Five Minute Friday :: Unusual

• Five Minute Friday :: Unusual Linkup

Intro

I'll start by saying I have no idea what Kate meant about Gatlinburg Tennessee being so unusual. Long ago late in Bright Week, I spent a few days in Gatlinburg and made memories so unforgettable I still review them every so often. Those memories include a stack of randomly shaped diner pancakes smothered with butter, and the best vanilla soft serve on the planet.

I did the tourist thing over to northern North Carolina and had a lunch so wonderful the menu has become one of my standards. Gatlinburg is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and for sure it's been developed with tourism in mind, but so has almost every Cape Cod town, so has the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Boston's Freedom Trail, and countless attractions worldwide.


Unusual

Given that Gatlinburg isn't in my unusual category, what does belong? Although I don't consider my art and design unusual because most of it is natural to me, other people often wonder about it. Outside of the design industry and classroom, where everyone takes it in stride because they expect the creative and the unusual, real-life mixed responses have ranged from, "That's dumb" to "What are you trying to prove?" to "This is brilliant!"

One of my saddest experiences happened when a classmate who evidently didn't know me as artistic was visiting. She looked at the few dozen pieces of my original art I'd posted on the wall and asked, "Where did you get these?" I replied, "I did them" (well, yes, of course) and she said, "No you didn't! Don't lie to me."

• My header for today: January afternoon
• Top footer is my interpretation of a piece of kettle cloth
• Next one is a favorite pair of summer sandals in their original color
• A fun frog

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Baptism of Jesus 2026

Matthew 3:13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented Jesus, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God's Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from the heavens said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The Baptism of Jesus

As always, this is approximate, but I'm still happy to have enough notes to blog. As always, the real thing last Sunday was more dramatic and maybe even a little poetic.


The baptism of Jesus! Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John the … Baptist! John baptizes Jesus in the wilderness, away from centers of commerce, politics, religion. Far from the establishment. In the Jordan that was the boundary and the border to the Promised Land for God's people Israel after their lives of slavery in Egypt and their long trek through the exodus desert as they trusted God's total provision.

We find this event in all four of the gospels, so let's sit up and take notice because it must be important, maybe even pivotal. Today we hear from Matthew that has been our featured gospel since the church opened wide a new year of grace on the first Sunday of Advent. Each gospel has a distinct personality because the writer(s) wanting to convey particular facts and events.

Matthew views Jesus as the new Moses, a new King David. Moses is about the Reign of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven rather than the reign or kingdom of God because Matthew wrote to Jewish Christians and Jews do not speak the divine name. Matthew never lets up on justice and righteousness.

Near the start of Matthew, an angel tells Jesus' stepfather Joseph to name the soon to be born baby Emmanuel or "God with us." This infant will be the presence of heaven in our midst! At the very end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus tells us to remember his promise to be with us forever, even until the end of time. (Matthew 28:20)

Matthew starts by announcing a book of beginnings or origins – biblios (book) geneseos (origin), A new creation, a new Genesis. Do you think that's why the committee that compiled the New Testament placed Matthew first?

We know Jesus' conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as the first fruits of the new creation. But look where we are for Jesus' very first public appearance as an adult. It's away from the movers and shakers, far distant from the religious, commercial, and political establishment. It reveals God's paradoxical way of making all things new—starting at the edges!

Doesn't that remind you of Jesus' mother Mary's Magnificat? She sang how God has:

• Scattered the proud
• Brought down the powerful
• Lifted up the lowly
• Filled the hungry with good things
• Sent the rich away empty

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Jesus' mikvah or baptism wasn't the same as our Trinitarian baptism into Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It was more of a new beginning for the nation, with the individual, the smallest unit participating as part of the larger whole.

Our Trinitarian baptism is a sacrament, a means of grace, a mighty act of God. As the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, in baptism we became part of the new creation.

We famously consider Jesus baptism a Trinitarian theophany, or revelation of all three persons of the trinity. Theo = God; Phan = revealing, showing forth. And there are similarities between Jesus' baptism and ours.

Baptism begins Jesus' public ministry; baptism begins our public ministries outside of the immediate household. On this day many churches have a renewal of baptismal vows; today we gave thanks for our baptism with water and word, as we remembered and renewed God claiming, calling, and sending us in baptism.

