Kevin's Theogrimage

To one of the men who stood by us in our times of suffering. To a father figure who practiced biblical manhood and exemplified it in his life and family. At my sister’s looking-forward-to-marriage ceremony, he came to bid her congratulations. I saw him, I saw him there and had a conversation with him. Would my knowing that death was lurking round the corner have changed the topic at hand? Would I have paid more attention to the chatting that was coming from a place of life? Contrasting with the wedding photos, and baby photos on my social media applications, the morning message announcing the passing on of a father-figure, a man who my parents sought counsel from and who saw eye-to-eye with each other, even heart-to-heart was dumbfounding. Dumbfounding in a manner too familiar to me, yet still with its stinging freshness, was the news spread this morning. Far from the coolness of a cucumber, my heart was at odds empathizing with my friends, who we grew up with and who called...

The multi-colors of the fireworks displays that adorn the dark sky in the last night of a year are ways in which we celebrate all that has transpired before as we usher in a new year, a new season. To supplement this, many of us make and re-make lists of resolutions. It's interesting to me how one sided we may tend to be when such opportunities arise for us: we can either use them to reflect too much, if there's anything like that, or on the other hand, to want to do something without a thoughtful reflection. I came across one  post  which seems to call for a balance between both. Certainly, such a balance between contemplation and practice is what I hope to bring with me in 2015, sorry, 2016. The post covers the story of the public unrest that racked Ukraine's capital last year. "Among the tumult were numerous priests" who were somehow displaying this balance by being the mediatorial voices between the public protesters and police. Such unrest could be said to...

Painting a Picture of Society The story of Bruce Jenner has got a lot of us talking. In my opinion, it paints a picture of a popular culture that is self-absorbed and flirting with a promise of freedom that cannot deliver. In fact it has never delivered. Popular culture's narcissism to try and fix herself has brought other complications that her proponents had never thought about. The sexual revolution of past decades brought in other issues with which some remain oblivious of while others try to cure (STI's, teen pregnancy, emotional consequences etc). In an  article   in Psychology Today  " The architects of the Sexual Revolution intended to unleash the evolutionary energies of sex and love in service of human liberation. Instead, attempts at sexual revolution have been repeatedly sidetracked, hijacked, and eventually derailed by a combination of greed, lust, and immaturity. " When we speak of these issues of sex, freedom, conservatism and liberty, many tim...

Friend or Foe? It is often said that the experiences we go through give us a lens with which to view and interpret our reality in the world. In my case, especially after the death of my brother, I have been thinking more frequently about death and life and their mystery. In line with this, I was led to an essay by Esther Acolatse, professor of pastoral theology at Duke Divinity School. Her central idea is that  death strikes both as a familiar friend and a dreaded foe, hence creating ambivalent feelings in us . [1]   In her thinking through this ambivalence, she provides a framework for understanding this mystery of death and to anchor it on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I have always thought of death, for a long time, to be both a natural process as well as a negative result of man's participation in his choice of separation from His creator God at the genesis of creation. The verse that Acolatse alludes in this thinking is Genesis 2:17 " but you mus...