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Between the Priest and the Philosopher*
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Desacralized Thought
1. The affinity
of priest and philosopher is an archaic one. The priest may be the
older brother of the two, but both are originally of the same family.
A certain tension of the two is also as archaic.1 The
affinity concerns their engagement with what is ultimate and our
proper relation to it. The tension is that for the priest this relation
is inseparable from fidelity to a tradition which for the philosopher
never is quite beyond question. For the priest loyalty to a community
has a certain authoritative role in defining human importances,
and what counts as ultimately true, trustworthy, and deserving of
ethical and spiritual esteem. For the philosopher the call to think
through the meaning of our fidelities carries with it the chance
of striking out from the already sanctioned ways.
2. It is not
that the philosopher is not embedded in a tradition of thought.
It is not that the priest is necessarily an enemy of thought that
might induce modifications, even transformations of the hitherto
authoritative tradition. Perhaps it is somewhere in the stress between
tradition and thought that the difference comes to lie. Priests
can become authoritarian in this wise: guardians against thought
rather than guardians of a traditions endowment of truth. Philosophers
can become critical in this wise: merely debunking what has gone
before, hence more tearing down what has been than adding something
new to the treasury of worthy human possibilities. It is a too-well
rehearsed move of the philosophical despisers of religion to remind
us that the inquisitorial priest will offer Bruno to the bonfire.
It is less well recalled that someone like the genial Hume, in immortal
words of philosophical toleration, will consign to the flames all
those tomes of theology and metaphysics. The philosophers should
beware being too smug. From them too we smell the smoke and hear
the crackle of the fire.
3. The affinity
of priest and philosopher holds if there is an ultimate towards
which both are oriented. In this affinity the two are intimate others,
even if in tension. This tension in affinity is itself double. It
can be a source of conflict: either the priest or philosopher might
treat its intimate other as a rival, potentially hostile, if not
subordinate to its own claim to pre-eminence. It might also be a
source of fruitfulness: thought can keep fidelity alert, while fidelity
can keep thought poised on a path of discernment.
4. But what
if our orientation to God as ultimate is deemed beyond our concern
or beneath it, or denied outright? For instance, one can sometimes
find an emphasis on divine transcendence which the philosopher will
less seek to understand, as claim that it releases us from reflection
on this beyond. It is too beyond, so beyond that human thought
cannot concern itself with it. Let that beyond fall to the vocation
of priest; by contrast, the philosopher must seek to become the
rational master of the immanent whole. The priest may well stand
in accord with this proposal, consenting to being consigned the
special duty of guarding that beyond, though not by any means
of thought. A kind of dualism between priest and philosopher can
here come to be, and perhaps paradoxically due to a certain dualism
of immanence and transcendence. One thinks of Descartes, for instance.
Then philosophy will tend to define itself through itself alone,
not through its relation to another absolute, beyond both itself
and religion. At a certain extreme, the result is a secularizing
of philosophy. Thought will be desacralized. What the sacred is
will have little or nothing to do with thought. Perhaps fidelity
will be allowed in terms of a certain fideism, but the philosophical
mindfulness of that fidelity will not be to the fore.
5, It seems
to me that modern philosophy is marked by such a desacralized thought,
even as thought tries to maintain itself as a kind of absolute:
a power to make intelligible that is defined purely through itself
alone: absolutely autonomous, self-determining reason. Clearly in
this view, the priest and the philosopher will have little to do
with each other. Quite the opposite: the risk of hostility, often
claimed to be the preserve of premodern sacralized thinking, will
be very much in evidence, but now from the direction of the self-proclaimed
superiority of autonomous thought. The priest may now be decried
as a lackey of tyrannical tradition and dogma, not a free thinker.
The philosopher glories in the pride of thought.
6. This sense
of the relation between the two is a very modern construction and
it has entered deeply into the self-image of priest and philosopher,
but clearly there are other relations possible. If we live in postmodern
times, this construction may also ask to be deconstructed, and something
of their antecedent archaic affinity might return in new form. Of
course, many of those claiming to be postmodern still work with
an image of the philosopher as having shed the alleged authoritarian
tutelage of the priest. They are heirs of the Enlightenment as they
dismantle the Enlightenment. And yet a more fertile point to any
such deconstruction might be the opening up of a new, or renewed
porosity between the priest and philosopher as intimate others,
not as dualistic opposites. This porosity is not necessarily opened
by simply breaking down the identities of the priest and the philosopher.
A reformation of such identities might be required, or at least
some recuperation of an intimacy between them in their otherness.
I would say that it is crucial to maintain properly a sense of the
God beyond priest and philosopher, if each of these is to be seen
as offering different services of a transcendence that surpasses
either alone, and towards which the dialogue of the two tends.
7. Of course,
if there are different traditions, what it means to be a priest
will be different. Something analogous might be said of different
practices of philosophy. There is a certain consecration to divinity
or ultimacy in diverse traditions, even if the nature of the ultimate
or the ultimate divinity is differently understood. This consecration
takes the character of a certain intermediation: the priest stands
in a middle where there is said to be a communication from the ultimate
to the relative, and from the relative to the ultimate. These two
directions of communication need not be the same: from divinity
to us as graced and inspired; from us to divinity, as reverent and
praising. The priest is a consecrated middle: a between porous on
both sides, and hence able to turn in two directions, able to turn
around, upward and downwards, enunciating the relation of the two,
enacting it, incarnating it. A consecrated middle turning to finite
life, from a turn to what is above finite life. A consecrated middle
enacting the turn of human beings to God, or the turning of God
to human beings in creation, in sacred ritual and in a way of life
consecrated to ethical service of the other.
