Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth.

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.

Herr Johann footprints in salt as he peers at Dead Sea

On this Ash Wednesday, whatever people believe or don't believe, the story of Jesus is beautiful: an innocent being willingly sacrifices himself with the intention of saving others, and not only forgives but loves those who treat him cruelly and haven't even asked for forgiveness. 

It doesn't really matter if there was a virgin birth or if someone could walk on water for me to believe that divinity (or human capacity for it) somehow exists. 

To put it in Dostoevsky's words: 
"s'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer. And true enough, man has invented God. What is so strange and extraordinary is not that God really exists but that such a thought -- the very idea of the necessity of God -- should have occurred to a vicious wild animal like man, for that concept is so holy, so touching, and so wise that is does man too much honor."

eating tourists at Petra

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 I'm awed and encouraged when I witness beauty, whether it be in a kind act, flowers, fabric, architecture, music...or a mirror (jk...sort of ;) The human impulse to create and our ability to appreciate it is wonderfully mysterious and rejuvenating to my spirit.

(btw, these are all old photos from 2010 when Herr Johann went on his pilgrimage through Israel and Jordan). 

Petra was carved from stone in as early as 312BC.

Herr Johann was born in as early as 65million years BC. 

This old macbook was made in as early as 2009

These Dead Sea Scrolls were written in as early as 408 BC

Herr Johann going through airport security

When I was in university I went on a silent retreat, which meant I stayed in this cushy Jesuit resort on a mountain somewhere to meditate and wasn't to speak for five consecutive days. I was permitted 30 minutes a day to talk with a mentor about an assigned bible passage reading. I remember getting all jazzed up about metaphors of time and human consciousness in my readings and meditations...

I tried to discuss these thoughts with my mentor but she kept saying, "how does this relate to Jesus?" I got so annoyed that after a few minutes I said I didn't want to talk anymore. For the rest of the retreat we would just sit silently during the 30 minutes we met. I'd brood to myself about how limitingly literal she was, how I wished I was paired up with one of the intellectual Jesuit priest professors...

On the very last day there was a message about when Jesus washed his disciples' feet, and at the end my mentor brought a basin of warm water, a towel, and washed my feet. I'd spent an entire week thinking I was better than this woman because I was better at reading Tillich, Thoreau and Nietzsche. I didn't deserve to have anyone wash my feet, yet she so humbly and lovingly did. I burst into tears and those things literally wouldn't stop, despite how embarrassing and undignified I thought it was. 
I'd been so proud about being smarter and more inquisitive for some truth that I became unkind. Wanting to be smart, and being curious are certainly good things and a part of my concept of (and the pursuit/bidding of) God, but love and humility are essential. 

So to be more like Jesus...

In Isreal where Jesus walked

Outskirts of Bethlehem where Jesus got coffee

Jordan River

 "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." -Kurt Vonnegut