Today, I lament the suffering that goes on behind closed doors.
An old acquaintance in Philly has delved into the secrets of El Salvador and our hidden connection to the violence there (returntoelsalvador.com). His documentary is coming out this fall, but it seems like the documentary is just the tip of the ice burg for him. He recently returned to the village where he was filming only to find that an anti-mining activist had been killed there. The entire story can be read here:
But it brings up a point,…how much is out there? How much do we just not know about?
For example, Food Inc. shows all the things we don’t know and don’t want to know about our food.
Part of me thinks that if we can only remember the things we have learned…and be open to what we might learn, then that is enough.
Somethings I have really learned (not textbook learned) recently:
-All people are broken
-Exercise is good for me
-Good, physical work is tiring and rewarding
-Sometimes the “bad energy” we feel from someone else is something we have ourselves initiated or contributed to
-The life of many illegal immigrants in the U.S. is so very shaky and insecure and unsafe
-When we think we are ministering to someone, they are often ministering to us.
Today I went to an art museum; it has been a summer long goal to go, so where I ended up was the National Portraiture Gallery. I expected to find a lot of faces and that would be interesting to me because faces are a subject of study for me these days. I feel like you learn so much about what someone is saying (or not saying) by their facial expressions. And, honestly, I can begin to see in myself my true feelings and thoughts. Sometimes it’s not a pretty thing to find out–I’m communicating one thing and really feeling the entire opposite or I’m building up walls that never knew were there.
All that to say, when I arrived at the Portraiture Gallery, I found portraits that I did enjoy studying, and, in addition, I found a whole exhibit of art produced by the Public Works of Art project. These images were a surprise I was grateful for–images from all parts of life–city, country, leisure, mines (gold, clay), natural gas storage…farm, factory, ice house, small town New York to big city Central Park. The one I’ve included here is “Somewhere in America” by Robert Brackman.
What seems most significant about this collection of art is that in a time of economic depression, someone (the Roosevelts, I believed) had the leadership to recognize the need for art to reflect those hard times. They called on artists across the region to portray the complexity of what was going on in that time.
If you get a chance, go check it out at Gallery Place/Chinatown or read about it here:
I have been, for many years, intrigued by the community at Taize. Their life of ecumenical prayer is a beautiful reality. I am drawn to the simplicity of ideas in the community and would like to share them here.
Each year, thousands of young people make a pilgrimage to Taize. Like those of us drawn to Abbeys and people like Brother Dunstan, they are drawn to Taize’s sense of ….
Mystery,
Peace,
Depth.
Oliver Clement talks of a film director who says that “The challenge of our age is to let humanity remain a question; to avoid thinking that everything is straightforward, that everything is explainable.” It is very important that there should be people and places and actions which ask the question of the mystery of life.
I wonder: What speaks mystery in into our lives these days? For me it’s often in movies–like Garden State or Away We Go. These movies touch on the quest in people for home, and security–but that these things aren’t enough. There is more…and what is that?
But Brother Oliver says “It is not enough just to ask… because to ask it is to discover that an essential characteristic of humanity is incompleteness….” How do we accept that incompleteness?
hey everyone. here is where i will share with the world what i am doing in my little corner of the world. it’s not very important, in fact, it’s very small. just a few ideas here, some good conversations there. im really just trying to find my way home, and i hope some of what i write here will help you, too.
