Pilgrimage

"A pilgrimage is a journey taken in light of a story" - Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Invisible Guitar

This is from a website called Photoshop Disasters (not workplace/parent's computers safe). Just a reminder that everything is photoshopped. And not always well...

Dawkins Part II

So Stefanie loaned me Is God a Delusion, by Eric Reitan, a friend of hers. So, we're back to Dawkins. Anyway, first quote:

"Dawkins may be closer to an authentic religious faith than most fundamentalists: he is devoted to atheism because he is devoted to the truth, because he sincerely wants to believe the truth about God."

Something about those last 9 words haunts me. It feels like a beautiful and daunting invitation. I'm not sure why I don't read it as a cold, rationalistic statement. It feels like I could replace "God" with my wife's name, "because he sincerely wants to believe the truth about Jen."

Something about the idea of truth seeking has been rattling around inside me lately. Not cold, objective truth, but more something to do with courage, trust, and wholeness. A kind of dis-illusion-ment that feels more vulnerable and personal. Having the wholeness of self to ache for honest, clear experience of those around you, your self, your story, your God. It feels different than 6 years ago starting seminary. Less scary, more work.

Post It

S'mores

nataliedee.com

Vermaport!

We repeat, DO NOT.

Hope

Go On

Saints

Curse books that aren't searchable on Amazon/Google. At the end of The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Paul Ellie quotes Dorothy Day as saying roughly "A saint is someone whose life makes no sense if there is no God," but for the life of me I can't find this quote anywhere to pass it on exactly.

What I do all day

Is the first one too much? Does the difference between the two even stand out?

What kind of organization would you imagine this logo is for? Adjectives?

Self

"The modern self is essentially empty–a 'nought.' The self goes forth in the world in order to fill itself, but swamps the world with its search for selfhood instead. As a result, the self assigns the highest value to the things it cannot swamp with selfhood, things that fill the self and remain undiminished–that have themselves left over. We prize an antique, for example, not becuase it is sturdy or well-made but 'because it is an antique and as such is saturated with another time and another place and is therefore resistant to absorbtion by the self.' Any old thing can make us feel full; but the things of the world that can be swamped by our selves and remain standing, alone, integral, lasting–these are the things worth marveling at, and the self seeks to loose itself in them."

Paul Elie, elaborating on Walker Percy's idea of the modern self, in The Life Save May Be Your Own

What I do all day