Spring Time Planting

There are a few plants I've babied from infancy to toddler-hood and a few I have just picked up at my local plant store. My avocado and oak trees are the ones I've babied. They've been anticipating spring for a while now and have been antsy for a bigger pot to grow up in. The avocado tree was an experiment that Joanna and I tinkered with last spring by simply buying an avocado from Kroger, taking out the seed, helping it sprout, and then planting it. Talk about fascinating! I had no idea it was that simple. Now, if it ever lives to bear fruit that'll be a miracle, but I certainly have enjoyed the process even if it doesn't. The oak tree came from a small newly sprouted acorn in the Wilbur's back yard about two years ago. It was all but dead several months ago yet I couldn't bear to get rid of it. Then one day I looked down to discover the smallest speck of green that was ever visible to the naked eye--not even the beginnings of a leaf mind you, just a speck--and I said, "Ha, I knew you'd make it!" And so it has. Whether or not it will ever grow grand and stately enough to be considered as a candidate to replace an oaken beam in some parish church or school of learning, well, that too would be a miracle, but I certainly have enjoyed the process.

And then there are my new additions, not nurtured by my own hand until this point. I have no idea where they initially came from, but they have come to rest in my keeping. They have provided me with a bit of instant gratification, something I have not earned but nevertheless get to be the beneficiary of. These newcomers--Celosia, Verbena, Bacopa, Petunia, and Dusty Miller--will require just as much attention as those toddler trees that have been with me so long. But isn't that just like spring to be both a continual reminder of the old and yet be a provision of hope with all things new. Who knows what will become of this newness, but I certainly am enjoying the process.

Silence and Words

"Silence is indeed the friend and helpmeet of thought and invention; but, if one aims at readiness of speech and the beauty of discourse, he will get at them by no other discipline than the study of words, and their constant practice." Gregory Thaumaturgus

Day 4: Pens—M.L.M.

Pilot Custom 74
There are some things in life I care passionately about. Craftsmanship and quality are two of those things. Pens are a third.

This afternoon, ironically enough, I spent a good hour and a half flipping through a stack of magazines and perusing through on-line catalogs to find the next pen worthy enough to have the Franklin Classical School font and crest emblazoned on the barrel. Mass produced custom pens have a reputation for being cheap and gaudy. And when you need them most they fail to work properly if at all. And the last thing I want is a faulty, poorly designed pen giving our good school a bad image. But at the same time we do not have the money to invest in 500 Watermans just to make our image more respectable, nor do we want folks saying, "Wow, they must have spent a small fortune on these pens!"

Pens are a tool. They enable us to better accomplish the work we are called to do. Just as it is true with computers when we say that our technology does not need to rule our lives, rather we need to rule over our technology, so it is with the use of our more ordinary and common tools such as pens. The moment a pen stops writing mid-sentence it stops fulfilling its created purpose: to be useful. As with any tool, pens are designed for functionality. But is that all God had in mind when He told Adam to subdue and take dominion over creation, to simply make sure things run as smoothly as clockwork? No. God intended beauty to flourish, creation to be enjoyed, fun to be had. He threw an element of creativity and joy into the process.

Aurora 88 Demonstrator
Tools are made to be functional, durable, of good quality, but some tools such as Macs and pens have room for the creative element of craftsmanship to go into the very tool that will in turn produce quality and craftsmanship when properly used. As Christians, we believe that God imparted purpose into all of His creation. We, as sub-creators under The Creator, have no less a responsibility to create with intentionality everything we set our hands to make, and to pattern everything we do after the craftsmanship and quality that God Himself instilled in Creation.

Let me be frank. I love pens. The Germans make pens that are both functionally dependable and simplistically creative. I probably own more varieties of Lamy than any other brand of pen. I love fountain pens. From the surprisingly smooth Pilot Varsity disposable to the upper scale Waterman Phineas, fountain pens are a delightful tool to use in the pursuit of intentionality. Who all do you know that would sit down and have a photo shoot with his or her pen collection. Hmmm. I hope I'm not the only one. Please don't think that I am staunchly against buying a pen that cost anything less than $25 to $100. As you can see from this snippet of my collection, I have some cheaper pens that I take great delight in writing with as well.

Craftsmanship and quality are two of my great passions in life, but imbue those two qualities into the embodiment of a pen and boy howdy, watch me get real excited!

Symphony In Lights

I was thinking about posting my favorite Saturday Night Live skit from this presidential season since I spent the last two hours in front of my friend's TV (because I don't have my own) watching SNL's Presidential Bash '08, which traditionally airs the night before election day. But in between intention and followthrough I checked my e-mail. I'm a subscriber to very few e-mailings, but I just got one from one of my favorite musical groups--The Trans Siberian Orchestra. May be I'll follow through with my previous intention within the next day or so (after we officially know who our next president will be) since I feel that we'll probably need a few laughs then more than now. So for now, I'm pursuing a fun rabbit trail. Ya gotta admit, this is pretty cool!

