"G-hey"!

*scratchy silent-film music*
To This "Giverny":

Moo ha. ha. ha. I have successfully obscured my intent for all these years where it has been gloriously revealed on a hacked blog of some cretinous dunce.

Th'End.

I haven't been hiding the pictures, in fact, I didn't even know I HAD them. In a sense, I didn't. They belong to my parents' mission trip in China in the 70s--- after the purging. Apparently Led Zeppelin had the 70s, as well as mission trips to communist countries.
I call this "China Bowl". Get it? Haw Haw.

My Dad the tourist. "Hey, you! Take a picture of me with all these Asians so people will know I actually was here!" (or, there's always a backdrop of the great wall of China)

Sadly, most of them were relatively un-salvageable.

of water running and confusing times

Titles. They're really quite pointless. But that's one invention we can't blame on Judaism.

I'm convinced it's possible to be in the world but not of it, but also, in the world and being ...no where, really.

As Christians, several excuses arise as to why this world isn't our problem. 1) eternity... and that's all of the "several excuses".
Also, because of a pre-destined will of God. Since God has everything written out in His book already, there is little to no reason why we should intercede or petition for ourselves.
Take 1 Peter, for instance. If someone is already chosen by God, and has been chosen by God since the beginning of time, then there's nothing our prayers or witnessing are going to do that could help the process. (And it could work both ways- there's nothing our public sins could do to discourage them from following Christ)

However, we know that's not true- the affect isn't true, at least, though the theology behind being chosen by God is. Right? This is all fairly elementary, of course, and any of us who have acknowledged hopelessness in our thoughts have had to deal with that temptation.

And that's just what it is- a temptation to sway us from prayer and witnessing.

The interesting thing I'm discovering as we continue our bible study on prayer-- satan doesn't worry to tempt us so much about sinful thoughts, waste of time, violent actions, and the like. If he were to delegate his demon legions out for different tasks, I'm pretty sure he'd appoint the "lesser demons"... where is my folksy knowledge when I need it. But the things that we who strive to love Jesus "want" to do- spend time in prayer, reading the bible, meditation, witnessing- Satan tries his hardest to pull us away from those things.

So, as with everything, being in the world, but not of it... that's hardly black and white. we can be in the world, not of it, and still not growing any closer to Christ. Most often the snares that catch my feet are the things I presume will help me in my Christ/child relationship- this, for example: thinking and philosophizing and analyzing. Whereas quiet... and emphasis on quiet, what with all the music and media that goes on in my head... time in prayer and meditation on his word (a rather black and white philosophy in itself) goes a lot farther for preparing me in the day.

Because, the truth is, at the beginning and the end of the day, my accomplishments rarely make me feel better than my wastes of time. Maybe... the specifically Buddhist practice of meditation can be partially applicable in the Christian faith, but not to the point where we clear our minds of all things. Maybe just until the face of God is all we see.

Music- Seizure

I never, ever thought this would happen but... I'm sick of music.

Is it possible that I've been so exposed and over-exposed and over-immersed and I should say "obsessed" that I'm completely swinging the other way? On the other hand, this could be one of those "Signs of Depression", when your "loved one" starts to care very little about their formerly "favourite past-times". Nah. This is for real. I'm sick to death.

What brought on this unlikely demise? Has it been developing since I first discovered I liked music? Or maybe it was when I decided to branch away from my parents music choices and find my own. Or, on the other hand, maybe it was when I started to discover really good music, western and eastern, and just kept digging a tunnel to the very core of music and the arts.

Or this could be a one-day-depression spree and I'm just really not fond of it right now.

But as for my beef with music, I do have some eclectic music choices and I can no longer tell if it's drawing me closer or farther.. to and from God. Naturally, worship "music" isn't going to count here.

I have an obsessive nature, otherwise known as the human idolatrous nature, and I definitely have issues with making an idol of music. After all, it's basically how I spend my recreational time. I used to think of myself as being rather well rounded. Well SURE I have rounded music tastes, but if all I do, think, say is music... well, I ought as well admit it. My life sucks and not because of any circumstances forced upon me, but because I decided to drown myself in a wasteland of music.

That makes very little sense.

I wish I could help people understand.. I can't listen to music without dissecting it; musically, historically, personally, culturally... rarely spiritually, but if it is, it's usually in a condemning, self-righteous manner.

So I should like nothing better than to turn off the music and focus wholly on God, but what do I have? I have music education and nothing else right now. I should probably try jogging, see how it feels to have the wind in my ears and the cracking of my joints... right.

apparently peace passed by understanding without waving.

We watched Miranda and Miranda last night, two stories told once as a comedy, and once as a tragedy. The idea was to convey that one story has both comic and tragic elements. It failed miserably, because it was one of those movies that didn't actually make collective SENSE, by which I don't mean common "sense" but logical "sense". Ultimately, both the stories were tragedies. (Hah. But, they really were)

Movies are meant to evoke our emotions, have us cheer when the bad guy "gets dead", or cry when the child dies, or sundry other tragic elements take place... the truth is, artists have us almost completely in their hands with movies.

Running through a list of different art forms, we have cinema, visual art, music, and literature. Science, as we know it, is not an art. It is research. Not an actual act of creation.

Music we hear, but do not see. Literature, we tend to feel most profoundly. It is, after all, a more obvious form of "conveying". Visual art excites our pupils... unless it happens to be minimalist abstract. But movies take all these, hear, sight, and storyline, and have control of almost all our senses. ("Touch" is left so that we may adequately feel the sinking of the couch cushions, and "taste"... well, popcorn, of course) Is that dangerous?

I couldn't cheer for the comedy because in the end, the characters got what they wanted, but the history of the romantic couple told me that they wouldn't last, not even in bed. Why is it that people tend to think their partner is disposable, like an Ikea lamp. (Why are you crying for this lamp? The new one is much better!) Of course, that's humanity. But sometimes we give ourselves over to humanity, especially in the form of movies. I tend to be of the liberal thinking that all art is good. I mean, look at the damn word: "art". It just screams "goodness".
And maybe the movie was right, and that it depends on who's perceiving the art.

As for me, it's a constant struggle to "feel out" what God wants. Anesthetized-Christian art seems to be inappropriate, if there is such a thing. God clearly created darkness beside the light.
That movie didn't reflect what God wanted in a marriage, which is what we tend to take away. The obvious thematic elements. (For that reason, I appreciate movies with abstract plot-lines and too many elements too count. After all, certain movies tend to force their ideals on you more than others.)

All this to say, art seems to be one of those things completely without a Christian structure to "reduce" it with. There are only Biblical guidelines of whatever is righteous, pure, &co, to -think- on these things. Does that imply not exposing ourselves to controversial, at least to our faith, elements?


I shall, of course, go get something useful done, now that I've discovered that there is nothing to discover in philosophizing. Enjoy art, both the painful kind and the beautiful kind, and attach a "God is love" sticker to every piece.


Hey... what the hell is "culturally appropriate" anyway? Aesthetics.