8. Does philosophical
thought have anything to do with this? In many practices of religion,
the priest was also a figure of wisdom, not unrelated to the sage.2
The philosopher is a later-born son in this family, perhaps giving
a different priority to critical thought than either, yet nevertheless
coming to be in a familial relation to them, a relation to be denied
at the cost of reducing philosophy to a technical expertise or a
quasi-scientific method, with the loss of the sapiential dimension
of reflective thought itself. For one might see the philosopher
also as a figure of the between: in Platonic terms a creature of
eros, daimonic in the sense of a mediator between the mortal and
the divine, emergent from the given materialities of existence yet
ecstatic and surpassing the limits of finite confinements in the
direction of the ultimate. The philosopher as between is both porous
to what is beyond the human self, and in human selving directed
to what is beyond, turning the soul in that direction by a discipline
of mindfulness that is more than the mere clever virtuosity of the
abstract intellect. The whole human being is put to the question,
put to the test.
9. In all this,
what authority or authorization is claimed, or can be claimed by
the philosopher? A priest has authority by being invested, first
relative to the divine as the ultimate endowing source, and second
relative to the long accumulated wisdom of a tradition or historical
community. This community is itself the more ultimate between, in
the space intermediating human beings and God. There is something
trans-individual about the priest as a between, just as a participant
in that community, and as consecrated with the endowing power of
the divine. I do not think the philosophy can or should claim any
such authorizing, and yet I think there can be a vocation to philosophy,
which again places priest and philosopher in the same between, and
as intimate relations of each other.
10. In modernity,
admittedly, there is a general tendency of philosophy to try to
generate its own self-authorization by claiming that rational thinking
justifies itself. Thinking is to be absolutely self-determining:
questioner, responder, and judge of the claims of others and of
its own claim. This self-authorization reaches its acme in modern
rational enlightenment, such as we find in the philosophy of Hegel,
for instance. It also continues in thinkers dedicated to the deconstruction
of modern rational enlightenment, such as Nietzsche, though here
things begin to become more deeply equivocal. These seemingly opposed
instances do not exhaust the possibilities. There is another view
of the heteronomy of philosophical thought that would bring
it closer to the religious porosity of the priest. This other view
suggests that thinking is not self-determining but is endowed from
an enigmatic source other to thought thinking itself. This possibility
was lived more spontaneously by premodern philosophers, I think.
Now in post-modernity, signs begin to flicker of something not unlike
it, beyond the deconstruction of absolutely autonomous secular reason.
The signs flicker in the porosity of philosophy to its most significant
others, especially great art, and being religious. Does this latter
possibility point to a new form of consecrated thought? Consecrated
thought beyond both the hubris of autonomous reason seeking self-absolutization
and the evisceration of reason in a deconstruction which has trouble
clearing nihilism, equally anti-philosophical as anti-religious?
Vocation: Thought
Between Religion and Philosophy
11. What can
thought be between religion and philosophy? Of course, there is
the familiar fides quarens intellectum. This has been a desideratum
of the intellectually trained priest, as well as the philosopher
who wishes to make intelligible sense of the perplexing claims of
faith. It may well be true that in recent times the intellectual
vocation of the priest has fallen too much into desuetude: overreaction
to the too mechanical resort to a too packaged Thomism, coupled
with a breathless eagerness to catch up with the age. Of course,
anxiety about falling behind the age can occasion the jettisoning
of the wisdom of long ages for the fashionable babble of the daybabble
mutating from day to day. As there is a long community of faith,
there is a long community of thinking about faith and this must
be deeply respected. Otherwise we reinvent the wheel, and a wheel
does not necessarily move one better just because it is announced
as new.
Is there a thinking
between religion and philosophy, which is open to both, and yet
puts questions to both? Questions not only of the philosopher to
the priest, but of the priest to the philosopher? For if religion
is closest to the ultimate, as it is, then it seems questionable
to simply let the philosopher pose questions on his pet terms, and
his alone. Yet the priest has to have a fides of mind, a
con-fides or confidence, not just that religion can withstand
intellectual scrutiny but that it opens enigmas and perplexities
that put the philosopher to the utmost test. This asks of the philosopher
that she or he be porous to the possibility that there are forms
of religion that communicate from a space of significance more ultimate
than philosophy itself. A certain openness to the religious qua
religious must already be there.3
If the dialogue here
is two-way, the priest also must be open to what philosophy communicates.
Yet too, in the education of the priest, if the prevalent forms
of philosophizing are threadbare, one must beware of Greeks bearing
gifts. The practices of philosophy may already have so defined themselves
that this fertile space between philosophical thought and religion
may lie fallow. Some practices of philosophy may not even allow
that there is such a space at all where philosophical thought itself
is tested to the utmost. In that respect, the pedagogy of priest
has a vested interest in the health of robust philosophical thought
open to the space between itself and the religious. Once again,
though, if the dominant philosophical culture is defined by indifference
to, or hostility towards the religious, it is foolish to look in
the direction of philosophers for sapiential solidarity. Philosophy
is not a neutral conceptual tool, or intellectual technique. Embedded
in its practices are fundamental decisions and orientations towards
what is of most import, and ultimate: what it means to be, to be
true, to be good, to be a human person, what is or is not sacred,
what God is.
12. Perhaps the
notion of vocation reaches out on both sides in the middle space
between the priest and the philosopher. Vocation implies something
of a special calling. There is a certain singularity to a vocation.
