Posts Tagged ‘photography’
To My Friends Who Have Abandoned Faith
Kathleen Norris: Acedia and Me
If you’ve been turned off by the excesses of evangelicalism or the big-business, industrial mindset of a megachurch, or if you’ve become weary of a clergy-centric approach to faith, or if you are tired of trite, pat answer to life’s really thorny questions, consider reading Kathleen Norris’ Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life (NY: Riverhead books, 2008).
If you’ve turned your back on faith entirely and see no point in going back to the social club that seemed to promise transcendence, especially then, read Acedia and Me. If you’ve become weary of the automatic linkage between Republicanism and Christianity, well Kathleen Norris does not speak to that sorrow. But, patience: within a generation that unfortunate concatenation will be far less automatic.
Kathleen Norris is an engaging writer who addresses the life of one’s spirit wholly without the overweening sentimentality that usually comes with such discussions. Ms. Norris sought answers from an unlikely set of conversation partners: old dead guys who wrote when people could count the centuries on two hands or even one. Many of these old desert monks had abandoned the newly popular, powerful, and politically-connected church. Instead they sought the quiet of the desert to confront their demons.
Acedia, which is perhaps the heart of Ms. Norris’ book, is not easily translated. Some read it as depression. Some read it as sloth or boredom or torpor. Ms. Norris traces the word through the ups and downs of her own life as a writer. Her own marriage is a key player in the story and she seems to hold little back in illustrating her struggle.
I was particularly taken with her definition of sin, which had less to do with breaking a set of rules and more to do with recognizing that people are made in the image of God and there is something hopeful and fetching about aligning one’s direction to recognize that.
In the end, she has a fresh take on one’s faith. You may agree. You may disagree. But you’ll be engaged. And better yet, you may even hold off from tossing everything over.
###
Image credit: Kirk Livingston
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Kirkistan.
brings light with her
###
Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
Too cold for school. Just right for fishing.
What to do at -15 degrees F.
It’s not playing hooky if they call school off.
Lovely plywood.
###
Image credit: Kirk Livingston
First Boule
A conversation between flour, water, yeast and salt. At 450 degrees F.
I think I’m going to like Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (Hertzberg & Francois)
###
Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
Mike Spitz: Medicated for your Protection – Portraits of Mental Illness
Looking for traces of normalcy
Sometimes an image can help us have a difficult conversation. Mental illness is one of those topic areas we continue to have difficulty talking about.
Mike Spitz is a clinical therapist and photographer who set out to document the faces of people with mental illness. Here’s his process:
Despite their mental and physical deterioration, abandonment by friends and family, and their pathology, my aim was to capture the subjects’ humanity, dignity and any traces of normalcy. I was not trying to present them as “crazy.” I shot in a straight forward manner without unusual angles, blurring, or other tricks to create a madness “effect.”
Mr. Spitz shot photos on weekends and nothing was pre-arranged and the photos depended on the willingness and mental condition of the people being photographed:
Most of them were friendly, helpful, eager to participate, and lacking in the usual self-consciousness and inhibition of models and other “normal” or “sane” subjects.
Check out the full post at Lenscratch, which remains a daily must-read for me.
###
Image credit: Mike Spitz via Lenscratch
28 Years Ago Today My Wife Got Married
I was there too. It was cool.
Cold, actually. And snowy and sunny and windswept–just like today.
Did I mention the cold?
A lot happens in 28 years: life (three, to be exact, off seeking their fortune in the wide world) and death, sickness (some) and in health (mostly). For richer (considering the entire globe—yes!) or poorer (not much of this).
Besides being gorgeous and lively and devoted and way smarter than me, one of the many things I appreciate about Kris (Mrs. Kirkistan’s name outside this bit of the blogosphere) is this long, long conversation we’ve had—28+ years’ worth. About everything under the sun: from travel to faith to work to philosophy to money to house repair (and lack thereof) to all manner of family issues to, well, you name it. The concept of Conversation is an Engine likely started 28 years ago today. I just didn’t start writing until 2009. The skinny guy with the (now) hipster glasses had only the barest inkling of the possibilities.
Hey—here’s to marriage (raises coffee cup jauntily)! I’ll just step away from this keyboard now and tell Kris how much I appreciate her. In real time.
###
Image credit: Kirk Livingston
Thanks for stopping by in 2013
The entire staff of Conversation is an Engine wishes you an extraordinary 2014.
###
Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
Concrete Ledge with a View
Ailsa’s focus on birds (Where’s my backpack?/Travel theme: Birds) got me thinking about these pigeons I saw in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
When a woman below started sprinkling handfuls of seed on the sidewalk, the pigeons dropped like curtains of rain. I was not practiced enough with shutter speed to catch the action. But I did catch them looking smug and satisfied.
###
Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
conversation is an engine 