The Corner

xmas draft

image from fantartsy JJ

Great Christmas post from Fernando Gros: 

What If There Is More Than One Reason For The Season?

Imagine Christmas as being like a giant bookstore, with a range of books; some serious, some populist, some trashy, some noble. Every book is a “Christmas” book though, of course, not every book is equal. People are browsing and choosing, talking and comparing. It’s an active and buzzing place - most people are not sure why they are there, but they are trying to make sense of it and trying to have a little fun. Do we really want to be hanging out in the comics section, chugging a slurpy and passing judgement on the people who “don’t get it?”

On Winter Solstice: Mary Chapin Carpenter ~ The Longest Night of the Year

image from Madison Guy

In the Northern Hemisphere, today is winter solstice.  Scientists tell us that winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer.  Different cultures interpret this day with many rituals, prayers and observances, reminding ourselves that the long nights and short days of Winter will eventually end.

One of my fav writers and performers is Mary Chapin Carpenter, whose new set Come Darkness Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas  includes this incredible poem/song about winter solstice:

They say that spring will come again--
No one knows exactly when.
Still the sun’s a long lost friend
On the longest night of the year.

We stare into the firelight
While December beats outside
Where the darkest hearts reside
On the longest night of the year

So keep me safe and hold me tight
Let the candle burn all night
Tomorrow welcome back the night
It was longest night of the year

I used to think the world was small
Bright and shining like a ball
Seems I don’t know much at all
On the longest night of the year

We press our faces to the glass
And see our little lives go past
Wave to shadows that we cast
On the longest night of the year

So keep me safe and hold me tight,
Let the candle burn all night,
Tomorrow welcome back the light.
‘Twas the longest night of the year

Make a vow when Solstice comes:
To find the Light in everyone
Keep the faith and bang the drum
On the longest night of the year

So keep me safe and hold me tight,
Let the candle burn all night,
Tomorrow welcome back the light.
‘Twas the longest night of the year

So keep me safe and hold me tight,
Let the candle burn all night,
Tomorrow welcome back the light.
After the longest night of the year

The Longest Night of the Year, Mary Chapin Carpenter

The Rick Warren Reac Continues

The reac to Rick Warren as the benediction at the Obama inauguration continues:

V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, quoted in NYT  Obama’s Choice of Pastor Creates Furor

“I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table,” Bishop Robinson said, “but we’re not talking about a discussion, we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.”

***my cents:  "And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know".  Really ?  wow.   Claiming our God is better than their God is almost always a sign of fundamentalism - either conservative or liberal, it's still fundamentalism.

Pam Spaulding looks ahead to   The voice that will erase the sad bigotry of Rick Warren

I want to turn your attention to the man who will make Rick Warren look very, very small at the inauguration—the civil rights giant who will deliver the benediction, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery.

***my cents:  amen, Pam, amen

Andrew Sullivan has posted extensively on this - he ends up on Taking Yes For An Answer

If I cannot pray with Rick Warren, I realize, then I am not worthy of being called a Christian. And if I cannot engage him, then I am not worthy of being called a writer. And if we cannot work with Obama to bridge these divides, none of us will be worthy of the great moral cause that this civil rights movement truly is.

***my cents:  I am so thankful to have Andrew think and write aloud

Rachel Maddow weighs in, with her usual grounded logic:

***my cents:  it is actually her logic that leads me to be pleased with the choice - it is all of our house, not just the people who elected Obama

Rod Dreher plumbing the bottom feeders with  The purpose-driven hissy fit

***my cents:  a hybrid ?  nope.  crunchy ?  i think not.  con...definitely.

image from Lisa Rockkkk

Whenever you miss me, just pop in your old copy of Grace and listen to it the way it was supposed to be done: curled up in a ball on your bed, staring out the window, while occasionally kissing your pillow as if it was that cute boy on the football team.

— An Open Letter To The World, From The Ghost Of Jeff Buckley

Rick Warren Invocation at Obama Inauguration

President-elect Barack Obama has asked Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration in a month.  Not surprisingly, liberal bloggers like Atrios, FireDogLake, AmericaBlog. and Steve Benen have been vocal in their frustration with the choice.

Obama was asked about it at his press conference this morning:

There is a line in what Obama says "We Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable" that is positively revolutionary in the crossfire world that America has seemed stuck for much of the last 20 years.  He suggests that civic and releigious leaders might actually focus on what we have in common as Americans, rather than rip each other up - sometimes in he name of  "Jesus" or "our Christian nation" or the "unborn" or even "the poor".

It is clear to even a casual reader of this blog that I like Obama as a politician.  My feelings about Rick Warren are a bit more complex - his theology is not my own, his celebrity scares me, but many of the things he has chosen to do with other people is admirable to me.  Plus, I am a sucker for any other chubby white guy who looks like he dresses from Costco.

The aftermath of this election has been odd from a faith & politics POV.  There is no resurgent "religious left" to celebrate - most of these organizations can barely pay their rent in a good year, let alone in a time like now.  The "religious right" seems perplexed, wondering what political tack to take.  For me, the most moving voices are folks like Joseph Lowery or TD Jakes, who have lived struggles much like Obama's.

