The Creative Process

My good friend Chris (who also happens to be Quincy's newest resident) responded to my post "Why Photography" over at Narf's Cavern. I'd recommend you go read his profound insights there before you continue reading this.

I suppose there’s more evident arrangement and technical skill involved in lyric writing than photography, but I imagine some photographers out there would happily disagree. Nor is it true that personal skill always shines through lyrics while great photographs minimize the role of the photographer. The truly great songs are the ones that are so natural, so perfectly affecting, that they don’t seem written at all. It floors us that great songs were “written” because they seem to us to have been “discovered.” I suspect, in a very deep sense, they were.

Chris, I couldn't agree more with you. The photograph is full of the photographer just like the lyrics are full of the composer. Hopefully they've uncovered something deep and true that already existed, but they bring their identity and vision to what was there so now there is this neat partnership or pairing of the two. Both are essential for the final product to ever exist.

[side note:
Perhaps we can use this as an illustration of the Trinity and how the Holy Spirit partners with us. The product of creativity should be full of us, and yet it should also be full of God (the object reflects God's glory--we capture it and then reflect it again). So, we humans are in one sense wholly responsible for the final product, but in another sense God is the one who is wholly responsible. The product is full of both God and us, and yet it is unified. Similarly, the God is full of the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and yet is singular and whole. Or, Christians are wholly ourselves and yet wholly dead to ourselves so that God can live in us and direct us. In that process our individuality is accentuated through partnership with God.* Just because something seems paradoxical or contradictory doesn't mean it is necessarily false. Some mystery is good.]

God seems to work like this everywhere. He's chosen to reveal himself through music and nature, people and governments, his Church and himself, but he still relies on those people and organizations to be an accurate reflection of him in order to glorify his name. I can choose not to honor him (much like I can choose not to take a beautiful photograph when I see it in front of me)--it doesn't mean God's any less deserving of honor (or the scene is any less strikingly beautiful)--it only means that I've decided not to participate in that greatness, that beauty. In the truest sense it is "my loss."

But God loves individuals, and small groups, and huge institutions, and all of creation. He actually is smart and big and powerful enough to get his mind around such big and small things at the same time. Probably my favorite verse in John's Revelation to the Church is:

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

--John telling us how God intimately knows each of his children

I think I'll let Chris close:

I’d like to think that it’s not pride to recognize when something is good, to recognize when you have a talent for sharing that with people in artful ways, and to take joy in what you’ve done. That’s a gift and we ought to treasure it. We are told to think on whatever is right, noble, pure, lovely, virtuous, etc. and so it seems like a good idea to me to be pumping out as much lovely, noble, pure stuff as we can, so we have more to think on.

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* Rather than being absorbed into a universal consciousness where we lose all sense of identity like some religions propose.

On the Evolution/Inteligent Design debate

Real quick (I really should be in bed):
I found this in the hallway of the Science and Technology Center at Tufts (where I live). It's in reference to the finding that we share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees.


That the poster is advertising a DNA sequencing company makes it all that much better.

Zebra Fish Embryo

I saw this video (sans narration) in my Biomedical Engineering Seminar this morning (by Donald E. Ingber from Harvard). It was truly an excellent talk--wish they were all so good.

I think this video of the development of a zebra fish embryo is absolutely amazing. Enjoy!

The last day of winter, the first day of spring

Taylor and I decided to spend the last day of winter sloshing though a bog in the Blue Hills Reservation. You can enjoy the hike vicareously below. All I have to say is, "thank God for waterproof boots." We in very cold water up to our ankles repeatedly.

An ironic twist is that the last day of winter was warmer than the first day of spring, but it appears that mother nature is only one day behind schedule.

Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
35° 31°	55° 42°	60° 32°	51° 31°

I know I'm ready for spring.


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On an unrelated note, I found the end of the Internet. Kinda sad, really.

