Job 10

I am back reading in Job. I am terrible about this everyday stuff! I think the only thing I have been truly consistent about so far this year has been taking my daily shower. Seriously. That is how bad this not-having-a-schedule thing has become. ugh!

Anyhow...back to Job. This excerpt i thought was so lovely and amazing how it is nestled in Job's plea for God to remember that He made Job. Once again I am showing my crafty side in what sticks out to me, but I really think making metaphors are interesting!

Job 10:8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9 Remember that you have made me like clay;
and will you return me to the dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.

Of these three 'making processes' in this scripture, I have experienced two to a meaningful degree... and I am betting that if you guessed which one I had not experienced from first thought you would probably be wrong. It's knitting. i don't knit.

I have however experienced both clay processing and cheese making, and these being mentioned really excites me. i feel a little bad about once again being so excited about a making metaphor in the middle of a tragic story, but these sorts of metaphors are so often lost on our lives of modern convenience.
For instance: cheese.
After living in India for a short time we realised our need for cheese beyond paneer was serious. Ian and I are good midwestern/northern stock and we love cheese. I mean... we really love cheese. this was not helped by living in Washington DC only a few blocks from Eastern Market with a fabulous cheese vendor, and then moving to London for a stay where cheeses from all over were easily available and for a price our meager student budget could easily handle. Moving to a place where cheese as we knew it was difficult to find was... well... difficult! So, when we came back to the states for what was supposed to be a short visit we decided to use our ample time to try our hands at the craft of cheese-making beginning with a simple mozzarella. Ian chronicled our cheese-making escapades at our friend Matt's foodblog.
It is a time consuming thing making cheese, but it extremely rewarding not to mention economical and fairly simple. From what I can tell, patience is the main ingredient. The curdling happens like magic. After heating and adding ingredients and stirring the soon-to-be cheese curdles mysteriously.
Even though it is really more of a chemical reaction that does most of the mork for me, i couldn't help but feel like I was accomplishing something with that cheese. It was so creamy and working it in our hands was fun and rewarding and left us with some of the tastiest mozzarella i have ever savored.
I honestly have much less of an interest in store bought mozzarella now (which is actually minutely tragic).

I think it is interesting how Job calls himself God's cheese. "Hey! Remember me?! I am your cheese! you made me! Why are letting terrible things happen to me?!"
Job gets that we are lovingly made and doesn't get why a creator would let terrible things happen to a creation.
I think that is a good question... without an answer.
B

Job 7

I'm a little behind in the reading I realize. I woke up at 5am this morning thinking "crap! I didn't read any of my RSS feed today which means I didn't read the Bible reading. ugghhhhhh."
If you know anything about me you may know that I am not a morning person in the least. That being said I promptly rolled over and went back to sleep for another 5 hours or so when i woke up and came downstairs to eat my cheerios and get caught up on all of my reading :)

So... here we are. I skipped a day in terms of my blogging, but I wanted to just get back on the horse here. So we meet up with Job in chapter 7 after he has had his friends tell him that God doesn't punish people who don't deserve it and that he should be more Godly in the previous chapters. Job has innocently said "but I didn't do anything wrong.... I don't understand!"

So here we are in Chapter 7 where he is telling us about how his life is hopeless. Wow. One thing I find especially fascinating about Biblical texts are the crafting metaphors. I know this is solely because I have 'make stuff' fever, but it really helps me understand what is going on and I feel connected with generations of makers who this scripture was written for.
In verse 6 Job says "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope."

This is super sad stuff. A shuttle in terms of weaving is "a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed, between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft." Thank you Wikipedia. That little stick in the hollowed out area of the shuttle above is where the thread is stored.
Anyway.. this got me thinking... I had seen a video of a weaver who brought his weaving outside as an experiment, so I wanted to see once again how fast a weaver's shuttle moves. I've never had a chance to weave on a big loom so my experience is mostly with clumsy home-made looms form cardboard, so my shuttle never moved very quickly, but i think you'd also be hard pressed to ever get anyone to agree that I was a weaver. SO... check out the action on those shuttles as textiles artist Travis Meinolf weaves.