This singular person is called to be such and such. If one believes
in a God that knows every creature to the hairs on their head, this
will not seem impossible, even if astounding relative to the kinds
of knowledges we possess. The agapeic love of the divine is to us
an idiot wisdom. Our knowledges are usually of a sort yielding a
more neutral generality or universality. But vocation bears on the
singular as singular. There might, of course, be a singular communitycertainly
this is claimed for the Jews as an elect people. The singularity
at issue will be hard to grant if we think in neutral generalities.
Relative to the singular human being, vocation bears on the intimacy
of being, and there seems something idiosyncratic, even idiotic
from the point of a more respectable generality or universality.4
This is not a point in rejection of more general assessments; yet
the singularity of vocation calls for a different kind of finesse
and discrimination. If one were only concerned with numbers, one
would have lost the thread, and one might as well recruit noughts
as anything else to swell the numbers.
13. There are
those in religious institutions who might be skeptical of the notion
of singular vocationorganization men, suspicious just of the
singular as singular. Yet if there is not some irreducible singularity,
what then recommends any specialness to the calling. One might be
humble to the point of self-effacement but if this singular tonality
of uniqueness is not granted its place, then God becomes a manager
of neutral universals, not a lover whose agapeic mindfulness knows
even the hairs on the heads of fragile mortals.
14. Philosophers
generally are also suspicious of vocation for not unlike reasons.
They love the neutral universal, and identify the singular with
the merely contingent and the capricious. They are not wrong in
this regard, namely, that a person might exploit claims to singularity,
when the real story is the puffing up of ones pretensions to false
importance. In religion, as in any other areas, there is no immunity
from counterfeit singularities that mimic the real thing. Human
beings are driven to singularize themselves, to try to define themselves
as themselves. In this instance, the counterfeit singularity is
what it is by virtue of a self-insistence that has no opening to
what is beyond itself.
The singularity of vocation
is quite other. Since there is a call, there is a receiving more
primal than any self-asserting. The receiving so qualifies the self-asserting,
that all self-affirmation might undergo a metanoia in which
our indebtedness to an endowing source beyond ourselves moves us
in the direction of gratitude rather than self-glorification. There
is reverence for what has been given rather than arrogance for what
is claimed as ones own.
15. Genuine religious
vocation has something of this special singularity, and indeed a
kind of idiocy, though again I would construe this idiocy in terms
of the intimacy of being. If the religious calling does not address
itself to what is most intimate in our being, it is hard to see
how it can make the ultimate claim on us that it does. Augustine
speaks of God as more intimate to me than I am to myself. This is
divine idiocy that calls even when we are dead and think that every
call is the urge of self-insistent ambition.
16. Some philosophers
have mulled on this self-insistence. I think of Platos understanding
of our tendencies to eros turannos. They have wanted to devise
therapies of mindfulness to moderate the tyranny of self-insistence.
That moderation can be effect in the direction of the neutral universal,
but if that is all, such a moderation can only amount to a partial
therapy, precisely to the degree that it is effected by the denial
or abrogation of the singular qua singular intimacy. I think of
Spinoza and the Stoics. It is rightly felt that there is something
other and beyond self-insistent singularity. But this is not exhausted
by the neutral or indifferent universal. There is what I call the
intimate universal: a community of being that in promise
extends to all, but that appeals to what is most intimate in the
depths of the singular soul, and within which that intimate appeal
finds itself addressed in a unique way. In my view, the genuine
religious community is the intimate universal, in the sense intended
here. Not a neutral universal, not a collection of merely capricious
singularities, but a community which guards and serves the intimacy
of the singular in bonds that are themselves constituted by the
most intimate of lovesloves that finally come to rest in the
divine as the absolute in agapeic mindfulness.5
17. In this community
of the intimate universal there is a sense in which we are all priests
as singularly called into the ultimate community. There may be some
singulars whose witness of life pays even more special honor to
what is asked of us by this community of vocation. The priest dedicated
to a life between the human and the divine stands out in witness
to this community of the intimate universal. But whether with all,
or with the special case, the intimate community is the between
of the human and the divine, graced by the communication of the
divine and served by the response of the human.
18. Could one
say also that there can be a vocation to be a philosopher in the
sense here intended? I think there is something to this. One might
choose to be a philosopher but there is an impulse to philosophize
that is not first the product of choice. It comes to us out of the
obscurity of the soul and the singularity of a life. For enigmatic
reasons we do not comprehend, less in the beginning than perhaps
later, we are called on a journey which will take us we know not
wherea journey into the darkness of our ignorance, and perhaps
the learned ignorance that may crown fidelity to the spirit of truthfulness.
From where does this call come? No philosopher has an answer. Our
answer to the call, in the beginning, is that we do not have an
answer, and so we heed the call. Or turn from it.
19. For the beginning
is a happening, not the product of a choicechoice comes later.
We are struck into astonishment. An otherness comes over one and
the strangeness of being at all communicates itself intimately,
calling us to mind it, to become mindful of what it means in the
full extent of its intelligibility and mystery. First there is a
happening of astonishment and perplexity to which we are patient;
then more mindful thought comes in the gap between this patience
and a seeking that would both respond and make sense. The seeking
seeks an answer by itself answering a call in which it does not
put the question but which puts it into question. A philosopher
is first put into question before he puts anything else into question,
even himself. Out of this receiving the activities of further thought
arisearise as a vocation committed to follow the call.
