Sightings
Posted by Michelle Metcalf in Faith, Life, Writing on February 5, 2010
1983: In the th
ird grade, my religion teacher, Mrs. Brandstetter, tells me a story during Tuesday night CCD class about a woman in Mexico whose taco meat, after falling out of her tortilla at lunch, miraculously formed itself into a silhouette of the Virgin Mary. The image my young mind instantly created: small individual crumbly rounds of ground beef mysteriously and reverently moving themselves across a piece of Mexican hand-painted ceramic ware, one grainy chunk of meat at a time coalescing into feet, a robe, veil, nose and eyes.
On the side table by the couch in the living room of my childhood, a small, engraved photo album. On the first page, a photograph of oil-stained window panels on an office building in Clearwater , Florida, that looked remarkably like a profile of the Blessed Virgin. A miracle on display wasn’t at all strange to my devoutly Catholic and generally superstitious family—why shouldn’t heaven and earth somewhere converge?
Once a year, we made it a family pilgrimage to gather with hundreds of people at the Holy Spirit Center just off the Norwood lateral about twenty minutes from our house to say the Rosary from lawn chairs on a hill while waiting for Our Lady of Light to make her midnight appearance.
Skeptic’s Dictionary: Apophenia (n): the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data, the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness.” May be linked to psychosis or creativity.
2005: Hundreds gather at the Fullerton Avenue underpass on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. They’ve come to see the Virgin Mary in the salt run-off. That same year, a pregnant couple sees the face of Jesus during their ultrasound at a hospital in Toledo. A concession clerk sees him in a nacho pan. He also appeared on the tinted windows at a hardware store in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and, shortly before that, in a pecan tree to a Louisiana man who was barbecuing in his backyard.
We are programmed, Carl Sagan says, born with a propensity to identify the human face. It’s for evolution’s sake, so that we can make out faces from a distance using only minimal details. This is why we can recognize faces before putting in our contacts in the morning.
At the stroke of twelve, church bells rang, cameras flashed, we waited and waited.
But I saw nothing.
Type I Psychological error: (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity): Often used as an explanation of some paranormal and religious claims, and can also be used to explain the tendency of humans to believe pseudoscience.
I saw nothing but the moon.
I saw nothing but the moon hanging heavy in the sky, so full that it made a glow behind the backs of the pine trees on the horizon.
* * *
Michelle Metcalf does believe in miracles, especially moonlight illuminating the trees. She lives in Cincinnati, OH and sometimes still prays Hail Marys out of habit, even though she is no longer a practicing Catholic.
The Psalms as Poetry
Posted by Ian David Philpot in General, Guest Blog, Writing on February 4, 2010
Heather Cadenhead
Heather Cadenhead unravels Psalm 77 and looks closely for the all of the great poetic bits within it. She also examines her own personal poetry for the same “beautiful truth” she has found in the psalmists verses.
The first time I heard someone refer to the Psalms as a book of poetry, I was considerably moved. As a creative writer living under the grace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the idea of God speaking to me through a book of poems was an altogether beautiful notion. I imagine that it’s the same sort of feeling that Johan Huibers, a Dutch contractor, got when he was able to recreate Noah’s ark using the exact measurements given in the Old Testament. There is a sense of wonder in meshing God’s perfect truth with the things we most love to make with our hands, whether that is something functional like an ark or aesthetic like a poem.
As of late, I’ve loved the poetry in Psalm 77 because it seamlessly weaves together three elements of poetry that I believe to be crucial to any completed work of verse.
- It uses metaphor skillfully: “The waters saw You, O God; / The waters saw You, they were afraid; / The depths also trembled” (Psalm 77:16, NKJV). Water, as an inhuman thing, cannot feel the human emotion of fear; however, water is at the mercy of God’s hand. Knowledge of God’s mercy over us creates a fear of the Lord, making the line “The waters saw You, they were afraid” an appropriate and beautiful metaphor.
- It uses beautiful imagery and shows a strong command of language: “Your way was in the sea, / Your path in the great waters, / And Your footsteps were not known” (Psalm 77:19, NKJV). The sea imagery here is not only lovely, but succinct: the Psalmist’s verse isn’t wordy and he doesn’t use unnecessary adjectives or adverbs. In fact, the only adjective in this verse is the word “great” to describe “waters.” The phrase “great waters” serves as a synonym for “sea” here. So, the adjective isn’t meant to be flowery. It’s a necessary description.
