Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Inscape...

Before reading Lament for a Son I didn't know the word inscape existed.  Wolterstorff calls us to the concept of "inscape" as he understands it from the writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins.    According to Wolterstorff: "...a thing had inscape for Hopkins when it had some definite character."


I Googled the term and found.

inscape
— n
the essential inner nature of a person, an object, etc
[C19: from in- ² + -scape,  as in landscape coined by GerardManley Hopkins ]

--
Coming across a new word in a book is a treat in itself, but when you encounter a word like this, one that puts a name on something for which you've never had a name before, its like finding money on a walk in the park... doubly good.

immediately identified with this term.  For example; recounting the smell of crude oil and Marlboro cigarrettes, the bins of seemingly haphazard hardware and parts, and an old transistor radio quietly eeking out the daily market report and commodity prices, I am confronted with the inscape of my maternal grandfather.  My grandfather's shop, perhaps disorganized to others, portrayed his inscape, as someone else's formal English garden might.  His garden doesn't grow peonies or tulips, but it still blooms with the redemption of springtime. His is a redemption of old things that others have lost sight of the value of.  I've seen a pile of rusty junk become a perfectly restored small gage tractor worthy of an antique show, not unlike a gardener's roses in well tended beds. I've seen a discarded tank become an air compressor to rival anything you could buy from Rural King.  This collection of things seems to have a life of it's own when I walk through the shop even years later, they are a monument to something much bigger.



I understand that inscape is more than just the physical objects, its about the life that intersects with them and gives them meaning.  It's what gives the garden it's soul, the machine shop it's life, and reminds us, I think,  that we are the inscape of someone greater than ourselves.  At least at our best we are..  or at least I'd like to be..

That's enough for now.  There will be more...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Thoughts on "Lament For A Son": N. Wolterstorff

In Lament for a Son Wolterstorff recounts the experience of losing his oldest son in a climbing accident. Several things have gripped me while reading this gut wrenching book. Wolterstorff a pastor, is very honest when sharing his emotions, doubts, questions on topics ranging from the problem of pain to the existence of God in it's midst. In slightly more than 100 pages he was able to make me feel his pain in an almost visceral way, while at the same time not coming off as whiny or overly dramatic.

I recommend this book. I am still examining all of the questions, thoughts and feelings that it brought up while reading.

More to come...

About Me

I'm in love with my wife, enchanted by my children, and amazed by the world around me.