Contact by Twyla Toews

the point where the sun and the horizon meets
reverberates with passion
and the water misses the shore
until they touch
it's the contact of the rock and pond
that creates the uniformity of circles
rippling outward
the sweet caress of sonic waves
against the eardrum, bliss
is the embrace of light and the eye, sweet
is the blend of spices that dances with the tongue
in closed position, breath on skin
scent winds through emotion
and the wind and trees unite in this
music of connection

Indulgence

I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, but since it was the "No. 1 Movie" this weekend, let's revisit what that wonderful little book was about:

Prince Caspian is about beer. {continue...}

[via slacktivist]

Their Identities Among Many

Perhaps precisely because Evangelicals have had the experience of acquiring massive political power and squandering it, they are singularly qualified to provide a lesson to American Muslims, who have virtually no power as a religious community. When religion becomes inextricably tied to partisan politics, it can be bought and sold like stocks, simultaneously cheapening the faith and corrupting the secular principles of liberal government. Addressed to every faith community in the US, the Evangelical Manifesto is a warning American Muslims should heed. To be accepted as full members of a liberal polity, they have to be prepared to accept that their profession of faith is just one feature of their identities among many, and not the one that should dictate their engagement with politics.

[via Jewcy, HT: The View From Her]

The Range of Possibilities

Israel is in the midst of celebrating 60 years of independence. Palestinians, on the other hand, grieve the loss of their homes and lands. The papers are filled with essays, articles, and op-ed pieces that wrestle with the issue. Some from a Palestinian angle, others from an Israeli one. As I have noted elsewhere, I find myself caught in the middle of a nearly century old dispute. Part of the problem is that the parties involved have yet to come up with a solution that would be acceptable to all parties -- including within their own communities. Thee are Jews and Palestinians supportive of a two state-solution. There are others, on both sides that take an all or nothing perspective. There are still others, more Palestinian than Jewish that look to a one-state secular democratic solution. To go that route, of course, would mean abandoning the idea of a Jewish state.

Further complicating the issue are the facts on the ground. There is the idea of a right of possession. Who has claim to property -- the ones who held title sixty years ago, some who still have keys to their old houses, or the ones living three now -- who perhaps are the second or third owner since possession changed?

To get a sense of the range of possibilities, consider some of the pieces that have appeared the last couple of days. {continue...}

[via Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

When you are on the same page, but a different paragraph, it's easy to doodle in the margins.

Prayer for All Who Are Abused by Vienna Cobb Anderson

[via The Owl's Song, HT: Emotional Abuse and Your Faith]

Just A Moment

My friend shared one such moment the other day. He’s got a number of challenges ahead of him and in some ways he’s trying to face them alone. When I asked him what would happen if he found himself face to face with one particular thing he struggled with, his response was simple, “I’ve never done that particular thing, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

And in some sense, he had never done the thing in question. But the truth is that everything you’ve ever done is something you once had never done. Everything in this life has a starting point. A moment where it leaps from never to first time.

Maybe it’s slow, the daily build up of rain washing against your walls. Maybe it’s unexpected, a storm colliding against you with waves and water you never dreamed could be so deep. But in that moment when you stand on the top of your damn and can see the water rising, don’t try to go it alone. Reach out to a friend. Wake up your neighbors. Ring the church bell.

Because in this damn life, it’s just so easy for never to turn into first time ever.

[via Stuff Christians Like]

Deserved It The Most

“I’m sorry you met me.” I said through angry, frightened tears. I was desperate for her to go, to pull away from me so I could inflict pain on only one person. The person I felt deserved it the most. Me.

“I love you.” She yelled through the phone.

“How can you say that? That doesn’t make any sense.” I responded.

“You don’t get to decide who I love. I love you. That’s my decision. You can’t take that away from me. I love you. I choose to love you.” She repeated words like these over and over again. She attacked me with love that day. And forgiveness I didn’t deserve. Forgiveness I couldn’t earn or make sense of.

I was overwhelmed that day. {the rest...}

[via The Prodigal Jon]

Detecting Mysteries

Fictional Clergy Detectives
Fictional Clergy Detectives II
Fictional Detectives III

[via Levellers]

What would Mother’s Day be without some gentle musical satire?

Glad you asked. {continue...}

[via get it? got it. good., HT: The View From Her]

Living simply and living poorly are matters of generosity.
Simply living and poorly living are matters of miserliness.

