Friday, June 26, 2015

the strange loop/truce/helix of Myers-Briggs: I am my opposite, of course

I have often though, said and taught that this (the  Myers-Briggs phenomenon Priebe talks about in the article I will link) happens, but not due to reading anyone else making a logical case for it, but because I intuitively felt that it did..,

--which I realized makes sense, as I am  off the charts "intuitively feeling" (NF) on Myers-Briggs.

That means I can trust my NF...
Click to view my Personality Profile page
                                                   ..unless I can't (:

I have often suggested that if each pair  of preferences is a pictured as a spectrum,
imagine folks who are strong on one "end"  looping around to act like their "opposite."

True also of fundamentalisms of the left and right..

Is that "surrational," Mark DeRaud?
Is that loopy?


You know, I sometimes picture the "line" as more of a mult-loopy helix (Hegelian?) helix..like this diagram of sex(uality) from the cover of Foucault's :"The History of Sexuality">>

I don't see anywhere in the book where this diagram is explicitly explained, but if Rob Bell is right..


For many, sexuality is simply what happens between two people involving physical pleasure. But that's only a small percentage of what sexuality is. Our sexuality is all the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God." (Rob Bell, "Sex God," p. 42).

...it's inevitably also a   picture of life. let alone our personality preferences.

In Myers-Briggs, it seems that  when one person is  E or I, not matter how far in one direction,   their "vertedness" loops and weaves.


Or  check out like Kegan's developmental chart, "a helix of evolutionary truces"















I can't help it.  I just intuitively feel that life itself is a
  holy helix.

 













Anyway..the article, with an example:

------------------------------------------------------------



"How  Each Myers-Briggs Type Contradicts Their Own Stereotype" by Heidi Priebe.
Full article here

Excerpt about my type:
..because it's all about me! (: 

INFP

Stereotype: INFPs are fragile emotional snowflakes who cannot deal with facts or hard logic.
Reality: Though INFPs certainly prefer using emotion over logic, they are more than capable of getting things done when they need to. This type can actually be incredibly resourceful and organized, as they will go to any lengths necessary in pursuit of what they believe is right. As a highly pensive type, INFPs are quite focused and often even mistype as judgers.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Foxing

Emo?  Neo-emo?  Postrock? Pink Floydian? Indie?  Twinkly math-rock with a Radiohead tweak?

Just listen:

Listen on Bandcamp

Friday, June 19, 2015

Tú and Du/I and Thou

Many who have heard of Martin Buber's seminal "I and Thou" assume it is  about a "me and God" relationship.  
That is not ultimately wrong;
                                   but not completely right, either.
Some have suggested the title  should be  translated "I and You," or in Spanish, "Yo y Tu" (informal "you").
Not quite wrong;
                                      not perfectly right.
As  Nicholas Lash notes (citing Walter Kaufman)"

The first problem  for the English-speaking reader of the book is to know how to take the title. Buber is writing about personal relationships between human beings, and between human beings and their world--about (we might say) friendship and friendliness.  What pronoun  shall we use for friendship's address?  In many languages, the choice would be straightforward.  Thus, in  Buber's  German, 'Du is spontaneous and unpretentious, remote from formality, pomp and dignity.' It is no longer so with Thou. "Thou can mean many things, but it has no place whatsoever in the language of direct, nonliterary, spontaneous human relationships'
Moreover, in modern English, Thou brings God to mind and yet, until the third and final part of the book, Buber speaks hardly at all of address to God..  {though} privately Buber referred to the works as "Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion."  -Lash, pp 184-185 of Easter in Ordinary



Uh, good thing the publisher DID convince Buber to change the title...otherwise we may have never heard of this classic(:\

From prologue of I and Thou, pg. 14-15:

