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Revisiting

On St Clair beach is a group of old pilings. When I first bought a decent (for the time) digital camera I photographed them and made a picture I was happy with. Way back then,  I took the picture at dusk, used a tripod, set the lens to a narrow aperture to get as much depth of field as possible, and used a slow shutter speed (around 20 seconds) to smooth out the water.  I've visited the pilings many times, and made much the same shot. Last night I realised that the tide and the light were appropriate for yet another iteration, and took the picture above. Same settings, though the old wooden logs have aged a bit.

We revisit our past. It's not now as we imagined it. Things that seemed so strong and straight are succumbing to the tides of the universe, as everything does. 

The piles have suffered the indignities of all that is constant in their environment. They are still lovely in their decline, though, and make their own statement about impermanence and the movement we all make from being to nothingness.

Technical stuff. Nikon D750. Nikkor 16-35 @ f22, 22 seconds, iso100

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BrianR said…
Christians do not move "from being to nothingness". "For we know that if the tent which is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.... He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee' (2 Corinthians 5.1,5)
11 September 2019 at 04:15
Kelvin Wright said…
Everything in the universe traces the same journey. It is not, it is, it is not again. Everything, each atom, each sub atomic particle, each star, each planted and all that planet contains, each civilisation - all follow at path of non existence, existence then non existence. When God wanted to give us a picture of all things he gave us Jesus, whose life followed that pattern. But of course there was something else he demonstrated, which is also always there in the universe: resurrection. When things cease to be it isn’t an ending but the start of something else.

And so I believe it will be with me. One day, probably sooner rather than later, Kelvin Wright will cease to be. But there will be resurrection. Something else will begin (and I would guess - will follow the same pattern. But what would I know? What would anybody know about that, various proof texting of our favourite theories notwithstanding). What, exactly the continuity will be between what I am and what I will be after death I have no idea. I don’t think you have any idea either.
13 September 2019 at 12:27
BrianR said…
Disappointing comment, Kelvin, and pretty far from Christian orthodoxy. Actually it sounds closer to Hindu ideas of reincarnation (and its offshoot Buddhism) than what Paul tells us in Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15, and what our Lord says in the Gospels about the Resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. The New Testament and the words of Christ give us a clearer picture than your agnosticism because they understand human beings to be spiritual as well as physical (body and soul). Eternal life does not mean a Nietzschean eternal recycling plant. It means attaining the same kind of life that our Risen Lord has attained. So no, I don't follow your agnosticism.
15 September 2019 at 03:29
Kelvin Wright said…
Wow. My blog post is 10 lines long. I make a further nine line response. In this I say that all things die. I say that beyond our personal death there is something else, the shape of which is hard to discern. From this, you have deduced that I subscribe to a Nietzchean recycling machine, that I am unorthodox, that I am closer to Hinduism than Christianity, and that I am agnostic, that I don’t believe that human beings have a body, mind and soul. Brian, I don’t know how to respond to you. Your lack of even the tiniest engagement with what I have said, your speed at labelling me and then condemning me because you disapprove of the label you have attached to me... all mean that discussion is, for me, pretty much impossible.
15 September 2019 at 08:15
BrianR said…
Kelvin, I respect that you printed a comment you disagree with. That's a generous liberalism. My first comment was a response to your claim about "the movement we all make from being to nothingness". "Nothingness" denotes - to me, at least - non-existence, which is not what the Bible and the Catholic faith and creeds say about human beings at death. I am not sure what you actually believe about personal eschatology because your style is poetic, allusive and a little sweeping in its generalisations, and far from "the tiniest engagement with what [you] have said", I was responding to them from the perspective of biblical and Catholic orthodoxy. To wit:
"Everything in the universe traces the same journey. It is not, it is, it is not again. Everything, each atom, each sub atomic particle, each star, each planted and all that planet contains, each civilisation - all follow at path of non existence, existence then non existence." - Actually matter doesn't cease to exist, it just gets re-ordered. First law of general thermodynamics.
"When God wanted to give us a picture of all things he gave us Jesus, whose life followed that pattern. But of course there was something else he demonstrated, which is also always there in the universe: resurrection. When things cease to be it isn’t an ending but the start of something else."
- Jesus' body didn't disintegrate or 'cease to be', it was transformed into a glorified, eternal state. Resurrection is *not "always there is the universe". The cycle of spring and nature or the formation of new stars through gravity has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ, which is a supernatural invasion of natural processes. Pagan Roman religion (think of Horace: 'Diffugerunt nives ...') was greatly moved by the cycle of the seasons but saw the destiny of man to be oblivion, but the Jewish-Christian faith took an entirely different direction.

"And so I believe it will be with me. One day, probably sooner rather than later, Kelvin Wright will cease to be." - Really? Is the death of the body the end of the person? Are the dead in Christ not with God, experiencing the Father's love and awaiting the resurrection, as the Church has always understood the word of Christ and His apostles? What did Paul mean in Philippians 1.23, 'I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far'?

"But there will be resurrection. Something else will begin (and I would guess - will follow the same pattern. But what would I know? What would anybody know about that, various proof texting of our favourite theories notwithstanding)." - But as I said above, 'resurrection' is a Christian word. It means the discontinuity with the pattern of nature, which is toward decay and death. It is also a repudiation of Hindu-Buddhist beliefs in karma and reincarnation, which have no part of Christian theology.
"What, exactly the continuity will be between what I am and what I will be after death I have no idea. I don’t think you have any idea either."
- Well, I do have ideas from my reading of the New Testament, the Church Fathers, Aquinas and the Reformers. I submit that the Great Tradition is rather more solid than your agnosticism or uncertainty on this question. Of course, if the Great Tradition is wrong, then so am I.
18 September 2019 at 19:17
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