Saturday, February 23, 2019
Identities and Portrats, Mountains and Temples
When I was at Pembroke Mall a couple weeks ago, there was an art exhibit there showing the work of some of the local schools. I am super impressed with and encouraged by the work of two of these kids. I guess intuition and insight are still, like, things, despite all we have going against them...
This 8th grader Bryan has presented to us a pretty amazing translation for our times of, "Faith the size of a mustard seed moves mountains." Mountains in scripture are doubly associated with, on the one hand, imperial oppression and, on the other, God's Holy City, visible to all, the Glory of God's goodness and love made manifest and visible in a community's way of life. The kinds of mountains that require faith to "move" are the oppressive ones, like the powers of the Roman empire that put God in the flesh on a cross.
This kid is tuning and tapping into how such oppressive powers are so prevalent in our world today, now masked as temptations and callings to identities branded on us like cattle by the oppressive, seemingly-immovable powers of consumerism and market participation, masks we're all called, enticed, and commanded by these oppressive powers to put on with our endless, illusion-filled, death-denying striving higher and higher up a social ladder made of straw that's already on fire, at the top of which is only dark alienation, cold anxiety, and the revelation of the death that fuelled the competitive striving all along.
This kid probably hasn't studied any of that, but he has the gift of sight. He gets it. He senses, deep in his bones, that something is off. And he's able to articulate it for others to see. This painting nearly brought me to tears a couple weeks ago when it was presented at Pembroke Mall. We have in our midst an 8th grade prophet; I hope he finds the holy mountain of light that requires no sun or moon.
And little Felicity Kung. 5th grade. FIFTH grade! And her intuition and insight have her tapping and tuning into deep, wondrous, awe-commanding open secrets, whispered mysteries of and by the cosmos. That man and nature are participants in a higher order of forms of beauty that can and have been accessed with math and geometry. This likely adorable little 5th grader is already a student of Pythagoras and Phidias, Moses (Exodus 25-31) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40-48); she has already gleaned insight into their visions for Temples and city plans that are in accordance with higher orders now largely lost to our perceptual fields because of the way oppressive, secularizing forces have come to dominate our patterns of sensation, perception, and thinking.
But not beautiful little Felicity Kung. No! She's a Soul Rebel, a little Princess of Priests! I hope the burning wick her intuition for beauty isn't soon quenched by Rage Against the Machine. I hope she dives deeper into our gifts of beauty so as to be enraptured by an awe-struck wonder saturated with overwhelming Love.
This kid is tuning and tapping into how such oppressive powers are so prevalent in our world today, now masked as temptations and callings to identities branded on us like cattle by the oppressive, seemingly-immovable powers of consumerism and market participation, masks we're all called, enticed, and commanded by these oppressive powers to put on with our endless, illusion-filled, death-denying striving higher and higher up a social ladder made of straw that's already on fire, at the top of which is only dark alienation, cold anxiety, and the revelation of the death that fuelled the competitive striving all along.
And little Felicity Kung. 5th grade. FIFTH grade! And her intuition and insight have her tapping and tuning into deep, wondrous, awe-commanding open secrets, whispered mysteries of and by the cosmos. That man and nature are participants in a higher order of forms of beauty that can and have been accessed with math and geometry. This likely adorable little 5th grader is already a student of Pythagoras and Phidias, Moses (Exodus 25-31) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40-48); she has already gleaned insight into their visions for Temples and city plans that are in accordance with higher orders now largely lost to our perceptual fields because of the way oppressive, secularizing forces have come to dominate our patterns of sensation, perception, and thinking.
But not beautiful little Felicity Kung. No! She's a Soul Rebel, a little Princess of Priests! I hope the burning wick her intuition for beauty isn't soon quenched by Rage Against the Machine. I hope she dives deeper into our gifts of beauty so as to be enraptured by an awe-struck wonder saturated with overwhelming Love.
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