“I-You sounds unfamiliar. What we are accustomed to is I-Thou. But man’s attitudes are manifold, and Thou and You are not the same. Nor is Thou very similar to the German Du.
German lovers say Du to one another, and so do friends. Du is spontaneous and unpretentious, remote from formality, pomp, and dignity.
What lovers or friends say Thou to one another? Thou is scarcely ever said spontaneously.
Thou immediately brings to mind God; Du does not. And the God of whom it makes us think is not the God to whom one might cry out in gratitude, despair, or agony, not the God of whom one complains or prays spontaneously; it is the God of the pulpits, The God of the holy tone.
When men pray spontaneously or speak directly to God, without any mediator, without any intervention of formulas, when they speak as their heart tells them to speak instead of repeating what is printed, do they say Thou? How many know the verb forms Thou commands?
The world of Thou has many mansions. Thou is a preacher’s word but also dear to anticlerical romantic poets. Thou is found in Shakespeare and at home in the English Bible, although recent versions of the Scriptures have tended to dispense with it. Thou can mean many things, but it has no place whatever in the language of direct, nonliterary, spontaneous human relationships.
If one could liberate I-Thou from affectation, the price for that would still involve reducing it to a mere formula, to jargon. But suppose a man wrote a book about direct relationships and tried to get away from the formulas of theologians and philosophers: a theologian would translate it and turnIch und Du into I and Thou.  link

Hmm. 
"I see Thou as a Tú"

Thursday, June 18, 2015

"You who are absent!!/I'm impatiently waiting for You.."

I'm not a big fan of TBN (and not sure I could watch it nonstop like a certain brave and  sarcastic Lutheran pastor), but I caught an episode of "Behind the Scenes"  from Jerusalem which hosted Father Andrew (a Greek Orthodox monk) and  Raafat Girgis (a Coptic doctor).  Interesting interview with Father Andrew about the Orthodox tradition, as well as  Ryan's Guitars Project (Three Faiths, Six Strings, Guitars, Not Guns  (click and check that out)  and the Jesus Prayer.

But what really caught me  was the worship song in the  episode (sadly, no audio of the song, and not clarified where it is); I post some still shots of it below to highlight the (translated)  lyrics.  It starts at the  21:46 mark; click here if the video doesn't show at bottom of this post.

Western Christians don't often think in terms of lament--or are not comfortable with it as worship--even though the biblical psalms are loaded with laments (Ps 22 etc)...and don't get me started on U2 songs/psalms of lament.

Eastern Christians/Orthodox get lament. Of all people, Middle Eastern Christians have something to lament about. 



Wednesday, June 17, 2015

"Social Justice and Pop Culture: U2 as a non-traditional Christian voice"


Delivered by Dr. Tim Neufeld at the North American Association of Christians in Social Work, California Chapter, at Fresno Pacific University on June 5, 2015. Follow Tim on Facebook at /timothyneufeld, or on Twitter and Periscope at @timneufeld.

"I waited patiently for the Lord..(or more likely, he waited patiently for me)"

Some new  outtake footage from the "Rattle and Hum" film has been appearing, including color versions of songs that were black and white in the film.


One theological highlight is this from Tempe, as Bono interrupts his Scripture reading of Psalm 40 with come commentary (play the intro)

"I waited patiently for the Lord..
                                             ..or more likely, he waited patiently for me."

Note, he (again) pastors the congregation: "Be gentle with him, he's a fan of ours" (2:44)

Then the "Halleluah"s at 4:15ff..
 

"Don't photograph the moment; be in the moment"/it's hard to surrender with a cellphone in your hand"

That time Bono decided to invite half of on to the stage


---

Click this  link for the backstory on last night, then see videos below


A Party on the U2 Stage: Where The Streets Have No Name by Tim Neufeld 
----------------------
"Don't photograph the moment; be in the moment, "  Pastor Bono encouraged the congregation.

Love this comment from Lorijane, about the previous concert:

 
Like Bono said at Denver, and maybe other shows too, the concert is about surrendering, and it's hard to surrender with a cellphone in your hand.  link











Wednesday, June 03, 2015

U2 devotions #21 1/2: God is interested in..


"God is much more interested in who you are

                                                 than who you want to be."
-Bono in "Focus on the Family" interview


"God is interested in truth {not happy-clappy songs that are untruthful}, and only in truth"
 -Bono to Ny Times..audio

"God is interested in us, in the detail of our lives and I think that’s remarkable."
-Bono to Gay Byrne

"I think what God is interested in is people's hearts (more than  religion.. you know, rules, regulations, traditions.), and that's hard enough.  .The idea that God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we're small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion.
-Bono to Larry King


“This Beautiful Mess”

“Falling off my pedestal of plentiful deeds/ as it crumbles down on top of me/ I contemplate my lack of love. Come and save my soul/ before it’s not too late/ I’m not afraid to admit/ how much I hate myself.”

Two  Alan Parish articles on a classic album