Cave Art and Graffiti

Cave Art and Graffiti
Student Chosen Topic
Maggie McBrady

    In class we talked about ancient cave paintings and how the people of the time viewed the cave as the womb of the earth.  By painting on the cave they believed they were communicating to the womb the animals they needed to survive.  As I was thinking about the cave paintings graffiti popped into my head.  I am by no means an expert on the use and history of graffiti but I do know a little about a very famous graffiti artist named Bansky.
   Bansky is a political and social activist who has chosen graffiti as his medium.  As a disclaimer, the large hype about Banksy may only be due to the mystery surrounding him but some of it is merited.   As I said I am not a graffiti artist but usually graffiti is used as a way to claim territory for a gang but Bansky has taken a different approach:  activism.  His graffiti serves no purpose for his own gain.  
   Now back to the cave paintings.  Could Bansky be using the walls and buildings in the same way the ancient peoples used the cave?  Is he attempting to communicate a need to higher power?  Or is painting on a wall simply the easiest way to get people talking about an issue?  I think there is some overlap between Bansky and the ancient peoples.

the person of beauty

The more I ponder beauty and Beauty, the more I realize that Beauty is a person; the person of Jesus. All beauty and its expressions have their origin in Him. He is beautiful in appearance (Rev. 1), in  perfect love, in perfect justice, in perfect mercy. C.S. Lewis writes that we desire to be united with the beauty that we see and experience. I believe this is true also in the sense that we desire unity with the person of Beauty. We crave unity with the divine and are not eternally satisfied with anything else because eternity has been set in our hearts.

A lovely poem

    This morning as a group of my friends and I were sitting around the table about to enjoy breakfast together, our friend asked if he could first share with us a poem that he had read recently. He read to us a poem by Billy Collins titled “Eastern Standard Time,” in which the author expresses a feeling of kinship with those in his same timezone. He wrote of how they do their morning activities together, they awaken at the same time, begin the showers at the same time, take their vitamins at the same time, and so on. He goes on about how everyone else in the world is doing something different (just sitting down to dinner, going dancing, crawling into bed at the end of a long day). Because of this, the rest of the world is either a little bit ahead or a little bit behind.

    Though difficult for me in the morning, I focused on what he was saying, listening to the poem. Soon being mentally present was no longer difficult; I was lost in the poem. In my mind I was picturing everything the author described; I saw individuals waking, getting ready for the day, spreading jam on their toast. Immediately before he began reading, I was worried about my scrambled eggs getting cold. Yet soon after he began, I was totally held fast by the words and forgot about breakfast altogether, let alone its temperature. Realizing after the poem was read, that I had been utterly swept away by its words and rhythm, I was reminded of van der Leeuw’s words on the poet and poetry. I had experienced the fixed power of poetry that van der Leeuw spoke about. Because of this, I desire to introduce more poetry into my life, especially the Psalms. The poet, according to van der Leeuw, receives his song from God and sings back to God. I cannot think of or imagine a more fitting example of this description of a poet than the poet-king of ancient Israel, David.

beauty of the trees in winter

    The drive home for Christmas break was lined with trees that looked dead. This, aside from the bone-chilling cold, is one of my least favorite things about weather. I have never thought that trees in winter were beautiful unless covered in a layer of snow. When driving past the trees, somewhat lamenting their lack of foliage, I was wondering if some people consider trees in winter (without the snow) to be beautiful. I unconsciously challenged myself to be one of those people, to find something about it that I thought to be beautiful.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to come up with an answer. Their beauty is in their strength and endurance. These trees, that appear dead, are indeed alive. They are equipped to last through the harsh winter season, enrobed in strength for longsuffering by the Almighty. Once I viewed them this way, I started to perceive the trees as pillars of strength, in possession of beauty and worthy of my respect and admiration. I expect this enlightening experience in the car will likely prompt me to continue challenging myself to have fresh eyes and look for the beauty in things I usually don’t notice or consider to be lovely.

Perception

    Today while painting with friends I noticed that the paint color looked different the longer and more closely I looked at. I was painting with a light gray and light yellow. After looking at the paint so long, I started to perceive the yellow and gray as closer to white. I was so convinced that my perception was reality that I asked my roommate when she walked in “does this even look yellow to you?” Surprised by my question, she responded “yeah, it definitely looks yellow.” Because of this, I began to think about how often when we are close to things (physically, emotionally, ect.) it changes our perception of them. We no longer see the thing we are close to objectively and as it truly is.

    This realization caused me to wonder about how our proximity to and time spent with various things or people often affects our view of it’s beauty.  Often I find that when I find something beautiful, like a painting for example, and introduce it into my daily life (i.e. putting it in my room), I am no longer enraptured by it as I once was. Even upon intentionally pausing to look at it and admire it, I do not get that same feeling as I did upon first glance. Somehow, because it’s become a part of my everyday, some of it’s charm has faded and cannot be recaptured.     I begin to take it’s beauty for granted.

    Conversely, I find the opposite is true with close friendships. The more time I spend with a close friend and the closer we become in proximity, the more beautiful they and their friendship become to me. Despite the knowledge of the yucky, imperfect things I come to know about them (their faults, mistakes, tendencies) somehow I always find them more beautiful. Being open and fully known, with nothing hidden or withheld,  is such a powerful and beautiful thing. I pondered why it is that I view friends as more beautiful when I know them in all their weakness as well as their strengths, and it’s not the shortcomings and mistakes that I perceive as beautiful. No, the beauty is in their story, in their trust, and in the great hope of redemption available to each one, no matter their story.

Search for Beauty

I remember the first day of class very vividly.  I can remember my anxiousness and my fragility.  Like the feeling of packing the day before you embark on a journey that you know is going to take you somewhere you've never been before.  I remember how alone I felt opening the door to my new apartment before the semester started.  Reality had sunk in.  I had left behind everything that was familiar to me, everything I knew, my job, my friends, for something unknown.  And for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I had to do this, I just knew that that was what I was going to do.  I don't think my experience was unique in any way.  I think we all have moments when we recklessly leave safety behind because whatever safety was wasn't cutting it.  It's a pretty simple concept.  It could just be called "going out on a limb".  But what isn't simple, is getting there.  Stepping out onto that limb.  This is what I realized on the first day of class.  Like I said, I couldn't for the life of me remember why I had decided to go back to school, or pick philosophy for a major.  There was no rational answer in my head.  And then Kip walked in, and without saying anything, wrote, "What is beauty?" on the board.  And then all the sudden this sense of relief and joy sunk in.  I remember having a powerful aesthetic experience.  That "aha" moment that almost made me laugh out loud.  I remember saying to myself, "oh, that's why I'm here".  It was just my search for beauty that had gotten me here.  I remember looking back on all the things I'd done to get where I was and felt like the hard part was over.  The unknown wasn't scary anymore, it was magical and ready to be explored. 

