Theological School Personal Essay (pt. 1)

I have to write a "personal essay" for my application to Meadville Lombard Theological school, which addresses a variety of topics and needs to be 6-8 pages.

A) Reflection on various influences that have been important in you religious, personal and intellectual development.
------ What are your deepest religious questions?
------ What is your current sense of strengths and growing edges for ministry?

B) A statement of your academic and professional objectives in applying to Meadville Lombard, with specific reference to your proposed degree program and career objectives.
------ Why are you applying to Meadville Lombard?
------ What kinds of challenges or gifts are you anticipating in pursuing an MDiv?

With an M.Div from Meadville Lombard, I hope to begin a career in university chaplaincy. College, whether it be undergraduate, masters, or doctoral level, is a challenging and formative experience. People at this stage of their lives are often stressed about over- or underachievement, struggling to find a place in the world, and discovering the kind of human being they want to be. It is an volatile time; depression and anxiety are common among students, and having struggled with these issues myself during my own studies gives me perspective that can be used to help others.

This uncertainty extends beyond graduation for many people. The twenties and thirties age range is often characterized by a search for meaning and stability in life through careers, love, and spirituality. It is also a time of fierce independence and identity formation, which makes ministering to this group a unique challenge. Traditional ministry through a congregation may not be the best solution for the ever-changing lives of these people. Instead, a better solution may be to expand the availability of spiritual resources using web 2.0 technology. For those unable to attend a traditional church, an online community connected by message boards, chat rooms, blogs, and new experimental technologies like Google Wave could be a way to keep in touch with the unitarian universalist faith, find support during difficult times, and share experiences with others in need. The community could be further developed by creating online covenant groups and enriched by the presence and moderation of a fully credentialed minister, who could use technology like Skype to deliver Sunday services from a distance and directly minister to those in crisis. Though online ministry has its own potential pitfalls and challenges, it can be a valuable expansion of current ministerial efforts into a rich environment of spiritual opportunities.

Both college ministry and online ministry have great potential for embracing one of the strongest areas of the Unitarian Universalist faith: social justice work. The potential power of organizing an entire internet community for community service is incredible, and many colleges have significant connections to local volunteer opportunities; all that is needed is encouragement and organization. Dearest to my heart is the work Unitarian Universalists do to support LGBTQ rights; I was filled with pride at the sight of the Standing on the Side of Love banner while marching with my church at the National Equality March, and I would love to continue that work as a part of college ministry. LGBTQ college students need extra support to withstand the difficulties of form life and homophobic classmates, and I would be honored to provide that support.

As a student of divinity, I

(tbc later)

((need to talk about personal theology and music/composition))

L'Amour de Loin - Source List

For my second year paper I'll be analyzing a portion of Kaija Saariajo's first opera, L'Amour de Loin.

Kaija Saariaho: Stylistic Development and Artistic Principles
Sanna Iitti, IAWM Journal (2001)
(http://www.iawm.org/articles_html/Iitti_saariaho1.html)

L'amour de loin: Kaija Saariaho's First Opera
Sanna Iitti, IAWM Journal (2002)
(http://www.iawm.org/articles_html/Iitti_saariaho.html)

TBC...

Body Modification and Identity

Just beginning the research for an upcoming performance art piece. A list of preliminary resources:

Books:

Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing
Clinton R. Sanders

The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification
Tobin Siebers, editor

Appearance and Identity: Fashioning the Body in Postmodernity
Llewellyn Nerin

The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture
Joanne Finkelstein

Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice
Ken Gelder

Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society
Phillip Vannini and J. Patrick Williams, editors

Critical Terms for Art History
Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, editors

Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, et al...
Rhea Anastas and Michael Brenson, editors


Web:

http://www.thelizardman.com/faq.html

http://www.bmeink.com/A30306/tatxtatt.html

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/8/2/4/pages258244/p258244-1.php
(A terrible paper overall, but useful for references.)

http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Spider_Webb
(Need to look into this guy more, but information is scarce and largely comes from questionable sources.)

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/skin-city/Content?oid=1065859

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 6)

Promethea Annotation #6: When New York is Normal...














Issue 4, pgs. 17-19

Before delving into the complex issues of time and space associated with the Immateria, it is useful to establish a baseline against which these excerpts can be judged. While the characters are in New York, the frames of the panels are made of clean lines and forms. Often, they are typical rectangles; sometimes the frame shape is more creative, though no less cleanly executed (see above, pgs. 17-19). In the Immateria, however, frames are always formed of unsteady, wavy lines, rough edges, or highly decorative lines.

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 5)

Promethea Annotation #5: Symbolic Space

Arguably one of the most spatially complicated spreads in the book is in issue 5 on pages 18 and 19.
















