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What are you looking for in a piece of art?

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What are you looking for in a piece of art? Doesn't matter the medium. I'm thinking broad here and looking at all of the arts.  When you go seeking a painting, sculpture, song, photograph, novel, poem, movie, show, play, album; what are you seeking? Is it always the same? Does it change? When you think about art that spoke to you? Matters? Affected you? What was it? Were you chasing catharsis for something you were experiencing? Did you find something new? Was your mind expanded or affirmed, both? Did you look into the creator? Or live in the moment? Have you revisited it? Yes, no, often? Did you share it? Attempt to? Or hold it tight? Did you seek more like it? So many questions. Never ending I think. With as many or more answers possible. Outside of my human relationships (romantic, familial, and friendly), I can honestly say that what has enriched my life the most is the arts. There's no question. For me the mediums I find myself drawn to the most are music and written w...
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Cognitive Deficits

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The hand was easier to notice. I assumed it came first. Were the thoughts really that far behind. Or did they even come first. Sometimes changes to our cognition are just harder to notice.  A tremor. Weakness. Pain. Dropping things. Hand writing worsening. Those are all glaring spotlights, right? Let's contrast that.  A mild change in memory. Being stuck on a name. Taking longer to recall or recognize something or someone. That can be so much harder to notice.  Thoughts are fickle things. They often change. They rarely truly persist as a constant. There's too many variables. Cognitive and behavioral changes are difficult to quantify, especially deficits. I personally think it's especially so for a few reasons.  First. In life we change our minds. Simple enough. We have new experiences. We learn new information. Our thought patterns and hopefully our behavior changes accordingly. That's just part of the human experience.  Which leads to the second point. We just ...
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What truly brings meaning and purpose in life?

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Freud thought it was Sex. Nietzsche would talk about a will to power. Others love. Some money. What's the common thread. The meaning of life. I come down somewhere with Frankl. Meaning. Purpose.  For us men that's often compared to our profession. But is that everything?  My job gives me purpose. It's a great job. I feel fulfilled to help people, make a difference. Yet with all that, it's not the main source of meaning in my life. No. There's a lot more to life. Things that give more meaning. Make life worth living and experiencing. Most of all my wife. She's everything. The best of us. The best of me. Then I got four kids. They're the world. The fun. The chaos. The pride. I love them all for who they each are. And we got the cats and dog. They aren't easy always. But they're fuzzy. They love and they care. In their way.  So I exist with them. In a life full of music, literature, art, and nature. Fill it with laughter and good food. Make it a life wo...
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How do we treat things considered sacred?

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When possible sacred writings should be treated with respect. I hate to add this part but it should be regardless of if you share the view of their sacredness or not.  That doesn't mean that scripture needs to be placed on a pedestal. That's dependent on tradition. But it should be used appropriately. I've been hard on scriptures. Physical copies of them. I've carried them in uniform pockets in field. I've read and worn copies to the point the pages fall out or the covers separate. That's what happens when you use things. I would argue properly.  What's horrible is purposeful damage or debasement of someone else's holy text. When I was a missionary someone burned a copy of the Quran on the campus where I was serving. Earlier this week a Quran was struck with a slab of bacon and an attempt to burn it was made. What's most concerning is that Christianity was invoked by apologists in this instances.  How can we let this stand? As a member of the Mormon ...
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Helping heal moral injury

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Often public service requires actions that require compromise with our values. Actions that are at odds with faith and practice. That can cause long-term emotional stress and cognitive challenges. This can include a lot of things. Shame at perpetration. Guilt at surviving. Anger at being on the sidelines. A loss of trust in oneself. All of the above are signs of moral injury.  Some of you are wondering the hell am I talking about? What's moral injury? Some call it a soul wound, but that doesn't really explain it does it. So I'll turn to a couple definitions to lay the ground work.  First from the VA's National Center for PTSD , " In traumatic or unusually stressful circumstances, people may perpetrate, fail to prevent, or witness events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs and expectations." And a similar definition from Syracuse University's Moral Injury Project , " Moral injury is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass  when that...
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Doctrine and Theology aren't new. You haven't reinvented the wheel.

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 What has become Christian theology has always been debated. It was hashed out and formed over years of treatise writing and attempts at rhetorical persuasion that led to the creeds and interpretations we have today.  To think there is one simple all encompassing and easily understood theology that answers all problems and questions is the height of hubris. We lean into interpretation and understanding informed by our experiences and overall understanding. Early theologians and church fathers are amazing examples of this. We have regional variances. We have philosophical differences (Plato, the stoics, and the cynics were all often competing influences). And we have strongly various represented priorities. How did the ancient church handle this? Debates. Then a vote. Then a declaration of what was doctrine and what was heresy. It still happens today.  And it's not new. The debates over what we call Christian or not wouldn't surprise the early church fathers, the wouldn't ...
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