View allAll Photos Tagged Parables
(The last of 6 images from the series; other anti-war series are waiting to be presented to your kind attention. The whole tale is on my insta, but once again without these texts).
Here where I live, in Russia, the mask time's not up yet. The war here is masked, incognito. If you don’t want to write this obscene phrase, “special military operation in Ukraine”, how they call those filthy war, in Russia you could write “***” (in Russian it would be “*****”) and even that way you could be busted and fined (as well as for the dove of peace, even children are not allowed to draw doves now). They’re trying to cover it up, like those petty thieves, who are leave heinous evidence. Sadly, there’s the biggest crime with the psychology of petty theft. (Of course, you know that mr Zed’s [these days I’m often recall “Zed is dead, baby, Zed is dead”, though I’m not a big fun of “Pulp Fiction”] soldier boys are nicking and sending home blenders, TV sets, smartphones and even nonferrous metal? One of them told about the latest thing). And they’re eliminating Kievan Rus from the history, from the new textbooks, as well as the country name “Ukraine”. That’s like when you did something utterly wrong, you’re trying to forget it ASAP, to wipe it out the memory completely. Now they’re changing Ukrainian signposts to Russian ones at the occupied territories. Maybe if they’d capture Kiev as they intended (which, happily, didn’t happen), they’d rename it.
The good news – if you’ll write “** ***” (in Russian – “*** *****”), everybody will understand. Another good news – the Resistance in Russia now is everywhere, on the walls, under the bridges, in the parks and the forests. (We’re using the green ribbons, which are perfectly intelligible and prohibited like “** ***”, you could be busted for the green ribbon). The trees and stones are screaming here. Whatever Works, just like Woody Allen said.
(Continuation. See the texts in the earliest images of this series, the uploaded photos at my photostream and the whole series on insta without texts)
I’m so glad and grateful that I could share my feelings with you and to feel your sympathy and support. It really helps to stay sane and alive. In one of the previous posts I was asked in the comment, how to help Russian Digital Resistance which we can see now. I think that to express these support and sympathy sometimes could be priceless and so inspiring. Now in Russia you must try hard for not to turn into Zombie, to stay really alive and kicking trying to stay free and safe, if possible, at the same time. So, thank you so much, my friends!
Also I’ve upload this project on Behance and I’d like to share it wide if possible. Because, as I’ve wrote there, the art could be the powerful weapon in this World Anti-War I were we are now. Here it is www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28...
To be continued…
I want to speak more about these dark times, to show, to see and to learn myself. To do something together to get out of this dark. Alive and sane if possible. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side”, “from the stolen country”. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that.
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
I’m value freedom even more these days. You know, what an unbelievable luxury now is simply to call the war by its proper name (and I don’t meen “shit” or “nightmare”, but just the word “war”)! But of course, if you really-really want to express or do something, you’ll find the way. Especially important things in dire straits.
Also I’ve upload this project on Behance and I’d like to share it wide if possible. Because, as I’ve wrote there, the art could be the powerful weapon in this World Anti-War I were we are now. Here it is www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28...
To be continued…
I want to speak more about these dark times, to show, to see and to learn myself. To do something together to get out of this dark. Alive and sane if possible. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side”, “from the stolen country”. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXjm830Rbqo&feature=related
Upojenie - Pat metheny & Anna Maria Jopek
Light speaks in silent parables
A lovely Quebec wink
Bonne nuit et a demain matin
g
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
The same madman is trying to destroy lives of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters as well as ours in Russia. Now the world took it as a personal business. Because it is. And I desperately hope that all together we’ll win. Help to get rid of Putin, save the world. Do what you can, as all of us trying to do. As I said in the previous letters, we haven’t master-plan. Maybe it's all for the best. We’re decentralized, we’re acting from the heart of the moment. We’re constantly changing. Now I understand that it’s not just the World Anti-war I, but the World Guerrilla Anti-war I for many of us. Sometimes ago our Pavel Durov, Russian, the creator of the Telegram, declared the Digital Resistance against the Russian government and won. It wasn’t the final victory. Now we have the chance to make that part of story final – all together.
And the words in the painting in English are means: "The world is beautiful".
To be continued…
Forty miles of bad road...
Zen Koan: “Muddy Road” Parable:
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
“Come on, girl” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”
“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”
I read 255 books last year and I tried to be as diverse as possible in what I read. Many of these books were not released in 2018 (some were) but just reflect what I did read in the past year. So far, I have read three books this year and hope to read 300 by the end of the year. The photograph of the above sculpture was taken by myself yesterday at The Cultural Center in Chicago and is entitled In the Center There Were Librarians and other Gestures. The artist for this photograph is Susan Giles. I worked on the following list for the last week so sorry I haven’t been as active lately. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s!
1.Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi
I saw this Iranian American Author speak at Printer’s Row this year and talk about her journey writing this novel, a really strong sense of the beauty and power of words along with the loss of human life in this one. It has reminiscences of the honoring of literature that often come about in Rabih Alameddine and Salman Rushdie’s work.
www.azareenvandervlietoloomi.com/about/
2.Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li
This has been classified as an autobiographical nonfiction memoir but it is so much more than this. It is endlessly philosophical about depression and suicide and an examination of life fully lived as well. It is very different than her fiction and not for casual readers who don’t want to feel deeply. Still, she has given us a gift of insight not just into herself but into the nature of humanity and that cannot be taken for granted. In the few months that have followed, I have thought back on this book and what a strong presence it made on my psyche. Yiyun Li is a Chinese American and I’m so grateful for immigrants like her adding to the canon of books we have available in this country to help make us better Americans and, more importantly, better humans.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/59088/yiyun-li
3.We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I read all of Adichie’s books this year and they are all very worthwhile to read. So many tackle issues of racism within American as well as in Africa (you have to remember, what is mass marketed overseas to Africans are shows like COPS that reinforce racism against African Americans). There seems to be so many strong Nigerian authors emerging at the moment and Adichie is the best of the best. Though some might not consider this text to be a full nonfiction work, I still consider it the most important one I read. Adichie explores in such insightful ways how sexism hurts not only women but men also in our current world. It’s something I would recommend for everyone (male, female, or gender neutral) to read or watch the lecture of.
www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_...
4.Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America by Nicole C. Mason
Ta-Nehisi Coates has so much to offer American in terms of understanding racism in all facets and the insights of someone who is an extremely intelligent man trying to raise a family in America. Nicole C. Mason does one thing better, though, which is to say she offers more solutions. As an African American woman, she has had to deal with her own challenges in terms of extreme poverty and racism and has overcome this to become a professor at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest at the New York Women's Foundation. Her insights into our current institutionalized racism and classism are something everyone should be educated on.
