One A Day

The fruit of a year-long mini-project.

I took a photo of myself, via MacBook, everyday for a year.  The results were not nearly as self-revelatory as I would have imagined. But did confirm three things I already suspected:

1. I fancy myself with a beard.
2. I rarely comb my (rapidly greying) hair.
3. I enjoy being shirtless around the house.

One A Day from chris breslin on Vimeo.

Ethics & Baseball.

As far as I can tell, Sam Wells' schema translates over to baseball as such:

Universal Ethics.

I don't even think I need to define who "we" is to go ahead and say, "We all hate the yankees."  These guys represent everything that's wrong with the MLB.  Big money, no empathy for the little guy, no creativity or theo-athletic imagination.  These guys are definately about decisions and not people, particularly in the off-season and around trade deadlines.

Subversive Ethics.

Bent on stickin' it to the Man (the Man's name is George Steinbrenner).  Billy Beane is the Gustavo Gutiérrez of beisbol.  Joe Morgan brings his categorical imperative to every AL West game he broadcasts.  Supreme Billy-Ball hater.  You really wanna root for them, but they don't do you any favors not having made the playoffs since 2006, trading anyone and everyone who could help them, and playing in the Pacific time zone.

Ecclesial Ethics.

Likable underdog.  Well-loved around the hallowed halls of DDS.  In some ways doomed to failure, but relying on some sense of eschatological divine justice.  Hauerwas, shockingly a Cubbie fan, once even likened cheering for the boys from the North Side to pacifism, "This commitment [becoming a Cubs fan] came at the same time I was convinced by John Howard Yoder that I had to become a pacifist.  I like to think being a Cubs fan and being a pacifist are closely linked- namely, both commitments teach you that life is not about winning."  God indeed has given them everything they need, except a pennant.

screening: Spoken Word, Preaching Visuals, & Prophetic Jesterdom

Topics from today's preaching class:

Spoken word poetry as embodying and unleashing the Word.

Anis Mojgani performs Shake the Dust at HEAVY AND LIGHT. from To Write Love on Her Arms. on Vimeo.

Using visual media to deliver and enhance the message.

Lump (Rob Bell - Nooma)

Using humor/satire/fable as a subversive, prophetic, surprising alternative.

mewithoutYou - The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie from David Bell on Vimeo.

praying: on All Saints Day

Mary-born Lord, humble us so that we also might say, "Let it be with me according to your word."

We are tempted to will our way to humility because we just do not trust you with your creation.

Someone has to make this world come out right. Thank you for surrounding us with your saints, whose lives remind us what your work looks like.

Your saints are a funny lot- weird and wonderful. They often make us laugh, Sarah-like, and through laughter we discover humility.

God, it is wonderful to be made a part of your entertainment so that the world might be freed from sin. Amen.

(taken from Dr. Hauerwas' Prayers Plainly Spoken: "Your Saints Are A Funny Lot")

processing: Summer Reading: Part II

No Country For Old Men- Cormac McCarthy

If you can believe it, McCarthy's writing is more haunting than the on-screen portrayal by Javier Bardem. Per usual, his writing is grim, violent, graphic. We are left to ponder the futility of our 'good fight'. Is there even such a thing? The protagonist drifts into the territory of moral ambiguity and we are left feeling disoriented when we realize that the serial killing bounty hunter possesses a singularity and ethic not found in the so-called 'good guy'. Through all this, the narrator, Sheriff Bell seems to be the only one willing to acknowledge the worlds (and his own) decline. Along with, The Road, this book should be on everyone's required reading.

Our Endangered Values- Jimmy Carter

Former President Carter seems to have uniquely improved his legacy more with his post-White House career and tireless advocacy than by anything he did as president. This account is an interesting combination of what else- politics and religion- the two things not to bring up. Knowing both President Carter's devotion to peacemaking and justice (through Atlanta's Carter Center) and his ongoing mediation in Baptist life (New Baptist Covenant & CBF), it is nice to get a firsthand account of his motivations and presuppositions. While I don't agree with him on everything, I admire his courage, incredible endurance, and unwavering posture of engagement and dialogue.

Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World- A.J. Jacobs

I came across this one because I had read his A Year of Living Biblically and curiously enough picked it up at the same time as my friend Nick from church (and disc golf) was getting through it. Jacobs essentially chronicles his quest by picking out and occasionally revisiting the oddest, most profound, and down-right wackiest entries in the EB. What makes it interesting is his wit, candor, and occasional vulnerability when discussing insights from material as varied as Ecclesiastes and aquatic mating rituals. With Esquire-esque humour and agility, Jacobs manages to deftly weave his threads of familial relations, his wife and his struggle for fertility (and subsequent fatherhood), epistemology into a funny and reflective yearlong tapestry.

Jesus and Community- Gerhard Lohfink

Here are a couple insightful excerpts:
“If we ask Paul what significance the existence of the church has for pagan society in his writings...He says that God in Christ has reconciled the world to himself and that the church is now the place where reconciliation, which has already occurred in principle, is to be realized concretely. God has therefore charged the church with the service of reconciliation. The church is the place where, in a new creation, God has inaugurated reconciled society (pg 141).”

“Only in this gift of reconciliation, in the miracle of life newly won against all expectation, does what is here termed a contrast-society flourish. What is meant is not a church without guilt, but a church in which infinite hope emerges from forgiven guilt. What is meant is not a church in which there are no divisions, but a church which finds reconciliation despite all gulfs. What is meant is not a church without conflicts, but a church in which conflicts are settled in ways different from the rest of society. What is meant, finally, is not a church without the cross and without passion narratives, but a church always able to celebrate Easter because it both dies and rises with Christ (pg 147).”

unChristian:What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why it Matters- David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons

I must say my favorite parts of this book were some of the first-hand insights from contributors at the end of each chapter. These contributors were as diverse as Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, John Stott, Rick McKinley, Churck Colson, Andy Stanley, Andy Crouch, & Shane Claiborne. A wide variety of evangelical voices and a great representation of the polyphony and variance under the umbrella of evangelicism. I remember, however, while reading, being both thankful and disheartened. Thankful that this research was done and that this book was written and pushed through a channel whereby it gets received by the largest possible needed audience. Disheartened that money and time was spent researching and writing to let us, evangelicals, those supposedly most concerned with and incarnate in the "outside, secular world," understand that we have a bad reputation and that reputation is built more on "our" hypocrisy, imperialism, prejudice, sheltered disconnect, & politics rather than "Christ and Him crucified."

Perhaps the most telling statistic was the results from a poll that revealed the disconnect between how the church's hospitality is received by pastors, regular born-again attenders, sporadic attenders, and the un-churched outsider:

Christian churches accept and love people unconditionally, regardless of how people look or what they do. (% who strongly agree)
pastors: 76%
born-again Christians: 47%
Christian churchgoers: 41%
outsiders (all ages): 20%
(pg185)

Blessed Are the Peacemakers- Wendell Berry

This short work pulls out key peacemaking passages (most prominently Matthew's Sermon on the Mount) dealing with living peaceably. Finally there is an essay, previously published in the Christian Century, titled, "The Burden of the Gospels," that seeks to synthesize these passages.

Here are a couple excerpts:
"When Jesus speaks of having life more abundantly, this, I think, is the life he means: a life that is not reducible by division, category or degree, but is one thing, heavenly and earthly, spiritual and material, divided only insofar as it is embodied in distinct creatures. He is talking about a finite world that is infinitely holy, a world of time that is filled with life that is eternal. His offer of more abundant life, then, is not an invitation to declare ourselves as certified "Christians," but rather to become conscious, consenting and responsible participants in the one great life, a fulfillment hardly institutional at all."

"If we take the Gospels seriously, we are left, in our dire predicament, facing an utterly humbling question: How must we live and work so as not to be estranged from God’s presence in his work and in all his creatures? The answer, we may say, is given in Jesus’ teaching about love. But that answer raises another question that plunges us into the abyss of our ignorance, which is both human and peculiarly modern: How are we to make of that love an economic practice?"

God Has a Dream- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Like No Future Without Forgiveness only much, much lighter. Archbishop Tutu elaborates on the theology that roots his reconciliation efforts in South Africa over the past several decades. This theology enlists the African concept of Ubuntu, a shared humanity, the recognition of the image of God in the other. Endearing and self-deprecating at times, he begins each chapter, "Dear Child of God..." From then on you are engaged and edified by this wise, gentle, and incredibly experienced man. Catching a vision for "Hope in our Time," seems like a worthy pursuit, Tutu's contribution is helpful.

