To see
The world
Through Another’s
Eyes
Is Love
Is Empathy
Is Essential
Is Impossible Continue reading
Category Archives: Art
Redeeming Ares, Part 3: Un-Hasty Hestia
StandardContinued from Part 2
I approach the throne of Apollo.
Carrying a small iron chest.
Still slightly hung over from my encounter with Dionysus.
Apollo smiles.
A. So, mortal man!
Have you solved the riddle?
Have you brought as an offering
That which you value the most
And others value the least?
In answer, I place the chest on the ground.
I open the lid.
Revealing an iron ring.
E. Here it is.
My Pride.
That which I value too much.
And others not all.
Take it, along with greetings from your brother.
A. Ah, little man.
You will not get off so easily!
In truth, your Pride is wounded
That you seek to cast it off so quickly.
I tell you, your Pride has value even to others,
For it allows them to predict your behavior.
Nor is it wrong for you to esteem it greatly.
Because without it, you would not have made it here.
In truth, even I am not worthy to take it from you.
You must bear it hence
As part of your quest.
Puzzled, I heft the chest.
E. So then, where must I go?
Is it to one who will relieve me
Of this burden I now find so distasteful?
Hope Grieves (How to Forgive)
StandardUnforgiveness
Is a sign of what we value
So much
We dare not capitulate
We reject a “logos”
That says this community
Or relationship
Or status quo
Is more important than what we lost
Especially
When we envy those
With the power
To impose that logos
To our own hurt
But what if
We are both wrong?
Refresh Focus
StandardTo exist as humans
Is to live in the tension
Between the eternal
And the mundane
We cannot lose sight
Of one or the other
So it is needful
That we keep shifting
Our focus
But sometimes
We lose our rhythm
We get stuck Continue reading
Preparing to See God’s Glory
StandardWe long for God’s radiant glory
But rarely remember
How much it terrifies
Those who experience it
Maybe we need
To build up our endurance
By training our eyes
Or our hearts
To see the depths of our sin
And His grace
So that we can bear to be around Him
And ourselves
When He appears
Dream: Dark Depths
Standard“It is almost like there is a concerted effort
To destroy our communication
By someone who understands our weakness
Better than we do ourselves!”
A friend of ours has disappeared
Along with our greatest treasure
The good news is that we know where
The bad news is that it’s at the bottom of the ocean
Immanuel Encounter: Into the Woods
Standard[As experienced at the Wisdom Upgrade Workshop #2 with Father Andrew Miller, during the 100X Wisdom challenge]
I am in the woods at IVCF camp in Massachusetts
At the moonlit lake
I remember from my college days
Jesus is there
I am seven years old
It is daytime
Mary’s Christmas: A Lament
StandardO God, why me?
Why does it have to be me?
Why did you have to choose me?
Socrates Evangelion (Beyond “Apology”)
Standard[The sequel to Socrates Repents. Hat Tip to Socrates Meets Jesus by Peter Kreeft, and Til We Have Faces by CS Lewis. Dedicated to my friend and muse, David Huffman, the Plato to my Socrates.]
A powerfully-built young man stands on the walls of Athens. His face is torn between Hope and Sorrow. He has clearly been there a while, staring into the west as the sun sets. Finally he sighs and turns to return home.
Just before he descends he glances back for one last forlorn look. Then freezes. He dashes to the wall, straining to make out distant details. Suddenly seized with certainty, he claps his hands and jumps for joy. He barely restrains the impulse to jump directly down the wall, but dashes back to the stairs and out the gate. His gleeful shouts trail in the air behind him. “He’s back! He’s here! Socrates has returned!”
Dream: Leadership Train. Ing.
StandardI am on a people-mover
Like a train of roller-coaster cars
But we are stopped on level ground
At least for a moment
Each car represents a different level of leadership
I am in the third or fourth
Perhaps moving from third to fourth Continue reading
Dream: Excess Baggage (On Christian Unity)
StandardOddly enough. I think this Dream is about unity in the Body of Christ. Continue reading
Dream: Restoration
Standard[NOTE: The physical context of the Dream was my undergraduate school MIT. But the emotional context was Caltech, where I resigned from the student Christian fellowship just before they kicked me out (long story). Years later, I realized I should have come back for judgement, so that both I and they could confront our sins.
At any rate, I feel the dream is actually about current relationships, not what happened back in 1993. But that may help you understand the context.]
Continue reading
Socrates Repents (An Alternative “Apology”)
Standard[I realize this looks like (and probably is) a harsh critique of the most revered figure in philosophy (Hat Tip to Taleb for stating it first). But I didn’t write it about him. I wrote it about me.]
Friends, Athenians, countrymen
Lend me your ears!
For I fear mine have not been working.
Effective Word
StandardThere is no effect without affect Continue reading
Prayer Bears
StandardThe primary job of prayer
Is that love we bear
We may think we care
Yet we rarely dare
To give more than our share Continue reading
Redeeming Ares, Part 2: In Dio Veritas
Standard
Continued from Part 1
D. Hey buddy, you look like you could use a drink.
E. You can say that again. Make mine a double.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed that the bartender looked like Ted Danson from Cheers. I had somehow been expecting a version of Mr. Tumnus, though fauns aren’t exactly satyrs, and anyway I was confusing Pan with…
Dionysus
Continue readingRedeeming Ares, Part 1: Apollo’s Creed
StandardContinued from Part 0.
I am afraid the Temple of Apollo will be like that of Aphrodite.
However, my fears were unfounded.
The beautiful women and men walking the hallways — and rendered in art — are all tastefully, even fashionably clothed.
Except for him.
Apollo
Continue readingRedeeming Ares, Part 0
StandardErnie: You again? I thought Hades replaced you!
Ares: Dream on. Even Haphaestus wants me back. Needs me, even.
E. But you’re the personification of rape, sadism, and uncontrolled violence!
A. So?
Continue readingHale’s Accusation (Alternate Ending of The Crucible)
Standard[Our Christian high school just put on a “fearless” production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which continued to haunt me after leaving the theater. I identified deeply with many of the characters, whose seemingly minor flaws led to tragic results. I am writing this in hopes it will help me identify (and repent of) the deeper sin they shared — but could not name — which ultimately destroyed them all.]
Continue readingDream: Impostor
StandardOur family is staying at a tropical casino.
The kids are getting bored, so we start wandering towards the outside.
The casino is having their grand evening religious ritual.
The main hallway and staircase are lined with formally-dressed staff holding candles.
I am never sure if they are genuinely devout, or just putting on a pageant for the tourists.
Radically Happy 
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