EYES
My most honourable eyes. You are not in the best shape.
I receive from you an image less than sharp,
And if a color, then it's dimmed.
And you were a pack of royal hounds
With whom I would set forth in the early morning.
My wonderously quick eyes, you saw many things,
Countries and cities. Islands and oceans.
Together we greeted immense sunrises,
When the fresh air invited us to run
Along trails just dry from the cold night dew.
Now what you have seen is hidden inside
And changed into memory or dreams.
Slowly I move away from the fair of this world
And I notice myself in a distaste
For monkeyish dress, shreiks, and drumbeats.
What a relief. Alone with my mediation
On the basic similarity of humans
And their tiny grain of dissimilarity.
Without eyes, my gaze is fixed on one bright point
That grows large and takes me in.
-----Czeslaw Milosz
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Friday, August 16, 2002
I watched M. Night Shyamalan's movie, Signs, a couple weeks ago, and I'm not sure why I haven't written about it until now. The movie was very well done. Even if it missed the mark at the end, the suspense and the chill down the spine were worth my $6 bucks.
Mel Gibson's character plays a lapsed priest. The movie fails because we know he's going to be redeemed, worse yet by a dubious series of events, but there is a nice monologue by Gibson about 2/3 of the way through the film. His younger brother asks him to comfort him, and Gibson, the lapsed preacher a la Jesus, asks him a question: "Are you someone who believes in dumb luck or that there's a purpose (God) at the center of the universe?" A good question to be sure, and well worth asking, but it made me think about a related question: "If you believe that there is a purpose (God) at the center of the universe, is it good or bad?"
Having no taste for those who think we came from nothing (atheists you can stop reading now), this latter question seems much more important to me, and more urgent. As a Christian, I've found that one of the truths I need for the preservation of my faith is that there is a good and perfect purpose (God) at the center of the universe. . . that "all things work together for good" . . . even suffering. This is not an easy concept to embrace, in fact, most days it seems ridiculous, but yet I keep coming back to it. I think everything in my life hinges on that belief. It's more important than ecclesiastical doctrines. It's more important than church attendence. It's called hope, and it has to be maintained through a shitstorm we like to call the world.
Why the world is this way, I don't think we'll ever fully understand, but I believe that there's a good and perfect purpose at the center of it for us all.
Mel Gibson's character plays a lapsed priest. The movie fails because we know he's going to be redeemed, worse yet by a dubious series of events, but there is a nice monologue by Gibson about 2/3 of the way through the film. His younger brother asks him to comfort him, and Gibson, the lapsed preacher a la Jesus, asks him a question: "Are you someone who believes in dumb luck or that there's a purpose (God) at the center of the universe?" A good question to be sure, and well worth asking, but it made me think about a related question: "If you believe that there is a purpose (God) at the center of the universe, is it good or bad?"
Having no taste for those who think we came from nothing (atheists you can stop reading now), this latter question seems much more important to me, and more urgent. As a Christian, I've found that one of the truths I need for the preservation of my faith is that there is a good and perfect purpose (God) at the center of the universe. . . that "all things work together for good" . . . even suffering. This is not an easy concept to embrace, in fact, most days it seems ridiculous, but yet I keep coming back to it. I think everything in my life hinges on that belief. It's more important than ecclesiastical doctrines. It's more important than church attendence. It's called hope, and it has to be maintained through a shitstorm we like to call the world.
Why the world is this way, I don't think we'll ever fully understand, but I believe that there's a good and perfect purpose at the center of it for us all.
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Saturday, August 10, 2002
Yesterday I went to see Sam Jones' new documentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and really enjoyed it. It felt like a cross between Rattle & Hum and Grant Gee's Meeting People Is Easy.
The film documents the making of Wilco's latest album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the loss of co-songwriter Jay Bennett, the dropping of the band by Reprise records and the subsequent pickup of the album by Nonesuch records, ironically both divisions of Warner Bros. Music.
There's a great moment when David Fricke of Rolling Stone speculates on why Reprise let go of such a great band. He says it really has to do with our culture and how things are marketed to us. He uses the anology of a cell phone. He says, "Everyone's got a cell phone. Why? I bet 80-90% of the phone calls taking place right now boil down to this phrase. . . 'I'll be there in five minutes.' Why can't you just f@#$ing be there in five minutes!" (If Chesterton was still alive, this would be the part where he inadvertently blows popcorn all over the guy in front of him). This, Fricke says, is in large part why an album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot will never be a commercial success, and is likely why Reprise let them go.
