Nuggets from my class

I’ve really been enjoying the learning that’s taking place in IC2643 this term. It’s been a pleasure to accompany people as we venture into thinking about Gospel and global media culture. I was particularly captivated today by a blog reflection written by Victor Hanson:

I get lost in those images as they tell me about a world that I only know in part. And it is that imagery that connects me most viscerally and poignantly with the world. It helps me to visualize and connect with the greater spectrum of what it means to be human and to experience the world in a multiplicity of ways. It is in that process of discovery that I start to see how rare and precious each moment of life and breath really is for all of us. In an instant, it could all be gone. And, I suppose, that's also the part that starts to terrify me - not the mortality piece so much as how eagerly it sometimes seems like humanity is to run towards oblivion at breakneck speed, sans seat belt.

All of which brings me back to the blind beggar in Mark - when I read that after having experienced all these images that have brought me through this process of knowing and making alive, I am most ready to receive it in all its heartbreaking and desperate immediacy. It's only when I see that razor-thin line that between hope for the future and the reality that screams of hopelessness that I'm most able to hear that message and cry out in that same way. It is in my hopelessness that I see the Lord most clearly... It's a funny thing, how that works and what triggers it in each person (that particular "desperation" point).

But... once I get there, there's this weird relief and hopefulness that comes about that leaves me feeling happier and more whole than I can remember. It's almost like I come to terms with that line, knowing where my true hope lies. It leaves me feeling bouyant and joyful, not dissimilar to this song from Glee (the layers of the Journey song they are covering ALONE make it worth it, but it's something in HOW they sing it that gives it that inner joy).</blockquote>

Glee - Don't Stop Believe