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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FARMStrong!! YES Friends, it's hard to believe it but FARMStrong has turned two. You can see how it all got started right here.
In that same spirit of higher math-- I offer this two year birthday present.
Knowing Much + Thinking Much of yourself = Pride
Knowing Little + Thinking Much of yourself = Arrogance
Knowing Little + Thinking Little of yourself = Ignorance
Knowing Much + Thinking Little of yourself = Humility
In other words, I once thought I was humble. Now I'm sure I'm ignorant. How about you?
How about a little birthday shoutout comment love for FARMStrong. Tell her what she's meant to you.
posted by John David Walt | at 11/30/2006 08:23:00 AM
| 15 comments
Friday, November 24, 2006
FARMStrong Family Fun
The FARMStrong extended family has been in town for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Needless to say FARMStrong CAM has been busy. Today our friend, Jerry, took us all out for an evening carriage ride. Earlier in the afternoon we put up the Christmas Tree. Yesterday Tiffani came back after a walk with the kids dragging a Christmas Tree they just happened to cut down on their walk. . . . . ????. . . . . check your yards. After getting back from the carriage ride, while me and the P's watched Arkansas come up short in the LSU battle, Tiffani and the kids blew up our new nativity set in the front yard. It was a gift from Darrell and Lori Whiteman. 9 feet tall. . . . The season is upon us. Going to be fun. -- and that last photo-- pure Mom. posted by John David Walt | at 11/24/2006 07:10:00 PM | 6 comments
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
SEXT Fullness of Time
like noon rides high
no need for watch
just watch the sky
a dozen bells
unveil the wind
unwinding clocks
begin again
convulsing Earth
rends from above
mystical curtain
hiding love
rhetorical quandry
forsaken eclipse
as the sound of
side-splitting laughter rips
Spent the day yesterday at my favorite place, the Abbey of Gethsemane, in Trappist, Kentucky. Sitting in the Cathedral waiting on the Noon Office Prayer Time (a.k.a. Sext = Latin term for "sixth" hour). I was thinking about how Advent marks the fullness of time (i.e. "in the fullness of time God sent his son born of a woman.") In a similar fashion, high noon also marks the fullness of time, and particularly the high noon of Jesus crucifixion. The poem attempts to freight some of that hour.
The photo depicts one of the Abbey's less public renditions of the stations of the cross. It is a bit of a fugitive photograph in that I had to sneak down a "monastic area keep out" hallway to capture it.
"Poetry is not the assertion that something is true, but the making of that truth more fully real to us." T.S. Eliot
Labels: poetry
posted by John David Walt | at 11/21/2006 07:44:00 AM | 1 comments
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Sabbath verse Sabbath work
makes wiser rest
revealing anxiety's
accomplishment test
still confronts striving
for love long repressed
unveiling the crying
of wounds to be blessed
24 hour embrace
of the Best.
I came up with this one a few weeks back on a day of rest that was scorched with the temptation to get out the to-do list. Make sense what I am saying here? Rest is the ultimate act of faith is it not--a rebuke of the economy of self striving--choosing instead to breathe the air of eternity. posted by John David Walt | at 11/19/2006 02:56:00 PM | 4 comments
Friday, November 17, 2006
On the Come-Back Trail
Man. Where have I been. We had a great time at Deer Camp. Unfortunately, FARMStrong cam was down and I had to resort to a throw-away Kodak. Needless to say, no to get that boy to WalMart for development. Coming soon. We're coming up on the second birthday of FARMStrong in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get my act together soon.
I've been meaning to post this extended quote from Thomas Merton for a while now. It's a great word on poetry.
