Santa Monica Tuesday + The Hammer Museum

• Santa Monica lunch and meeting. Didn't I mention the ascendancy of kale proves people are more mimetic than thoughtful? But I picked what probably was the best choice of four salad dressing options, and the soup rocked with flavor.

• I had the rest of my day off afternoon for another trip to the Armand Hammer Museum.

• Two "systematic and intuitive" Hammer Projects by Mike Cloud near the entryway: "Painted Clothing responds to consumer culture" and his "Modern Timeline series interprets modern day tragedies."

• Because The White Album by Arthur Jafa had a violence warning label, I didn't view it.

• Corita Kent's illustration from 1967 of "Loves That Man" by Daniel Berrigan forms the entryway for…

• …Five Centuries of Works on Paper at the Grunwald Center. On Tuesday's stroll I took pictures of a small print of "Loves That Man" that also captured the celling lights, along with a most intriguing "Untitled" (2003) lithograph from Mark Bradford.

• There were at least two Installations in progress. There's always a good reason to visit the Hammer again!

• At the bookstore I bought a chrome orange tote bag with the Hammer logo.

• My usual Subway still is closed due to a water main malfunction that's turned into a disaster for the shops and restaurants at that small plaza, so for Tuna Tuesday I went to the one in mid city from two weeks ago. And last week. Next week, too? I hope not!

Five Minute Friday :: Lazy

• Five Minute Friday :: Lazy Linkup


What a great prompt! Are cats lazy? Or do they just not want to do what anyone says? Then again, cats sleep many many hours each day; is that laziness or is it preparation for the hunt? Getting ready to be extra adorable?

What is lazy, anyway? Relaxed? Shiftless? Pointless? Simply disinterested? Undisciplined, maybe? I did a quick check of its etymology and I didn't care for what I read.

Or has lazy become a word related to rest that often leads to rejuvenation? A rest in music may seem like absence of sound, but rests are necessary for the music to happen.

As Kate pointed out, contemporary Western society admires action and active people; too many of us do our best to become human doings rather than human beings. She used the word, "productivity." I've mentioned human doing-ness too many times on this blog. Like many, I admire my own productivity in all my endeavors. I don't necessarily make a formal readable list as I accomplish whatever it is or whatever they are, but I tally them in my head and want to do better next time. I want to do more the next time.

I don't know that it's been a header before, but this time I've used one of many versions of one of several paintings I made of the beach house in the town of Truro on the vacation peninsula of Cape Cod. You could have – probably would have – called those times lazy. We slept latish, lounged on the beach, rappelled down sand dunes, and laughed like crazy as we did it. We took a few jaunts to the tourist section of nearby Provincetown. Each year I drove back to Boston late Sunday afternoon to get ready to be present and productive during our upcoming summer program.

As I typed that last sentence, I realized the kind of unfocussed, unplanned laziness I described is a good way to get ready for the next step that's not only productivity—it's also presence.
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Lent 5 Sermon

Typing up a sermon afterwards always feels so last Sunday, March 22nd, but I had a couple of requests for a copy and I need blog content (or fodder, maybe), so here it is, more or less. By the way, it preached better than it reads.

• Ezekiel 37:1-14


I really liked my opening prayer:

From all the ends of the earth, come to us, breath of God.
Breathing life of the Divine, embrace your people and your land.
Let us live again.
In the name of the One Spirit-sent for the life of the world.
Amen.


Two days ago on Friday we celebrated the Spring equinox, a verdant greening time as days get longer. And now we celebrate the Persian New Year with our friends—thirteen festive days of rejoicing in creation!

We're two-thirds through Lent, as Jesus and his followers draw closer to the holy city Jerusalem. They draw closer to Jesus' trial, conviction, crucifixion, death, and burial. Nearer to the day of resurrection, Easter Sunday.

Throughout scripture, hints and types and realities of resurrection foreshadow Jesus' resurrection. New life out of ashes, ruins, destruction, devastation. New life out of the death of the old.

Less than two weeks from the Friday called Good, the lectionary that gives us our scripture readings pairs Ezekiel's provocative and pictorial dialogue with God as Ezekiel raises dry bones from death to life, with the seventh and last of Jesus' "I Am" statements from John's gospel. After Jesus' raises Lazarus back to life from death (he really was dead, already buried in the tomb), Jesus declares "I Am the Resurrection and the life." John 11:25

* * *
Ezekiel was a priest in the holiness tradition of the Jerusalem Temple. About 600 years before Jesus, during the last years of Jerusalem and the Temple before the exile to Babylon, Ezekiel ministered with words from God and words of God. Deep into the long book that bears his name, chapter 37 happens when Ezekiel's proclamation moved from discouragement and lament to hope and a vision of the future.