Body of Art - Maggie McBrady

Body of Art - Phaidon Editors
Outside Reading
Maggie McBrady

     Body of Art is a collection of art pieces filled with pieces of art that explain what it is like to be human.  My personal theory or art is that art can be used to convey a message.  The message Body of Art is trying to convey is the uniqueness of the human experience.  An article on the book says that the one uniting factor of the human experience is that we all have bodies.  To capture the human experience the Body of Art is filled with different depictions of bodies.  The inspiration for the book came from the lacking of representing how the human body has changed over time and how it has become the "canvas on which and through artists talk about the human experience".
     I see beauty in the Body of Art not only in the art work within its pages but in its message.  The Body of Art is uniting all people through depictions of all different bodies.  All people are represented within its pages and can relate to the human experience.  In a way I am stunned that this idea hasn't been thought of till now because it seems so simple.

Art as Simulation - Maggie McBrady

Art as Simulation - Jean Baudrillard
Assigned Reading
Maggie McBrady

"We have finished with the end of representation, then, with the end of aesthetics, with the end of the image itself in the superficial virtuality of the screens."

     Baudrillard is criticizing the direction art is taking by comparing it the the current human desire for the "hyperreal".  The hyperreal is when images become more real than the actual objects they represent.  For example, an explosion in an action movie seems more real, hyperreal, than an explosion in real life.  We have become so used to the explosion we are presented with in movies that we would not be impressed if we saw one happen in front of us.  The explosion we see in the movies is the simulacrum.  The simulacrum is the substitution of the real object for what we desire in the hyperreal world.

     I cannot tell if Baudrillard fears what is coming for art or if he is simply stating what he thinks will happen without emotion.  According to Baudrillard artists will cease to serve a purpose because the art they produce won't produce an aesthetic pleasure because we will become desensitized to it and desire the hyperreal.  We will no longer look to art to fulfill a greater meaning because all that is left will be images.  Baudrillard cites Andy Warhol as evidence that this is already happening.  Warhol's famous Campbell's can is just the presentation of an image yet it was well received.  The cans don't produce an aesthetic pleasure but are simply there.
     I'm not sure I completely agree with Baudrillard.  I think, like all things in life, we are in a phase of art.  Modern art is seen as hip and so it is payed great admiration.  But once we grow tired of a canvas being painted with a single blue strip we will seek out aesthetic art.

Reliability - Maggie McBrady

In Class Discussion on Reliability

Student Chosen Topic

Maggie McBrady

     In my notes I have that art doesn't put forth a purpose like most objects in our lives.  So if art doesn't have a purpose why do we utilize it so often and place such large value in it?  The answer as we discussed in class comes from arts ability to change our way of thinking.  Reliability emphasizes the importance we place on an objects purpose.  The shoes above are only shoes if they serve their purpose.  When the shoes fail to serve their purpose they are no longer shoes because they no longer have their reliability.  However, if we paint the shoes then they cannot serve a function because they reside in a two dimensional painting.  They only represent the reliability they would have served in the real world.  The purpose of art then becomes to show the reliability we place on objects.  By looking at a painting of shoes we can be told a story about their owner.  If the shoes are heavily worn then they might be the only pair the owner has, if the shoes are covered in mud then the owner must work in the fields, in contrast if the shoes are clean and well kept then the owner probably has multiple pairs and doesn't have to do strenuous labor.  Art presents objects not for the purpose they serve but for the meanings they hold.  Art skews reliability into telling a story.

Art as Communicable Pleasure - Maggie McBrady

Art as Communicable Pleasure - Immanuel Kant
Assigned Reading
Maggie McBrady

"There is no science of the beautiful, but only a Critique"

     While writing my research paper on feminist art I came across an article that said feminist artists try to breakdown conceptions of fine art by not following fine arts "rules".  A few of the rules mentioned were not using crafts in fine art and fine art being the work of a lone genius.  I was initially confused and thought "Shouldn't art just be art not matter what form it comes in?".

    Kant and I are in agreement.  In the section of Fine Art Kant writes that "There is no science of the beautiful, but only a Critique".  If science were involved then there would be requirements and steps that needed to be taken to prove beauty.  Beauty would fail to remain a "judgement of taste".  If we ascribe rules to what is beautiful we are restricting beauty.  Kant defines an object as beautiful if it pleases apart from all interest; if you can look at an object and appreciate it for what is being presented to you.

     A second definition Kant offers is agreeable art.  He defines agreeable art as those that have "mere enjoyment for their object".  The examples he offers are hosting a dinner party where the guest sit around the dinner table in "unrestrained and sprightly conversation".  I think agreeable art shouldn't be a type of art but an attribute that art can have.  If looking at a piece by Picasso gives you the same giddy feeling then agreeable art should be an element of it.

     For if the purpose of art is to escape into the wonder of beauty happiness or gaiety as Kant mentions should be a welcomed element in all arts.

Holy Words - Maggie McBrady

Holy Words - Van der Leeuw
Assigned Reading
Maggie McBrady

"The beauty of words does not reside in their meaning, but in their rhythm, in their meter."

   A common saying I have heard and used many times is "It isn't what you say but how you say it". Van der Leeuw explains this common saying through the importance that humans place on formulas.  Rhythm and meter, are among the easiest of formulas for us to understand and implement in our lives.  Van der Leeuw explains that the only time something becomes alive for us is when we have found a formula for it.  So since rhythm and meter present obtainable formulas we latch on to them and ascribe a large amount of meaning to them instead of the individual words.
    To connect this to modern life I though about music.  Dubstep and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) rely heavily on strong varying rhythms and meter.  When Dubstep and EDM first began developing many people didn't understand the point, there were hardly any words just a bunch of sounds and beats.  They were both initially dismissed.  But the quickly built up a strong following and have established themselves as music genres.  I don't think Van der Leeuw would have been surprised.

"Rhythm compels the movement of the soul, even the soul of the Gods..."

a culinary dance

I love to cook. As with most anything, cooking is a much richer, more joyful experience when shared with ones you love. My most cherished memories at CNU to date are cooking with friends; I love the collaboration of it.

    One of my favorite memories came with the outrageous amount of snow we got last semester and the cancelling of classes. A house of boys that I befriended about two blocks away did not have a working heating system when the snow and freezing temperatures came, so decided to get snowed in at the house I lived in. We were happy to have them. They brought their groceries in and, as dinnertime was approaching, we took inventory of our collective items to see what we could come up with. Chili. Two or three of us undertook the task as the less culinarily inclined engaged us with their conversation. We went round and round sharing things that nobody in the room would have previously known about us; going on a tangent every now and then returning to the game. Music was played and the cooking - and dancing - began. Cooking together often resulted in overly spicy food, as one friend in particular would get so swept up in the music, dance, and joy of the moment that he’d get carried away with the cayenne. But it was always a good meal especially, maybe entirely, because it was shared.

When reflecting on these wonderful memories the other day, it struck me how cooking is so much like a dance as Van Der Leeuw describes it. He describes dance as a game, one that requires participation in order for it to be understood. This is certainly true in my experience of cooking with friends; it’s very much a game. Ingredients are tossed from one person to another, knowing glances  are exchanged, laughter ensues. The meal we made was always dependent on the participation of the whole group. Each brought what they had to share, and something grander was created from our collective resources than we would have come up with on our own. In step with Van Der Leeuw’s description, this culinary dance was not a performance. Rather, the participants got swept up in genuine dance, loosing from themselves the heaviness of being bound to earth. Worries and stress relating to our studies or other things seemed to slip right off our weary shoulders, leaving us free and burdenless in the joy of dance. It’s almost as though we danced our meals right onto the plate, every moment in preparing the meal beforehand was both so free and so deliberate. This reminds me of Van Der Leeuw speaking of dance as exploding and controlled passion. I wish to enjoy more meals prepared in such a beautiful, exhilarating manner.

