You’ve probably seen this viral video before, but I’ve never gotten bored of it.
Matt Harding a video game designer figured there had to be more to life than his day job (been there before?), quit his job, and traveled the world.
This might not be what we typically associate with beauty, but beauty is written all over it.
The very act of leaving the status quo in search for something more is an act of beauty.
These sites and landmarks shown are glimpses of the spectrum of beauty that marks our planet.
I absolutely love the song (fyi – It’s called Praan by Gary Schyman sung by Palbasha Siddique), I have no idea what it’s saying but somehow it screams of beauty.
And the fact that people from all sorts of cultures can get together to do some silly dance is nothing short of beautiful.
This video has almost 30 million hits because something about it deeply resonates with all of us. Sometimes it may seem impossible, or too ridiculous, but every one of us long to be a part of creating and expressing beauty.
Beauty isn’t mentioned very often within churches. Beauty is quite often pushed aside as being superficial, effeminate, fleeting, and purely aesthetic (which it can be).
But if you worship the Creator of heaven and earth, then beauty is inescapable. Christ himself is described as the ‘beautiful one’.
The word ‘glory’ is laced throughout the scriptures and carries with it the notion of the weight of beauty. Whenever the angels declare ‘glory’ to God they are proclaiming the overwhelming density and magnitude of the very source of beauty.
The scriptures go as far as saying that ‘the whole earth is filled with his glory’.
Our planet is chalked full of beauty.
If only we had eyes to see.
Coming soon: The next solarcrash event: broken-beautiful – Join our FB page, with details coming out this week. Let me know if you’d like to contribute.
Tom Brokaw explains Canada to Americans during an NBC Vancouver 2010 Olympic broadcast with Al Michaels. HT: Jeff Smyth
Which also brings back memories of the Molson Canadian beer commercial
btw, after much hype of how Canada was going to spank the USA in the winter olympic preliminary hockey game, I’m not sure what’s more sad – Canada losing, or the United States winning and not caring all that much.
Cities amplify the best, but also the very worst, of humanity.
City centers are fueled by individual self-interest. Everybody goes to the city to ‘get’ something – career, education, entertainment, money, power, sex, etc.
Population density in cities with limited resources and limited opportunities creates a competitive and tension filled culture.
The pace of the city makes people less compassionate even when they may want to be, ie. “I can’t stop to help that person because I’ve got to get somewhere to get something.”
Cities are deceptive. In the words of Jay Z and Alicia Keys Empire state of mind – “These streets will make you feel brand new, The lights will inspire you”. The problem is that while the city may be alive, that doesn’t mean you are.
The busyness of cities prevents us from stopping, reflecting, and asking questions like ‘why’ until we’re completely broken and miserable.
Cities are dense with living beings that refuses to connect with one another. ie. I can be nose-to-nose with another human being crammed in a gloriously life-filled subway and we can completely ignore each other. This chips away at our humanity daily because we know something’s not right.
The diversity in cities naturally brings with it conflicting interests and cultural clashes. Not only does the fringes of culture collide, but those who are already oppressed, are condensed into tight spaces which creates an even more volatile environment. People can be ticking time bombs.
Cities thrive on anonymity. Relationships become transactions and we further dehumanize one another.
Cities export evil. Cities inherently create, magnify, and propagate culture. When it’s bad, it’s bad for everyone. ie. how cities of the west have led the cycle of work-to-excessively-consume lifestyle now seen as the pinnacle of living for those in rural, village, suburban communities.Cities often displace wildlife and native cultures (we name our neighborhoods and streets after what we’ve destroyed ie. shady oaks, parkway forest, etc.)
Whether it’s for more affordable housing or an easier lifestyle – cities build up towards high-rise apartments. The living-in-a-box-in-the-sky infrastructure (that I currently live in) disconnects our relationship to the land and creation.
Cities can become empires. Empires oppress neighboring cultures, serve only the privileged few, and have an insatiable need to always expand and conquer.
