Postmodernism: seeing both sides

"Both absolutism and relativism have bright and shadow sides. The virtue of the Absolute is the power it offers the soul; its danger is in the fanaticism into which the power can narrow. In the case of relativism, its virtue is tolerance, and nihilism is its danger. Where social considerations predominate it is the dark side of absolutism (fanaticism) and the bright side of relativism (tolerance) that are noticed, these being their social components. In both cases, the vertical dimensions (which would reverse our estimates of the two) are under-played if not ignored" (210).

Story.

"Storytelling is the creative demonstration of truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversion of idea to action. A story's event structure is the means by which you first express, then prove your idea...without explanation" (McKee 113).

The Two Trees

BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There the Loves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the wingèd sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

-Yeats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYINRjr9dw

Love for a Daughter

There's this scene in "The Suburban Girl" where the actress hugs her father goodbye and watches him drive away. The next shot shows her writing at a little outdoor cafe table in the city. It's almost as if you saw her in a new way...not as the woman she had been in the movie until that point, but as a daughter of her father... all-grown-up. I imagined the way any dad must feel when he sees the adult version of what used to be his little girl. Pride, joy, sensitivity, care.

It made me think of my Dad. The best example of love I've ever known :)

January

Wednesday January 26
Matthew 6
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Sunday January 23
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."

Saturday January 22
Philippians 2:12-13
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

Monday, January 22, 2011
If God is for us, who can be against us?

the smell of paint

It’s paint cans and an empty room
With lovely sunset shadows
Playing on the waiting walls.

It’s the smell of something new,
This simple joy I feel with you
I spin and feel a new beginning live.

evening

then the night fell on us
and we both
came all undone
the stars lit your fire
and I
melted with mine.