The Hanging Tree

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you

Coming to the tree

Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Rediscovering Water

Mountain water, at least where I grew up, is just as good as the hype.  It made me a water snob, especially when I reached the flatlands here in the Midwest.  I took the water softener one step further and had them install a water purifier as well.  The resulting water was ok, and then we moved close enough to Lake Michigan that the water was acceptable without all the extra fuss.  Acceptable, but not as good as water from home.

I love tea. My grandfather made the best ice tea, and the flavor hot or cold is part of so many great memories.  On my weekly trip to Barnes and Noble, I get a Venti tea, and it always tastes so much better than tea I make at home. I bought the tea bags, and they were scrumptious, but the taste still wasn't the same.  What finally occurred to me was that they used filtered water.  When I checked with my barista she confirmed that the water was elaborately filtered and that did make a difference in the taste.  I thought about it for a week or two and then bought a Zero Water pitcher and fired up our hot pot. The tea was amazing.  Any and all tea is amazing.  

I love you, Lake Michigan, but you are better without the personality.  Thanks water treatment personnel, but chlorine is not delicious. Thank you, Zero-Water people, for increasing the healthy pleasures in my life. Thank you, Janet Tyson, for the gorgeous picture of the lake in winter.  Thank you, Barnes and Noble, for always having great teas on hand. 

A Glorious Synthesis

God and art has long been one of my favorite intersections.  A few years ago I discovered Sister Wendy's videos and I am slowly becoming a Sister Wendy omnivore.  If you are a person of any kind of faith, you will find her uplifting. Her discussions of great art are very accessible which may be the best thing about her work.  Nowhere is this more obvious than in her book of prayers for children.  Each prayer grows out of a work of art.  The works chosen are the kind that reward prolonged study, and the prayers have the profundity of all things simple.  Get this book for the children you know.  It will be a blessing. 

god is in the details

I've been working on this tree topper for years.  I want it to express my beautiful faith, and it does.  The Crown of Thorns reminds us of this baby's destiny.  The lilies sing of the beauty and sacredness of the death whose clock starts ticking now.  The red berries proclaim the power of his blood both in its origin and in its purpose.  I loved it until I took a picture and looked at the details.  I left the price tags on.  One unattractive stem is simply hanging out there.  The top of the tree is still visible.  I immediately stopped seeing the meaning allowing minor details to rob me of this moment of faith.  My god shifted from the Christ to the details.  It was all about me, maybe it had been all along.  Bringing my heart back to purpose has been today's challenge, to remember who I am celebrating not how.

Fascinating

I have always been blessed with fascinating friends.  Starting with Rene Rosier in kindergarten until the present day, my friends have always stretched me and introduced me to wider worlds.  A recent addition, Janet Tyson, is helping me see art in new and hip ways through her work, guerrilla exhibitions, and most recently her art blog--artcite.net.

Janet's work is highly conceptualized without being stuffy.  Legos are her preferred medium and I never knew that they could say so much.  She also has a lot to say about other people's work.  I hadn't fully appreciated Rene Magritte and the Early Netherlandish artists before we were friends, and now I have new windows into the way the past connects with the present artist--that's useful no matter what creative field you work in.  You should quickly go and make her acquaintance.

Visit her HERE, and be prepared to learn.

A New Patience

Lord, you have renewed the face of the earth. Your Church throughout the world sings you a new song, announcing your wonders to all. Through a virgin, you have brought forth a new birth in our world; through your miracles, a new power; through your suffering, a new patience; in your resurrection, a new hope, and in your ascension, new majesty.

I found this prayer in the morning while reading of The Divine Office.  It is beautiful as a whole, but I was struck by the phrase "through your suffering, a new patience."  Paired with Grunewald's The Mocking of Christ, new vistas open on Syria, on my personal struggles, on the work of the church and how it is accomplished.  If you've never heard of The Divine Office, you should give it a look.  Here!

A Resting Place

1. My faith has found a resting place,
   Not in device or creed;
   I trust the ever-living One,
   His wounds for me shall plead.
   • Refrain:
     I need no other argument,
     I need no other plea,
     It is enough that Jesus died,
     And that He died for me.
2. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
   This ends my fear and doubt;
   A sinful soul I came to Him,
   He’ll never cast me out.
3. My heart is leaning on the Word,
   The living Word of God,
   Salvation by my Savior’s name,
   Salvation through His blood.
4. My great physician heals the sick,
   The lost He came to save;
   For me His precious blood He shed,
   For me His life He gave.
   
