November 09's Calendar

November 09's Calendar (Mac), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

I've posted November's calendar on Flickr. Based on this pic of the Roman Bridge in Strathclyde Park... its a wee pressie from me to you.

Both Mac and Windows flavours available to download.

Tx

Why I'm not going to Summer School

Last week... at 2210hrs on the 21st October... I posted the above tweet. Unbeknown to me... it cause a wee flurry of activity. I should have explained that night or the following day... but I got sick. I do owe those who were concerned about me an explanation... so the following in an excerpt of an email I sent Katherine Sonntag, the West of Scotland Salvation Army's Divisional Youth Officer.

Before you read on... please let me assure you that I count Katherine a friend and have nothing but love for her. She has been extremely supportive over this... displaying a level of empathy that was and is very encouraging. She was and continues to be very easy to deal with and is someone I am proud to know.

This isn't a case of me not being asked... to my knowledge, no one has been asked yet! Its more appropriate to think that I no longer feel I have what is necessary to give.

Last week, while I was on leave, my two daughters went to a holiday club in the evangelical church that my parents have recently joined - they moved through from Livingston in September. Their eagerness inspired me. They wanted to be there... not just for the friends they had made but the club had made the story of Moses vital to them... they wanted to learn more and willingly memorised the wee verses they were given. I do think chocolate was a factor but then I do believe they wanted to be there... they wanted to learn more.../

As an individual I am, if I can be honest with myself, spiritually malnourished. I am fully aware that I need to feed and am trying to do so... but I am not getting what I need to sustain me. I want the willingness that my kids have. I want to have the eagerness back. How can I seek to feed others when I am malnourished myself? You can only give out what you have put in... and I can only run on empty for so long. I need to be honest about how long I have been running on empty.

That said... I am struggling with the call to Summer School. I believe it to be a true privilege to be part of... but am unsure if I have anything to give. With Paul & Jen not going... I am scared that I have no one in my immediate support group to keep me on the level. There were times in August where I hated who I had become... and it was Paul who challenged me and kept me in check. Previously it was Olwyn. That said... there were times where I loved what I did... and the cells were a major factor in that... but the truth is I am not a musician and I am not an actor... and I believe there are others more capable of doing what I did.

To compound this... I no longer get 30 days holiday... and now only get 28 days. I can't afford to "buy" the two extra days... and need to give my time to my family. You wouldn't believe how many flippin' holidays these we'ans get.

So it saddens me to say this... but I will not be available for Summer School from 2010 onwards.

I hope this makes sense?

I don't have it in me to continue... I don't think I have anything to add... and I no longer have sufficient annual leave days to give.

Tx

I am Headphonaught (299/365)

I am Headphonaught (299/365), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

This is so funny :: Improv Everywhere's Grocery Store Musical

Absolute genius!

I bought a flatcap... aka I make my own tradition

I bought a flatcap a couple of weeks ago... and I've been meaning to share its significance with you for a while.

In doing so... I want to stress that this was my own decision - Olly hates them... she thinks I am too fat to carry it off. She associates them with old men... farmers... men who like men... and thinness, for some reason. I do not fit into any of these categories... albeit... I have been accused of walking like a farmer... but then that was a good many years ago when wearing Doc Martens and rolled up jeans made sense to me.

Why did I buy a flatcap? Well... because I think they are cool. They have a timeless appeal to someone in his mid-thirties going through some form of obsessive-compulsive midlife crisis where the seeking out... and accumulation of... the "authentic" is becoming increasingly important.

They are "up there" with Polaroid cameras & charityshop'd 501s. Part of a anti-fashion / post-fashion / anything goes / dare-I-say-hipster aesthetic... or at least my inadequate version of.

I have to stress here and now that the purchase of the cap was my decision... I was not forced into it... not was I indoctrinated into it... it isn't a "family thing" - My father only wears hats when he's on holiday... miles from anyone he knows... with sun beating down on his easily-lobsterized face... whereas my maternal grandfather was more of a Trilby wearer. My paternal died when I was 9. I never really got to know him but I do remember a dapper moustache & a fondness for stuff (maybe that's where who I inherited my love of stuff from?). I don't remember Papa Davey as being a hat-wearer.

