postpartum thoughts

I think I may have learned more in the past 10 days than I’ve learned in the past year. Chapel yesterday was what it was precisely because of all the obstacles and grappling that had to be overcome to make it happen. That is, it was not successful in spite of everything, but because of everything. The point of this blog, is not what everything was, but simply that there was an everything, and that it was all important in the process.
Though I consider myself to have a deep understanding of symbols, this week I learned more about symbols than I knew I could know. Though I considered myself to have ability to suggestively call to mind things I want people to think about and grapple with, this week I learned new ways to suggest these things in much more subtle contexts and perhaps even plant the thoughts more deeply in the emotional sphere.
I am a very serious person when it comes to certain things, and find it hard to lighten up sometimes for fear that the gravity of the activity will be lost in mirth. As I grappled with how to say what I wanted to say with a limited symbolic vocabulary, I began to piece together songs, meanings, words and blurbs, photos, grooves, drawings, paintings, and myriad other things that spoke to me of the diversity, joy, lightheartedness, seriousness, pain, giving, serving, receiving, tears, obedience, selflessness, sharing, suffering, comfort,… that are all a part of community as the body of Christ to which we are called, invited and welcomed.
As I pieced together the visual necessities that help facilitate participation and interaction, I placed as the first slide a pic that I took in New Mexico of one of the Jones children playing with friends in the coolest sweater that has ever been spotted on any human of any kind. This first slide just seemed to set a new tone to the whole chapel and showed me how to be a bit more lighthearted and interactive in presented a very serious topic for contemplation. Christ plays in community. Unless we can come as a child… well, I don’t think we can understand community.
Ok, so maybe I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know. But it sure seems like I learned it a lot deeper inside myself. Others did too, I felt it, I’ve heard it today. We grew, we’re growing and that’s a good thing.