Petra's Ponderings

New Life

2011-04-24T21:38:00.007+10:00

Jean-Jacques HennerJesus at the Tomb1879 Musee d'Orsay, Paris"After the riotous crowds, first adoring, then hostile, after the screams and the suffering, there's the quiet of the tomb, and that looks at first like utter defeat. But then, in the deepest stillness that comes before the first birds wake, there's the soundless rise and fall of the chest, the whoosh of blood, the whispered singing of

Ho !@%$#%@ Ho!

2010-12-10T19:53:00.003+11:00

Because I have found a soulsister...this post is unashamedly plagiarised from Miss GiesenNot only does she have some intelligent things to say re: Julian Assange and the so-called fabricated charges against him, she writes a whole lot of other cool stuff.My post is particularly appropriate at this time, in the mad month before Christmas (and all who have had to make even the briefest forays into

Fighting For Faith

2010-10-31T21:21:00.011+11:00

Today is the 1st of November. A new month, a new beginning. I began this post yesterday, to try to make some sense of the month just past, an incredibly difficult month for the Brown family. I knew I would have to write something, just so I could begin the new month with renewed hope. But what to say and how to say it? Then I discovered yesterday was Reformation Day. For an on again/off again

Ode to the Great Game

2010-09-26T09:46:00.019+10:00

My youngest daughter loves the game. I'm not sure how this happened in a 'nominal' football family. We are amateur game watchers at best. But this is the second year we have celebrated the most sacred day on the AFL calender in style because our youngest is a true believer. And since our beloved Cats were out of the game, we showed our support for the underdogs. Go Sainters!Here she is, in all

2010-08-06T09:18:00.016+10:00

after much nagging, wheedling and cajoling, my little sister convinced me to accompany her to the ngv to view the european masters exhibition. with typical dutch thriftiness, we arrived with a coupon and got in at half price. acknowledging this cultural faux pas will set the tone for this blog entry. just in case you, my beloved and esteemed reader should expect a conversation of the tenor

Solstice 2010

2010-06-21T10:44:00.018+10:00

My devoted disciples,Today is officially Melbourne's shortest day of the year. We celebrated the passing of the longest night of the year last evening at the Geelong West Community Garden. Today's blogpost is a dedication to all things pagan.Or at least, I couldn't go past this clip from a Dutch pagan metalband. Heidevolk formed in Gelderland, a Dutch province, and sing heavy-metal songs in Dutch

2010-06-19T15:27:00.005+10:00

The wholesome fun of children and dogs. Doesn't it just bring a tear to your eye?Soulfood Superstore. All your spiritual needs at bargain basement prices. We guarantee it!Your daily portion of Law and Order to keep you regular!Today's special! Love, reduced to clear to 99 cents. For one day only, buy a box of Love and get a free box of Lust with a Baywatch fridge magnet thrown it. Now you can

Who am I?

2010-06-18T14:45:00.004+10:00

Bonhoeffer wrote a handful of poems while in prison, awaiting his trial. Below is one is the best known poems, written in the summer of 1944. Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian, an excellent essay and prose writer. He only began to write poetry in the months before his execution. In a recent publication Who am I? Bonhoeffer's Theology through his Poetry, a number of Bonhoeffer scholars write

life/lost

2010-06-17T10:19:00.009+10:00

i once stood at the foot of a bed and watched my child be resucitated. four months later, her father sat at the side of her bed, and watched her die. this poem is an attempt to capture the two polar experiences, where one anticipated or completed the other. i can't speak for his experience.having tried to listen and understand, this is how i heard it. stylistically, the two columns are one poem

lenten rose

2010-06-16T00:46:00.003+10:00

she walks into the small cafe. crowded tables, filled chairs, humanity pressed against the wall. small tables. intimate tables. she is nervous. too much humanity. too close. she does not always mind the human horde. earlier she had sat peacefully at the railway station, thankful to be anonymous speck in the churning of civilisation. here there is no anonymity. she must make herself known. offer

born again

2010-06-09T13:29:00.008+10:00

greetings cyberspace compatriots. as you see, i have returned to your world after a six week absence. there were several reasons (excuses) for my absence. not the least was that my cyber home had spiralled into a cyber hovel. my site of bloggy brilliance had become cluttered with loose writing, messy formatting and useless ornaments gathering dust on the shelf. and like a child that refuses to

2010-04-25T13:16:00.015+10:00

On a recent outing to Melbourne, attempting to imbibe some culture, spend some time with my teenage daughter and leave a lasting cultural impression on her malleable mind, we spent some time wandering around the NGV. Here below is a shot of Ebs, who is both much hipper and happier than her melancholic mother. I have to post this photo to remind myself and my dear readers that somewhere over the

A day in the life of....

