34 posts from 2008

When we were in Colorado recently a friend gave me a copy of Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups of Tea'. I began reading it on the journey home and finished it back here in Amsterdam - what an unusual and moving book. Written in a very direct style that doesn't even try to hide its hero's flaws and weaknesses, the book follows the campaign of Greg Mortenson to bring education to the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan he has discovered as an off-track mountaineer. Lost, disoriented and near death after a failed attempt on K2, Mortenson is cared for by the simple Islamic people of a village high in the Baltistan. Finding that they have no building in which to educate their children, he vows to come back and build one: a promise that pushes him to the very limit of his capabilities but that, once fulfilled, introduces him to his new life's calling. Over 50 schools have now been built, and Mortenson continues to pursue his passion to see children - particularly girls - receiving the education they deserve. The book captures the spare and moon-like atmosphere of these remote mountain regions and there is something haunting about this one man's determination to fulfil a promise. Significant American sales have come from the fact that Mortenson's adventure runs parallel to both the Afghan and Iraq wars, and that his gentle, guile-less relationship with his Muslim friends so contrasts with that of many other Westerners.

I was personally challenged by Mortenson's determination to be a man of peace: building friendships first and out of those friendships working for change. He quite rightly discerns that the simple, local faith of the Muslims he meets is not the same as the strident fundamentalism he has been warned about, and that there is more to be gained from human contact than from conflict. Would I. with my strong faith, be free to build such friendships - or is it this man's lack of faith that enables him to do so? I don't have an answer: but I am challenged and stimulated by the question.

Crossroads regular Ian Bok had his first one-man show in Amsterdam recently. Made up of sketches and improvisations, the show featured a cast of characters from an alien and a curtain-witch through to a Turkish man in a White-Man suit. Ian has a face made of rubber, a vast supply of accents and a thousand strange characters living in hi head. Several passages in the show relied on jabbertalk, Ian's own Dutch-English-Italian-Russian hybrid. It is wonderful how funny and human jokes can be in a language no-one speaks - or how much can be communicated in a ten minute sketch whose only word is 'ja'. This is a great show. If you missed it, then let's launch a campaign to get Ian a whole season....

Had the opportunity to see Anathallo live in Haarlem recently, in a very intimate gig at the Patronaat Cafe. What a great band. From Michigan, Anathallo have been connected over the years with the Cornerstone christian festival and have toured with Manchester Orchestra. Their sound is unusual and eccentric, and great to listen to. As one reviewer said, Sufjan Stevens left the door to the Band Practice room open, and out marched Anathallo... they combine vocal harmonies with brass instruments, multiple drummers and, literally, bells and whistles. Their latest album 'Canopy Glow' is excellent...

I'm enjoying John Maeda's 'Laws of Simplicity'. An MIT professor, computer artist and design guru, Maeda has spent many years exploring why certain products and graphics work so well and others simply don't. Simplicity, he says, is one of the keys: particularly as the products and services we use become in themselves more and more complex. Great design takes hugely complex ideas and processes and makes them simple for us.

I don't design products, but I do spend most of my time communicating ideas, and I found many of Maeda's laws applicable to my world. Making things simple is not the same as making things simplistic, and the real challenge is to give simple access to truly complex realities: in such a way that those on the receiving end are both grateful for the simplicity and willing to dive into the complexity. Maeda has Japanese roots, I believe, and his ideas and communication style did remind me of Japanese-American artist Makoto Fujimura, who has been inspired by ancient Japanese calligraphy to bring simple complexity into his expressionist works. His painting 'Gravity and Grace' exemplifies this for me and reminds me every time I see it of the intimate relationship between the 'grace' of a pen stroke and the 'grace' of theological exploration.