J's Space…. Bits n Pieces for Life!

Oh ok , I'm on faith thing again, notice I said faith and not religion, I am not religious (I avoid its connotations overtly actually), but this is the 2 nd of 2 pieces I did for an exhibition, the exhibition was entitled God, Love, Life & Murder, and the piece above is the more 'soppy' of the 2. I honestly believe that one cannot focus just on the good at the exclusion of 'evil', we need to be acutely aware of 'bad stuff' so we can commit to and understand the imperative of the 'good stuff'... I wrote this little piece about 10 years ago but I think it finds resonance here: "If we love only that which is good then it is not God we are loving but something other to which such a name is ascribed, we must love God too through the evil around us, solely because evil is as real as the good, and behind all reality is God! remember it takes a bit of devilry to create the best Angels..."

I get that there are 'different' types of Christians in the world, and indeed that it takes all types of people, Christian and otherwise to make the world, I myself don't understand why people put so much effort into trying to convert 'other' religions to their own because I dont think religion (or faith) defines a persons character, or implies some form or depth of integrity... I just don't get it, its not to say I'm right or wrong, but if we focussed more on living better lives, giving more, being more empathetic, more gracious in defeat, more sharing in victory and more loving then I'm convinced that we'll be better people and the world, in some incremental way would be a better place, whatever faith we practice! The piece above, I did purely to convey that at times it takes a bit of delivry to create the best angels...not always, but battles and wars are far from fairytales and love poems...

I wonder how much time we spend thinking about 'bigger picture' issues (and then commit to an issue) that don't have us at their centre? I was shocked at my own parochial, selfish functioning, I see that my process of reflection and introspection is based on the premise that I be at the centre of the process... And then we wonder why we've become such a one dimensional non-society, cos we function on a purely individual basis, where consideration of others or 'bigger picture' priorities, or indeed realities (that are not directly relevant to us) are absolute misnomers! And I wonder what hope there is for a sustainable world when we have 6 billion people and no real community?!

we saw this oil painting at the market and couldn't resist...

The Raft as its called (thanks Sharkman) is in a lagoon overlooking hundreds of flamingos and pelicans, awesome!

so I run a 10km race tomorrow, after almost no training and with a seasoned runner, a sore foot and tired legs (ran on wed eve in preparation...not wise) wish me luck...