After spending a while at my new favorite beach, we meandered up the road just a bit and stopped at the lighthouse. Above is the view to the north.
Below is the view to the south. That rocky area is where we were just a few minutes before. The weather held out while we walked to the lighthouse and back, but it was still hazy (as it usually is on the Oregon coast, even when it’s a warm day).
We headed over to the Oregon Coast on Sunday evening (after church, nursery meeting, Costco, packing, and a 70th birthday party for Grandpa Ron at Chuck E. Cheese). The weather was decent when we started out, but as we headed over the mountains it began to rain. And then we had to pull over because Russ couldn’t see. That’s saying something for these native Oregonians. But we made it to the Rockaway beach house in one piece, unloaded, and crashed into bed.
Russ was working remotely most of the week, but he started early Monday morning while the rest of us lazed about. He finished up in the early afternoon and we drove down to Tillamook to pick up a few things at the store. We decided to drive over to Oceanside and explore because we had never been there before. We figured it might be raining but we could hang out in the truck and see the sites. We came across this pathway at a little pullout on the side of the road. I cannot resist pathways like this one, so we decided to brave the weather and take a hike.
We headed down and down and down.
And we discovered my new most favorite beach. The roaring sound of the waves and the backwashing rocks was deafening. I wish these pictures came with audio!
Can you see the speck of Levi up on the smaller rock above? He was ecstatic.
Here’s a closer view.
All this beauty.
I wanted to stay forever. Wouldn’t you?
The weather improved, bit by bit, until we had some blue sky and sunshine!
I wanted to stay forever, but we decided to drive up a little further and see the lighthouse. More pictures tomorrow…
“Come then; leap upon these mountains, skip upon these hills and heights of earth. The road to Heaven does not run from the world but through it. The longest Session of all is no discontinuation of these sessions here, but a lifting of them all by priestly love. It is a place for men, not ghosts—for the risen gorgeousness of the New Earth and for the glorious earthiness of the True Jerusalem. Eat well then. Between our love and His Priesthood, He makes all things new. Or Last Home will be home indeed.” ~Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
:: In Spite of That, We Call This Friday Good by Jonathan Rogers @ The Rabbit Room
"I’m trying not to skip ahead to Easter. I’m trying, these two days, to sit in the grace of the stripped altar and enter imaginatively into the place of the disciples, who only knew that their Lord had died, not that he would rise again. Flannery O’Connor’s stories are a help in that regard. Her characters suffer and boast and finagle their way through a broken world, unaware that grace is streaking silently toward them like a meteor that will throw everything off balance."
Others may go to the beach for spring break, but we’re headed to the coast. What’s the difference, you may ask? At the beach it is sunny and warm. At the coast it will rain and storm all week long. At least we have a beautiful place to stay, and we’re taking a truck-load of books and games.
See you on the other side.
…this will likely be my only political post/link on the blog this election season (though I won’t guarantee a politics-free FB page).
There were so many articles and videos I could have chosen (a plethora, really), but I will let David Brooks at The New York Times say it for me, because he truly does “have the best words.”
[I’m not picking out quotes. You’ll have to click and read the whole thing.]
On Energy
My son and I just had a conversation about this the other day. He's in the "this is useless; when will I ever use this?" phase. I told him it's a little like energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. He has to gather energy from other sources in order to make his own spark. And he'll never know what combination of energy sources will make that spark until the moment it happens.
The more energy gathering he does, the more potential creative energy he has.
On Constraints
Another day we were driving to the swimming pool for practice. This son, who is always coming up with fantastical solutions to everyday problems, said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could earth-bend a bridge all the way to the swimming pool?”
I countered, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could bend the earth so that wherever we wanted to be was suddenly just a step away?”
Let’s talk about the word fantastical, shall we? It means “conceived by an unrestrained imagination.” The word I want to focus on is “unrestrained.”
God is the ultimate Creator. He created staggering vastness (in its extent, proportions, quantity, and intensity). He created staggering minute-ness. He created staggering beauty in material, texture, form, color, and pattern. He created staggering diversity and variety.
Sheer excess, friends. There is nothing practical about a thousand of varieties of fruit.
Every day, by the witness of His own creation, I learn that God delights in creating.
But God also created constraints.
Physical law. Natural law. Moral law. Chronological time. Biological systems.
God is a God of cosmos (form and harmony), not a God of chaos.
The greatest creativity I’ve witnessed has not occured in unrestrained environments.
Anyone can plink random notes on a piano and call it a song. But if the musician uses his imagination within the constraints of rhythm and harmony and tempo and dynamics, he achieves a certain masterful creativity.
In fact, the greater the constraints, the greater the creativity.
That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?
In writing, the tighter the form (paralellism, poetry), the greater the requirement for a precision of words and ideas.
In fantasy writing, authors who are able to conceive of consistent constraints for their fantasy world and plot constraints for their characters are able to create a more masterful story.
I would not hesitate to say that creating beauty within constraints and overcoming restraints to solve problems show a higher degree of creativity.
The greater number of constraints (either within a form or as problems to overcome) or the greater the complexity that is brought into harmony, the greater the creative skill.
In many ways, we fight against this as a culture. We don’t like constraints. My teenage son doesn’t like constraints. I don’t like constraints. Constraints aren’t fair. Constraints aren’t fun. Constraints aren’t easy. Society should have solved all our problems for us by now.
But, made in the image of God, we are still hard-wired to know, deep inside, that constraints are necessary. We are still hard-wired to need constraints to grow in character, in skill, and in creativity. We are still hard-wired to value those traits when we see them in others. Do you know how I know this?
Do you want to watch a movie about a character who has nothing to overcome? When someone is given everything they need or want without restraint, are strong character, skills, and creativity likely to follow? Are a man’s accomplishments worthy of praise if he puts no effort into them? Don’t we love an underdog story?!
Skillful creativity is not unrestrained imagination.
Skillful creativity is bringing chaos into harmony or form.
Skillful creativity is perseverance in adversity.
Skillful creativity is acknowledging restraints and solving problems in spite of them.
Why do I want my boys to read books like Wonder, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, A Long Walk to Water, and The Boys in the Boat? Because these are characters [particular (historical) and universal (fiction)] who are faced with constraints, great constraints; they work within their limitations to do incredible things, they show astounding perseverance in the face of adversity, and they grow in character as a result.
Ask kids, ask yourself: what constraints (and how many) did each of the people in the following videos face? Did working within these constraints require a higher degree of character, skills, and/or creativity for the people who solved them? Would their creativity have been better served without constraints?