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything- David Dark

I really enjoyed this one. A pleasure: well-written, witty, and penultimately relevant for current popular Christian discourse. Something like a Christian Chuck Klosterman. This is kind of a grown-up Blue Like Jazz, the book that you might loan to someone only peripherally interested in God and spirituality, but culturally, academically aware. From his detailed exegesis of Arcade Fire songs, to his unswerving devotion to Steven Colbert's prophetic truthiness, Dark manages to produce a work both religiously and culturally discerning, and at times critical. Dark bridges the gulfs of his current Vanderbilt PhD pursuit (and talks the talk quite nicely) and his gig teaching English at a conservative Nashville Presbyterian high school. What you get is an account that asks the right questions, provides only some of the answers, lets you do the work and prayer to come up with the rest, and hails the process of loving the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, strength, and questions.

Portrait of Calvin- T.H.L. Parker

[available for free digital download at Desiring God.]
I read this biography to celebrate JC's (the less famous/divine one) 500th birthday this month. I also thought it might be nice to get someone else's than Steinmetz' account of Calvin, after all the good Doctor is an unabashed Luther man. The most striking and personal note struck came in the first few pages in regard to Calvin's choice of education. It seemed obvious for him to go to Paris to study Theology at what was considered the orthodox and best option. Instead he chose to study law elsewhere. "...the intricacies and niceties of the law was gained which he could never have won from the University of Paris. At Orleans and Bourges, the intellectual atmosphere was more free. New ideas were not bogies, but food for interesting speculation. The classics...now seemed most desirable- calling, not to danger, but to delights." This portion both particularly resonates with me and the path I've taken in my graduate studies, and strikes me with a certain sad irony that Calvin's delight came in the freedom and curiosity not as widely afforded in some modern institutions that hail his thought.

Related: SUMMER READING: PART I.

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update X

I can't really complain about this week. I certainly had a better one than Luis Castillo. I think the fellas just need to keep chipping away, Longoria is on the way back and Vlad is looking to return to form.

Baseball is a harbor, a seclusion from failure that really matters, a playful utopia in which virtuosity can be savored to the third decimal place of a batting average. ~Mark Kramer

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update IX

Just like my lagging and ailing Oakland A's, the fungoes have managed to string together a few weeks. Pitching is wanting to stabilize itself, but not quite there. Playing a bottom feeder this week, crucial for making up some ground.

"Strikeouts are boring - besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. More democratic." ~From the movie Bull Durham

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update VIII

Pitiful. I have no consistency. Nothing to hold up as a strong base on which to build. Here's to hoping next week's better, Vlad gets healthy, pitching comes around, and my opponent doesn't have the week of his life (for once).


"Baseball fans are junkies, and their heroin is the statistic." ~Robert S. Wieder

processing: Summer Reading: Part I

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals- Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan writes a comprehensive account of 4 modes of eating. It is written smartly (sometimes snarkily so) and the quest-journalism side of me loves the humor and experiential vulnerability displayed. The 4 modes covered are: big box/industrial fast food, industrial organic, local, & hunter-gatherer. Highlights include his interview with Northern VA's Polyface celebrity Joel Salatin and his hunting/shrooming escapades in Northern California. It is interesting some of the conclusions reached here. There is not a free pass afforded to the Whole Foods lifestyle, nor is he regretfully idealistic about hunting wild boar and collecting sea salt and scallops in the Pacific. This book is a solid read, allowing you a philosophical, practical, economic, political, and culinary look at just what is going into your body and what it takes to get it there.


Same Kid of Different As Me- Ron Hall & Denver Moore
These two amateur authors combine for a decently constructed autobiographical narrative about reconciliation, God's providence amid both grinding poverty and rampant selfishness, and the ability of the Holy Spirit to form bonds and relationships that wouldn't be possibly through any other means. Ron is an international art dealer, rolling in cash, subjecting his marriage to the damage of infidelity and the hollowness of materialism. Denver is a former share-cropper (read: modern day slave) turned violent and psychotic homeless man. The two lives emerge through a long forming relationship at a shelter and like any good missions project, the "missionary" emerges changed and taught more than the "mission to be accomplished". If you can wade through some clumsy and often cheesy storytelling, this book is a helpful, touching, and at times heartbreaking tale.


