human things: independence and tragedy

Rigoberta Menchu won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize because she lived with her eyes open and then did something about it.

Sometimes, when we least expect it, we are given the freedom we've been waiting for.

i didn't realize how important it was to hear affirming words from people in authority over me. The turning point to my week--and probably to my semester--was my professor's "you are a good student" and "you're motivated," because i didn't think i was. Not truly in my bones i didn't. But now i know, and everything that was a struggle before--just stuff like studying and getting homework done--is so much easier now.

The other day i put my three herb-sprouted pots outside before the overnight rain. When i looked out the window after business of a day, the realization hit--there were only two in that cardboard on that rail. i ran down the deck stairs and to the ruins of basil-dirt.. the pot was intact, but i had no idea where the baby seeds were. i didn't hold back tears because i wasn't crying but i felt like i should. It was one of those moments where the depravity of the world, of accidental mishap that has life-quenching consequences, created a beautiful sorrow in me like tragedy in real life. I know it was just a few seeds, but doesn't everything feel that way that isn't how it Should be?

Rainy days make me a little bit tragic and a lot pensive. Sunny days make me joyful with a hint of longing. It seems that most people i talk to are affected by the weather in some pattern like that.

Days come and go and keep coming and going. There's an unknown number of them.

Adding to the list:
-the need to be affirmed
-tragedy
-mood changes based on weather
-finity of life

human things: creation

Some projects just pull from their hiding place, way back behind the extra dimension of canvas, screaming and longing and pining and wailing to come out, and you're the only one who knows. Those end up being the not-so-great ones because it is rare that they can come out with justice. (Lots of things are like that, i think, but here we are as fallen Man, right?)

Others come together like an impromptu meal, with the perfect herbs complementing the vibrant vegetable-colors and the little bit of unexpected extra that just makes it whole. These are usually more satisfying--it's easier to stop working and be done than it is on the childbirth kind.

Honesty is as important in art as it is in life. No matter how uncomfortable it is to admit that there is a shadow that shapes that particular contour, no matter what irrational force is keeping the brush from the deeper value, it is not True unless it is done--there is no condemnation if you make a mistake. Similarly, nobody is going to judge anyone for being a person; it's True, who you are, and the Master knew every piece and particle and smudge of you before He called you out of the canvas.

Painting and cooking and other creative things are using energy to synthesize matter, but really we're just using pieces that have already been created. Cool, huh?

Human Things addition:
-the need to create.

human things

A long time ago i started making a list of things that are common to all humans (and not animals)--trans-culture, -gender, -time, -geography--because i wanted to embrace the things that are integral to my being human, and de-priortitize things that are not. With the design to include every possible item, i started with the obvious:

• family/friends
• language
• relationships in general
• food preparation
• education
• rites of passage
• dwellings
• going to work and coming back
• caring for children
• exploring one's environs
• technology and the improvement thereof

Then i sort of stopped because i thought it was a little too obvious.
But i want to think about it more. Things that i truly love, and feel that i was created to do, or that i feel are innate (sometimes wrong things), bring me back to this list--i see that they come from my being a person.

• desire to know the weather
• reluctance to submit to authority
• desire to know the source of right and wrong (and many other things)
• dancing and singing
• love and suffering
  
• paradox: longing for freedom but continuing in (sometimes subconscious) self-repression; and many others
• philosophizing about life, no matter one's education or "right" to do so
  

Some days it's harder to be a person than others.

Oo, here's a thought: what if the only reason that humans have language and other creatures don't is because we were created for deep relationship? Animals have purely physical, selfish relationships because they have no way of communicating their deeper thoughts (if they have any, which i doubt). Complex language for them would be pointless because all they would say (as they do now, in their own utterances) would be stuff like "FOOD!" and "Oh no!" and "Get away from my ____". But we, agonizingly and ecstatically, have so much complexity and depth that language, as wonderful and useful as it is, doesn't come close to portraying all that we are. I think that is because there is a spiritual part of us that is inexpressible with words--and animals don't have that.

In light of that, i wonder which of the things on the list are there because they are also characteristics of God, the Spirit, the Creator? Or at least because they are spiritual things. I don't think God struggles with stuff like selfishness. Maybe that is a direct result of our having spirits AND bodies--the spirit gets corrupted. Hmm, that sounds like something Paul would say.
...
Um, so, go do a BibleGateway search for "flesh and spirit" and start thinking. It will blow you away. I don't have time for expository on all of that right now. Here are a few relevant ones to what i've been discussing here:

1. John 3:6
   Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
   
2. John 6:63
   The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
3. Mark 14:38
   Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
4. Romans 8:10
   But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
5. Romans 8:13
   For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
6. 1 Corinthians 6:19
   Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
   

Yay! Who knew that a simple philosophizing bog post would turn into a Bible study? "Not i," said the fly. Nor i, to be sure. That was a lot more fun than starting on my 10-page paper that is due in 3 days.

So help me add to the list!