20. I sense that
in the longer traditions of the great religions this vocation was
well recognized in its fraternal (or sisterly) relation to the vocation
of the priest. It formed part of the vocation of some of the great
saints. But whether in a sanctified life, or not, there is a vocation
to thought which is first a solicitation before it is a commitment.
And there is no evident reward offered for the undertaking. The
professional enticements of a solid salary and social respectability
can hardly be held up as sufficient enticements to follow this vocation
to thought. One gets paid to be a professor, no one pays one to
be a philosopher. True, when one becomes a respected professor,
the confusion with the unpaid philosopher can quickly take over.
But the vocation is followed for nothing, done for nothing, nothing
beyond fidelity to the call itself, done for free. Those who feel
the attraction of philosophy as young students know that there is
a risk to be undertaken, and prudent parents fret about the paucity
of job prospects to crown such studies. The successful professor
can fulfill the role of a spiritual mirage in offering a mask that
hides the hazard of thought for free. The respectable professor
is the placebo of the philosopher. The philosopher, as following
a vocation to thought, may be a healeror, betraying that vocation,
a corrupter.
Consecrated Thought
21. Should the
training of the priest recover some appreciation of the vocation
to consecrated thought and foster it? Of course, to the secularized
reason of modernity the idea of consecrated thought makes no sense.
The idea of a priestly vocation also must make little sense, since
the identity of human beings is primarily defined by what they choose
to be rather than what they are called to be. In a fully secularized
world, who would be there to call the human being to be? Other human
beings? But other human beings seem heteronomous others, hence ambiguous
relative to our own claim to the autonomous self-determination of
identity. Do we call ourselves? There have been theories which amount
to such a self-calling. But how could the human being call to itself?
It would have to be split between itself as listening to itself
and itself as speaking to itself. People do talk to themselves thussome
sane, some mad. But how does the self-calling human being envisage
a more complete or higher version of itself to which it calls itself
to be? In some enigmatic sense it would already have to be its own
more complete or higher self. But why then call to itself? And how
then be a less complete or less high version of itself, if already
it is its own higher self? One can insist that the human being is
supposedly self-creating, but then we have the tension: it must
be itself to create itself, and it must create itself to be itself;
but how can it be both? And what if there is something already about
it given to be, before it creates itself? It does not create
this given, this being given to be. It is endowed with it as gift.
22. Vocation,
consecrated life and thought imply another calling that is superior,
higher than ourselves. I grant that it is not entirely false
to say we call ourselves to our own heights, in that we immanently
feel the call to be ourselves more truly, to be true to what we
are, to perfect the powers of life with which we are endowed. But
any such self-calling presupposes the prior granting of our own
being as endowed. We do not endow ourselves. And there is the reality
that the dimensions of vocation bear on something unconditionally
supreme in a religious sense, where the experience is of being called
beyond oneself, not only to oneself as realized as in a higher,
more perfect form, but called to something more transcendent still,
even though this is also intimately immanent. For, after all, to
hear a call is indeed something very intimate.
23. Otherwise
put, if there is a consecration of life, or thought, we do not consecrate
ourselves. We consent to a call, and find ourselves consecrated.
Before one lives a consecrated existence, one receives from another
source beyond oneself more than one could generate or define through
oneself alone. Consecration is an investiturean endowing that
confirms an endowment. And if it is also a commitment, this is to
something exceeding oneself. It is an exceeding commitment, in that
the living out of the consecration entails a hyperbolic dimension:
we could neither grant it, nor guarantee it through ourselves alone.
We find ourselves again and again called to lay ourselves open to
the strengthening source that empowers one to live up to the ideal.
We must be willing, but we cannot just will the attainment of this
ideal. There is a willing that is prior to this or that act of will:
a state of willingness, readiness, vigilance to what comes, in a
world recharged by consecration with enigmatic sacred significance.
24. A purely
secular ethos here makes no sense. While this seems more evident
with the priest, I think it has relevance to the philosopher also.
If there is a vocational side to philosophy, it makes sense to ask
who or what calls the philosopher, and to whom or what is she or
he called. If there is a sense of unconditional truth that carries
the thinker forward then we are in a space that is hard to render
in purely secular termsterms which reduce everything to immanent
conditionality. In such a milieu of immanent conditionals, from
where could the unconditional emerge, and make a call on us? And
yet it does emerge. It emerges in our ethical being, certainly;
and in our searches for the truth. While we do not possess the absolute
truth, we are under the charge of the spirit of truth, and called
to the utmost fidelity in being truthful. Being truthful is a token
of unconditionality in a conditioned finite creature like us: called
to an honesty and truthfulness that is not of our own construction
but that lays its charge on us.
25. The priest
might ritually be consecrated by incorporation into a religious
community. How is the thinker consecrated? Getting a PhD is not
the sacred ritual that magically transforms the graduate student
into a philosopherthough it might be the union card needed
to apply for an academic job with any chance of success. There seems
no ritual ordination in the ordination of the thinker to truth.
And yet there is an ordination. And what of the community into which
consecration gives initiation? The academic community, or college
of professors? I think this is not it either, since there is a difference
between being a professor and a philosopher, and sometimes academic
communities can be less than acute when it comes to philosophical
acumen. Many of the great philosophers were not members of an academic
community in that sense.
26. The ordination
of the philosopher would be more like a nameless initiation into
an incognito community of seekers after the ultimate, though again
there can be individuals who experience the call with an intensity
and urgency that many humans do not know. There is something intimately
universal about philosophy, and yet the difficulty of thinking makes
it so that it will be primarily for the few and only indirectly
for the many.
