Quotes from Lewis: Artist and Artwork

This specific part of the book really struck me. The conversation is between artists, and naturally, I could relate.

"Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light."

"Oh, that's ages ago," said the Ghost. "One grows out of that. Of course, you haven't seen my later works. One becomes more and more interested in paint for its own sake."

"One does, indeed. I also have had to recover from that. It was all a snare. Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn't stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower – become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations."

-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 84-85


I hope I never lose sight of the vision, sight of the light. I am guilty of caring about the aesthetics or image more than I do about the meaning and message behind the piece. But ultimately, the only thing that will matter in the end, is God himself. No paint, ink, computer, etc. could ever replace that.

Kinetic Typography

So I enjoy typography, but I probably love kinetic typography even more. It's something I wish I had more time to mess with and play with. Here's a few of my favorite videos.

The video that got me started:

My all time favorite kinetic typography video:

Linsanity: The Asian American All-Star

Recently, news of Jeremy Lin, an Asian American basketball player for the Knicks has been popping up in my Facebook news feed. And now today, I saw it on Yahoo news. This guy intrigues me for three reasons.

1. It's basketball and I love basketball.
2. He's an Asian American stepping into a sport that's dominated mostly by African Americans and White Americans.
3. He's Christian.

If any of you have ever watched a basketball game, especially an NBA basketball game, you know that the court is not often filled with Asian Americans, if at all. There have been some other Asian American stars, like Yao Ming (I believe he's the most recent), but that's one out of the many players on the court.  But if you compare other famous basketball names, like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Shaquille O'Neil, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, and Steve Nash, there seems to be no Asians in the game.

Now, Jeremy Lin is all over the news and they're calling it "Linsanity". This guy is the classic story of "player gets over looked, finally gets a chance to play, and now he's rocking the NBA world". But better yet, he's an Asian American player, so he also stands out for those reasons. In fact, there's been some major controversies already.

Here's an article where ESPN is apologizing because one of its reporters wrote an article that was titled "Chink in the armor". They fired the reporter and suspended a couple of other employees.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-jeremy-lin-espn-headline-20120220,0,3952849.story

Now, Lin is getting so much coverage and attention, and with fear of more racial slurs and comments being made, they actually made guidelines concerning his media coverage:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/asian-american-journalists-association-releases-guidelines-jeremy-lin-155822233.html

I read some of the comments on this past article. One person said, "Why it's such a big deal that he's an Asian American? Just call him American." And naturally, there were a slew of replies, but I thought, "I remember I used to think like that." But the fact of the matter is, being an Asian American means they grew up differently than an African American, White American, Mexican American, or Native American. Yes, we live in America, but we aren't this huge "melting pot" everything thinks of us to be. The recent analogy I heard was more like a salad bowl. There's a bunch of different pieces, but they aren't making one homogenous culture.

I can go on and on about race and culture. Any of you who know me, know how passionate I can get about appreciating and respecting cultural differences and learning to understand them. But I'm going to let someone else explain it. Out of all the articles to read, I think you should all read this one. This isn't just a news article, this is how Jeremy Lin's career, a career of an Asian American, is personally affecting someone:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sports/basketball/the-knicks-jeremy-lin-faith-pride-and-points.html?_r=2

"The feelings the Lin phenomenon instill in me are orders of magnitude greater because he is an Asian-American, like me, whose parents were immigrants to this country, like mine. He grew up, like me, in the United States, speaking English; his Chinese, like mine, could use improvement."


I enjoy playing basketball and have played with various different groups. Most of the time, I'm usually the one of 2 females amongst 7 or 9 guys. In the past 6 months, a lot of the people I play with are Asian. I made a joke to someone that said, "Dang. We could call our team the 5 Chinamen, 2 white girls, and... Ed?" We all laughed, but now that I look back, I wonder how my basketball loving Asian friends feel about Lin. Are they feeling a sense of pride describe in the above article? Are they also watching his career closing and hoping to become like him? 


Whatever happens to Jeremy Lin, I wish the best for him. I think it's awesome that he's getting all of this attention, and I hope more of my Asian friends continue to play basketball and are inspired by the "Linsanity". 


I'll also be curious as to see how his faith plays out on the court. To me, he doesn't have to be wearing crosses or talking about Jesus every time a reporter talks to him. I'll see his faith in the way he plays. If you have ever played sports seriously, you'll know that when you're on the court, your focus is on the game and playing it right, respecting your teammates and your opponents. I've played on too many teams to know about the potty mouths and horrible events that can go on when a player gets out of line. It ruins the game and shows the poor spirit of the player. 


