London and Paris
A travel log (journals, poems, audio, photography) + thoughts about God.
In this newsletter, I open up the doors to my soul more than usual, letting you read portions of my thoughts near-verbatim to how I wrote them in my notebook.
A quick recap of the past month(ish): I went to Europe with my parents. I moved apartments. I’m finalizing my ungraded curriculum for this school year. Teachers go back to school this week to prep; students come next week. I’m excited to be teaching again.
Notebook Excerpts from Traveling
I’m on a plane. It’s 3am body time, 10am at our destination.
London, ahead of my day, what have you done so far? I’ve attempted sleep, not gaining more than 30 minutes at a time for fear of hurting my spine. I have to fold or extend in odd ways, this long body of mine, in the confined space of an airplane seat.
We landed and took the train/metro to Covent Garden which is where our flat is. So many shops and people. Every traveller for themselves: pedestrians don't really stop for bikes which don’t really stop for cars or those double decker buses.
At the start of walking—actually, on the train—people were distinct. Yes, these look like Londoners. After walking around and seeing so many people, the faces became the rain—either indistinguishable or repeating.
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9am. A nice morning. I’m recharged. Vitality, gentle excitement. Hypothesis: it’s tourist city that overwhelms me; morning city + locals feels better.
I want to try talking with people. Find people at a park. Interrupt by asking if I can interrupt. Then a deep dive after a brief hello-my-name-is. What do you think about God?
Audio Journal
Seagulls at Bath
Violinist at Bath
Stealing Newton’s Principio (Oxford)
Street Traffic in Paris
Victoria Line
Poems from Traveling
London and Paris Streets an unfinished game of pick up sticks, barely even started. People traced the lines, put up brick and stone walls on either side. In Paris, they add graffitti smoke urine beneath the copy paste copy paste buildings. London, neater, in a way, and more various. Full of visitors seeing a retired reclining elderly empire drinking tea, feeling lonely. Sainte-Chapelle The Holy Spirit was the shush of the usher in the chapel was God's finger pushing people's foreground gaze inward to their own interior, making them justify or reconsider why they came. I judged you came for the building, but maybe you came for God: eyes ready to be touched. You, pupil, saw the light through stained glass. No longer seeing the color of it but the brilliance from without. Which, indeed, sets everything aflame. Lunch I gagged during last bites of cold salmon while thinking of egg yolks for some reason, and the slime that my mom pointed to with her eyes. Had to bow my head on laced fingers. Like surrender; almost a prayer. Maybe sleep keeps the stomach greased so food moves down without questioning—kinda like a bribe.
Science and Creation
The painter who paints, paints.
Yes, their neurons fire to contract muscles to move the arm, to move the eyes and coordinate with the hand. The paint interacts with the canvas at a molecular level. Yes, the science happens, but the painter isn't thinking about physiology. The painter is painting.
When God created the world, maybe He was just creating. He put on his (at the time) favorite symphony, stretched out with some yoga, brewed His ritual tea, and then got in the zone and jammed. (And yes, the science happened.)
Sometimes science seems to unravel the creation story, or it turns God into a scientist rather than an artist (Who says He isn't both? Thumbs down, I say, to false dichotomies. Truly, He is the font from which the words “artist” and “scientist” garner any meaning in the first place.). And in my search to understand God and the world in a secular era, I am pressured to look at science (which I find valuable and awesome, for the record). But maybe that's like analyzing the nervous system to understand the why and how of Monet. Or maybe it isn’t... maybe it's like looking into his art supplies.
Who am I to say?
The Magnificence/Benevolence/Charity of Christ
A few weeks ago, I read a scripture about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that the purpose of His sacrifice was to bring about the bowels of mercy (“bowels” meaning the place in the body where emotions were believed to reside).
As God took on flesh, experienced mortality, and atoned for our sins and infirmities, his reaction was mercy. He saw and knew humanity in clarity/honesty/totality and was not repulsed but filled with compassion and understanding.
This humbles and teaches me. It hints to me the immensity and grandeur of God’s character and love, simultaneous to my great lacking of those attributes. Occasionally, when I meet people, see how they treat others/are treated, I am not filled with mercy but disgust. Thus, two things can be deduced: I do not understand these people/their circumstances fully (if I did my reaction would be different), and, second, my soul lacks the ability to love in the same magnitude as God.
So I pray for both: better understanding of others and the refinement of my soul for divine love.
Photography
Paris from Eiffel Tower — St. Paul’s Cathedral 1 — Under Eiffel — The Real Greek — Champs-Élysées — St. Paul’s Cathedral 2 — St. Paul’s Cathedral 3 — Parliament Building (I think)
Goodies
Recraft ☞ Generate vector designs with AI. Yes please.
Explore Public Domain Stuff ☞ What a fun resource.
Ian Howorth Photography ☞ Take a look. I really like the colors and compositions.
Tiny Apartment Build - Get Hands Dirty ☞ So cool.
Tiny Things - Tiny Habits ☞ A song that resonated with my heart. So many good moments, but please appreciate the vocal flip at :29-:30 on the word “tiles.”
Cheers!
P.S.
A conversation I overheard while walking into the British Museum:
“The real question is why did you eat a pigeon last night?”
(a few moments later)
“…the pigeon is the fish of the sky.”
Brandon, I really enjoyed reading this! Thank you for sharing all your art and thoughts. I especially loved your Sainte-Chapelle poem; the emotion behind the imagery is beautifully clear!
P.S. the audio bits were very fun to listen to! ♥️