Catharsis and creativity

Catharsis: the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

The Greeks knew the power of cathartic moments and captured them in ancient dramas for thespians and audiences alike to witness, empathize with, and, ideally, to transform. The pivotal aspect of catharsis for the thespian is an inward moment of despair and where it takes the actor in his journey downward to the depths emotional pain needed for the performance.

For audiences, we journey by witnessing the pain, often connecting with it, sometimes reflecting upon it, and, if we are susceptible to the power of the drama, its words, its intentions, and those who preform it, we purge our own emotions purposefully allowing a transformation of our emotional and moral landscape.

Landscapes are manifold. Hence, our world's landscape is diverse, and within it the individuals who create these expanses too. Amid these diverse settings, we each have our own modern methods of catharsis from blogging, `facebooking', painting, sculpting, playing music, creating in some capacity a space for purging. We purge our ideas, emotions, talents, tastes, and intellectual meandering, sometimes privately other times publicly.

I posit that the purpose of the intersection of catharsis and creativity was, and is, to reform the cultural landscapes into vast expanses of common sense, compassion, and codified values. Essentially, drama marks an attempt to establish and re-assert values to the audiences for which they are performed. Is your purging purposeful? If not, how might you make it so in an effort to be the change you wish to see in the world?

My personal challenge is to do just that; provide time and space for the purging and the passion to re-invigorate my world...and those whose lives cross it.

A twist on New Year's resolutions

For many people, the new year provides an opportunity to reflect upon the coming challenges and crossroads as well as the exciting prospects and presence of a new season.

Ecclesiastes 3 provides this wisdom: "Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. He sets a time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up.....He has set the right time for everything. He has given us the desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does. So I realized that all we can do is be happy an do the best we can while we are still alive. All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift." (Eccl. 3: 1-13).

So, in the spirit of this Old Testament Scripture, and along with another from the New Testament, 1 Cor. 1-3, 13., I have established my resolutions. With scripture as my motivation and framework, I will attempt to "enjoy...God's gifts" in my life...self, spouse, children, friends, health, wealth, and all the moments and seasons that occur in 2009. I've dubbed this year "An Affair to Remember" and I'm referring to a love affair with my Creator. I seek greater intimacy with the source of all love so that my life overflows with it. As my life grows in faith, hope, and love, I pray that you see not my face changed, but the face of our Creator embracing you.

May you encounter a peace, love, faith, and hope this season...2009.

Joyful obedience

Yesterday, December 17th, Mark and I discovered that he was not accepted as a Nephrology fellow in the military. In hearing the much-awaited news, I was immediately disappointed and tears welled up in my eyes. I felt a personal and deep ache for my soulmate--the man I love completely. My stomach flipped when I first heard his voice on the phone...he didn't need utter a word about the decision, and I knew the outcome of the match. Immediately, my heart truly ached for Mark, who, over the past three years, has experienced many triumphs and disappointments.

Residency has been grueling, petty, and down right hostile much of the time.

Mark, however, rather than succomb to the bitterness and pettiness of the experience, amazes me by growing more deeply in his compassion for patients, passion for medicine, and joyful obedience to God's ultimate will for his and our lives. His personal sacrifices, pain, and complete confidence in God bolsters me. I would throw a pitty party for him, but he wants none of that nonsense. He acknowledges his disappointment, but instead of looking inward for answers to questions he could never have answers to, he looks upward for God's grace and wisdom. This upward gaze inspires me. And it should. If my studied and deliberate approach to faith could provide the peace and contentment that his easy acceptance does, I would be a holy woman.

I'm not at all. So, for now, I pray that I gain the joyful obedience that he displays in his walk as husband, father, doctor, and follower of Christ.