Anyway... a flatcap isn't a family thing... nor is it a cultural thing... certainly not a current cultural thing. The flatcap is no longer the symbol it was... of the working class man or the landed gent at leisure. I do appreciate that aesthetic... but the baseball cap has replaced this in all intents and purposes where I live, work & play.

So why? I appreciated the aesthetic and wanted it to work for me... I saw the ability to contextualise it to my own liking. Like a soundtrack to a movie I have never seen... I had the ability to rewrite its context for me.

It is also a symbol for church... or at least my church experience & understanding.

I don't want to inherit someone else's idea of church... I don't want my father's or grandfather's church. I want my own.

Nor do I want what my culture indoctrinates or imposes as being the right expression of church. I want my own.

I want to actively recontextualise my understanding and expression of church so that it works for me. I want to own it... live it... breathe it... passionately participate within it and outwith it... I want my own church.

Please don't misinterpret me as some mad heretical egotistical separatist who wants to form "the cult of Thomas". Whilst my ego likes this idea... its not where I am going with this.

I believe church should be about participation... where you can shape it as much as it shapes you... your experiences will create new understanding... and your new understanding will create new experiences. I want my relationship with God to be vibrant... dynamic... alive... 1-to-1.

As I consider "Reformation Day" I want my church... my understanding of God & His calling for those who follow Him... to be something immediate... with no barriers between God and I. No priest to get in the way. No obstacles. I believe this immediacy comes through participation... through collaboration... through active questioning... challenging... debating... toing-and-froing... I don't want to take someone else's word for it... I don't want to be bound by someone else's understanding... I want to make my own mind up... I want to own it for me.

I want my own tradition. I don't want your tradition... in fact, keep your tradition! If its yours... great... own it. If its not yours... if you have inherited it from someone else... where you haven't been an active participant in the writing and understanding of its orthodoxy AND orthopraxy... then, can I ask... is it truly yours?

That said... I am taking this to an extreme. I don't know Hebrew or Greek... in fact its all Greek to me... and I have to rely on the translations of others. I am also made up of the ideas and writings of other: Brian McLaren... Rob Bell... those folks on the something beautiful podcast... those who have inspired me... including my wife... my kids... my parents... my friends;

Where I am going with this is that church should be about an active choice... about ownership... and not the passive "we've always done it like this" approach that I know only too well. Each of us should write their own tradition... in keeping with their experience and understanding of God & His saving... transforming... empowering grace.

But then maybe that's why people hide behind their inherited experiences... because they haven't experienced the wonderful gift of grace? Because this whole "church thing" isn't real to them.

I want a tradition that is real to me... that expresses who I am in and through Him who transformed and continues to transform me. That's what I want to own.

Tx

Some retail therapy for a Saturday afternoon...

Found three sweet sites that I thought I'd draw your attention to...



First up... we have some sweet leather Moleskine covers from a wee grassroots project based out of San Francisco, California.

According to the site... their covers are made of the finest quality natural leathers with handmade workmanship... produced with no harmful chemicals... they aim to provide a durable ecofriendly product with simplicity, beauty and functionality built in.

At 40 bucks... they are a luxury but then... if you spend your hand earned dough on a Moleskine... then you probably dig good paper and would want to keep it extra special.



teefury.com is a fab wee threadless.com-esque tee shirt site with a difference. Their tees are limited to 24 hours. Literally... here today... gone tomorrow. I like that concept... and the tees are pretty reasonable too - 14 bucks for a tee to your door in the UK... this is one to bookmark and check out daily.



Lastly... vmjess' store on etsy has some superfab camerastraps... both over-the-neck SLR ones and over-the-hand point-and-click ones. They are wild and gaudy... but in a good way... far better than the corporate ones that come with your camera.

I particularly liked this one :: Reversable Laguna Bloom and Stripe :: but I can't imagine everyone liking it. Maybe thats why I like it so much.

Boom Boom Pow & revolutionary symbolism...

Dayna got all excited this morning when she showed me a video she'd embedded in the Tumblr account. I was proud until I realised it was Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eye Peas. I kind of lost interest in them when they released that song about Fergie's lady humps.

Anyway... Dayna was raving about the video (use link above... can't embed) because it was futuristic and had "some nice symbols" in it... so I gave it a watch and was blown away. Its a good song and yes... Fergie still looks braw... but I was most blown away with the revolutionary symbolism in the video... the very symbolism Dayna had picked up and was very excited about.



