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Lenses Remember old-school 3D glasses? The ones with red cellophane for one eye and blue for the other? If you watch an old 3D movie without them, an excellent thing happens: You immediately know something’s wrong. The image is doubled, the colors are off, and it looks all wonky. But this is much better than something being be wrong and you don’t know it. Else you might sail along in […]

Living the Status Quo Ante

Jesus and the Way
What kinds of things do you hear people say when they speak of the Christian life? Do they — do you — center on God's rules and justice? Do you center on God's heart for human flourishing? Both are part of it, but the focus makes a world of difference. And focus requires a lens through which to see.
It was the coldest of times, it was the hottest of times… …okay, so in this cute little invocation of Dickens, I may be exaggerating about the heat. But about the cold? It was no laughing matter. February 2021 hit Texas like a ton of frozen bricks. Wind turbines couldn’t spin, solar panels underperformed, natural gas flows were disrupted, power went out, and many died. The heat came in fast […]

What Are You Talking About?

Who We Need to Be
When an online discussion of energy reliability went wrong, I realized it was caused by hidden, incompatible frames of reference. Without realizing, we were using the same words to talk about very different things. Look out for mismatched frames, and don't let them ruin your conversations and relationships — or your understanding of God.
You said you would be back, and I long for it. So I wait. They said you would come in the same way as you came before. So I wait here, where people arrive from the air. You could not say, did not know, when you would return. So I wait long hours that blend one into another. Days. Years. I am learning to wait. And watch. I watch the […]

I Am Waiting #1

Digital Art
Beside an airport, over a lake, I long for a return. And I wait. And I watch the light. This is a digital art piece based in photography, paired with a short bit of prose.
I have not been to our old spot since you went away. I trust what you said, that you will come back, but by now it feels like the waters flow without me. I know you get the notes I send to you, but I wish it were possible for you to reply. I remember the things you told me, but I long to again hear your voice. Or maybe […]

We Will Meet Again #1

Digital Art
Welcome to the Brazilian rain forest. This is a digital art piece based in photography, paired with a short bit of prose.
I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate my country, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA’s national anthem. Although still quite rough, I could wait no longer; I wanted to share it now, on USA’s Independence Day. Here’s the thing: The songs I know are all laud and glory, yet over USA’s gestation and lifetime, there have most certainly been numerous cases in which our […]

Back Side Star-Spangled Banner

Diversity & Exclusion
I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate this country I love, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA's national anthem. The USA story is not all laud and glory, but neither is it disdainful at the level some shout and spout. USA's reality is a complicated mix of these two extremes.
Crossing Red Square, I heard two women, clearly mothers, agree that they wanted their children to be happy. The fathers, apparently, wanted the children to be high achievers and that would be fine, said the mothers, so long as. Just then, I tripped over nothing. This would not have been unusual except that spirits don’t trip. The mothers didn’t realize I had bumped into them. They were concerned, the mothers. […]

Mother of Russia

Short Story
Crossing Moscow's Red Square, a wandering mother longs to know about the happiness of a son she has not seen for decades. She listens to others, observes the Square, and seeks to find him.
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Why the film is worth your time If religion is a poison (as Hitchens would have it), Godspell is an antidote. Playfully serious, musically excellent, and rich in spirit, the film romps through New York City exploring and embodying wisdom from the Bible’s Gospel According to Matthew. If that already puts you off, stick with me a minute before you decide against it, because the film is a lot of […]

Watch This: Godspell

Before Viewing Film Guide
In 1970s New York City, eight twenty-somethings are shoved, yelled at, and indoctrinated by force into the city's fast-paced, me-first grind. A colorfully and curiously dressed man calls them together at Bethesda Fountain, where they play in the water and go romping, teaching, singing, and living life to the full.
I awoke to unusual shadows flitting across the ceiling. Heads and arms. A baseball bat. I grabbed the phone. 911. No signal. Nothing. Dead. As I would soon be. The shadows changed to scratching at the wall. Then clawing at the door. Someone wanted in. Or something. This mountain cabin was a bad idea. In the wild, I thought, I can write. Discover reality. Achieve my dream. Ha. Who am […]