A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am A...Christian- Brian McLaren
This one was one of those nagging reads that you feel you need to take a peak at, glean some really positive things, be displeased with some others, but generally come out the better for having powered through. I'll be honest, my first skepticism came from the repeated assurance that the Emergent Church (dunno if caps are needed) need not rely on personalities while McLaren's neutral post-modern mug peers at you from the cover. Then I remember not to judge a book by its cover but rather by its overly long and pretentious subtitle (that's fair don't you think?). There were several parts (in fact most of the book) that I really enjoyed, lined up well with, and feel confident in though. Brian's emphasis on balance, a health patristic appreciation and ecclesial unity and generosity rang loud and clear. I'll continue to keep an eye on McLaren, he seems to be on to something and deserves the hermeneutical generosity he demands.


Durham Tales: The Morris Street Maple, the Plastic Cow, the Durham Day That Was & More- Jim Wise
Only a town as self-conscious, wacky, and unique as Durham could have a history of such equal qualities. Wise attempts a folky and at times humorous incomplete history of our beloved stepchild of a city. By choosing diverse, minor, and utterly absurd episodes, he, like any good historian, demonstrates exactly why things are the way the are. Bright spots include the geographic beacon of the Morris St maple, the trainspotting recurring throughout the pages, minor characters ranging from the neighborhood mom to the sportsmanship-touting coach, and of course all of the standard players (Dukes, Watts, etc.) that clue us in what has made and continues to make the Bull City tick. If you don't live in or around Durham, do some work and find somehting like this for your town, it will further embed you in it and certainly increase your appreciation and/or sympathy for your surroundings.


The Memory of Old Jack- Wendell Berry
I would recommend one of Berry's Port William Township novels to anyone looking for beautiful prose describing menial happenings. By menial I mean there are no dramatic twists and turns, the characters are common folk in a small town, the novels are not sequels because there's not a plot to advance. Instead these memoirs (of the town more than the actual characters) display tragically, vividly, and carefully the depth of the membership. The Memory of Old Jack narrates the senile patriarch's past and present in heart-breaking terms detailing his doomed marriage, the devastation of a still born child, the awkward relations in a tenant labor system, and everything else that comes with growing old. Like his brilliant essays, Berry displays his passion and penchant for teaching and transmitting difficult topics and subjects in homey, endearing, and provocative terms. This particular book proved valuable to me in my start of field ed, while it describes rural KY, the dynamics parallel Roxboro, NC closely, and the care and respect given to the characters fosters likewise respect for the hardworking simple folk I encounter daily.

Becoming The Answer To Our Prayers- Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Shane & Jonathan have a precious gift for presenting practical teaching in a candid, comical, and subversive tone. Like their previous works/appearences, they use plenteous personal experiences and interactions to share the counterintuitive good news of Christ and the discipleship required of his followers. Having been over to Rutba and hearing both of these gentleman, you immediately understand a depth in their testamony beyond their words. Their words are secondary to their daily authenticity. If you have a chance, meet them. They are humble, funny and hospitable: as advertized. In this short volume, they tackle prayer: the Lord's Prayer & Jesus' Prayer for unity (Jn 17). Not unlike the exhortation in Jame's Epistle, they teach a seemless and inextricable bond between our prayers and the action resulting from our prayers (think less 'self-fulfilling prophesy' and more of an intergrated 'active spirituality'). The goal then is not to pray our way out of this world, but rather praying to become (and then actually becoming) a part of God's work for the redemption of the world. These prayers are subversive and dangerous prayers, but neccessary and powerful.

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update VII

Had my starting pitching not let me down this would have truly been a stalemate. For once I one out offensively at the neglect of my pitching & defense. I fear I may have over compensated and thrust too much effort and attention on RP, we'll see. This team is playing with the consistency and stability of my Creek JV team (which finished a strong 6-9). Put it together fellas.


Found out that Enos Slaughter (that's right THE Enos Slaughter) is buried in the cemetery at my wee Roxboro Methodist Church.


In other pressing baseball news...I managed to bust a blister this past weekend in Alexandria with Whit, Wes, & David taking a mere ~50 swings in the cage. I'm loosing it, I have those sissy hands- better start the Moises Alou treatment to toughen them up.

Much to my surprise, I am not not the only one suffering this problem. Much to my chagrin Casey Stengel articulated it better on and off the field before I was a thought:

"I was such a dangerous hitter I even got intentional walks in batting practice."* ~Casey Stengel, 1967
*More accurately describes David's predicament when I started to throw.