- It conveys truth in a chilling way: “Your path was in the great waters, / And Your footsteps were not known” (Psalm 77:19b, NKJV). I discussed this verse in the last point, while talking about imagery, but it also conveys a bone-rattling truth: God can perform the greatest of miracles without even being seen. If He chooses, He may roam the sea without leaving a single footprint. It’s an entirely chilling and beautiful truth conveyed skillfully in the Psalmist’s verse.
As a Christian writer, my goal should be to write beautiful truth. By beautiful, I don’t mean to imply that our poems should read like textual versions of Thomas Kinkade paintings. Far from it. I mean that we should write poems that sound good; we ought to choose strong words (not necessarily concrete words over abstract words, but concrete words to convey abstract ideas). A well-written poem is, to me, a beautiful poem. It isn’t related to the content. Psalm 77, in fact, has a few bleak moments: “Has His mercy ceased forever? / Has His promise failed forevermore?” (Psalm 77:8, NKJV). It has moments that stop you dead in your tracks: “I remembered God, and was troubled; / I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed” (Psalm 77:3, NKJV).
By truth, I mean that our poems as Christians should convey what is true, what is real. In Psalm 77, I find two truths: one is the truth of man’s frailty (“My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; / My soul refused to be comforted” [Psalm 77:2b, NKJV]); the other is the truth of God’s sovereign grace (“Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; / Who is so great a God as our God?” [Psalm 77:13, NKJV]).
***
Heather Cadenhead’s poems “Embalming” and “Bone Collection” were published in Relief Issue 3.2. Her work has been featured in Illuminations, Arbor Vitae, The Ampersand Review, Boston Literary Magazine, and other publications. She recently won the Editor’s Prize for an upcoming issue of New Plains Review. Heather lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with her husband, Tyson, and their dog, Arthur. She is the senior editor of The Basilica Review.
The Intersection of Faith and Art
Posted by Ian David Philpot in General on February 4, 2010
Jeanne Damoff joins the blog as a guest looking into the union of Faith and Art.
When Chris Fisher first suggested I write a guest post for Relief, I asked if he had a topic in mind. He said, “Anything you want, really. Some kind of faith/art angle would be good.”
(Aside: I wanted to insert an “angle” joke here–maybe something about my being too “obtuse” to understand what he wanted–but I couldn’t come up with wording I liked. Feel free to give it a shot. And remember, if you make me laugh, you’ll earn valuable points.)
As I pondered what I might write, the phrase that kept coming to mind was “the intersection of faith and art.” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the images that phrase conjured. An intersection is a place where two distinct things collide or cross and, for a defined space, become one. Where any two roads intersect, that square of pavement is as much one as it is the other. My perception of it depends entirely on the direction I’m heading.
Who Are You?
Suppose you’re creating a personal profile for some networking site, and you’re given the prompt, “I am a ___________.” Most of us could answer that question in numerous ways. Relationally, I am a wife, mom, daughter, friend, aunt, mother-in-law, etc. Vocationally, I am a writer, speaker, musician, choreographer, photographer. Philosophically, I am a Christian, a creature, an eternal soul. I’m also a cook, maid, laundress. Mentor, counselor, confidante. Fitness nut, dancing fool, laugh-aholic. You get the idea. But what if I have to prioritize? Which identity should come first?
I have no problem with folks who choose the Sunday School answer. But I also have no problem believing faith can be as much a part of a person as their humanity, and as such, needs no name tag. Perhaps I’m an artist who recognizes my gifts are just that–gifts. They were given to me by One who delights in my embracing and using them, and I delight in being who I was created to be. To call myself “Artist” is to accept my Creator’s design for my life and therefore one of the highest compliments I can give Him. To insist that I always use the “Christian” qualifier–or, for that matter, that all my art deals with overtly Christian subject matter–is to greatly limit the scope of the gift.
I’m going to assume that many of this blog’s readers consider themselves both Christians and artists. I also assume you’ve most likely encountered some incarnation of the “Christian artist” or “Artist who happens to be a Christian” debate. Some folks get their bloomers in a pretty tight wad over this, but I can’t help wondering if it ultimately boils down to which road you’re driving on when the two collide. And does it even matter? Either way, the intersection makes them one.
