...from me and our neighborhood gorilla statue. I love Clarksville.
By moonlight and starlight
21 hours ago
Friday, December 25, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
First Compost
I've been wanting to compost for a couple of years, but living in an apartment makes it tricky. I recently found out that the Austin Farmer's Market (Saturday mornings at 4th and Guadalupe) has a composting bin for shoppers to leave their kitchen scraps. The bins then go to the farmers to use in their own compost. So this week we kept all of our compost-able scraps beneath the sink in a big plastic spinach container, and today we dumped it off! Who knew that trash could be so exciting?!?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Wonderful Freedom to Fail
This is an article written by Denis Haack, editor of a publication called Critique. I found it to be encouraging, especially for people in my particular phase of life:
Speaking at the 2009 Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference allowed me to attend some fascinating presentations. New York artist Makoto Fujimura, for example, talked about how artists need to see failure correctly. Failure isn't always a bad thing, he said. Often it's the best way to learn, it's necessary for growth, and since we have a God given yearning to achieve and participate in a level of perfection impossible for finite and fallen creatures it turns out to be the story of our lives.
Makoto was not referring to moral failure. He was referring to the chance to experiment, to try new things, to push into new areas. As he spoke, I thought about how this doesn't just apply to artists. Being given the freedom to fail is a precious gift of grace we all need.
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail better," Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett said. "Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better."
I've noticed that a few people seem to know their life's calling from childhood. It's as if they were made for one thing. Others discover their calling when some event or force narrows their focus in an unexpected way. Others stumble upon opportunities they couldn't have predicted but find fulfilling. And some seem unsure of having any calling or clear direction at all, and need a chance to experiment, to explore possibilities to see what fits them best. Their pilgrimage, as legitimate as the others, can take years.
It's the same for uncovering one's creativity. Some people seem to instinctively know their penchant for being creative. But others need untold opportunities to find theirs. Finding their way through life takes time and a chance to try various options. In such a world, providing a safe place for such failure is a necessary aspect of Christian faithfulness.
Our world esteems productivity, rewards decisiveness, and dislikes inefficiency. Which is good when you are making widgets, or an engineer, or a physician. In the rest of life, however, these modernist values merely decrease human flourishing by demanding conformity when diversity is what God called into being.
"I have not failed," scientist and inventor Thomas Edison once said. "I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Tim Keller says that the God of scripture is prodigal. The word doesn't mean "wayward", but "recklessly extravagant, spendthrift, having spent everything until there is nothing left to give." And since God has been so prodigal with us, we can be prodigal with others.
I want my home to be known as a hospitable place where failures can safely fail some more. Where people can laugh together, help each other learn and grow, and cheer one another on to the next failure. I want it to be, quite simply, a place where the free exploration of creativity and meaning and vocation and calling can be safely nourished and encouraged by prodigal grace.
Speaking at the 2009 Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference allowed me to attend some fascinating presentations. New York artist Makoto Fujimura, for example, talked about how artists need to see failure correctly. Failure isn't always a bad thing, he said. Often it's the best way to learn, it's necessary for growth, and since we have a God given yearning to achieve and participate in a level of perfection impossible for finite and fallen creatures it turns out to be the story of our lives.
Makoto was not referring to moral failure. He was referring to the chance to experiment, to try new things, to push into new areas. As he spoke, I thought about how this doesn't just apply to artists. Being given the freedom to fail is a precious gift of grace we all need.
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail better," Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett said. "Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better."
I've noticed that a few people seem to know their life's calling from childhood. It's as if they were made for one thing. Others discover their calling when some event or force narrows their focus in an unexpected way. Others stumble upon opportunities they couldn't have predicted but find fulfilling. And some seem unsure of having any calling or clear direction at all, and need a chance to experiment, to explore possibilities to see what fits them best. Their pilgrimage, as legitimate as the others, can take years.
It's the same for uncovering one's creativity. Some people seem to instinctively know their penchant for being creative. But others need untold opportunities to find theirs. Finding their way through life takes time and a chance to try various options. In such a world, providing a safe place for such failure is a necessary aspect of Christian faithfulness.
Our world esteems productivity, rewards decisiveness, and dislikes inefficiency. Which is good when you are making widgets, or an engineer, or a physician. In the rest of life, however, these modernist values merely decrease human flourishing by demanding conformity when diversity is what God called into being.
"I have not failed," scientist and inventor Thomas Edison once said. "I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Tim Keller says that the God of scripture is prodigal. The word doesn't mean "wayward", but "recklessly extravagant, spendthrift, having spent everything until there is nothing left to give." And since God has been so prodigal with us, we can be prodigal with others.
I want my home to be known as a hospitable place where failures can safely fail some more. Where people can laugh together, help each other learn and grow, and cheer one another on to the next failure. I want it to be, quite simply, a place where the free exploration of creativity and meaning and vocation and calling can be safely nourished and encouraged by prodigal grace.
Monday, December 7, 2009
My Friend, We Are the Champions
Tense. Agonizing. Miraculous. This sums up the Big 12 Championship game, Texas vs. Nebraska.
We made the trip from Austin to Jerry World, anticipating a dominating performance by our beloved Texas Longhorns. Before I knew it, it was the fourth quarter and it seems like nothing had happened. There were no major plays in the first three quarters, just four field goals and a cute little touchdown that caught Texas up to Nebraska. The only one who looked really good during the first three quarters was Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska's 300 lb. beast of a defensive lineman.
Down by two to Nebraska in the 4th, not only did Colt not play up to Heisman-winning expectations, he looked like he'd gone downright crazy scurrying around the 37 yard line as the clock ran out. It looked like the Cornhuskers had won, and they believed that they had. But the Texas sideline did not believe that it had lost. It turned out that Colt McCoy had not gone crazy. In fact, he had purposefully thrown the ball out of bounds with one second remaining after attempting to achieve the best possible field position for Hunter Lawrence to kick the game winning field goal (what a Heisman-like thing to do).
Pandemonium ensued and all the red shirts filed quietly out of the stands.
Winning the conference championship has been the Horns' goal all year, so now the pressure's off, right? The national title game is just icing on the cake? Well, at least the Big 12 champs have a month to refocus and conquer their number one enemy: Colt McCoy's jitters.
We made the trip from Austin to Jerry World, anticipating a dominating performance by our beloved Texas Longhorns. Before I knew it, it was the fourth quarter and it seems like nothing had happened. There were no major plays in the first three quarters, just four field goals and a cute little touchdown that caught Texas up to Nebraska. The only one who looked really good during the first three quarters was Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska's 300 lb. beast of a defensive lineman.Down by two to Nebraska in the 4th, not only did Colt not play up to Heisman-winning expectations, he looked like he'd gone downright crazy scurrying around the 37 yard line as the clock ran out. It looked like the Cornhuskers had won, and they believed that they had. But the Texas sideline did not believe that it had lost. It turned out that Colt McCoy had not gone crazy. In fact, he had purposefully thrown the ball out of bounds with one second remaining after attempting to achieve the best possible field position for Hunter Lawrence to kick the game winning field goal (what a Heisman-like thing to do).
Pandemonium ensued and all the red shirts filed quietly out of the stands.
Winning the conference championship has been the Horns' goal all year, so now the pressure's off, right? The national title game is just icing on the cake? Well, at least the Big 12 champs have a month to refocus and conquer their number one enemy: Colt McCoy's jitters.
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