Speedy!
I don't want to downplay Job's suffering. I personally feel like a slave of time regularly. How quickly life is speeding past and I am not stricken with the pains that Job was enduring. This metaphor really strikes me.
The part that makes me perhaps the saddest is the second half of that verse where Job says that his days are "coming to their end without hope." I have been trying to think about what a shuttle coming the end of a row without any hope would look like. It could be that there is no more weft to be done and that the piece is finished, but that doesn't seem hopeless to me. If a piece is a finished then you have a great textile...which is far from hopeless. Instead I have imagined that somehow the yarn on the shuttle has been severed from the rest of the tapestry and is merely following the shuttle back and forth without producing any weft or product.
As I said before, I am not a weaver, but I am a hobbyist sewer. I love my sewing machine and have a difficult time living without one. I just bought a new Janome Mini sewing machine that is about half the size of a normal machine and weighs in at about 5 pounds. It is itty bitty. I love the little thing although it can be tricky once in a while. I have been spoiled in the past with my big beautiful Brother machine that is nearly idiot proof. I have hardly ever had to mess with any settings as it deals with the thread tension on its' own and has all sorts of helpful features. It also allows me to be a little sloppy in following some of the rules I should be paying attention to. One of those things that I have been told over and over again is to manually pick up the stitch at the beginning of sewing a new line. This more or less means that I turn a dial with my hand in stead of letting electricity handle it for me. With my big machine i have found I can get away without doing this, but the little machine is teaching my the importance of doing this and has caused me much frustration.
This is where my connection with Job comes it. it has happened to me a number of times now that I have begun sewing thinking that everything is fine and watching my needle go swiftly through the fabric pulling the tread behind it punching along... only to realize as i pick up the cloth i have just stitched to realize that in fact the bobbin thread never picked up so it is in fact not stitched at all but just sort of hole-punched by my needle which tucked the top thread in making it look sewn. Oh frustration!!!!
This is the closest I can think to a hopeless shuttle. It doesn't pick up anything so it has gone through the day without producing and now it has nothing to show for it and the fabric falls apart.
Poor Job! What a sucky way to pass through your days.
B

Selections from Job 1-3

Here's the reading I'm exploring from.

"Job 1:2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east."

I and the Village by Chagall

"1:10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land."

Jacob Lawrence
Street to Mbari, 1964

1:20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
Lithograph entitled "Job" by Oldrich Kulhánek
2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
Matthias Grünewald
(c. 1470 – August 31, 1528)
detail from The Isenheim Altarpiece
3:25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

Untitled, 1930 Marianne Brandt

LXVI

I've decided to take NCC's year-long Bible reading challenge, but I thought it could be interesting if I went searching for illustrations to the scripture I'll be covering. I may be making my own collages, but for now I am going to throw a couple things around with using bits and bobs from art history :) Some will be literal and some will be more free-association.
Check out their reading schedule to try and keep up!

Shame, shame

It has been a very long break of not posting again. Once again I have zero truly good excuses... BUT we have gone through some large life changes as of late including a move and new career directions. YIKES!
But luckily, the making and sketching is coming back into full swing, so I thought I would post a couple things from the ol' sketch book and visual files.
First, we hung out at this great little coffee shop right on the water last week, and I seriously considered nicking one of the menus because of the charming Italian vintage graphics that they used. So instead the handy camera on my phone did some work-
I've been really hit hard emotionally by some of the volunteer work I've just started doing and some of that found its' way onto my sketch book pages. I think this is going to be turned into some sort of three dimensional cut out... but here is the sketch of the vicious cycle I have been thinking about. Again.. sorry about the camera phone pics.. I'll try to get something better for next time.
I've been trying to be a busy little bee getting some prep work done for the weekday outings. i feel like I have been taking a step back in time to my Jr.High life with all the beads I have been sorting.
Our new home has a lot of creativity due to necessity surrounding it, and also some just because. Check out the painting on the meter top. Now I can't help but see an elephant head when checking the meter even when one isn't actually painted.
Also, one more thing before i forget... if you aren't already religiously watching TED videos... get on it. If you are in need for a creative boost, be sure to watch this talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert. Fantastic.
B

Maximum Uh-Oh

I am currently reading Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. I admit that I am barely into the book... maybe page 30... but this portrait of Mumbai is getting my goat. I think one of the reasons I am slow to move through this is all of the honestly that Mehta's narrative seems to put out there. From what i can tell, this book is a narrative portrait of Bombay (Mumbai). His writing is fantastic. I am really enjoying the style and voice... he really is a great read in that way.. but the subject is really difficult and he spares little (if any) detail to let youknow how this world works.
I imagine everyone who would ever wander upon this blog knows by now that I'm headed off to South Asia for a year so that Ian can do legal fellowship there. And if you didn't know, well there you have it. That's what I'm up to after my near 6 months of stony silence while existing in the UK. Right now I writing from the porch of our current place of staying looking out on the American street, that for some reason looks rosier every second while reading this book.
Here are some quotes that I have written down today. A lot of these things I already had in my knowledge base, but Mehta's narrative voice is really hitting these home for me at the moment.
(pg 20) "... eight thousand human beings living on a few acres of land. It is the population of a small town."
(pg 24) "India has the third largest pool of technical labor in the world, but a third of its 1 billion poeple can't read or write."
"It is an imitation of a Western city, maybe Chicago in the twenties."
(26) "... the ethic of Bombay is quick upward mobility and a scam is a short cut. ... A scam shows good business sense an a quick mind. Anyone can work hard and make money. What's to admire about that? But a well-executed scam? Now, there's a thing of beauty."
(28) "Violence in Bombay can strike very close at any time. And the present dispute, as usual, is about space..."
(29) "... air that has ten times the maximum permissible levels of lead in the atmosphere."
"Breathing the air in Bmbay now is the equivalent of smoking two and a half packs of cigarettes a day."
(30)"101 out of 100 are dishonest. Still my India is the best" (sign on the back of a truck)
(31) "I miss cold weather and white people."
"It was when I realized i had a new nationality: citizen of the country of longing."
(35) "The first world lives snuck in the center of the third."

So there you have it. What I am supposed to make of all of this I am unsure. Some days I am really excited about going, and other days (specifically those i pick up honestly written narratives about Bombay) I am convinced we might be moving to some ring of hell on earth.
Still, I am learning a lot. I have found that I am going to need an illustrated guide to Hinduism because i have no idea which deities are which in statues and poems.
Yay for not knowing.
B

Figs, Google, and the Bible

I really like my computer. It is kind of a problem sometimes. I use it for near everything and I really like the internet. I am in many ways truly a pure-blood American twenty-something. I don't panic when i can't get online, but boy do i prefer being able to. There is so much information readily available! Today, once again, this came to the fore front in my every day life.
I'm really trying to get better at reading scripture. I have really good times and then times that I just flat out suck. Lately my bible reading is not just something i should be doing, but a solution for moments of panic that are becoming less few as Ian and I navigate the next steps of "OMG WHAT NOW!?"
So today I read in Mark where Jesus curses a fig tree. Here it is in the New Living Translation... which is generally the one I read... mainly because that is the one i have and for not much other reason anyway.. Mark 11:12-25... ready go.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹² The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. ¹⁴ Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.

Jesus Clears the Temple

¹⁵ When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.^c]">[c] ¹⁷ He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”^d]">[d]

¹⁸ When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.

¹⁹ That evening Jesus and the disciples left^e]">[e] the city.

²⁰ The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. ²¹ Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”

²² Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. ²³ I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. ²⁴ I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. ²⁵ But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.^f]">[f]”

Previously this has made zero sense to me and today I decided that google was going to help me fix the "wtf?" moment that happens evertime I hear Jesus curse this fig tree that didn't have fruit on it even though Mark SPECIFICALLY notes that figs are NOT in season. Really Jesus? What the heck? What is with you and randomly running around killing trees today?
So.. google and I cuddle up to figure out this issue. It doesn't take much to have a couple answers sitting in front of me. Here's th short story to the fig deal: figs get a form a fruit before they get leaves. The don't neccesarilt get figs, but these little almond size things that are well known traveling snacks of peasants and wanderers. Not only that, but these things forecast the productivity of the fig tree. No goofly almond thingers... no figs. When Jesus hops up to this tree in the story in Mark, it is noted that the tree only had leaves. No fruitish stuff.. no almond-y thingers. Leaves. More or less this tree is saying 'look at me all alive and flourishing! I am a leafy fig tree!' If that is true, leafy fig tree that is showing the signs of productivity should have somethng on it... mainly the almond-joy snacks. So Jesus approaches, sees no fruit and curses the tree for boasting to be productive but not being.
Now, generally I think I would have been a really bad disciple. I would have been over in the corner going "seriously? It's only a tree. No need to get worked up about this. This Jesus character gets spinning over the strangest things. What is his deal?" Or perhaps I would have been all "YEAH! Stupid tree! THIS SUCKS! I HATE THAT TREE!" Either way the trip back past this tree the next day when it is seriously withered away would have still been shocking. Good disciple or not, I suppose.
I was thinking about this froma purely experience direction and realized that a tree completely dying in 24 hours is totally nuts. We used to cut down trees in our yard and the braches would stay leafy and fairly alive looking for days. When i wandered orchards for my summer job there would be trees that had completely fallen apart and had half the tree completely detached and was leafy still for at least a couple days. A 24 hour turn around is pretty darn crazy.
Now there are plently of other things I learned about figs that are of note. I looked throug the life cycle of the fig wasp.. which was reall interesting. I found out (if I understand this correctly) that a fig is more like a flower than a fruit. The traditional flower we think of blooms inside the what we think of as 'the fruit' and it takes that really specialized wasp to pollinate it. I thought that was wild. Even in the midst of all of those fun facts, this one thought of why Jesus used this as a visual learning device caught me. I really need to pay attention to where I get this stuff, but one article mentioned how this could have been an allusion to Isreal and how they were showing all of the signs of being spiritually productive and healthy, but really they were just showing off leaves. I'm nto sure how that conclusion was reached, but I am willing to make that jump.
My main beek comes when the disciples and Jesus pass by it the next day and after the group noting at how crazy it is that the curse worked so fast, Jesus tells them that they can move mountains. Nice. Okay.. cool.
But that part that really got me was how after "you can move mountains if you have faith.. pray and beleive you have received it.. great... okay OH! and when you pray be sure to forgive anyone you have grudges against first!" *sigh*
I don't know that I have much to say on that other than moving mountains and forgiving grudges in this context strike me as things that are on the same level of difficulty. If you are going to move the mountain, first you have got to get over your grudges. Ouch.
Tough stuff for today.
I was all game when all we were talking about was figs... but then i get my butt kicked.
b