Havel on politicians
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
In honour of tomorrow’s events…
It is my profound conviction that the world requires – today more than ever – enlightened, thoughtful politicians who are bold and broad-minded enough to consider things which lie beyond the scope of their immediate influence in both space and time. We need politicians willing and able to rise above their own power interests, or the particular interests of their parties or states, and act in accord with the fundamental interests of today’s humanity — that is, to behave the way everyone should behave, even though most may fail to do so.
Vaclav Havel
Partially quoted by James Sire in Vaclav Havel: The Intellectual Conscience of International Politics and in full on Project Syndicate.
You can become all flame…
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
from Desert Perspectives
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’
from stories of the desert fathers (HT: Daniel Siedell)
Tags: photos
Stealing Transcendence
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
“…wilderness cannot be home because it does not provide the necessary culture-forming resources to make it home….The wilderness is preeminently the place where it seems impossible to fulfil our calling to be God’s image-bearing agents in creation. It becomes a place where [we are] reawakened to the gift character of the world.”
Middleton & Walsh (from “truth is stranger than it used to be”)
I’ve been experimenting a little with some photo ‘re-mixes’. Taking an old desert photo of mine (from a visit to Joshua Tree National Park) and ‘borrowing’ some textures from Makoto Fujimura (taken from his Countenance donation at The By/For Project.)
Here’s a taster
For more see the Desert Perspectives album.
“Thank God for hard stones; thank God for hard facts; thank God for thorns and rocks and deserts and long years. At least I know now that I am not the best or strongest thing in the world. At least I know now that I have not dreamed of everything.”
G.K. Chesterton
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...