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This sums up my weekend.
So the 'Compassion Forum' was pretty good. We were lucky to be invited by our friends over at ONE. I wasn't sure what to expect upon arrival but Messiah College was a typical Christian University. I was actually laughing as we pulled in and were given directions by the students. For whatever reason, I can spot a CCCU (Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities) student a mile away. Something about semi-poorly fitting khakis and a polar fleece vest...
We met up with a lot of great organizational leaders at the reception before the event including OXFAM, Sojourners, Bread for the World, Hope International, World Vision.
Campbell Brown and John Meachum (Editor of Newsweek) were the hosts. Campbell did a great job, but John sat there looking constipated for the majority of the time and then would blurt out something completely out of the blue. "What's your favorite bible story?!"
My highlight was definitely Jim Wallis. If you watched the event, he was the one who said that on the morning MLK Jr. was shot, he was preparing to unleash a movement to fight poverty in America. Jim then asked Obama, directly, if he would commit to reducing poverty by HALF in 10 years to which Obama obviously agreed... Now is not the time in the debate to start being rational! If someone challenges you, you say 'Yes'!
Check out Jim's books: "God's Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and the left doesn't get it" and his new one: "The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a post-religious Right America".
Back to the event. I was impressed with both candidates. I felt like some of the questions were slow-softball pitches... however, asking Hillary why a loving god allows people to suffer was thoroughly entertaining. The question was met with a blank stare. I will say, I was impressed with their abilities to answer 'enough' to keep the moderators happy yet leave 'enough' out to avoid incrimination. To be held accountable for every syllable that exits your mouth, yet share of yourself is not an easy balance.
Hillary was Hillary, but there were some moments where you could see her fighting what she actually wanted to say. Obama didn't do as well as I thought he would, but he had some great sound-bites. It was frustrating that the whole issue of "bitter" working class was even brought up. That's the most ridiculous criticism I've ever heard, but sure enough it garnered quite a bit of airtime.
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Before the Compassion Forum I spent the day with my sister, her husband and their daughter. We visited the Cecilia Beaux exhibit at PAFA. It was truly incredible. She is revered as one of the greatest American Female painters for works such as this. We also stopped by the Rodin Museum. For whatever reason, that building, it's contents and surroundings gardens are one of my favorite places. I can't quite explain why but when I go there it's always a very moving experience. I should blog more on that later. And the highlight was most definitely dinner at Morimoto.
Anyway, after the event DOT&CROSS chilled in Philly for the day. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Highlights included: a big bell, a big Cheese steak and a big Star Wars exhibit with the original costume and models from the production.
So I recently learned that Andy Warhol's real name is Andy Warhola. In his first big gig when he was given credit it was misspelled Andy Warhol. He never fixed the mistake. It turns out he was quite the draftsman who got started drawing women's shoes for advertisements.
I am very drawn to Andy Warhol because of the way he spoke his mind, something I wish I could do more of. His actual statements either come from a very very personal place or from a very very superficial place. According to himself, he would say it's a superficial place. However in order to have that type of confidence and lack of concern over how people respond is anything but superficial and points towards a deep sense of self understanding.
In a quick observation...
Given a general understanding of a person, most statements fit in one of the above categories. It's funny how people (myself included) can tweak any statement for a desired social effect. In looking at Andy's quotes, they range all over the place. I can't figure out which category they belong to. They are 'a-coolness'.
Here are a few of my favorite Warhol quotes:
'I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.'
'I am a deeply superficial person.'
'I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.'
'It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever
since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when
to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.'
'The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's. The most beautiful
thing in Stockholm is McDonald's. Peking and Moscow don't have anything
beautiful yet.'
'Art is what you can get away with.'
'Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.'
'I don't know where the artificial stops and the real starts.'
'I like boring things.'
'I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.'
'I think it would be so great if more people took up silk screening,so
that no one would know whether my picture was mine or somebody else.'
'The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.'
'What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition
where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the
poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that
the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you
can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get
you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All
the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it,
the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it...'
Saw BRMC last night. Great show! It was just phenomenal gritty blues rock. Can't get enough of it. They just kept playing and playing. A lot of show for the money.
MuxTape is pretty much the best website ever. And the design... heavenly.
A friend and I were just thinking how sweet it would be to run the site and have constant access to the music server where all the music is stored It's the perfect gig! You pretty much have every music-phile sending you their favorite play lists! What a job.
Headed off to the Compassion Forums in Pennsylvania this weekend. DOT&CROSS was lucky enough to be offered some tickets from the ONE organization, one of the supporters of the event. Faith in Public Life is the organization behind the event, hosted at Messiah College.
It's incredible how the tables have turned this year. On the Republican side McCain, a.k.a. 'Conductor of the Straight Talk Express', isn't sure where he stands on simple issues and the Democrats are waving the faith banners! In fact, McCain isn't even showing up to this faith and morals forum.
It will be broadcast live on CNN, so check it out. Here's a CNN article on the event. I'd love to post some photos when I get back but they are cracking down... no cameras, no phones. Apparently, there will also be no weapons allowed.
Hopefully Hillary will have some compassion on both herself and her party and dutifully remove herself from the race sometime soon...
It's exciting to see one of your products being brought into the world! Amazon has already began taking pre-orders on the new product we partnered with Marcus Buckingham to create. Here is the Amazon link for the book/film, 'The Truth About You' despite the fact that is will be released in September.
Looking forward to seeing how it performs!
