Sunsets: God's Performance Art

Coming home from the funeral of my Aunt (and Godmother), we saw the most beautiful sunset, and marveled at how the colors changed over the course of 10-15 minutes.

It left me thinking both of the striking colors that are associated with Autumn leaves as they turn and prepare to fall, and the colors the setting sun leaves against the clouds as the light prepares to give darkness its due sway, both metaphors for the end of our lives on this Earth.  May my last years be full of such striking color that those who see it will marvel and give Glory to God as is His due.  :)

In the meantime, here's a little of God's performance art - no single performance ever the same as the next...

The Fallacy of Modernism (as explained by Calvin & Hobbes)

One of the key tenets of Modernism (as descended from The Enlightenment) is that we, homo sapiens, as a species, are on a path of continuous upward progress.  This progress is propelled upward by an increasing reliance on rationalism and a corresponding elevation of science as the source of answers to our questions and problems.

Calvin & Hobbes take this on in a great little strip that tells us why, despite Modernism's insistence that progress is inexorable and inevitable, it never really seems like we make any progress as a species except in creating more inventive ways to kill each other.  Hobbes' quote is classic:

"The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present."

And the present... always has US in it, more's the pity.

It was a very good year

... was 2015.  It was filled with music and travel and responsibility and challenge, with more success than failure, with more joy than disappointment.  2015 brought change and stability, effort and enjoyment, prudence and indulgence, reward and sacrifice, stress and calm.  Would that all years could be as diverse and as much of a pleasure to look back on as 2015!  So, in gratitude for the old, I look forward to the new, and whatever comes, may I face it without reluctance.

Dear reader, as further reference on how I would like to live, this year and next, I quote for you this verse from Henry Van Dyke, titled "Life":

Let me but live my life from year to year,

With forward face and unreluctant soul;

Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;

Not mourning for the things that disappear

In the dim past, nor holding back in fear

From what the future veils; but with a whole

And happy heart, that pays its toll

To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer. 

So let the way wind up the hill or down,    

O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy: 

Still seeking what I sought when but a boy, 

New friendship, high adventure, and a crown, 

My heart will keep the courage of the quest, 

And hope the road's last turn will be the best.