RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships, connections, reconnections,
small words, small touches, small looks,
“across a crowded room”
as the South Pacific,
“Some Enchanted Evening,” song goes,
but there also all those other evenings
when the other is no stranger,
all those scenes across the kitchen table,
the movie of our lives’ small scenes,
holding hands on the way into church
or at a movie or after a fight,
aware of, appreciative of,
small signs that we’re still thinking of the other,
needed, needed, needed,
to sustain and grow a life together.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY:  DIANE ARBUS

Quote of the Day: January 29,   2010

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”

Diane Arbus, [1923-1971], Quote 1972, Photograph by Diane Arbus, "Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J., 1967

PHOTOGRAPH

Quote of the Day: - January 28,  2010

“A photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint of a death mask.”

Susan Sontag [1933-2004] New York Review of Books, June 23, 1977

TAKE WHAT YOU GET!

A sliver of silver light
slid through his door -
the door of his empty room –
but he didn’t get out of bed ….
He wanted a greater sign
but a greater sign would
not be given him as
Jesus said in the scriptures.*
Sometimes you have to take
what your get and get moving –
because sometimes all you’re going
to get is a sliver of silver light
coming through a slightly open door
in a empty room.

*Mark 8:12

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

FABRIC

A bolt of fabric laying there,
like a dead body
after a catastrophe,
waiting to become suits, ties,
curtains, coverings….
Is there hope?
Is there resurrection?
Is there life after death?
Is there recovery after a tragedy?
In the meanwhile we bury our dead.
We unroll the bolt of fabric.
Then we move upwards
and outwards from the grave.
We pick up scissors, needle
and thread and sew together
the future – and wear it well.
As to eternal Easter, I want to
be like Jesus, more than rolled up
linen cloths;* rather I want to be
risen, rising, bringing peace
and the kingdom to those
who can squeeze through
the I of the needle.**



* John 20: 6-7
** Mark 10;25; John 12;24

A hope for Haiti.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

FACE IT

Quote of the Day: January  27, 2010

“A man of 50 is responsible for his face.”

Frank L. Stanton [1857-1927]

__________________________________________________________

Questions:

Does your face look more like your mom or dad's face or neither?

Do you like your face?

When you see group shots - and you're in it - is your face the first face you look for?

Have you ever gathered family pictures from your childhood - and studied your face in each picture? What were you thinking? Whom were you next to? What memories do the different pictures trigger?

The picture on top is a scene from our 2008 St. Mary's Annapolis, Maryland High School graduation. 

Thanks to Norm Constantine [with yellow around his neck] - Tim Russert [left - blue tie] gave the commencement address. He died a few weeks later: June 13, 2008. 

Do you have any interesting photographs in which your face appears? 

Notice all 4 are smiling. 

The big fellow in red is Father Jack Kingsbury - pastor at the time. I don't go in for academic robes - so I did the black priest suit outfit thing.

SILENT WALK:

TAKE A HALF HOUR QUIET WALK

AND COME BACK AND TELL ME

GOD DIDN'T SAY SOMETHING!

Quote of the Day: - January 26,  2010

“It is in silence that God is known, and through mysteries that He declares himself.”

Robert Hugh Benson, [1871-1914], The Confessions of a Convert.