About yesterday’s quote, I need to make a confession: I accidentally used Hope’s toothbrush yesterday.

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.

Hope is a good forgiver.

Last night there was a viewing of “Shakespeare Behind Bars” and a talkback with the volunteer director of the program, Curt Tofteland.  Since the mid-90’s, Tofteland has been directing Shakespearean plays in the Luther Luckett Medium Security Prison in Kentucky as a means of healing. Over the years, the theatre troupe has cast themselves into roles that depict portions of their checkered past and in doing so, the rehearsals and performances have become therapeutic. 

 

The play that the troupe is rehearsing in the film is “The Tempest.”  I am not so familiar with “The Tempest” (even though I have Jack’s copy of the play in my office and plan to sit in on his Shakespeare classes), so I will let the SBB website speak about the play.  Take Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest with its violent seas, windswept island, crucial connection to nature, and underlying theme of forgiveness, and bring it into a prison, the ultimate venue of confinement. The result is an extraordinary story about the creative process and the power of art to heal and redeem–in a place where the very act of participation in theatre is a human triumph and a means of personal liberation.  www.shakespearebehindbars.com

 

One of the most powerful statements in the film comes from one of the inmates (I cannot remember what his name was).  As he is speaking about his experience, he reflects on how that the most undeserving people do not merit forgiveness but these individuals are the ones who need it the most.  He would know.  His comments made me think about the comments that I posted on Nov. 7 and remind me of the necessity of grace.  When I think about some of my own disciplinary experiences with students, I am very mindful that I have the opportunity to give grace where it may not be deserved.

 

I cannot speak to the power of theatre but there is something about it that is transformative.  I am hoping to go to the Luckett facility in April with some HU students to see a play with my own eyes.

Below is part of the text from an e-mail from a former RD, Kate Magro.  She is currently serving with Hands On Gulf Coast to help rebuild Biloxi, MS.

I normally HATE mass emails- but I needed to get a hold of as many people as possible.  So- we are applying for a grant from Hamburger Helper (no kidding) so that we can paint several murals in Biloxi with local elementary school students.  There are several projects up for the grant, and the project that seems to have the greatest positive response will be awarded the grant money.  So PLEASE PLEASE go to www.hamburgerhelper.com  Go to “Find a Project”  Type in Biloxi and the Mural project will pop up.  PLEASE post a comment and encourage your friends to do the same.

 

What interests me about other people’s books is the nature of their collection. A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements. 

 

Jay Parini: novelist, poet, and professor of English at Middlebury College

 

What does your library say about you?

 

In case you have not heard about Dean Karnazes, you should.  He has completed 37 marathans over the last 37days.  He is working towards 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days.  I didn’t hear about his running until this past Saturday when he was in Cleveland, Ohio.

http://www.endurance50.com/

The human body and will are simply amazing! 

A very interesting article can be found at the link below entitled Meet Calvin DeWitt: Environmental Evangelist.  I’ve only included two paragraphs but they seem to be very clear on how we can view God’s creation as a source of inspiration.

A few years ago, I was standing next to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, and it had just reached its peak—it was going to go for another four or five minutes. A woman next to me had a little boy and she said, “Well, we’ve seen Old Faithful,” and she turned and left. She was collecting things that she could say she had done, but she had absolutely no capacity to behold. What’s coming is a time when we will actually behold the lilies of the field, and behold the birds of the air, which means not just check them off your checklist.

That’s really what happens when you transform your view of the world from one that is simply a collage of commodities and resources, to one that itself gives inspiration and some sense of the beauty of the world. If you behold – which is kind of the biblical way—you will learn far more than what you can by just checking off species on a checklist. Once we do that, we’re going to be seeing the land we occupy, like our yards and our gardens, very differently.

http://www.lime.com/planet/story/4998/meet_calvin_dewitt_environmental_evangelist

An idea… since we would want to be good stewards of the earth and we are the Foresters, what if we made a bigger deal of Arbor Day?  Perhaps we could plant trees on campus or somewhere in the community.  There may be a plan already in place at the college for new trees and such.  I think that the national organization of Arbor Day would even give us trees to plant if we asked nicely.

Did anyone watch “Is God Green?” the other night on PBS?  It was a very interesting discussion about how most conservative Christians do not care about the environment.  According to the program, most conservative Christians are pro-life, anti-homosexual marriage and indifferent to environmental issues.  Moreover, if a Christian were concerned about environmental issues, s/he would be labelled as a “leftist”.

Personally, caring for the environment seems like a necessary and reasonable undertaking that Christians should be concerned about.  Ultimately, we do not possess any of our belongings but are merely stewards of what God has given us to manage.  The care of the world would definately fall into this category.

I bought the video and hope to watch it in the HUB in the upcoming weeks.