Latent Possibilities

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Random stuff

We are using conventional war tactics to combat a viral system (terrorism). What we need is not “to be on the hunt,” as I heard W say this morning. We need a viral solution that does not attempt to chase terrorist cells and bust them up but rather overwhelms the system with an even more connective system. We need a solution that is organic to the problem. We need justice cells...

Heard about this movie on NPR: This Is England. I looked up the movie's site on line and fell in love with the kid that plays the lead character. He auditioned to be an extra in his school play and didn't make it. But the director casted him as the lead in this film, which has already grossed over three million. The site has some audition clips in which Tommie sits back and answers a bunch of questions. Worth watching. In the film, the kid plays a character whose father has abandoned him. He's 12 years old, but he has the street sense and edge of someone much older. Here's the thing: the actual kid is a lot like the character. He doesn't act much in the film.

As I was exploring this site, I found myself wishing to be a filmmaker. I love the idea of creating characters and stories that are so interesting you want to live in them for a while.

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Friday, July 06, 2007

Last Day...

In a couple hours I'll take my Romans final. My prof for liturgical prayer is making lunch for the class, and then I'm home free. Can't wait to see Alyssa and Lucas again. Three weeks away from them is too long.

Having said that it's been a good three weeks. This could end up being my last summer here, so I've tried to savor the place. Went to evening prayer and The Grotto last night, went to morning prayer this morning. I'll miss it, but it's time to re-enter normal life.

The main thing I take back with me is this prayer: "O Lord, you are my maker and my judge." It may sound like a simple-minded prayer, so let me explain, because I think it's rich. One of Paul's main points in Romans is that the life of faith begins with recognizing God as God. Sin, on the other hand, begins with, sometimes despite knowing God, a refusal to acknowledge God as God. Recognizing God as God requires that we accept our utter contingency, our complete state of dependence on God. Paul suggests it is the inability to accept this contingency as a gift that results in a life of acquisitiveness and self-focused competition. If one accepts life as a gift, suddenly any reason for competition evaporates.

The way this works out for me is that I make my work my god. I have never thought of myself as a workaholic, but this class helped me to see that I really am. Work gets into me, it makes me anxious; sometimes I can't enjoy dinner with my family because I'm bound up in knots over something at work. I, in fact, derive my identity from my work, which makes me less than human. It is only in seeing God as God that I become more human because I was made in the image of God. As images of God, the only appropriate locus of worship for humans is God.

And since only God is my judge, I needn't worry about what others think as much as I do. People shy away from God as judge, but I think it's liberating. If my bosses are not my judge, if I myself am not my own judge, a whole lot of stress melts away. No, the Lord is my judge, and I really should work as if unto him. God does not want me to be stressed out and anxious and frenetic at work. If I worked as if unto God, I imagine myself going at a slower, more deliberate pace. I imagine having my priorities straight so that the smallest little does throw me off. I imagine myself having more time to be nurturing to my colleagues.

That's a bit jumbled, but hopefully it makes sense. Last night as I fell asleep I prayed it over and over again: "Lord, you are my maker and my judge."

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Some quick thoughts that have occurred to me recently

Having is not being. Being is being. So the best way to inspire being is by communion with the I AM, the Author of being. In worshiping the one in whose image we are, the fuller our humanity will be. Placing a worshipful focus anywhere else diminishes our being, our humanity.
Addiction is existence by non-existence, or being by non-being. That is, addictions are the absence of being, so one's addictive behavior is really a subversion of one's being.
Theology (as we normally think of the word) is theologia secunda, whereas liturgy is theologia prima.

What we refer to as "sin" should be divided into three categories: inadequacy, failure, and sin. Inadequacy is the inability to do something, and therefore people who are inadequate to a task or standard of behavior should not feel guilty for "missing the mark." Failure is when you have the ability, but you don't do something. Sin is when you have the ability, but you rebel.

Helpful distinction btwn mysteries and problems. Things give rise to problems that we use calculation to solve. Persons, including God, give rise to mysteries, which are beyond our capacity to reduce to problems, and therefore calculation is the wrong response to mysteries; the appropriate response is reflection or contemplation or study. We often get the two mixed up. How often, for example, do you treat your spouse or kids as problems instead of mysteries?

Assume the mind and disposition of what you conceive a priest to be. See how it goes. This is a good way to figure out whether or not you should actually become a priest (in the vocational sense).

Final thought. Augustine in his "Letter to Proba" wrote of "unceasing prayer" as continual desire for God, a fire of longing, if you like. Conscious prayer then becomes a way to keep this fire hot because through the course of a day, this fire can grow cool. So ceaseless prayer is about an orientation of desire for God and the regular renewal of this desire.