Haiku - Bleed

Sail across the strings
How the bow rips painful stripes
sound slashes the air

Friday Night in Montpelier

So it's Friday Night in Montpelier. Tonite we had a "Meet The Parents Night" for our preschool program from 5-7. I of course attended and met lots of cool kids and their parents. When it was over... I went home, ordered a pizza and watched four episodes of "Louis and Clark" on DVD (Thank you Netflix). Whoever told Dean Cain he can act? And Teri Hatcher is still playing the same role on Desperate Housewives. I can tell even from camera angles that neither one was chosen for their acting ability.

I say all this because I want to make one thing clear. This is not my idea of a cool Friday Night. In fact, I remember a time when I studied all day and then spent almost the whole weekend with my friends. Movies, art museums, plays, even hanging out at home was the coolest thing ever. Not so lately. I miss community.

The people of this town and church are so wonderful. This church is filled with loving folks. The problem is not the church, the town, or it's people. Also, one does not need to go out every weekend in order to have full life. It's just that so many weekends, and weekdays have been spent alone. Days filled with ministry and papers, and work but no deep conversation. There are no soul friends here and one can only do so much reading.

Ugh... feeling sorry for myself. I'll stop.

So I went to a movie and...

So I went to see that new movie "Step Up" and it was exactly what I thought it would be. Boy from wrong side of the tracks meets girl with opportunities, they change one anothers lives, fall in love, they fall apart, something bad happens, they come back together just in time for a huge showstopping number to end the show... and they all live happily ever after.

Check out this line from USA Today film critic Steve Bowles:

"Step Up dips from the well that seems to feed all Hollywood dance films: forbidden love between a roughneck boy and a repressed girl, drawn together by their common desire to shake their rumps."

But you don't go to this movie for the story since the story is incredibly corny; you go to watch people dance. I enjoyed it. It was fun.

However, on my way home my mind kept turning toward one thing with a singular and powerful focus. Though I was almost twenty miles from home I could see, suspended in the road above me one thing that seemed to get more and more real as I got closer to home. My thoughts were pointed like an arrow toward a blue case leaning against the wall of my prayer room. Where it has sat since the day I moved in...with broken pegs and in need of new strings my thoughts were concentrated on my violin... Giovanni.

ONe thing I can say about my musical ability on the violin is that so far as the world is concerned I'm not very good. In fact, if I could do my life over again I would have started the violin earlier, rather than after college. I would have studied music and art, and would have gotten a BFA degree. Now, as I seek to integrate the Fine Arts and Theology, I find myself lacking certain skills.

As I was thinking about all this I became aware of God's presence as he said: You once read "With Christ in the School of Prayer... correct? If I can teach you the eternal work of prayer, why then do you assume that I cannot teach you art history, and music, and painting? I have given you this time to fill you life and gain the skills you need. Leave it to me to bring people into your life to teach you the things you need to know."

So tomorrow, in an effort to no longer neglect the work God would have me do... I'm going to have my violin repaired.

(PS... I just completed another painting... I'll post it soon.)