2010-04-20T21:54:00.007+10:00

Because my life is uninteresting, my thoughts are vapid and my words lie in dust at my feet...I thought I would put in a post with three things that happened today.Sweating it out at a body pump class. Sadly, this is not me in the photo. Surprising, I know. But I must confess, I am much less glamorous when I pump it. Today's session was particularly dire as my thin and fraying towel deposited

Gravity and Grace

2010-04-12T23:11:00.009+10:00

Two years ago I read Simone Weil's Gravity and Grace. I copied entire sections into my journal and wrote my own responses during a difficult time. Finding myself once again suspended in a white canvas of silence, I thought I might draw strength from my own journal entry. "From the innermost depth of my being I need a sound that means something. I cry out, but there is nothing. I no longer have

2010-03-07T17:12:00.003+11:00

I am currently reading through sections of Bryan Magee's Confessions of a Philosopher in my abundant spare time. As a pleasant diversion, I wiled away a Sunday afternoon watching the man in action in his BBC series, The Great Philosophers. Somewhat cowardly I steered away from the likes of A.J Ayer, Hilary Putnam and John Searle, and watched Iris Murdoch on Philosophy and Literature.Having had a

To my sister, with love

2010-02-28T14:32:00.008+11:00

This post is dedicated to my sister Willy.Thank you to my Mozart, Mal http://drowninginvitriol.blogspot.com for the inspiration. He said of Amanda Palmer at her recent concert in Melbourne..."Poignant, devastating, ribald and heart-achingly hilarious: the whole of life encapsulated without distortion: a masterpiece."Willy,I heard the musicI saw AmandaI thought of youPoignantRibaldHeart-achingly

2010-02-09T09:47:00.003+11:00

"I walked away from him, wordless in a word-full sea.I stared along the shelves, overwhelmed by a new hunger that came from a famine I did not even know I had endured. I ran my fingers along the shelves, not knowing which book to open, overwhelmed by a desire to feast on every one simultaneously. I wanted to gorge myself on syntax, lick words curling form the page into my mouth, nibble daintily

Flirting with Radical Orthodoxy

2010-02-08T15:38:00.004+11:00

The Book!Radical Orthodoxy, edited by John Milbank (amongst others). Long have I desired to hold this book in my hands, to allow my eyes to roam over the pages, to allow its wisdom to inscribe the tabula rasa that is my soul...Here is the preamble.'Radical Orthodoxy' returns theology to the centre of contemporary critical debate. The contributors develop a drastic critique of secular assumptions

2010-01-22T18:56:00.011+11:00

From the carte de jour that is my reading list, I recently selected Jim Garrison's The Darkness of God - Theology after Hiroshima (SCM Press, 1982). This book was written at the height of the Cold War stand-off when nuclear annihilation loomed over the imagination of everyday citizens. It is an attempt to reconcile the mysterious workings of God in the new age of Plutonium, the diabolical element

Solitude

2010-01-11T19:54:00.005+11:00

Kokoschka portrait d'une Jeune Fille 1913“It was harrowing when wonder let go of a man and he despaired of himself, but just as harrowing it is that one can know of this, can know far more, and not have had this experience, and most harrowing that one may know everything and not have made a start with the least thing. And if it is so, ah, let me begin over again; return, thy youth, with thy wish

2010-01-03T23:36:00.007+11:00

"Katie had the same hardships as Johnny and was nineteen, two years younger. It might be said that she, too, was doomed. Her life, too, was over before it began. But there the similarity ended. Johnnyknew he was doomed and accepted it. Katie wouldn't accept it. She started a new life where her old one left off. She exchanged her tenderness for capability. She gave up her dreams and took over hard

Playing with Saints and Philosophers

2009-10-05T09:54:00.027+11:00

But what is closer to me than myself?Assuredly I labour here and I labour within myself;I have become to myself a land of trouble and inordinate sweat.St AugustineAll things shall be wellYou shall see for yourself that All manner of things shall be well...For as the body is clad in the cloth,And the flesh in the skin, And the bones in the flesh,And the heart in the trunk,So are soul, and body,

Imagine a Place

2009-09-23T22:38:00.010+10:00

"Doll's Dreamhouse" by Rob Gonsalves "imagine a place... ...where your mind opens wider than any walls around you."