Among the tones and timbre of human expression

"It is extraordinary the way people, music, and cultures develop. The paths and experiences that guide them are unpredictable. Shaped by our families, neighborhoods, cultures, and countries, each of us ultimately goes through this process of incorporating what we learn with who we are and who we seek to become. As we struggle to find our individual voices, I believe we must look beyond the voice we’ve been assigned and find our place among the tones and timbre of human expression."

Yo-Yo Ma, A Musician of Many Cultures, for This I Believe

Thanks, Frank

I have more admiration than I can express for this man, for his work, and for his point of view. As proof, I've put his new book on hold at Powell's, and I will go and put down my own cold hard cash for it. This is one I will own.

Frank Schaeffer on BookTV
This is a genial, gentle, quiet "book store" appearance. When he reads from the book's introduction he substitutes the words "expletive deleted" for the language that was in the lovely little emails he received from some "Christian" people. His friends and neighbors are in the audience.

His website
Links, books, news, etc. There is a link to the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School in the 'Crossroads of Religion and Politics' series at the top of the page right now. Don't listen to this talk if there are kids in the room who are still young enough not to understand the art of Contextualizing. The bad language is in this speech. But DO watch the speech. And then thank the God who loves us all that this man has had the courage and the ability to bring to the world a Francis Schaeffer with hard-working feet of clay and an Edith Schaeffer who has danced to the music of the piano bar in her old age.
Addendum: Here is the link to the speech he refers to in this presentation. I wrote and asked him for it.

The riotously funny Calvin Becker trilogy
(Thanks, Douglas. You've introduced me to Calvin Becker, Teresa of Avila, and all the other saints in the Communion thereof. One day I'll take my chance to do something wonderful for you.) There's nothing funnier in the universe than the Gospel Walnut.

His interview with Ink Q&A at Powell's City of Books
The top part of it is the same as his other book tour stops. But this excerpt is from the part unique to Powell's. His answer to "best breakfast" is so beautiful it makes me want to weep.

Describe the best breakfast of your life.
Champagne and caviar shared with my wife Genie while we were in bed (sometime in the 1970s). We were in our early twenties and my art teacher had advised us on the menu, gave us the champagne, the caviar and told me to try it for breakfast. The fact that he had once worked as a cameraman for the Nazis didn't spoil the meal. Genie is beautiful and was naked. The mountains in the background were themselves: the Rhone Valley with its patchwork of fields, orchards, roads and villages miles below, up to the flower-studded hayfields and steep forest-clad hills behind our village topped off by the peaks towering over everything. The champagne was dry, and Genie tasted like caviar when I kissed her.

What is your idea of absolute happiness?
Cooking for my children and grandchildren and seeing them gathered at our table.

Believe

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Andre Gide

Hans Memling's vision of the vision

I'd never seen this piece before today. It's Hans Memling's portrayal of the visions of St. John on the Isle of Patmos while he was writing the Book of the Revelation. I find it stunning - it's so fantastically surreal and yet utterly inviting. If I'm ever in Brugge, I will go and see this one in person. This full version is what I saw first. I have daily doses of Art as one of the things on my iGoogle and this is what came in this morning.

So I did a little searching. In Brugge, there is a "Memling Museum, housed in the former Hospital of Saint John. The hospital functioned from the 13th century onwards, and much of the museum's collection is devoted to illustrating its history." There, I found some detail close-ups. Here's the mystic St. John in the lower part.

See the white and then the orangey red horse? That's the horse at the lower part of this close-up.
In my imagination, when I think of St. John or of the prophets, I see it like Memling did. All the images are piled in there, but they make sense. There are images and scenes and elements of story within and beside and among each other like this. Fascinating.

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