10.15.09
Sameness
Our party generation is preoccupied with who is and who is not boring. The reality is that we are all the same:
We learn the same subjects in school, go to the same movies, shop in the same stores, and eat in the same restaurants. To admit that you have found someone interesting is also to admit one’s dullness. The curse of being interesting yourself is to find no one else interesting.
In order to stand out in a consumer culture, you must both be a consumer and the consumed. Even the exceptional will rise from and return to obscurity. Society affirms itself—only itself. We are all dull, and we point it out to one another every day.
The entire goal of suburbia is to make everything the same. Our goal is ultimately to be an individual, but we go about it in the same ways. Our ultimate goal is to be as unique as possible, but it is masked in our effort to be comfortable and content most accessible, available, convenient, and affordable as possible. When suburbia is successful, we live in the same homes, learn in the same schools, and worship in the same churches. Because we eat, sleep, and breathe the same way, we are all thinking the same thoughts—Oprah’s thoughts.
We are ridiculous.
08.22.09
What’s Going On? (Lost in the Cosmos)
This is the question of the decade: “What the heck is going on?” We ask this question of the housing market, health care, geo-politics, global climate, education, marriage, church culture, and religion in general. This could either be a long and non-conclusive blog thesis or a brief and still inconclusive post. I’ll bet, given the pace at which society operates, you’ll prefer the brief and inconclusive version: (legal disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this post reflect very accurately the opinion of the masses. Don’t call us.)
04.28.09
Seven Pounds (Redemption at the Cost of One Life)
Writer Grant Nieporte and director Gabriele Muccino have stirred my hornets nest. We’ve been offered another wonderful tragedy in the package of excellent writing and art. The moral dilemma and the treatment of altruism is reminiscent of Gone Baby Gone.
Altruism is a universal theme. The popularity of this film is a testimony to this. Am I doing what is right or am I merely serving my own ego? Is there such a thing as a good deed or am I in fact putting others into my debt as a way to control, master, own, or use them to redeem myself? (Albert Camus)
Two important matters are addressed here:
1a) Are you a good person? (such as the conversation with Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson), a blind meat salesman who plays the piano).
1b) Am I a good person? [such as the way in which Tim Thomas (Will Smith) wrestles with the guilt of causing a car accident by using his Blackberry, which claims the lives of seven people].
2) Can I redeem myself? (am I able to become a good person, or to at least have other people believe that I am a good person?) “In seven days, God created the world, and in seven seconds I shattered mine.” Read the rest of this entry »
04.18.09
Anakin Skywalker and Senator Palpatine On Knowledge and Power (and what it says about modernism)
Just before Anakin surrenders to the dark side (depicted in the video clip), a fascinating conversation takes place between he and Senator Palpatine. If you know anything about grace, modernism, and gnosticism, you too will find this fascinating: Read the rest of this entry »
04.07.09
Short Shelf Life
It amazes me how quickly ideas expire. This post will expire before my bananas or a gallon of milk. Intellectual knowledge is old at the moment it is sold. In the case of the printed news, the many newspapers have been dubbed “wastepapers” overnight–many of them are bankrupt or currently going under. Our culture moves so fast that the news at 7 am is old by the evening news at 6:30 pm that very same day. It’s worse than technology or automobiles. I’m referring to ideas, inventions, conversations, movements, nationalities, currency, music and the arts, etc.–everything from talk show episodes to ways in which we catalog, access, and reference libraries of information. Read the rest of this entry »
12.11.08
“O Come Let Us Offend Him”
The Creator God came into His Creation in the image of one of his creatures. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12).
For anyone who does not believe this truth, Christmas would be extremely offensive. Christ himself would be offensive. Consider these Christmastime lyrics from the closing of Schulz’s timeless classic, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown”:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Instead of a world that is berated and suffocating under the dogma and chains of religion, the postmodern world is free. We are sovereign. We make our own choices with our own bodies, our spouses, our children, our health, our money, our possessions, our nation, religion, whatever.
The world we live in today has a new approach to sensitive matters such as religion and politics. We accept all of it. Today all of the rules are tossed aside. All of the lines are blurred. Today we have liberal conservatives, moderates, and conservative liberals. I drove past a church that announces that finally, here exists a liberal church. We have religious politics and political religions. We affirm differences within culture. Everyone’s opinion is equally valid.
When it comes to religion, the name of the game is tolerance. We say “yes” to Hanukkah, (poor Jews–they always get mistreated) AND Christmas. In California, maybe we don’t affirm “Christmas” at all, because we might offend non-Christians.
If I did not believe the Christmas story, I would be totally offended by Christ and Christians. I would probably declare a war on overly-Christian forms of holiday. I would not want my celebration of my life and my friends, my choices with my own body, my spouse, my children, health, money, possessions, nation, religion, or whatever being guided by anything, or any deity other than myself. I wouldn’t want to be in public and hear,
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing
Christ came to declare a war:
The coming of Justice means something entirely offensive to the unjust.