5. My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
I only read five graphic novels this year, which is somewhat surprising considering I read about ten the year before that. Although I am not opposed to the classic superhero type of graphic novels, I’d really rather read more autobiographical type of novels or those that explore the human psyche more than anything else. My favorite graphic novel of all time is by David B. called Epileptic (French). I tend to enjoy the really creepy Tim Lane, Daniel Clowes, or Black Hole by Charles Burns. Anyway, this is also somewhat creepy but, even more so, richly artistic. The way that the drawings match the words in terms of both content and quality is truly a wondrous experience. This is a book you’ll delve into and have a hard time putting down and it is thick and fulfilling. It also takes place in the 1960s in the north side neighborhood of Uptown, Chicago, which is really interesting to see depicted. I love the scenes from the streets and the Art Institute especially. Within the book, the protagonist grapples with disease, murder, racism, sexual identity, and even the Holocaust. Apparently, this is only Book One and there might possibly be Book Two to look forward to later on this year. In any case, a really rich delight.
6.Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
I read many books by Nnedi Okorafor this year but this one was by far my favorite…fantastical Nigerian Science Fiction at it’s finest. This book is intensely creative and extremely well written. It will make you wonder why Okorafor isn’t celebrated in every household in America but I think it’s well acknowledged that racism and sexism within the science fiction genre go hand in hand. Those who really pride themselves on appreciating the genre, however, better start getting woke fast. Reading this one might be a good place to begin.
7.We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
It isn’t enough to really consider yourself to be aware of racism in America and its history because, in order to be truly understanding of this, you have to know how racism has truly pervaded every aspect of America in an institutionalized way both historically and in modern times. I am pro-reparations and what I mean by that is that white people have stolen and oppressed people of color for so long that they are owed by us in so many ways. That is one reason why I don’t vote for white people any longer or donate to their campaigns. In any case, the racism that James Baldwin wrote about so eloquently in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s is still happening today and explored thoroughly and with in depth research by Coates. If you think racism is obsolete in America, you will have much to learn from this book of essays.
8.Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Octavia is another African American science fiction author that should be a cherished household name. She passed away when she was only in her 50s but she gave the world some of the most imaginative texts. I read quite a few of her novels this year but I liked both Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents best. It takes place in an apocalyptic America and, in the second of the series is a “leader” who takes over who literally screams “Make America Great Again” as his mantra, which is super creepy in its prophetic warning. I also love this concept she explores as a “sharer” who feels extreme and even physical empathy and a development of a new religion. Also really interesting to note is that Octavia was diagnosed with Dyslexia as a child….what a strong author she became despite it!
www.cnn.com/2018/06/22/culture/octavia-e-butler/index.html
9.Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada/ Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen
I hate to put a white male author’s book on my list. I really do and, unfortunately, this is the first of three. But, in any case, Rabih Alameddine recommended this when I saw him at Printer’s Row Book Festival in Chicago and, as I love his novels, I felt I had to give it a chance. I admit, I didn’t regret it. This story is loosely based on the true story during the Holocaust of a man and a woman who decide they are going to write anti-fascism postcards against the Nazis. It was originally published in 1947 and takes place in Berlin. Fallada himself was not Jewish but led a really difficult life where quite early on, he was meant to die in a supposed duel, a suicide pact made with his male lover. His male lover died and he obviously did not. In any case, mainly this book is about the idea of resistance in any small or large way, even if it seems small, silly, or gets you killed. To resist fascism is to reaffirm your own humanity and the protagonists the Hampels can’t exist any other way. I have to admit, I found myself crying several times while reading this book, especially considering the relevance to modern day times. Alameddine commented on how silly and stupid it was for this couple in real life and in this book to do this…they knew they would be caught….but they managed to distribute hundreds of postcards that put in mind inklings of doubt into the German population about what Hitler was doing and that is extremely important. These days, we just tweet about how much we hate Trump but, back then, there were some who assumed the vast majority of the population approved of the human rights violations the Nazis were committing….which makes me wonder if perhaps social media could prevent another Holocaust.
www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/books/review/Schillinger-t.html
10.Confessions by Kinae Minato
This is some grueling psychological craziness that you will go through but man is it ever worth it. Kinae Minato was an actual teacher in Japan before she decided to write the kind of horror that will haunt you. This one is mainly about the evil that children can commit and the parents that condone and/or encourage it…and, it’s about a society that subconsciously promotes it too or, as in American society, gives attention/press to those who harm and confuse others into thinking this is the best way to get noticed. It’s so much more than that, though, and it will mess you up for days. I read Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore this year as well and this was far more effective in my opinion but this is also about vengeance and made me think of the Chan Wook Park series on the subject (though, he’s Korean vs. Japanese which is an important distinction).
www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-kanae-minato-20...
11. Jesse Ball: Census
There is no one who can write quite like Jesse Ball. It is almost as if it has been removed from time and space completely and exists in its own strange universe. And yet, it is not science fiction…it’s more like humanistic fiction…like a deep feeling realistic fiction. Though Census isn’t my favorite of his novels (my favorite is actually The Curfew followed by Silence Once Begun as a close second), it is as always well worth reading. There’s such a beautiful sense of this relationship of a father and son as they collect information about strangers…an almost fairy tale esque sort of feeling at times but not quite. It’s difficult to explain except to say that each moment of the story seems one in your life you’d cherish and therefore each word is a pleasure, which is odd considering that some categorize it as Dystopian Fiction. I guess one person’s Dystopia is another’s Utopia.
11.Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead
Such a beautiful poetic and still realistic ode to a city that is always teeming with lives and energy. I’m originally from upstate NY (Rochester) and have visited NYC a few times…what exists there has changed over time but some things to remain more constant. Whitehead captures the essence in a way that is true and in a way that so many others have failed to. I’ve read quite a few of his books this year and have enjoyed all of them but none quite as much as this one. Although, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention he wrote an awesome zombie book, Zone One, that was excellent to read around Halloween.
13. Alice Walker
It’s very difficult to talk about Alice Walker at this time when there are so many accusations of anti-semitism. This is nothing new, in fact, as she’s supported Palestine and traveled there to learn about what has been happening to its people for a very long time. She has witnessed suffering and she has written poetry and accounts where she separates the beliefs of what she sees as radical Zionists and those who are Jewish who don’t advocate for suffering. Still, I don’t think it’s ok that she’s defending David Icke’s work and I am very concerned about that. Earlier this year, before all of the controversy surfaced, I had the chance to see Alice Walker as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival and so I read just about everything I possibly could beforehand from novels to poetry to essays. Alice Walker married a Jewish man and had a child with him in 1967…that’s probably important for people to consider. She has also done a ton of work to stop the practice of female genital mutilation in Africa. Her message is solidly one of peace and equality in the Middle East and I hope nothing has changed in that regard.
In any case, I am not going to devote multiple entries to Alice Walker but if you are interested in reading her work and deciding for yourself, your local library should have many selections without you needing to look any further. I greatly enjoyed the novels Meridian, By the Light of My Father’s Smile and the essay collections Cushion in the Road and Anything We Love Can Be Saved as my favorites. I’ll also remind people to realize that reading something objectively will not make you a harmful or hateful person. Be ready to learn from all perspectives, to reject some and consider others. That’s what being an intelligent human being is all about. Still, I don’t support anti-semitism or any other discrimination against humans and I hope the world continues to become a more accepting and loving place.
14.We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: A collection of the voices of Syrian Immigrants by Wendy Pearlman
Now more than ever it is very important to read about what is happening to this group of persecuted people and understand their perspectives…it is easy to see the anger and desperation, the sadness and sometimes bitterness in these lives but, at the same time, you connect with them on some small level. I can’t begin to imagine how it feels or how badly the US has messed up in this situation. I only know I care and am so very saddened and helpless by it all. Reading their thoughts and about their life experiences is the very least one can do.
www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/12/we-crossed-a-bridge...
15.Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Such an interesting book about hard working immigrants who are doubly affected by the economic crash in 2008 and who go to such great lengths to stay in America, a country which is basically ruining their very lives. This book really shows a strong sense of the immigrant struggle and the cluelessness of the white people around them in NYC but it has a strong storyline and sense of characters besides that which makes it all the more compelling.
16. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
This one is so much more than a coming of age story. It combines culture and criticism of contemporary society and has such a witty writing style and takes place in Chicago, which made it an even better read for me. I think there’s an interesting exploration of what is expected of immigrants and their children and also what immigrants are expected to like and the conflict that comes from when those aren’t in sync. Very interesting read and also a very engaging writing style.
17.Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
This book is really something…it’s a little about politics and family but it’s a great deal about love in this modern world, in all its messed up ways. It’s hard for me to talk about this book without giving away the ending, which has still stayed with me after many months but let’s just say it’s very effective and leaving a lasting image with you. Technically, this book is a reworking of Sophocles’ Antigone (it’s been too long since I read this actually) but with a modern retelling that includes the current political climate and ISIS. She won the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year for this book.
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/06/kamila-shamsie-wins...
18. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
This science fiction novel combines a little bit of everything-class struggle, race struggle, and sexual identity struggle along within the overarching power struggle of what is written as postmodern space based slavery with an incredibly strong female protagonist leading the revolution. Well written and a fantastic addition to the genre.
www.npr.org/2017/10/06/548665897/unkindness-of-ghosts-tra...
19. All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
This is an autobiographical novel based around Chung’s experience being adopted by a white family living in Oregon and explores both the nature of adoption and all of the difficulty that comes from that as well as racism and racial identity. It’s really interesting to see both an evolution of her thoughts and the way she interacts with her biological and adopted families. It’s possible that no one who was not adopted could understand how it feels just like it’s possible that a white person could never truly understand what it is like to be of another race. However, this book is quite honest, revealing, and a perspective that should be learned from.
20.Mischling by Affinity Konar
Affinity comes from a Jewish perspective with a Polish ancestry. This novel is based on some of the texts and non fictions surrounding the Holocaust based on twin studies and experiments. I’ve read quite a few books about the Holocaust but I didn’t realize myself the extend of these twin studies and ended up looking up a couple of the names of the most heinous individuals in this book. Affinity rightfully so pulls you into the characters, these two female twins in particular, and their unique bond as well as the overall bond of their family. Because the Nazis wanted to do scientific experiments on identical twins, parents were encouraged to give them up so that they wouldn’t be killed. However, the torture they endured (sometimes also leading to death) was worse than death in some instances. The worst of humanity can be found within these pages…it’s a harrowing read but I also learned from it and feel texts like this are important to remind us that we can never repeat this history.
21. One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni
I loved the concept of a group of people trapped in a situation where, though they are total strangers and come from very different backgrounds, must trust each other with their life stories. And, what really comes through is the richness of a life and of diverse experiences and the nature of their memories. This is so far the only thing I have read by Divajaruni but I look forward to reading more of her work this year!
22.Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist and this book is a great deal about the history of the science evolving as well as about time and black holes. I have to admit, there was quite a bit I learned but also quite a bit I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. What the book left me feeling is oddly calm, however. Because, since Trump became president, I’ve had a real strong sense that we are all trapped in a black hole of some sort and this basically confirmed some of my suspicions. Now, if I could just get to a different alternative reality where someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is president….perhaps, we’re at least headed in the correct direction, though.
23.Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing
It was such an honor to see Ewing speak as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival this year and such a wonderful thing for Chicago that this extremely talented poet, graphic novelist, and nonfiction writer resides here. This collection of poetry really speaks to growing up on Chicago’s south side in the 1990s but it’s so much more than that. It’s an important collection of poetry not just because of Eve L. Ewing’s voice but because of the strength of her words and imagery. My only disappointment with this is that it wasn’t longer so I could keep reading.
Eve L. Ewing also just published a nonfiction work, Ghosts in the Schoolyard, covering the closure of 50 public schools that Rahm Emanuel imposed as one of his very first acts as mayor. This is probably one of the most important books that was written this year but I haven’t read it yet (which is horrible, I know). It’s a little too close to home for me as I remember with horror all of the striking and the aftermath from this from the fake community meetings (literally set up by Charter school profiteers to gather information) I attended to all of the marches in the streets. In one of the most horrible things, the “welcoming schools” that were taking in students from the closing schools had no information on the students with disabilities showing up. Working with students who are nonverbal and have severe autism, some of these students couldn’t even tell us their names and so we couldn’t look them up in the system to even know their allergies and medical precautions. Most people are familiar with making children cross gang lines, I realize, which is also horrific, but this was something that also haunts me still today. In any case, people need to realize how damaging to a community it is when public schools are not supported and kids are placed in danger.
24.Feel Free by Zadie Smith
I am really impressed by the range of topics these essays address, though I would have loved more political essays. Zadie Smith does have an insightful essay on Brexit but she also talks a great deal about her parents, Italy, and such a huge variety of art between paintings and films as well as meeting famous actors and musicians. Never before did I think I would come across a selection of essays about Anomalisa and Get Out for example and also she wrote an essay on Christian Marclay’s The Clock. There’s something here for everyone, basically.
25.Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
I felt haunted and a dream like state reading this book written from the perspective of a polar bear. Between zoos and circuses and effortless wandering, it seems we are all, in some ways, polar bears, meditating on existence itself. I felt like I could be a human being and a polar bear at the same time.
www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/books/review/memoirs-of-a-pola...
26. Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
This novel is a thrilling mix of the personal and the political by this Turkish author. It really looks at the ideas behind religion and class struggle in an insightful way with a riveting plot that goes back and forth between present day and when the main protagonist was going to college.
27 .God Loves Haiti by Dimitry Elias Léger
I really hope we get more from Léger as this is story telling at its finest….an earthquake, a love story, a hideout, and a sense o heavy life choices with different protagonists each strong affected by the earthquake that occurs here. It’s interesting to use the earthquake that happens at the very beginning as the stimulus to drive the rest of the plot but it works well here. One senses that, earthquake or no, each life choice matters greatly.
observer.com/2015/01/on-the-page-god-loves-haiti-is-a-stu...
28.Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
This novel does such a good job of exploring white hypocrisy as well as highlighting the difficulties of being an immigrant in America and being gay in a culture that is homophobic. The male protagonist in this story is forced to go back to Nigeria in order to be freed from his homosexual “affliction” but has to deal with his own troubles back in America in terms of racial profiling and police brutality. This is a story that could happen today easily and we should all make sure it doesn’t.
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/20/speak-no-evil-uzodi...
29. The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
This affected me more than I thought it would. I am vegan, sure, but I’ve never really been all that fascinated by marine life (nor have I ever wanted to eat any kind of seafood) and I really felt the strong sense of empathy between Sy and the octopuses she writes about as well as the journey she takes overall in terms of understanding them. The empathy she feels and the strong sense of personality and intelligence she senses should not be ignored. I found myself by the end of this wondering aloud how I often do when it comes to many animals…how could anyone eat such a lovely living creature?
symontgomery.com/soul-of-an-octopus/
30. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
All of Umrigar’s books are fantastic and this isn’t even my favorite of hers to be honest-The World We Found is the one I like best. But, this is still a fantastic story set in India this time about making unlikely friends and survival, it’s about living under a rigid caste system as well and hints at some changes taking place slowly but surely with time and access to higher education. It’s also about apologies and redemption. Btw, Thrity is a wonderful speaker to see if you get the chance.
Honorable Mentions:
Short story collections I loved this year include Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others, N.K. Jemisin’s How Long ‘TIL Black Future Month? Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, and Revenge by Yoko Ogawa. I also liked most of Carmen Maria Muchado’s Her Body and Other Parties. I also found Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions informative and valuable but I thought it needed to be much longer. Hanif Abdurraqib’s They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us essays on music was also really well written and offered interesting insights into music and culture and W. Kamau Bell’s Awkward Thoughts had me thinking about race in a different way AND had me, at times laughing with his very geeky but cool sense of humor. I also really loved the graphic novel, Saga.
Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves - most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But the “Richter-Fenster” in Germany’s Colgone Cathedral evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine. Contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter designed the 65-foot-tall work to replace the original, destroyed by bombs in World War II. As a starting point, he used his own 1974 painting 4096 Colors. To create that piece Richter devised a mathematical formula to systematically mix permutations of the three primary colors and gray.The Cologne window is made of 11,500 four-inch " pixels" cut from original antique glass in a total of 72 colors. Instead of representing something finite or tangible, the Richter-Fenster opens up myriad possible interpretations and alerts us to the act of seeing.
(Mind you, what you see here is just a small part of that window. Click here to see the whole window.)
Seems that I’ve returned to color with my good friend and fair model Irinka. You may congratulate me on that. Last color image was uploaded here on July 12, 2022 – with Irinka as well (there is something like a rainbow in her). I made some more last summer, but didn’t uploaded them here for the reasons unknown. Hope to show you them someday, because I like them, and maybe you will too. And then I’ve lost the color vision. But this is the freshest image that I made so far – in every sense of the word (though we’ve taken this photo-op last summer).
Also, I gave up on series. They still would be in albums, and I think that I will show you some series as a series in future, I really dig the idea, it seems big to me, but not always. I prefer to do what I feel like. Especially in art. So, I’m “Still on the Road to Freedom”, as my favorite artist Alvin Lee put it.
Enjoy! (I really hope you will).
(To be continued…)
Import Export - permant lightinstallation with 8 slide-projectors by genelabo - this time: white spripes ending in a parable
Series in progress (see the previous image and the text with it).
We’re looking at the photography like at the miracle (I am, for sure). Like at every art. That’s why this awe before the rock- and movie- stars, and that’s why this very word, “star” (just my thoughts, and they’re had just been born). That raises the question: how powerful the miracle, phenomena not of this world, could be in our mundane affairs? Not almighty, of course. But maybe not that weak. My guess (hope, that the lucky one; maybe now we need a ll the luck of the world, and not of this world too) is that Guernica and La Paloma defeated the WWII and The Doors, Jimi, Janis, Country Joe and the Fish, Jefferson Airplane and all the rest of great sons and daughters of the Woodstock Generation, which is, of Love (the list is very long, but you’ve got the idea) defeated the Vietnam war. So, we have a chance in this World Anti-War I, my friends. Or we could give it to Peace, as John said.
At first, I wrote songs instead of sons. “Great songs and daughters of Love” – not bad title for something, eh?
(To be continued…)
God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/gods-work-gods-disposition-and-g...
".......
Next we’ll take a look at a parable told by the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace.
3. The Parable of the Lost Sheep
(Mat 18:12-14) How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
........"
Terms of Use en.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
The war is a big crash. As well as an anti-war. We all are participating. We just couldn’t avoid it. If we’re trying to be neutral, we’re just making stronger the other side. It’s affects all of us. We couldn’t stand aside because there isn’t that side where to stay apart. Striking sign – even Switzerland isn’t neutral this time. It’s become the part of the World Anti-war Ist. Because it’s already too hot even for this cool state. The good news – you needn’t kill to participate this party. On the contrary. It’s much better to heal than to kill to win this anti-war. Another good news – yes, all of us, maybe even the presidents and PMs are feeling that we couldn’t do enough to stop this nightmare war. But all of us could do something to make it less lethal, less nightmare. Speaking of PMs. Do you know that the Ukrainian surnames are pretty often ending on “-uk” with the stress on the last syllable and that way you could tell the Ukrainian? So, in Ukraine they have this new joke about Boris. They call him Johnsonuk because that’s how his account on insta was named. Also, they’re telling that there are 2 types of men: one that keep talking and other that just drive over here like Johnsonuk. Back to the subject: even more, there’s much more of us than those on the war side. Even in my stolen motherland Russia there’s more that 1,2 million people that signed a petition against that war in spite of the danger (you really could go to jail just for that: they’ll notice you that way and then they’ll find anything to accuse you, even just the like of some post on insta; I’ve signed too, of course) and many are doing much more dangerous things including the refusing to go to this undeclared war. I hope to say more about this in my next letter. There are about maybe 120 thousand that are actually invading Ukraine, looting and making other war crimes and much less than the population of Russia who participating this or that way directly. Mostly snitching on those who are against it. Also, there’re just few which are really wants that war and are high on it. I know just one person for sure. Plus, there’re members of all that chains that brings Russian oil, gas, coal and some other things in exchange for money, part of which are burning in this war and so on. So, even very weak afford, multiplied on our fantastic quantity, is matters and just bound to work and really works. So, keep on trying, my friends and brothers and sisters in anti-war arms and arts! Push harder if you could or just do anything you feel you could – and we’ll make it.
