"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Twenty Three.

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"

CONCLUSION


Ideas are more powerful than guns.
We would not let our enemies have guns,
why should we let them have ideas?
Joseph Stalin




"There is the Would"© 2004
Watercolor and Gesso on Paper

and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’
Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

"Know We Have Them on the Run"© 2004
Watercolor and Gesso on Paper

From the Editor: So here we are. Our Hero has passed the test. The dogs have been called off, and now it is time for the bestowing of the treasure. Because isn't that what sacrifice is about? You exhibit your willingness to give up something.....let's even say something big. And in return? A little acknowledgement would be nice. But Abraham gets that and wins the bonus round! He will be the beginning of an entire peoples. Constellations and galaxies of beings. And that which might deny him access? The gates of his enemies? The gates of his enemies will not prevail, and he will be blessed because he obeyed without question.

Well, today (in this moment), I am going to accept Abraham's blessing. I am going to have as many creative ideas as there are stars and I am going to share them with God. I am going to be involved in as many positive interactions as there are grains of sand at the beach and God will think that is cool. I am going to recognize the impediments to being my authentic self and saunter through those gates that I have constructed. I will listen to the words of Lao Tzu, "Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself." And the results of my involvement will continue to fascinate and encourage me, for I would have participated fully.

I will draw nearer. That's my plan.

"Sshoe Violins"© 2004
Watercolor and Gesso on Paper

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.



This concludes Week Twenty Three of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Twenty Two.

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"

Part Five

“Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed
as if limits to our ability did not exist.
We are collaborators in creation.”
Teilhard de Chardin



"Towards Sheryl's House - 7:05 (Study)"© 2011
Digital Print

15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you.....Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

"Approaching Newen, NC"© 1996
Acrylic on Canvas 4' X 8'

"where lamps are lit as symbols, not as facts"

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

We arrive too early at the Festival of Lights
where the tents are still erecting, the Ferris wheel
lies pitched against its axle, and the lanterns overhead
wait in ranks to be lit. I point you toward the Greek church
but you are willful as mercury, off the concrete walk
following your own low road across the grass
like a ball on a bad break, determined to bogey.
Your foot catches and you almost buckle
on the forked root of a droughtstruck tree,
but you run on, past a barricade of angels,
the crossed stone dolls of another generation,
over the lawn into darkness, away from me.

I find your shadow where the churchyard ends
at the edge of a fallow tobacco field
where the windings of raspberries and stronger grasses
rise up and stop you. Nothing here frightens you:
not night, climbing like moss in the trees,
or the truck beside you impounded in weeds,
hoarding lockjaw and bluebells in its clasped doors.
It is here you choose to play. I watch for weeds
with triplet leaves, for snakes sining the world
into waves of luck and danger, a covered ditch,
the small clay pots of budding hornets.
All we find is a box of Happy Meals
its yellow cardboard sogging in the leaves,
some half-ripe berries, a scrap of arrowhead
and a violet beetle that may or may not be dead
from harboring a virus I will read about
in next year's journals. It takes all I have
not to drive you away, but to stay and watch
as you inch your hands toward the thorny fruit
you covet. With such ease I could lift you up
to where you want to be, across this break
and into the wild garden, the forbidden field
that you cannot imagine you can be whole without,
where you would grow almighty, or not at all.

Son, we are here tonight to celebrate
what is neither light nor dark but both at once,
this margin we inhabit between eternities:
the one we think we know and struggle in
and the one that leads us on and seems to know us best,
like a car following behind us down the street
and forever offering to take us in,
its deft doors open, the strangers inside beckoning
to come and join them in that perfumed cabin.

Behind us, the hurdy-gurdy starts to swell
with children turning on the music rides;
their fathers lift a sledge to ring the bell,
they lift, and fail, and lift and try again;
their mothers clutch together in the halls
to speak small lies and taste the lamb for salt;
they drink retsina, watch the biscuits rise,
and set up tables as they talk about their faith
that still endures, although they bleed each month.
Come, turn back with me. Our place is there,
where lamps are lit as symbols, not as facts,
and every path lies twisted in unreason.

Son, turn back with me. This is the sacrifice
we make in terror every day.

Philip Bowman, The Museum of Childhood

"Story Time"© 2011
Digital Print

"we are here tonight to celebrate
what is neither light nor dark but both at once"



“Novena for Sendai Series©”. Study #5.
Digital Print

From the Editor: Where the darkness defines the light, the light loses its timidity. It is here that blessings remain undiscovered until illuminated.

This concludes Week Twenty Two of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Twenty One.

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"

Part Four

“It’s always been in between the things I thought I was doing that the real work has happened.”
William Kentridge



"Right"© 2008
Gesso, Marker, Acrylic on Canvas

¹⁴So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

"One Point: Perspective"© 2008
Graphite, Acrylic, Marker, Gauze on Canvas

From the Editor: I have a tendency to celebrate my creative energy when I feel its expression as powerful and exhilarating. I refer to these experiences as "Times of Flight". Maybe you know what I am talking about. I hope so. When I despair or wallow about in perceived failures, I abrogate responsibility and (most typically) look for something (or someone) to blame. In these moments I become blind to the source of plenty that surrounds me. This does not 'draw me nearer'. So I cannot be sacrificing - though it seems as if I am. Maybe you know what I'm talking about. Maybe not. The early translation into Greek of the Hebrew Jehovah-jireh gives the meaning as "The Lord hath seen." More contemporary translations render it "the Lord will provide", serving up a more literal meaning, kind of like, "the Lord will see to it". But right now, in this moment, I am going ask this question: High or low, ecstatic or bereft, panicked or at peace, is it enough to know that our lives and efforts are recognized? Are being 'seen'? Friend, if that is the case, then that in itself is Plenty. Maybe you know what I'm talking about.

"Morel Fabric"© 2008
Marker, Acrylic, Collage on Canvas

"If you cling to an idea as the inalterable truth,
then when the truth does come in person
and knock at your door,
you will not be able to open the door and accept it."
Udana Sutta



"L O V E"© 2008
Acrylic, Graphite, Gesso on Canvas


“to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
e. e. cummings


This concludes Week Twenty One of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Eighteen

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"
Part Two


“If you are not coming to put into question everything you do,
I don’t see why you’re here.”
Jacques Lacan


"My Shadow"© 2005
Gesso, shellac, watercolor on paper mounted on canvas.

^"9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and^(E) laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

"Boo Kini"© 2004 by Isaac Schulz
Acrylic on Canvas

From the Editor: It is our current observation that sacrifice most often ends up being a way of making a demand. As in, "I'll give something up in order to evoke the results that I desire." In humanity's darkest past, when humans sacrificed humans to appease gods, and then to appease God, there was a mimetic power and control in the action. Today, while we deem our society too moral to practice human or even animal sacrifice, we embrace the same symbolic significance through ritual, sport, politics, and entertainment. Essentially, like Abraham, we are all too willing to take the knife to the throat to that which represents the very essence of our love. Maintenance of a violent cultural tension creates both victims and surrogate victims. Every time we place someone in harm's way, we make a human sacrifice. Every time we turn away from someone in need, someone perceived as different, or every time we stare, badger, and bully......we make a human sacrifice. How do you enact sacrifice, Pilgrim?

"Heat Lightning"© 1992
Pastel on Paper

“About sacrifice and the offering of sacrifices, sacrificial animals think quite differently from those who look on: but they have never been allowed to have their say.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

This concludes Week Eighteen of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos