Happy Thanksgiving.
With love,
~Daniel Luthi
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Ugly White Privilege
Racism.
Its wrong.
But it happens.
And many white people are ignorant of it...most due to choice.
Are we going to pursue chosen ignorance because of our "white privilege"?
When will the church more collectively take a visible stand for social justice?
Or are we going to sit on our bottoms and let ugly racist things in our everyday life pass by and pretend we are ignorant by looking the other way?
When will the topic of racism be dealt with in a rational not emotional way?
Is middle and upper class white society doomed to a cycle of denial and ignorance of hate? both domestically and internationally?
When will we say enough is enough and care enough to act like a well informed caring church and society?
For further reading see the following well written article, brought to my attention recently:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Its wrong.
But it happens.
And many white people are ignorant of it...most due to choice.
Are we going to pursue chosen ignorance because of our "white privilege"?
When will the church more collectively take a visible stand for social justice?
Or are we going to sit on our bottoms and let ugly racist things in our everyday life pass by and pretend we are ignorant by looking the other way?
When will the topic of racism be dealt with in a rational not emotional way?
Is middle and upper class white society doomed to a cycle of denial and ignorance of hate? both domestically and internationally?
When will we say enough is enough and care enough to act like a well informed caring church and society?
For further reading see the following well written article, brought to my attention recently:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Sunday, November 14, 2010
A Blender of Precious Babies, Old People, and Soft Hearts
So today, I met somebody special and oh so darling. It was THE miss Karlina Jean Klotzle. She was small...tiny in fact. She had 10 fingers and 10 toes, the cutest little arms and legs and beautiful eyes. She slept most of the day, and had a adoring fan club watching her every move.
You know.... few things in life stop you and make you take inventory about just how wonderful and awesome God is than a infant like Karlina. The intricate detail of a tiny human body that will soon grow and mature into a walking, talking, intellectually reasoning adult. And to think that all that came from genetic information from 2 haploid cells (don't laugh look it up...its what they are) with 23 chromosomes each. Wow...it takes my breath away.
This past weekend I went to see the Minnesota Orchestra. It was as part of a requirement for one of my classes here. You basically get loaded up on a school bus with your classmates, head down to Orchestra Hall, hear the concert, head back, and write about what you heard.
What was amazing to me was the amount of retirees there. Oh, my! Some enjoying fine liquors, others sampling delicacy pastries, while still others were engaged in droll conversation with their fellow music lovers. Now I know there are probably other age groups that enjoy music too, but just can't make it to concerts like the one I was at. Yet, I was still bothered by a relative lack of anybody else (aside from the group I was with) looking younger than I. Is all the world so consumed with childcare, job responsibilities, or financial worries that we can't take time out of our day/evening to enjoy a little music? Take time to smell the musical roses humans! Yes, you can hear stuff on the radio...but its not the same. I definitely plan on being a classical music connoisseur when I get older and have the funds to support it. Its just so much FUN, and it takes the time to let our thoughts and our heart flow behind the music being presented. It is meaningful art.
This musical indulgence brought a renewed sense of "Wow" when I considered that people such as Bach who wrote a piece a week for church worship. What does it take though to really stop and consider babies, music, the wisdom of older people, or the grandness of creation (I had my first snowstorm this weekend =] ). Sometimes, while I notice this especially in school, I get so up close and focused on the task at hand that I lose sight of the bigger picture. I am here, yes to learn, but I am also here to grow. I am here to serve. I am here to step outside of myself and take in life from someone else's perspective. My patient, my neighbor, my roommates, and anyone really who I meet. I think the same could go for others too.
Take away lesson from all this? Hereby resolved. When Dan is feeling overwhelmed, pulling his hair out at finals, and wishing he could just quit it all, he is going to remember to take a break and step outside, to enjoy looking at awesomely cute and fantastically adorable infants, to take a moment and reflect on the detail God has placed in our creative minds with classical music. God loved me enough to die for me. He loved me enough to provide a means to further (what appears to be) His goal for my life. His love is higher than the highest mountain, and deeper than the deepest sea. I don't think I really reflect on all that in my daily stress filled grind. Keep me accountable. I think its a worthwhile practice for us all.