To be continued…
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series).
Recently I twice raised this question: why any country and almost anybody are so afraid to lose the war? And nevertheless, it’s almost constant war on the Earth. Seems that no one is afraid to begin the war. Columbine is an emergency. Mass murder in the war is absolutely normal. Especially if the enemy is marked as the bad guy. You don’t even have to know his name. He is wearing the wrong clothes or even some little piece on almost identical khaki – quite enough to kill. And now you usually don’t even see the colour of his or her uniform: someone just gave you some coordinates and you sending this huge metal thing which will kill or maim anyone inside this area. You wouldn’t even see this mess.
Beautiful model, my good friend and sister in arts – Irinka, @kraskivrukah on Insta. We made another collab, where met different arts, “Give Peace a Chance”. Irinka painted the picture about war and peace in two characters – War and Peace and danced in both characters, I made photo and filmed. So, we had 4 arts – photography, painting, dance and movie. Now we have in mind several more collabs.
To be continued…
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta, but without this texts)
We discussed how such sophisticated nation like Germans could follow those mad Chief in the WW2. Now, when I’m looking around, I'm beginning to understand. Sophisticated minds, like in times of Fall of the Roman Empire. They are broad and unstable. They could easily switch in that tribal thing which I’ve mentioned in my previous letter from the other world, Russia. And now we see another keyword – empire.
To be continued…
I want to speak about this nightmare times, to show, to see and to learn more. To do something together. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side” with rather unique opportunity to show the country when its doors are closing. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that. As well as on other social resources.
Give, and it will be given to you [Luke 6:38]
translation of the beginning of
Dăruind vei dobândi
("Through Giving You Shall Receive") – published 1992;
by Nicolae Steinhardt
nicolaesteinhardt.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/giving-you-sha...
"Blind, unwise, and of a narrow mind as I am, I was not foolish and unknowing enough to believe that Christ asks us to give from our surplus: that, even the pagans do. I was however unskilled and lost in the darkness enough to think – what seems entirely in accord with Christian teaching – that we are asked to give from the little we have, if not even from the very little. I even went as far as agreeing with the idea that from the parable of the two talants thrown by the widowed woman in the offering box (Mk 12:41-44, Lk 21:1-4) follows that we should give all we have, our entire possessions.
It was needed that I stumbled upon reading, a while ago, a text of the French poet Henri Michaux (1899 – 1988) to understand, trembling, shuddering, that Christ asks something entirely different: to give what we do not have.
How blind, unwise, and of a narrow mind I was. And locked in the chains of the most lamentable common sense. How could I imagine that Christ-God who accepted to take on a body and be crucified on the cross lust like the unhappiest and most wicked of mortals, would ask us to give from the surplus or the little possessions, or even to give their entirety? How would He have called us to actions so simple, so of this world, that is, so possible! Did not Paul Claudel define God for us, attributing to Him the saying: Why do you fear? I am the impossible who looks at you.
Christ, thus, asks for exactly this: the impossible: to give what we do not have.
But let us listen to Michaux: in the monastery where he would like to be received, a simple candidate to monasticism shows up. He confesses to the geronda: know, Father, that I have neither faith nor light, nor essence, nor courage, nor trust in myself, and I cannot be of any help to myself, much less to any others; I have nothing.
It would have been logical for him to be rejected at once. Not so, however. The geronda (abbot, as the French poet says) replies: What does that have to do with anything! You have no faith, have no light; giving them to others you will have them, too. Searching them for another, you will gain them for yourself. Your brother, your neighbor and fellow man, him you are duty bound to help with what you do not have. Go: your cell is on this hallway, third door on the right.
Not from the surplus, not from the little, but from your unpossession, from what you lack. Giving another that which you do not have – faith, light, confidence, hope – you will acquire them as well.
„You have to help him with what you do not have.”
„Giving what you do not have, you acquire too, the naked, the deserted, that which you lack.”
„With what you believe you have not, but which is, which will be in you.
Deeper than the depth of your self. More mysterious, more covered, clearer, fast spring which flows unceasingly, calling, inviting to communion.”
Yes, only in this way you will be able to speak as a servant of Christ, of the One full of mystery: paradoxically (as he always has taught us: if you want to rule, serve; if you want to be exalted, humble yourself; if you want to save your soul, lose it for me; if you want to recapture your purity, admit your guilt) and amazingly (if you will give what you do not have, you will also gain what you have given others).
I think that nowhere, except for the Gospels, have more clear and more Christian words been spoken than in Michaux’s little poem, which stupefied and enthused me. Maybe in some fragments of The Brothers Karamazov and The Demons, maybe Cervantes creating El nuestro Senor Don Quijote, El Christo espanol, maybe Albert Camus in the text about Oscar Wilde (titled The Artist in Prison) and about the way to Christ not through suffering and pain (a good way, though an inferior one) but by an excess of happiness and moments of euphoria (a superior way). I think nowhere a poet or writer has spoken more closely of the unapproachable One.
Giving what we have no, we gain by rebound what – with unimaginable outrageousness – we have dared to give to another. The lesson is valid for any Christian, clergy or laity. For the monk, especially. Let him not worry, not fear, not be anxious, the monk who feels his inner-self deserted, haunted by lack of belief and weakness, full of darkness and aridness; let him not mind these in the least. Temptations of hopelessness, unbecoming tricks of the evil and dry one. Let him give those who come to him, in his cell, in the monastery garden, on the porch of the guest-house, at the alter gates – so they can find faith, strength, light, and a ray of hope, that which they expect from him and which he very well knows that in that moment he may not have. Let him give them. And, giving them, they will also refract back on him and he will be benefited by the gift made unto others.
„Giving the light you do not have, you, too, will have it.”
Do Michaux’s words, perhaps, not clarify in more depth the text from Matthew 25 about the fearful Judgment? Perhaps, have not the good ones given the thirsty from the water they lacked; the hungry from the food they did not have, the naked one the clothes they themselves were straining after?…
The secret of monastic life shows itself to be: to dare to give that which, temporarily, you may be lacking. Here then, is the Christian paradox in its entirety, splendor, and virtue. But here is the amazing promise: giving what you do not have, you gain what you knew to give from the emptiness of your being. The supra-natural gift is reflected on you, comes back to you like a boomerang, like a ray of light projected at a mirror, and enriches you, fills you up, overwhelms you.
