tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post86147952956674721..comments2023-09-25T10:35:26.454-04:00Comments on Inscapes: "Caged Bird" reduxBeth Impsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15560137034653905618noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-31974973729867283622010-03-19T18:10:23.737-04:002010-03-19T18:10:23.737-04:00Adele and Anonymous -- thank you for visiting and ...Adele and Anonymous -- thank you for visiting and for your kind words and encouragement. <br /><br />Megan, I love you! Thanks, dear heart.Beth Impsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15560137034653905618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-52328345551799747952010-03-19T17:09:30.385-04:002010-03-19T17:09:30.385-04:00This reminds me how remarkable you are. Thanks for...This reminds me how remarkable you are. Thanks for your gentle eloquence and for teaching, still.Megan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17135502078433927067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-90246192233038677962010-03-19T14:18:33.104-04:002010-03-19T14:18:33.104-04:00I found your blog from VOMC's blog. I know Gle...I found your blog from VOMC's blog. I know Glenn Penner, former CEO of VOMC, quite well (present tense intentional, although he is now with the Lord). Through his battle with cancer, he continued to glorify God right to his last breath. Thank you for the truth, offered with such eloquence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-5913783984215049652010-03-19T13:49:51.429-04:002010-03-19T13:49:51.429-04:00Thank you for this eloquent and insightful reflect...Thank you for this eloquent and insightful reflection on the nature of suffering and our response to it. I was very blessed by it -- as was my fellow blogger, Erin -- and have encouraged others to read it.Adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17504756746622349124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-90797596208654864562010-03-19T12:57:23.368-04:002010-03-19T12:57:23.368-04:00Hi, D.G. -- thanks for visiting the site! I meant...Hi, D.G. -- thanks for visiting the site! I meant to mention the post to you but hadn't gotten around to it. What you suggest makes excellent sense and does get at what I was saying. I hadn't thought of that particular Dillard metaphor in this context, and I think it works very well.Beth Impsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15560137034653905618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-55337467965998152692010-03-19T11:28:57.279-04:002010-03-19T11:28:57.279-04:00I was reading Dillard's "The Writing Life...I was reading Dillard's "The Writing Life" last night. She describes how an artist must conform himself to his medium. Describing the painter she writes, "The paint [...] does not fit the paints to the world. He most certainly does not fit the world to himself. He fits himself to the paint." Is this how suffering liberates us? Does it allow us to fit ourselves to the paint?<br /><br />We liberate ourselves from self and create beauty out of suffering by fitting ourselves to something that is beyond us. We remove ourselves from suffering, not through dissociation or distraction, but by changing our gaze. We change, the world doesn't. "In working-class France, when an apprentice got hurt, or when he got tired, the experienced workers said, 'It is the trade entering his body.'"<br /><br />P.S.: Thanks for further answering the question.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-76045362078566053182010-03-15T19:08:54.555-04:002010-03-15T19:08:54.555-04:00Oh, yes! Hadn't thought of that, but it's...Oh, yes! Hadn't thought of that, but it's true!Beth Impsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15560137034653905618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11850554.post-42645116544263671702010-03-15T01:04:20.664-04:002010-03-15T01:04:20.664-04:00Alchemy. There was truth in the legends, after al...Alchemy. There was truth in the legends, after all.Mrs. Lawsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16717990367908921706noreply@blogger.com