LIGHTNING? WHAT LIGHTENING? (white thing?)

First of all to reply to Dennis, my father wonders if you are sort of an other -- employed author and if you are familiar with the works of the longshoreman etc., Eric Hoffer? He is enjoying your posts and thinks you might have something in common with Mr. Hoffer.

You are absolutely right about the movie, better known as the "Jesus Film." But it is interesting that you mentioned the film "Jesus of Nazareth," by Zeffirelli -- that was the, "save one" movie I was talking about in my last posting. And indeed it was instrumental in "saving one", namely, me. I was in the same position as CS Lewis up until that time, being sort of intellectually okay with God although reluctantly but never having had an personal encounter of the saving kind until Flo and I and some Catholic friends viewed Zeffirelli's film on Palm Sunday 1979 so last year was the 30th anniversary of this event as well as my 60th anniversary of Being (not Nothingness I trust). These are events which I celebrated somewhat privately all year long. My specific words as best I recall were addressed to Flo: "I don't know what it is but I need this Jesus that you have." Interestingly, only a few weeks before, the Spirit told my wife not to talk to me anymore about Jesus because it was His Job and not hers so there was, as they say, "no pressure," at least not any social or relational pressure. I do believe that there were numerous people who did influence me up until this happened but I am a strong believer in the fact that a film can change your life. Or even an opera. I remember a woman at Shimer College who basically flunked out because she was too busy listening to Tristan und Isolde and worshiping Richard Wagner. Another acquaintance of mine was quite sure that Jean Paul Sartre was God incarnate. But for me, I didn't really know what a disciple of Christ would look like until I met my wife who was at that time the most compelling example of what a real Christian might look like. But I am the sort of person who doesn't like to be pressured and likes to figure things out for himself. This event however became an exception. Pascal described this sort of event in one word: "Fire" I speculate that this event which occurred about 8 years before his death, is what makes his writings more than a mere imitation of Montaigne and beyond what they held in common, which critics would later call, "fideistic skepticism". More on Pascal later.

I'm not sure however what Dennis meant by advertising in terms of "Jesus Film." It is really more of a ministry and the only advertising I would say would be announcements in local villages..the money that is given really goes to equip teams, do new translations, and to produce new films, such as the recent film about Mary Magdalene which is specifically aimed at the many women who suffer marginalization in most cultures worldwide. It is not connected with any denomination. I would say that it is doing for hundreds of thousands of people what "Jesus of Nazareth" did for me. Also, no one else is coming to these villages to show any films at all so naturally everybody wants to go regardless of what is showing so that advertising to the "consumer" would not usually be even marginally necessary. I suppose I could find out what their advertising budget is, if anyone is interested. addendum: I s'pose that "adverts" may mean the shiny brochures we all get in the mail to solicit contributions--yes these are problematic and do require some oversight and some discernment. People are people no matter what "dose" of the Spirit they imbibe and I would hasten to add that I certainly am far from claiming I have never been bamboozled by a ministry that sounded good. There is an independent-hopefully- agency to which ministries such as these are accountable but as we read in Camus, "All fall down." It's kind of like medicine, you hope you do well on the balance--but one is often not sure of that on many days...

I wanted to also give you-all a quote from a correspondence between CS Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers on the topic of imagination. Dorothy said:

"I think the trouble is that the unscrupulous old ruffian inside one who does the actual writing doesn't care tuppence (Dragonspeak doesn't know what that is obviously) where he gets his raw material from. Fantasy, memory, observation, odds and ends of reading, and sheer invention are all grist to his mill, and he mixes everything together regardless. But critics can't sort it out............. so they just explain it all by "fantasy", and make up an imaginary biography to explain the bits that they can't account for."

CS Lewis, in his letter to Dorothy -- wish I could reprint it all right here--: "Don't let's believe anything people like us tell one another about the new towns and dormitory suburbs. When one really meets these traduced people one finds them far less confused about art and reality than most of the 'clerks'. I don't think they ever dream of applying to real life, mistaking for history or science, what they find in the films or the comics. Talk to an intelligent milkman about the very improbable ending of the film, and he will reply, ' oh well, they got to put that in to finish it off like.' He never dreamed of demanding the sort of realism the critics demand: there's his safeguard. No child, and no adult -- except a 'clerk' would ask what the ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's book was. That's the idol of the cave, not the marketplace. I admit that people write me letters asking if I really know someone who has been to Mars and Venus, but I think that's because they are mentally disordered, not because they live in new towns. Yours, Jack"

I think what Dorothy Sayers was saying particularly applies to the "structure," of what I am doing in this blog. It probably looks pretty chaotic probably like someone's kitchen does in the middle of meal preparation but there is a "unity in diversity," operative here. In Judaism couples are often married under a covering called a "huppah" -- any of you who attended our rather strange wedding got a chance to see one -- we were married at St. Giles in Oak Park Il in 1977 and a lot of people couldn't figure out whether this was a Jewish wedding, a Unitarian wedding, a Catholic wedding, or just a hippie wedding but all of these things represented the elements from which Flo and I emerged as individuals. There was a lot more that went unsaid of course we could only put in so much. I do remember especially the part from the book, "The Little Prince" in which the Fox talks to the Little Prince about friendship. Very applicable to any marriage would say.

But my point from which I diverted myself is this: that the huppah can also represent the Holy Spirit which is why I was so fascinated by Joyce's comment about a Holy Spirit community. Joyce, you may be familiar with John Michael Talbot and his community which was very much of a Holy Spirit driven and very amazing story. I was very much influenced by his music and his ideas once I got over my fear of "ghosts"!!!

And other white things. Franz Kafka once was asked what he thought of Christ. His only comment was that Jesus Christ was "an abyss of Light-- one must be careful that one does not fall in." I guess I was not careful enough, to the chagrin of many. But I have never been sorry and I must say that Light is a wonderful thing in which to swim.