   

By Eliza E. Hewitt and Jan Van Eyck

Too Gorge

We started Sunday with mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  The art is so beautiful and uplifting.

We went to the National Gallery of Art, and really enjoyed a tour.  I also said hello to most of my favorites.

Kurt and I wrapped up the day watching "Anything Goes" at the Kennedy Center.  I had forgotten how shocking that time period can be, but it was a great cast and they put their heart and souls into it.

You know you're old when...

This is one of my favorite movies. I love the characters. What a great moment for an update.

Mostly Muslim Movies

My parents were teachers in a small Christian school when I was growing up.  They signed a contract foregoing movies and they stuck to it. The same church that sponsored the school was struggling to work all this out.  I remember being properly shocked when my Sunday School teacher used ET for an illustration.  VHS put an end to all pretense.  Movies were back in swing just in time for my adolescence and I've found it a delicious naughty pleasure ever since.
But now I've gone a step further--ahh, the slippery slope.
I've gone Muslim--mostly.
I'm finding the films of our counterpoint interesting.  They make new all those old problems of life by dressing it up in what is for me a costume.  It is a pleasure to learn and grow.

Sabah is about a woman trying to work out a life between her family's traditionalism and her own need to explore.  There's a sweet love story.  It's sort of  Jane Austen in a hijab.

Arranged follows the lives of two young women, one Orthodox Jew and one traditional Muslim as they go through their respective processes of finding a husband.  I love the way they support each other, and the best moment in the movie when the Muslim is mistaken for a Sephardic Jew.

Salmon Fishing in Yemen  delighted me with a Muslim Jesus.  It was unexpected in this oddball love story.  The movie is truly beautiful both in how it was filmed and the literary frame it works in.

Children of Heaven has been mentioned before, but if you have children this film is an excellent introduction to Muslim Culture.  A boy loses his sister's shoes.  His family is too poor to pay for new, so the two share his shoes.  Charming heartbreak all around.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is mostly set in India rather than being Indian--Muslim or Hindu, but it's interesting.  All that thinking about death, which is also thinking about life.  The choices and opportunities near the end of life.  Death seems to walk in a veil until we are wearing it.  Sometimes it's good to give it a think.

Fallen Woman

I saved myself for the Met.  While most opera lovers were growing up with season tickets well in hand, I was hiding in my closet listening to Met broadcasts on a radio that was also a stuffed dog (my uncle worked at Radio Shack.)  All those years of listening added up to some intense fantasies about seeing my first opera, so I waited for the best, for the Met.  OK, there was one terrible production of Die Fledermaus during college, but it was horrible and during college--that doesn't count, right?  But the years have gone by and kids kept happening and I'm not getting younger, I needed an alternative plan.  Local opera is surprisingly available, but how could Opera Grand Rapids compete with all those girlhood fantasies?
It couldn't.  I was just going to have to go for the virtual experience.  Fathom Events does live broadcasts of opera from the Met.  I have been talking about this since before we were married, so when I rolled over and asked Kurt if he wanted to go see La Traviata he was up and dressed before I'd closed my iPad.  We were in good company and the theater was full-the kind of full I expect for a Harry Potter film.  The Met was gorgeous and the broadcast was good.  Natalie Dessay sung her lungs out.  The set was perfect.  It was everything I'd hoped for.  The only sour note was the ticket price, but only because it was unexpected.
I will be going again.

Happy 4/5 Birthday, Harriet!

Only 1/5 left to go.  Soon, I will proudly announce that harriet is a complete draft.  That may be the only adjective a kind person might use to describe her in her current state, but that's all the fun of revising.  I don't think it will take me long to write the last 1/5.  I know my characters now and I know what they can stand.  The last section is dark and weird.  Hopefully it will also be true.
What a great adventure this has been.

Congratulations, Jo!

Your terrifying courage is well repaid.


"If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love. The fire is God, and the furnace is in Jerusalem, fired by Christ in the ardor of his loving passion. Only he understood this who said: My soul chose hanging and my bones death. Anyone who cherishes this kind of death can see God, for it is certainly true that: No man can look upon me and live."
St. Bonaventure

Postcard from the Center

Blinding

I'm still not sure why paintings and painters supply so much inspiration and ways of understanding the work I've set before myself. Without this crutch, I would struggle, perhaps to the point of giving up. Fellow writers, for the most part, cannot do more than overwhelm and confuse me. For Harriet I am somewhat on my own. Recently Harriet's pacing has been on my mind. I've known all along that I will be lucky to get a few good scenes and a solid understanding of my main characters out of this draft. On the one hand, there is just too much of the book, period, but a diet seems impossible. Faithful readers have said that my work is too minimalist and hard to follow. They are right, but I have struggled to think of a solution until I remembered Giorgione
I want my next draft to crackle like a lightening storm. I want to know my characters and plot so well that I can confidently convey the most important parts of the story in brief, strange leaps from one stroke of lightening to the next. Who knows if I can do it, but I'd rather be blinded by the light rather than feel along in the dark.

