Apples and Oranges

The Art Prize is coming to Grand Rapids, MI. It is here, really. A 30,000 Pound Chair that will have a matching table is being installed atop of a downtown bridge.
This competition is being hailed as a great competition. It will bring art from around the world to west Michigan. It is judge by the public. It has a non-traditional method of admission. There is no jury or submission of slides. The artist has to get in touch with a local businesses within the perimeters set downtown .
This seems good. Anyone can enter. It frees the artist from the system of critics and the art elite.
I think that the art prize is what the art world doesn't need. ( I don't think it is harmful, but it doesn't help the situation.) The problem with art today is that there is no clear distinction placed on what is made. I have read art criticism books that speak of judging art by one context or another. But very few people care to take the time to find out what is behind different forms of art. I have heard phrases like, "I just don't get it", or "I don't see how that's art".
If one goes to an art museum a 3,000 year old artifact is just down the hall from 50 year old oil paintings. These things are divided by period but it lacks true distinction. It is all termed art.
In Grand Rapids at the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, the roughly 2 story Da Vinci horse is just down the path from welded I-beams. There is no attention given to the motives, intentions, or general context that these radically different objects have been created with.
Art doesn't need less distinction but more. Painting and sculpture needs something other than being thrown together with dancing, and music in a category labeled "The Arts". I would like a distinction between splatter painting, technical realism, and 30,000 pound chairs, not because I think that some art should be excluded or discouraged but rather that these things that people are making should be set into context. How can the megalithic sculpture and the still life painting or the installation be judged in the same contest for a very large sum of money?
Perhaps critics, professors and artist do give distinction, but I'm not sure that the general public (who will be judging this contest) does much thinking, if any, about art. Perhaps in freeing the contest from the critics and art elite, one is taking the art out of the hands of the people who care about art and into the laps of people who don't.
I am critiquing this contest but the issue seems bigger than one contest. It encompasses terms like "The Arts" and institutions that tear artwork out of it's context with little clue for the viewer what the work is all about.

The stories of my (brother's) scars.

Do, do, do, la, la, la, la, do, do. As the world has spun on its slant axis, many odd objects have found themselves in violent encounter with my (brother's) largest organ, these are:

The Stories of My (Brother's) Scars.

my brother (Braden) and I used to bike a lot together growing up. we would go out into the hills or build jumps in our yard. it was much fun. one day we decided to bike into town, which is like a 2 mile ride. he was leading the way and i decided that i would try and ride as close behind him as possible in order to draft off of him. it was going really well. i was concentrating intently on the back of his bike in order to stay close but not run into him. we were almost into town, and the next thing i knew was all of the sudden his bike had slowed immensely, i reached for the brake, but it was too late. i ran into the back of him. i felt a sharp pain in my finger and looked down and saw my finger beginning to bleed. it had gotten pinched between my bike and his bike. fear and panic began to well up in me. "braden!" he looked back with a surprised look and proceeded to lead me to the mcdonalds which was just a little ways away. he told me to wait outside while he went inside to get something for my finger. i waited and waited, for what seemed like forever. my finger dripped and dripped blood onto the sidewalk. people walked by, looking at the puddle of blood in discust. i think i probably ruined some peoples' lunch... i felt strange, bleeding there onto the sidewalk, not knowing what to do, not sure where my brother was, people walking by and looking yet not doing anything about this child who was bleeding by himself. finally my brother came out. we wrapped my finger in toilet paper and rode back home.

Oh, I can totally hear his young voice yelling, "Braden". Thanks for the Story. I remember there was a guy in the bathroom for a long time and I couldn't get in it. I should have got some napkins from the counter. I didn't realize I was gone long until I saw that puddle of blood. "Oops", I thought, "Let's get out of here."

Thanks Again.

Waste not, want more. We're Americans.

The pages feel remarkably new on a 14 year old copy of the magazine Family Circle. The pictures have an unnameable quality, I can’t pin point it, they just look old. Some times a hair do or old looking clothes dates the publication, but mostly it is something else.

The car ads sell “new anti-lock brakes”.

There are many happy, beautiful women smoking. I don’t find cigarette ads like I used to.