Gifted Thinking,
Porosity, Praying
27. There will
be those who make haste to post their chilling indictment: Elitism!
This is not quite my point. Rather, it is the need to consider seriously
if there is such a thing as gifted thinking? I mean this
in two senses. First, there are some individuals who seem especially
gifted with the powers of thinking. These individuals have a spontaneous,
native feel for the energy of thought, and when they discover this,
they are lived by an energy of minding in which they participate
rather than fully possess through themselves alone. In a way they
are possessed by thinking. There is an element of the involuntary
and received: possessed in a way reminding us of the theiamania,
which for Plato is one of the gifts of the philosophers, as well
as the poets. This possession, needless to say, has its dangers.
It can equivocally skirt the boundaries of mad madness rather than
divine madness. We need discernment to see where the divine is in
the madness and where the madness is merely mad; and where the possession
is merely a defection from mindfulness.
Second, there is also
the sense of gifted thinking which applies in a wider way. One might
argue that more originally we do not think but find ourselves thinking.
We do not first think ourselves into thinking. We wake up
to ourselves already as thinking, as beings who are endowed with
the promise of mindfulness, even though the endowment can then be
developed according to its native gifts. But first there is the
original givenness of thinking as the promise of a unique power
of minding being that marks the human being. This gift-character
of thinking is forgotten when our image of thought is of a self-determining
reason which would define everything through itself alone. Nevertheless,
its power to define itself has first been given as a power or invested
as a promise.
28. At the origin
of itself, thoughts powers of self-determination are qualified
by a sourcing that retreats into recesses, even as we try to subject
it to our own autonomous self-determination. Thoughts source is
heteronomous but in no tyrannical sense. This sourcing gives us
the resource to think, in an endowing and releasing sense. After
all, it is an amazing thing that the human being wakes up to itself
and the rest of being, endowed with the astonishing power to mind
all things, itself included. Of course, as we develop this minding
power, we forget the amazing grant that minding thus is granted
at all. It is granted but once granted it is taken for granted
and henceforth we quickly forget the gifted character of the thinking.
A wakeful philosopher should be especially attentive to the enigma
of this gift.
29. Vocation
takes us beyond self-insistent singularity, as I said above, and
yet it pertains to the singular as singular, as well as to ordination
to a community that transcends self-insistence. I would say that
the gifted thinking of consecrated philosophizing, like the vocation
to the priesthood, entails a certain porosity of being in which
one is a middle between the human and what transcends the human.
There is a passio essendi that is more primal than every
conatus essendi: a patience of being more original than all
our endeavors to be. It is with regard to this passio essendi
that the gift of thinking is also patiently received: given from
another source first, before developed this way or that, in its
endeavor to think this or that.
30. Sustaining
a response to the call of vocation means keeping this primal porosity
unclogged. In philosophy, keeping the porosity unclogged is aided
by the disciplines of reflection and inquiry that are attentive
to actualities beyond the immanent confines of bewitching abstractions.
In living, the porosity is kept unclogged in an orientation to life
that is ethically attentive to the sources of worth and value, and
that lives them as integrally as possible. In being religious, praying
is the happening that most keeps unclogged the primal porosity.
31. The priority
of the passio essendi does not mean a flaccid passivity,
a kind of lackadaisical lethargy towards things or deeds. It does
not entail a languid quietism but an alertness and readiness to
what comes to pass, and what we are to bring to pass. This alertness
is expressed in contemplative as well as active modes. Yet one might
stress that there is a patience of thought that is especially marked
by a vocation to something more contemplative in its way of being.
This especially is to be recalled in our time, when loud utilitarian
pressures harry us and toss us this way and that, depriving us of
all more inherent serenity, and rushing us from means to means,
with the end of it all lost in a maelstrom of acquisition that,
in craving possession of all things, ends in occupancy of nothing.
32. Gifted, consecrated
thought is patient thought. Hence it is contemplative of what exceeds
us, what exceeds our use and usages, what is worthy in its own right,
even when it does not accord with how we might more pragmatically
evaluate it. We are not the measure of consecrated thought, nor
is our measure the measure of what is worthy to be affirmed. The
energy of a transcending is in the patience of gifted thought, as
the passio essendi is caught up in surpassings beyond itself:
to truth as for itself, even if as also other to our mastery. We
might be the measure of many things but, as called, we are not the
measure of ourselves. There is a direction and destiny in the path
that is to be obscurely followed; but towards what the path goes,
we do not, and cannot know in advance with complete univocal certainty.
There is a certain faith in being given over to this path: a fidelity
in our passing along it to something exceeding our scientific determination,
even ethical determination. One remains faithful to it by remaining
faithful to the call as communicated and acknowledged in intimate
innerness: passing towards truth by the light of our own fidelity
to being truthful.
33. It is not
that this contemplative side is lacking its own practical side.
But this practical side is not utilitarian, is not defined by serviceable
disposability.6 It is more integrally ethical. That is,
we are called to the doing of the truth: the deed itself can incarnate,
be the enactment of, the call of being true.7 There are
many dimensions to our being ethical; but the most important here
is that the patience of being true calls us beyond our self-insistence
into a service of the good. This is a service of the good of the
other, but this is not exclusive of service of ones own good. There
is a service of the good of self that also is beyond self-insistence.
At the heights this service is an agapeic service.8 The
service of consecrated thought it also an agapeic service: lived
out of gift, and in patience towards what is beyond oneself, but
out of a surplus of mindfulness that first again is given to one
before one can give oneself over to minding what is beyond oneself.