Assignment 1

The Great Books and I are getting acquainted, but I decided that rather than read only books on the list I would allow myself to mix in other books to help me past tough patches. Variety is the spice of life, and I need help growing as a writer as well as a thinker.


I've taken the first step on my Great Books journey by finishing The Iliad. It was the kind of book where I immediately wanted to run around to the beginning and read it again. I still have the Odyssey, but I'm putting it off in case Freud is a bother and I need extra incentive. I've made up my mind to handle the Great Idea of honor by combining the judgment of Paris with stuff I'm yanking out of Episodes 1 and 23. Should be fun if I can ever find the time to pull it together. In any case one book down.






My freshman year of college I read Ordering Your Private World, a book that emphasized the importance of character development over talent. Ironically, the author himself had an affair on his book tour. In any case, I've been trying to develop into a person of heroic virtue ever since with little hope of success. The Life You Save May Be Your Own reminded me that talent matters too. While heroic virtue certainly helps (see Dorothy Day) it isn't required for me to begin using my talents. Each of the four authors really spoke to me as I grow. Flannery's assertion that grace can repulse us was right where I'm living. Walker Percy as a self-taught philosopher encouraged me to keep going. Thomas Merton taught me not to reject the good things when you're unhappy about the bad. Dorothy Day helped me to stop feeling bad about being a convert. Converts do good work too.



My favorite poet is John Donne. His major themes are sex and sanctity and sometimes he gets his chocolate on his peanut butter and vice versa. It's all good and very clever. I needed to read him again. The first poem I heard is still my favorite--"Batter My Heart Three Person God." It always rings true, and impresses me all the more as I think of it as a smart inversion of Jeremiah's complaint.

Coming Attractions

Precious

I have loved this mosaic since my first visit to St. Mary's. Nowadays when I think of Jesus, this is the image that comes to mind. My oldest made a video of the church and its grounds because she felt it was one of the most beautiful places in Spring Lake. I can't get it to upload, so everyone can see for themselves. One of the saddest parts of Lent is that we give up our mosaic and have to wait for Easter to enjoy it again. I'm so slow at learning all the traditions and procedures, but each one gives me joy. Churches ought to be inspiring.

A Strange and Sinister Business

The Pinakothek der Modern is the newest museum in Munich. The building's design has all the beautiful practicality that is expected. There are also touches of whimsey that allow the museum to take risks and grow. At the moment one of the big risks is the basement full of every day objects whose design elevates them to art. Currently this area is underfunded and almost all items on display have been donated second-hand.
This is my only real criticism. This museum still has plenty of time to stretch and grow, and there is already so much to love. I marched around until I had seen everything, and I'm glad I did. The biggest lesson I learned is that art is growing project. Over and over I met artist's at early and later moments in their lives and it was not just how they grown, but it was also what they had decided to say that inspired me to keep going. I may not be turning out prose worthy of the canon, but I'm learning and growing and deciding just what it is I need to say. I highly recommend a visit to the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Karl Schmidt Rottluff's self portrait grabbed me. He is determined to paint what he sees no matter what the fall out. I like that kind of courage and understand that kind of fear. The museum has a sizeable collection of Franz Marc. I do not love him as I ought, but I do love his use of color it is always strong, but in a harmonious way.
Humor is important for me in art. It's the fart that makes us all human. George Grosz tickled my funny bone with his perspective on married life. Men. What can you do with them? What can you do without them?This painting by Karl Hofer (Grosser Karneval) didn't interest me at first, but the longer I stayed in the room the more I was drawn to it. I still feel like a student of this painting, but perhaps you are a faster study.The collection has a good amount of Max Beckmann and I found studying the paintings chronologically interesting. At first he's like any other beginner, he's trying to find his voice and his subject, but then the dates are for dark and perilous times and his painting feels more out of control. It almost screams.
I could go on, but other things need doing. The collection is in many ways conservative, and I'll admit to a fondness for figures. Some of the experimental video exhibits were fun. There was a display of two pink strings strung from floor to ceiling entitiled Pink Flamingo--I loved it. There was some de Kooning that I liked though I liked it best when he kept the colors all distinct instead of adding a mixed blob. My favorite sculpture was made out of flourescent light tubes. It takes an ordinary object and turns it into a powerful symbol of mourning.