Maybe in about 10 years people will realize how significant this album is, maybe they won't, but do yourself a favor and go out and buy it to hear for yourself (pretend like you don't have a cell phone and the earth still takes 24 hours to rotate once). If nothing else, go see the movie; it's worth seeing just for the lush visuals of Chicago in grainy Black and White.
The film documents the making of Wilco's latest album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the loss of co-songwriter Jay Bennett, the dropping of the band by Reprise records and the subsequent pickup of the album by Nonesuch records, ironically both divisions of Warner Bros. Music.
There's a great moment when David Fricke of Rolling Stone speculates on why Reprise let go of such a great band. He says it really has to do with our culture and how things are marketed to us. He uses the anology of a cell phone. He says, "Everyone's got a cell phone. Why? I bet 80-90% of the phone calls taking place right now boil down to this phrase. . . 'I'll be there in five minutes.' Why can't you just f@#$ing be there in five minutes!" (If Chesterton was still alive, this would be the part where he inadvertently blows popcorn all over the guy in front of him). This, Fricke says, is in large part why an album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot will never be a commercial success, and is likely why Reprise let them go.
Maybe in about 10 years people will realize how significant this album is, maybe they won't, but do yourself a favor and go out and buy it to hear for yourself (pretend like you don't have a cell phone and the earth still takes 24 hours to rotate once). If nothing else, go see the movie; it's worth seeing just for the lush visuals of Chicago in grainy Black and White.
Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Tuesday, August 06, 2002
Saturday, August 03, 2002
I recently embarked upon the daunting task of reading Winston Churchill's memoirs of The Second World War. It's a six volume set with each volume finishing up somewhere around 6-700 pages in miniscule print. This is why the books have been on my shelf for about 2 years. That notwithstanding, I'm glad I started to read this collection. The first volume is entitled "The Gathering Storm" and chronicles the countless political blunders that lead to Hitler's re-armament and eventually to war, as well as Churchill's rise to the role of Prime Minister. In reading this book I'm confronted with a number of astounding things: 1) Churchill was spot-on re: Hitler as far back as 1931 and he was continually ridiculed and derided for his opinions even into 1939 2) In their blind search for peace and their belief in the innate goodness of man, the French and British foolishly allowed Hitler to do whatever he wanted, at the expense of a number of treaties violated; they were in essence, "men without chests." 3) The US isolationist policies virtually sank the League of Nations and thus deflated many hopes of keeping Hitler in line 4) Many of the mistakes made with the German tyrants could apply to our situation with Islamic Terrorists of the present day. The US is still as rash about their foreign policy as they were in the 30's. Let's hope that Sept. 11th taught us something about helping out around the globe.
Churchill summarizes the folly from '32-'39 nicely at one point:
"In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people we now reach our climax. That we should all have come to this pass makes those responsible, however honourable their motives, blameworthy before history. Look back and see what we had successively accepted and thrown away: a Germany disarmed by solemn treaty; a Germany rearmed in violation of a solmen treaty; air superiority or even air parity cast away; the Rhineland forcibly occupied and the Seigfried line built or building; the Berlin-Rome Axis established; Austria devoured and digested by the Reich; Czechoslovakia deserted and ruined by the Munich pact, its fortress line in German hands, its mighty arsenal of Skoda henceforward making munitions for the German armies; President Roosevelt's effort to stabilise or bring to a head the European situation by the intervention of the United States waved aside with one hand, and Soviet Russia's undoubted willingness to join the Western Powers and go all lengths to save Czechoslovakia ignored on the other; the services of thirty five Czech divisions against the still unripened German army cast away, when Great Britain could herself supply only two to strengthen the front in France; all gone with the wind."
Churchill summarizes the folly from '32-'39 nicely at one point:
"In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people we now reach our climax. That we should all have come to this pass makes those responsible, however honourable their motives, blameworthy before history. Look back and see what we had successively accepted and thrown away: a Germany disarmed by solemn treaty; a Germany rearmed in violation of a solmen treaty; air superiority or even air parity cast away; the Rhineland forcibly occupied and the Seigfried line built or building; the Berlin-Rome Axis established; Austria devoured and digested by the Reich; Czechoslovakia deserted and ruined by the Munich pact, its fortress line in German hands, its mighty arsenal of Skoda henceforward making munitions for the German armies; President Roosevelt's effort to stabilise or bring to a head the European situation by the intervention of the United States waved aside with one hand, and Soviet Russia's undoubted willingness to join the Western Powers and go all lengths to save Czechoslovakia ignored on the other; the services of thirty five Czech divisions against the still unripened German army cast away, when Great Britain could herself supply only two to strengthen the front in France; all gone with the wind."
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