Ancient Art and Ritual

Ancient Art and Ritual - Jane Harrison
Assigned Reading
Maggie McBrady

A point of Harrison's that I really enjoyed was the need for emotion to be present during ritual. Harrison says that ritual's desire to "recreate emotion not to reproduce an object".  As a member of the Greek community on campus ritual is something that is supposed to be held near and dear.  However I feel that most people often leave out the importance of emotion during ritual and have fallen into the trap of simple mimicry.  Without emotion ritual becomes a dull lifeless action of people just acting with no real concept of what they're actually doing.  I think mimicry is the greatest insult to ritual.

van der Leeuw on the Imago Dei

Van der Leeuw writes in his section, "The Image of God":

"The image of God, which most unequivocally attempts to approach the other and the mighty, is the clearest example of formation of images in general. As we have seen, the primitive artist is intensely interested in what he represents, and this interest is neither purely sentimental (romantic), nor purely visual (aesthetic); his interest is, rather, conveyed by his entire personality, directing itself toward the entire being of what is represented"(162).

Debates of iconoclasm or representation of God aside, which is what van der Leeuw discusses later in this section, I was just particularly struck by this paragraph as a life vision of an artist or a seeker of beauty. We are to be the primitive artist, intensely interested in what God represents. We are to allow our entire personalities, our entire essences of being, to be about understanding, dwelling in, and seeking the face of God and the beauty which He is.

Redemption in the Sunflower

I used to hate sunflowers.

I lived in Kansas for three years, and I can unequivocally say that they were the worst three years of my life to date. I attended a school full of terrible human beings, experienced crippling loneliness, and had to learn how to stand up for my older brother as he was bullied by his classmates. We were 10 and 11 years old, respectively.

The state of Kansas is obsessed with sunflowers. Enter any mall in Kansas and you can be sure that there is an entire store in the mall entirely dedicated to sunflowers depicted in a multitude of ways. The sunflower is the Kansas state flower, and I hated Kansas so much that I used to find sunflowers hideous. I had never truly found them particularly appealing or beautiful before in the first place, but the negative experiences made me find them particularly disgusting.

The first time I ever found sunflowers beautiful, I experienced abject wonder at them. We were driving as a family through the mountains of Colorado, and we drove by an entire field of sunflowers that has just managed to grow wildly and communally on their own, with no rhythm or reason to their growth. There appeared to be a small infinity in that field of sunflowers, and I remember feeling breathless just looking at them.

Now, somehow, sunflowers have turned into my favorite flower. I love how gigantically joyful they are in color and size. I love that they are lovers of the light and turn their faces upward towards their Creator, setting an example for us humans. Now, I buy sunflowers at the grocery store every chance I get. 

Musical Language

Maggie McBrady
Musical Language Podcast
Assigned Topic

This podcast was very interesting for me.  There are many times when I have heard musical sounds and thought I heard words in simple sounds or have turned a simple repetitive beat into a complex tune inside my head after listening to it over and over again.  The crosswalk from main campus to east campus are constantly beeping and saying "wait".  All year when I wait at the crosswalk this beat gets stuck in my head and I find myself joining along and turning a simple beep "wait" rhythm into this elaborate piece inside me head.  In high school I remember learning about Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and how it caused the audience members to riot.  The podcast explained that since humans are patterning searching animals the brains of the audience members were working on overdrive to find a pattern in a piece that had no pattern.  Since the neurons couldn't find a pattern they began releasing large amounts of dopamine which caused the audience members to fall into a brief schizophrenic episode which caused their rioting.

Leave Home (Steal Like an Artist 3/3)

At the beginning of Steal's chapter entitled "Leave Home," Jonah Lehrer is quoted, saying:

"Distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything"(93).

Kleon elaborates on this concept in agreement after:

"Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder"(94).

I am in strong agreement with this, comparing my artwork pre-college to during-college. I honestly thought that I would never be able to leave Northern Virginia, having gotten emotionally attached to it over the past six years of life residing in one constant place, but when I moved to Newport News and started to experience expanded ideas on literature, art, and faith through my community and through my studies as an art major, my artwork started improving. It improved on a technical level, surely - but the greatest curve of improvement I noticed was that my art began to look more like something that I, Ellie, would create. My friends started remarking on how very "me" my artwork was, and how it was beginning to appear distinctive from the rest of the world's art. I strongly encourage any artist of any kind to leave, simply for the purpose of their art becoming more "them" than it was previously.

Use Your Hands - a Crossover of Literatures

I found a great connection between Steal Like an Artist and Van der Leeuw's Sacred and Profane Beauty. Kleon believes that there must be a ritual element to making good art, saying:

"You need to find a way to bring your body into your work. Our nerves aren't a one-way street - our bodies can tell our brains as much as our brains tell our bodies. You know that phrase, 'going through the motions'? That's what's so great about creative work: If we just start going through the motions, if we strum a guitar, or start kneading clay, the motion kickstarts our brain into thinking"(54).

Likewise, van der Leeuw argues that it is the participation in the ritual that brings forth art, and that this happens naturally, even when it isn't necessarily desired. In his section entitled "The Work Song," he speaks of words as rhythm adding new meaning and force to whatever work is being done, saying, "words exert a force...the words generate a certain power which is fixed, controlled, and concentrated by the rhythm"(115). 

These two literatures provide an interesting synthesis: that motion exerts a force on creativity, and that creativity likewise exerts a force on work and brings it new vigor. Thus, work and creative thought are in a positive, symbiotic relationship with one another. 

Start Copying (Steal Like an Artist 2/3)

Steal Like an Artist has a very profound message throughout the whole book that unintentionally points to our humanity in light of a Creator, essentially saying that all art is stealing and copying because we as humans are unable to create anything new. The Bible affirms this in Ecclesiastes, saying, "There is nothing new under the sun." Steal investigates the beauty and the peace of such a phenomenon. 

To elaborate further on this, Kleon writes, "A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we're incapable of making perfect copies. Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives. That is how we evolve"(41).

I love this paradox! I love how we are unable to achieve perfect originality because only the Creator is perfectly original, but since He has created each human uniquely, our creations will never be perfect replicas or copies, but rather they will be echoes and reflections. They will always shout of a Creator, but they will never speak of Him as boring.

Make Things, Know Thyself (Steal Like an Artist 1/3)

Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist speaks on beginning a work of art, or the continuous, capital-w Work of creating art:

"You might be scared to start. That's natural. There's this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It's called 'imposter syndrome.'

The clinical definition is a 'psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.' It means that you feel like a phony, like you're just winging it, that you really don't have any idea what you're doing.

Guess what: None of us do. Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they'll tell you the truth: They don't know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up and do their thing. Every day"(28).

