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May 17, 2013 · 12:48

A Budding, Er, I Mean Blooming Artist.

Pops, our oldest, Eric, and I traveled to our youngest son’s college for his junior recital several weeks ago. Oberlin Music Conservatory outside of Cleveland Ohio. Do you ever find yourself spending time in a place somewhere far from your life? Ya get to know the place. And it’s just a place in the midst of thousands of other places. The other places you will probably never see in your life but for one reason or another your life circumstances have taken you there. One of our sons went to a military school in the middle of nowhere in Ontario, Canada. We traveled there often over the course of 18 months. It’s a place I would never in my wildest dreams thought I would spend time, let alone get to know pretty well. Life takes me places and sometimes I ask, why this place? Why not that place? What is that place I will never go?

The past three years we have found ourselves visiting Oberlin, Ohio. Tiny, tiny town. Oberlin is a very “liberal” liberal arts college. A tad too liberal for my taste, but it is what my son feels he needs in this time of his life. Makes my heart hurt. I love ya, baby. They have to grow up sometime, dont they? I donlikit. But I will take what I can get. Overall, this college choice has been pretty spot on whether I like it or not.

Oberlin is a darling town with much collegiate history and a college of “firsts”. They were the first college to admit female AND black students. Pretty progressvie,eh? The oldest operating music conservatory in the country. It was founded by Presbyterian ministers. Where did they wander off to?? During the civil war, it was an active underground railroad location. The proprietor of the B and B we stayed in showed us the trap door in the kitchen used for the slaves to slip down into to hide.

B and B in Oberlin, Ohio

Oberlin Campus

Charlie’s recital was Saturday night. We had the opportunity to be his gophers for the day in preparation for the big shewww. His show was a combination of his own composed and recorded music, his produced videos and dance movement projected onto a big screen. He nailed it. He rented out racquet ball courts for the show which was a great idea and worked well.

I took 557 photos that weekend. The images that were being projected onto the screen by his movements and lighting were stunning. Great artistic inspiration for my own art hopefully.

His little wheels are spinnin’

Eric helping, err, I mean resting. Actually he did help.

It was a great weekend. We got to hang out with all of Charlie’s best buds. We missed the fact that our middle son, Sam, could not be with us. He is busy working hard to protect you and me from dangggga. Thank you, Sam, for sticking your neck out for us.

Have a super weekend.

God bless,

Karen

Pagans. Water. Sacrifice.

The original meaning of “pagan” is country dweller. When city folk made their way into the country with their Christian views, some country dwellers didn’t take too readily. The definition evolved into: country dwellers who were not Christians. Today, I dont hear “country dwellers” when referring to pagans.

We traveled to Cleveland last week to see my son in a performance. It was about a beautiful lake that had dried up. Scientists were trying figure out how to make water to fill it back up. Meanwhile, the “water spirits” were devastated that the water was gone as were the lake visitors. It was a beautiful collaboration of artists of all mediums from my son’s college. Dancers, musicians, visual artists, technical artists, etc.

Just love this graphic.

When it was over, I heard the people behind us talking about pagans and then Pops mentioned that they used pagan rituals in the performance. It went totally over my head. I am very ignorant when it comes to paganism. I wouldn’t see it if it came up and kissed me on my cheek. Mainly cause I don’t know what they are. And it seems to me not appropriate to call someone a name that is not a Christian. For me, they are simply people who do not share Christian beliefs. The word “pagan” sounds derogatory to me.

What I took away from the play is how important our water is to us. It is a necessity. It feeds us. It cleanses us. It is a thing of beauty. It heals us. It entertains us. It feels good against our bodies. It is powerful. It touches each of our senses. Gosh. Really something, isn’t? It is the essential element for life. Thank you, God, for giving us a beautiful gift.

In the play, they sacrificed a couple of people (I think. Like I said, it went totally over my head. This is what I was told. I was busy gathering my own interpretation that had nothing to do with human sacrificing) to bring the water back.

There was a quote that I was struck by. “Nothing can be gained from a solitary sacrifice from one who always cared.”

(A great exception to that is the solitary sacrifice of Jesus Christ dying on the cross to save us from our wretched sins. Much has been gained from that.)

I interpreted the quote to mean: That if I care about something very much, it will not be a sacrifice for me to continue to care. If I have not cared too deeply for something then, to begin caring, it will be a sacrifice. A simple “water” example for this is that if I have always cared about the conservation of water, to use less water in showering, brushing my teeth, washing dishes and watering the lawn will not be a great deal. But if I haven’t cared, then making those changes would be a sacrifice.

AND in this case, we must collectively sacrifice to make a difference.

Aside from the fact we all need water, we all love water, don’t we? I know I love to see water running through our creeks and rivers. Big waves crashing on our beaches. In order to preserve what we love, don’t we collectively have to make sacrifices for that precious element?