Month: January 2025
-
As for new ideas of any kind – no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be – there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error, and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities -
When Jesus desires baptism, he does it as the sole good one, the one without sin, the one who does not need forgiveness, different from all human beings. As the good one, he desires baptism, even though he does not need it for himself, for the sake of those who need it, for the sake of sinners. Precisely because he is the sole good one, he doesn’t allow himself to be separated from sinners; he does not become a Pharisee who wants to claim what is good for himself. The sinlessness, the goodness of Jesus, is attested precisely in his unconditional love for sinners. Jesus goes to baptism not out of penitence but out of love and in this way takes the side of sinners.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditation on Epiphany, January 1940 -
What sort of baptism is this, when the one who is dipped is purer than the font, and where the water that soaks the one whom it has received is not dirtied but honored with blessings? What sort of baptism is this of the Savior, I ask, in which the streams are made pure more than they purify? For by a new kind of consecration the water does not so much wash Christ as submit to being washed.
St. Maximus of Turin, Sermon 13A -
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.I like to think
Richard Brautigan, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace. -
You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume
Brett Berks article, You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume, provides a good look at truck culture and the disconnect between how trucks are marketed and how they are actually used by owners. On one…
-
Yes, people were angry about restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic, I got that, but what was being proposed in opposition? What was being proposed in response to the very real problem of dealing with a virus?
An almost humorous response from the US right came from the lieutenant governor of Texas who argued that we should be willing to sacrifice our lives in defense of the economy. Turn away from mass vaccines, contract COVID, in the name of all mighty capitalism. I was looking forward to the lieutenant governor being the first sacrificial lamb. I mean you just can’t make this up.
The response to COVID that was led by right wing authoritarian forces was coded rightwing libertarianism rhetorizing about freedom. It was a strange combination of self suicide and genocide, in other words, there was nothing here with which to offer critical support. And this movement has now expanded to address an alleged right to refuse vaccinations in the name of self control over one’s body, a hideous use of the call of the pro-choice movement.
Bill Fletcher Jr. -
Somehow Jesus wanted his followers to live with the tension of believing that the kingdom was indeed arriving in and through his own work, and that this kingdom would come, fully arrive, not all in a bang but through a process like the slow growth of a plant or the steady leavening of a loaf.
N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 -
January 2025
Housing In December we finalized the purchase of a new house, and sold our current house (in a brief 3 days). We celebrated Christmas but also spent a lot of time packing for the move. Moving into January, the focus…
-
I will talk to you of art,
For there is nothing else to talk about,
For there is nothing else.Life is an obscure hobo,
Maxwell H. Brock
Bumming a ride on the omnibus of art. -
Can Architecture Trigger Neuroinflamation?
Studies have established that architecture can trigger a stress response, but stress is more than a mental response – it triggers a whole host of compensating mechanisms in our bodies including hormonal changes. Cleo Valentine is doing interesting research, taking…