So here's to Jeremy Lin. I hope his career continues to go well. I'm excited to see what happens to him. 


~~~~~~~~~~~


New addition:


Lin is getting so much attention, that even Ben & Jerry's named an ice cream after him. 


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/ben-jerry-replaces-fortune-cookies-lin-sanity-flavor-162728739.html

Musical Thursdays

I've become a recent fan of Shawn McDonald. :) This is one of my favorite songs. It's called "Free" and definitely describes have I have felt at times. Take a listen.

Hard to find a good video, but the song is what ya need to here for the most part. :)

Free by Shawn McDonald


I feel like the weight of the world is all - crashing down on me 
And some how I just don’t believe this is how - it is suppose to be 
And all this expectation on - the way I’m suppose to live 
Becomes my minds distraction - with nothing left to give

You said your burden is light and your load - is no more 
You said your ways are right and in you I would soar

I want to be free - free to dance and free to sing 
Free to live and love and free 
Oh, free to be me

I feel like my heart is being beat - down into the ground 
In you I’m longing for some peace - to be found 
I know the heaviness that’s - making me cold 
Is stealing my youthful soul and - making me old

You said your burden is light and your load - is no more 
You said your ways are right and in you I would soar

I want to be free - free to dance and free to sing 
Free to live and love and free 
Oh, free to be me

Wednesday: Quotes from Lewis

So I'm a fan of CS Lewis, and I think I'm going to start doing quotes from him. CS Lewis is a fantastic writer and seems to understand human beings quite well. I think that's the part that always amazes me about CS Lewis: his grandeur image of God and his amazingly accurate description of humanity.

I just read The Great Divorce. So we'll begin there. :) It's a book about heaven and hell and is quite interesting.

"Don’t you remember on earth—there were things too hot to touch with your finger but you could drink them all right? Shame is like that. If you will accept it—if you will drink the cup to the bottom—you will find it very nourishing: but try to do anything else with it and it scalds.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, p. 61

At first, I was confused by this quote. But now, I begin to understand it a bit more. Being shamed can lead to humility, but only if you take that shame and swallow it. Accept it and don't look back. But if you bring that shame up and try to use it with people or situations, it will just burn you. It will not only be useless, but hurt you more in the end. 

Broken Pieces

I had a mental image the other as I thought about many things. 

I was in the middle of a bunch of shattered glass, picking up each piece and trying to gather them all, even though they were everywhere. I somehow knew that the broken pieces were pieces of myself. I felt overwhelmed, but at the same time, like it was my duty to pick up each piece. "I have to do this" I thought. "This is what they tell me to do." But as moments passed, I then thought, "I just.... I just... wished someone.... would tell me I don't have to. I just wish someone would say it's OK to be weak." Feeling overwhelmed, I just wanted to sit there and cry in the sea of broken glass. 


Suddenly, that's when Jesus appeared kneeling down next to me; he began picking up the pieces of shattered glass as well. I turned to him, and he looked at me and smiled. "I'm here to help you. You don't have to do it by yourself." He then turned back to picking up the glass. "Let's do this together." 


And suddenly, the pieces of glass didn't feel overwhelming. I felt like I could keep picking up the pieces. It was there, Jesus told me, "It's OK to be broken. I will be there with you in your brokenness and help you." 


The thing is, people want to be accepted for who they are, faults and all. But also, people don't want to sit in their own brokeness. People don't want to continue to have faults. They want to become better people. We all have this desire to do good, but that's where it stops. It's a desire. A desire that is easy to have when everything is going well. But suddenly, when things are going bad and the goodness in our own lives is stripped away, so the desire to do good and help others is stripped away as well. 


Yet, it's in those moments, when a hand that is reached out to us, that we are able to grab it and move forward. When someone begins helping to pick up the pieces of our lives, of ourselves, and helps place them together with us, that's when the desire is renewed. Jesus does that day in and day out. He meets us there, in our brokenness, ad mist the pieces of ourselves, and begins picking up the pieces with us. He says, "You don't have to go at it alone. Let me help you." And better yet, he says, "It's OK to be broken. It's OK to have faults. It's OK to be weak. That's why I'm here." 

Life will come at you, and leave a mess of things around you. But you're never at it alone. Let God come in and pick things up with you, and many times, for you. It's not a bad thing. It's a very human thing. 

Psalm 147:3 - "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds". 

Change your poo colors!

Oh my goodness.... YES!!!

http://egotvonline.com/2011/04/29/7-foods-that-will-make-your-poop-change-colors/