Humans began doing Art and Sprituality as soon as we existed.
We began with cave paintings, wooden sculptures and storytelling. There was something we couldn’t articulate that we wanted to share. Those are two things. Didja catch ‘em?
Something we couldn’t articulate.
Something we wanted to share.
We explore this thing we don’t know how to articulate. That’s Spirituality.
We seek out others to commune with. That’s Art.
The two have always been connected. We talk about that a lot here. We ponder the Deep Meaning of Life and we ponder where we left the tequila. We tell stories and make mistakes. We struggle to build bridges.
What we’re up to here is finding ways to work together.
So often cultural, religious, economic or family issues get in the way of real progress. This makes makes me sad. I would rather be happy. So I’m searching for ways to build bridges between people.
Specifically, as a post-theist living in a primarily theistic society, I want to find out how, exactly, my religious neighbor and I can learn to live next door to each other without thinking the other is the enemy.
Rule numero uno around here is that we don’t have to agree about everything to work together doing something. We get things done, for ourselves, for our communities, and then we relax and make each other laugh for a while.
WHAT is your Name?
I’m Justin. I used to be a deeply judgmental fundamentalist. Now I’m a pretentious but forgiving snob. Welcome to my blog. We’ll talk spirituality and storytelling. There’s a podcast on the way. There will be books and stuff for sale at times. If you like to pick up any of that, cool. If not, that’s fine, too.
WHAT is your Quest?
My first calling was to be a church of Christ preacher. As a teenager I wrote articles for our church bulletin. Well, I did that until they disagreed with something I said and, rather than asking me to edit, they did a hack job of editing my work themselves. So I stopped writing for them. Philistines.
I’ve been a teacher, a lay minister-assistant-person (singles, youth and drama) and a theatrical producer.
I study Greek and Hebrew. I study ancient church history and a range of theologies. I study sociology, anthropology, psychology, biology, chemistry, physics and math. I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of tequila nearby when this happens.
Now I am a storyteller by trade. So, you know, same calling as before, really. The storyteller is tasked with bringing those truths of Life we see only out of the corner of our eye out into the open.
WHAT is your Favorite Color?
Blue… No! Green!