New England Skiing

This past Saturday Pat's Peak was kind enough to let slide repeatedly down it's back with sticks strapped to our feet. Jen and I joined a group of about 20 from Calvary Chapel in the City to Henniker, NH for an afternoon of cold fun. The mountain (hill) was beautiful and the skiing was surprisingly good. We were fortunate enough to be hit by a Nor'easter all day Friday which dumped over a foot of fresh powder on the slopes, so we didn't have to experience the infamous icy Appalachian slopes.

We were invited to join Calvary by two of our good friends, Joel and Shoba. Joel's in the biomedical engineering program with me, and we were fortunate (blessed) enough to discover we both belong to the same Lord. As far as we know we're the only Christians in the department (I hope I'm wrong), so we're trying to be salt and light as best as we can. Having a friend and ally around is a great blessing. What's even better is that they play (and actually like!) Settlers of Catan, so I might actually eventually get to play with someone. [Actually Adam and Krista like Settler's also, but they don't live here yet. Coincidentally both couples share a last name--perhaps I've stumbled on something. On a side note, Adam and Krista will be up here in less than two weeks looking for apartments! They'll be Quincians in no time.]

So, all told, New England skiing wasn't nearly as disappointing as I had expected it to be; in fact, it was great! Hopefully we'll even do it again soon, but I think Jen wants to take me cross country skiing first. Sounds like fun.

Inadiquacies in the Naturalistic Evolutionary Model

I'm intimidated by that title, but it's the best I could come up with in six words.

I just got out of the most enjoyable Biomedical Engineering seminar in my life (I've only attended a dozen or two, but still . . .). It was interesting, well presented, and I actually had enough background to understand what he was saying. That's certainly preferable to sitting for an hour on Mondays completely confused and feeling inadequate. Perhaps I am actually learning something.

Well, the seminar was by David Walt (Tufts Chemistry Professor) on Optical Fiber Microarrays. Now I'm not going to pretend to understand what he said well enough to explain it to you (and I'm not going to pretend that you'd be interested if I could), but one comment he made in the Q&A section made me think.*

Someone asked if his setup (which can be used as a "nose") gives us any information about how biological noses actually work--how many specific types of sensors we have. He said that it's interesting because theoretically and experimentally it only takes about 100 distinct sensors to detect every (practically) possible combination of odors; however, humans (and dogs for that matter) have around 1000 distinct sensors. He didn't seem to think there's any practical reason why we should have evolved such a unnecessarily precise array of sensors. I was thinking, "Wow, God's such an overachiever. He's amazing." It made me smile.

* On the off chance you are actually interested: Here's his site which I'm sure has more information than you'd ever care about.

God's Amazing Creatures

This past week Jen and I went to the zoo and the aquarium. The New England Aquarium gets 4 big thumbs up--definitely the best and nicest aquarium either of us have ever visited. The Frankin Zoo gets maybe 1.5 thumbs up. Somewhat disappointing as far as zoos go, and all the animals looked miserable. Getting there only an hour before closing gave us plenty of time. We hear there's a really great zoo down in Rhode Island that we should visit soon.

I thought I'd share some pictures so you can visit them vicariously.

Second Anniversary

Last week Jen and I celebrated our second anniversary (7 Aug). On 5 Aug. we went down to Cape Cod and drove along scenic highway 6A up to the tip (Provincetown). There we boarded the Dolphin VII whale watching ship. It was an amazing time. Three different humpbacks breached within sight of the ship. Evidently this is a very rare activity since it takes a lot of energy to propel a 50 ton animal completely out of the water. The humpbacks migrate up here to eat during the summer and then spend the winter down in the Caribbean to mate, but the downside to spending the summer in such a nice tropical place is that there's no food for them to eat, hence the normal lack of breaching. [Note, I unfortunately didn't capture a single picture of a breach so the top side photo isn't mine.] It was a great 3+ hour trip to sea and a great Saturday anniversary activity.

This past Sunday we spent the afternoon at Revere Beach. A gorgeous day. We both got quite a bit of sun but nothing too bad. We both just sat on the beach, listened to the waves, got our feet wet, read, and talked. I think that qualifies as a productive afternoon, don't you?

Overall it was a very nice anniversary week.