Of course. If could not be otherwise! How could we think, even for a moment – not to say anything about years – that Christ wants to give from what we have: the surplus, the little, everything. Big deal, worthy endeavor! Too human, the poor, pitiful work! Something different is asked from us: what seems to be impossible. Something else is promised: what which cannot be conceived or believed.
Let every fear, uncertainty, shyness, fear of hypocrisy disappear from us, the monks: the monk is meant to give others faith and light even if he may be lacking them a shorter or longer while. Even if he is in a crisis of listlessness. Even if he were guilty of a weakening in the zeal and steadiness of monasticism.
Could he? Could he fulfill the miracle? Of course, since he is part of those about whom Christ says that „they are not of this world, as I am not of this world” (John 17:16). And again, „But not only for these I pray, but for those who will believe in Me through their word.” (John 17:20). And in the Book of Acts (20:35) Paul also says: „You have to help the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus: it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Truly, giving above nature, we receive grace above grace. Let the weak, thus, say: give me, Lord, when I am lost and naked, strength and impudence to be able to give from what I do not have. And You make this gift of mine – paradoxical, absurd and daring – return to me through your mercy which counts human wisdom ad madness and the adage „Nemo dat quod non habet” sounding brass and clanging cymbal. You who ask only the impossible and do only what the human mind cannot understand."
Monk Nicolae Steinhardt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Steinhardt
nicolaesteinhardt.wordpress.com/in-english/
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photo:
inner narthex 14th century mosaic detail
in the lunette above the entrance to the naos
of the Donor Theodore Metochites
detail from the icon panel of "The Enthroned Christ"
Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, Istanbul
www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/exhibitions/Byzantium/html/bu...
Chora Museum, Chora Monastery (Contantinople)
Μονή της Χώρας, Μουσείο Χώρας, Κωνσταντινούπολη
Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, Kariye Kilisesi, Istanbul
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chora_Church
www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/exhibitions/Byzantium/
www.byzantium1200.com/chora.html
www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-st-savior-in-...
www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/moving-image-collecti...
www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/chora
"The Enthroned Christ and the Donor Theodore Metochites are located in the lunette above the entrance to the naos [3]. Metochites kneels and presents a model of the church to a seated Christ. In Byzantine art, this was the standard way of representing an architectural donation. Metochites is ostentatiously garbed and wears a high hat symbolizing his important office and his court titles are inscribed behind him."
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Theodore Metochites
Θεόδωρος Μετοχίτης
Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves - most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But the “Richter-Fenster” in Germany’s Colgone Cathedral evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine. Contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter designed the 65-foot-tall work to replace the original, destroyed by bombs in World War II. As a starting point, he used his own 1974 painting 4096 Colors. To create that piece Richter devised a mathematical formula to systematically mix permutations of the three primary colors and gray.The Cologne window is made of 11,500 four-inch " pixels" cut from original antique glass in a total of 72 colors. Instead of representing something finite or tangible, the Richter-Fenster opens up myriad possible interpretations and alerts us to the act of seeing.
(The 2nd of 6 images from the series. The whole thing is on my insta, but once again without these texts).
Today I worked in my garden, almost naked (in Indian loincloth and the visor from the sun), and my friends wondered how I am not freeze. But I get used to. And I thought about this wonderful human ability and once again about this nightmare war. I thought about this rare chance to stop it because we aren’t get used to it even in almost 3 months. All the world is still horrified. That’s very important. That’s why I continue to write these letters from the other side of the war. That’s crucial. Because there aren’t our houses and lives that are destroying this very moment. The real bombs from the real bombers are falling somewhere else, not where I write and you read this, my friend. But we’re trying to help, to do something, to stop the war to the extent of our horror and compassion.
But we in Russia are get used to the same people in power, who unleashed this insane, stupid and unhuman war. With the same thinking and methods. It’s not that big difference. Tortures? Yes, they are torture people in Russia. Rape? Yes, just unofficially. Murders? But of course! Mass murders? Just google about Chechnya. But we’re get used to it. It’s about 2 decades with our mr. Zed, and he’s just weak imitator of his predecessors.
But now I feel some wild hope. We couldn’t just tell him go away, see. Couldn’t even make him lose the next election. He fakes them. Maybe our mister has more chances to get rid of us who couldn't stand him anymore than we could say good riddance to him. He really knows how to accumulate and save the power, as nuts as he is. But now all of you and us there in Russia, who helps and saves Ukraine as the country (our mr Zed wants to destroy it completely, to make it part of Russia), are also helps and saves Russia. There’s the long way to freedom and maybe I’d rather live under our occupation (again: I think that Russia is occupied by the same ones who now trying to occupy and destroy Ukraine), than have this war. But it’s happening. And maybe when my Ukrainian brothers and sisters will win with the help of all the united world, then we will regain our freedom and our country as well.
To be continued…
For Macro Mondays - "Seeds"
I like to look up information on things I photograph and was fascinated to learn how many parables there are about the mustard seed. The Buddhist version speaks to the universality of grief:
"Kisa Gotami’s only son died. In her grief, she carried the dead child to all her neighbors, asking them for medicine. At length, a man replied to her request: "I cannot give thee medicine for thy child, but I know a physician who can. Go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha."
Kisa Gotami went to the Buddha and cried: "Lord and Master, give me medicine that will cure my boy." The Buddha answered: "I want a handful of mustard-seed” but then added: "The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent, or friend."
Kisa Gotami went from house to house, but when she asked “Did a son or daughter, a father or mother, die in your family?" all answered: "Alas the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief." There was no house where a beloved one had not died.
Weary and hopeless, Kisa Gotami sat down at a wayside, watching the city lights flicker up and then extinguish again. And she considered the fate of men: their lives also flicker up, then are extinguished. And she thought: "How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all; yet there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness."
Putting away the selfishness of her affection for her child, Kisa Gotami buried her child. Returning to the Buddha, she took refuge in him and found comfort."
Dorothy and her party confront Oz, a blustering conman, after completing their Hero’s Quest along the Yellow Brick Road. For the #YellowRoad #flickrfriday theme.
Dramatis Personae, from left:
The Wizard ………. Heedless Demens tyrannus
Toto ………………….. Brave, inarticulate, scruffy loyalist
Dorothy ……………. Blind Justice, not yet aware of her power
Tin Woodsman … Arthritic ancient man, crippled by grief
Scarecrow ……….. Wobbly advisor, disabled by uncertainty
Cowardly Lion …. Wishful ignoramus, blinded by fear
Will Justice prevail?
Phraseme based on a parable of Jesus.
Matthäus 7:26-27:
26 Und wer diese meine Rede hört und tut sie nicht, der ist einem törichten Manne gleich, der sein Haus auf den Sand baute.