Magic!

Yesterday was a full day. I tackled the S-bahn/U-bahn on my own. It's not that difficult I'm just a tad slow with those things. The Alte Pinakothek is still a two block walk after the subway ride and I nearly ran it. The folks at the front desk could not have been nicer. One took my monkey picture for the kids and then explained that I'd need to leave my backpack in a locker while I toured the galleries. The locker required a 2 Euro coin, but gave it right back when I picked my things up.
They have a handy little device like most museums that takes you on an audio tour. It featured a broad sampling of the paintings that was cleverly chosen to give you a sense of each artist and period you were looking at even if they didn't refer to the particular painting that interested you. I only saw one gallery, but I will definitely go back.

Highlight paintings for me: Francis Boucher's Madame de Pompadour. I've not been a big fan of Boucher. He's a bit of an ass man, but this is charming. I could see it as inspiration for redecorating my office. It doesn't hurt that Madame was featured in one of my favorite Dr. Who episodes.Rembrandt's Sacrafice of Isaac. This one is in my parent's family Bible. The day I committed my life to Christ I was looking at this picture. It was startling to see how powerful the old masters had been in my life. My community rejected modern art as meaningless, so ye old masters were what was available. I guess it's like Shakespeare and Sophocles. Time had blunted the edges. They weren't controversial any more. Instead they'd been embraced. Ruben's Last Judgement. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but this one was floating about on the web. The whole gallery was laid out around this painting. I wanted you to get a feeling for the size. The apocolpyse has always worried me. I watched the news for signs of the times and I spent a good chunk of daydreaming time trying to figure out how to stop it. I approached the apocolyptic paintings with caution. Various travel shows and art shows were quick to hint that the paintings were meant to terrify, but to me they were comforting. Good is always triumphing in spades. The power and the energy make the end of the world a terrific subject, and as long as good is winning what is there to fear?Titian's Adam and Eve and Ruben's copy of Adam and Eve. This was part of the Ruben's exhibit and I was so impressed. Here is the undisputed master Titian giving us his perspective on the rather important story of the Fall. Then here comes Ruben copying all the life of the original and then making it his own. I would say he improved it but the Titian is still so strong that even hanging next to Ruben's lively version it holds its own. They had two other pairs in the exhibit with equally impressive results. Maybe I should try rewriting War and Peace and giving it my own flavor--just kidding. :)















I'm having a grand time, and I wish you all were here. Auf Wiedersehen

The best Christmas gift

Last year my husband gave me the best Christmas present ever--a giant creche. I've wanted one since I was five. My mother was playing some kind of elaborate guessing game about a gift she'd bought for under the tree. I couldn't follow, the only thing I could think of going under the tree was a creche. The more I thought I was right the more excited I got. Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, it would be wonderful. She kept stressing how delicate the gift was and how important it would be for me to take good care of it. What a let down when it was just a jewelry box. She couldn't understand my disappointment. I couldn't understand how anyone wouldn't prefer a creche. Mom put creches in the same category as Santa Clause. A few years earlier we'd gone to the mall and I'd wondered who the guy with the beard was. My mother and I are just very different people.
Anywho, the first thing I bought for Mea's second Christmas was small, inexpensive creche she was free to play with. She rearranged those figurines for hours. It was highly satisfying to watch. Through the years the set has suffered greatly. No animals have their ears, a wiseman is missing his hand. The HolyFamily is doing OK, but everybody else has suffered for my children's faith. Two years ago we bought the Little People Nativity Set, but I don't like it as well. Last year, Sam's Club had a beautiful, gigantic nativity set, and I walked by it, and I walked by it, and I walked by it. Every time I'd stop for a good stare, then I'd check the price tag and I'd roll on. It was getting really close to Christmas day when I discovered they'd significantly reduced the price. I took a deep breath and rolled by again. When I got home I told Kurt about the price reduction. He thought it was decently priced. I decided it was too much. I could live without it. It wasn't that important, but it was.
Next shopping trip I expected that the set would be gone, and the wild happiness with which I found it still there made me take out my cell. Kurt didn't sound surprised. "Go ahead and get it. It'll be your Christmas present." I don't normally do things like that, but when I could imagine my grandchildren playing with it I realized it was more than an object it was a way to stir up our faith. Poor Kurt, it weighs a ton and we put it up on the bookcases so that it won't be damaged by the kids. I wouldn't change a thing. The reason for the season dominates our living room and that's the best gift we all could receive.