February 2004
March 26, 2004
Some Times
Sometimes I am so puzzled by the world. My current puzzlement (and one I have again and again) is people claiming to hold certain principles, beliefs, values but acting in ways that show no connection to them. They certain things because they sound right, they sound good, they sound like things that should be said and that is all. When situations arise for them to make use of their values they back away or remain silent. Corporation have become individuals and individuals act like companies with mission statements and declarations of values that have nothing to do with how they acheive their bottom line. people worry more about saying the wrong thing than doing the wrong thing.
One-Armed Toilet Paper Hanger
I noticed something in a stall in the men's room this afternoon. Screwed to the wall was a two-roll stainless steel toilet paper holder, a square box that allowed access to the bottom roll. Sitting on top of the holder was a loose roll of toilet paper. The loose roll was over half used while the rolls in the dispenser were yet to be touched. I too, when the time came, reached for the loose roll since it was much easier to take exactly the amount I wanted without having to fight a roll nestled tightly in the dispenser, stingily relinquishing a few squares at a time.It led me to think of the toilet paper debate between front of the roll/back of the roll people and realize that I preferred a skewed approach of 90°. Let's turn the rolls on end and break the bonds of the toilet paper holder.
March 19, 2004
Buy One, Get One Free Tibet
I saw three "Free Tibet" bumperstickers on different cars within an hour yesterday. I hope the Chinese government in North Carolina saw them too.
March 17, 2004
Corn
I am amazed by corn. Underneath my winter growing lamp I planted eight corn seeds to get a jump on spring planting for my garden. Within a few days they had sprouted. Within a week they were inches high. I am no farmer but I can't remember ever planting a corn seed that did not germinate. Not always did they produce edible cobs but they always grew tall. What a prolific plant.
March 10, 2004
Passion Play, Passion Movie
When I went to church during Lent as a boy for the Stations of the Cross, a service that presents the suffering of Jesus on Good Friday in fourteen stages, we would sing a song with the words, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" gives the viewer no alibi for that question. He wants the audience to be present at the trial, torture, crucifixion and death of Jesus of Nazareth.My reactions to the movie are mixed. There are images and scenes in the film that are simply inspired and show great artistic vision. There are other moments that are so awfully brutal, violent and sadistic that I question Mel Gibson's motives and sanity.Every Christian sect seems to take aspects of Jesus's life to emphasize in their teachings. Some focus on commands of poverty and service, some forgiveness and love, some the promise of resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. In Mel Gibson's cinematic display of his Christian beliefs I am reminded of a parish priest mentioned once by Martin Scorsese in an interview. "Too much Good Friday. Not Enough Easter Sunday." The graphic flaying and torture of Jesus is the most horrific scene I've ever seen. When Jesus stands up after an initial beating that would have leveled any man he is then subjected to a more gruesome whip with flesh-tearing claws. When finished his body is a bloody pulp. He still has not taken up the cross. Some like Mel Gibson believe this display is a metaphoric or literal infliction of the sins of all mankind. For me it is easier to see it as the brutality that mankind is capable of when we ignore the basic tenet of Christianity: "Love one another."Yet I did see Jesus up there on the big screen but not where other's might look, not in the man carrying the cross and bearing suffering with superhuman strength. The most moving parts of the film are those where individuals step forward from the jeering crowds with pity and compassion for the suffering of another. Those who try to offer some relief from the suffering with simple love and kindness are the moments I saw what Jesus taught and stood for. When the two Marys struggle to bring dignity to a life, when Veronica breaks through a crowd to wipe the face of someone suffering, when Simon helps carry the cross, reluctantly at first but then with realization that it is the right thing to do, here we see the Jesus who has meaning to my life.The charges that film is anti-Semitic seem unfounded. It is no more so than the New Testament. Being a Jew it was the Jewish clergy who object to his teachings as being heretical. Had there been Christian clergy they would have been the ones to kill Jesus.Leaving the theater the chorus of that Lenten hymn ran through my mind: Some times it causes me to tremble. Tremble. Tremble.