Continuing the series:
Don’t waste your breath proclaiming what’s really important to you. How you spend your time says it all.
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Well… that’s what most adults believe it seems!
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Draw your own shapes and let gravity take its toll.
My name is Ricky Rew and I’m addicted to Threadless.
I’ve just completed a long overdue update to the Threadless page to add the shirts from my last three orders – another 18 shirts!! The question I’m asked most often is “where do you get your cool/excellent/great/funny t-shirts from?”. The answer, of course, is Threadless. The second most popular question is “how many Threadless t-shirts do you have?”. To be honest I didn’t know the answer – so I thought I’d count up.
The answer is a staggering 58! If you don’t believe me you can head over to the Threadless page and count them for yourself.
For my Culture, Society & Mission module I’m currently reading Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture
“The Christian movement must be the living, breathing promise to society that it is possible to live out the values of Christ – that is, to be a radical, troubling alternative to the power imbalances in the empire. In a world of greed and consumerism, the Church ought to be a community of generosity and selflessness. In a host empire that is committed to marginalising the poor, resisting the place of women, causing suffering to the disenfranchised, the Christian community must be generous to a fault, pursuant of justice, flushed with mercy.” – p15
“Responsibility cannot be preached: it can only be borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself.” – p17 (quoting Vaclav Havel)
“Not all [oppressed and faithful Christians] are rescued from the lions, but somehow, under God’s great grace, their faithfulness eventually will elicit praises from the mouths of their oppressors.” – p17
“By imagining himself to be autonomous, Pilate demonstrates his own folly, and Jesus calls him on it. Like Jesus, exiles must avoid such phony and seductive autonomy. Allhuman life is at the mercy of God and is expected to yield to God’s sovereignty and carry out the diving purposes of justice, love and mercy.” – p20
“We have imprisoned Him [Jesus] in a stained glass cell, and want only to worship Him, never to follow Him.” – p52
“The key to building missional proximity is frequency and spontaneity.” – p62
“God’s presence charges all our activities with glory.” – p67
“We must never tire of doing little things for the love of God, who considers not the magnitude of the work, but the love.” – p68 [quote Brother Lawrence]
“Jesus called us to take up our cross and follow Him. And it’s important to note that for all the discreet medieval art of the Vatican Museum, Jesus died stark naked, covered by nothing but His own dried blood. His hands held no mitre, no staff, no symbol of power. They were empty but for the nails, as big as our thumbs, that anchored Him to that cross.” – p71
“By living expansive lives of justice, kindness, hospitality and generosity, we model the life of Jesus to those who would never attend a Church service or read the New Testament. [...] We will, like Jesus, go naked and empty-handed to others, with no motive other than to show them grace and practice mercy.” – p74
The title of this post is a phrase we frequently quote both during and between lectures – and is usually said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. The phrase was my first thought when I read the quote below:
“I wanted a bike, and asked God to give me one. But then I realized God doesn’t work that way. So I decided to steal a bike and ask God for forgiveness. It worked.” – Emo Phillips [via Marko]
I might throw that one into the mix during our Ethics lecture on Tuesday…
Excerpt from an article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled “A legless artist documents the world in 32,000 stares“:
A 3-foot-1-inch tall man with no legs propelling himself along by his hands on a skateboard tends to warrant a fair share of attention.
People stare.
Sometimes they ask questions. Sometimes they make up stories on their own.
Montana State University film student Kevin Connolly relates a story: In a Bozeman grocery store, a young girl the same height as him asked, “Why are you on a skateboard?” Mr. Connolly replied, “Because I have no legs.”
“She just stared at me and had the best question I’ve ever gotten,” he says. “‘Is it a trick?’”
Connolly assures that it is no trick. He was born without legs.
His online exhibition is interesting in itself, but a great way into a discussion with Young People about appearance & perception, disability, or even the concept of ’story’:
1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.
2 months ago I was asked by an elderly woman in Sighisoara, Romania if I had lost my legs in a car accident.
6 weeks ago I was asked by a bar patron in Helena, Montana if I still wore my dog tags from Iraq.Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them.
I love his counter-cultural approach to getting around too:
Connolly rarely uses his wheelchair, preferring his skateboard. And a pair of jeans-clad prosthetic legs stand in his apartment as a party novelty, unused since age 12.
“People are wanting effectively to put you in stilts,” he says. “Why?”
Connolly feels he’s just as able-bodied as anyone.”
Stamina and material permitting, this is the start of a series of posts which will feature snippets of wisdom from many sources. Please feel free to comment below if you’d like to contribute your own wisdom.
As I’m currently working hard towards the mid-year submission for the long-double Fieldwork module, the following couldn’t be more apt:
Done is better than perfect.
Tempting though it may be at times, this does not represent my approach to either my academic work or youth work. It may, however, have been my approach to re-decorating the kitchen recently ;o)
I’ve had another photograph selected for publication. Not quite as impressive as the previous example, but I’m happy with it nonetheless.
I received message in my Flickr inbox at the start of the year informing me that one of my photos had been shortlisted for inclusion in the fourth edition of the Schmap London Guide, and asking me to confirm that I was happyfor it to be used. Just three weeks later and I received a further message stating that the photo was selected for inclusion and had been published. The photo in question was of Duke Special and was taken at an Aqualung Christmas Concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre, during December 2004.
About 6 months ago I received a comment on one of my photos on Flickr asking for permission to include it in an academic textbook by the Bentley Institute Press entitled “Architectural Geometry“. The picture (see below) is of one of the spiral staircases at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. I agreed to its use and should shortly be receiving my complimentary copy of the publication – I’ll post photos when it arrives.
These days we are facing dramatic changes, the tools at our disposal becoming seemingly unlimited. However, the increase in possibilities did not go along with an increase in the depth of geometry education. In fact, the opposite is true. Thus, it is the most important task of this book to close the gap between the technical possibilities and an effective working knowledge of the new methods of geometric design.