Minding that arises from being gifted comes to be a mindfulness
free to give itself over to what is beyond itselfand without
imposing conditions on the other in advance. To be a consecrated
thinker is hence impossible without the proper way of life: not
only mindful of the good of life, but living mindfully a good life.
34. The pragmatism
of modernity notwithstanding, there is a measure beyond the human,
and contemplation is needed to be open to it. Beyond the instrumentalizings
of modernity, there are practices of life in which we try to enact
with integrity the good. The consecrated passion of the first opening
is matched by the committed endeavor of the second enactment. Then
the passio essendi and the conatus essendi come to
be in accord, under the call of a more original patience to the
good, and a more unconditional doing that would live agapeically,
in light of the good beyond human measure.
35. This is why
one might say that such consecrated thinking awakens to itself in
the same family circle wherein praying is at home.
The intimacy of prayer is also a porosity to the divine. We do not
pray through ourselves; we await a gift of communication from the
divine, within which we find ourselves and to which we wake up in
prayer. The initiation, initiative comes from the other side, even
if we must respond in order for the communicationalready full
in its surplus fullnessto be further fulfilled by being heard.
36. There are
modes of thinking that are more like prayer than anything else.
One wakes up to something astonishing. One is struck into thought.
One finds oneself already in thinking, entertaining thoughts that
come to one from who knows where. In the past the meditative practices
of the philosophers have evoked certain likenesses with religious
meditation. These likenesses are the more lost, the more reason
wants to secularize itself, and the more the loss of the sapiential
dimension is carried through. With the sapiential dimension, thought
needs to relish the savor of truth. Sapiential savoring is not unlike
a taste of the divinea finesse for the divine.
37. One might
also say that the notion of agapeic service is cognate to this sense
of the porosity of prayer. Agapeic service lays itself open generously
to what is other. There need be nothing servile about this service.
This is a service which has the bearings of nobility. The priestly
height is down in the valleys of life, there where all self-affirming
sovereignty becomes again like a child, and the servant of servants
hiddenly passes by in a secret nobility. This service is not a matter
of possessing power but of being empowered and being able to empowerbut
not with ones own power but with the energy of the divine in which
it is ones privilege to participate. Being at all is this participation,
even when it is not known as such, and even when we remain unheeding
of its soliciting call.
* This article
was originally published in Louvain Studies 30 (2005), 92-106.
1. See my Philosophy and Its Others: Ways of Being and Mind
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990), chapter
1, especially pp. 39-43.
2. See
Philosophy and Its Others, pp. 55-61.
3. On
some of these issues more fully, see my Is There a Sabbath for
Thought? Between Religion and Philosophy (New York: Fordham
University Press, 2005).
4. On
the idiotic and agapeic mind, see my Perplexity and Ultimacy
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), chapters
3 and 4; on idiot wisdom, see Philosophy and its Others,
5. On
the intimate universal, see my Het Intieme Universeel: Tussen Religie
en Filosofie, in Godsdienst/Filosofisch bekeken, ed. P.
Cortois, W. Desmond, I. Verhack (Kapellen: Pelckmans, 2003), pp.
71-87; also Is There a Sabbath for Thought?, introduction.
6. On
this see Ethics and the Between (Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 2001), chapter 14.
7. See
Being and the Between (Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press, 1995), chapter 12, Being True.
8. See
Ethics and the Between, chapter 16.
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text:
In a study launch ceremony, organized by PRIME Institute, Dr. Manzoor Ahmad, Former Pakistan's ambassador to WTO, said that due to High Tariffs taxes on international trade Pakistan losing on average 1.45% yearly in export market shares.
Dr. Manzoor further said that customs tariff on imported goods has historically played a major role in raising revenue or to protect domestic industries. Overtime, however, many countries have realized that higher tariffs encourage an inefficient use of scarce resources. He said that a few decades of experience has taught us that the sooner a country wak es up to this fact, the quicker it can chart a path to reform and economic growth.
High Tariffs Global Trade exports cutoff 1.45%
Ms. Sara Javed, author of the study, "Unilateral Liberalisation: Pakistan's path to trade revival", highlighted that since 2008, the aim of trade policy is to provide extra protection to local industry and local producers.
She said that Pakistan's trade policy has generally followed the path of liberalization since 1990. But relative to other developing countries, the process has been slow and significantly swung back and forth between import substitution and trade liberalisation. In early 90s, a major liberalisation programme was introduced by the then ruling party PML-N, focusing on reducing government intervention and promoting trade by bringing down tariffs and quantitative restrictions.
The process of trade liberalisation got interrupted in 1995 as regulatory duty of 10 percent was imposed on all imports. The reform process resumed in 1997 as the new government reduced the maximum tariff rate to 45 percent and eliminated the 10 percent regulatory duty. The process went off-road again in 2008 as maximum tariff was raised back to 35 percent from 25 percent in 2002.
The study finds that the impact of Pakistan's trade policy is reflected in its stagnant trade performance and decrease in trade-to-GDP ratio. Whereas, peer countries performed well with higher growth rates and improved trade performance in the same years. In 1998-00, Pakistan trade-to-GDP ratio was barely lower than that of China and significantly higher than that of India. After ten years, trade-to-GDP ratio of both China and India almost doubled while that of Pakistan remained stagnant.
