stevegoslin

[stevegoslin]

Welcome to Tumblr, former Twitter users who couldn’t figure out Mastodon.

[stevegoslin]

[stevegoslin]

Mood.

Hi.

Lately I’ve been gathering a pile of thoughts and intend to share them at some point for dialogue. There’s a lot to think about these days and while I might be thinking too much I suspect many of you could be as well. The ideas swirl around super safe topics like politics, religion, career.

I’m grateful to have had honorable mentors throughout my life to chew on life topics and hopefully I’ve responded successfully along the way. For all of us there is always the question what is the best way to live. It would be vain or naïve to try and boil that down to fortune cookie answers but this is the area I’ll try to have some discussion around.**

Sorry to be vague, here’s one point on the map so to speak:

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

– David W. Orr, Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World.

**discussing anything online lately is beckoning for a punishment but I’ve never been one to shy away from an opportunity.

[stevegoslin]

Racing.

[stevegoslin]

There is perhaps no expression more traditionally misunderstood than Jesus’ invitation to [Simon, Andrew, James, and John] to become ‘fishers of men’ (Mark 1:17). This metaphor, despite the grand old tradition of missionary interpretation, does not refer to the ‘saving of souls,’ as if Jesus were conferring upon these men instant evangelist status. Rather, the image is carefully chosen from Jeremiah 16:16, where it is used as a symbol of YHWH’s censure of Israel. Elsewhere the ‘hooking of fish’ is a euphemism for judgment upon the rich (Am 4:2) and powerful (Ez 29:4). Taking this mandate for his own, Jesus is inviting common folk to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege.

Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus 132 

(via ontologicalshakedown)

Interesting perspective. My reading of Mark makes it difficult to remove the implication of gathering people in a positive sense, rather than merely a culling. Surely the Jeremiah reference could have been in Jesus' mind and inform his invitation, but I wonder if it's too far to remove completely from the interpretation of fishing for souls. As in many of Christ's parables, could not both readings stand together?

[stevegoslin]

Walker Evans, Beauties of the Common Tool. 1955. Gelatin silver prints. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Via Cooper Hewitt

In the July issue of Fortune Magazine, the American photographer Walker Evans celebrated iconic hand tools in a photographic essay.

[stevegoslin]

#f53100

[stevegoslin]

I want to pay particular attention to Emmanuel Levinas’ plea for a different ethics, an ethics as “first philosophy” that begins with responsibility rather than freedom…

James Olthuis, “Face-to-Face: Ethical Asymmetry or the Symmetry of Mutuality?” in Hermeneutics of Charity, pg 136 (via lukexvx)

[stevegoslin]

"The question I want to raise this morning with you: Is your heart right? If your heart isn’t right, fix it up today. Get God to fix it up. Get somebody to be able to say about you, ‘He may not have reached the highest height, he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.’ Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? ‘He tried to be a good man. He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. His heart was in the right place.’ And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, ‘I accept you. You are the recipient of my grace because it was in your heart! And it is so well that it was within thine heart.’

I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children! But I want to be a good man! And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, ‘I take you in and I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.’ What’s in your heart this morning? If you get your heart right.”

This sermon by Martin Luther King gets me every time. It’s the most human and vulnerable of speeches. A must-listen for all you who just want to be good people: http://www.onbeing.org/blog/day-martin-luther-king-spoke-me-failed-man/4146

[stevegoslin]

My coach this morning at work. "Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools, because they have to say something." #plato #silenceisgolden (at Dynamit)

[stevegoslin]

3,650 Days.

Ten years ago today my father, Jim Goslin, was killed in a car accident.

Earlier this summer I began thinking about him and about the ten-year milestone, and what all has transpired since then, what all has changed. I thought about how amazing the response was in Pataskala from family and friends, our neighbors, my father’s friends, the West Licking Fire community, our church community, and so many others. Though my parents had been separated they were still very close friends, and my mom and sister and myself remember that time mainly through the lens of the immense support we received. It truly carried us through a dark time. It was a testament as well to my dad's character, gregariousness, and constant service to others, that so many people came out to give their condolences, mourn with us, and honor his memory.

Since that time, much has changed indeed. I went to and completed college, I travelled many places doing relief/volunteer work, I backpacked through many forests and up many mountains across many countries, I worked hard and grew through many different companies and industries, and recently met and married the love of my life. Though it’s obvious to remember him on the anniversary of his death, I don’t otherwise think of him as frequently any more. It is when I am celebrating a special moment, or when something significant happens, that I feel the urge to reach out to him. It’s whenever I turn on the classic rock station and easily settle in to familiar songs that I wish we were enjoying them together. It is what I’ve always had with my mom and have sought from others in my parent’s generation; that I could run questions by him about car stuff, or job stuff, or people stuff, or whatever stuff. Not that he knew all the answers, but he had lived through many hard circumstances and had already lived a long life when his time here stopped. It is that listening I desired, and still desire, not his omniscience.

What would I say to a younger man ten years ago who was going through the most abrupt incident of his life to that point? I’d say that before you know it, 3000 and more days will pass and the person you can’t imagine not existing will continue to fade in your memory. He will not fade completely, but the richness of his presence will be muted and change into a different immutable state, where your memories will bend more often to fondness than to complexity or pain. I’d say to hang in there, and to ride the cycles of grief as they come in all their complexity, and let them pass as they will. I’d say cherish the memories while you have them and look forward to other ones that must distill with time. And I would certainly say remember your love for your dad, never doubt his love for you, and honor his life by being a gift to others, as he did the best he could for you.

Steve Goslin 10 November 2014

[stevegoslin]

Sunset in the City. #nofilter #autumn #asseenincolumbus (at Dynamit)

[stevegoslin]

Lunch at the new office. #nofilter #accoutrements @Dynamit (at Dynamit)

[stevegoslin]

She's had a few rough weeks but Saturday's new starter is a solid upgrade. #jeep #diy (at Clinton Heights Ave)

[stevegoslin]

That music you hear in the distance? It’s St Augustine, St Teresa, Teilhard de Chardin, Pascal, Kierkegaard and Simone Weil all singing together, and what they are singing is that, as Christ commanded, we are supposed to love God with our minds, as well as with our hearts and our souls and our strength. It is an illusion to think that there is any necessary conflict between a Christian commitment and free, adventurous thinking. No-one ever does their thinking on a blank sheet of paper. Every intellectual of every kind is in a conversation with some set of ideas, doctrines, ways of seeing the world, and that’s what makes their own thinking serious. The Christian conversation with Christian ideas, and with every other kind of idea, need not be defensive or imprisoning. Why is there a stereotype that says you have to choose between faith and thought?

Francis Spufford (via ayjay)

Thoughts for Sunday morning.

[stevegoslin]

No Superheroes.

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, and prolific business starter and supporter, shared a transparent and humble message about his own limitations, and how we incorrectly perceive the "superhero-ness" of successful people.

His honest message discusses some ways he has learned to address and work around his own limitations. If you feel the pressure to be a high-performer, you may find some helpful aids, and possible corrections to your thinking.

PS. If you would benefit from the audio version of his article (~15mins) click here

[stevegoslin]

Progress.

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. cs lewis[^1]

Progress means getting closer to the object we desire. Sometimes that means change, possibly even a complete alteration to our thinking or direction. Progress therefore invokes violence; violence of honesty, violence of action, and violence of consequence. Progress is not easy.

[^1]: Christianity Today has a longer discussion of Lewis' use of progress and other "slippery" words we use poorly.