Building Blocks

Life consists of people coming and going from their homes and their jobs. It consists of pilgrims going on journeys, of traveling, of hiking up mountains and then back down again. It is made up of entering rooms and leaving rooms, of walking through hallways, going up elevators, passing through wooded areas, of taking trips to the grocery store.

Our world is made out of flowers and butterflies. Flowers begin as seeds which "die" and are buried - just like Jesus, just like people - and which blossom into new, beautiful, fragrant life. Butterflies start out as caterpillars, and then they come up out of Egypt and pass through the Wilderness and become butterflies.

Light exists. Bread and water exist. Snow exists. Rain exists. Sun exists.

Rivers exist. Oceans exist. Fountains exist. Plants exist. Honey badgers and squirrels exist.

Life consists of songs and stories, which are made up of tension and resolution, just like the people who come and go from their homes, just like butterflies, just like flowers. We set out, we study, we labor, we cry, we argue, and then we sleep at night.

Life consists of a million little narratives, which can each be broken down into smaller segments, or lumped together into larger segments. This is the infinite depth of life. No thing is not made up of many things which make up one thing. And each of the many smaller things are likewise able to break down into even smaller pieces. And any group of things can be lumped together to make up one thing. This is the possibility of human art. This connection of things creates meaning. When all things are connected, when all things are lumped together - everything in the universe and all moments in history - what is the meaning? What is the picture this Mosaic creates?

Life is utterly ironic and the universe constantly turns itself on its head. The loser often wins. And you often backtrack to get onto the freeway which in the end will save you time. And sometimes you hurt your knee when you try to run and then you can't run at all. And sometimes people realize that they are humble and become Pharisaical. You would expect the clergy to be guilty of pride, but in this world the layman makes a parade of the fact that he's a layman, and the Gentiles need to be warned that their non-Jewishness, their unworthiness which has brought them to a place of faith, is precisely what would cause them to think that they are something significant in themselves, and what will sever them from the vine.

Leverage is ironic. You push down to create an upward force. Manipulation is ironic. Instead of an explicit imperative, you fake a "poor me" sort of self pity (push down), and you get what you want (upward force).

Batman is ironic. He is a bat-man, a man of the night, yet he will fight for justice in the face of enemies like the joker, who wear goodness and cheer on their face as they blow up hospitals.

Pornography exists. It is like a spider, like a snake, like a tape worm, like cancer, like leprosy, like disease in general, or any such thing which amounts to perversion, evil, lie, and nonexistence which somehow creeps into life as a tangible, concrete manifestation. Pornography is like an evil clown that wears a smile from ear to ear called marriage and purity. A thing is only as evil as it ought to be good, right, just, and beautiful.

And music exists. There is rhythm. There is harmony. There is many, and there is one. There is tension, and there is resolve. And i-pods and MP3 players exist. We like taking these little stories with us.

In the early 20th century, guitar amplifiers would create a clean sound. But rebellious rockers pushed their amps, cut them, dipped them in water - they were literally breaking their amplifiers to get the distorted sound they wanted. Now amplifiers are designed to have such a broken sound, and nobody would think twice when they heard the tone on the radio.

I wait in the rain for my friend to climb in his car and unlock my door. Again, I wait in a dark hallway as he struggles to get his keys out of his pocket. I wait in line for coffee. I wait in traffic. I wait until the bell rings at 330 and my shift ends. I wait until my teacher finishes his lecture so I can talk with the girl sitting in front of me. I wait until I get my test back. I wait for my food to cook. I wait for Josh to finish his shower so that I can take my own. I wait until I get my license, until I graduate high school, until I get a girlfriend, until I get married, have kids, get my Masters. I wait for this movie to get over, so I can more politely tell my friends goodnight.

We hate waiting because we aren't wise or observant, and the thought just never occurs to us why the sovereign Father would create such a world. And the truth is, we are just really idolatrous people who think that these things will satisfy us. We are pragmatic, impatient people trying to make do in a world of signs and images; these signs and images actually do mean something more real than themselves.

We hold dear these little pictures, much more than the real thing.

"All things with which we deal, preach to us." - Emerson