Beauty Only After Loss

I'll be off FB for a while. I've got a few things going on, and also, well, I suspect answers to complex societal problems will more likely emerge through dialogue happening on other platforms anyhow. (Not that I have answers, but I am interested in dialogue.) 


I have a couple of little writing projects I'm working on for 2022, but the majority of my intellectual bandwidth (admittedly, small) will be used for my dissertation work in mimetic theory and open and relational theology. (Girardian and Oordian?) If you're interested in that kind of stuff, and honestly, who wouldn't be, I'll be posting things regularly at patreon.com/jonathan_foster. More importantly, that's also where I draw cartoons.  

If I'm not posting back on FB by the time any significant family birthdays roll around, just revisit this to be reminded of how proud I am of Shay, Caroline, and Evan (oh, and the really nice young lady who's willing to be associated with Evan). Not to mention Johnna, who recently became the same age as the national speed limit in the 1970s. Regardless of the number associated with her age, the number I think of when considering Johnna is "10." (Which I guess is another 70s cultural reference as there was a movie with that title during that illustrious decade. I, of course, never saw that movie because I was busy being Nazarene.) 

Johnna's been with me through an awful lot over the years. I'm not suggesting we've had it worse than others, but then again, is it helpful to categorize pain? Isn't it all relative? Does it really matter if someone else appears to have had worse pain? What does that even mean? Who could quantify such a thing anyhow?


But, yes, we’ve been through a lot. It’s amazing how much loss we've experienced, some because of the random absurdity of life (which I categorize as amoral), and some because of fearful and insecure religious people (which I very much categorize as immoral). I could write more here about randomness and the idiocy of people, but a)I write about those sorts of things in other places, and b)if I say too much, it'll reveal my own idiocy, and honestly, my reputation just can't take that kind of hit. 

I guess what I want to say is that loss can be unbelievably painful, but also that loss can be what opens all of us up to beauty. It's wild how these two things play off of each other in such a seamless fashion. This is good to realize because beauty is the hope of the world. But honestly? You can't get to the beautiful without loss. (Though I do think you can have loss without ever getting to the beautiful. American Christianity gets this messed up all the time.)

So, I dare you to think 
-less about fairness and more about grace, 
-less about the apologetic and more about the aesthetic, 
-less about morality and more about beauty.  

Peace,