Check out Mason Jenning's Boneclouds album. Each song highlights a different element of this past year for me. Rather than read here, go and listen to the album in its entirety. You will then understand what I've been thinking, feeling, perceiving (and so on) this past year.
Also, I've been reading some of the old high school standards . . .To Kill a Mockingbird and Crime and Punishment. This is something I highly suggest to anyone. I've even revisited the children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit, thanks to my friend in Ireland/Haiti (I think he has found out that the way to this woman's heart is through books), and each are profound in a new way this go-around; a more lasting way. Dostoevsky's Sonia will linger with me, as will Harper Lee's Atticus. The Horse who advises the Rabbit will stay in my mind as well, reminding me that love hurts sometimes but that it is better to be real--even if it means getting a little banged up. (Or slept on so that you can't breathe, or having your whiskers torn out!) And I think of Porfiry in Crime and Punishment and his urging Raskolnikov to not be "over-wise, but to fling yourself straight into life; without deliberation." Each character--Horse, Sonia, Atticus--fleshes out genuine, agape love. Maybe they'll help me love with kindness in 2007.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Lovely thoughts and good reminders! Among my favorite re-reads are Ronia the Robber's Daughter, The Horse and his Boy, and The Princess and the Goblin. There's nothing quite like a good story.
I haven't dared to reflect on 2006 all at once. It has been far too full and complicated to summarize.
Happy 2007!
Hello, Ingrid,
"Full and complicated"--exactly. Maybe some years are better left ambiguous, no? :)
May your 2007 bring you life!!! A messy, well-lived and thoughtful life.
I'm reading a lot of Hauerwas for a J-Term class, and in one essay he says something to the effect of "maybe the best we can hope to do is make interesting mistakes". If that's true I'm doing pretty well. Whatever my struggles may be, nothing about my life is boring. :)
Well, Ingrid, then in my very small opinion, you're living life as it should be lived . . . . :) I'll need to investigate Hauerwas at some point.
And when are we going to have coffee? I need an excuse to get to Chicago!
I don't need any excuses to leave Chicago, only means of transportation and time . . . maybe I'll work on that for early Feb when everyone around here will vacate campus for a week of Midwinter in CO. :)
Nice new look on the blog.
Post a Comment