The time in this panel is measured once again by the dialogue. What is not readily apparent, though, is that space seems to be measured by the dialogue as well. What appear at first glance to be panels containing symbols and images laid over a continuous background are in fact backgrounds that, at certain points in time, become the continuous background themselves. As the characters fly over each panel, the symbols and colors shown within that panel are actually being experienced by the characters as an entire environment, as filling the immediate area around them for as long as the dialogue placed over that panel takes. This is proven by the dialogue on page 19 as the characters fly over the red panel characterized by the symbols of the scales and the sword:

Sophie: "Whoah! Th-the weather feels like it's getting rougher!"
Margaret: " We're moving through the stern and martial stratospheres of universal judgement, tilting in the very balance of the cosmos. Hold tight, Sophie. Hold tight..."
Sophie: "...Where did all these rain clouds come from?
Margaret: "Past universal judgement are the sheltering, Jupiterian skies of universal mercy, where the gods of storm and lightning play."

It can be seen from this dialogue that the characters are experiencing these thematic panels not just as images projected in space, but as dynamic, physical spaces. This is further proven by the final panel of the page, referred to by Margaret as the "skies of universal mercy", where we see the lightning not only inside the panel, but outside as well.

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 4)

Promethea Annotation #4: Where You Most Expect It

As is typical of most of JHW3's art in this book, the dividing line caused by the binding of the book should be ignored and the two facing pages should be treated as one large spread.

This spread, when taken by itself, is one of the most temporally and spatially normal layouts in the book. The background forms a continuous space, and time passes as Sophie stands on the beach, climbs up the hill, and stands overlooking the shore. The panels magnify small portions of this space from the recent past (left, page 22) and immediate future (right, page 23), with the time of the background space as a temporal reference point. These panels also serve to direct the reader's eye through the correct chronology, leading us down the first column of panels, across the beach, up the middle, and then from the top of page 23 down. Easy to follow, logically shaped and laid out.

However, there is one small artistic clue JHW3 gives us about the sudden spatial shift that comes on page 24. The very edge of page 23, the portion bounded by the panels and the edge of the page, is dark gray and filled with sharp, black plants. As the reader turns the page, the brightly colored, sparkling beach gives way to the ominous, forbidding gates of Hy Brasil. This phenomenon shows how space and time can be altered by mere thoughts in the Immateria. Just before the page turn, Sophie says, "They wander out of the safe and sane areas of their minds, and they wind up somewhere bad and wild," and when she looks up, the bad and wild has come to her, manifested by her thoughts. The fact that space is so malleable in this world has an impact on temporal issues as well. Does it take time to travel, or are you always where you need to be going? Does traveling take an unexpected amount of time, because your thoughts keep accidentally manifesting, distracting from the journey (if there is one)? The implications are quite complicated.












Issue 5, pgs. 22-24

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 3)

Promethea Annotation #3: Dividing Space and Time

This annotation focuses entirely on the following two-page spread.















Issue 5, pgs. 16 & 17

The frames and gutters on this spread are largely decorative. To clarify, there are actually three dividing gutters in this spread, though one is located directly on the crease of the book, making it invisible. The space of this spread is continuous; the "panels" do not excerpt pieces of the space as they typically function. Instead, it is as if the space is a background image, with the frames laid overtop. These frames serve one purpose: to clarify the time that the characters are experiencing. Each "panel" contains a section of dialogue that is spoken as the characters walk. This point is emphasized by the edges of Margaret/Promethea's wrap in the first panel, which flutter in front of the gutter and across into the next "panel". This point in time is happening before the events of the next panel, and so take place farther in the foreground. It is fairly safe to assume that the conversation progresses at a typical pace, thus giving the reader a reasonably solid conception of the temporal progression across the spread.

Since the content of the Immateria is essentially created by those within it, it seems logical that time would work much the same way. In this spread, time seems to move almost as a wave, following Margaret and Sophie as they walk. As they continue forward across the page (and farther into the background), the environment around them seems to progress as well. The skulls on the ground in the first panel turn to eggs, which then crack, which then hatch into bats. "Sphere of influence in which things progress". Note the growing flowers. Echoing the barbed wire from previous pages. Trail of movement, stars. Panel 3 into panel 4, trace the arc of their flight in the flower.

The Four Horsemen are an issue all their own, and lend to the temporal ambiguity of the space. Are they present for the entire duration of the spread? Do they appear when they are spoken of in conversation? Is this an image projected in the sky by Margaret's thoughts, a peek into a different time, or is the image purely there for the reader's benefit? The latter seems unlikely, as that idea seems to take away from the deep, immersive world JHW3 envelops the reader in.


So...if this is a continuous space, then what the hell is going on with this bat? God damn the bisected bat!