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But where are we as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus? We're in the season of Epiphany that emphasizes Jesus as light of the world, God's salvation for everyone everywhere. We often symbolize that by light that reaches around the globe and can't be extinguished.

Light was the first element of creation. Without light there is no life.

We try to prayerfully honor our baptismal calling to work for justice, to act in ways that increase the greater good and maybe result in Good Trouble!

However, this country and the world, as well as most of us are in pain, loss – full of uncertainty about the future that's never a known factor; we're unsure more than usual of our next move or what tomorrow will bring.

Though we can't neglect or ignore those big concerns, let's try to focus on the micro level as we live out our baptism during this season of Epiphany.

Let's be light and life to each other at home – work – school – church. Let's how up for each other. And please tell each other what you need. Don't assume anyone read minds.

• We can do this!
• We are baptized!
• Amen!
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Again today Jesus invites us to the Table of Grace. Jesus welcomes everyone to a taste of the New Creation where all is healed, all is whole, where creation's bounty knows no limits, where love embraces all.

Come, let us eat, for lo, the feast is spread.
Come, let us drink for lo, the cup is poured.

You are welcome.
I am welcome.
We are welcome!

To God alone be glory.
Amen!

Five Minute Friday :: Horizon

Today's header is my Sky Horizon painting.

Welcome back, Kate! Andrew and Sylvia were excellent hosts with some super-fun prompts.


• Five Minute Friday :: Horizon Linkup

When you draw in perspective, you draw a horizon line to help accurately locate all the elements in your drawing. You know the sight and the feeling of an open road with that distant horizon you think you're getting closer to as you travel, but if the terrain is a certain way, you can approach it but you never can really really reach it. Horizons shift and change.

Downtown in the city or walking around the 'hood, you don't often get the horizon experience because there are too many objects and distractions in the way. We know about spending time in creation in order to gain perspective—besides glorying in God's incredible creation, which in itself helps us face more uncertainties, at some locations you can see the horizon and you can see forever into eternity.

What about the horizons of your life calling, your life's purpose, the horizons of the unknown? The horizons of where you are right here and right now?

I began this FMF with perspective drawing. Drawing a horizon line so you can accurately locate everything on your canvas, screen, or paper has a nice parallel when you assess your current and future life horizons and locate important elements on it. Have you ever done that in your journaling? Or in conversation with a friend, mentor, or therapist? At least for me, doing it with pencil and paper is essential.

As I focus on the future, what does today's horizon tell me? If I compare my current life horizon with a different time, maybe a different place, what do I see? Can I move the pieces around for a more pleasing perspective? How about trying this as part of your daily prayer, maybe early in the morning, or right before you (at least try to) sleep at night?

Are you getting closer to the horizon as you travel throughout each day and week? Or have your horizons shifted?

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Santa Monica Promenade & Pier

After plans to visit the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades on my day off fell through due to its being closed on Tuesdays, I ventured to downtown Santa Monica – DTSM – and the beach. At first I thought I'd wait for my monthly rundown before blogging any of it, but I got more good pictures than a summary blog can accommodate and I needed to write about the Third Street Promenade.


Third Street Promenade

During my first year in LA, Third Street Promenade was one of my best and favorite places to have fun; it was well-landscaped for pedestrians-only shopping and dining, packed with national retailers and some local ones, and included many spots along the way to sit, lounge, or socialize. Its current City of Santa Monica website describes it as world-class, and back then it probably qualified—or close to it.

Third Street Promenade in Spring 2016
Since 2016, online shopping has taken more of a hold (understatement), as it probably would have even without help from the Covid pandemic, so that's an obvious factor in what I saw on Tuesday. Related more specifically to Santa Monica, after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, riots and looting in contiguous Los Angeles spilled over into Santa Monica and a police department that may have been capable of controlling and dispersing more conventional crowds and uprisings, but… this was different.

"I'm so old" I used to love browsing, shopping, and hanging out at malls, but as I recently blogged, the decline and death of the North American mall has disenchanted me and I'd basically quit the habit, anyway.

Returning to "what I saw on Tuesday." A ghost town trying to act brave. A dead mall that hasn't been buried or converted to another use necessarily pretending it won't always be like this. I didn't even try to count the number or percentage of storefronts without tenants. Though I don't recall Third Street Promenade ever being packed with people any time I visited, "sparse" is too generous a word for the current decimation of everything.