You know.... few things in life stop you and make you take inventory about just how wonderful and awesome God is than a infant like Karlina. The intricate detail of a tiny human body that will soon grow and mature into a walking, talking, intellectually reasoning adult. And to think that all that came from genetic information from 2 haploid cells (don't laugh look it up...its what they are) with 23 chromosomes each. Wow...it takes my breath away.
This past weekend I went to see the Minnesota Orchestra. It was as part of a requirement for one of my classes here. You basically get loaded up on a school bus with your classmates, head down to Orchestra Hall, hear the concert, head back, and write about what you heard.
What was amazing to me was the amount of retirees there. Oh, my! Some enjoying fine liquors, others sampling delicacy pastries, while still others were engaged in droll conversation with their fellow music lovers. Now I know there are probably other age groups that enjoy music too, but just can't make it to concerts like the one I was at. Yet, I was still bothered by a relative lack of anybody else (aside from the group I was with) looking younger than I. Is all the world so consumed with childcare, job responsibilities, or financial worries that we can't take time out of our day/evening to enjoy a little music? Take time to smell the musical roses humans! Yes, you can hear stuff on the radio...but its not the same. I definitely plan on being a classical music connoisseur when I get older and have the funds to support it. Its just so much FUN, and it takes the time to let our thoughts and our heart flow behind the music being presented. It is meaningful art.
This musical indulgence brought a renewed sense of "Wow" when I considered that people such as Bach who wrote a piece a week for church worship. What does it take though to really stop and consider babies, music, the wisdom of older people, or the grandness of creation (I had my first snowstorm this weekend =] ). Sometimes, while I notice this especially in school, I get so up close and focused on the task at hand that I lose sight of the bigger picture. I am here, yes to learn, but I am also here to grow. I am here to serve. I am here to step outside of myself and take in life from someone else's perspective. My patient, my neighbor, my roommates, and anyone really who I meet. I think the same could go for others too.
Take away lesson from all this? Hereby resolved. When Dan is feeling overwhelmed, pulling his hair out at finals, and wishing he could just quit it all, he is going to remember to take a break and step outside, to enjoy looking at awesomely cute and fantastically adorable infants, to take a moment and reflect on the detail God has placed in our creative minds with classical music. God loved me enough to die for me. He loved me enough to provide a means to further (what appears to be) His goal for my life. His love is higher than the highest mountain, and deeper than the deepest sea. I don't think I really reflect on all that in my daily stress filled grind. Keep me accountable. I think its a worthwhile practice for us all.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Molecules of Oil on a Canvas
I am going to be completely unoriginal and post something I wrote about 2 months ago and had posted on FB. I am still greasing my "blog wheels". I guess a dichotomy about writing for me is that it feels so good to use words to express things...creative, persuasive, abstract. At the same time, I can't just flip a switch and decide I am going to write about "this thing/idea/struggle". I admire people who do, but I gotta sit and "chew the cud" for a while in my mind. Enough said.
Sooo...here it is. Some prose/verse about Life. I have been told by countless people that adjusting to change is not one of my strongest areas. [Begs the question, "Oh? So how is it supposed to be done then, in light of my situation?"] Those of you who know my family or "the story" know that 2010 has certainly been a year for change for us. Remarriage, blending families, moving across country, me moving to MN to complete my education (*Hallelujah!*), and making new exciting friendships in a state that I never really spent that much time in. What does this all mean? Is change merely a constant in life that God put there to remind us how unchanging and unshakable He is? I think so...but here is a rhetorical question for ya. Why do we as humans (or at least me it seems) kick so hard in the opposite direction when it occurs?
As Thanksgiving nears, I am reminded of the Psalm 8:4 when I think about God...up there causing all this change to work out in His plan and with the outcomes that He sees best. "...what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?" (Psalm 8:4 NLT). The very "Watchmaker of the Universe" who holds the heavens and all of life in His palm, actually wants a relationship with me. Wow. Though change still happens, I have the opportunity to focus on the constant direct love I have with my Heavenly Father. May my eyes be less focused on the canvas and the processes used to create, and more on the Master Creator Himself.
