Soosh-D

"Sushi is the sweet nectar of life... the inescapably glorious reunion of man and the divine... truly an experience not unlike that original perfection, the garden.. God's design for all that is right"
- Jon Bartel

Alright, quoting oneself isn't the most effective.. but the essential truth stands. Come to Toronto, and we'll take you to Sushi Delight. aka Soosh-D. Kar and I went on Friday.


humorous audio question of the week for fellow engineers reading this: what, do you suppose, is the proper course of action when a producer calls about a promo you're mixing for him later in the afternoon, and says,

'Ok, so you'll find some sound-ups in there, and I really just want those to be the focus.. you know, just really push those. And then with the music, just really make sure you emphasize that, cause I really think that it's integral to the piece, and then you'll find some VO, and I think that's probably the real key to this entire spot, so just be sure that you really push that up front and centre, cause that's definitely the most important thing. And then I've also thrown in some sound fx, and I just want to make sure that you're aggressive with those, cause they're going to really need to be "in your face".. I think they're going to really move the spot along... and... other than that... i guess that's about it!...'



This week was lived largely in my head.. in a sense. I come away feeling re-positioned and once again grounded. We have really great friends. I needed to decide who I'm going to be, and what I'm going to do. Not in the 'what do I want to do for a living?' sense, but in the 'what am I going to value, and what am I going to pursue?' sense. Karen is my godsend on these weekends. She's the beacon when I'm way out in left floundering around in my own thoughts. I can get pretty far off the beaten path and sometimes it's tough to turn myself around. If there's something in the concept of marriage that I find most astounding, that's it... the fact that she knows me and recognizes me in times when I can't seem to know myself. Sometimes everything feels one-footed and out of balance, and she's always able to find me in the middle of all the clag.

Had some really good discussion this weekend surrounding some of the great un-answerable questions:

- How can a loving God who eventually 'wins the day' relinquish millions of those he lovingly created to be forever separated from him when it's fully in his power to do the opposite? Wouldn't that be classified as 'losing the day?' Why would he do that? Why would leave it up to us, in our ridiculous self-centeredness and simplicity, and our inability to think outside of the simplest constraints of time and space, to fully grasp the divine intricacies of what we call 'salvation'? We can't get along as nations, we can't stop chasing money and signs of status and wealth. We can't even be polite to each other on the subway. And yet, when it comes to the status in which we will spend an eternity after death... he's going to leave that up to us to sort out, based on a book that has been translated from its original language and cultural reference-point by humans as simple and ordinary as we are. Isn't that, realistically, completely absurd?!


One other great experience...

We were at a home church with friends on Sunday morning. It was a really cool thing to be a part of. Different from the usual in the sense that you don't have a person who's specifically ordained to lead and deliver the ideas and thoughts while the majority of the group listens and learns. Rather, different people come with a specific thought or discussion topic each week, and then the entire group discusses, adds, subtracts, and shares from their own experiences and ideas. The range of thoughts is massively diverse, because the group plays home to so many different lifestyles and places in life. What you might lose in the lack of a specifically 'gifted' speaker/pastor, you gain in the wealth of shared input.

But probably the coolest thing about the idea is the community aspect it affords and encourages. Everybody shows up around 11:00am, and great coffee, waffles, and general catching up/chatting gets everything going. You aren't going to church so much as you're just getting together with family. Then, throughout the morning, it's open to anybody to share whatever is on their mind/heart. If you have a poem you wrote that pertains to the topic at hand, read it! If you have a song on the go, play it! A chapter from a book you're reading that specifically speaks to something we're going on about... do tell! I think the coolest thing about that is that you get away from what can sometimes be such a struggle in our churches... you get away from a scenario in which a few select people are heavily involved while others simply comment and critique. Everybody gets to share their own thoughts, and their own gifts. It's built right into the framework of how church happens.

We love the meeting house. But it's really cool to see what other people are doing, too. I think there's a ton to be learned/appreciated from this approach. Really cool. I think that's sortof how I picture church to have been like when it was first happening.


Talk soon.
JB