This is a comforting realization to the artist, and I appreciate the encouragement to continue with creating every day despite feeling lost at times, but I would argue that there is always a purpose behind what we as artists do to create. I personally am able to internalize what I do as good; however, I do not justify it as my own. So I do not feel like a phony, but that is because I am creating unto the glory of the Creator. I know what purposeful motion my creation is contributing to; thus, it always has purpose, but I cannot claim it as my own accomplishment.

Art as Truth in Motion

In The Nature of Art Martin Heidegger says, "In the work of art the truth of an entity has set itself to work." I think this is in agreement to his other claim that all art is, in its essence, poetry. I believe that poetry is one of the most intentional art forms of all; everything about it matters. Visual appearance, word choice, meter, and rhythm all matter beyond the actual content or meaning of the poem. The poem is wholly devoted to its essence, to the message that it is burdened with. The nature of art is intended to be this way as well; it should be completely and intentionally devoted - in being so, setting itself to work - to not only convey, but to encapsulate and become the truth it has been burdened with.

Sprinting and Skirt-ing

There are few things I love to wear more than knee-length skirts. Despite the fact that, although they are making a comeback, they will perhaps never be as attractive as a shorter skirt would be, I continue to wear them because there's nothing quite like the feeling of running whilst wearing a knee-length skirt. 

For those unaware, skirt-wearing is a very precarious business. Despite how good they look on an individual, said individual is automatically filled with fear in every instance of a windy day or a walk up stairs. A skirt wearer is always bound in motion by the length of her skirt; to run would be simply out of the question. 

But does pursuit of attractiveness always have to include an element of risk? Certainly not! Knee-length skirts are the solution. One can enjoy the full extent of human motion with a new element of motion of the skirt. One no longer fears the skirt's motion, but is able to fully embrace it as a complement to one's human motion. I can take the steps two at a time, dance and twirl through outdoor breezes, and burst into a sprint when necessary in complete confidence. Thus I beseech you, fellow skirt-wearers: to enjoy the aesthetic experience of skirt-wearing to its fullest extent, one must opt for the knee-length skirt.

Coffee (part 1)

Coffee breaks down the walls between cultures.  It transcends religious, political, and moral differences.  It provides a place where science and art can dwell together without division, coffee is multi-faceted and bares glimpses of the wholly other.  In all directions coffee almost seems endless, from the beginning of its development as a dream and desire in a person to the seed in the ground and cultivation of the cherry, to the endless happenings that come to being over a cup of joe.  Coffee is beautiful.  It brings together all things of the world, it provides income for entire countries.  Coffee is like very distant concentric circles that seem to never cross except in those happenings where everything is brought to present.

Beauty is exhausting and rejuvenating

"Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world that I can't take it, it feels like my heart is going to cave in."  -From American Beauty. Here I sit on a subway traveling from the east side of central park in Manhattan over to Brooklyn.  People coming and going at each stop for the New Yorker, this is a par of the rhythm of everyday life, but for me an outsider, which in itself is a phenomenon worth studying, I am overwhelmed.  I am overwhelmed, because at this present time I am hearing stories of a close friend, one I consider to be like a brother, that I had never heard that go deep into his past and soul.  I am opened up to a world beyond my self and that is a beautiful phenomenon, to sit and listen to someone else, listen and be, for someone else it is an annihilation of ones ego seeing the world beyond, you!  And almost in the same moment that this new world is opened to me, when my walls of pride are dropped it hits me like a kick to the chest, "What about them?"  All the people on and off the subway walking past me "what about them" there is so much life, beauty, everywhere all around it brings me to my knees in awe and reverence, it is exhausting and rejuvenating.

Childlike Wonder

As I am a member of an a cappella group on campus, each year we get the opportunity to perform as a group at City Center's Hollydazzle, which is a Christmas festival for the whole Newport News community. This in and of itself amazes me, since I am from Northern Virginia and such festivals are not a commonplace thing in the NoVA community.

My a cappella group shared a cleared-out store space to use as a greenroom in between performances.  We shared this space with CNU's other a cappella groups that were performing, but also the other performers hired for Hollydazzle. Among these were a small group of people who dressed in bright, shiny costumes and walked around City Center on stilts. One time when I was entering the greenroom during our time there, one of the stilt-walkers was exiting, and as I walked into the store I passed through a pair of toddlers, who stared agape at the woman on stilts as if they had never seen anything like it before. It's likely that they simply hadn't seen anything like it before. They both were stopped in their tracks, toys in hand, amazed and fixated on the stilt-walker as if nothing else mattered in all of Hollydazzle. 

These two little ones greatly inspired me in their abject wonder - I want to live in this way! Pinterest quotes say "May we never lose our wonder," but in the flowery language the meaning of wonder gets lost. The small folks of Hollydazzle that day helped me redefine it: to be completely fixated, to stand in awe, to allow the newness of something to wash over me and overwhelm me to the point of sheer captivation.

Search for Beauty homework: podcast on music (11/2)

"Why does music cause us to feel deeply?" asks the podcast in its beginning.

According to one of the experts on sound interviewed in the podcast, sound travels to the ear and "touches" the brain by rattling tiny bones, which bend like trees in the wind, which then touch hairs that set off electrical impulses, which then fire in patterns that either make sense or do not make sense in our brains. If the electrical impulses are disorderly, unfamiliar, and not in a pattern, it's known as dissonant. Patterned, comfortable/comforting, and familiar impulses are consonant. 

As someone who is deeply moved by musical nuances, I am very curious as to how the concepts of comfortable and uncomfortable come to pass in the electrical impulses that we literally are feeling as we listen to music. How synonymous, in this, are what is considered comfortable and what is considered familiar? Dissonance and consonance seem like such simple concepts, but in reality, comfort and discomfort must be entirely subjective concepts in music as they are in all other aspects of life. For example, although I love music currently, there was a time in my life where certain kinds of music - specifically, music that sounded too "empty" or "dead" - would make me feel exceedingly anxious. I experienced such deep discomfort with music seeming "dead" in my mind that I listened solely to the radio for the next few months, because the radio hosts speaking in between each song put my mind at ease. This discomfort wasn't caused by scientific dissonance, it was caused by some other malfunction in my brain at the time. It's interesting how our experiences affect our perceptions of beauty.

I wonder if, knowing that some pitches provide comfort and others do not, that to feel something deeply when listening to it for the first time with no prior emotional connection there must be some harmony of consonance and dissonance within the song - some unfamiliar coupled with the familiar, some uncomfortable paired with the comfortable - that gives a new song mysterious emotional connection.

The beauty of the weeping willow

When I was home in Washington, D.C. over Thanksgiving break, as my mom and I drove over a bridge on the Potomac River,  I saw a weeping willow tree down below. I guess I’ve never seen a weeping willow from far away before, I was so struck by it and captivated by it’s beauty. At first glance it didn’t even quite seem real, the way it’s branches and leaves cascaded down looked more like an impressionistic painting than any weeping willow I had seen. I was surprised by the strong desire and urgency with which I felt that I had to stop the car. This beauty was so enthralling that I became angered by how quickly our car was going, knowing that in a moment or two it would be out of view. Unfortunately for me, though perhaps fortunate for all the other drivers on the bridge,  my mom was the one behind the wheel.

