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Friday, November 21, 2014

Culture of Death and the Dictatorship of Relativism

I just read a very well written article by thelarryd in Acts of the Apostosy blog about assisted suicide and how it affects our culture in a very deep and profound way. After reading this article and reflecting upon the content, it became even more clear to me that we live in an upside down world where it is considered "brave" to commit suicide when faced with a debilitating illness and "compassionate" to help those who want to leave their bodies due to the pain and suffering they will endure.
He talked about how we've come half circle in our thinking comparing what we are allowing in our society with what the Nazi's did in WWII; the next part he wrote in such a succinct way: "What Brittany Maynard's decision (to take her own life) clearly reveals are two of the great sins of our time: the sin of being inconvenient to others, and the sin of not being in control. She didn’t want to be an inconvenience to her family, to take care of her as her health deteriorated. Such a pity. She deprived them of the opportunity to recognize Christ in her sick, diseased form, the chance to minister to Him. Imagine if St Damien had had the same attitude towards the Hawaiian lepers, or Blessed Mother Teresa towards the outcasts in Calcutta. Perhaps her family isn’t Christian. At worse, if they are, they failed to understand the redemptive value of suffering. Instead, they allowed her to self-abort, because she defined herself as an inconvenience to others." He goes on to say that some people in our culture have promoted the idea that we have the right to take our own lives and that this is a sin as well. Even christians have embraced this belief which is entirely contrary to the gospel of Christ. We do not belong to ourselves but to God. https://actsoftheapostasy.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/brittany-maynard-and-the-sins-of-our-times/#comments
In regards to my title, " the Dictatorship of Relativism": I believe the reason people embrace this kind of thinking is that we are told that everything is "relative". If one says, "you have your truth and I have mine", may sound flexible and conciliatory, but it is entirely false. It might sound even reasonable except that it is really not reasonable at all. Our God said that there is only one truth -- not many truths and that He is truth. He has given us His Word and His Church to guide and lead us through life. He is our good shepherd and we must trust Him to guide us faithfully rather than embrace what sounds reasonable and compelling.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Watercolor of fishing boats

This week I've been working on a watercolor after van Gogh, "Fishing boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries", and it has been very difficult. I love van Gogh's work and this particular little watercolor of the fishing boats is wonderful. I've always wanted to try it and found out that it was challenging. I had to break the field into threes and then make a graph on clear plastic placing it over the original watercolor ( I mean a copy of the original). It was the only way I could confidently draw the scene. I will include my drawing and then my watercolor. I plan to copy a few more van gogh's -- starry night and the cafe scene are favorites of mine. I don't trace, but just looking at the picture and then drawing it is challenging enough.
Here is the drawing I did first: