The Blur of a Weekend

After running around with Krissy on Friday, and visiting Botanicus on Saturday and a trip to Karlstejn Castle today, it’s almost midnight on Sunday and I’m beat! So while Emrys and Krissy consult the travel guides to plan our itinerary for next weekend (I hear mutterings of Pilsen aka beer country)- I figured I’d drop a line to the blog before I crash. Geoff & Krissy have gotten an apartment here in Prague and will be in the area for another 3 months- YEAH! So we have traveling buddies. Very exciting! We also have connected with folks who are friends of Sonlight Camp who we spent today with. So much fun and photos & more details later. night night

~sjt

On Fashion

It’s been a while now since we were in Venice, but this has stuck in my mind since we were there: fashion in Venice (and other parts of Europe).

There seems to be a widespread consensus among Americans that Continental Europe has a certain thing—a certain, how shall we say, Je ne sais quoi—about fashion that Americans lack. In fact, it would seem the rest of the world lacks it, too. Up until our trip to Venice I was an unwitting subscriber to this view of Europeans as having a different and perhaps higher sense of fashion than the rest of the world. Now I am a witting subscriber.

Walking the streets of Venice was in a way like watching a fashion show. Instead of a catwalk there was a series of tight cobblestone streets; instead of a crowd of artsy journalists with flashbulbs there was just the flashy crowd. Like the tall thin strutting human mannequins that pace the model strip, Venetians were walking pieces of carefully crafted, carefully prepared artwork.

Perhaps that is overstating it, if only because “fashion,” by definition, cannot be too unique or individual. Like the fine arts, a composition of clothing that pushes certain boundaries or stretches others too far will be either scorned or ignored. There is only so much boundary-pushing in fashion; to put it another way, the places where boundaries can be broken are quite well defined and limited. So under such rules the Venetians displayed their skills at pushing certain boundaries and keeping well within others in a precise yet highly individualized dance of garment composition.

The rules seemed to be as follows:
1) Everyone must wear a pair of sunglasses. (This seems to make sense on the sunny Adriatic Sea until you’re in the narrow streets where the four-story buildings shade the sun on every side.) The bigger the lenses of the sunglasses the better, and a touch of metal or designer lettering on the sides is all the better. When not worn over the eyes these glasses are to be positioned atop the head.
2) Form-fitting is the order of the day. Not a whole lot of midriffs showing, or short sleeves on men. But even when layers are needed (to protect against the chill sea breeze), the sweater or jacket must fit closely to torso, shoulders, and arms. (Flared cuffs are an allowable exception.)
3) Designer names, logos, or lettering on clothes should be minimal and small. No large “Property of College Athletic Dept” letters here. No blaring Tommy Hilfiger emblems. Subtle, low-key, little indication of walking marketing projects.
4) Shoes should be form-fitting as well, with a minimum of laces or straps. No Chacos in this crowd! Most folks also tended to wear pointed toes whenever possible, to the point of inconvenience (an extra four inches of elfin shoe get stepped on more frequently in the ferry!).
5) Scarves are good.
6) Minimal jewelry—fashion expression should be accomplished in clothes rather than baubles.

Individuality could be found in textures: I saw jackets made of everything from leather to velvet to what could have been drapery material. The fringing of jackets and pants was also an arena for freedom of expression. Fur, leather tassels, and fabric ruffles might all be used to add a touch of flair to an otherwise conformist outfit. Colour was also an area of flexibility, but within bounds. Subtle colours seemed to rule the day rather than extreme or bright hues.

It is worth noting that we were tourists, walking at leisure around the city, gawking at buildings and stopping frequently in shops. As a result I was more likely to see Venetians who were able to do the same thing—in other words, those who could take the day off and wander the narrow streets. A glance at the guys who set up and took down the fish market, for instance, revealed that they wore the same kind of utilitarian garb as farmers, labourers, and fisherfolk all around the world: clothes that are tough, warm, and don’t mind getting dirty.

So matter how different the senses of fashion between the US and Europe might seem to be, one basic thing is the same: a greater concern for fashion arises when you have the wealth and leisure to be choosy.

~emrys

Number One Goat

So a friend of mine works with a PR firm and for an office project has to create a web presence for her goat. So go check out Number One Goat's blog or for more information check out Leah's Blog.

Good luck Leah! Hope you get something good from this!

Changing the World

Geo and Krissy arrived back in Prague last night and are staying with us until they get another place in town for the rest of their sojourn--which is of quite uncertain length.

I only mention this because while Krissy and Sara were out walking this morning, Geo and I figured out how to redeem the United States from its addiction to gasoline for automobiles. We're thinking about putting it together in some sort of published form. So keep your eye on the Economist, Time, Business Weekly, or . . . Wikipedia (search "Saving the World").

We haven't figured out how to redeem the US from its addiction to automobiles yet. Maybe that will come next.

Stay tuned.

~em

New Directions

My research plans have changed. After a couple of weeks working on forming a scriptural theology of preaching, I have discovered that this task is impossible given my time frame--that is, my life expectancy is only seventy-something. So I am going in another direction.

A book entitled "The Homiletic of All Believers," by one O. Wesley Allen (of Lexington Theological Seminary) has caught my attention. I read it early on in my initial research and it gave me great cause to ruminate. (Most of us could use to do a bit more ruminating, if only so that we can talk about it and say the word "ruminate" more often.) As a result, I have decided to write a review and response to this book. Perhaps it will end up in a journal somewhere someday (I entertain certain fancies), but even if not the work is proving to be good for me.