    “Mom!! Do you see that weeping willow?!” I exclaimed as she looked over at it. “Isn’t it so beautiful?!! Ahh, I wish we could stop the car so we could get out and just look at it for awhile!” I said this hoping that somehow she might catch the underlying message I was trying to stealthily get across: stop the car, I need to get out and appreciate this. She didn’t. “Oh yeah, that’s pretty.” I was dissatisfied and disappointed with her response. Was she not looking at the same thing I was looking at? Maybe she didn’t really see it, since she did have an eye on the road. So I gave up trying to be sneaky and just straight out asked if we could please stop the car and look at this tree, if only for a moment. She said no, since we were running slightly behind and needed to get to the Thanksgiving feast we were expected at in Virginia. The pain I felt as I car kept speeding past was nearly physical. My eyes followed the tree until it was entirely out of sight.

    Now that I was released and not as enraptured as it was no longer before my eyes, I became puzzled by my intense reaction (as I’m sure my mom was as well). I was reminded of something I had read or heard in class, I believe C.S. Lewis authored it, about how simply seeing a beautiful thing is not satisfying enough for us. We desire more, we seek unity with the beautiful. This is indeed true of my experience. While I so desired to stop and gaze upon the willow tree, I had an even deeper desire to physically climb down to where it was and touch its leaves, climb up in it’s branches, be hidden by it. Maybe I’ll go  there someday and do just that.

Kalos Kai Agathos - Maggie McBrady

Student Chosen Topic

In class we discussed kalos kai agathos (KKA) meaning the good and the beautiful, the ultimate form.  KKA struck a chord with me, I really began to think: can something be beautiful if it is not good and what exactly do I define as good?  Throughout the semester KKA has stuck with me and remained in the back of my mind. Now at the semester's end I think I have an answer to my questions.  Achieving the good and the beautiful are one in the same.  I don't think something can be beautiful without being good and cannot be good without being beautiful.  Beauty doesn't necessarily draw its value from an object's physical presence but, in my opinion, from the intent that produced it. An object has to be good in its nature to obtain the highest evaluation of beauty.  To me good is the pure of heart.  Good does not have ulterior motives it just is.  In being good beauty is achieved and good should always be able to be seen in true beauty.

Beautiful Color

My favorite thing to do over the past semester has been when I can make time to go out on the water and be on my kayak.  I make time and look forward to when I will be able to do it.  In the same way we feel "the call" to create, I feel the call to do.  In Ancient Art and Ritual Harrison talks about "dramenon", or "drama" as something that involves doing.  It's not good enough to just think about our beautiful experiences, we have to re-create them.  In this class we have focused on "works of art".  We all presented on an art "object".  But is there an element of artistic creation in doing things that neither produce an object, or are communicated and shared in any way?  I enjoy creating moments where I can just go out and enjoy the passing of time.  To find peace in knowing that I completed whatever my duties were and now I can settle in to something else.  My idea of what it means to enjoy myself has changed and evolved over time.  It's not always that easy to know what it is that you truly enjoy.  Or to know if your spending your time in the way that is most meaningful for yourself and the people around you.  And I'm sure this is something that evolves with time.  However I see it as a sort of work of art in itself.
Anyway I named this blog "beautiful color", and meant to talk about how the colors of the sky as the day moves along have been something special to me this semester.  Somewhere I got off track with that idea.  Maybe my ultimate thought was that it seems like we desire to recreate what we believe to be good.  And we can only hope that what we believe is good will change into something better.

Initial reflection on ritual participation verus art as presentation/performance

There is a very interesting relationship between participating in the ritual and experiencing the ritual as a spectator. To be a part of the ritual is know it very deeply. This is something that is essential for life.  To truly participate in a ritual you believe that what your doing is something essential. This is what you've decided to cling on to. The thing that you believe to be important. I have to imagine that during a drought, something that has a immediate effect on whether you are going to live or die is going to feel very real and pure. A very significant and beautiful thing to be doing. Life is so different though from what used to happen in primitive time which makes this paper so difficult to write. When I'm writing in the context of primitive man it seems I can't just jump to current times and the analogy is still solid.

Anyway. To watch or experience a ritual is to enjoy yourself in the hopes that something truly incredible like a spiritual or carnal or true and beautiful or miraculous happens. This is the hope of experiencing a ritual. It is very rare. But they are putting the ingredients together and hoping that a greater force steppes in. To participate is to come back to something more familiar. Something that does not need to have a miraculous effect to be beautiful. It is already beautiful because you have been there a million times before.  You already know it is there and know how to get there.

My first reflection

Blog idea - What is beauty?  My entire life I never thought to try and describe what beauty is to me.  And when this was asked of me, the words were elusive.  I felt like whatever I wrote down was going to be an insult to the experience of beauty.   Everyone in the class starting writing things down and I kept staring at my blank page.  Time was running out and at the last second all I could come up with was “something that awakens you”.  Which of course was a letdown.  Is this striving to come closer to an adequate expression of our experiences with beauty the foundation of art?

Music Podcast Homework - Initial reaction and questions

Our brains seek to organize sounds Ina way that is familiar to us. When a new pattern is presented a chemical reaction occurs that can overwhelm and confuse us to a point of being crazy. However our brains can eventually make sense of new sounds or patterns of sound which can then become pleasing to us.

What does this tell us about learning? Does this tell us to be open to new things always? Is new better or worse or neither. How can we tell if something is bad?

I'm thinking about how we fear what we don't know.  Is this telling us to not fear the unknown?

Exam week and Communitas

Communitas- the spirit of community; all are equal.  What a phenomenon that this occurs without multiple years of time served to achieve this "spirit of community".  This is because communitas does not come from a structured striving or formula of man to create this eternal and now supernatural thing, it's Beauty.  Beauty brings about communitas, particularly in suffering.  Take for instance the 1985 song "We are the world" USA for Africa a moment of communitas no doubt centered around the beauty that comes in music as well as the beauty in the alleviation of suffering, compassion.  Exam week brings, unlike most weeks of the semester, communitas for all people are equally suffering and empathetic of where one another is at.  It brings about a never suspected nearness to classmates, and in this coming together there is Beauty the atmosphere of the library and other knooks and crannies take on new shape and form they, come to life, they are seen, they are beautiful.

Beauty in Suffering (part 2)

With my face pressed firmly to my hands and my elbows acting as pillars that hold up this weighty house of anxiety I close my eyes wandering and wondering if I will make it through this week of school.  A still small voice brings light into the shadowy thoughts giving my head enough strength to lift itself off those pillars that were about to shatter.  As I look up, that same light peels back the crusty scales from my eyes, and I begin to see, to see others struggling, suffering as I am.  I thought for a moment, "why did this glimmer of hope reveal to me the suffering of others?"  All at once my mind bones and body were being revived, but "it couldn't be because I now see others suffering", I thought.  Then I realized "it", whatever it was, God?...Was reminding me that I was not alone not just because others are also suffering, but "it is with me".  Whatever, it may be, it brought me to a place of comfort, of peace, and here is what I noticed as beautiful, though I was drowning in work, this peace brought me to present.  I no longer was traveling down hypothetical trails that came from a feeling of defeat because of school, but I was radiating with hope, though not very sure what it was hope in.  In this presence a beautiful compassion washed over me like a cool dip in a spring on a hot summary day, and I came beside myself seeking the alleviation of others suffering.  All that was going on in that moment of defeat had left I was victorious (though no actual further studying or home work was accomplished) I felt free alive because my eyes were opened I could see others as they were and became able to come where they were in their suffering.  What is beautiful?  Maybe when one's eyes are opened to see past their own selves.  When people seek to alleviate suffering of another even at the expense of their own selves.

