Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Daniel, textures on November 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »
When biblical prophets and seers look to the future that lies still over their horizon, they peer though a wide lens. The scope and scale become vast.
As the Ancient of Days appears in the book of Daniel’s seventh chapter, we are told that:
A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.
Posted in textures, tagged 2 John, biblical reflection, John, textures on November 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The Johannine letters obsess over a matter that seems a point of detail to readers intoxicated with the idea that action rather than ideas are the important thing. Jesus’ ‘coming in the flesh’ is stated over and over as a deadly serious litmus test by which true believers may be discerned over against those who traffic in lies. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Daniel, textures on November 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »
It is so often this way when the Lord or his messenger confronts a prophet-to-be in the biblical literature. The chosen mortal quakes in fear, falls upon his face, confesses that he’s nothing but a child, trembles in awe of the messenger and his Sender. One recognizes a familar pattern, a classifiable response. It is usually this way when heaven and earth mingle, the men and women at the seam of these two realities suffering the almost unspeakable angst that accompanies the unsought terror of standing at the juncture. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged classical music, music, reseña, Sunday Times Music Collection on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »
There’s a reason why all those drug store compilations with the breathless titles (‘Most Relaxing Classical Music Ever!) sell year after year. The pre-Classical baroque style really is relaxing. (more…)
Posted in paterfamilias, reseña, tagged gadgets, reseña on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »
A dirty little secret stains the neat homes that lurk behind the tree-lined streets and across the manicured lawns of suburbia: those little nail clippers you picked up at the Walgreens for $3.99 will never cut through a man’s gnarled, oaken toe nails.
They’ll make little cuts in it, they’ll promise and fail to deliver, they’ll even break apart in ashen resignation to the formidable power of the nail.
Those cheap little metal gizmos were made to sell on promise alone. You need a nail clipper that was not designed by the bean counters and the marketing wizards, but by the car guys … I mean … the toenail engineers.
That would be the Seki Edge. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Carly Simon, music, reseña on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Every once in a while an anthology covering the high points of an artist’s career simply dazzles with the accumulated weight of one memorable musical statement following upon another. The danger of beginning a review of Carly Simon’s Reflections with such an observation is that it may understate her achievement. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical studies, Daniel, textures on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Daniel, this Jewish advisor in the court of a foreign king, has perfected self-control and diplomatic restraint. He is able to recognize the majesty of a pagan king in terms amenable to the king and acceptable to the standards of Daniel’s truth. His self-image is not on the table, the hair-trigger of religious and ethnic sensitivity has not been set, the safety lock is turned to ‘on’. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged 1 John, biblical reflection, John, textures on November 5, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Among the strongest claims that the New Testament makes bold to present is the idea of our divine parentage and, therefore, our family likeness to Jesus. Awash in the notion of love as the foundational component of Christian life, the first Johannine letter discerns divine initiative at the root of this familial inclusion. Paul would have called it ‘adoption’. The Johannine tradition captures the same objective while avoiding that distinctive Pauline vocabulary:
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
Posted in reseña, tagged Dan Fogelberg, music, reseña on November 4, 2007| 2 Comments »
Back in the 70s, Dan Fogelberg’s lyrics were written into the pages of college yearbooks and his emotive sound pencilled onto the hearts of the students who read them. Today he is regarded with a kind of what-were-we-thinking (?) morning-after cringe.
No reason to worry. His music is as good now as it was back then. Don’t follow the herd. Just listen up. (more…)
Posted in clarity, denkschrift, tagged David Allen, Getting Things Done, life management, reseña on November 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »
For almost two years I have been weaving the principles and practices of David Allen’s Getting Things Done into, as Allen himself would call it, ‘the business of life and the art of work’.
I’ve read and re-read DA’s signature book as well as a second collection of the man’s thoughts, attended his one-day RoadMap conference in Manhattan, and subscribed to GTD Connect. (more…)
Canter Bridge 