see you in a little while...

- Michael Forsberg, Nebraska's Great Photographer (others here)

- "Some ten days ago I left Paris, quite ill and tired, and journeyed into a great northernly plain whose breadth and stillness and sky are to make me well again." Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

- As I've been planning this trip I've been putting together my grad school portfolio. I wrote this last year, surely with the Great Plains in my thoughts, and these parts rings in my head as I go on the miles:

...All the
old beliefs step false but we still
believe them still pray to the gods
of our evolution for our bodies have
not yet eliminated the sun, wind
shiver and stamp of the grassland
loneliness...

...and I hear the old prayers
pressing out my lips again: weeping
for fire, screaming from the trees
the frenzy for knowledge to escape.

the next big adventure: the grassland sea

I can't exactly afford it, but I'm going, because I've got to go, out west to the last great grasslands of western Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. In the next week I'm going to be in Sioux County, Nebraska, which (like Sioux County, Iowa) is in the farthest northwest corner of the state. I traveled through this area about this same time last summer. But this year, instead of spending most of my time driving, I plan to spend most of my time walking. Here are the places I hope to wander into:

Toadstool Geologic Park - near Crawford, Nebraska - Home to lots of strange rock formations and fossils. Kind of the southern reaches of badlands territory. I've found some sites with some great photos and good information about the park. There are some camping facilities here I will probably take advantage of.

Oglala National Grasslands - Sioux County, Nebraska - A million acres of wide open grassland, just sky and buffalo grass, prairie dogs, pronghorns and birds. From what I've heard, I will probably not run into anyone the entire time I'm there and I can camp anywhere I want. Someone has written an extensive personal experience about his trip, and other official material can be found on-line as well.













Buffalo Gap National Grasslands- South Dakota - Over half a million acres of grasslands and badlands. There are no trails, so you can head out cross-country and find your own route. A helpful website.

Thunder Basin National Grassland - Wyoming - Three million acres of grassland and other landscape can be found in northeastern Wyoming. Maybe if I get ambitious I'll make it that far west.

"Anyone can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie."

- Unknown

six peculiarities of human reasoning

Over my lifetime I've reflected a lot on my mind. Many of the things I've experienced are quite strange, at least strange compared to the way we usually talk about and expect the mind to work. Here are six of these experiences I've found:

1) When all the old arguments don't seem to matter anymore, completely lose their pull

You might have an extended discussion on different viewpoints regarding homosexuality. You might work out every possible argument you can think of in either direction. But then you find out one of your best friends (or a family member) is gay. Everything shifts. Not in a 'for' or 'against' way--you might see it as destructive behavior when you hadn't before, or you might have to learn to 'live with it' when you never thought you could. The point is, all the arguments fall away not due to faulty reasoning or because they are no longer relevant--they just do.

2) When all our reasons fall out the back of our beliefs, and we cannot justify ourselves but we know we are justified

I often find myself in conversations quoting facts to justify a statement, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I heard it. I know for sure I heard it, I know it was reliable, I didn't make it up. But I hope that no one asks me for my sources. Somewhere along the way I lost the reasons but I kept the belief, but I still feel completely justified in my belief. The seed is lost but the shell remains. How often are my beliefs old empty shells, and yet the shells are enough?

3) When we are called to justify ourselves for things, and we simply can't justify ourselves

I know many times when I've done things (not even big things, just little ones) and someone asks me to tell why I did those things, and not something else. Why did I pick the blue over the red? Why did I mop before I swept? And when I look to my mind for reasons there are none--there is just nothing to look at. And for more important actions, like why I got angry at such a person on such a day, there may sometimes be nothing to look at either. I think that I ought to justify myself. It's completely fair and right to ask, but I cannot put up anything but what I make up right then, which wasn't my reasoning at all.

4) When way we act repeatedly against our good reasons

How often does it happen that we can walk into a given situation with the absolute clear and well-reasoned intention of obtaining outcome x and we time and time again walk away with outcome y? It is not for lack of reasons, it not for lack of thought, it is not even so often for lack of determination. And we keep coming back to it again and again.

5) When our emotions run without regard to our reasons

I had a situation little over a year ago when I was hurt very badly. And long after I had moved on, long after I had recovered from the loss, I still would be struck by powerful, debilitating moments of sadness. And my mind felt split, as I watched myself crying. My mind was completely secure in its new position, very happy and contented--but the emotions had hold of me and would not let go by any argument I could throw at them. And there was nothing to do but to feel it, to let it come and pass through. like a prairie storm.

6) When the most profound arguments can suddenly become superficial

I've had moments where I've been shaken to the core by the question of God's existence, the meaning of life, the weight of my sins, etc.--only to have them suddenly lifted by a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a friend, playing with a dog, listening to a friend sing with the radio, or even the shattering news of a friend getting in a car accident. What I had once worked up in me to a fury vanishes in moments as life comes creeping in. And yet the questions are still important, still profound...they just have lost their wind and I don't know exactly why.