Where do Faith and Art Intersect?
Main Street and First Avenue intersect in cities and towns all over the world. Likewise, the intersection of Faith and Art is found everywhere. And, if you’re like me, it often sneaks up on you. You may be worshiping God with no thought to your art, when a glimpse of His goodness, mercy, intimacy, or grace inspires you to create. Or you may be playing the piano, photographing nature, ballet dancing, or painting a portrait of your child, when suddenly God feels nearer to you than you ever thought possible.
Those times may take us by surprise, but they’re not particularly surprising. Wherever beauty is found, faith and art commonly intersect. But sometimes the two collide in unexpected places.
Sorrow.
Injustice.
Tragedy.
Betrayal.
Faith is stretched to its limits, and art seeks to understand.
Art depicts darkness, and faith cries out to God in response.
These intersections can be full of potholes and blockades. The way is slippery, steep, and full of shadows. When we finally come out on the other side, we’re older and wiser. Our faith purified. Our art refined.
It makes no difference if we approach the intersection on Artist Avenue or Faith Lane. Once we enter it, the two become one. And that’s where the magic happens. Whoever you are and whatever identity you claim, I hope your road leads you to that intersection again and again. I hope the same for me.
***
Jeanne Damoff is the author of Parting the Waters: A True Story: Finding Beauty in Brokenness
Photo Haiku Wednesday 2.3.2010
Posted by Michelle Pendergrass in General on February 3, 2010
It’s Photo Haiku Wednesday! The good people over at Quo Vadis have generously donated some prizes!!
The weekly winner will receive a Quo Vadis Habana Journal and a bottle of J. Herbin ink!!
Every week Relief will choose a random winner! So play along and tell your friends. See the information below for extra chances to win.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Pendergrass.
Would you like to have your photo featured on Photo Haiku Wednesday? Get ready! Starting next week, you’ll be able to submit your photos to Michelle.
Directions:
1. Enjoy
2. Write a haiku inspired by what you see
3. Post the haiku in the comments for chance to enter
For extra chances to win:
4. Follow @reliefjournal on Twitter
5. Follow Quo Vadis on Twitter
6. Twitter @reliefjournal with your haiku and #PHW (Photo Haiku Wednesday)
* * *
Winner will be announce via Twitter Thursday afternoons.
We can only ship to U.S. addresses right now.
You may only win once every three months, but you may play along every single week for Twitter Super Bonus Points!
Relief News Tuesday 2.2.2010
Posted by Ian David Philpot in Relief News on February 2, 2010
Relief Panel at the Festival of Faith and Writing
In case you missed it in yesterday’s post from Editor-in-Chief Chris Fisher, Relief will have a discussion panel at Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing in addition to our booth. It’s just another reason to make it out to Grand Rapids, MI in April. If you still need to sign up, click here. If you are going and would like to volunteer to help Relief with our booth, please contact chris@reliefjournal.com. Relief also needs to raise money to purchase prints of the last two issues to sell at Calvin. If you feel that is something you would be interested in, contact Chris.
Photo Haiku to join Facebook
Starting tomorrow, we will be posting the Photo Haiku picture on our Facebook page as well as the blog. This means that Facebook viewers that participate are open to receive the prizes associated with the Photo Haiku. See you tomorrow!
Getting To Calvin, And How You Can Help
Posted by Relief Editor in Editor's Blog, General on February 1, 2010
Christopher Fisher
Your Typical Anecdotal Opening
This past December I discovered that, as with many high-tech toys and devices, I despise GPS navigation systems.
The university was closed for winter break and I didn’t have to teach again until mid-January, so Jen and I decided to take a short anniversary trip—our thirteenth. We chose Richmond, Virginia, for the Edgar Allan Poe museum, the many antique and book shops in Carytown, and because it’s close to Jen’s parents (in other words, free babysitting for our four kids). The in-laws’ Honda is much too small to carry our abundant progeny, so it seemed only natural that we would swap vehicles for the weekend. My father-in-law, being the considerate man that he is, even programmed his GPS to direct us to our hotel. “Just follow the directions,” he said. “You can’t miss it,” he said.
