Spirituality

Jul42019 by jrcowles7 Comments

Jesus, Jefferson, and Jingoism

"Life" Issues, community, conflict, conservatism, Consitution, critical judgment, culture, declaration of independence, Ethics, fourth of july, Religion, Spirituality, Tolerance

I am re-publishing this "Skeptic's" column today because, if anything, it is even more relevant today than when it first appeared. I am also re-publishing it because, when I originally published it, politics used to be ... you know ... both fun and funny. So for a few moments, we can share a trip down Memory Lane to a time of comparative innocence. Well, we are in that time of year again – July in general, and the Fourth in particular -- when we all make the obligatory pilgrimage to the First Church of American Exceptionalism, also known colloquially and variously as "the back yard" or "the deck" or "the patio", where we celebrate the Sacrament of Opportunistic Patriotism with beer instead of wine, with burgers instead of unleavened bread, on an outdoor barbecue grill instead of an alta

May162019 by jrcowlesNo Comments

Renoir And The Rebirth Of Iconography

affirmation/s, Art, community, Compassion, Creativity, creator senses, culture, curiosity, disability, Discernment, Education, Imagination, Love, painting, praying with art, relationships, Secularity, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Wholeness

Ever since my very first exposure to it in 1979 as part of a Smithsonian Institution art-history seminar, one of my favorite art venues in Washington, DC, has been the venerable Phillips Collection, a few blocks east and perhaps a block south of the DuPont Circle DC Metro stop. The Phillips Collection There are many reasons for my respect and enthusiasm for “the Phillips,” but certainly one of the most salient reasons for my “evangelical” work on behalf of the Collection is that the Phillips houses Pierre Auguste Renoir’s great Luncheon of the Boating Party (hereafter Luncheon). (I refuse to call it, as some critics do, Boatman’s Lunch. Computers are expensive and I would rather not throw up on mine.) Aside from the sheer beauty of the painting itself, I enjoy watching others’

Apr232019 by TerriNo Comments

Tuesday’s Thoughts: J Mase III’s Artful Response to Life

Art, book review, spirit, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spiritual practices, Spirituality

Responding artfully is a trauma informed care practice as it takes you out of your wordy brain and into other parts of your knowledge or knowing process. Often we privilege language over other ways of knowing. J Mase III, in his latest book, And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment & Inappropriate Jokes About Death, through the use of language, weaves together other responses such as emotion, imagination, and your felt senses. I know, it's hard to imagine how a book which is necessarily immersed in language can do that, but it does! And here is how: Mase shares his life authentically through prose and poetry. Poetry connects to imagination, one of the ways of knowing.Mase invites the reader to explore their own emotions. Emotion is a way of knowing