What do we do with these abberations? And what do we do if most of our daily thinking are these kind of abberations? How tightly should we hold the importance of belief when beliefs are held up and cut down by so many thin and tangled threads? And how should we think about the need for justification when it seems to often come out of order or not at all? What demands can we make on a human being when it comes to reasons, beliefs and actions?

"for the means of grace...for the hope of glory"

This past Sunday we had Morning Prayer for our service at Saint George's. Below is the General Thanksgiving from Rite Two and I've found it very fruitful in meditation--how thankful, how heart-felt it is:

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

oc movie: we're finished! (and what I've enjoyed most)

We finished shooting this past Saturday. It appears we have finished everything we intended to and from the little bit of footage we've seen, it looks real good. Yet, it's a strange feeling to work so hard on something and not be able to see the final product. (It should be released next Spring.) So we say good-byes and thank-yous and walk away from it, at least us crew--there's much more to be done.

What I've enjoyed most about working on location with a movie is the way the creative process interacts with the world around it. Writers typically write alone and from their own minds. A painter has total control over his canvas. Dancers and theatre actors traditionally perform in an empty space designed especially for their performance. Music is generally a collaboration of people but it can usually be performed anywhere.

But with on location filmmaking (and perhaps with photography to a lesser degree), the creators must work fully within their current place. We spent our days with everyday people, in their homes, using local talent, dealing with traffic noise, changing out plans based on weather and sunlight. Our project also supported local businesses with the props and food we had to buy. On-lookers would come by and we were able to show them how the equipment worked. All of our angles, all of our acting, the final shape of the project, are affected by the place we inhabited. It's a wonderous collaboration with the world, this everyday world, I've found. At least for a while, we have been awakened to it. And that is what I will take with me most from this project.

oc movie: day 18, the movie you will never see

Last night went very well. (Did I mention our movie has a biker gang in it?) When lots of extras are around it makes us work twice as hard as usual because everyone is waiting us for directions. Today we have a band room scene, I believe, and whatever else we can fit in with one of our actresses, who is leaving on Sunday.

Dave's 16th will be approximately an hour and a half long. We have currently shot over 12 hours of movie and I would not be surprised at all if we hit 20 hours easy with car chase scenes in Sioux City on Tuesday night. So, if you come to see the movie, you will actually only see a fraction of the actual material that was shot. Some shots we probably won't even use.

What is interesting is that the best acting, the best angles, may or may not make it to the 'final cut.' Continuity, sound quality and other factors play into a 'good take.' (And now with DVDs you can often see the director's cut, deleted scenes, alternative endings, etc..) I find it strange that for any movie you go to there are many other possible movies that could've been edited together, but you get to see just this one--an actor delivered his lines many different ways, but you're seeing it just this way. Just think how much a 'Best Actor' award at the Oscars depends on the film editor!

oc movie: day 17 of shooting, performing hamlet in a grocery store

We are over two-thirds done with our shooting days and have over 80 percent of the script covered. However, there is a climactic car chase scene at the end of the movie and this will take the rest of our time to get. Today will be a big day of shooting with a lot of actors and extras, so it will require all of our professionalism and organization to get what we need in the short time we have.

I've come to appreciate film acting much more. Not to downplay stage acting, but in traditional theatre the stage actor is given a designated imaginative area and except for scene changes the actor has a non-stop time frame in order to embody his or her character. No so with film acting, which is shot in this small space surrounded by crew, technicians, other actors, random passers-by and the location itself which may or may not be the "place of the movie" (we shot a 'pankcake house' scene in a hospital, for instance).

Pretty much, film acting is like performing Hamlet in a grocery store, being constantly interrupted by the intercom, runaway shopping carts, and talkative shoppers. This makes it very difficult to dig down and find your character for an average of 30 seconds with maybe a minute or two pause in between. The film actor must be able to switch from character in his imagination to actor taking direction from director hundreds of times in a shoot.

This is why the film director's job is so important. While a stage director winds up the production and then sits back and lets it run, the film director is the person who has to create the imaginary world in the minds of the actor. He has to be able to help the actor think about nothing but this imaginary world the story inhabits; he give a sense of color, flavor, background information, mood. The film director is the psychological set, costume and make-up person.

superman is jewish

My good friend Alex, who is Jewish, posted this comment under my "Superman as Christ-Figure" post and I found it so insightful I wanted to share it:

I saw the movie, and I do agree that there are placed where it seems that Superman fits the role of an archetypal Christ-figure. I would like to point out however, that there is a much longer, and I think more credible, history of Superman being an archetypal "Jewish immigrant/hero" figure.

Superman was created by teenagers Joseph Shuster and Jerome Siegel who worked under Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz at DC comics in New York.

