"It all turns on affection"

"I will say, from my own belief and experience, that imagination thrives on contact, on tangible connection. For humans to have a responsible relationship to the world, they must imagine their places in it. To have a place, to live and belong in a place, to live from a place without destroying it, we must imagine it. By imagination we see it illuminated by its own unique character and by our love for it. By imagination we recognize with sympathy the fellow members, human and nonhuman, with whom we share our place. By that local experience we see the need to grant a sort of preemptive sympathy to all the fellow members, the neighbors, with whom we share the world. As imagination enables sympathy, sympathy enables affection. And it is in affection that we find the possibility of a neighborly, kind, and conserving economy."

You should read Wendell Berry's beautiful speech from the National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lecture.The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities recognizes an individual who has made significant scholarly contributions to the humanities and who has the ability to communicate the knowledge and wisdom of the humanities in a broadly appealing way. Established in 1972, the Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual and public achievement in the humanities. The lecture is delivered annually in the spring in Washington, D.C.

 They haven't invited anyone controversial in a while--so they invited the sweetest, most feisty old man in existence.

Here is what he had to say: http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/wendell-e-berry-lecture

Opportunity for Summer 2013

Yeah, this is cool, people. If at all possible, you should try to participate in this.

manifesto: The mad graduate’s liberation front

Each day is an unrepeatable onceness.
Embrace each and feel the sun’s warmth on your face.
Walk barefoot down the mall and stop to talk to someone,
even if it means being late for whatever you’re going to.  
It’s not as important in the end.

Amble around, pensively.
Don’t know where you are going.
It makes it all the more exciting when you arrive.
Just put foot in front of foot and keep moving.

Don’t walk by the color purple or the blooming redbud.
Listen to the story they tell, and thank them for it.
Thank them, and share them, because others walk by them all the time.  

Be adventurous.
Try new things and go to new places.
Drive with the windows down and the music up. Sing along.
Welcome the sunrise from atop a hill with friends and a slowly cooking breakfast.

Don’t forget that you are alive.  
The steady drumming of your heartbeat always lies just beneath your skin.
Dance along with it.  

Be crazy.  
Be reckless.  
Do something which doesn’t make sense to anyone besides you.
Do that, and drag others along with you.  

Stand for something.  
Let your voice shake when you talk.
Find the sacred indignation and restless inside you, and don’t be afraid of them.
Feel the fire in your bones and share it.

Stand for something, but don’t stop there.
Listen to the little rumbles in your heart, because they are all you have.
You won’t know what they mean.
Listen to them anyway.  
Be a megaphone, amplify them into earthquakes. They are.

Start campfires and sit around and talk.
Go to sleep bone weary, but with a view.
And not before being enraptured by the stars and the sound of the wind through the cottonwoods.

Behold God, beholding you, and smiling!
See the light in others, and acknowledge it in yourself.
Let it shine.  It will regardless.

Walk around with a full moon in each eye,
with an open embrace and with a joy in your step.  
Allow others to do the same by your presence.   
Each person is a walking invitation.  Accept them.

Some things will scare you to your core.  
Do them anyway.
Do them first.
They’re the things that matter.

Because you’ll never know everything.  
You will, however, know enough.  

So don’t be afraid to admit what your friends mean to you.  
You have scant enough time to realize just how important they are.  
You have even less time to tell them.

So do.

Friends, what I am saying is this:
Be reckless.

Fall in love.

Practice Resurrection. 

Link to the poem on which this is based

Unconventional Thoughts on Prayer

If you've ever sauntered into the CCSJ, you may have met the one and only Michael Rossman, SJ. Something you may not know about him is that he is an avid blogger for a site called "The Jesuit Post." You should check out this article that he wrote entitled, Everything I Know About Prayer I Relearned in Spin Class. Seriously, read it. Also, you should go spend time with Michael because he leaves us soon to head to Africa!

SS St. Louis Holocaust Event

Check out this event, peeps! They'll be showing the docudrama "The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt" and have a discussion following the film. Four holocaust survivors will be present during the film too! Due to the fact that there are only 60 survivors still alive today, their presence is quite significant.

April 19th @ 7:30pm in Harper Auditorium

Here's more information for your viewing pleasure:
SS St. Louis Holocaust Event