This is pivotal because it came about when news of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple reached the exiles.

"These people" somehow had developed bad theology that located God in a special way in the heart of the temple, accessible only once a year, only to the high priest under certain circumstances.

Had they forgotten the God who liberated them from slavery in Egypt? The God of the Exodus who journeyed alongside them and ahead of them throughout those forty years in the wilderness? God who provided gifts like water from the rock and manna from the sky? The Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant that showed them how to honor God by living together faithfully honoring their neighbors?

Since the temple was gone, did that mean God was dead? They were away from the land of promise that yielded such agricultural bounty. Did that mean all of God's promises were null and void?

* * *
We don't know if Ezekiel's conversation in the Spirit with God was a physical event, a sleeping dream, or a waking vision. We do know his experience of God's initiative and the subsequent call and response as Ezekiel spoke words in the Spirit from God and words of God convinced him there was a future.

Although the human Ezekiel spoke words from God and words of God and raised dead bones to new life, we often consider new life and resurrection primarily God's thing.

But wait! In the second reading for today (that we didn't hear), the apostle Paul tells us:

If [since, because] the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the same Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8:11

Earlier on, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, we hear from Paul regarding us as the gathered body of Christ – the church, the assembly of the faithful – and us as individuals:

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthian 3:16

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? ! Corinthians 6:19

So we've moved from bad theology of God being contained (God in a box?) in the Jerusalem Temple, to biblical theology of God indwelling us, making a home with us. We are temples of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, moving, walking, and talking alongside the people.

* * *
Ezekiel's words from God in the Spirit revitalized people who had been reduced to bones.

What dry bones of loss, death, disappointment is God calling you to resurrect with Words in the Spirit? Words from God? Words of God?

* * *
Today Jesus again invites us to the table of grace, the feast of new beginnings.

In the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, we reenact and remember the history of the world's salvation that also belongs to us.

God remembers that we forget.

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

To God alone be glory.

Amen!

Five Minute Friday :: Harmony

Music from the Fifth Evangelist :: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Summer worship bulletin cover featuring Ben Shahn's portrait of Bach

• Five Minute Friday :: Harmony Linkup

Sometimes we describe something by saying what it's not. Or is apophatic only a theological thing? Assuming the concept applies outside the realm of theology, does that mean harmony isn't dissonance?

Discussions of harmony may be quintessentially about music, but harmony and dissonance also are major components of all kinds of design and many aspects of design—maybe especially color. My color theory instructor mentioned red, yellow, and blue "always go well together." Does that mean they can't be done badly? No. But it does mean a skilled artist can tweak a RYB palette so the colors harmonize.

Harmonious and inharmonious relate to the wide range of human relationships, as well. You can take a cue from art and design as you rejoice in variety of many kinds that sometimes complement, sometimes add interest and spice, occasionally clash so much you need to ask how can this harmonize? Or can it?

Everyday life in general, too. As you've probably learned, experiences of discord are almost essential if we're going to appreciate and be thankful for days that unfold as we'd anticipated, events that transpire according to plan. Last Friday, the date of this linkup, was the spring equinox, when it feels as if creation harmonizes with itself.

In the witness of scripture, harmony is shalom that goes far beyond irenic peace as an absence of conflict into wholeness, justice, goodness, bounty, and commonwealth.

Sixty-two versions of Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom paintings still exist. I've included one of the four on my computer in my array of footer pictures.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
The leopard will lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Isaiah 11:6

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Tuesday at LACMA

Second Tuesdays at LACMA are free, so there I was, feasting on the glory.

• Entrance welcome banner along with the late Chris Burden's Urban Light project.

• The foliage accented with red metal around campus is a photographic treat. Here's one view of many possibilities.

• I always enjoy capturing angles and geometry. Here's one.

• My Very Own photograph of David Hockney's Mulholland Drive (1980) for my Very Own archives. Notice the oil well. Do you know how many are in Los Angeles? Today's search results say over 5,000 in Los Angeles city, with thousands (up to 20,000 more) throughout LA County, in a mix of active, idle, and abandoned.


With my back to Mulholland Drive I watched Five Decades of Contemporary Art at LACMA 1965-2020 (twice).

• Staircases and angles again.


Galleries from Tuesday:

Though they allowed photography without flash, almost no one was taking pictures. It wasn't that type of exhibit or that the kind of day for me, either.

