The Unworthy Saint

I’ve been thinking a bit lately.  This happens most when other things in my life clear up.  This instance of thought is brought to you by the end of school semesters.  My head clears and I feel like throwing up on paper (digital paper as it may be).  Here are a few random thoughts:

Something in connectivism rings true in me.  I think they’re on to something.  I think the way we learn is changing to be how well we recognize pattern, how adept we are at finding information, and how well we can either process, or find tools to process, the information we find.  Here’s a link to a project I was working on.  And here’s the proposal about it that should tell you something of what I was trying to accomplish, though I have yet to finish it.

Tim sent me an article a colleague of his wrote for the New York Times on Digital Intimacy and the fact that we’re all becoming exhibitionists and voyeurs, however it may not be a bad thing (as it may force us into introspection).

I skimmed an article from wired about the new NIN concert production and started drooling.  They’re doing things with art and technology that makes my heart very jealous.

I’ve been thinking about something Tim Keller talks about quite a bit – culture and how the word for culture and cultivate are the same.  He talks about how we’re all essentially farmers – we create something out of some raw materials.  A photographer takes the raw materials of light, object, optics and film and creates something out of it.  They cultivate those things to grow into something greater.  And this is key for a Christian approach to work – we are to create flourishing.  We are to cultivate the raw materials around us to create human flourishing.  This means we create beauty, we impart knowledge and wisdom, we relieve suffering – all as a way to point back to Christ ultimately, but this is a way to be Christ to our neighbors.  Ultimately God created the world in such a way that it promotes human flourishing.  It is God’s work we do when we participate.  When we farm, in some way, we are mimicking God – no matter what field you’re in.  I happen to cultivate young minds and also ideas/technology in my field.  We are all farmers, whether we embrace it as such or not. So the question would be, are you looking at farming as a way of life/love and in what way do you farm? In what way are you cultivating that which will create human flourishing (in the name of Christ)?