Beauty as Persevering in the Good

“To give this form, however, to the product of fine art, taste is merely required.  By this the artist, having practiced and corrected his taste by a variety of examples from nature or art, controls his work and, after many, and often laborious, attempts to satisfy taste, finds the form which commends itself to him.  Hence this form is not, as it were, a matter of inspiration, or of a free swing of the mental powers, but rather of a slow and even painful process of improvement, directed to making the form adequate to his thought without prejudice to the freedom in the play of those powers” (Kant)

I like this because it informs us that beauty is not just a "free swing of the mental powers", it is something that you not only have to work for, but have to be able to recognize when you make mistakes so that you can learn from them.  Beauty is never finished you have to keep working at it.  I remember sitting in my kayak trying to think of an art object that I could present to the class, but all the things that I felt like were most beautiful to me were the things that took time.  The relationships you build with friends and family.  The personal struggles and mistakes, the bad habits and the ruts we put ourselves in and the hard work and arduous journey it takes to overcome this stuff.  Patrick Quinn, in a presentation on musical narrative describes a man who is all alone, crying in his apartment, “screaming against the rut he’s put himself in”.  We all have these experiences in our life that are powerful, memorable.  Experiences that we don’t want to forget because they were moments of understanding that allowed us to move on and continue our search for beauty.  In a way, these ruts we put ourselves in inform us of the need to continue our search for beauty.  We can all relate to this idea of putting ourselves in a rut.  The beautiful thing about a rut, is that you have to open yourself up to change if you want to get out.  You have to seek for answers and re-examine your values.  You have to persevere in the good.

"The Call"

I just wanted to share a quote with you all from a guy named David James Duncan which I felt like relate  to a lot of the things we are talking about in class. 

"If we feel the Unspeakable and then try to speak of what we felt, we sound like fools.  But if we feel the Unspeakable and don't speak, we feel like ingrates.  I'm inclined toward gratitude.  So. foolishly, I speak."

This a from a short story call "The Invisible Thread" published in Sun Magazine.

The importance of the artists intentions in beautiful creation

When the artist’s intentions are aimed at the discovery of what is ultimately good, or true, and there is an openness to change, and a receptiveness to learning.  This is what for me makes something beautiful.  In a presentation by Claire Rielley on the art in the album Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd, she touched on how the album was meant to reach out to those who feel overwhelmed with the enormity of life, and battle dark feelings of sorrow, sadness and confusion.  Claire referenced Leo Tolstoy’s belief that art is “communication of feeling”.  The band was seeking to communicate these pure emotions of darkness in the hopes that people might gain some understanding of their own darkness by listening and relating to the emotions in the album.  This communication of feeling is especially powerful in art and seems to be something essential for human life.  Art seems to be able to reach and inspire people when they feel like other forms of communication don’t encompass how they feel.  Perhaps this is because art is the attempt to see deeper, and share this vision of beauty that we can’t always tap into.  This “call” to recreate and communicate our feelings, even when we know it can’t possibly be done, but must try anyway, has been a recurring theme in the group discussions about beauty and art.

Art as Bueatuful Motion - Van Der Leeuw

The way that I have always related to and understood the world in a way that felt most natural for me through movement.  It is not a new idea that humans have a desire to understand the natural world.  Just as the scientist, poet, philosopher, bee keeper, and bird watcher enjoy learning about the natural world, so does the wire-walker, gymnast, rock-climber, and tennis player.  They gain understanding of the world through their body.  A wire-walker is communing directly with the laws of nature as they step out onto the line. And through their efforts to perfect their craft, one gains a broader, intuitive capability to understand the nature of reality itself.  Van der Leeuw talks about the body as being the oldest instrument of all.  To seek to fully understand the body by falling into a mental state that is completely void of time and memory opens up a world that for some reason feels very natural.  Just as the eagle doesn't hesitate as it swoops down to grab a fish, practicing body movement is an attempt to reach that same sate of mind which just reacts in the most natural way to the situation.  So, just as we attempt to make sense of the world with our minds through words, poems, logic and reason, we also make sense of it through movement, which is very creative in its own way.

Beauty in Nature - Assigned Reading of Kant

Kant writes bout how beauty in nature we recognize as art.  And beautiful art is a manifestation of nature.  I feel like when we create something, we are doing it because we are having a desire to express an understanding about something, something that feels real to us.  It is an expression of our understanding of the world.  This is why I think art is a manifestation of nature.  There are these little aesthetic experiences when nature decides to open itself up to us and show us a sliver of beauty.  And our recognition of these moments is what causes us to want to create art and relate these feelings because we all have them.  When I say nature I am not strictly talking about being in "nature".  Nature could mean a beautiful interaction you had with another person, or a certain happiness or connected feeling you experience at thanksgiving or some family gathering.  Athough I think this actually going our into nature can have an especially powerful effect because if there is anything that is a manifestation of reality it is in the natural flow and interconnectedness of the natural world which we are a part of.   I think it is powerful for people who have grown up in the more modern world which cuts us off from certain aspects of relating to the earth. 

 

 

Outside Reading #5- Luke Taylor

In the beginning of this chapter the brothers talk with Jacob (their father) about what to do. Jacob is opposed to them going back to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin, but finally makes up his mind and tells them to go. The second the arrive to Egypt Joseph immediately spots out Benjamin. I'm sure he is still feeling a lot of pain from what his brothers had originally done to him and seeing Benjamin probably made things so surreal for him. He tells his servants to prepare a meal for the brothers because he plans on eating with them for lunch.

As soon as the brothers arrived to Joseph's house they told the steward about the silver and how it was misplaced in their bag. How they did not have any intention of taking it and that they didn't deserved to be punished for it. Without hesitation the steward put their worries to rest and tells them to not be afraid. He then gives them good treatment in which they could relax, get cleaned up, and prepare them for their meal. As soon as Joseph entered into the room they presented gifts of forgiveness for the incident with the silver to him and bowed down. Joseph didn't pay any attention the gifts though, all he did was ask them more about their father (his father), Jacob.

After hearing that Jacob was still alive and doing well, Joseph then looked to Benjamin. Just to be sure, he asked the brothers if this was their youngest brother. When it was confirmed he told Benjamin that he has been blessed by God. After just speaking to him Joseph was overcome by his emotions and quickly left the area and wept in his private room. Finally we see what has been held inside of Joseph's heart for so long. I think when he looks at Benjamin he sees a lot of himself back when he brothers first sold him. A young guy, blessed by God, very timid. I think he sees himself for a second and immediately feels the pain of what he want through at Benjamin's age. I think at that moment Joseph was slowly becoming free from the pain he had held in his heart for so long from his brother's betrayal and started to hand it over to God.