I didn't recognize the names of most of the stores! The only brands represented that I'd ever buy from were Barnes & Noble, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters. There was a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I determined to return to before I left, but instead I got a hazelnut frappe at CB&TL when I visited the pier after leaving the promenade.

In the category of "what can we make of this," although Tuesday was January 13th and Christmas is long over (even if you include January 6th, the day of Epiphany as part of the Nativity season), both brick and mortar and online retailers have taken down their Christmas trees, reindeers, and jingle bells because it's time to sell and shop for Valentine's Day, with maybe a thought for MLK Day and Black History Month along the way. But Third Street Promenade still was about trees and lights.

You don't need to search deeply to find articles that analyze all of this from almost any perspective. It doesn't make me feel nostalgic; it just makes me sad. It feels like an icon of so many pasts we knew yet don't truly want to return to, but we don't know what to do with the memories of those pasts or the realities of this present.

Santa Monica Pier

Because I was close to the beach, a visit to Santa Monica Pier was logical. I could pretend to be a tourist! Maybe you already knew that's where Route 66 ends?

I'll wrap this up with some pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

On the way back from the pier I met a flock of seagulls, but I was only quick enough to picture this one.

MOCA

Last Tuesday featured a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles because neither my friend nor I had been there. Our destination was the current exhibit, Diary of Flowers: Artists and their Worlds:

The exhibition features work in all media across different geographies, cultures, and periods, by artists including Belkis Ayón, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Mona Hatoum, Candice Lin, Annette Messeger, Wangechi Mutu, Lucas Samaras, Mohammed Sami, Tunga, and Haegue Yang, as well as a gallery dedicated to Nan Goldin.

Despite imagining I'd carefully taken a picture of each artwork description, because I didn't organize everything correctly, a few of these pictures present as "untitled." This learning experience taught me to write down titles and descriptions in the future.

But first! My first ever experience in a Waymo! Have you heard of these self-driving Jaguars? They're not everywhere yet, but I think LA is one of the biggest markets and I see more and more of them every day.

No title because I didn't write it down

Howl by Wangechi Mutu, 2006

Autorretrato Ciego by Abraham Cruzvillegas, 2007-2008

Sky Cathedral, Southern Mountain, by Louise Nevelson, 1959

Lunch Break!

Disney Hall because this area is art and music central

Special of the Day Chicken Teriyaki at Subway

Back to MOCA

Resurrección by Belkis Ayón, 1998

These extracts from the larger photograph also are "Untitled" because the description ran out even though I got the correct one. My capture of the entire artwork turned out completely turquoise.

A concluding stroll through the gift shop

Five Minute Friday :: Snow

My multimedia In Winters Past begins my snow blog
because it features piles of snow.

• Five Minute Friday :: Snow Linkup at Andrew's Place

I've been in southern California since early in this century; now that we've started Q2 of the twenty-first century, I think I'll stay in LA. An intro to admitting we don't get snow at this elevation, but I've experienced a lot of it at different times of my life.

You may have heard how people in regions that get a lot of snow have many many words to describe the different types of snow.

What does "snow" evoke in my imagination?

The hush during and immediately after a snowfall, before life has fully resumed and before the city has many of its snowplows out in motion.

It's a similar feeling when the snow stops falling and the sun decides to shine.

In a previous life I substitute taught for the Boston Public Schools for an academic year. Given that Boston is one of those cities with frequent weather, Boston schools sometimes call snow days when the driving is rough and dangerous and passenger cars, trucks, and buses would interfere with snow removal.

Though we got paid per diem, I still loved a snow day because (1) I could stay home and cozy in my small urban apartment and/or (2) when the snow stopped falling, I could go outside and play in the snow or maybe go to the mall if the roads were clear. Because New England snow tends to be the wet heavy kind that's back breaking and heart attack inducing to shovel, I'm grateful I never had to clear more than digging my vehicle out from any windrows the plows had created.

Later on when I lived in Utah with its many recreational ski resorts and The Greatest Snow on Earth, I managed the apartment building I lived in (and helped out with the owner's other properties). That meant if I woke up to snow I had to go out right away and shovel the sidewalk so it wouldn't ice over. The landlord bought me an ergonomic shovel and even though I'm not exactly big and heavy, clearing the sidewalk was easy because the snow was light and powdery.

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