An Occasional Thought or Photo

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Today's theme based on Canto 7 of Purgatory is missed opportunities, that which is left undone.  As Sordello and Virgil continue the conversation, Virgil informs Sordello, ...The reason I lost Heaven was through no other fault than lack of faith. ... Not what I did, but what I did not do cost me the sight of that high Sun you seek whose meaning was revealed to me too late. ... I dwell with those who could not clothe themselves in the three holy virtues but, unstained, knew all the rest, and practiced all of them. Thus, Virgil, in a somewhat prideful yet sorrowful way explains his eternal home in Limbo; all for the lack of faith, hope and charity.  His continued emphasis on his faultless life seems as if he still cannot let go of self-glorification.  Sordello then shows the pilgrims a new group of souls, many of them former rulers from across Europe.  While their very presence i...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 6 of Purgatory is a bit depressing.  There are few inspiring moments here.  Dante is still surrounded by the large group of souls from Canto 5.  He notices their crowd mentality, all trying to keep up with him to make their requests for intercession.  He likens them to the new friends the winner of a dice game suddenly finds.  Everyone loves a winner.  Dante though is no better.  He responds to this crowd by appeasement just so he can get away from them. I was that man caught in a begging throng, turning my face toward one and then the next, buying my way out with my promises. Dante promised all that he would pass along their requests for intercessory prayers to their family and friends, and "thus quicken their way to bliss."  Dante has become the always-ready-to-please politician surrounded by constituents seeking favor. In the next scene, Dante and Virgil approach...

Four simple ingredients can entice all four senses when properly handled.   Michael Pollan's 2016 Netflix mini-series Cooked got me interested in making traditional, rustic bread, specifically Episode 3: Air.  Ken Forkish' 2012 book with the same title as this blog entry taught me how.  The method is straight-forward and requires one other crucial ingredient:  time.  Forkish presents two-loaf recipes which I half to keep my carb intake and waistline under some semblance of control.  I'll walk you through the creation of this loaf of Overnight 40% Whole Wheat Bread. The process starts with flour, a 60/40 split of all-purpose and whole wheat.  Forkish is big on baking with a scale rather than cups due to the variations across brands of flour.  Digital scales that measure in grams are cheap.  Get one.  Another fun thing about this method is that the main utensil used is your hand for all mixing.  Wash them. The water comes n...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 5 of Purgatory begins with the distractions that we've seen thus far in Dante's journey.  While climbing, the pilgrim stops and turns around due to the attention he is getting from the crowd of indolent souls left behind.  Virgil chides Dante: "What do you care, if they are whispering? ...let the people talk! ...the man who lets his thoughts be turned aside by one thing or another, will lose sight of his true goal, his mind sapped of its strength." Virgil echoes the acronyms leaders have told undisciplined teams:  FOTAH!  Focus On The Task At Hand!  Dante's answer is one of the most human responses possible. What could I say except, "I'm coming now"? Everyday I face multiple non-productive, meaningless distractions.  Yes, silly cat videos on YouTube are a prime example.  There is truly no excuse.  I blush as Dante did, and say "OK. Coming!"...

Delivered Sunday, February 25, 2018, at First Presbyterian Church, Urbana, Illinois Twenty years ago, we were good consumers.  Having just moved to town, Shari and I with three small girls in tow spent almost a full year church shopping.  We visited many churches across multiple denominations critiquing each.  Did we like the sermon? What did we think of the pastor? Did we like the music? How was the church school? What did we think of the people?  Eventually, despite our well-honed consumerism, the “did we like?” questions turned into “how could we see ourselves serving?” questions.  In the end, we were called into this community. Throughout that entire process, one question never came to mind.  I never asked myself, “Will they like me?”  It literally never occurred to me.  You could say it was ego, or maybe it just comes with being part of the dominant socio-economic group.  It just never occurred to me.  It’s a church!  Of c...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . Just as the previous canto was about guidance, the theme of Canto 4 in Purgatory is time, how we lose track of it, how we measure it, and much we have and don't have of it. Dante begins, And so it is that when we see or hear something which wholly captivates the soul, we can easily lose all sense of time. The sense aware of time is different from that which dominates all the soul: the first is free to roam, the other, bound. " Free to roam " is such an enticing phrase.  It brings to mind Billy Pilgrim time-tripping in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five .  In a faced-paced world, losing track of time can be a respite from stress and obligations. Losing the sense of time, though, is a double-edged sword.  While it is admirable that Dante get's lost in time speaking with the souls of departed friends, first Casella, then Manfred, he has as well lost sight of his task at hand, cl...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . The recurrent theme of the third canto of Purgatory is guidance, or rather the lack thereof.  Dante begins with expressing his dependence on Virgil's guidance. And where could I have run without his help? Who else but he could take me up the mount? But Dante was quickly seized by fear when, not seeing Virgil's shadow, Dante assumed he had been abandoned by his guide.  The two, though, find themselves inadequate for locating the path up the mountain.  Virgil looks inward to himself and Dante to the mountain, but neither finds a way.  This scene is reminiscent (now) of Raphael's painting, The School of Athens with Plato pointing up and Aristotle point outward.  In the this instance, neither method can accomplish the task.  Further guidance is needed. They encounter a group of souls who are forced to wander around the base of the mountain for thirty times their life on earth due ...