Christ came so that although we die, we might have life.
The birth of a Savior means absolutely nothing to someone who can save themselves.
In order for Christ’s marriage to be pure, His bride must be pure.
Christianity is not tolerant. Neither is its Founder. Christians are called to be spiritual virgins, not religious prostitutes. We are a unique people, not swayed by popular mood or public opinion. We are little Christs–either we receive Him and are given the right to be called children or we do not receive Him and wage war against Him. There is no middle.
Christ came to redeem people to God. This is why we sing.
11.26.08
Cloning and The Christian
Professor Jonathan M. W. Slack, Ph.D., F.Med.Sci., the Director of the Stem Cell Institute, at the University of Minnesota and the other scientists there are at the forefront of reprogramming adult stem cells. By mapping and understanding the nature of DNA, it is becoming more and more promising that we can reprogram a bone marrow cell, for example, to become a heart tissue cell, brain cell, or spinal chord cell. Professor Slack announces, “Stem cell research, and regenerative medicine generally, will have as much impact on our lives in the 21st century as did motor cars, antibiotics, and computers in the 20th.” He and others at the institute “seek the treatments that will make a difference in quality of life for patients suffering from such diseases as Parkinson’s, diabetes, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, and more.”[1]
I recently emailed Professor Slack to get his opinion regarding guiding principles in medicine. In his response, he stresses a “non-religious ethic,” noting that we ought to honor the “Golden Rule” principle and that “public consensus must be respected.” Read the rest of this entry »
05.19.08
The Foil and The Maigic of Television (The Writer’s Stike America)
I have a buddy named James who is very good at doing close up magic. He’s particularly good with this one sleight-of-hand card trick that starts by asking the naïve foil to pick a single card from the 52 and sign his or her name on it with a black sharpie. He proceeds to lose that person’s card into the deck and attempt to find it again. After shuffling, dicing, and chopping, he breaks the deck at some arbitrary place in the center and reveals a card.
Is this it?
No.
Is this it?
No.
Hmm . . .
More drama . . . James turns the deck, looking at their faces, and riffles through it as though he knew where it was, but suddenly, it wasn’t where it was suppose to be.
This one?
Nope.
Although we have completely lost sight of the card, we understand that somehow, he has not. If he’s entertaining a particularly naïve individual, they may give a nervous chuckle, such as to empathize with the embarrassment of the magician whose trick is fumbling.
To be brief, the foil seems more amused that concerned with the whole process: is he wearing long sleeves, etc. The way it ends is that ultimately the card is folded into fourths and although he’s holding both of your hands with both of his hands, the card you’ve signed your name onto comes slipping out of his mouth from between his lips quite dramatically.
Usually, however, we are not so deceived by the game so as to think that he has truly lost the card. We remain quite sure, although skeptical of how it will end, that he will in fact find our card. Still, quite often we forget that the trick is on us, and we entertain it such that we always want to see another one.
It’s season finale time on television and it rivets many of us at the same time it torments us. We remember, year after year, that the writers will never fail to leave us on a cliffhanger. If all of the loose ends were resolved, we’d lose our sense of wonder and intrigue. Although we understand that throughout the whole season, the writers are fully cognoscente of the outcome (eventually), and yet we will be left to our stupor for months.
What’s the worst thing to have come from the recent writer’s strike? Read more.
01.30.08
Pencil Drawings Moving at Mach 1.5 (a dogfight of aesthetics)
Sometimes doing something that you love loses it’s magic. Now is the time to rekindle that something . . . even if it is ordinary . . . even if no one else cares.
When I was 10, I started drawing. I had a pad of unlined paper, a pencil and a collection of odd rulers. I was never a very risky by trying anything free-hand. None-the-less, it was quite imaginative. I was careful and meticulous with lines and angles and measurements, and I traced around a nickel or a dime to make the wheels. The page always got a horizontal line to start with. That was the ground. Nearly every time I would draw, it became a concept car of the future.
Often, my car drawings had elements of old and new cars combined, and some original ideas that may or may not have served any real purpose other than aesthetics.
When our class would go to the library, I would check out books on fighter jets with lots of pictures. Then, my drawings were half car and half jet—incorporating aerodynamic ideas that I got from picture books on fighter jets and rockets.
Some of my drawings after that wouldn’t start with a horizontal line. Instead, while employing a little more risk and imagination, all of the lines and razor sharp angels were flying at mach 1.5 and had a tail of flame.
Once or twice, I would have more than one jet on a page. They were engaged in a type of dogfight, but somehow almost humanly impossible, all of which took place at mach 1.5 and all of which fit on a single page of drawing paper.
I had the same routine before starting another drawing. I would thumb slowly though my previous drawings, partly to admire them, and partly to find the next fresh page.
One day, I suddenly lost my sense of imagination. I was smitten. As I thumbed through all of my previous drawings, I kept seeing the same thing. I only knew how to draw one thing. Read the rest of this entry »