But after thirteen years, I guess he doesn’t know his son-in-law as well as he thinks. Coming into the city, I followed the sweetly feminine computerized voice, at the same time keeping a careful eye on the car’s odometer.
“Turn left 3.2 miles.”
Okay.
“Turn left onto I-95 North.”
Done.
“Exit point one miles.”
No problem.
“Recalculating. Recalculating.”
Wait a second. Didn’t she say—
“Recalculating.”
One wrong turn, and we were lost in downtown Richmond. And not the “good” side of town, either.
Now I’d looked at a map before we began the trip so, after half an hour of turns and double backs, we finally stumbled on Cary Street, and I had a vague idea where we were. I turned off the GPS and headed west. Ten minutes later we arrived at our destination, exhausted and completely stressed. All because I trusted that wicked computer wench.
Just thirty seconds with a map, and none of this would have happened. Thirty seconds with a map, and we’d have already been checked into our room and opening a bottle of wine.
The Real Point
All of the above is just to point out that I’m the type of person who likes—no, needs—to plan ahead. To me, the phrase “fly by the seat of your pants” has never sounded remotely fun or adventurous but…well, quite painful. I won’t even sit down to write the first sentence of a book or a short story until I’ve worked out the ending in my head. I may not know every detail of the journey (whether literal or narrative), but I know I’m wasting my time if I don’t at least know where I’m going before I start trying to get there. So though it is not until this coming April, the staff at Relief has been for the past six months making preparations for quite a showing at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. And these preparations are really starting to speed up.
This year we will have a booth in the exhibition hall to sell recent and back issues of the journal. With some help from Midnight Diner Editor, Michelle Pendergrass, and authors Michael Snyder and J. Mark Bertrand, we’ll also be presenting a panel discussion during the concurrent sessions. There will be lots of games and giveaways and a circus monkey performing Glenn Beck impersonations. (Okay, I lied about that last part, but if we find one, we’ll make it happen.)
What Does This Have To Do With You?
And yet, all our careful planning aside, there are three specific things we need to get to Calvin. First, as I’ve learned since taking the Editor’s chair, what Relief and probably any journal needs more than anything is people who are willing to actually do things. In this case, that would be little things like helping to man a book table, or passing out flyers, or just spreading the word about the journal. So if you’re going to the Calvin Festival and you’re interested in being a Relief volunteer, please contact me at chris@reliefjournal.com.
Second—and this one is tough for me to even bring up—the Calvin Festival is, essentially, a book fair, so Relief will obviously need books to sell. And books cost money. The last year has been hard on businesses nationwide. Much more so for non-profit Christian literary journals, many of which have folded since the last Calvin Festival in 2008. Relief is fortunate to even still be around, and more fortunate to have completely sold out of Issues 3.1 and 3.2. But that good luck leaves us now with no inventory of our most recent books, and Issue 4.1 may not be complete by April. In short, we need to print another run of 3.2 before Calvin, and we’ll have to get on that very soon. If you are interested in helping to support Relief by donating to put a few books on our table, email me at the address above for details. Your donation will go much further than you may realize, and we will welcome and appreciate any gift, no matter how small.
Third and final, I’d like to ask you to pray for the Relief staff over the next couple months. We are volunteers ourselves, most of us working full-time jobs and then some, and then putting many extra hours of our precious little free time into this journal simply because we love it and the authors we publish. Prepping for a conference like this is a big undertaking, and it only heaps more onto a very tall mountain of things to be done. So please mention us to the Father when you can.
A Tough Few Months for Populists: The Loss of Howard Zinn and Ray Browne
Posted by Stephen Swanson in General, Life on January 29, 2010
Stephen Swanson
Stephen Swanson departs from initial post on the meaning of “union” and various queries into whether it has “a state” regardless of speeches in order to highlight the passing of some ones who have been vitally important in shaping his beliefs about voice, art, and culture: Ray Browne and Howard Zinn.
The losses of Ray Browne, who died last October, and Howard Zinn, who died on Wednesday, provide me with a chance to write something that’s been on my mind for three months. Zinn and Browne shared a view of America starting at the bottom and working up, rather than the more traditional top-down. It’s so often that we highlight the fastest, biggest, richest, most beautiful, and most powerful things as the best, but these men made their lives’ work emphasizing the popular, average, and normal, and turning those words in assets not reasons for derision.
