source: kottke.org

Crazymakers are the kind of people who can take over your whole life. . .Everyone around them functions as supporting cast, picking up their cues, their entrances and exits, from the crazymaker’s (crazy) whims.

- Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

When you get close
To something that big
You can’t see anything at all…

- Toad the Wet Sprocket

I read the quote from The Artist’s Way and immediately had someone in mind from my recent past. Stretch it back a little further and two or three more people joined the list. It made me wonder how much of who I am – both good and bad – has been formed in response to the needy/demanding/over-authoritative/crazy people I have been around.

An emancipated slave, Jourdan Anderson, wrote a letter to his former master who had requested that he bring his family and return to work for him. His response is the most badass display of grace and dignity I have come across in a long time.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future.

The rest of the letter is just as good. It makes me feel pretty dumb for the times I harbor resentment or complain. Here is a man who fully escaped his crazymaker in more than just the literal sense, and is able to embrace his freedom in a way I aspire to.

source: lettersofnote via kottke.org

“Anyone who seriously wants to be a disciple of Jesus should learn blackjack.”

A huge team of Christians, many in church leadership positions, learns to count cards and to “liberate the money from the clutches of those who would use it for ill purposes” – millions of dollars of otherwise hell-bound cash.

This film looks incredible – I wish I had caught it at the Cincinnati Film Festival last fall. I love the idea of pushing the boundaries of faith and religion in a way that makes you rethink what you’ve always thunk. I wildly agree with this concept, and I also wildly disagree with some of their statements and attitudes – but that’s where the really good conversations begin. My favorite quote from the trailer:

“When you baptize someone and then go gamble…poetic justice.”

source: deviant art

source: http://i.imgur.com/Rr8tk.jpg

How is this possible? The Tyler men have a habit of having kids very late in life. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, one of President Tyler’s 15 kids, was born in 1853. He fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr. in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler in 1928.

source: mentalfloss.tumblr.com