sound - sight - symbol

Caedmon's Call has resurrected on Mel & my playlist over the last couple of months. The acoustic pop stylings caught my ear at a young age and though I liked the words then, various lines have come to new life. This one in particular resounds in my soul. It's actually a Rich Mullins lyric, sung acapella by CC:

I will sing for the meek
For those who pray with their very lives for peace
Though they're in chains for a higher call
Their mourning will change, into laughter
when the nations fall.

The Western goes down under. I saw the Australian pic The Proposition last Friday. Twas a gritty, small cast on a big dirty canvas with a simple plot. Much like a Clint Eastwood picture, a few characters become increasingly intertwined in a bloody saga that ends abruptly. My favorite theme to emerge from this film and the Western in general revolves around man's hypocrisy - the willingness to both condemn and participate in various stages of evils. Not for everyone, but a good one for the big screen.

Captain Stanley: Now, suppose I told you there was a way to save your little brother Mikey from the noose. Suppose I gave you a horse and a gun. Suppose, Mr. Burns, I was to give both you and your young brother Mikey, here, a pardon. Suppose I said that I could give you the chance to expunge the guilt beneath which you so clearly labour. Suppose I gave you till Christmas. Now, suppose you tell me what it is I want from you.
Charlie Burns: You want me to kill me brother.
Captain Stanley: I want you to kill your brother.

Binding the Strong Man, my current reading on Mark's potrayal of Jesus is slow, convoluted and highly enjoyable. Seeing as I could talk about this book for quite some time (and I've only read 33% of it), I'll just quote this bit regarding Jesus healings and exorcisms found in the first half of Mark:

Obviously any interpretation that stresses the biomedical definition of "wholeness" excludes the physically disabled from the good news. If, however, we focus upon the broader socio-symbolic meaning of illness and healing, the stories address us all equally. After all, in Mark the true impediments to discipleship have nothing to do with phsyical impairment, but with spiritual and idealogical disorders: "Having eyes can you not see? Having ears can you not hear?" (8:18)... the problem is that [interpreters] 'unquestioningly accept biomedicine as the only legitimate view of reality.'