Ray Browne, it’s Ok to Study the Popular…
Calling Browne the founder of popular culture is a misnomer. People have been interested in and examined popular things for some time, but Browne, at least in the American academic system, pushed for the acceptance and respect for popular culture in academics and criticism. For example, his book on Lincoln, Lincoln-Lore: Lincoln in the Popular Mind, argues that understanding Abraham Lincoln as a literal, real person limits the citizen’s understanding of the role that Lincoln has come to hold in American minds, words, and ideals. And that one must examine thing of Lincoln that reach beyond facts and words of him as a man. His work and the works of those who he influenced have spread to the point to almost make what was once unthinkable, almost normal, that we can and should think about our common world and the things we “like” as a part of our intellectual lives.
Howard Zinn, We Must Listen to the Popular…
I am in no way the most devoted to Zinn of my friends, in fact one of my cohort literally made the movie, and so must leave detailed discussions to them. In almost everything Zinn wrote over the past 30-plus years, he emphasizes the need for citizens of America to seek out and actively listen to the voices of the average Americans from throughout our history and through all points on the political spectrum. During the times of my post-secondary education (1997-2007), American popular culture has trended toward the assumption of a nearly blind acceptance of authority that we agree with and rejection of those with whom our beliefs conflict. This period has shown increased reliance on pundit/mediators to break down and keep the gates of our physical, intellectual and spiritual lives, and regardless of whether one agrees with Zinn’s politics, the need for a citizenry to educate themselves on the realities of our collective histories and current place presses on my mind daily as I encounter students with huge gaps in the most basic geographical, historical, and cultural knowledge necessary to make even basic political opinions.
To Me…
The underlying assumptions in Browne and Zinn’s works revolve around a respect and need to understand those that have been labeled mundane or ordinary. These days it grows harder and harder to convince my students, and even my peers, that they have something worthwhile to learn, consider, evaluate, and express, and that they should not also look to the simple or obvious sources for these knowledges but should dig deeply and sift carefully, testing themselves and their environments throughout their daily lives and into their futures.
***
Stephen Swanson teaches as an assistant professor of English at McLennan Community College. Aside from guiding students through the pitfalls of college writing and literature, he spends most of his time trying to remain aware of popular culture, cooking, and enjoying time with his wife and son. He holds degrees in Communications (Calvin College), Film Studies (Central Michigan University), and Media and American Culture Studies (Bowling Green State University. In addition to editing a collection, Battleground States: Scholarship in Contemporary America, he has forthcoming projects on Johnny Cash and depiction of ethics in contemporary film noir.
The Old Blog Is Back and Coach Retires
Posted by CoachCulbertson in Editor's Blog on January 27, 2010
The Old Blog Lives Again!
For those of you who were pining for the days of old, for the old Relief blog, I have good news: it’s alive again. You can click on this picture of it to jump over there:
Sorry it took so long. I think Ian The Web Editor will be starting to move content from the old one to this site before too awful long.
Coach Retires from Relief and The Diner
So most of you already know that the Diner is good hands with the new Editor-In-Chief, Michelle Pendergrass, and I’m also retiring from Relief as well. Oh sure, I’ll still be around in case something blows up, but Relief is in good hands with the crew we’ve built.
I’m going on to other ventures, and you can watch those ventures unfold over at CoachCulbertson.com. and TheBasisCourse.com . I’m moving into the public speaking world, and into the apologetics world, giving Christians and pre-Christians answers to their biggest questions from a more logical, philosophical, and sometimes even scientific perspective. Should be big fun.
And oh yeah, I’m still refining the Write A Book in 30 Days Video Coaching Course over at WriteABookIn30days.com.
It’s been a good run, and I’ve learned a HUGE amount of stuff, and made connections with amazing people that I never would have been able to know otherwise. I’m deeply grateful to all of you, our staff, readers, and authors, for allowing this radically different approach to Christian publishing to exist.
Keep the dream alive, gang!
Your friendly neighborhood tech guy,
Coach Culbertson
Photo Haiku Wednesday 1.27.2010
Posted by Michelle Pendergrass in General, Photo Haiku, Quo Vadis on January 27, 2010
Photo Haiku Wednesday is back and there’s good news! The good people over at Quo Vadis have generously donated some prizes!!