You Can Do It (or Maybe Not)

Flash Fiction
I awoke to unusual shadows flitting across the ceiling. Heads and arms. A baseball bat. I grabbed the phone. 911. No signal. Nothing. Dead. As I would soon be.
Context and summary Toward the end of February, 2021, a major US-national media entity published a short interview of a US senator (fewer than 1500 words). Interviews can be news done well, and there were good parts of the interview in question, yet it stumbled into three major errors that fail as news: The interviewer, whom I’ll refer to as J, failed to take the interview where J — and even […]

Real Fake News, No. 1

Public Discourse
As one style of Real Fake News, "use the interviewee as a prop" offers several ways for media folk to make it seem the interviewee is saying things that they're not, to push an agenda, and to avoid real issues by introducing off-topic, vague, and sensational content. Here we break down a recent media report.
The Beatles, for their part, lasted three years after saying “all you need is love.” For us it was only two. “What’s next? The art museum or the ice cream shop?” It was a typical choice we’d pose to ourselves, walking the town of a Saturday. “As you wish,” the other would reply. Or, “Where shall we live? Uptown or East End?” “Vacation in Jamaica or Rome?” Whatever the question, […]

You’re Wrong About Love

Flash Fiction
The Beatles, for their part, lasted three years after saying "all you need is love." For us it was only two. This possibility was not in our minds as we walked the town on a Saturday.
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As the spite and malice of the gathered crowd rose, my certainty in being there fell. What am I standing for. What does my presence say. How does this fix anything. I should go. I don’t question the cause…the reason I came. There my confidence is unshaken. Wrong is wrong. The world must change. It’s here. Me being here, part of this increasingly raucous, pulsing, boiling, thundering crowd. What am […]

Tilda’s Brick

Flash Fiction
As the spite and malice of the gathered crowd rose, my certainty in being there fell. What am I standing for. How does this fix anything. This is not even my city.
“This is the time to heal in America,” Joe Biden said in his election victory speech. I thought it was an obvious sort of “who could disagree with that?” kind of statement, but it was fawned over by commentators nonetheless. (Actually, there are some that might well disagree about healing because they think the USA needs a cultural revolution of a sort, but that’s a conversation for another day.) He […]

Post-Election Healing: Get Your Heart Transplant Now

Public Discourse
National healing requires much more than vague ideas to "be nice." The depth of pain caused by both sides demands a greater weight of action for relational reconciliation. Here are ideas for how to start, based on the principles behind Truth and Reconciliation commissions.
How the film enriched and changed me Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intimate observation and deliberate pacing in After Life draw me beyond its central notion (choosing a single memory from one’s life) and into a longing to be more often fully present in all the moments in my life. I want to be more fully alive and aware so I might see and feel the significance of each moment and every memory. […]

After Life: Finding Life Before Death

After Viewing Film Analysis
Seeing the film After Life, I want to be more fully present for and more deeply experience each moment. I want to be more deliberate about how I find meaning and significance, grounding it in community and camaraderie with the people around me, both momentary relationships and lasting ones.
Why the film is worth your time Imaginative, compassionate, and perceptive, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — specifically as the person identifies, in hindsight, the most significant event in their life. The film puts 20 or more characters in its crucible, exploring a kaleidoscopic landscape of lives and memories. After Life is very much worth the time, […]

Watch This: After Life

Before Viewing Film Guide
After Life movie poster: Five Asians stand on plain dirt ground with a cloudy sky of blue in the background.
After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — what was the most significant event in their life? The film puts 20 or more characters in its crucible, exploring a kaleidoscopic landscape of lives and memories.
Way back in second grade, I was good at math. I enjoyed it; it felt good to be good. One day I brought home a test result (oh my! a test…how abusive!). My parents’ reaction was positive, understandable, and well-intended, even loving, but it sent me far enough downhill that I intentionally failed the next test. I simply marked down mostly what I knew to be wrong answers. What was […]