The students around me are working feverishly to finish off Masters' and PhD work; I do not take for granted my luxurious privilege of changing my topic if it doesn't work out well. Of course, if I were doing this under a mentor s/he would probably have set me straight about my earlier idea first thing. Such is independent research.

~emrys

Body Worship

The Church does well with worship. She comes together every Sunday to give praise to God, hear words from the Lord, and bring the prayers of the world in the Spirit that God may answer them. Especially in the Presbyterian stripe of the Church, the saints are good at worshipping with their minds. In many a sanctuary on Sunday morning (or evening or even Saturday night) can be found prayers and sermons that engage the mind and carry the human capacity for thought to a higher plane.

Most flavours of the Church are also good at worshipping with the heart. Aching and beautiful chords sing out from organs, guitars, and flutes, inspiring similar emotive strains from the voices of the congregation. Poetry in hymns and contemporary songs lift the passions of the Bride of Christ to soaring heights.

The Church, as I know her, is not quite so good at worshipping with the body.

My last class in Dunedin was entitled, "Worship and the Performing Arts." (It was taught, incidentally, by another American professor.) In this class we explored the matter of music, drama, and dance as elements of the Church's worship. I found the discussions quite illuminating and challenging, especially with so many people coming from Pacific Island cultures where the performing arts have a different role in everyday and sacred life than they do in mainstream American culture.

The assertion that most challenged me was this: If Jesus Christ redeems us in mind, heart, and body, then we ought also to worship with mind, heart, and body.

It is a tame assertion at first. But then I took an examining look at the work of worship in most congregations of which I have been a part. The only bodily worship we seem to do is stand (at times) and use our vocal cords. Now don't get me wrong: standing is a virtuous part of worship, and our vocal cords are certainly redeemed by the Spirit. But there are so many ways in which redemption of the body might be shown that are under-used.

Clapping is a basic one. In the Presbyterian stripe we're often a bit shy about clapping, but when you get a congregation going in a song they know well and clapping with the beat, joyous things happen. Not only do people en-joy the song more, but as a mass we exude a great joyous noise.

The same goes for dancing. No, we're not talking about club dancing or disco dancing. We're talking about the movement of arms, legs, and body in rhythmic fashion, following the lead of song or voice--and it must be done in a way that honours God and connects with others in the congregation. But I think we should dance. David did it before the ark on its way into Jerusalem, and I think we would benefit by reclaiming that mode of honouring God in the energetic movement of our bodies.

There is still much to be worked out for me--including the discernment of how the congregation to which I am called as pastor will embrace these ideas of "incarnational worship." But the work we did in this class has stuck with me. I hope it proves fruitful in the future.

~emrys

Comments Anyone?

While surfing through some of the settings and tabs in blogger today I found 3 months worth of comments left that were never posted because I had overlooked a setting. That setting has now been corrected and back comments were posted. All comments will post as they should and will be e-mailed to me so I hear from you too!
~sjt

Spring Dawns

As we’ve been wandering around Prague the last week or so I’ve been fascinated watching the tiny buds on the trees as everything dons a verdant hue. It wasn’t until midway through my walk this morning that it struck me that this is the first true spring I’ve experienced in four years.

Southern California didn’t really have vivid markers of season like other climates do. Seasons were generally marked more by the landscapers than by nature. There were a few deciduous trees that tried valiantly to trumpet the new season but were generally unheard, since they didn’t have changing temperatures, budding flowers and birds singing to accompany them. Temperatures seemed constant, flowers in bloom were ever present and singing birds were generally absent or lost to the sounds of the freeways.

So now we’re in Prague, where we arrived bundled up in coats, boots and sweaters and now are shedding layers and welcoming spring in all its green glory. Birds are singing, trees budding, flowers are poking up through the soil. And as to not forget So. Cal. With the windows open, I can hear traffic in the distance.

~sjt

A Lazy Saturday Afternoon

Feeling a bit under the weather (or the spring pollens) I settled in to a lazy afternoon. So how better to spend an afternoon of non-activity than in front of the TV. I think this is the first such day since we left Durango in September.

Only with 30 channels at our disposal, only 3 are in English. CNN gets pretty boring pretty fast. The Halmark Channel caught our attention for a bit until the afternoon special was a twisted version of Snow White where the “dwarfs” ranged from 3’6” to 6’3”, were colored in rainbow order and named after the days of the week. So we moved on to the Discovery Channel. A version of Rides was on with the story of Jay Leno and his Deisenberg. That was pretty good. Then came Brainiacs-which was anything but. At first it looked like a British version of MythBusters, a favorite back home. After watching a bit, it was like MythBusters, only with less science and a more demented. One ongoing segment was a floating office set up, when the “flood warning” goes off, the worker must grab an office item and jump into the pool and see if they’d float through the flood. Another segment could have easily been labeled “Hooters Girls Detonate Dynamite”. MythBusters has nothing to worry about, the competition doesn’t come close!

So we watch a documentary on salt mines while spring rains fall and hopefully clean whatever pollens are attacking my sinuses out of the air.

~sjt

Photos Updated

Apologies to those of you who had problems accessing the Prague photos... that should be fixed now. Also- Venice photos just posted.
Enjoy!
~sjt