Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Studies Blog

Negative positive affirmation.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::This post is the background for "Poster Myths" over on the Lone Prairie Blog.::

Instead of typing in my notes and scribbles, I thought I'd let you get a peek at one of the ways I work through (and sometimes I never make it "through" to a conclusion) a concept that I'm writing about. Ideas that appear and theories that change, a concept that never fully develops, or something left hanging that I can't seem to quite understand -- that's all there.

You can read all seven (yeah, seven...I'm long-winded even in long hand) pages as a PDF by clicking here.

Labels: christianity, idea generation, post background

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Help support this site. Facebook | Stumble It! | Del.icio.us | DiggIt! | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | Newsvine

Background music.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::This post is the "back story" and idea formation for a post on my main blog. I sometimes put these here to keep the main idea from being cluttered, but for letting people understand where an idea came from.::

They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious
-- Jeremiah 6:14

I was working on the short photo-montage video and didn't know what music to put in the background. I had the photos selected, but I didn't know what song. In past years, the music that had been used was popular contemporary Christian, like "I Can Only Imagine."

That wasn't what I wanted to say. The music is the message. What we hear is what we see; music is powerful.

I started to look through my MP3 files.

What is the message? What is my prayer?

I wanted the video to be a prayer of sorts, and not just a photo-album to music that people could watch and smile and say "how nice."

My prayer is always -- always -- that I might see.

Be Thou My Vision.

Riches I heed not
Nor man's empty praise
Thou mine inheritance
Now and always.

I found Ginny Owens' version, which is a favorite of mine because of her almost unearthly voice and the fact that she sings the song with a particular sincerity; Ginny Owens is blind.

But there was something else I needed. What good is sight if it leads to nothing? What are the questions from this year's trip? What about all the why, and the why not, and the anger at how unjust life seems to be for the have-nots?

I don't want to be superficial about the why and why not, I had jotted in my journal, writing about the always present question that we raised in discussion about why we had so much and our Nicaraguan friends seemed to suffer. And I don't want to dismiss the beauty of their lives by focusing on the material lack.

And then Sinead O'Connor's song "Something Beautiful" came to mind.

Vision without action is still blindness. And I wanted my action to be something beautiful for the Lord.

Though I'm not sure about the reaction I'll get from using "Something Beautiful" (some of the sound and lyrics may not be what people are expecting), every time I hear it, it says what I want to say.

Links: Read lyrics here. See video of it below.

Labels: post background

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Help support this site. Facebook | Stumble It! | Del.icio.us | DiggIt! | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | Newsvine

Notes on James.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Notes from the first part of the first chapter of James.

Some notes I've started taking on the book of James, following a recent blog post.

Click on the image to see the notes larger.

Labels: bible, post background

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Help support this site. Facebook | Stumble It! | Del.icio.us | DiggIt! | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | Newsvine

Post background: Ordinary time.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::If you'd like to see how I come up with some a blog post, this entry is meant to show you. This is what I wrote in my journal as a foundation for thinking through the concepts and idea for the Lone Prairie Blog post "Ordinary time."::

What is ordinary time? Is that just a word; an idea, we use to note the passing of our lives without noting the small things that are as important as the big ones that catch us unaware? Would the big things catch us off-guard as much as they do if we noticed all things and made all time extraordinary time? Is time every ordinary? If I stopped and saw the big picture of my short life, would I be so willing to slog through on ordinary time, settle for what is unchanged? Crave for no change? Why, after learning to daily want something different, do I, once shown that, start building up and memorializing that which I wanted to shake off and leave behind? If I throw off the idea that there is ordinary, that all things in life, because of the gift of life and time, are truly extraordinary...how will my life, my view, my decisions, my ability to make decisions, be affected?

Labels: post background