• Made in France, 1880-1930

Art by favorites Lyonel Feininger, Raoul Dufy, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger


• The Art of German Expressionism

Ernst Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Wassily Kandinsky


• Picasso's Portraits


• Paris 1900-1920

Jean Arp, Paul Klee, Diego Rivera, Piet Mondrian, Jean Dubuffet

• Metropolis by Chris Burden. The same Chris as Urban Light.

• Still on-campus, yet more palm trees. WIthout knowing (I could google and find out), I imagine most Southern California palms are date palms.

• I keep my stickers, but this decorated traffic light pole outside the museum inspires multiple visits.

• Early evening Tuna Tuesday at a Subway some distance from me. My usual Subway still is closed because of a broken or non-draining, or otherwise dysfunctional water main.

Five Minute Friday :: Polite

• Five Minute Friday :: Polite Linkup

The first Five Minute Friday for March is another instance of the picture Kate provided being so lovely I had no choice but to participate this week. I'm politely responding by including two of my California golden poppy pictures. The short version of why only two out of my dozens of photos of golden poppies? Part of being polite is not making a conversation or a situation all about you, the speaker or actor, but doing the best you can to defer to others who may be there.

Our host Kate's report of a not polite kindergarten girl (in church) was sad. You can make the excuse parents are overwhelmed, and parents are overwhelmed, but teaching politeness from day one and enforcing it along the way is doable in almost every case and has the immense benefit of making a parent's job easier along the way.


Polite

All these years later, I still recall some quotes from our Conference MInister's newsletter columns "way back when," as I always loved hearing my grandmother say. One month he wrote, "Kindness is love in action." (For people in independent or unaffiliated churches, a judicatory such as a conference, synod, presbytery, diocese is an accountability and oversight structure.)

Since kindness is love in action, politeness is an important aspect of kindness. Politeness is about not causing discomfort to any person of any age in any situation. (For example, Kate told us how she gently suggested to the little girl how to politely reword her demands into requests.) Being polite entails being familiar with social conventions and habits. Those manners help us situate ourselves – and our kids – in the larger society where people maintain certain ways of being, of speaking, of dressing, of interacting with others.

Does that place all of us within a certain establishment, or "established order?" To an extent it does. It also helps provide a way to connect with others so they can hear our opinions, plans, and ideas without needing to cut through extraneous body and language clutter. Because being polite is part of being kind.

Politeness is part of our behavioral and cultural vocabulary. Being polite helps create a civil society where everyone does their part in fulfilling the social contract.

What are your favorite polite practices?

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P-22

I've long wanted to blog a tribute to urban cougar P-22, the SoCal Puma (American Wild Cougar, Mountain Lion) who lived in Griffith Park at least since February 2012. I have no wise or poetic words of my own, so I'm posting pictures and tributes from others.

• This head shot is from Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, 23 April 2019.

• Large Map showing scale of P-22's range

• P-22's location in Griffith Park

• P-22 billboard!

• P-22 graffiti!

• Poster from Tongva artist Weshoyot Alvitre

• From LA on the Move at Union Station last October. The exhibit explores how wildlife and people travel through shared landscapes and follow paths that overlap; a picture of P-22 was essential.

• Tribute from Mountain Lion Foundation

• Tribute from PBS SoCal

• Tribute from Save LA Cougars

• Tribute from LAist

Black Arts at the Getty

Getty Tuesday: Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985

The Getty doesn't have fancy frappes, so I started my visit with an iced mocha latte accompanied by a small bag of Garden Salsa Sun Chips.

One of these ducks hovered around my table while I snacked; a few minutes later I noticed both of them basking in the warm early March sun.

"Pictures told, for those who could not see themselves, of the strength and the beauty of the people, of the hostility and anger of the opposition, and of the promise of a world free of racism." Julian Bond, 1940-2015

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, organized the exhibit and showed it there before it traveled over to here.

I didn't imagine counting how many photographs or how many rooms it all encompassed. Although I did imagine the Getty website would say something about that, it didn't, so I'll say it was extensive. I found the detailed but not endless descriptions most helpful

A lot of the pictures featured well-known leaders of the civil rights movement. It's no surprise most of the photography was black and white. Some were done in a private venue or by a regular person – participant or observer – with an unnamed camera and unidentified film; most were from newspapers, a few for magazines. I'd guess a press cameras (such as a Speed Graphic) captured most of the people and events, and the newspaper shots would have been printed at a resolution around 200 ppi or less. That overall style propelled the viewer back in time.

To end my day off, I'd planned and counted on Subway to celebrate Tuna Tuesday and continue the Sun Chips theme, but when I got there the small shopping center was closed because of a water main not draining, so I got El Pollo Loco instead. It tasted great and even provided leftovers!