Groaning for grace

Lately, I've been trying to get back to some good spiritual habits, like writing down the five things I'm grateful for each day before I go to bed and 10 minutes of prayer at Sacred Space. I've also tried to begin reading something spiritual every morning: I used to read a Bible reflection from this Men's Devotional Bible I had, but I finished that a long while back.
I'm now reading passages from Shane Claiborne's upcoming book Becoming the Answer To Our Prayers, a look at how we pray and how we can turn our prayer life into fuel for engagement in the world. This morning, I read this passage that really hit me:
"Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious super-piety. It can also be built around joining with the evildoers and broken sinners of our world crying out to God, groaning for grace. That's the kind of Christianity we have fallen in love with."
Groaning for grace. Absolutely. I am longing for it. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, I am yearning for a faith community that truly affirms the presence of God in my daily affairs, despite all the ambitions and urgencies that drown his voice out.
I've been doing yoga, and it's been great for becoming more meditative. However, nowhere in the practice has there been talk about gratitude to God or to a higher power. It's all been about us, and our personal energy. I want more.
I want to re-enter a spiritual community that builds me up. The group I meet with every other week is a great respite from the rest of life, but I need something with more constancy as well.
I once started writing a song called "It's hard to see the face of God in New York City." The chorus ended with the line, "But to this very mission, I am sworn." That was back when I was working for Rick Warren's magazine and struggling with his brand of Christianity. I need to remember how much I yearn for God: when I lived in DC, I used to meditate on the phrase "God is in me and around me." And often I believed it. I'd like to believe it again.
God is in me and around me, in me and around me...

Post of the day: question

Hey guys, do you find that you spend more or less time with friends in person since you started using Facebook? There's an article I'm reading tonight on the Time.com website about this. Take a look and give me your opinion, please.

A digital confession

I've started a web journalism class called "Beatblogging" that's about beat reporters who are using blogs and social networking tools to enhance their reporting. Our work in the class is to research reporters around the country who are using the Web in such ways. I'm fascinated by the topic honestly, but whenever I hear about reporters using these live blogs at events or doing their weekly blog posts and building an online community, I can't help but have one nagging thought: who wants to spend that much time on a computer?

I've always been a very active guy, enjoying traveling, athletics, running and wandering around town. One of the things I enjoy about reporting is the opportunity to explore and the rush of going out to cover a story. Somehow, the web work seems a bit anticlimactic.

However, I also know how difficult it can be to keep finding a good story, and to keep fully abreast of news stories when there are those in authority who prefer you out of the loop. So, if this technology can be used to enhance the other reporting skills I've got, all the better. I guess I just fear that the web technology will come to replace going out into the neighborhoods, walking beats, meeting random people. I got my first story in a local paper because I caught an ad on a telephone pole in Washington Heights.

I guess it also depends on your beat: if you're working with the homeless, chances are most of your clientele aren't on Twitter. However, if you're a tech, science, politics or arts reporter, you've got a better shot of getting some scoops through this stuff.

So, a mix of emotions continues as I delve deeper. At the very least, I now have set up some RSS feeds on topics I enjoy.

When I was doing my story on the fall of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Robin Hirsch, the owner of the Cornelia Street Cafe, said that he felt the Internet was hurting the independent art scene, because people were more likely to search for events they specifically WANTED to see rather than just showing up somewhere and seeing whatever show happened to be playing that night. Similarly, one of my reporting profs felt the danger of reading news on the Web is that you can easily cut to the stories you want, rather than reading through and maybe noticing something unexpected buried deep within, as you would with a newspaper.

However, I also remember that Geoff Wiley, the owner of Jalopy in Red Hook, said the Web presented incredible opportunities for discovering the history of folk music in ways that he had never had as a kid.

So, there's a tossup perhaps between a sacrifice on the breadth of news one may get, versus an increase in the depth of intimacy with certain topics.

What do you think? What have been the effects of social networking for you: has such software enriched your life or mostly been a fun waste of time? Is it important to you that this software exists, versus using e-mail or phones? And do you see a difference reading your news online versus in print?

Obama says hello

"It's been a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come," sang Sam Cooke, back in the early 60s. Sam was talking about a change for oppressed black Americans, and Sunday in Washington, you could feel that change had arrived. I stood on the National Mall with hundreds of thousands Sunday watching "We Are One," a pre-inaugural concert welcoming Obama, performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. President Obama was there along with Vice President Biden, their families, and visitors from all over the world, filling the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.

Here's my video segment on the concert- merchants, travelers, and performers galore!




The concert was full of cameos from the stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Judd, Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx and scores of others appeared. Sometimes, the lesser-known celebrities seemed to have been chosen specifically for their racial identity, such as Indian-American actor Kal Penn of the "Harold & Kumar" movies, or Latino comedian George Lopez. Each read the words of famous presidents and contributors to the civil rights movement. Samuel L. Jackson did a lovely reading of Rosa Parks' words on her historic protest. Tom Hanks on the other hand seemed off reading Lincoln's words, while a symphony played in the background. Jamie Foxx pulled off a fun and yet stirring imitation of Obama reading his election night speech, capturing Obama's cadence and tone just right.

