Posts

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Convergence?

Andrew J. Brown, an English liberal Christian Unitarian, blogs at CAUTE: Some more thoughts on Garden Academies

. . . if liberals are going to get real things done in these difficult times then we need to recall that our power has always been in the cultivation of small and ever-evolving gardens which, collectively, show something real about our liberalism which includes, of course, a commitment to the incredible diversity and vulnerability of all life upon our home planet. The moment we are tempted to scale up to bigger institutions we begin to resemble, not gardeners (i.e. people actively commingling with the world) but managers (i.e. people who act at a distance from the world).

And Martin Kelley, a Quaker (I won’t hyphenate him!) blogs at Quaker Ranter: Is it Convergent to talk about Convergence?

Just the last thing is that for me if our work isn’t ultimately rooted in sharing the good news then it’s self-indulgent. I don’t want to create a little oasis or hippy compound of happy people. Friends aren’t going to go to heaven in our politically-correct smugness while the rest of the world is dying off. It’s all of us or none of us. If we’re not actively evangelizing, then we are part of the problem. “Convergence” is Quaker lingo. When we say it we’re turning our back to the world to talk amongst ourselves: a useful exercise occassionally but not our main work.

Hmm. I’m not sure the two quotes I’ve chosen do the best job at showing why I think these two posts are related, but it’s the best I have time to do at the moment!

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Cat modern art

Over at John Scalzi’s Whatever (home of cat photos, sunsets, and the famous bacon on a cat): I Don’t Know Art, But I Know What I Like

Now up for bid, this absolutely stunning piece of modern work entitled ‘I Will Be There At The End of All Things, or, The Shreddination’ by the prodigiously talented artist Zeus Scalzi.

Warning: Those who don’t appreciate puns or potty humor can pass on this, but in general I heartily recommend Whatever.

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Marilynne Robinson on faith

The Spring 2008 issue of Harvard Divinity Bulletin has a lovely essay by Marilynne Robinson, “Credo.”

History up to the present moment tells us again and again that a narrow understanding of faith very readily turns to bitterness and coerciveness. There is something about certainty that makes Christianity un-Christian. Instances of this are only too numerous and familiar. . . .

My habit for a long time has been to consider disputed and in some cases discarded doctrines on the theory that if in the past thoughtful people have found them meaningful, they might in fact be meaningful, though, of course, meaningful is not the same as wholly sufficient or correct. Take for example the two terms in that venerable controversy, free will versus predestination. There are problems associated with both of them, but in such great matters problems are to be expected, and problems have their own interest and their own implications. In the universe that is the knowledge of God, opposed beliefs can be equally true, and equally false, and, at the same time, complementary, because contradiction and anomaly are the effect of our very limited understanding. As a writer it is important to me to remember always, or as often as I can, that we inhabit a reality far larger and more complex than our conception of it can in any way reflect.

Sadly, the website has only a short excerpt from her essay, but it is well worth getting a copy of the issue. (I found the following essay unreadably over-written–my colleagues assure me it is par for academia–but there’s another wonderful and readable essay on Confucian thought, “Rooted in Humanity, Extended to Heaven,” by Tu Weiming, which isn’t online at all.)

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Fighting cancer

The relay portion of the Relay for Life in Second Life has now begun. For the next 24 hours, people will be celebrating, learning, mourning, virtually walking, and yes, raising money for the American Cancer Society.

If you have not yet made a contribution (or even if you have and want to contribute again), you can do so using a credit card at my page on the ACS fundraising pages. (And a hearty thank-you to those who have already contributed!)

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My life in six words

James Ford tagged me with this little meme:

1. write the title to your own memoir using six words.
2. post it on your blog.
3. link to the person that tagged you.
4. tag five more blogs.

My title: Following the current: eddies and floods

And my tags:

  • Doc Smartypants (who desperately needs to blog instead of writing for about.com)
  • Blaugustine (that would be my Blaugustine, not the other one)
  • Suttonhoo (because I don’t know her at all, but admire her photography and of course covet her online handle)
  • Claire Bear’s mom (just because!)
  • Otenth Paderborn (ha! that gives me five more tags, all virtual worlders)
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Want

On the livejournal steampunk fashion group, along came this little beauty:


Rolleiflex MiniDigi AF5.0

First developed in Germany in the 1920’s, the Rollei 6x6cm Twin Lens Reflex Camera has always been a preferred tool for serious photography, especially portraits. There cannot be, for example, a single Hollywood celebrity who has not been photographed with a Rollei. Now, many of the outstanding convenience features and nostalgic design can be yours in a fashionable up-to-date digital with auto focus feature to shoot between 4 inches (10cm) to infinity on 5 mega pixel image.

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Soap and memories

I have a favorite bath soap. It’s Pre de Provence sage soap. (And I only just discovered that I can buy it from Amazon! I have to go a bit out of my way to buy it.) I also like the verbena.

This week I was near a store in Cambridge that has small bars, and I went in to buy a few. (A few is all I can justify buying at a time; these babies are expensive!) As I perused the display, there were pink bars I didn’t remember seeing before. “Peony” they said. I love peonies. So I picked one up for a sniff, and it reminded me of
my Grandma Tracey. I love memories of my Grandma Tracey, so I bought one.

Big mistake. I used it yesterday morning for my shower, and it was fine. Nice moisturizing feel, but no icky film. Pleasant fragrance.

Until—until I came home, that is, and now my small apartment has unmistakable whiffs of eau de parfum du bordel. (It smells like a French whorehouse, as the saying goes.)

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Fishbowls in England

On Sunday, May 28, 1665, Samuel Pepys records in his diary “a fine rarity.”

Thence home and to see my Lady Pen, where my wife and I were shown a fine rarity: of fishes kept in a glass of water, that will live so for ever; and finely marked they are, being foreign.

Goldfish had only recently been introduced to England.