to the Greco-Roman poets, whose underworlds were full of generations of souls clambering to have their name remembered in life. Dante’s poem continues this tradition of passed souls requiring aid from above the grave in order to improve their condition in the after life. This prayer for the souls in Purgatory truly unites the Church in communion to be fulfilled in Paradise, and inspires the Church on earth as they continue in their penance and prayers.

Dante’s Divina Commedia is far more than a record of one man’s journey or vision. It is an outline of the parameters of the Mediæval paradigm, astronomically, theologically, but most importantly morally. The Divina Commedia presents its audience with the Mediæval order of the reality and challenges the audience to live within those parameters. Inferno and Paradiso establish the poles of this worldview as vice or divine love. Purgatorio provides models of hope for Dante’s audience. He provides the examples of piety, humility, and love being purged, purified, and perfected. Purgatorio shows poets and pilgrims how to write and walk in accordance with the Author of Life. The transforming nature of purgation helps pilgrims become “pure and disposed to mount unto the stars” arrive at their destination and allows poets to craft the story of their life as a divine comedy . . .

Puro e disposto a salire a le stelle (Purgatorio XXXIII: 145).

* "and I will sing of that second kingdom
in which the human spirit is made clean
and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven." (Purgatorio I: 4-6)

Rorate Cæli

2008-12-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Lat.-"Rorate Cæli desuper, et nubes pluant justum."
Eng.-"Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

~*~

Well we're approaching the last week of Advent and Christmas is coming. To help us understand the Truth and the Goodness of the Incarnation let's turn to the Beauty that sprang from this event.

Rorate Cæli is one of the oldest chants of the Church and it comes right from the Book of Isaiah (45:8) . . . as most things in Advent do. It is a very simple yet elegant chant that always seems to refresh me during this time of year.

I invite you to enjoy a simple angelic chant during these holidays, in between "Chestnuts" and "Sleigh Ride." I hope this helps you slow down a bit during these anxious days of wrapping and going through exam-withdrawl.

You're all in my prayers and God Bless,

~Sam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjwOzlBsoXo

http://romaaeterna.jp/liber1/lu1868b.html
If you're so moved, I encourage you to just follow the notes as you listen. This is a the language and music of the Catholic Church, it's not here to be confusing, but to be beautiful and simple.

English Translation

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity : behold the city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert. Jerusalem is desolate, the house of our holiness and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

We have sinned, and we are become as one unclean, and we have all fallen as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us by the hand of our iniquity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

See, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send him whom thou hast promised to send. Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion, that he himself may take off the yoke of our captivity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be comforted, be comforted, my people; thy salvation shall speedily come. Why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? I will save thee; fear not: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

No Gas? Not Bad.

2008-06-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of our fuel crisis and I've decided to be an optimist about the whole thing.
We need to look at the tank is half-full, not half-empty.

I've been in local businesses and I've seen local communities loose their identity. They lost their identity, because entertainment and creativity were designated to other cities. Little old Allegan, Michigan didn't have the galleries and museums that Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo had, and no one seriously thought about maintain galleries in Allegan because those bigger cities had them, and they were only a short drive away.

These bigger cities also had a mall and Starbuckses galore, so why get espresso drinks around town? You'd have to put up with something unfamiliar, something not from a chain, something not predictable. This is part of the reason why cafés in Allegan sunk. People didn't see them a beneficial and creative part of their community. Cafés were an afterthought, just like galleries, and museums.

With the gas pinch, rural America and small towns are still slow to realize that they need to look inward. I pray for the day when small communities will foster creativity again. I dream of a day when a grassroot renaissance where people realize there is more to their neighbors that they previously thought.

Growing up, I always thought Allegan was beautiful. There were rolling hills lined with corn and grains, woods with grand expressions of foliage and nooks to sneak into, lakes to gaze at, plenty of horizons designed to receive sunsets perfectly, and ponds to pondering alongside of.

I found plenty of fodder for creativity. Fodder put toward drawing, sketching, and doodling, even praying. Many people who know me appreciate my art, but many seem to always pose the question "but what good is it?" They say it to all the other Allegan artists as well. Maybe a with a gas pinch people will go to art shows in Allegan and small towns like it. Maybe people will understand that there have been artists next door modestly lying in wait for someone to share their talent with.

It'll also be good for us to settle down and discover a simpler lifestyle. One centered around the home and around family. A time for us to drop the apian fantasy of buzzing from one flower of entertainment to another, lapping up sweetness for a time, only to look for another far off fix. Creativity is not unattainable. Imagination is not restricted to lands afar. It's all close to home, but just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to foster it's own identity and creativity.

I understand people still need to commute to work and visit family far away for now, but I have hope in the future of infrastructure. I'm confident auto manufactuors and civil engineers will discover new ways for us to travel vast distances and experience all that the world has to offer. But maybe this is lull is to be welcomed as a learning experience. Perhaps we'll learn to savor people and opportunities around us, before we go back to the hustle and bustle we've become accustomed to.

Just my first jumbled thought,
Sam