I am glad that Obama made this choice, one that is smart for the country and smart politically.  It confirms my hope that he might continue to reach for what Wilcox describes in his new song Piece of Me:

We got the Christians on the left
Against the Christians on the right
See ‘em comming at each other
With the bloody truth in their teeth
They’re fightin’ like the devil For the prince of peace

You want a piece of me
Take it out back. Get a piece of me,
Snip and you snap to cut a piece of me
What you lack is just the - peace of me

8 years of Bush = Alice in Wonderland

Initially it seemed like he was taking Down the Rabbit-Hole - by the time the lying and the lawbreaking and the war and the economy and Katrina.....well, it seems clear that America has spent 8 years thru the looking glass.

As final proof:

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system."

-- President Bush, in an interview with CNN.

Andrew Sullivan: "Just as he used torture to defend freedom. And occupied a country in order to liberate it."

Reminds of that popular slogan scrawled on countless walls in bar bathrooms all across America:

Fighting for Peace is like Fornicating for Virginity

CollegeMatchPoint

Two weeks from today, Lisa & I will celebrate 25 years of being married.  When we met, I was 15 and she was 16 - I confess I never imagined 30 years later, we'd have a life as meaningful and vibrant as we have now.

One of the most recent examples of that vibrancy is a business that Lisa launched earlier this Fall - CollegeMatchPoint, whose site just went live:

Lisa is working with high school students and their parents, connecting them to a college that fits.

This is a great connection of Lisa's extraordinary counseling skills, her resourcefulness and her passion for helping students find an opportunity that matches their unqiue learning style and personals needs.

I know I am biased, but this service is a huge hit already.  Yea Lisa !

An American Story: Shelton Green ~ In Reformation

In our geeky world, quotes have shifted from bumper stickers to email signatures.  My sig is

The universe is made of stories, not atoms

Muriel Rukeyser, the poet, feminist and activist, said that. She was born on this day in 1913 -  take a minute and go to Muriel Rukeyser poems.

The dictionary defines story as:

a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader

Shelton Green is a narrative in human form who continues to interest, amuse and instruct me.  He has for the last 18 months, since I first met him soon after we settled here in Austin.

He has been kind enough to post some of his story over at the blog for Barack Obama: An American Story 

I saw the world through the viewfinder of my conservative political ideology.  I had my world conveniently compartmentalized:  Work, faith, family, friends (separated into wildly different circles of friends), and spiritual life. No one compartment really touched another; everything in had its own little space.  And then I suddenly found myself outside politics after parting ways with a former employer.  While I was happy with the situation I didn’t know exactly where to go or what to do.  I had an inkling that I was somehow off message, off mission and off the path and deep into the woods, a tad lost.   

I was no longer defined by work, career, or professional reputation. I was in a place where I had nothing else to define me except the values I held.  It was in that liminal space where I found my faith stepping out into the light and imposing itself on my ideology and worldview. 

What would happen if I totally decompartmentalized and put all of my friends, ideas, work, church, faith, spending, money, all the different parts of my life in one compartment and let a new ethos drive the whole thing?  

go read the rest.

Glory at Sea

Benh Zeitlin, one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film, had one hellvua 2008.  He won the 2008 SxSW Short Film award for

Glory at Sea, a 21 minute extraordinary piece of storytelling that Sproutblog called "a sprawling post-Katrina, post-Apocalyptic New Orleans epic about a roving band of vagabonds and their child companions, all searching for their things or people they’ve lost within the watery gulf."  In a perverse twist, Zeitlin was nearly killed in a horrible car accident while on his way to Austin for its premiere.

The fabulous site Ticklebooth reminded me of this great film - they also point to:

• Court 13 (the DVD is available for sale at their online store)
• Interview of the director
• Filmmaker Magazine mention

This is film-making - and storytelling - of the highest caliber - I urge you to take a break and watch this.

In Greek mythology,  Elysian Fields were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.  This mythical place figure prominently in Zeitlin's film.

After watching this film again, I thought about my friend Hutch.  His passing was a tragedy, unsettling in the midst of Thanksgiving gatherings.  Going back to the Bay Area for his funeral felt like moving in a "watery gulf" - suspended in time, things out of focus or moving slowly.   I think of Hutch in a sort of Elysian Field, hanging out with other virtuous and heroic souls.

Death creates a void - I have found myself searching a bit, casting around like the vagabonds in this film, hoping for the day when I find an Elysian Field.

A Hill Country Christmas @ Blue Rock

Blue Rock is a place that only exists in the imagination.  High above the Blanco River just outside of Wimberley Texas, these 19 acres are a place where gorgeous stuff gets created.  There is a state-of-the-art recording studio, an artist's compound and a facility that is truly the stuff of dreams. Dodee and Billy Crockett animate the place with a sense of hospitality, joy and generosity.

Once a month, they open Blue Rock  for a Studio Concert Series, hosting folks like Ruthie Foster, Mac McAnally , Susan Werner, Pierce Pettis and countless others.   This past Thurs & Fr, they hosted their 3rd annual Christmas show, with David Wilcox and Beth Wood joining Billy Crockett on stage.