27 Da nun ein Platzregen fiel und kam ein Gewässer und wehten die Winde und stießen an das Haus, da fiel es und tat einen großen Fall.
(Lutherbibel, 1912)
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
(King James Bible)
Last image from this series (for now, and then – who knows?). Meantime I’ve wished happy birthday to my close friend, super guitar hero Mark Makarov aka markmcarow, with another series, which seems good to me. And lost many things which I wanted to say to you. Good, that I have much more. I’m beginning some series on Flickr and then switching for others and for others from those. Maybe it’s ok. Anyway, I just couldn’t make art straight like an arrow. Can you?
And who you'll be rather see 1st: suprer-guitar hero Mark or bareass lovely Rita running wild through the winter forest (see my previous post bout that if u feel so)? Both 're good I could bet u anything.
(Continuation. Please see the previous images and the texts of this series if you feel like that).
I’m somewhere in between of the 3 series which I started to show you recently. Of course, all my series are presenting in albums, but are many of us looking at the albums? So, there we have the question of the narrative. But maybe the best way to do anything is to make what one really wants right now. If possible. And if it’s not – than maybe to quit and find the place where it will become possible. And maybe rather arabesque narration is as good as any other… For me now most of the questions come down to the question of freedom.
(To be continued…)
The Parable of the Sower (Jesus' Teaching)
Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” 9 And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Purpose of the Parables
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that
“they may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.1 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ( Mark 4:1-20) ESV
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
Today, April 1st, is my birthday – first ever when I feel the war around. It’s the beginning of the night, the birthday will be almost tomorrow, but I’ve got me some wine, drink from the bottle, listen Kronos Quartet “Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace” and posting the continuation of this anti-war project, slow paced as war (Cheers!).
There’s this ghost plane of my life where that war is in its full rage all around. As if something dreadful and unimaginable is happening right here and now. As if someone is dying. And maybe that’s me. I thought about postponing my birthday, but my friends decided to come anyway. We’ll play a lot of music and hopefully make more photo series. My favorite models and sisters in visual arts – photographers and filmmakers will come.
Even my parents arrived from the Baltic Sea. We didn’t see each other several years, through all this covid times. Maybe we need more mutual support at these times… Also, now I feel much more necessity of an art in my life. Now art is vital.
I’ve uploaded this whole project on Behance and I’d like to share it wide if possible. Because, as I’ve wrote there, the art could be the powerful weapon in this World Anti-War I were we are now. Here it is www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28...
To be continued…
I want to speak more about these dark times, to show, to see and to learn myself. To do something together to get out of this dark. Alive and sane if possible. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side”, “from the stolen country”. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that.
These people sitting by it were raving about the piece and beseeching me to explain it. I told them the parable. It was wonderful
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Lk 15:8–10.
(The last image from the series. See the texts of the earliest ones in my account here, on my insta or behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
We’re survived our V-day, our Mad Hatter mr president didn’t declared WWIII against everyone including us, Russians (well, he did, but not officially) or nuked the world at that day, as many of us was afraid. Good for him. Good for us. Congratulations! Let’s live on and continue our common World Anti-War I (WAWI?). Ok, we really haven’t good and swift master-plan how to make it and this horror is still dragging alone, but there’s such a lot of us, I suppose millions, who doing something to create and re-create Peace. I hope that we will win. Eventually. Maybe pretty soon. I there in Russia feel that we here blew through 1941 to 1944 in one swift go. Not that everybody noticed…
My anti-war projects to be continued. I’ve already finished 4 more. I just couldn’t write with the same speed, but I feel that to write along with images is important. And thank you so much for your support in that work, my friends! Though I haven’t enough strength even to answer to your comments ASAP. I’m answering, but sometimes very slow. I feel the war all around me and it’ very devastating feeling…
Taken by WR
PP: C+ca15
Gdańsk - bazylika Mariacka – ambona, przypowieść o Dobrym Pasterzu.
Gdansk - St Mary's Church - Main pulpit, the parable of Good Shepherd.
Dawna, gotycka ambona zaginęła podczas wojny. Obecna, wczesnobarokowa, pochodzi z gdańskiego kościoła Św. Jana, spalonego podczas walk o Gdańsk w marcu 1945. Autor konstrukcji i dekoracji rzeźbiarskiej jest nieznany, za autora dekoracji malarskich uznaje się Izaaka van den Blocke (1572 lub 74, Mechelen lub Królewiec – Gdańsk, 1626 lub 1628).
Gdansk - St Mary's Church - Main pulpit. After the old pulpit was lost during the war, the present one was mounted; dated 1616/1, it was rescued from St John’s church, during the devastating fire of 1945. The author of architectural structure is unknown, the paintings are attributed to Izaak van den Blocke (1572 or 74, Mechelen or Königsberg – 1626 or 1628, Gdańsk).
(W.R.)
ポーランド、グダンスクの聖母マリア教会の講壇。
もとここにあったゴチック様式の講壇はやはり戦争時に失われてしまいましたが、これも隣の聖ヨハネ教会にあったものを持ってきたそうです。初期バロック様式。
Church:
Bazylika konkatedralna Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku, Bazylika Mariacka / St. Marienkirche / Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Mary's Church
1379-1466, Heinrich Ungeradin et al. Gdansk, Poland.
Cf. in Polish: bazylikamariacka.gdansk.pl/bazylika/zabytki/historia/ [2018.12.15].
The book that the resident suggested that I borrow from him is very fragile. Someone has tried to hold the cover together with tape. When I begin to read it, I will do so with great care.
Meantime last night or about so (my relationships with the Time are fascinating) I’ve begun or more precisely continued another project. It turned out to be small that time but promises to be big now (I’ll explain in a minute). We’ve taken photos for that project about a year ago and I feel closer to it just now. More or less. Rita run through the winter forest not just naked, which is relatively easy, but barefoot and sat bareass on snow-covered stumps, which is tough absolutely (the whole idea was all hers!). She’s my hero. Real artist. It was just pre-war like some presentiment or precognition. Homeless. Out of all the previous life. Wild. Rita called that project “Run wild”, so be it, I do like this title (decided I right now, translating the title Russian-English). It was getting dark in the forest because it took me that long to get out and that’s – because I didn’t believe that Rita really means it so why bother, let it go as it will. I’ll show you what we’ve got for you, hopefully pretty soon. So, I desire to upload all that that I’ve got for now in this previous project. It’s important for me as well. Cause I’m still bet on freedom in these awful times. Any times. How d’you like it?
Why do I still mention Behance and Patreon? Don’t get them till now. And insta? Just hate it. Fb and vk – about the dead either good or nothing. But what else do we have? What do you have?
