Q: You mentioned that a lot of people write and tell you how much they’ve been impacted by your work. What do you think touches people so profoundly? A: I don’t know. I got a message from someone this morning telling me he liked the way I told the truth. Q: How do you think…
Category
Design
A Joyful Celebration (of Killing?)
Joyfully celebrating the killing of a killer who joyfully celebrated killing carries an irony that I hope will not be lost on us. Are we learning anything, or simply spinning harder in the cycle of violence? The quote above comes from Brian McLaren’s initial reaction to the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death. I don’t…
One part Rushdie, one part sweet typographic poster: To understand me you’ll have to swallow a world.
Poster design by Brett Thurman
Robert Henri on Good Composition
Good composition is like a suspension bridge; each line adds strength and takes none away…Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition. Quote and painting above from Robert Henri, prominent founder of the Ashcan School in…
But for you who fear my name
But for you who fear my name, The Son of righteousness will rise With healing in his wings. And you shall go forth again, And skip about like calves Coming from their stalls at last. Excerpt from the song But For You Who Fear My Name by The Welcome Wagon, written by Lenny Smith. Painting…
The Most Foundational Discipline
“Solitude.” “It is the most foundational of the disciplines of abstinence, the via negativa. The evangelical passion for engagement with the world is good. But as Thomas à Kempis says, the only person who’s safe to travel is the person who’s free to stay at home. And Pascal said that we would solve the world’s…
The Cult of Achievement: Why EQ is Better Than IQ
“Another problem with the cult of achievement is that it places so much emphasis on developing a child’s IQ that an equally crucial aspect is totally eclipsed–what psychologist Daniel Goleman, cofounder of the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child study Center, calls “EQ” in his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence: Why…
Glimpsing the Invisible
Tentatively enduring each agonizing gasp, you force your lungs to work but your eyes don’t blink. They finally called your name and you did the very thing you told yourself you wouldn’t do. Two steps ago you were safe in your chair. Now you’re that much closer to that fast approaching future you thought you’d…
I know we’ve only known each other four weeks and three days: Steve Martin, Rob Bell, Aions and Aions
[Speaking to Marie in bed while she sleeps] Navin R. Johnson: I know we’ve only known each other four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like…
Love Is A Little Weird
We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness, we call it love. –Dr. Seuss Illustration above by Mayumi Otero