And the list goes on. While murder rates are actually dropping in many cities compared to rural areas, cities can cause a death you’re not even aware of because it’s so broadly accepted.
With all that being said, cities are crucial and strategic to our global future. We need people in the city, especially those who want to seek the good of the city.
Toronto is the most ethnically and culturally diverse urban area on planet earth. Half of its citizens are visible minorities.
You can find glimpses of the entire world in one city. Over a 140 languages and dialects are spoken.
Toronto is formed and shaped by the people of the globe – half of the population is foreign born.
Toronto is a model mosaic city. Ethnic enclaves are everywhere. Every city on the planet has a china-town, Toronto has at least six and counting.
Approaching 6 million people in the Greater Toronto Area it is the fifth largest metropolitan area in North America.
Toronto is geographically a hub to America. Within a 100-mile radius of Toronto a quarter of Canada’s population resides here, as well as 125 million Americans or roughly 40% of the U.S. population.
Richard Florida who wrote “Rise of the Creative Class” describes Toronto as being one of the most creative cities and is on set to be “a world leader in innovation and prosperity”
Toronto’s leading sectors include finance, business services, telecommunications, aerospace, transportation, media, arts, film, television production, publishing, software production, medical research, education, sports, sustainability, and tourism industries.
Toronto is undergoing massive renewal and gentrification – creating a city in flux with new needs and opportunities
Toronto is a city of the future. The world is increasingly becoming more diverse and more urban as Toronto already is. If you can make something work in Toronto you have the potential for modeling and leading it for the rest of the world.
Your thoughts? I’d love to hear why your city matters to you.
As a follow up to the previous post God’s bias for the city, here’s some thoughts on why the cities are strategic to anyone who wants to make a global impact.
Cities are both magnets and magnifiers. People from surrounding areas are drawn in and everything they do is amplified and ripples back out.
Increased density means there’s people like you there. People you can connect with and people you compete with.
Increased diversity means there’s people completely unlike you there that you’ll need to learn to work with and from.
Density and diversity cultivates, if not forces, innovation and change
Cities are where the fringes of culture converge – the poor and the rich, the skater and the geek, etc.
Cities are where people are at. As of 2007 the world reached a demographic tipping point where more people live in urban environments than rural. Nearly all population growth going forward will be in cities.
Cities are educational hubs where new ideas and creativity are highly valued.
Cities are media hubs that broadcast the human story.
Cities shape and create culture for the masses downstream. Where the city goes, the culture goes.
Just as God has a clear bias towards the poor, the scriptures also reveal that God’s heart leans towards the city.
From Genesis God calls for humanity to be fruitful and multiply. Not simply to reproduce (otherwise Jesus would’ve done a terrible job with this mandate), but to cultivate life in the widest sense – to create culture, to steward over creation, to develop civilizations, and ultimately cities.
Even the ‘garden of eden’ carries with it the idea of a lush park by a palace. A place dense with life near a kingly residence. Seeds of a future city.
God doesn’t allow his people to remain agrarian, and calls for ‘cities of refuge‘ to be made. Cities with leadership, government, jurisdiction, so that people might find safety and progress could continue without ongoing tribal warfare.
In Jeremiah 29 God calls for his people to seek the good of the city. Not to necessarily conform to the city, or to leech off the city, but to be rooted in the city. We are to be city builders.
The Apostle Paul planted churches from city to city because he knew that if he captured the heart of the city, the gospel would flow out from the city centers into the surrounding regions. It’s interesting to note that it seems the smallest unit of the church was referred to as an entire city – ie. the church of Ephesus, Philipi, etc.
God reveals his ultimate vision for humanity in Revelation as ‘a holy city’ descending from heaven. Pieces of Eden like the tree of life and rivers are still there, but it’s wrapped up in a city filled with life. Heaven’s like an urban jungle.
I’ve always loved this quote by Ray Bakke – “If you don’t like the city, you won’t like heaven”
These are just a few snapshot thoughts that could be unpacked a lot more. Your thoughts?