Beyond the Roller Coaster

Who We Need to Be
Having failed a second grade math test, intentionally, I now better understand why I love deeply entering a film's world to experience its odyssey and the destination to which it takes me.
Gifts and prints by Life Love Illusion Wall art, coffee mugs, t-shirts, phone cases, puzzles, and much more with our images: Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G: Randy is a photographer and digital artist, in addition to the stories and articles you find here on Life Love Illusion. Wood Print Buy LLI Merchandise
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” With these masterful seven words, the founders of the United States of America encapsulated humanity’s unalienable Rights. We may think these words in the US Declaration of Independence grant permission to do whatever we please, but “freedom,” the watchword of US Independence Day, is found nowhere in the document. Nor is there any reference to personal freedom. “Wait,” you say, “‘Liberty’ is the […]

Freedom Ain’t What We Think It Is

Society & Politics
Liberty stands only when my pursuit of Happiness encompasses, with mutual respect, the Life and Happiness of all in society. Otherwise, my liberty has devolved into license; my honor into my debasement.
How the film enriched and changed me I came away from Smoke Signals wanting to be more of a force for healing rather than discord in my relationships. If I can notch down my sensitivity to the wrongs others do against me, maybe I can see inside their lives enough to find greater compassion not only in spite of, but perhaps even because of, their failings. Maybe if I can […]

Smoke Signals: Journey to the Heart of Forgive­ness

After Viewing Film Analysis
Beyond its tongue-in-cheek insights into the Native American milieu,Smoke Signals' universal story and themes left me wanting to be more of a force for healing and forgiveness in my relationships. I want to see the heart and humanity of an offender and to see my own humanity in theirs.
Why the film is worth your time Made by Indians about Indians (we can say “Indians” rather than “Native Americans” because they themselves say it that way in the film), Smoke Signals is actually about us all. It creatively mixes humor — about Indians, about reservations, about how others see Indians, about the history of USA-Native American relations — with serious explorations of relationships and family that ring true beyond […]

Watch This: Smoke Signals

Before Viewing Film Guide
Smoke Signals movie poster: Three Native American young adults — a woman in yellow in the middle and a man on either side, all with long, dark hair — are shown standing, from the waist up, in front of a desert landscape and many puffy white clouds in a blue sky. Accolades on the image include "Two BIG tumbs up!" "One of the best films of the year" and "Very funny!" (Siskel & Ebert, Rolling Stone, and Good Morning America, respectively)
On the Coeur d'Alene reservation, Victor rails against his peoples' — and his family's — failure to live up to its heritage. Duty calls him on a road trip, unwillingly accompanied by Thomas Builds-the-Fire's nerdy and mystical storytelling, which only irritates Victor all the more. Made by Indians about Indians, the universal story in Smoke Signals is really about all of us.
Science, when sincere, principled, and dispassionate, is a beautiful tool. And it’s beautiful whether the conclusions are right or wrong; that’s part of the process. But how science is used in political discourse can turn it ugly. A little while back, I wrote about a politician’s fallacious appeal to science while advocating a particular COVID-19 response. In a tweet, the politician did what I call “playing the science card” — […]

They said “Science” — Did You Not Hear That?

Society & Politics
Science is a beautiful tool, but well-meaning societal concern does not justify political advocacy masquerading as science.
“I do it myself!” I was taken aback at my little Mary’s forceful demand, so long ago, to tie her own shoes. I was not surprised, really — I had heard similar protests from others’ children — but her intensity caught me out. What had she to worry? I was the grand and great parent: the one who watches over all my wee bairns. All will go right with all […]

Every Little Detail

Flash Fiction
Little Mary's "I do it myself" — a cry for independence and freedom — caught me out. I withdrew, grinning at the image of myself as Kim Jong-il.
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