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  • A Piece of Work

A Piece of Work

by Dorhauer, John | published on Apr 9, 2021

Listen to the podcast

Painting of a lightbulb with many colors and textures surrounding with the words, “May you pursue the creative passions endowed to you by your Creator! From Into the Mystic by Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer and the UCC.”

Read the transcript

Pause to take in all that others offer as art

I experience it in a well-crafted sentence, whether by poet or preacher, essayist or novelist, journalist or lyricist;

In the sublime beauty and timing of a well-written lyric heard in the voice of a gifted songwriter backed by a talented musician;

In the arc of a baseball well-struck, the slap-sound of a hard-struck  line-drive unexpectedly gloved by a an agile and angling short-stop, the science-defying break of a 12-6 curve ball that baffles and humiliates the best hitters in the world;

In the haunting tone poem of a Finnish composer or the mystifying elegance of a child prodigy writing lines of music that would bewilder the grizzled elders of his time;

In The graceful, lithe, and languid strides of a track athlete as she outruns the wind or defies gravity;

In the bold, blurry stroke of the impressionist capturing a fleeting moment on canvas or the inexplicable wave of muscle and cheek carved into marble by the hand of a sculptor;

In the landing of craft and vehicle on distant planets and orbs o or the artful glimpse of far-flung galaxies taken by cameras floating in the ether of space;

In the intricacy of the atom and the molecule and the quark, worlds whirling in the winds of our imagination, unseen and unknown but for the miracle of the microscope;

In the art of the stage or the camera, the craft of a story well-told by actors playing their part, film-makers shifting angle and light into shade and beauty, choreographers and cinematographers and fashion designers transforming what merely was into what the imagination wants;

In the kitchen-rich smell of the well-crafted menu, an orchestra of taste to be savored with friend and family;

In the kiss of the lover;

In the kind smile of the stranger;

In the loving reprove of the mentor;

In the tear of the grieved and the laugh of the cheered;

In the daily and ordinary extravagances of blessing and gift that come our way that, in pausing to take notice, we discover what Shakespeare meant when he wrote: “What a piece of work is man;:” or what the Psalmist meant when she wrote “What are we, mere humans, that you are mindful of us. And yet you have made us little less than a God.”

Like Whitman, I sing the body electric and celebrate all that it means to be a human created in the image and likeness of God.

May you pursue the creative passions endowed to you by your Creator, explore the gifts you were put here to offer a world craving your blessing, and pause to take in all that others offer as art on this, our journey Into the Mystic.

Categories: Column Into the Mystic

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