First off... a grenade is transformed into a mic.



Then a gasmask is transformed into headphones.



Lastly... a mushroom cloud is transformed into a tree.

This is powerful imagery. It is subversive... using the imagery of fear and colonial power... and turning it into the imagery of peace:

• An instrument of hate & violence becomes an instrument for free speech and entertainment.
• An instrument of fear and protection becomes an instrument for listening (no point having free speech if no one can hear) and entertainment.
• An outcome of violent intent and a symbol of fear becomes an instrument of ecological health and childlike fun.

These are powerful symbols... and it is this symbology that reminds me of the words of hope Isaiah spoke:

There's a day coming when the mountain of God's House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They'll say, "Come,
let's climb God's Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He'll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we're made."
Zion's the source of the revelation.
God's Message comes from Jerusalem.
He'll settle things fairly between nations.
He'll make things right between many peoples.
They'll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won't play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let's live in the light of God.

Isaiah 2:1-5

The people will turn their swords into shovels and their spears into hoes... this is subversive imagery... turning from aggression to agriculture.

I never thought I'd get that from a pop video... but maybe (to quote Bono) the assertion that if we don't proclaim the good news the very rocks (or rockstars) will... becomes apparent.

Look for hope. Keep your eyes open to hope. It is all around us!

This is funny :: Silent film re-edit of "drunkest guy ever"

Possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time... Tx

(via boing boing with thanks)

Apparently... you CAN polish a turd!

I love the phrase you can't polish a turd... its like a cruder version of a leopard can't change its spots. Thing is... its a truism... you can put all the gloss and spin on it... but at the end of the day, its still a turd.

That said... it appears you CAN polish a turd:

Nick Griffin... you do NOT speak for me.

It is time for the churches to ditch the rhetoric of 'Christian Britain' and religious identity and to replace it with a new discourse based on a Christian vision of justice and equality, rather the hankering after a bygone age which will do nothing but fuel the BNP’s racist ideology.

Jonathan Bartley :: Ekklesia

Jonathan Bartley's article on "why churches should listen to what Nick Griffin said on Question Time" is an excellent article that will be challenging to some... especially older Christians. Basically, the gist is that we need to think long and hard about the rhetoric we use.

Whilst I believe we should be grateful for what we have in Britain... we must realise that Britain is no longer a "Christian" country... and, to be honest, I doubt it ever was. Yes... the church has been key in building what we have but so to have secularists and folks of other faiths.

Whats more... there is no such thing as a "indigenous" Brit. Yes... I am a white Scot... my parents are white Scots... my grandparents were white Scots... but that doesn't mean I am "indigenous" - it just means my family tree has lived in Scotland for a good while. I believe there is Irish blood in mean... although I haven't investigated this by any means.

We need to divorce faith from country of origin, if you ask me. Britain isn't a Christian country but a diverse "saladbowl" of people of faith and those with none.

And as followers of God in the Way of Jesus we need to do all we can to maintain/develop this "saladbowl". Whereas in a "melting pot" everything becomes a similar stew... in a "saladbowl" every ingredient retains its uniqueness - a tomato is not a lettuce and a lettuce is not an onion etc.

How do we maintain this? by speaking up for the oppressed... by siding with the minorities... by sitting down with the broken, hurt, addicted, sidelined; by advocating for the powerless and speaking up for the voiceless. Whilst working with those in power... and those with a voice... to demonstrate, in action, a different way... a way based on love & mutual appreciation.

We need to realise that a mono-culture is a bad thing... by being not only dull but destructive and entropic. It breeds "us and them"... or "in and out"... or "the other".

The word "whosoever" is an all encompassing word that transcends nationality, culture, race, creed, belief, faith, sexuality, gender... it transcends all the silly little things that we use to divide us. God's love is there for all... not just some subset elite.

So I call out to those who speak out as Christians or on behalf of Christians... you only speak for me when your message is one of love... where judgement & elitism are absent... and where justice and egalitarianism are at the forefront... because, as Paul says in Galatians:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28.

Therefore... Nick Griffin... you do NOT speak for me. Stephen Green... you do NOT speak for me.