Along with movie stars was an incredible musical line-up: Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and to top it off, Pete Seeger, singing this Land is your Land with Bruce and James at his sides. Seeger had on a knit green and red winter cap that made him look like everybody's favorite granddad. He seemed to be having the time of his life, and he even jogged off stage at the end!

Of all the performers, though, Garth Brooks got the crowd the most rollicking, leading a Gospel choir through a gutsy "American Pie" and a rousing "Shout." Brooks was about the only one that made it feel like a real party.

In the end, none of them though could top the crowd's reaction to Obama: every time the camera flashed to him bopping his head to the music, singing along with the lyrics, or flashing that perfect ear-to-ear white-toothed magical grin, you could hear the crowd swooning.

The excitement about our new president is electric right now. However, it'd be short-sighted to see this energy as being just about having a black president, or even a Democrat: from what I have heard from everyone I talk to, this victory is slaking a thirst in this country to believe in our leaders again.

I remember the day Bush v. Gore was decided, and I felt that day like I had lost my faith in politics. I'm not sure what Obama will do to heal the economy and this country, but I believe with others that he will honor his office and the country that entrusted him with it. That alone gives me hope, and from the energy in the crowd today, I know I'm not alone.

Here's my video! Merchants, kids, travelers from around the world!


All the best, Dan

Bush says farewell

After Bush's farewell address, the first thought that came to mind was a quote John Oliver once delivered on the Daily Show, "President Bush is exactly the man this country needs-- to pull us out of whatever horrible mess he gets us into next." Oliver delivered it with the same kind of assurance that Bush had on his face tonight. As he talked about the triumphs of the administration, standing for freedom, standing for human rights, I wondered whether where he was getting his information.
It doesn't take liberal bias to see that this country's image took a real downturn in the world's eyes during the Bush administration: that image has only recently begun to recoup itself, perhaps now that Iraq seems to be improving and Obama's been elected to take over.
Bush called these last eight years a "period of consequence, a time set apart"- rather hollow rhetoric. Like the eight years before weren't important times for America, or the eight years before that. What really got to me in his address was his inability to address openly the damage that the war in Iraq did to the country. I think he truly believes what he did was right, despite the hundreds of thousands of lives lost.
Iraq might have lost Saddam Hussein, but I think in many ways our image in the eyes of many in the world was irreparably damaged by our invasion. Just like the Supreme Court's stopping the Florida recount, I see the Iraq war as having been an unnecessary intervention, one that likewise caused and me and many others around the world to lose faith in the American government.
I don't care frankly if Obama lives up to all of his campaign promises: what I do demand is that he conduct the office with a greater respect for the intelligence of the American people, for national sovereignty worldwide and the lives and dedication of the people who serve this country, whether it's as a soldier or a citizen.

The job search routine

I spent today at the NYU Career Resource Center on 14th Street trying to find a job. It worked out well: I applied to two temp agencies and sent a ton of letters to contacts I've made, friends and employers from recent times and years ago.
This place is excellent for my productivity. It's comfortable, spacious, quiet, and there are plenty of students doing the same searching I am. The computers have complete MS Office suites and free printing. I can even catch CNN playing on mute in the corner.
So, for now, this place can be my workplace, which I need. I realized my biggest depression in being unemployed comes from being at home in the morning after others have left for work. I'm much better off leaving with them and heading here, rather than stay at home.
There are three devils I have to fight in searching for a job: depression, distraction, and impatience. I think I can conquer the depression and distraction just by coming here. As for my impatience, it's just a matter of breathing, writing down my tasks and going easy on myself. I was searching online for some tips, and after reading many useless webpages, I came across the Goals To Action blog. Writer Rodger Constandse, from San Diego, put up this blog on productivity back in '07 and though it seems to have stopped running, the old posts are still worthwhile: try goalstoaction.com/blog/39/17-ways-to-improve-concentration for an example.

So for tonight, I'm thinking boil it down to the basics: exercise, a simple dinner, and then hopefully prayer over at Riverside Church. Sounds healthy, and hopefully it'll give me some inspiration.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: A MASTER NOT YET KNOWN

I watched Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” this week and loved it. Ever since 2001’s “Memento,” I’ve sought out Nolan’s films, and every single one has impressed me. He’s got this ability to create an atmosphere of suspense, combined with real feeling and empathy for his characters.
He also seems to be constantly examining men either on the verge of madness, or deep in the throes of it. He brought us Guy Pearce as a man sunk in rage and confusion as a widower trying to avenge his wife’s murder in Memento. Then he remade “Insomnia” and turned the rather slimy cop that Stellan Skarsgard played in the original, and turned him into the haunted cop trying to redeem himself played by Al Pacino. Likewise, in the two Batman films, Christian Bale has played Batman as a man driven by rage, ego and a pained hope for a better Gotham: Nolan’s films have been far more psychologically complex than the “Batmans” of the past.
The great thing is though that despite the psychological complexities, Nolan’s films never fail to be entertaining, suspenseful, and incredibly atmospheric. I still can’t get the score from Memento and The Dark Knight out of my head sometimes, and he has an ability with both elaborate chase scenes and intimate monologues that’s incredible.
So far Nolan isn’t a household name like Spielberg, Scorsese, or Tarantino but with a few more films of the quality and commercial success of his past work, he should arrive there. In my view, Christopher Nolan is already this generation’s Hitchcock.