My Self "Check-Up" With My Faith Using The Soularium OR The Closest Thing I Can Do For An Art Project

Ok so this post certainly background info. So back in the summer of 2008 I went on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ to North Myrtle Beach, SC, to see more on that, watch this short documentary I made about it by clicking here, but the point I bring that up is because during the project we were shown a way of sharing our faith to people using a tool called the Soularium. The Soularium is a collection of 50 photos that you show to people and ask them questions about which picture best represents things in life. We were shown this but I never used it, but still thought it was a cool idea. At the end of the summer they were emptying out the project's office and giving out all the Soularium's they had, I nabbed one before they were all gone. Until tonight I never used it, though I never got rid of it.

So today I meet with a friend who is raising financial support to go do a year of missions and we were catching up, I sadly couldn't help her because I am unemployed but after that we just discussed each others walk with God and for some odd reason somewhere in the conversation I thought how great of a “check-up” in my walk would it be to go through the Soularium myself. So I popped on some Nine Inch Nails (one of my favorite bands and also their music is really good reflecting music) dug the Soularium out of my closet and took all the photos and placed on the floor and went through the questions. Here goes...

Pick 3 images to describe your life right now and explain each one

I feel it shows a woman doing her own thing on her own and totally independent of the world around her. That is very much my life right now. I am going my own path, God is apart of it, but to most people it seems I am doing my own thing and really enjoy it. I am very independent and on my own right now in my life now, there is good and bad. Good because its good to be less social after 4 years of being a social butterfly its good to have a “quieter” life for a little bit. Bad because I have less interaction with friends and people in general.

I feel this represents me looking forward to the future and how unknown it is to me. I want answers on what the future holds for me but I have to wait.

I picked this photo because my life is in a transition phase right now. Moving from college life and into a more professional/adult type of lifestyle. I feel this phase taking longer than I would want it to.

Pick 3 images of what you wish your life was like

I picked this because in terms of life situation and location I wish I was somewhere else. I have loved Minneapolis for the past 5 years but I feel strongly that it is time to move on to somewhere else, I love the friends I have here but there is so much more to experience out there and I want to make sure I do before I have to settle down in years down the road.

I picked this one because I wish my life was going somewhere, because being unemployed from a boring data entry job is nowhere to me. I have aspirations of working in radio and being on the air, whether in music or sports talk, I still don't know, I prayed about it for awhile this last month and feel its where God wants me to go career wise, and I feel that is going somewhere.

Its a bit of an odd pick but I wish my life had more order, I feel it has very little, its not necessarily a mess but its definitely crazy. I know God has a plan and I trust it but life is just crazy too much sometimes that I'm glad I am not the one planning because clearly if I was the only one planning, I would fail at it.

Which Image describes God? Why? What does it about God to you?

This pick took awhile to decide on, because a lot of them were close but when I thought about none of them perfectly fit what I think of God until I noticed this one. God certainly is an anchor in my life, He is always “attached” to me but the thing that works so well with this photo is doesn't necessarily look like its being used and sometimes I don't feel God is being used as my anchor in my life. Sometimes He is just there but not being used to be the focus of my life.

Think about life so far. Which Image best describes what you've experienced spiritually? Why? What does that image represent?

I notice this one quickly and really liked that it was an escalator. Because on an escalator you have a choice of going up the steps or just ride along. My spiritual life goes between the two. Sometimes I am going up the steps myself and actively pursuing God. But sadly I feel a lot of the time in the last year I have just been riding along. Lately I feel I have taken steps to seek God by spending time in the word, so it not riding along as much as of recently.

When you think about your spiritual life or journey, which image best represents what you wish were true? Why? What does that image represent?

Funny this image has the number right after where my spiritual life is currently. But out of all the pictures this is the only one that made sense to me. I wish I was taking my spiritual life and running with it. Or in another sense that works with the photo in that I want to seek/chase after God with all I have, but honestly that is very difficult. I can't constantly have God on my mind, I have responsibilities to take care that take time away from Him.

So Where Do I Go From Here?

I really don't know, I mean I am not in serious trouble with my walk with Christ but obviously its not where I want to be. I need to just go after it, read the word and pray often. The rest should fall into place over time.

If you want more info about The Soularium, go to www.mysoularium.com sadly the site doesn't let you do The Soularium online

Until next time...stay safe...so you can read my next blog post :P

Why The Simpsons Have Such A Bad Rap These Days

So I wanted to write this down before I started my day because I got a theory fleshed out on why The Simpsons have such a bad wrap for not being as good as it was in its first 10 years.

I thought of this because on this weeks the episode they did a special opening that was a huge animated sequence involving a lot of the characters to the song “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. This is topical in my mind but looking at Facebook and Twitter I noticed that it made a lot of people mad and I felt that flac was undeserved, when at the same time if South Park did something as topical it would be praised for it.

The early of The Simpsons saw it get very popular because there was nothing like it on Television. Animation for grown-ups? The baby boomers had no idea how to deal with it and thus tried as hard as they could to keep their kids from watching it, this was very much my experience, as my mom didn't want me watching it, but shortly overtime grew to see it was a show I cared a lot about.

From a kids standpoint growing up seeing the Simpsons grow from its start in Christmas of '89 it was a fun show to see. Kids wishing they could do what Bart does on TV, imitating Homer sayings on the playground, and singing those catchy songs they did from time to time. At the same time their plots were topical and relevant at times and dealt with issues people faced in America, and at other times causing controversey when it made fun of the city of New Orleans, in the early 90s, the Fox affiliate in New Orleans refused to air the A Street Named Marge episode because of the few jokes at the cities at expense.

But now in an age where the adult animation field is so saturated, the Simpsons is now in a world where the field is spread thin of cartoons for grown up, yet its all on cable, the broadcast networks that aren't FOX can't find any good adult animation to air on their networks, its kind of funny when you think about it, thats a point for another day.

Anyway if you watch the Simpsons today, it looks a lot different, its in Hi-Def and widescreen, but the plots are not much different. They are still well written and usually contain a B and sometimes C plot and they all come together in the end, just like they did in the old days. But back in the old days we had nothing to compare it to, so we thought it was amazing. Nowadays people compare The Simpsons to Family Guy and South Park, which is odd because The Simpsons paved the way for these shows to even be considered to be aired. Some would say the pupils have become the masters now but I argue that point because obviously The Simpsons is still a successful show, otherwise Fox would cancel it, TV is a business and when something isn't making money its done away with. The Simpsons still finds ways to sell DVDs, t-shirts, and toys. If people really thought it wasn't that good, they would not invest in these items, instead ratings are doing well, not great, but still profitable enough to keep it on the air, merchandise sells like crazy, and Homer keeps finding more trouble.'


So stop dissing The Simpsons, its just as good as South Park or Family Guy, but no one wants to admit it.

Until next time, do stay safe