When Heaven Touches Earth: La Sagrada Familia

Sorry for the delay in posts but I just returned from 10 days in Spain.  What a beautiful country!  And more generally, what is it about Europe that is just so darn cool?  The food, the architecture, the history...sometimes its overwhelming.

Well, on my first day in Barcelona I got to visit the famed Antoni Gaudi designed cathedral La Sagrada Familia.  Let me say, I have been blessed to travel the world more than the average person and have had the opportunity to see some beautiful cathedrals but...

...this is the most beautiful church I have ever been in!


As our tour guide was explaining the history of the building outside its main entrance he replied to me, "Wait until you see the inside, its even more impressive than the outside."  And he was right.  When I entered the the vast place of worship I was suddenly overwhelmed.  A picture can not convey the moment.  My eyes misted up and I just stood there and absorbed it.

For lack of a better description the place felt...elven.


Those who are familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the subsequent movies will understand when I say I felt like I was in Rivendell or Lothlorien.  The elves in Tolkien's world are higher than men, the first born of God.  One commentator noted that they are best described as what mankind would look like had we not "fallen."  The elven feeling of the place was reinforced when the tour guide explained that the architect, Antoni Gaudi, designed to the large columns and pillars to resemble trees and branches.

Looking around La Sagrada Familia I kept thinking this place was designed by a person inspired by the Holy Spirit.  I asked the tour guide if Gaudi was a religious man?  He replied "Yes, this entire cathedral was designed by him to reveal the Glory of God!

He certainly succeeded.  I have recently posted a bit about Brian Zahnd's book Beauty Will Save the World describing how Christianity needs to dial up the focus of the beauty inherit in our faith.

 La Sagrada Familia is certainly an example of this.  It's in places like this that for one brief moment you feel like Heaven touches Earth!

The Way: Hiking the Way of St. James

Just watched a wonderful inspirational movie called The Way and thought it deserves a post.  The film chronicles the adventure of a successful doctor who takes up his son's journey to complete the El Camino de Santiago (or The Way of St. James) after the son's tragic death in the French Pyrenees.  Real life father and son Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez team up for the project which was obviously a labor of love for the both of them


The El Camino de Santiago is a thousand year old Catholic Christian pilgrimage to the  Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in north west Spain.  The journey can originate from different starting point but the most famous, and the one accomplished in the movie The Way, starts in France and is a total of 780 kilometers.


The story itself is a little familiar.  A successful American doctor is seemingly happy in his suburban Western world of rich patients and golf courses.  He and his son's relationship, seen in flashbacks, shows a young man wanting to explore life and a father not understanding him.  Forced to confront the tragedy of his death, Sheen picks up the mantle of his son's pilgrimage first as a sense of obligation but later, after encounters with fellow travelers including a priest recovering from cancer, he experiences his own personal and spiritual awakening.





The movie appealed to me on many levels.  Gabriel (my 13 year old son) and I are preparing to do a two week 200 mile walk across a section of England next summer called the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk  so a movie chronicling the impact a long distance walk had on a man's life was particularly relevant.  Also, Sheen's character experiences a  renewal in his Christian faith during his journey.  Beginning the movie as a self-made man of means he becomes increasingly aware that the world is much more than what he conceived and that God's place in his own life is maybe needed more than he thought. 


During the journey Sheen acquires fellow travelers that help him see life through a new lens.  Each of them has their own "issues" but those issues are best worked out in their togetherness and shared humanity.  
And lets face it, any movie that has a group of people drinking wine at the end of day with the beautiful European countryside in the background is worth watching on those merits alone. 


And I have determined that the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage is on my "bucket list"...but I'll see how we do on a 200 mile hike next summer before I plan on a 500 mile one :) 


So if you get a chance, watch The Way...and then go take a hike :) 

Nobel Peace Prize puts China "On Tilt"

In the 1998 film Rounders Matt Damon narrates the subtleties of No Limit Texas Hold-up poker:

A brilliant player can get a strong hand cracked, go on tilt...
and lose his mind along with every single chip in front of him.

In poker parlance to "go on tilt" means to so frustrate a player to point where they are not playing rationally. The other players enjoy a great advantage because the flummoxed player keeps throwing good money after bad rather than mentally acknowledging they lost a big hand, cool down, and play the next hand fresh. A guy going "on tilt" can be fun to watch...provided you're not the guy.

