“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

THE ART OF BEING HUMAN

The desire to express and create is central to being human. It touches on that divine spark that rests in every human being.[1] I believe our creative natures are tied to the Image of God (the Creator) which He implants into all humanity beginning with that beginning of life we often refer to as conception. (Even the profoundest disability calls to the creative capacity of love in others.)

 The creation of a new life (the created) is the highest creative achievement because God authors it:[2] Not only is it the genesis of a new human being, it is the genesis of humanity. Thus, we, too, desire to be creative because it is in our spiritual DNA. 
The arts have been crucial in my life journey -- both before and after disability. This is ironic. Multiple sclerosis stripped away my abilities as an artist and musician, but it only made me desire the beauty of the arts more.

The emotive nature of artistic expression often involves communication at primal levels; this expression involves a yearning of one soul to touch another soul with a unity of that which is inexpressible. True artistic expression gives voice to loss and pain, or love and joy -- the various aspects of the human condition. 

 Artistic expression can even find beauty and meaning in heartache,
tragedy, pain, or even in mundane affairs of ordinary life. The arts can chronicle them all when exercised with open intelligence, sensibility and the discipline of astutely listening to the essence of being. 

 [I am available to address The Art of Being Human: Disability and creativity. For bookings contact HumanLifeMatters@shaw.ca]

 I want to feature expressive dance of six people with disabilities of the English Foundation for Community Dance.
[Click on image below or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FevlnDRrWSU to see Physically being Me,



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[1] Genesis 1.26-27.
[2] Psalm 139.13-16.

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