"Alt. More Worlds Than Known" by Proto-Kaw

Here I am I'm alive again, still wondering who
Out the window the sun shines in, saying give it a try
I take it all and then I give it back,
and it never seems to go away,
it's a promised day, a long promised day

We have not always been so blind, long ago we could see
Was a time we could take it all, rooted deep like a tree
Now I watch as it comes falling down,
and it seems there's little else to do,
is it the same for you? the same for you.....


Underneath this veneer it lies, taking toll of the time
Till' you see it for what it is, with no reason or rhyme
How strange it is just to die to live,
and it never ever goes away,
it's a promised day (a long promised day)

Help me live my life again

These Moments We Have

The hope is what gets me. The hope that there is something better. That our limited expressions of love — because of both time and our imperfect nature — can actually be enough. That’s what overwhelms me. These moments we have to love each other are always limited and restrained. And often only when we become devastatingly aware of their transient nature, do we fully experience them. There is such hurt and hope, loss and gain, joy and pain, and they all mix together in one big, overpowering mess that what can we do but cry?

Cry over brokenness. Cry over our fears. Our failings. Past failings and future failings. Cry over these indescribable feelings of love that we experience towards others. And from others — which make us feel unworthy....

And maybe when we have these moments of weeping from deep within ourselves, maybe it is more about the hope than the hopelessness. That despite all of the pain and loss that life ultimately makes sense and is good and is worth living. And that we’re worth it. And others are too. And all of this loving and the losing that goes along with it — well, that’s the best part. And sometimes a good cry and a few moments with someone you’re about to lose can mean more than a month of Sundays and a pat on the back.

[via VanderMeander]

Edging Ahead

It’s an agonizing time when you feel your peers edging ahead and the cool people aren’t seeking you out and almost every day somebody announces a cool new job, or a big romance, or the receipt of an awesome gift, some fresh kill from the jungle, and it depresses you. You don’t want to be a loser. And you sense the fact that, in life, so much — so very much — is pure luck, no matter what they want you to think, and an angel may knock at your door in the person of a beggar, and you say No, and that No will resound for the rest of your born days. It is agonizing to think about.

Garrison Keillor

[via Salon, HT: Randall Friesen]

Pointed Somewhere Else

Such demagogues are con artists. And they're good at it. But recognizing that is where things get tricky and difficult to talk about.

Good con artists are difficult to prosecute. This is true, in part, because getting conned is viewed differently than being the victim of other forms of crime. There's a sense of shame, or at least of embarrassment, on the part of the victims, so they're less likely than other crime victims to report the crimes. Con artists know this, and they exploit it -- sometimes compounding that embarrassment by working a con that relies on the mark's greed or chauvinism or some other trait they are unlikely to be proud of and thus making the victim feel complicit in their own victimhood.

It's never easy to tell someone they're being conned. "You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took," Malcolm X said. "You've been bamboozled." But nobody wants to hear that, even if it's true. Especially not if it's true. It sounds too much like, "You've been a sucker." Or even, "You've been stupid." It seems to add insult to injury so people reject both the message and the messenger. Even if that means continuing to subject themselves to the ongoing injury of the scam. They are, after all, accustomed to it.

Consider, for example, the state-run lotteries.

[via slacktivist]

An Islamless World by Martin E. Marty

[HT: Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

The Key Moment Has Happened

He was opening up his calendar and putting a timeframe on redemption. He was assigning power and promise to weeks and months. Hoping that if he stacked up days up like bandages, his wife would forgive him.

But the past is seductive. When I look back in the rear view mirror, it’s constantly swelling its chest, appearing more important than it is, adding details to memories, hiding others in the shadows, recreating what really happened. I like to think that my memories are documentaries, full of fact and truth, but they’re more like summer blockbusters. Full of special effects and illusions....

For him it’s much simpler. There are only two conditions, dead or alive, lost or found. There is no need to wait for time to heal any wounds or to weigh out time gone versus time obedient. The rescued has occurred, the key moment has happened.

No calendar cannot change that.

Time cannot offer that kind of healing.

[via Stuff Christians Like]

Multiple Superheros

April 18-20: New York Comic Con
April 18-20: New York Papal Visit
Coincidence? We think not.

The Vatican knew exactly what they were doing. It was their attempt to make a full-scale frontal assault on American popular culture. Faced with a decision between comic books and holy scriptures, multiple superheros and a single savior, action figures and crucifixions, graphic novels and encyclicals, between the greatest artist in comic book history (Stan Lee) and the second most popular pope of the last four years (Benedict XVI), who did they expect us to choose? {continue...}

[via Wittenburg Door]