The study recommends that after High Tariffs taxes, Pakistan should open the deadbolt of unilateral liberalization by undertaking comprehensive tariff reforms. It also suggests that government should effectively implement WTOs commitments, bilateral and regional trade agreements and become part of supply chain economy.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
nSuite Overview
Digital Pathways Managed Security Service, nSuite, offers functionality that can smooth out many of the problems involved with managing data security systems in-house, control on-going budgetary pressures and separate the duties between cloud service providers, data owners and data protection.
The services offered within nSuite are:
Our solution can handle the full range of encryption needs both for data in transit and at rest, including full-data encryption of any server, and is transparent to the application or data structure (databases). This means that encryption and key management are provided as a unified service across all platforms.
The Digital Pathways nCrypt solution provides a managed service where the security server appliances are located in a protected, UK based, Network Operations Centre (NOC) where all encryption keys and security policies are stored. The encryption is enforced at the point of data access whether that is in the cloud or within clients' premises. This provides separation of duty between security policy and data access.
All logs gathered, not only from nCrypt, but also servers, applications or proprietary systems, located on site, in the cloud or within third party data centres are stored securely within nSIEM.
This information is monitored by our NOC team who alert on unusual behaviour and provide reporting and management reports for internal audits or as evidence during an investigation.
Once deployed the system provides extensive auditing of all access to data, both authorised and unauthorised, which can then be used to report to management on system activities, compliance reporting such as GDPR, GPG13 and PCI or data breaches where detailed analysis is required across multiple systems to identify any weakness or rogue activity
All reports are generated through nSIEM in an easy to understand format and are emailed to designated contacts on an agreed schedule.
Digital Pathways Authentication Service, n2FA, is powered by Gemalto. It allows companies to ensure secure remote access to all sensitive resources be they located on-premises or in the cloud, regardless of the end-point device being used.
N2FA offers organisations a managed authentication platforms while providing a broad integration framework, fully automated workflows, and a broad range of authentication device form factors and authentication methods that can be deployed side by side to meet usability expectations and assurance levels.
Featuring over-the-air provisioning, user self-service, automated alerts and a selection of soft tokens and tokenless methods, n2FA secure remote access solutions help companies minimise management overhead, while providing a low cost of ownership and high user convenience.
The regimail service protects email messages from unauthorised access and renders emails trusted and binding thereby providing security and trust in business communication. For the sender of a secure email, the process is as straightforward as is the receiving process for the addressee. Neither party in a secure email chain have to change anything with their existing email service.
Regibox makes documents and other files available to a group of users, easily and securely and with all revisions. All data is stored within the UK in ISO 270001 certified datacentres and uses the strongest levels of encryption and access controls to protect the documents stored. The use of regibox ranges from securely storing important documents to sophisticated file-based collaboration of teams on a multitude of devices, online and offline.


text:
<General infomation and way to Jet Fighters>
F-15A "Eagle" F-4C "Phantom" F-102A "Delta Dagger" F-86E "Sabre"
This F-15A is a single seat all-weather air superiority fighter. This extremely maneuverable aircraft entered the United States Air Force inventory on 14 November 1974, and deployed to PACAF in December 1979 for assignment to the 18 TFW, Kadena AB, Japan in 1987. (←)
The F-15A Eagle replaced the venerable F-4C Phantom at Hickam AFB and assumed the air defense mission for the State of Hawaii. (→)
First F-15 was imported into Japan in 1980, and later manufactured under licence by Mitsubishi heavy Industries, which had produced "Zero" fighter during World War 2. (← )
Although more than 30 years have passed since first importation, 202 F-15s (in 2008) have been updated and still play an important role today as a main fighter in Japan Air Self-Defence Force valuing their basic ability highly. (→)
This F-4C is a multi-role fighter with advanced radar and missile armament. First deployed to PACAF in December 1984. Seven months later, F-4Cs shot down two Mig-17s, marking the first USAF kills of the Vietnam War. (←)
It subsequently operated in the PACAF theater for ten years before flying with the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Composite Group at Hickam AFB from July 1980 to November 1986. (→)
F-4 is naval fighter with an arresting hook in its tail. (←)
F-4EJ, which is variant type for Japan, was determined to be imported into Japan in 1966. 154 F-4EJ had been imported and later manufactured under licence by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. They are still flying in Japan but decreasing these days. (→ )
This F-102A is all-weather interceptor that was a pioneer aircraft in the development of supersonic flight. Delta Daggers served in the Pacific Air Forces from 1959 to 1970 and with the Hawaii Air National Guard from 1961 to 1976.(Left)
The display aircraft is representative of the PACAF F-102s that were deployed to Thailand and South Vietnam during the conflict in Southeast Asia. (→)
F-102 was mainly deployed in US Mainland and Japan Air Self-Defence Force didn't acquire it.(←)
After F-106 started to be deployed, some F-102s were moved to US Forces Japan in some air bases such as Yokota, Itazuke, Misawa. (→)
The single-seat F-86 fighter-bomber was the most famous combat aircraft of its day. The first model flew on 1 October 1947. In the korean war the F-86Es, with their slotted wings and powered "flying tails" were brilliantly flown against the Mig-15s and established marked superiority.(←)
The display aircraft is painted with the markings of the 51st fighter interceptor wing, its unit of assignment during the Krean War. (→)
After Imperial Japanese Army had been disorganized at the end of the war, it rebuilt as the Self-Defense Force in 1954. 30 F-86s had been provided by United States in 1955. F-86s were later manufactured under licence by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. (Left)
435 F-86s were in service at its peak and necknamed "kyokko" menaning light of the sun rise. This first main fighter in Japanese Air Self-Defende Force started to be replaced by F-104J in 1962 and last one was retired in 1982. (→)
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text:
A federal jury has found Charles McCall, former chair of McKesson Corp. and leader of HBO & Co. before McKesson bought it, guilty of five counts of fraud and accounting irregularities, Bloomberg and the Associated Press report. He was acquitted on one count of falsifying records.