I read an article about reusing items from around the house. One reader wrote in to share a great use for the plastic part at the bottom of 2 liter pop bottles. What? Oh, I had completely forgotten how pop bottles used to have a black cap shaped piece at the bottom. I remember that they were hard to get off.

Do you remember that?

none

Jeremy asked me “Are you egalitarian?”

“No,” I said, “I’m head/body.”
What is head/body like? Well it is not complementarian or egalitarian.

Complementarian is a master-servant relationship. Egalitarian is two colleagues.
Complementarian is two separate people, one ruling the other. Egalitarian is two separate people, co-leading somewhat democratically.

Head/body or headship is a mystery of two people becoming one, being lead by God, the Spirit. Complementarian and Egalitarian are modeled by governments and human institutions. Head/Body is modeled by the Father and Son.

I think that it is big

I have been listening to the audio book “Jesus Wants to Save Christians” by Robert Homes Bell, Jr. and Don Golden.

It is a book that rejects American Imperialism by, among other things, comparing it to Pharaoh’s enslavement of the Israelites.

A simple review of the line of thought is: the people of Israel were slaves under an oppressive system. The Lord opposes oppressive systems such as Pharaoh’s Egypt. The Lord freed Israel and taught them how to live a non-oppressive life, culture, system. In the time of Solomon, Israel had become the “new Egypt” - an oppressive system like the one they were rescued from.

Solomon even used slaves to build the temple. He became an arms dealer, importing and exporting chariots and horses. While this oppressive system existed, Solomon and the people rejected God. Because the Israelites rejected God they were lead into exile.

Later, Israel had taken the law that was to teach them how to live, and made it into its own oppressive system. Jesus came to free Israel and the world from these systems.

I don’t remember if this is in the book, but what is so amazing is that Jesus not only offers freedom from sin, he offers co-heir-ness.

God’s way is not communism where people are equal and ruled by a leader.

God’s way is not a democracy - equal rights, equal voice in choosing the leader.

On earth, men cling fiercely to power. People crush insurrectionists. People kill colleagues, friends and family members for positions of leadership and power.

Early Americans at least believed that people were competent enough to choose the one who would rule them.

Jesus goes way beyond this in saying that we (the church, the saints, the believers) will rule with him and even judge angels. This is far beyond even the loftiest goals and aspirations of human systems.

Jesus offers us the opportunity to live in this system.

As I post this I understand that I am talking in general terms that can be problematic. My goal is to illuminate the outstanding notion of reigning with God.

Slackline Living (balance)

This is about being grateful.

I find it so fascinating that if you are reading this blog it is more than likely that you were born rich. I was born rich, filthy rich. I had candy on a regular basis. I had so many toys that it became amusing to destroy them. (Honestly I never broke my toys on purpose, but it seems that many of my peers did at some level.) I got new shoes every school year. I always had a warm coat, always a full stomach. I went to school.

What are the implications of being over privileged from birth? A heightened tendency towards selfishness, greed, un-thankfulness, becoming jaded are a few of the tendencies that I see. Now read that list with the knowledge that I don't have much to compare it to. I haven't spent much time with people that haven't grown up rich. Perhaps people who are living in situations where basic needs aren't being fully met have an equal infusion of everything on that list. I imagine that Jesus has a few things to say here. I apologize for not doing the research to put them here.

I listened to a book that said that the wealthy have what they have so that they may use it to help those who don't have.

What I am going to attempt I heard from a man named Shane Hipps. He told me to experience something in this way: Eat a treat like it is the last one you will have. (I might add, like you have never had it before.) Take the pleasure rumbling in your mouth and move it to your heart. Feel thanksgiving.

What I think that I am going to add is to do that often, to all of the rich things that I regularly encounter. I don't want to forget that I am rich, or worse to begin to think that I need or deserve it or that I earned it. I do want to enjoy it fully and healthily.

eah?

Hi , this is not that interesting but it is something to think about. It seems to me that some pastors come up with the topics for their sermons primarily by looking at issues in life and then finding scripture that addresses it. Other pastors primarily look at scriptures and try to apply it to life issues. I can recall effective and ineffective sermons from both approaches. Can you?