That Matt Damon Rounders line has been ringing in my ears as I've watched the proceedings surrounding the Nobel Peace Prize award given to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo this week. The Nobel Committee's naming of Liu for the prestigious award has managed to put the Middle Kingdom into full on "tilt" mode.

China's normally restrained and carefully calculated "soft" diplomacy was thrown out the window in favor of earlier, and more proven, ways of dealing with dissent. Both Norway, and countries that sent representatives to the ceremony were threatened with future punitive actions, Chinese nationals were not allowed to travel to Oslo for the occasion, and Chinese dignitaries labeled the award to Liu "obscene" and a "political farce". In China words like "Liu" and "Nobel Peace" were censored preventing texts and Internet searches from yielding results and news broadcasting the award ceremony were blacked out.

Ironically, if China had simply ignored or down played the award, most people, both inside and outside of China, would have remained ignorant of Liu Xiaobo's existence.

So why has China lashed out so vocally and let itself "go on tilt"?

Part of the reason can be explained in that China is a "face" driven society. Most westerners see "face" as the need to give someone respect but having lived over here for many years I'm beginning to see it as a much deeper trait. It really is part of the soul of the country. The Nobel Prize, although publicly ridiculed now by Chinese leaders, is really held in high regard for the prestige it confers. And in China, prestige is paramount. The country has been trying for years to get some of its "approved" writers awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to no avail. Thus the awarding of the Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, whom the government has labeled a criminal, stung pretty bad.

China has in turn accused the whole event of being politically motivated. And you know what?

...they're probably right.

The Nobel Committee is far from being a neutral and unbiased body. Did they intend to provoke China? Of course they did and you know why?

Because they could.

Being a "face" based society makes China more susceptible to "going on tilt" as it feels compelled to respond to diplomatic slights that most Western nations can simply ignore. Hence, anytime a Western nation wants to "tilt" China, they mearly need to increase ties with Taiwan,  have the Dali Lama 'round for a Bar-B-Q, or you know, give the Nobel Peace prize to a dissident. There is no reciprocal action that China can have on the West that can provoke it. The West is not "face" based and can fall back on a yawn.

China is sitting at the big boys diplomatic poker table now but its at a distinct disadvantage. It's sincere desire to be respected in the world's eyes exposes it to pressure points that can be poked at by the other players ad infinitum.

Matt Damon goes on to say in Rounders:

Some people, pros even, won't play No-Limit.
They can't handle the swings.

China is seated at the "no-Limit" table;  it better learn to handle the swings fast because a China "on tilt" won't be fun for anyone.

Obama & Nobel

Wow! So President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Although everyone, including the President, is a little shocked at this little sudden turn, we really shouldn't be. This follows the natural order of events surrounding Obama; Give him awards and positions because, you know, one day he'll probably get it anyhow.

President of the United States? "Sure, he's not experienced... but he probably will be one day, so lets give it to him now."

Nobel Peace Prize? "Sure, he's only been in office 8 months and hasn't really done anything yet... but he will, so lets give it to him now."

As of late, I have been at odds with some of my compatriots in the Republican Party who I feel criticize Obama just for getting up in the morning. Last week when they rallied in opposition to his Chicago Olympic support in Europe, I couldn't go there. I thought it was a fair move and supported the President.

But even I was shocked when I opened my web browser and saw President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. My first thought was, "For what?"

Now to be fair to the President, he seemed to have a "for what?" look on his face as well and responded that he viewed the decision "less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as 'a call to action'".

Translation: "Ok, Yes, we all acknowledge its pretty silly I got the Nobel Peace Prize but hey they're Europeans, and, really, who can understand what Europeans do or why they do it? But maybe I can use this completely ridiculous situation to help get healthcare passed."

So just why did the committee in Norway decide to honor our still wet behind the ears president for such an illustrious prize?

The Nobel prize is awarded by 5 lawyers who are nominated by the Norwegian Parliament. Traditionally those in the 'Nobel inner circle" have espoused a world view that is decidedly European and President Obama fits neatly between their goal posts. The election committee was unanimous in it's vote and said in justifying their decision, "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future."

Translation: "He's not Bush, so welcome back to the fold America"

Hey, why we're at it, let's give him the Nobel Prize in Literature as well, because, you know, he wrote a book too.

The disturbing aspect to all this is that there are people who toil a lifetime to bring both International and Domestic peace to troubled regions around the world and by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to an untried and inexperienced President goes beyond absurd; it reduces a highly respected and distinguished recognition into a scoffed at political tool.

President Obama may have one the Nobel Peace Prize one day, but even he knows, he hasn't won one yet.