In poetry, words are charged with meaning in a far different way than are the words in a piece of scientific prose. The words of a poem are not merely the signs of concepts: they are also rich in affective and spiritual associations. The poet uses words not merely to make declarations, statements of fact. That is usually the last thing that concerns him. He seeks above all to put words together in such a way that they exercise a mysterious and vital reactivity among themselves, and so release their secret content of associations to produce in the reader an experience that enriches the depths of his spirit in a manner quite unique. A good poem induces an experience that could not be produced by any other combination of words. It is therefore an entity that stands by itself, graced with an individuality that marks it off from every other work of art. Lke all great works of art, true poems seems to live by a life entirely their own. What we must seek in a poem is therefore not an accidental reference to someting outside itself: we must seek this inner principle of individuality and of life which is its soul, or "form." What the poem actually "means" can only be summed up in the whole content of poetic experience which it is capable of producing in the reader. This total poetic experience is what the poet is trying to communiacte to the rest of the world.
Thomas Merton, from Bread in the Wilderness. p. 53 posted by John David Walt | at 11/17/2006 10:23:00 PM | 4 comments
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Here we go
We learned late last week that David's eye condition which I noted here earlier is going to require him to wear a patch for one year. He has a weak left eye 20-40. So we are going to have to strengthen it by patching his good eye. Pray for perfect healing please. David and I are off to dear camp in Arkansas this weekend. Update next week. posted by John David Walt | at 11/09/2006 07:45:00 AM | 4 comments
Friday, November 03, 2006
More on the nature of Baptism
A few weeks ago my family was over at King's Island Theme Park for what was apparently a Christian Day at the park. We were there also to see Chris Tomlin. As an aside, they say at these "Young Christians" weekends the shoplifting almost doubles from an ordinary day. What's with these so-called Christians these days? We won't even begin to discuss the Ted Haggard effect. The whole Republicevangelical thing is just so repulsive and can we be honest. . . . . . ok. . . . . . let's don't go there.
So back at the theme park. You see an amazing array of T-Shirts on days like these. I saw one girl wearing one that I wanted to take a picture of-- but I didn't. It said, "I Love Me." Then there was the Rebecca St. James showcase which featured a much better message and yet still kind of interesting for a t-shirt. See above-- "I am Loved." Then there was the Starbucks Triple Shot Grande Extra Vanilla Vanilla Latte I bought with the free message on the side of the cup that also plays into this conversation. Can you read it?
All of these messages drive at the same deep seated human need-- VALIDATION. We need validation. And we will do almost anything to get it. The funny thing is that nothing we do can ever quite reach it. . . . . . can it. The primary strategies for seeking validation are. .. . . .popularity. . . . . performance. . . . . purchasing. . . . . .oh yeah. . . . and t-shirts.
The self is ever seeking validation. But validation can only be received as a gift. This gets us back to the big idea of Christian Baptism. Death and Rebirth. Death to self-- raised to new life in Christ. Baptism meets the quest for self validation with this answer: Be drowned. Come and die. Forget about it! Lose yourself.
Baptism = the gift of validation. "You are my son. . . . . my daughter. . . . . my beloved. . . . . . with you I am well pleased." And those words have to be rehearsed almost every day. Those words are like water to a parched soul in search of self-worth.
And yet our focus on baptism seems to be oriented around doctrine or worse, debate. It is the fundamental fundamental of Christian faith isn't it-- because if you miss the essence of this-- you make yourself twice the child of the devil. What could be more crucial than remembering one's baptism-- how much more should we be literally pouring resource into this practice and all its creative implications. posted by John David Walt | at 11/03/2006 08:32:00 AM | 10 comments
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
What's the Deal with Deal or No Deal And why can't I stop watching it
OK, it's not like I have a problem or anything. I've only seen it a few times ever-- but once the channel lands there I can't seem to move on. Could it be the most ridiculous show on television? I mean, there are many competing for that distinction-- so what's going on there?
Some Halloween Fun. The stranger in the mix is Mary Kathryn's friend, Noel-- daughter of Steve Tsoukalis and Sandy Richter who teach at our seminary. posted by John David Walt | at 11/01/2006 06:47:00 AM | 5 comments
Today...