On blogging

No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life; it has changed my perspective; it has changed my intellectual outlook; it has changed my emotional outlook... and it’s free!

- Tom Peters

Lyrics

"Hope is never light years away"

A phrase that leapt out from Athlete's new album - Black Swan.

The track is called "The Unknown".

Astonishing

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves."

- Thomas Edison

The prescience of Thomas Jefferson

I'm not suggesting that he was predicting our current economic events, but I was intrigued to discover this quotation today:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. "
- Thomas Jefferson

In the week when the G20 will gather in London, and we will see a range of demonstrations and protests, it would be good to give some thought to how we should engage with the current crisis. I don't work in the realms of high finance or in the competitive environment of the City, and I don't expect that there will be anti-capitalist protesters rampaging in the streets of Arbroath or Perth this week. But maybe that's a good starting point - to remember and pray for those who work in London who will have concerns about going to work this week.

I also think that we, the church, need to start thinking and talking about how we would like to see our economies after the crunch. Aye, we need to help those who are adversely affected by it now, but we also need to look ahead and begin to articulate an approach that we see as being consistent with Jesus' values. There is an opportunity here, if we are willing to accept it.

Striving - the inner struggle

"If a man lives without inner struggle, if everything happens in him without opposition... he will remains such as he is."


- G.I. Gurdjieff

Low level blogging

I haven't been blogging (or commenting) much recently - lots of excuses, no reasons. I'm reminded of a quotation from Virginia Woolf:

"I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street."

So rather than lose all of my blogging friends, I thought I'd better step off the kerb again!

I've had lots of ideas for blog entries (even put them together in a file), but zero output. That's life at the moment.

This entry simply a re-entry to blog-land. I checked out Lucy's place and came across one of those cyber-quiz thingumyjigs. I could have answered most of the questions at least twice (Does that mean that I have a split personality? If so, how many ways has it split?...). Anyway, my output is below. Play if you like - but remember there are other sources of careers advice available!!

You Are the Philosopher

You love thinking things over and developing theories. Learning is very important to you, and you pursue knowledge relentlessly. You love to talk about the things you know, often in more detail than people would like to hear. And you know a lot! You're always taking on new subjects, interests, and hobbies. You are at your best when you are left alone to ponder your newest ideas and experiments. You tend to withdraw from environments that are loud, contentious, or passionate.

What Role Do You Play?

Newton's pebbles

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Isaac Newton

Dreams and reality

I once was with somebody I liked very much -- an older person, when I was considerably younger than I am now. That person said, "Spend at least fifteen minutes a day weaving dreams. And if you weave a hundred, at least two of them will have a life." So continue with a dream and don't worry whether it can happen or not; weave it first. Many people have killed their dreams by figuring out whether they could do them or not before they dream them. So, if you're a first rate dreamer, dream it out - several of them - and then see what realities can come to make them happen, instead of saying, "Oh, my God. With this reality, what can I dream?

-Virginia Satir

I know that blogging aficionados don't approve of posts consisting of quotations - but I don't care! I came across this recently and thought it was great, so I'm sharing it with you.

I also think that there's an alternative way of ending it - 'with this dream, what reality can I create?'

stop and think

Two quotations from the same sermon made me stop and think. The preacher was called Jim Roberts, speaking at St Michael le Belfrey in York (podcasts available through iTunes).

"We are all the best Christian somebody knows... because we are the only Christian somebody knows!"

"We get persecuted for the message of Christianity, not for being stupid! There is a world of difference, although some Christians don't realise that."

Now put them together... Hmmm!?!

Soul dyed

A Greek philospoher called Heraclitus said:

"The soul is dyed the colour of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny — it is the light that guides your way."

The first part of that quotation has been tumbling around the space above my neck for the past few days, so I'm going to explore some of these thoughts over the next few days.

One of the first thoughts that occurred to me was about being "transformed through the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

The things that spend time in our heads are clearly important - so we must choose wisely what we allow in there!

I asked for wonder

“I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And You gave it to me.”

These are the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel. I’ve been coming across his stuff quite a bit recently – in a book I’ve been reading about the Sabbath (more of that later), and also over at Living Wittily.

Today his words seem to be particularly appropriate – I’ve been considering and reflecting about the way that I observe and respond to the world around me. In recent weeks, I’ve been noticing things more keenly, and responding to them in different ways – photos, daft drawings, bits of poetry, and even some painting!

I’ve commented on aspects of this in some of my recent blogs – it’s like a kind of re-awakening of things that have lain dormant for a long time. Fish Wife was commenting on it the other day, with reference to some of my activities when I was at university – over twenty years ago.

Tonight, I started to read an anthology of Heschel’s material and I came across the quotation below, and it seemed to fit with what I was thinking and feeling. I am aware that much of this is of no interest to anyone except me – so call me self-indulgent – but it helps to write it down!

“We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Supreme grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight.”

Resolutions and character

"Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution after the enthusiasm with which the resolution was made has passed."

Brian Tracy

Quoting Moltmann

Having posted my last entry, I found a great Jurgen Moltmann quotation on prayer over at Adventures in Following Jesus. It's worth a look.

Inspired

Inspired by The Word at the Barricades, a simple entry:

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" (Chinese saying used by Eleanor Roosevelt)

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world" Karl Barth