at dolce & gabbana opening with friendsfriday evening, after a great concert at the gallery, some friends and i attended the opening of dolce & gabbana's new store on glizty nanjing road. free flow of champagne, canapes and beautiful people. lavish and ludicrous.
ironically, the next day we held a lecture given by a designer/teacher on the topic of "art and equality" at our gallery. his lecture was a brief overview of philosophical foundations for social justice in the arts and a glance at some inspiring contemporary examples. he packed so much into one hour and though far from comprehensive, his lecture provided much room for continued discourse and deliberation. about 50 people attended, most of them architects, designers or other creative professionals, and i think everyone left with a lot to think about and hopefully with some challenges to consider in their own work.
this morning in my personal reflection time, i came across this passage in frederick beuchner's listening to your life about "a point of no return". beuchner summarizes john marquand's novel, point of no return, in which the protagonist strives his whole life to achieve this one position that he thinks will bring him stability and prestige and when he finally attains it, at the cost of other things in his life, finds it empty and unsatisfactory. sadly, this truth comes too late.
buechner sums up the implications of this protagonist's realization nicely here:
There is nothing moralistic or sentimental about this truth. It means for us simply that we must be careful with our lives because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. Everybody knows that. We need no one to tell it to us. Yet in another way perhaps we do always need to be told, because there is always the temptation to believe that we have all the time in the world, whereas the truth of it is that we do not. We have only a life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice, not one that we let the world make for us. Because surely Marquand was right that for each of us there come a point of no return, a point beyond which we no longer have life enough left to go back and start all over again.
- Frederick Buechner
this resonates with every fiber of my being. we are mortal yet we have the capacity to be part of immortal things - to build and cultivate what will ripple through the history to come and into eternity. our time is so limited - so limited! - and with each day, not a breath is promised. we are grateful for each moment.
i want to build empires. i mean that in the sense that i want to be part of something bigger than myself, i want to explore and create with tenacity and fearlessness. the danger here, of course, is the ego and in building empires for the sake of erecting statues in my own image. that is not my intention (not my conscious intention, for the most part). i want to build for the sake of Greater Good and Glory, building empires in light of the Greater Story and the Beautiful Kingdom to come.
we all build empires in big and small ways, in the areas of life where we have been given dominion. whether we are building empires as fashion tycoons or building schools and sustainability in rural villages, we are all contributing to something with our talents and time.
if we know our time is limited, what then shall we choose to build?
cups of coffee: 1 1/2
mood: ready for the day!
ironically, the next day we held a lecture given by a designer/teacher on the topic of "art and equality" at our gallery. his lecture was a brief overview of philosophical foundations for social justice in the arts and a glance at some inspiring contemporary examples. he packed so much into one hour and though far from comprehensive, his lecture provided much room for continued discourse and deliberation. about 50 people attended, most of them architects, designers or other creative professionals, and i think everyone left with a lot to think about and hopefully with some challenges to consider in their own work.
this morning in my personal reflection time, i came across this passage in frederick beuchner's listening to your life about "a point of no return". beuchner summarizes john marquand's novel, point of no return, in which the protagonist strives his whole life to achieve this one position that he thinks will bring him stability and prestige and when he finally attains it, at the cost of other things in his life, finds it empty and unsatisfactory. sadly, this truth comes too late.
buechner sums up the implications of this protagonist's realization nicely here:
There is nothing moralistic or sentimental about this truth. It means for us simply that we must be careful with our lives because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. Everybody knows that. We need no one to tell it to us. Yet in another way perhaps we do always need to be told, because there is always the temptation to believe that we have all the time in the world, whereas the truth of it is that we do not. We have only a life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice, not one that we let the world make for us. Because surely Marquand was right that for each of us there come a point of no return, a point beyond which we no longer have life enough left to go back and start all over again.
- Frederick Buechner
this resonates with every fiber of my being. we are mortal yet we have the capacity to be part of immortal things - to build and cultivate what will ripple through the history to come and into eternity. our time is so limited - so limited! - and with each day, not a breath is promised. we are grateful for each moment.
i want to build empires. i mean that in the sense that i want to be part of something bigger than myself, i want to explore and create with tenacity and fearlessness. the danger here, of course, is the ego and in building empires for the sake of erecting statues in my own image. that is not my intention (not my conscious intention, for the most part). i want to build for the sake of Greater Good and Glory, building empires in light of the Greater Story and the Beautiful Kingdom to come.
we all build empires in big and small ways, in the areas of life where we have been given dominion. whether we are building empires as fashion tycoons or building schools and sustainability in rural villages, we are all contributing to something with our talents and time.
if we know our time is limited, what then shall we choose to build?
cups of coffee: 1 1/2
mood: ready for the day!
1 comment:
i love these thoughts, eva...
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