Longings of the Heart

I just read a number of beautiful eulogies from former students of Alan Segal and had to share one of the quotes from his book, "Life After Death".

 "Religion's imagining of our hereafter also seems to say the same - our 'immortal longings' are mirrors of what we find of value in our lives. They motivate our moral and artistic lives. Our longing itself deserves a robe and crown, nothing less. If humans can be, in Hamlet's words, 'in apprehension like a god,' do we not deserve his epitaph: 'flights of angels sing us to our rest'?" (p. 731).

I think this is a beautiful quote that resonates within my own heart about the "human value" of valuing and determining. These longing of value deserve a "robe and a crown"! His students described a man who talked of transcending oneself. He obviously found that he could do that through the students he left behind.  Alan must have been an artist in creating his scholarship of early Christian and Judaic communities and using classical literature to defend or support the "human element" of such literature.

After that , what more can be said?

Jazz, an/as/and the American Ideal

 Jazz is original American music "type" that origninated in African American communities. The origin of the word jazz is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English.^{[citation needed;WiKi, Febuary 2010]} The word's intrinsic interest—the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century—has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well-documented (WiKi,). I believe that Jazz is loved because it represents in musical form, American ideals.

Americans love the ideals of individual liberty, and, love their country because of it! Jazz has a unity in diversity musical form. Various instruments are allowed  expression, sometimes in solo performances. This is how American society "works". We are free-forms and free thinkers. We are creative spirits that have experienced liberty in our form of government and expressed that liberty in pursuing our dreams that  have resulted in various technological inventions, as well as artistic expressions. Americans love the free market, because it allows the individual the right to pursue material gain. American love to be independent.  Baroque music would be jazz's "opposite.

I believe that the human spirit is made for and desires freedom, altho some may fear it. When the slaves came to America and were sold and worked, they created a means of expressing themselves in this art form. Their human spirit sought a "way out" of their dire circumstances. While they waited for "salvation", they made music.

Jazz was initially viewed as a "low class" or "anti-class" type of music that represented "whore houses", and sexual promiscuity. But, jazz soon became accepted by mainstream society.

Jazz has no defined definition, as Jazz is as diverse in musical style, as it is diverse in muscial expression.

I like jazz.

"Form" and "Symbol" as an Art

Art is an expression of the artist. But, the expression of the artist is not only confined to
Art, proper, but as an expression in any human endeavor.

Art was what the Founders of our Constitutional government "created" when they "formed a more perfect union"! The Founders valued "free expression" under the boundary of law. Law protected the value of individual freedom of expression.

The Reformation brought about a revolution of education, for the "common man", and separated the Church's authority over the individual, as an authority. But, the Reformation did not separate religion from confining regulations of expression in forms of art. The Reformers believed in limitation upon art, as an expression of "God's image". Because of this limited view of "life", art was destroyed because of the "fear of idolatry". This is a travesty in human history. All due to a "fear of transgressing".

Art or the athestics cannot be confined by religion's claims, as athestics are diverse views of "symbolization" about what is of value. Free societies do no limit these expression, unless it impinges on another's very life.

Anthropoligists understand the use of myth, as did the Greeks in forming a "story" in understanding of values and the human condition.

Our Constitutional government does allow freedom of diverse ways of expressing individuality. And these expression can be in academics or entertainment. Relgion would disallow such freedom because of a fear of diverse views that would limit a monistic view of "life". And yet, if the religious were honest, they would understand that humans cannot come to know the Transcendent realm as that realm is beyond reason. But, art points beyond reason, in "painting" a "way of viewing life that resonates with the values of religion and/or ultimate values.

Life and Liberty

Yesterday, I was engaged in a "conversation" on another blog about the political order and was "stuck" on the collapse of the sacred and secular for me. My "world" has collapsed into a natural and real world of existence. No more anesthesia for me.

Life is deadened through religion's "moral" thinking sometimes. The religious become so concerned about where their lines are drawn that they cease to Live as life was meant to be lived.

So, I am committed to "Life and Liberty". These are the ideals of our Founding Fathers and these are what make for the "good life". No one should be doomed to live their lives under dire constraints of oppressive regimes that limit expressions of human creativity. The huma condition needs these creative spirits to "give life" to the "deadened".

If God exists, it is no wonder that there are not many that want anything to do with that concept. Everything in a 'religious culture' from "Black stockings" to banning "Harry Potter" do not draw or appeal to the natural way man has been created to respond to "beauty", "mystery" and "concepts" that open up life, instead of drawing lines in the sand. This is diverse universe that is immensely complex. Simplicity doesn't work as it crushes, defines, defends, and marginalizes life.

Liberty is what life is about.