Month: April 2020

The Allure of Imperfection

April 17, 2020

I have always liked imperfect things. One of the ways my high school art teacher taught us to create abstract art is to draw something you see, and then just take certain elements of the thing and stretch them, elongate them, mess ‘em up somehow in your drawing. It’s deconstruction, which we are having to do in so many ways in our lives all the time. We have to destroy and take apart our lives the way they are to get to the next thing and make a better version of what was. I think this kind ...  Keep reading

The Decentralization of Everything

April 12, 2020

One more thing this pandemic and the resultant changes in our lives have achieved is to help us loosen our grip on many things we have held tightly. Many are shaken at the fragility of our existence and how quickly our lives can change. Many of our modern conveniences have been taken from us or have been significantly restricted. We cannot gather together or freely walk into a store. We are being forced to practice surrender in that we cannot just compulsively attain comfort and convenience – ...  Keep reading

What’s in the Waiting, or The Distance is the Spirit

April 6, 2020

All this distancing is kind of an interesting experiment. Some of us like it: it give us an excuse to isolate ourselves (though maybe not so much when it’s imposed!). Others of us don’t like the lack of interaction with others outside our homes. We long for those connections, and realize now how we suffer without them. What I have noticed is the lack of physical touch, or even just how valuable physical proximity with others is. All the same, appropriate distance can be really positive ...  Keep reading

Mining Something from These Waiting Periods

April 5, 2020

Waiting periods are uniquely unsettling. It seems the whole world is currently waiting around for things to “go back to normal.” There is only speculation about when this all might end. None of us really knows. For people who value a sense of control, that can be rather unsettling. Maybe this is our new normal. It seems to be, at least for a time. What’s problematic is that we believe we deserve to have ...  Keep reading