"Until they rest in Thee"

"Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." — Augustine

Once Upon a Time in My Home Away From Home...

The Makers

by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Architect stood forth and said:
"I am the master of the art:
I have a thought within my head,
I have a dream within my heart.

"Come now, good craftsman, ply your trade
With tool and stone obediently;
Behold the plan that I have made—
I am the master; serve you me."

The Craftsman answered: "Sir, I will,
Yet look to it that this your draft
Be of a sort to serve my skill—
You are not master of the craft.

"It is by me the towers grow tall,
I lay the course, I shape and hew;
You make a little inky scrawl,
And that is all that you can do.

"Account me, then, the master man,
Laying my rigid rule upon
The plan, and that which serves the plan—
The uncomplaining, helpless stone."

The Stone made answer: "Masters mine,
Know this: that I can bless or damn
The thing that both of you design
By being but the thing I am;

"For I am granite and not gold,
For I am marble and not clay,
You may not hammer me nor mould—
I am the master of the way.

"Yet once that mastery bestowed
Then I will suffer patiently
The cleaving steel, the crushing load,
That make a Calvary of me;

"And you may carve me with your hand
To arch and buttress, roof and wall,
Until the dream rise up and stand—
Serve but the stone, the stone serves all.

"Let each do well what each knows best,
Nothing refuse and nothing shirk,
Since none is master of the rest,
But all are servants of the work—

"The work no master may subject
Save He to whom the whole is known,
Being Himself the Architect,
The Craftsman and the Corner-stone.

"Then, when the greatest and the least
Have finished all their labouring
And sit together at the feast,
You shall behold a wonder thing:

"The Maker of the men that make
Will stoop between the cherubim,
The towel and the basin take,
And serve the servants who serve Him."

The Architect and Craftsman both
Agreed, the Stone had spoken well;
Bound them to service by an oath
And each to his own labour fell.

Architecture Thoughts

The 7th Day

In English class today we had a bit of a creative exercise. We are currently reading The Magician’s Nephew—chronologically the first book in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series. We have just finished the part where Aslan has sung Narnia into existence. I wanted my students to compare the similarities and the dissimilarities between Narnia’s creation and the biblical creation as portrayed in Genesis 1.

The first part of the exercise was rather simplistic but remarkably telling. I had them take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle writing characteristics of the Genesis account on the one side and characteristics of the Narnian account on the other. They came up with everything from both had suns and stars, to God spoke the world into being and Aslan sang the world into being. It was an extremely enlightening exercise in the sense that it got the kids to ask why some things were exactly alike in both accounts and why others were either slightly or completely different. But the most enlightening thing for me occurred as I was going over the comparisons of one student in particular followed by the inquiry and short discussion of the students surrounding.

I had noticed on the student’s paper that she had written “creation in 6 days” on the biblical account side, and I corrected her by saying that it was 7 days. The student’s response was one we have all heard a lot: “But God created in 6 days and rested on the 7th.” I was feeling slightly argumentative at the time and wanted to test her a bit further, so what came out of my mouth next was more like role-playing devil’s advocate then a profound split-second thought: “Yes, God did rest on the 7th day which means He created rest on the 7th day.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth I realized that I had never really thought about it that way before.

One of the surrounding students replied by saying, “Well, that doesn’t really count!” To which I replied, “I don’t know about you, but some times it takes a lot of effort and deliberateness for me to rest.”

Of course, as young teenagers my students haven’t gotten to the place where they are “too busy” to rest. Recreation, rest, and boredom are the norm for them—it’s the industry, diligence, and effort that’s the deliberate drudgery and work for them!

All too often I get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent, convinced that something just shy of burnout for the Kingdom is the best way to minister and serve. Though in recent years I have come to see the value in “a change often being as good as a rest”, or the benefit of recharging or takeing time for my self so that I may more efficiently serve others, I have never realized how difficult it can be to deliberately rest. Nor have I thought about the idea of God creating rest on the 7th day. His was a purposeful, deliberate, intentional act of resting. Knowing that it would be hard for us he gave us an example in the very pattern of creation. It is much easier to acknowledge that we are sub creators under the Creator in areas of skill, industry, and creativity, but to understand that we are also to be sub-creators in the stewardship of our time and the structuring of our rest seems to be an idealistic, ivory tower sort of notion, either that or an altogether missed notion.

There were 7 days of creation. But we not only have to be deliberate in remembering the 7th day, we have to be deliberate in imitating it as well.

Parish Pres: from winter to spring

Great Commercial. Beautiful Car.