A Bitter, Insecure Artist

 I am much more picky now about how and who I share my art with.

 In my insecure weakness I resent the assumption that because I'm sharing it I am seeking their approval, advice or critique of it. I get enough of that from the cold, cruel, commercial media market. I don't need more. No, I'm trying to share something I care about with someone I care enough about and trust enough to include in that part of my life.

In my case it is music.  The music itself is worthy of much more than what I give it and reflects back the true results and value of my efforts, but the music is ever worthy.   Not me. Not the audience. Only the music is worthy.

 I have found that true friends rejoice with me and embrace my art with joy and appreciation.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

May son asked me to watch a movie with him, "The Road".  I have not read the book, and he read it in high school as part of a reading list.

This was a bitter-sweet, painful movie to watch.  I hope to read the book some day.  The plot really strikes a bit close to home.  Anyone who has read the book and knows me will understand.

It is another post-apocalyptic wasteland story, without zombies, but includes much of the terror and savagery as any "ZombiApocalypse" story.  Turns out the living can be as cruel and evil as the walking dead.

At its core the story is about a man's love for his son and struggling with the sobering task of preparing him for life after his father is gone.

"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson is another such story, but very different.

Quite a counterbalance.  Much more pleasant.

Here is one of my favorite passages:

"Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable---which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more of less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the invoilable, untraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us."

I am a bit amused and perplexed by the many one star reviews on Amazon.

I am a bit amused and perplexed by the many one star reviews on Amazon.

 "..Just not my taste. I know, it has won every prize there is, but I do not get it. Too much talking and thinking. Boring..."

 "...I did not enjoy this book. The life of preachers in America at a time when things were tough does not make for exciting reading"

 "..BORING"

 Guess there's not enough space alien zombie sploddy' flying, shooting, sexing stuff in it for some people.

Those people should read "The Road".

Yet Another Link to Someone Else's Orthodox Related Blog

"Ideology is always first and foremost a retreat from reality, a form of egophanic revolt (to borrow from Eric Voegelin) that often takes a collective form — it is really a subrational, instinctive kind of condoned erasure of persons who resist officially endorse lies, all under cover of humanitarian rhetoric." - brian the commenter Pontifications, Bible Reading, and Stanley Hauerwas

Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.

"In this sense, to be an active part of the world is to employ violence. We do not sit lightly on the surface of our planet. Most human societies across history, have made a moderate peace with the world in which they live, using forms of violence whose consequences have been well-enough tolerated and accounted for so as to be bearable. The rate of change in such societies was modest, and within the limits that a culture could easily accommodate. Large and rapid change is another thing entirely. “Changing the world,” under a variety of slogans, is the essence of the modern project. Modernity is not about how to live rightly in the world, but about how to make the world itself live rightly. The difference could hardly be greater. "

If You're Inquiring Into Orthodoxy

Reasons Why You Should Not Convert To Orthodox Christianity

"For me, the one and only valid, core reason is because a person desires to be part of the one, true Body of Christ. Because we confess and believe in the “one holy, catholic and apostolic Church,” this means we are not looking for a Church that fits our own preferences and ideals, but rather one that teaches us what our preferences should be. We are not seeking to reform or to teach the Church how it should do things, but are rather seeking to be formed by the Church and to learn how we should be doing things as faithful Christians."

RE: Of Kings and Things and What Matters

 "Most people want to get on with their lives, raise their kids, go to work and such. The distractions of those with “power” have to constantly be sold to them. Modernity represents the rise of advertising and the art of persuasion. If all of the noise were to shut down for a little while, we might discover we could live without it. Wars have to be sold. Hate is often manufactured. And, of course, these things are done for profit. There must be “problems” and “problems” must be magnified so that we will agree to the violence that will be perpetrated in our name.

Jesus seems to have through the world with virtually no regard for these make-believe powers. When the Romans demanded taxes, he pulled a gold coin out of a fish’s mouth. He scoffed at Pilate’s empty boasts. On the Cross, His only regard was for His mother, his disciples, the guy next to Him and His Father. He is the Compass of our lives, pointing steadily to the only things that matter."

Of Kings and Things and What Matters

New Site: History for Atheists

(click the link)