the meeting of the minds

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this meeting is my personal g2.

a transcontinental philosophical pipeline

today, i finished a book. while this might not be an amazing accomplishment for the majority of society, its quite the feat for me. i have the extremely poor habit of starting books, getting either a quarter or halfway through and dropping it. for whatever reason, i have an extremely difficult time being captured by a book and following through with it. that isn't to say that I don't enjoy reading; i love it. It's just that maybe my attention span is too short to focus.

sidenote: i also greatly enjoy theology/philosophy books. a lot of the undergrad work i did at fresno pacific was exploring philosophy of history, theological traditions, historical eras where new ideas and thought processes were being formed about the world. i really like how thinkers can have a prevailing influence on the social consciousness.

with that said, i just finished a book by pete rollins called how (not) to speak of god: marks of the emerging church. pete runs a community in belfast, northern ireland called ikon and is a distinct voice in theology circles at the minute. he studied at queen's university, belfast and has a BA in Scholastic Philosophy, an MA in Political Theory and Social Criticism and a PhD dealing with Post-Structural theory. needles to say (yes, needles), the guy has some pretty forward-thinking ideas about the nature and structure of the church. his community is described as 'iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing', surely an interesting way to describe a 'church' in a religious landscape still clinging to post-enlightenment, rationalistic tendencies in defending itself against the heathens of science, homosexuality, atheism and secularism.

in all honesty, reading the book was an extremely deep and refreshing activity; i came away multiple times thinking about things that had never crossed my mind. the first half of the book is devoted to exploring some of the philosophical and theological undercurrents of the 'emerging' church, which essentially seeks to embrace both sides of the binary world we live in (atheistic/theistic, unorthodox/orthodox, revelation/concealment, etc.), in order to help us think thoughtfully about how we connect with God in a way that does not impinge on others. the other half is a collection of descriptions of some of the services ikon runs. throughout the book, there is an underlying humility and grace in how rollins articulates some of the more heady, difficult concepts within ikon's theology. i found the holistic nature of the book compelling and i think the book could and should speak to some of the quandaries the mainstream church finds itself in. so heres to ikon! cheers.

my new love

i think i'm in love.

no words part 2

wow. 'and he passes it to the man....and boom goes the dynamite.'

hello new week

hello. its a brilliant morning. sunshines here to stay. coffee in the morning and checking up on the days news is becoming commonplace. really good. no, real real good. couple of things thinking about this morning:

1. finishing my response to this

2. head down to urban to follow up on my application

3. real excited about timee giving me this. i'll have some thoughts posted later on where rollins is headed.

4. maybe a bike ride and some basketball? or a coffee shop run? the possibilities are endless.


what are you doing with your day?

j.x

this is an ode to rivers cuomo/buddy holly

years ago, when i was a puberty-stricken (yes, its a disease) lad, i tried to find how i could be different than those around me. attempts at originality are, as i have found later in life, a core principle to my character. there is a deep, penetrating desire, nay need, for me to have some sort of kitschy attribute, quirky perspective, outlandish haircut, or unknown band/music in my ears. its how i end up functioning best.

one of the most enduring things in this process has been an obsession with horn-rimmed glasses. at one point or another since the age of 12, i have owned and/or worn a pair of said spectacles. and i really dont know why. the kicker is most of the time my glasses have not had lenses in them. i have received enough ribbing, guff and verbal chastisement from friends over the years for this. that has not deterred my quest however for geek glory. so i guess i have been a distinguished proponent of horn-rimmed frames. despite the negative feedback received, i do know that there are several positive things when wearing them, either in private or public....

-heightened appearance of intelligence
-better photo taking
-ease into flirting with girls eg. 'oMg, do you have lenses in your glasses?!? no?!? those are so cool! can i trizzai them ON!?!?'

in sharing this, i'd also like to pay tribute and intellectual forbearance to the man who inspired and has worn them well...

rivers cuomo-stylish, trendy, even when it wasn't cool. rivers is the father of the postmodern horn-rimmed glasses wearer. he also writes some kick-ass tunes.




also, i liked this.

unknown man who wears stuff well



namaste. x

2/1 day

2 in 1 day. crazy, i know.

when i lived in england, i missed reading the paper everyday. there was no fresno bee delivered to my door every morning or free copies on a newspaper stand around the neighborhood. when i bought a paper, it was a treat. funny thing is i think that the uk houses one of the best newspapers in the world, the guardian. their website has become one of my daily necessities on the internets.

really liked this from their US political correspondent Michael Tomasky today.

did they really just do that?

so, one of my favorite songs of all time is bright eyes' 'four winds'. listen here. it has a lot of metaphor and hyperbolic, over-the-top language but some pretty serious points to make about a number of things i am concerned with: religion, academia, the margins of society, etc. it also has nostalgic value, as it was clearly and distinctly the theme song for the 'you, me and derrek lee' roadtrip of summer '07. there are images of rolling green hills, forests, wal-marts, huge crosses on the side of the freeway over texas when the song emerges on the iPod. digression.

i enjoy the killers. they have a niche in my library, fun but not to be taken too seriously. they're kind of like that friend that you have who is cool to hang out with every once in a while, you might spend a day talking, going to the park, shopping, whatever but once the day is done, your ready to not see them again for a couple of months. i thought sam's town was good, even though critics practically took a crap on it for trying to sound too much like the boss. it had its' place. and here's where we coalesce....

i just found out that the killers have covered 'four winds'. i gave it an honest listen. i hate it. it might be enough to turn me off to the killers as a band. they have bastardized a song i love. it sounds the same as any other killers song with synth pads, a pulsing beat, and some mediocre delivery by brandon flowers. my occasional friend just invaded the friendship circle i hold closest and screwed everything up. thanks for your ambition, killers.


here's the track.

looking backwards and looking upwards

i have moved to pasadena. its great. the living is easy, the people are full of life, the energy and rhythm of cars, buses, movement fits.

within all of this, i have decided to go back to school. i am going to pursue the passion i found in college: photography. currently, i am checking out graduate level photography programs. most are located in california, some on the east coast and some in the UK. its a foray into a great unknown. is my photography good enough? is the content and meaning behind the photos worthy of sharing with the world? at what point do i view my camera as an instrument of change, hope, life? in a image-laden world, what can be expressed visually, specifically in a still shot, is the new framework for constructing a worldview. i am excited about this.

with the talk of school swirling in my brain, i have thought about how formative my time at fresno pacific was. though they will probably never read this, i wanted to look back at specific professors who taught me specific things, who aided in shaping, forming, editing, supplementing ideas that have been bound into my core.

richard wiebe: the overarching idea of how people construct meaning in their lives
paul toews: quietly going about the pursuit of one's passion
richard rawls: being the bridge for students to connect with ideas that they thought beyond them, helping me to realize that being original didn't matter so much, that it was good enough to imitate those before me whose ideas shifted paradigms
kevin enns-rempel: attention and focus on making sure the details of an idea were clear
ken martens-friesen: a willingness and yearning to explore the unknown, to view other cultures in a completely positive context
audrey hindes: being smart and articulate is a good thing


i am sure the folks i meet at the next stop on the journey will be just as influential and important.

the way forward

...no words...