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
I wanted to tell you something about life under occupation. I’ll clarify: I’m Russian, living in Russia and my motherland is stolen and occupied. We couldn’t freely express our opinions in fear of arbitrary arrest, heavy fine, detention and prison. We couldn’t even like posts in social media freely. One of the latest news – one Russian was fined for his blue and yellow sports shoes. This fines usually are more than average monthly wages. Some “patriots” or maybe bots are snitching on you for the comments on social media. Students in schools are snitching on those teachers and on and on. So, Russia is occupied as well as Ukraine. Just without shelling but with murdering. They had much more time here, they needn’t this. They had all the system of the state to use it as they wish. Pfff, I decided to take a little break and tell you about life under occupation in the next letter. There would be more fun.
To be continued…
Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. — Luke 18:1
I find that line immensely encouraging. I’m grateful Scripture precedes the famous story of the “persistent widow” with that little comment. It’s encouraging because Jesus obviously understands that we all have reasons to give up. It’s encouraging because in the story He tells, it looks like nothing is working, not for a long time.
One of the reasons I love the Bible is because it is such an honest book.
How many Psalms are basically built around the question, “Where are you God? Why aren’t you doing something?”
My wife just called me into the living room. “I have disappointing news,” she said. Her eyes were moist. My stomach had that queasy oh no — what next? feeling. I braced myself. We’ve had several rounds of bad news this spring and I just don’t know how much more I can take right now. “The radiologist called and gave me the report.” I sat down and listened. It wasn’t what we were hoping for. It certainly wasn’t the report of healing we had been praying for over the course of the past seven months. My heart sank.
“But we prayed.”
I know we all have stories like this — stories of disappointment in prayer. We tried, we put our faith in God, but nothing seemed to change. It can be brutal on the heart and on our relationship with God. Prayer creates a terrible bind for us. We long to pray; it’s part of our nature. We long to see things change in our world. But then, when prayer doesn’t seem to work, it can really knock the wind out of you.
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? — Psalm 13:1-2
Which brings us back to not giving up. Jesus urged us not to give up. But how? I’d like to try and offer a few words of encouragement.
First off, don’t go “global.” It’s an expression I use as a counselor to describe what happens when somebody is upset, and they go from the event that made them upset to everything makes them upset. You know how this works — you forget to feed the cat, and your wife or housemate is mad and they say, “You always forget to feed the cat. You forget to lock the door and you forget to mail the taxes and you….” They go global; they let one disappointment trigger them into “everything is disappointing” when in fact it’s just not true.
When Stasi gave me the bad news this morning I wanted to go global; in my disappointment I wanted to say, “Prayer doesn’t work. I’m done praying about everything.” When the truth is, we have seen stunning answers to prayer over the years, many answers to prayer. No — not all the time. But many times. Yet when my current prayers don’t seem to be working, I suddenly I forget all the answers I have seen over the years. I have to catch myself and remember what is true. This is in fact exactly what the Psalmist does, just a few lines later:
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me. — Psalm 13:5-6
He reminds himself, “God does love me; He has been good to me.” This is heartbreaking, but this is not my total experience of God, not even close. Which brings me to my second lesson: I have to anchor myself in what is true: God is good. He cares immensely. He is involved. When disappointment strikes and my prayers seem to be bouncing off the ceiling, I simply must anchor my heart in these truths or will go down like a sinking ship.
Third, I want to stop and ask why — “why aren’t my prayers working, Lord? What is it I need to know?” Prayer is, after all, a conversation with God. It isn’t supposed to be speech-making, where we come in and have our say and leave before He can say anything in return. The one thing that has changed my prayer life more than any other is asking Jesus, “Lord, what do I pray here?” He can then re-direct my prayers in a far more helpful and effective direction.
Back to the story of the persistent widow — you’ll notice that it is a story about persevering in prayer. Most of the great biblical prayer stories are. How many times did it take Elijah to call down the promised rain? Not once; not twice; eight rounds of all-of-your-heart-soul-mind-and-strength prayer. In Acts chapter 12 James had been seized by Herod and executed. He then arrested Peter and put him in jail and the outcome looked the same. But the story shifts with the phrase,
But the church was praying very earnestly for him. — Acts 12:5
The Greek for “very earnestly” is the same description of the prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane. This is serious prayer. The text also indicates that the church is praying for Peter all night long.
And Peter is rescued.
In humility I don’t think we can begin to discuss the dilemma of “unanswered prayer” until we have learned to pray like the persistent widow, or Elijah, like the church in Acts 12.
One last thought for now: did you notice that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray:
Lord, teach us to pray. — Luke 11:1
It had never crossed my mind that prayer is something to be learned. I assumed it was more like sneezing — you just sort of did it, and God took care of the rest. A very naive view of prayer. You couldn’t get away with that attitude in your marriage, or career, not as a parent, or in anything you enjoy doing. Everything you value in your life you had to learn. And so it is with prayer, especially with prayer. This is our great secret weapon, friends. James says,
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. — James 5:16
If it is, I humbly accept that it is something I want to be trained in.
I understand disappointment in prayer, I really do. I also understand there is nothing my enemy would love more than for me to give up praying. And so I return to the Psalms, and I let them express my heart: both “how long, O Lord?” and “But I trust in Your unfailing love” for You have been good to me. And back to my knees I go.
Original devotional written for Devotional Daily by John Eldredge, author of Moving Mountains, copyright John Eldredge, 2016
The parable of Plato's Cave is the most famous in philosophy. Central to it all is the relationship between light and shadows, form and appearances.
Plato (428-348 BC) was the greatest student of Socrates. In fact we only know of Socrates (who never wrote a word) through Plato's brilliant texts. The important 20th century philosopher and mathematician A.N. Whitehead, once descibed all Western philosophy as a "footnote to Plato". He was not far wrong. Plato is to philosophy what Shakespeare is to literature.
But back to the parable. Plato asked us to picture a group of slaves (very significant choice) chained up and facing a wall in a cave. Behind them is a burning fire that creates a shadow play on the wall. The unfortunate slaves think that these shadow images (appearances) are in fact the full extent of the world.
Outside the cave, however, the sun shines brightly. It is the true Light and the true Cosmos (all that is). But the slaves never see it. The problem is, says Plato, that people have substituted a shadow world of appearances (i.e. things as they appear to us) for the Ideal Form of things-as-they-actually-are in the Mind of God.
Hundreds of books have been written on this subject, especially on its relationship to the theory of knowledge and to spirituality, but the major takeaway is this:
Do not trust your senses. They are part of your experience as a slave to the material world. A far better guide to true liberation comes from leaving the world of appearances behind and seeking the True Light - revealed to us through intuition, dreams, prophecy and the arts.
Aldous Huxley began his book on "The Doors of Perception" (1954) with these words from William Blake:
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."
Let us not forget that Huxley also predicted the contemporary world in his book "Brave New World" (1932).