After Joseph was able to compose himself he came back out to start the lunch with his brothers. Interestingly enough, Benjamin's servings of lunch were five times as much as anyone else's. Clearly Joseph is up to something by doing this so we'll just have to wait and see what exactly it is all about.

The biggest thing I take away from this chapter is focusing on how Joseph confronts his fears, his biggest sorrows. He is confronting his brothers and all of the pain that he took with him when they sold him away to Egypt. Clearly it isn't easy for Joseph, he had to go away to a private place in house to let all the tears out. I think it was a lot more than just that though. He was in that prison for so many years, his entire time at Egypt he was probably wondering what this moment would look like confronting his brothers and now he finally has the chance and I think it really takes him for a spin. Here's how he is able to face this fear though, because he gives it to God. He gives him the burden of that pain and because of that he is able to hold strong in the midst of his brothers. I admire him for facing those fears. So often in life we just run away from our fears, our deepest wounds that hurt us the most. We find the easiest way out and take it, but all were doing is putting those fears off until they find us later in life. I encourage myself and anyone else to really tackle those fears but importantly to give it to God. 1 Peter 5:7 says "Cast your anxieties on [me] because [I] care for you." so why not take that gift for what it is worth and give those fears to God? He truly is greater than anything we could ever face so always remember that and I challenge you to really look deep inside and ask yourself if you have confronted those fears? Have you trusted the Lord in that and given them to him? Really challenge yourself in that just like Joseph did. Seek the Lord in that, be real with yourself.

Outside Reading #4- Luke Taylor

In this chapter Jacob, Joseph's father, tells all of his sons (Joseph's brothers) to visit Egypt and try to bring back some food for the family. He sends all of his sons except for one... his youngest, Benjamin. When they arrived to Egypt they did not recognize Joseph. He is currently the Governor of Egypt... most likely the last thing they would have expected. They bowed down to him. What is so interesting about this is that this is exactly what Joseph's dreams were about in the very beginning of this story. He shares with his brothers that the interpretation of his dream was that they bowed down to him but they called him crazy and despised him for it.

Joseph clearly recognizes them but plays it off as though he does not. In fact, he treats them harshly. He exclaims that they are spies and in the midst of that he learns that they have a younger brother, Benjamin, and wants to see it for himself. What he does is holds one of the brothers in custody and tells the others that they must bring back the younger brother if he wishes to have a chance of setting their brother free. It all sounds so crazy but then again I can only imagine what Joseph is going through. It has been soooo many years since he has last seen his brothers. The ones that betrayed him and truly made him feel like he didn't matter. He probably still felt so much unresolved pain and was so surprised when he saw them. I think he held his brothers captive because he wanted more time with the Lord. I think he knew in his heart that he was ready to forgive his brothers but never expected the day to come and now that he faced it so unexpectedly he had to quickly figure out what exactly to do.

In the midst of all of this craziness the brothers start to feel the curse of their brother coming back to haunt them. They start to think all of this bad mojo is going on because of what they did to Joseph and that it is only right that they are finally being punished for it. When they returned to Canaan they realized that their was silver in their bags and were immediately frightened. They knew that this silver would truly make them look like the thieves they've been called out to be. Before they left Joseph has his servants sneak it into their bags. Why? we are yet to find out. Joseph is clearly putting some plan into motion but that is all still a mystery at this point. Closing this chapter up, Jacob tells his sons the sorrow he felt when Joseph was lost and the immense pain he felt for him. He tells his brothers they cannot take Benjamin because he doesn't want to go through that again. The oldest brother, Reuben, tells his father that if worse comes to worse he will give his life for his brother. Jacob puts his trust into Reuben and agrees.

The biggest thing I walk away with in this chapter is how important, yet so hard forgiveness can be. In Joseph's case, it is probably the hardest challenge he has faced since being sold into Egypt.. which is saying a lot. He has to look into the eyes of his brothers, the ones that turned their back on him and left him for dead, and find forgiveness? That is insane. After all he has gone through he faces yet another challenge. Joseph is not lead by a man's heart though, he is lead by the Lord and because of that he accepts this challenge. This is so encouraging to me. I know I have been wronged before, and will probably be wronged in the future. I know that you probably have to. What I encourage us to do is to look passed that and just surrender it to the Lord, exactly what Joseph did. Turn the other cheek and seek Christ's love just as Joseph did. That is a challenge I think we should all consider and push ourselves to.

Outside Reading #3- Luke Taylor

Chapter 41
Two full years had passed since Joseph had told the two men about their dreams... TWO MORE FULL YEARS of Joseph still being stuck in prison. Pharaoh had two dreams in which he knew he was worried about and wanted some type of interpretation of. He turned to his magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh turned to those things before he even considered God. I think we all do that a lot in our life. We know we might need something but before we turn to the only one that can really help us through it, God, we decide to try to take matters into our own hands and try to figure it out on our own. I encourage any of you to take a second and really think about that, is the Lord your rock?

Finally the cup bearer, after two very long years, remembers what Joseph had done for him and told the Pharaoh that he could interpret his dreams. Pharaoh seeks Joseph and asks him if he will be capable of interpreting the dreams that he is having. Joseph initially responds saying he cannot, he then follows up that response telling the Pharaoh that he may not be able to, but his God can. BOOM. How sweet is that? Once again, Joseph remains faithful in the Lord and gives him glory for ALL that he does/is going to do. I love that so much because it is such a great reminder that I am really nothing without the Lord, that everything that I do is all through him. Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." and that is such truth, that's why Joseph is able to interpret dreams. Remember to give the glory back to the one that gives you these things!

Joseph tells Pharaoh about his two dreams. They essentially mean that Egypt will have 7 good years of harvest followed with 7 terrible years. If the Pharaoh is not smart/sparing with the good 7 years then things will quickly fall apart and people will turn on him in the bad 7 years. Joseph explains how critical it is for the Pharaoh to take advantage of the first seven years of abundance and how important it will be to save the good harvest of that seven years. Now here is the coolest part. Pharaoh knows that God lives inside Joseph and because of that he desires to trust in that. He appoints Joseph to be in charge of his palace and that all people should be under him in power. Joseph was just a prisoner that the Pharaoh thought less than a toothpick of. Because Joseph put his trust in the Lord big things happened and the Lord rewarded him. WHAT. Seriously, if that isn't encouragement to want to stay faithful in the Lord and continue to run with him them I'm not really sure what is. Seek the Lord and your life will feel so much more whole- it is THAT simple. I love it.

Joseph was 30 years old when he was appointed this position. 13 years ago he was sold by his brothers and a good 10 of that or so he just spent in prison. Despite all of what he had gone through and how hard it was, he never turned his back on the Lord. The 7 years of good harvest passed and Joseph did exactly what the Lord told him in storing it all instead of letting any of it go to waste. The 7 bad years of harvest started and people started to get antsy and beg the Pharaoh for food, he pointed them in Joseph's direction. Just as planned, Joseph sold grain/crops to the people of Egypt. The famine got so bad; however, that people from all over the world started to make trips to Egypt for some food. That is where this chapter ends.