The weekly winner will receive a Quo Vadis Habana Journal and a bottle of J. Herbin ink!!
Every week Relief will choose a random winner! So play along and tell your friends. See the information below for extra chances to win.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Pendergrass.
Directions:
1. Enjoy
2. Write a haiku inspired by what you see
3. Post the haiku in the comments for chance to enter
For extra chances to win:
4. Follow @reliefjournal on Twitter
5. Follow Quo Vadis on Twitter
6. Twitter @reliefjournal with your haiku and #PHW (Photo Haiku Wednesday)
* * *
Winner will be announce via Twitter Thursday afternoons.
We can only ship to U.S. addresses right now.
You may only win once every three months, but you may play along every single week for Twitter Super Bonus Points!
Avatar: What’s the Big Deal?
Posted by Travis Griffith in Faith, General, Life on January 26, 2010
Travis Griffith
Travis Griffith finally buckles under pressure to see Avatar, and shares his reaction to the film and its implications on spirituality.
My brother called it a “life changing experience.”
My mom said it was “an amazing insight into spirituality.”
A friend said it was just “a remake of Dances With Wolves.”
The pope called it “simplistic and sappy.”
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said the film “gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature.”
Then Avatar won for best drama at the Golden Globes and now is a favorite at the Oscars, so I decided I had to experience the film for myself, make up my own mind and then share my thoughts with all my Relief friends. The overall take away: What’s the big deal?
James Cameron, the film’s director, said,
Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate the miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that’s the wonder of cinema right there, that’s the magic.
Of course, that’s why the Vatican says the film supports a worship of nature and neo-paganism (which obviously is bad for business).
Here’s the deal: Avatar does indeed support a worship of nature. It also supports a love for one another and the importance of not judging other people, regardless of race or beliefs. In the movie, the Na’vi people have developed a vibrant, complex, and sophisticated culture based on a profound spiritual connection to their planet, one another and the encompassing spirit they call Eywa. The operative concept for the Na’vi is balance. Their lives express this balance in body, mind and spirit.
A review at movieguide.org said,
In reality, you are connected to the earth by gravity, not by spirit. The Bible tells us the earth will be burned up and there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness reigns. We are stewards of the earth and its creatures, not brothers. We are accountable to God for what we do with the resources He’s given us.
The spirit world is not something in need of balance. It is a war zone where evil spirits want to drag you into lust, greed, anger, and depression while the Spirit of God seeks to rescue you from darkness.
Who's the more enlightened one?
So the hard-line Christians blast the spirit world with their “reality” of fire, fear and brimstone while lauding heaven as God’s Kingdom. Pagans reject heaven and revel in the universal energy of the spirit world. Who is right?
What if the Christian heaven and the pagan spirit world turned out to be the same place behind the veil, just with different marketing here on Earth?
Yet, the Vatican tries to protect its stake in religion while belittling messages like the one in Avatar. It would have been great to see the Vatican lead a discussion towards a more loving and accepting version of spirituality instead of calling the film’s relevant message “simplistic.” Some might even call the type of spirituality portrayed in Avatar as more advanced when compared to the archaic beliefs and practices of Catholicism.
In the end, all Avatar asks us to do is love each other and our planet so humanity can evolve into a place of unconditional bliss. That, after all, is the same ultimate goal many of the world’s religions have, they just all seem to call it something different. Catholics call it the Kingdom of God. Buddhists call it Nirvana. Avatar called it Pandora. Same damn thing, just with different paths that lead there, all as valid as the other.
As long as beliefs are based on love, who’s to say who gets to claim the correct one? I say choose what feels right to you, without fear of being judged for your beliefs by someone else.
If you’ve seen the movie and want to share your thoughts, or care to challenge anything I’ve said here, I’d love to have a discussion with you.
Love… to all.
***
Travis Griffith, who left behind the corporate marketing world, choosing family and writing in lieu of “a comfortable life” financially, is a former atheist trying to define what leading a spiritual life really means. His children’s book, Your Father Forever, published in 2005 by Illumination Arts Publishing Company, Inc. captures only a fraction of his passion for fatherhood.
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