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update VI

Managed a solid and well-rounded week. Very easily could have only dropped one category. Buerrle, Haren, and Weaver all pitched well with little to no support and no wins between them. Somehow, for reasons unknown, I picked up Putz from waivers right when he seems to be on the up, kinda feels like a "buyer beware" situation. Seeing as I didn't pay anything though, I'll roll with it. We are in a good spot right now, staying balanced and waiting for Vlad to recover. As long as Tampa doesn't pull anymore stunts with Longoria-late scratches, I feel good six weeks in.

George Will quote on umpires (I'll probably use this ironically in my documentary screenplay if I ever actually commit it to paper):

"They are supposed to be dispassionate dispensers of Pure Justice, icy islands of emotionless calculation. In short, umpires should be acute Republicans [insert Christian denomination here]."

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update V

You would think that someone who had Evan Longoria would be a lock against some weak New England competition like the Paisley's. You would think. What I failed to factor in was the very Manley Hanley Ramirez. Not only is he AJ's all-time baseball man-crush but he became one of mine with a 16 hit week (4 of which were bombs) and 30 total bases (to Evan's 24). I salute you Nick, it was a hard fought week but you earned it, you out Florida-ed me on this one. Now how about some relief pitching for me?

Serious, enlightened Whitman baseball quote of the week:
I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ~Walt Whitman

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update IV

What a rebound week for the visiting fungoes! My opponent should change the team name to CRNAM (Cream Rules Nothing Around Me). Still need to get Saves & SB's under control. My master plan is to acquire Carl Crawford and write the Rays a letter everyday asking (no, telling) them to put him on the mound in the 9th. I'd be such a corner-cutter-2 birds/1 stone type of GM. Also, realized this week that my actual baseball fantasy involves the A's a)gaining a lead, b)keeping said lead. Brutal stuff. I guess I'll have to put the baseball fantasy on the backburner and settle for Fantasy Baseball and the fungoes relentless pursuit of near-perfection.

They said it right:
"A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings." ~Earl Wilson

fungoes Fantasy Baseball Update III

Though I really do wish we could have thumped someone whose team name was 'Crotch-kicker' (akin to loosing to the Yankees, Expos, or Utah Jazz), we leveled off our performance this week. Goal for week 4: dial in the offense again, keep improving in the bullpen, get a trade moving for some relief pitching.

Baseball quote of the week: What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw

Sons of Thunder: 2009 Campus Intramural Softball Champions!

With three wins this week in the playoffs we captured the campus title. What a great group of guys we assembled and a great job coach Dave did putting and keeping the whole thing together! This whole thing held a little more significance for me than maybe it should have. Prior to this year I was kind of the Buffalo Bills or the Atlanta Braves of intramural sports, having lost in the campus championships of three IM softball seasons at UF (the Sultans of Swat captured one the semester after I graduated) and one IM dodgeball championship this past Fall. T-shirts forthcoming.

Roster:
John Jay Alvaro
Chris Breslin
Ben Carroll
Dave Crispell
Thomas Dickson
Curt Lowndes
Brett McCarty
Eric Prenshaw
Zach Riley
Jon Tschanz
Tom Warren

Happy Anniversery Diet of Worms...

488 years and counting. I salute you with a white guy rapping about Church History a la Jay Z & Rick Rubin:

fake album exercise: Monument to Balzac

In general, I loathe chain mail and forwards. Can't stand anything expecting me to participate or pass it on. I caved on this one, and actually had some good fun with it. It took only a small amount of time and creativity, but propelled me into formulating some wacky identity for my fake band. Let's face it, everyone at some point or another has wanted to be in a band. Fault those who are more or less musically inclined (present company excluded) for chasing that, but everyone is guilty.


This is the exercise:
1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article that comes up is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very LAST quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third picture in the top row, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use PhotoShop or whatever to put it all together.

Frivolous Fiona Apple Post...

I was at the gym this morning and heard a Fiona Apple song (2 things: what weird gym music: Fiona Apple bracketed by Fergie and Journey. Second: no matter how much you're not paying attention to the music and totally focused on shocking the bi's and keeping the body guessing, you KNOW when Fiona's on, for better or worse.) Hearing her song, whichever one it was, reminded me of a music video of her's that I had seen a while ago featuring North Carolina's own Zach Galifianakis. Hard to pump iron when you are laughing at a joke that no one else is sharing in. Great video, for your viewing pleasure...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krTE0AJkqj4
(youtube wouldn't let me embed it.)