The biggest thing I think we should take away from this is how awesome it really is to get to see how Joseph handles all of the brutal situations in his life and somehow manages to find a way to give it to the Lord and remain in him. I may start to sound like a broken record but we have all been there when times have been hard. Our initial thought is we just want to give up but I encourage you to think of Joseph in that time. Really think about ALL the tough things he went through and remember his heart in those times... he gave it to the Lord. God loves us so much and always has our best interest in mind, even when it may not seem like it at times. If you pursue him then you are living a life worth living. Think about that and really ask yourself if you do find that time with the Lord every day, if you do all things going into it with the mindset that he is WITH you. Are you really living your life for the Lord or just saying you do. Think hard about that.

Outside Reading #2- Luke Taylor

In the start of chapter 40 Joseph has two new people join him in prison, a cup bearer and a chief baker. The bible says that they had been there for "quite some time" until things started to 'pick up'. Both men had a dream on the same night. Joseph tells the men that is he able to interpret the dreams but not because he is talented in himself but because the God that lives inside of him is capable. Joseph gives glory to the Lord. In all that we do good in, is it not a gift from God that we can do these things? It is. We are literally nothing without him and because Joseph gives him glory in ALL that he does, the Lord is there for him and gives him these things. In Psalms 37:4 it says "Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires or your heart." I encourage myself and any of you to remember that and hold onto it. If we just live our lives for a God that loves us SO much then he WILL gives us what we desire most in life. What a gift.

Continuing on, the cup bearer tells Joseph about his dream first. Joseph interprets his dream and ultimately tells him that it means that in three days he will be given a second chance and will do good with Pharaoh. The only thing Joseph asks of the cup bearer is tat he remembers him and tells Pharaoh about him and that he is an innocent man.

Now being as that the chief baker saw such favor in the cup bearer when Joseph interpreted his dream, he wasted no time and told Joseph his dream. Unlike the first one, there was a different interpretation. Joseph ultimately told the chief baker that in three days he will also be taken out of prison, but only to be killed.

Just as Joseph had interpreted everything occurred. Three days came and Pharaoh released both men. One, the cup bearer, was given his job back to him and the other, the chief baker, was killed. So Joseph must be sitting real pretty right now, he must be thinking the cup bearer will surely mention the Pharaoh to him and give him the chance that he deserves of freedom but this is not the case. The cup bearer forgot about Joseph. Put yourself in Joseph's shoes again really quick. He's been up and down and up and down and finally he sees a chance of possibly getting back up, getting out of that horrid prison. When all of the sudden the only reason he doesn't get to is because a man forgot about him. I'm sure Joseph is starting to really question the Lord in all of this and start to wonder why he is going through all of it. It has to be so hard but he still remains in the Lord and is faithful. Even though he doesn't deserve to be sitting at the bottom; if anything he deserves to be at the very top, he still trusts in the Lord and believes he is going through all of this for a reason. Whenever we are up against a wall and starting to question if the Lord is really even there for us I think we should try to remember the faith that Joseph had. A faith that was unconditional and true, That is something worth striving for in our lives.

That's all for chapter 40, I encourage any of you to continue to reach out to family, community, friends, myself, etc. if you have any questions about any of this or just want to talk to someone about this! 

Outside Reading #1- Luke Taylor

I have been reading through Genesis and deicide to write an analysis with that:

In Chapter 39 we are reminded that Joseph is sold to one of Pharaoh's officials, Potiphar, but what really stands out to me is the next line afterwards. "The Lord was WITH Joseph so that he prospered and lived in the house of the Egyptian master." Put yourself in Joseph's shoes for just a second, do you really think you would still have faith in the Lord after all you've gone through? If I'm honest with myself, after being kicked while I'm down that much I think I would really be struggling with that yet Joseph remained faithful in the Lord and as we see it rewards him in a sense. That alone encourages me so much. We go through some really tough times in life but we can always remain in God, we can always be sure that no matter how down and out we may go, he is ALWAYS with us.

Because God lived inside Joseph he seemed "different" than everyone around him. "His master saw that the Lord gave him success" and because of that he put him in charge of all his possessions. Just a second ago Joseph was just some slave that Potiphar could potentially care less about. But Joseph was so much different than just that. THE LORD LIVED INSIDE OF HIM and because of that Potiphar knew there was something about him that he wanted. We can dot his in our everyday lives. We can live our lives with Christ inside of us and people are going to notice that difference in the way we live- exactly how Potiphar saw that in Joseph. Really take a moment and think about that. Our influence amounts to so much when we live our lives for Christ. It will not always be easy but it is the most plentiful thing that will ever fill us up. I just encourage any of you (including myself) to continue to strive for that lifestyle because it can be a gateway to so many on a new life full of true, everlasting life.

Continuing on in this story, Joesph's life takes a turn for the worst. His life is literally like a roller coaster with SO many ups and downs. As he remained a good "servant" to Potiphar and continued to build his way up he gets knocked down for something he didn't even do. Potiphar's wife becomes very fond of Joseph and several times she tried to get him to sleep with her- every time Joseph turns her down and remains faithful to Potiphar as a servant, but more importantly to the Lord. One day when no one is around Joseph is completely set up. He still manages to turn her down again and gets away but in the process he leaves his cloak in her bedroom. She goes along with a story that Joseph raped her and left his cloak as evidence. Potiphar didn't even have to think about it, he immediately throws Joseph into prison. That has got to be so incredibly hard for Joseph. He gets knocked down by his brothers, picks himself back up and starts living a decent life again and then just like that, he gets knocked down to the bottom again. That is so similar to how our lives can be though, we are always going to feel on top of the world at one moment and then before we know it we can easily be thrown to the bottom and all we can do is sit there and wonder to ourselves what could have gone wrong. We get to that point where we just want to give up and throw in the towel. Hold on to that thought though because the story is far from over.

Joseph is in prison. He has every reason to give up, every reason to be angry with the Lord, every reason to weep away at his life. He is in prison for something he didn't even do, he remained honorable yet is being forced to pay the time. Even then, with all of that crap going on in his life, he remained faithful in the Lord and guess what? "THE LORD WAS WITH HIM." The Lord showed Joseph favor while he was in Prison so the guard in the prison saw something in Joseph and he knew he could trust him with whatever. He knew that he didn't have to pay close attention to him while in prison. "The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in WHATEVER he did." Uh, how great is our God? Seriously think about that one for a second. Despite ALL the knock downs that Joseph faced, despite the betrayals of the ones he loved, despite the hardship and false accusations, the man remains loyal and faithful to the Lord. I absolutely love that and look up to that so much. While on break we most definitely will be dealing with some tough things. Maybe it comes from old friend involved with drinking/smoking, maybe it's an old ex and things are tough in that situation because you know they could pull you away from the Lord, maybe it's your own family and times are tough when you're around them. Maybe it's some other stuff. Whatever it is, however hard it is, I just really encourage any of you to know that the Lord is WITH YOU. Just like he was with Joseph, he is with you. His gift to us is that we can call on him whenever we need/want to call on him. He was there for Joseph, he has been there for me, and I promise he will be there for you. Continue to pursue him and spend time with him over break, continue to remain faithful in him and be that light that so many saw inside of Joseph.