Beauty from Ashes

Resurrection Window, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Clay Center, Photo by Lisa Bauer

The stained glass window doesn't look like it was taken from the pages of a children's Bible. There's not an image of Jesus welcoming the little children. The Good Shepherd is not cradling sheep in his arms while standing in a lush green pasture. Jesus is not standing on the other side of a door, ready for our knock.

Instead, it's like random shards of glass were tossed onto a stained glass canvas and soldered together. And, to a degree, they were.

When a tornado damaged the stained glass windows at Clay Center's St. Paul's Episcopal Church many years ago, the members collected the fragments of glass and had this window made. They call it the Resurrection Window. It now stands as a testament to God's faithfulness and the congregation's ability to piece together beauty from tragedy.

Out of despair, comes hope.
Out of hope, comes creativity.
Out of creativity, comes art.
Out of ashes, comes beauty. (Isaiah 61: 2-4)

Read the rest of the story on my blog, Food for Thought, at Lovely Branches Ministries. And while you're there, check out the blogs from my friends at Lovely Branches.

Have a good Monday!

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I'm linked today to Michelle's Graceful: Faith in the Everyday, and her weekly feature, Hear It On Sunday, Use it On Monday.  Check out other bloggers by following the links.

Window to the Past

The old joke is that today's newspaper becomes the lining on the bottom of the birdcage. These days, many people don't even get newsprint on their fingers reading the news.

I still love curling up in my recliner and opening my daily edition of The Hutchinson News and the weekly version of The Stafford Courier, though I also read several other newspapers online.

Even though my son loves the written word, he says he and his contemporaries will likely not subscribe to newspapers that arrive on their doorstep or in their mailbox.

And even for those who read the black and white words on a page, the daily newspaper goes into the recycling pile and is cast aside beside the coffee grounds.

So it was quite a treat to find that a Lindsborg artist studio/museum had a framed copy of one of my Hutchinson News features on the wall.

It was at the Red Barn Studio, which is run by the Raymer Society for the Arts. The museum preserves and promotes the work and memory of Lester Raymer (1907 - 1991), a Lindsborg artist who did paintings, prints, ceramics, metalwork, woodcarving, stitchery and more in the Red Barn Studio.

I interviewed Raymer and his wife, Ramona, at the Birger Sandzen Museum in 1982, so I hadn't been to his studio before. The long-ago feature was about Raymer's Christmas-time exhibit there, which featured the handmade toys the artist gave to his wife. All told, Raymer made 53 toys during a 30-year period.

As I recall, Ramona was the more vocal of the two. While Lester idly went around the room twirling knobs on the intricate toys, she was the public relations guru, touting her husband's talent.
But last Friday, his studio spoke for him. From the outdoor spaces he created to the candlesticks made from pitchforks or the chandelier fashioned from a barrel stave, his artistic look at life shined through.

I would have been on the job a little more than 16 months when I interviewed Raymer. In typical fashion, I looked at the feature posted on the wall and told Randy I should have done better. That fresh-faced 25-year-old reporter could have learned a thing or two from 53-year-old me. Maybe the older and wiser me would have been able to draw him out.

I think I would have had better luck to interview him in his own space, a place that provides a window on his creative mind.

And I was struck by something else. The museum has preserved this little tableau. It's an artist's palette still stained from years of creativity and work and an unfinished painting of a rooster. It's the scene Raymer left behind on the day he died.

And isn't that what we all hope for? We hope and pray that we'll continue to do the work that we've been called to do until our dying breath. Farmers want to keep planting and harvesting seeds. Teachers find a way to keep teaching, even if they no longer stand in front of a classroom. Mothers still mother though their children have babies of their own. Writers still write, even though their work may no longer be found on yellowed newsprint but is typed and released into cyberspace.

And we all hope the work we do and the lives we touch will still make a difference long after we're gone.

Change the World

(Stained glass window at Youthville Chapel, Newton, KS)

Kansas has had its share of tourism slogans through the years. "Kansas: It's as big as you think" is the current motto. Its precursors included "The Secret's Out," "Linger Longer," "Land of Ahhs" and "Simply Wonderful."

If Gov. Sam Brownback gets his way and chops funding for the Kansas Arts Commission, it will be no secret that our state's simply wonderful arts groups will have to linger longer at the mercy of private donors. My "Ahhs" are quickly turning to "Oh no's!"

If Brownback's budget passes, Kansas would become the first state in the nation to no longer fund arts. I don't think that's what the Sunflower State wants to hang its hat on.

I wouldn't want to be the governor. I wouldn't want to be a state legislator, looking for ways to scrimp and save and bring down the budget deficit.

But I'm afraid that if public funding for the arts is on the chopping block, it won't be long until school districts follow suit and whittle school music programs from their class schedules.

And that would be a shame. A week ago, I spent the day at the Heart of the Plains Music Festival hosted by Stafford Schools. I got a chance to support my local high school musicians and also those from my alma mater, Skyline High. Most importantly, I got the chance to hear my talented niece, Madison, perform individually and with Skyline groups.

A basketball team doesn't have the market on teamwork. Just spend a day listening to choral music or band performances and you'll figure that out pretty quickly.

I have to admire a group of high school students from Lawrence, who took their convictions to the Kansas statehouse last week.

“Art is an essential part of life,” said Hazlett Henderson, a sophomore at Lawrence High School. “I don’t know if private funding will be there.”

A Senate committee last Thursday rejected Gov. Brownback’s attempt to abolish the Kansas Arts Commission. The Federal and State Affairs Committee voted against Brownback’s order before a packed hearing room that included about 20 high school students from Lawrence.

Keil Eggers, a senior at Free State High School, said he made the trip to the Capitol because he wanted the Arts Commission funded so that “kids behind me would have the same opportunities” in arts programs that he had.

Brownback’s order will take effect July 1 unless the Legislature rejects it. The committee’s recommendation to keep the Arts Commission will next go to the full Senate. After the hearing, the Lawrence students said they were pleased with the decision by the committee.

They aren't alone in recognizing a strong correlation between quality music education in schools and academic achievement.

Madi was selected for the Kansas Music Educators Association honor choir, which was directed last month by Dr. Craig Jessop of Utah State. This guy is no slacker: He is a former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

At the choir performance, he shared an interesting statistic with the musicians, their families and the audience.

The average ACT score of the choir kids who had taken the test was a 27. The 2010 average composite score for all Kansas students was 22, above the national average of 21.

The Kansas musicians' ACT score was 5 points higher. That's significant.

A 2007 Harris Interactive Poll of working adults indicated that music education impacted five skill areas: ability to work toward common goals, striving for excellence in group settings, disciplined approach to solving problems, creative problem solving and flexibility in work situations.

Harris Interactive Poll, 2007

I know that no one wants their great love on the chopping block. I freely admit that music is one of the cornerstones in my life. But I think cutting funding to the arts is a big mistake.

Gov. Brownback may want to reconsider. I know that Bono is no great philosopher, but I do think this particular "slogan" has some merit for the Land of Ahhs:

Music can change the world because it can change people.

Bono