That said...take this for what its worth...here is what I wrote...posted for your own intellectual digestion.
=============
Change
by: Yours Truly
Psychology calls it adjusting
Others call it life,
Some folks tell me its good
Others say "Its how I met my wife!"
We deal with it all different
Bubbling up some squash it down inside
We think our feelings aren't normal
Until we realize that feeling came from our pride
Some grovel to look well to others
Others do it as natural as cattle chew their cud
For society does tell us
Our face must look ordinary,
Regardless of how it serves the "real me"
For where did we meet this change?
From whence comes all the angst?
Is it from people looking in from the outside
And passing "Thumbs up or down" judgement on how we deal with our pain?
For as sure as the birds fly home before winter,
And the chickens come home to roost.
The winds of life blow on whomever meets them,
Rich, or poor...the pious Christian or the agnostic/atheist.
We see through a glass darkly,
We don't know the end,
Is there a purpose to this life?
Is it all pish-posh and vanity in the end?
Religion completely aside, three things have I learned through this "adjustment tide",
Never judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes,
Don't preach moral sermons about other's lives that you aren't willing to live out yourself,
And do not assume you know exactly what others are going through until you have asked them.
I bid my adieu.
Sooo...here it is. Some prose/verse about Life. I have been told by countless people that adjusting to change is not one of my strongest areas. [Begs the question, "Oh? So how is it supposed to be done then, in light of my situation?"] Those of you who know my family or "the story" know that 2010 has certainly been a year for change for us. Remarriage, blending families, moving across country, me moving to MN to complete my education (*Hallelujah!*), and making new exciting friendships in a state that I never really spent that much time in. What does this all mean? Is change merely a constant in life that God put there to remind us how unchanging and unshakable He is? I think so...but here is a rhetorical question for ya. Why do we as humans (or at least me it seems) kick so hard in the opposite direction when it occurs?
As Thanksgiving nears, I am reminded of the Psalm 8:4 when I think about God...up there causing all this change to work out in His plan and with the outcomes that He sees best. "...what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?" (Psalm 8:4 NLT). The very "Watchmaker of the Universe" who holds the heavens and all of life in His palm, actually wants a relationship with me. Wow. Though change still happens, I have the opportunity to focus on the constant direct love I have with my Heavenly Father. May my eyes be less focused on the canvas and the processes used to create, and more on the Master Creator Himself.
That said...take this for what its worth...here is what I wrote...posted for your own intellectual digestion.
=============
Change
by: Yours Truly
Psychology calls it adjusting
Others call it life,
Some folks tell me its good
Others say "Its how I met my wife!"
We deal with it all different
Bubbling up some squash it down inside
We think our feelings aren't normal
Until we realize that feeling came from our pride
Some grovel to look well to others
Others do it as natural as cattle chew their cud
For society does tell us
Our face must look ordinary,
Regardless of how it serves the "real me"
For where did we meet this change?
From whence comes all the angst?
Is it from people looking in from the outside
And passing "Thumbs up or down" judgement on how we deal with our pain?
For as sure as the birds fly home before winter,
And the chickens come home to roost.
The winds of life blow on whomever meets them,
Rich, or poor...the pious Christian or the agnostic/atheist.
We see through a glass darkly,
We don't know the end,
Is there a purpose to this life?
Is it all pish-posh and vanity in the end?
Religion completely aside, three things have I learned through this "adjustment tide",
Never judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes,
Don't preach moral sermons about other's lives that you aren't willing to live out yourself,
And do not assume you know exactly what others are going through until you have asked them.
I bid my adieu.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Relationships
Soooo....this is the beginning of the endings of my ramblings on Facebook. Welcome!
You will find thoughts (writing is my outlet), reviews of current happenings, notes about significant things and happenings during my day, etc. No promise about how often I publish on here.
Anyhow, cheers!
You will find thoughts (writing is my outlet), reviews of current happenings, notes about significant things and happenings during my day, etc. No promise about how often I publish on here.
Anyhow, cheers!
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