Whether we're the DIY type or rely on a mechanic, most of us are well conditioned to practice regular maintenance on our cars: oil changes, tire pressure check, break pad check, and everything else on the 99 point diagnostic list.  Some of us have learned the hard way the cost of not doing these things.  Do we as leaders, though, show as much wisdom and discipline when it comes to maintaining corporate values? The development of values is ripe with consultants, retreats, and focus groups.  We spend much money and time coming up with the perfect list.  Do we really have to perform preventative maintenance in between the rare "purchases" of a new set of values?  Yes. No matter how often values are fueled with positive reinforcement and sound marketing, they can become stale.  They can become platitudes, something that's been used way too often to still be interesting or thoughtful.  This danger is progressive.  First, team members may stop ...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . The humanness of Dante and Virgil is clear in the second canto of Purgatory .  Despite their being mady ready for the journey at the end of the first canto, they just think about going. We were still standing at the water's edge, wondering about the road ahead, like men whose thoughts go forward while their bodies stay, How often do I stand still (or really just sit) and wonder about the road ahead.  I can use Google Maps and Street View to see the whole country, but that is far short of being there.  Contrast this passive mode of travel with the examples of faith in Hebrews 11.  By faith, Noah built an ark, Abraham set out from Ur, and Moses led his people out of Egypt.  Faith is demonstrated by action, not by wondering.  Dante himself observes this contrast as the inbound ship of redeemed souls is heard singing "When Israel Came Out of Egypt," a song recalling action, not won...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . In the first canto of Purgatory , Dante and Virgil have emerged from the path out of Hell onto the foot of Purgatory's mountain.  Dante is marveling at the stars, the lightness of the air, and the beautiful twilight sky, sharp contrasts to the filth of the Inferno.  The pair is approached by an old man, Cato of Utica, the guard of the entrance to Purgatory.  Cato is not happy. Are all the laws of God's Abyss destroyed? Have new decisions now been made in Heaven so that, though damned, you come up to my cliff? Cato is the man in the remote office wondering what in world has headquarters done to him now.  In the words of a popular business book, someone moved his cheese.  Literally, Hell has been turned loose.  Laws that have been good enough for millenia are now changing? Why didn't anyone consult with me or let me know?  Do these type of people really belong here? How ma...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . I'm jumping ahead 30 cantos, sparing the details of most of Hell.  The main purpose of this series of Lenten blogs is to experience the redemptive process in Dante's journey through Purgatory.  Hell can wait. In Canto 34, the last of Inferno , Virgil has led Dante through all nine levels of Hell, now in the deepest part of the last circle, a vast sea of ice trapping the souls of traitors.  They travel to the center of frozen lake to see Lucifer, trapped in the ice, chewing on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius in each of his three mouths.  Satan is a huge, hideous beast, with six bat-like wings and three faces. What follows has such high production value that I'm surprised Hollywood has not used it.  Up until this point, Virgil seems to be a Gandalf-like figure with Dante as the naive and timid Bilbo Baggins.  In this canto, though, Virgil seems more like Dwayne Johnson in a new action movi...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . In the fourth canto of Inferno , Dante and Virgil enter the first circle of Hell, Limbo which Virgil reveals as his home for the rest of eternity.  Virgil is joined by his fellow poets, philosophers, mathematicians, and other classical heroes.  Yet in the midst of this impressive group there is just but one sound, there were no wails but just the sound of sighs... Virgil explains that despite their virtuous lives, their absence of faith in God has condemned them to this Limbo. In this alone we suffer: cut off from hope, we live on in desire. Gautama Buddha explains their sighs in his saying, "the end of desire is the end of sorrow."  Living on in a state of desire unfulfilled would be sorrowful.  The passage brings to mind the sounds of Peggy Lee singing "Is That All There Is?" Dante's depiction of the life of solely classic virtues brings to mind the story of Jesus and the wome...

I can get a big sense of accomplishment when I find an ancestor from the 18th century or earlier.  Like putting a puzzle piece in place, I think that now I can understand my lineage. The victory is short-lived when you think of the whole picture.  Looking at all of my identified ancestors by generation shows the marked drop-off once you go out six generations.  I may know all 16 of my great-great-grandparents and 75% of my 32 great-great-great-grandparents, but after that the percentages of each generation are low. The seven ancestors born near the beginning of the 18th century are out of a total of 512 ancestors from that generation (intermarriage notwithstanding).  One well-research branch of the family yielded a whopping eleven ancestors born in the late 1500s.  I only have 8,181 ancestors yet to find of that generation (my great^11 grandparents).

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's  The Divine Comedy . The 19th century translation "Abandon hope all ye who enter" frequently appears in popular fiction.  Even the creators of South Park have the Hell Director orienting new arrivals with, "Abandon all hope and yada yada yada." This quote though is only the last of nine lines that Dante describes as the sign at the entrance to Hell to open Canto 3.  The first triplet sets an important preface. I am the way into the doleful city, I am the way into eternal grief, I am the way to a forsaken race. "I am" is the name God stated to Moses in Exodus.  "I am the way" is is a quote attributed to Jesus in the gospel of John.  Dante is seeing the result of the rejection of the "I am" and of "the way": dolefulness, grief, forsakenness, and the loss of hope.  This is the other way to go. The first group of souls encountered though are not quite in Hell but trapp...

In the fall of 2014, Shari asked me if I had any images that would relate to a journey.  She was compiling an Advent booklet for our church entitled "Journey to the Manger" and was hoping for thematic images that could accompany devotions written by church members. She was in luck.  As I looked through a dozen years' worth of digital photographs I had taken, I was struck by the recurring theme of journey or movement.  It turns out this theme regularly draws my eye.  Enjoy. Makanda, Illinois Quivira National Wildlife Preserve, Kansas Sanibel Island, Florida Door County, Wisconsin Door County, Wisconsin Southern Wyoming Tunnel Hill State Park, Illinois Lake Superior, Wisconsin Ouimet Canyon, Ontario Forest Glen Preserve, Illinois Neckar River, Germany Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Florida Keys Grand Targhee, Wyoming Oak Alley Plantatio...