In the movie, Jor-El says "They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you - my only son," but that's not the way Superman's journey to earth is traditionally termed. Jor-El didn't send his son to save mankind, Jor-El sent his son in the spaceship to save his son's life.

Superman was sent off by his parents in a ship by himself in the hopes that he would not perish by catastrophic fire along with the rest of his people in a land that was being shaken apart.

He may not have been 'drawn from the reeds' but he WAS pulled from among the stalks of a Kansas cornfield.

For the early part of his life, he did not know who he was or who his people were. But eventually there was a revelation and the gain of special powers(Exodus 7:9?) to use in pursuing justice and promoting freedom.

He always remembers that he is a stranger, an alien, just as Jews are commanded "Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt"

He lost his very Hebrew sounding name when he arrived in America, and began to be known by the anglicized "Clark Kent."

He sometimes has to conceal his true identity for fear that people would try to hurt him or his loved ones because of his identity, or because some people, if they knew he was "different" might treat him unfairly.

He feels supremely obligated to be very involved in seeking truth and justice in the here and now of the world; like it's his purpose in life.

I saw Superman [as] Jewish.

I suppose though that that doesn't preclude him from being a Christ-figure also. Jesus was Jewish too.

Kc posts today on Chrisitian unity and I was encouraged by this:

...After some prayer and meditation I was encouraged to realize that the Church has been, is and always will be united in Christ regardless of the divisions that exist between the institutions of men. Our love for one another is evidenced in daily living despite the rules and regulations that govern these institutions where we claim membership.

Read the rest. Kc is a sweet, sweet soul.

cleaning out the bloglines - july 5

Here is a list of blog posts and other materials that I've found recently that have made me think a lot. (I do not agree with everything they say, of course,...just so you know I'm not promoting these ideas, but offering them up because I think people who read my blog will find them interesting.)


Attacking the Myths of Overpopulation from Chesterston and Friends.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams responds to the Episcopal Convention.

10 Things Every Reader Wants From A Writer

The Problematic Anne Lamott from Christ and Culture

Justification and Resurrection from Jesus Creed

Martha Nussbaum attacks a new book titled "Manliness." And a UK Christian thinks about Nussbaum and Christianity. More Christians should be talking about Nussbaum.

Jesus Is / Jesus Is Not from Smart Christian. I think what we ought to say is...Jesus is everything you need, but he is not anything you need.

A NPR show about Family and Christianity. It brings up the important point that the position towards family in the NT is more ambiguious than is often said. Jesus wasn't the ideal promoter of the importance of family, at the very least.

have you heard the one about superman being like jesus?

So, everywhere you look on the blogosphere Christians are talking about the 'Superman as Christ Figure' allusion in the new movie Superman Returns. (For example, here, here, here and here.) And if you watch the movie, you're pretty much hit over the head with it.

But shouldn't it be obvious that Jesus isn't anything at all like Superman? At least the orthodox position is that Jesus was a human, just like you and me--not an alien coming down whole from heaven.

Jesus did not have superpowers. When Jesus does miracles and wonders it is because he is in total connection with the Father, not because there's some kind of difference in the DNA strands or because he's made of some different substance. This is what made people disown Jesus--not because he was weird, but because he was too normal. "He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing..."

Jesus did not save the world--that is, in anyway that the world wanted to be saved. Pontius Pilate was definately the number one pick for Lex Luthor of Jesus' day--powerful, cruel and corrupt. Everyone was looking to the skies--"Someone save us! Send us a savior!" And here comes Jesus plodding down the road, a thorn in his toe, a bad cold and sweaty. What Jesus gives us is the power of his resurrection; he does not/has not slayed the villians.

Jesus did not come to promote a humanist message. In the trailer to Superman Returns there is the now famous line:

"They can be a great people, Kal-El - they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you - my only son."

The message we come away with in the movie is that Superman has come to show us a better way, how to be good humans. While the above quote does have the ring of John 3:16, Christians should immediately notice that this is opposite of John 3:16. Jesus was all about the work of the Father, about bring glory to the Father--not about providing a new message for optimistic humanism.

So isn't it quite funny that we would make a connection between Superman and Jesus when Jesus is the total opposite of Superman? If you tried to make an anti-Superman, you would get Jesus. And if you tried to make an anti-Jesus, he would look like Superman. It's like Warren Buffet as Christ Figure.

A possible explanation:

Perhaps we have have to make a distinction between Jesus and Christ-figure. Christ-figure is a Messianic idea, a person who comes from above to save the world and set things right. In this way, Superman is a Christ-figure--while Jesus is not. Jesus is everything we didn't want in a Christ-figure, and thus we killed him.

So, I suppose we accept Superman as Christ-figure...as long as we remember that Jesus wasn't anything like we imagine a Christ-figure should be. Jesus came, but we, dissatisfied, still await our Superman, who will do all the things Jesus should've done, like stop evil men and heal everybody and be generally well-liked by everyone.