Leap Year Explained

From Rowan Williams

"To assume the right to judge, or to assume that you have arrived at a settled spiritual maturity that entitles you to prescribe confidently at a distance for another's sickness, is in fact to leave others without the therapy they need for their souls; it is to cut them off from God, to leave them in their spiritual slavery — while reinforcing your own slavery. Neither you nor they have access to life — as in the words of Jesus, you have shut up heaven for others and for yourself. But the plain acknowledgement of your solidarity in need and failure opens a door: it shows that it is possible to live in the truth and to go forward in hope. It is in such a moment that God gives himself through you, and you become by God's gift a means of connecting another with God. You have done the job you were created to do.

Saint Anthony of the Desert says that gaining the brother or sister and winning God are linked. It is not getting them signed up to something or getting them on your side. It is opening doors for them to healing and to wholeness. Insofar as you open such doors for another, you gain God, in the sense that you become a place where God happens for somebody else."

- Rowan Williams, Where God Happens, 23ff

Notes from the 2012 Academy Awards

I am suspending my usual Monday morning quote in order to post a few notes I took from last nights Academy Awards.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I silence my own voice and opinion in order to listen to wisdom in the words of others.

But today, let the opining begin!

- Bill Crystal seemed off, didn’t he? Except for the opening bit. I kind of liked that one.

- Way to go Octavia Spencer!

- The editing categories got the shaft, like they always do.

- Emma Stone was actually kinda funny.

- James Earl Jones should do more voice-overs.

- Maybe one or two of the best picture nominees will actually matter in the long run (meaning that the best movies are mostly certainly not always nominated).

- Warrior and Another Earth would have been in my top ten nominees for best picture.

- I think The Tree of Life was better than The Descendants and probably The Artist, but I haven’t seen it yet.

- What was up with all the Ellen commercials?

- I enjoy film, but the Oscar show itself always underwhelms me. I am less inclined each year to watch.

- Robert Downey Jr. should be on Saturday Night Live more.

- Johan Hill should not even have been nominated for best supporting actor.

- Just once, I want someone to wear a dress from Target or Kohl’s.

- Not that he was my choice, but I thought Clooney had best actor locked in, although I’m not surprised at Dujardin.

- If we went back to only five best picture nominees, here’s who I would pick: The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, and The Tree of Life.

- I think Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close got the nomination only because it's related to 9/11.

- Is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo really THAT good?

- Congrats to The Artist for best picture. I haven’t seen it yet but me thinks maybe a little nostalgia played into the decision? But maybe it was really that good. I'll let you know.

- Tough choice for best actress. I hope it was too close to call and that there was a mutiny in the back room where the Academy meets, with the Meryl Streep fans muscling out the Michelle Williams and Viola Davis fans.

How about you? Share your own thoughts?

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(via geekculture)