Jay Lapine, former general counsel at McKesson who also served at HBOC, was found not guilty on all three charges levied against him. McCall and Lapine in a 2006 trial were acquitted of some charges with the jury hung on remaining charges that this year were retried. Five other HBOC employees previously pleaded guilty to various charges.
The charges resulted from securities fraud at HBOC to inflate revenue by prematurely recognizing revenue. The scandal broke after McKesson acquired the company in 1999, leading restatements of financial reports and a loss of 47% in the value of McKesson shares. Investors lost nearly $9 billion and McKesson later settled shareholder lawsuits for almost $1 billion.
McCall's sentencing is set for March 2, Bloomberg reports.
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text:
Holiday Centerpiece
Set your place at the table with this festive floral centerpiece! Fresh flowers and candles add so much to your Holiday table! Containers may vary. Merry Christmas to all my wonderful customers at Prairie Flowers!
Shown at $65.00
Shown at $65.00
Tis the Season! Time to pull out the lights and put up the tree! At PRAIRIE FLOWERS, we specialize in all-things Christmas! With the trendiest Christmas accessories and ornaments, you are sure to find exactly what you need for your holiday decor at PRAIRIE FLOWERS in Spring Green. Whether you're planning for a Christmas party or just decorating your home for the holiday, we've got you covered. From traditional, to playful and fun, you will find the Christmas decorations you need at PRAIRIE FLOWERS.


text:
Andy has seen many wedding speeches over the years, some were fantastic but sadly a great many that could have been vastly improved.
It is absolutely your wedding day your way. It is personal to you and it is not something that we would want to change, however, at MIlton Keynes Mobile Disco we have designed a basic template for you to work with and add your personality.
Traditionally wedding speeches are done after the meal. One of the reasons for this is because it works and if speeches overrun it cannot mean a cold meal...
The running order for wedding speeches is as follows:
The brides father speaks first proposing a toast to the bride and groom.
The bridegroom propose a toast to the bridesmaid(s).
The best man then responds on behalf of the bridesmaids, and finishes his speech reading out any messages and finally toasts the bride and groom.
The bride does not traditionally make a speech but is a nice touch and becoming more and more common. If the bride is making a speech she should speak last.
Wedding DJ Andy would be delighted to talk you through how he feels he can add a massive amount of value to your event. At Milton Keynes Mobile Disco we absolutely believe that when couples accept our help in this area it makes for a far more memorable evening, with less stress on the day.
Sadly half of all couples NEVER meet their DJ until the big day when they turn up at the venue. This is not great for anyone and it is NOT how we work. At Milton Keynes Mobile Disco we have so much to offer and we promise to keep your wedding photographer very busy!!!
If you are looking for an expert wedding DJ in or around Milton Keynes then call DJ Andy Hollinshead on 07932 756922 or 01908 639373 today.


text:
Call for a Quote Today!
Get your area rug cleaned for $35-65!
See just how clear your floor can get!
Take advantage of our savings offers!
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text:
Gift Of Education
- Purchase Info
- 5. Purchase Invoice stays in your account
- 6. Recipient does not see the Paid Price
- Claiming the Gift
- 3. Forward the Gift Email to the Recipient
- 4. Recipient Claims Gift at macProVideo.com/gift
- Buying the Gift
- 1. Add Gift Tutorials to Cart & Purchase
- 2. You will be sent a special Gift e-mail
EastWest 103
EastWest 103: Tools for Film, TV & Games
53 videos | 278 minutes | by David Earl
- Status
- Available
- Released
- Nov 18th, 2015
Is there a better collection of tools for scoring film, TV and games than EastWest? And now, with Composer Cloud, is there anything more affordable?! Join David Earl as he explores and explains these libraries in the context of composing music for all media.
Everybody knows how powerful and complete the EastWest libraries are. They're used by professional film, TV and game composers every day, the world over. In this course, by media composer and expert trainer David Earl, you explore all the libraries and learn how to use them when scoring to picture.
The libraries covered in this course are:
The EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra (EWQLSO)
Hollywood Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion and Harp
The Dark Side
Symphonic Choirs
Stormdrum 2 & 3
After the libraries are demystified, this course concludes with a section where the instructor shares some of his own personal EastWest projects. He explains how and why he uses these libraries in the context of his own compositions. So learn the tools for for scoring Film TV and Games with longtime EastWest composer and producer, David Earl.
- EastWest 101: Learn The PLAY Engine
- EastWest 102: Tools for Pop, Rock & Electronic
- EastWest 103: EastWest 103: Tools for Film, TV & Games
For a full list of the topics covered, see the Tutorial Outline
or click the button below to Preview this tutorial.
I came across this video training set and gave it a whirl duie to a sale on here, and it blew the others away, for several reasons. First, David Earl is the MOST listenable trainer out there, by three orders of magnitude. Second, he covers both SO and HO in such realtime depth, it's crazy. Third, he explains the articulations and HOW to best use them with these libraries, and last, he's a great composer so you are getting it from the horse's mouth. I didn't think it would be much until I started it... if you own EW stuff and want to do composing especially within film scoring, this one is great.
This was a very good course , it goes into a lot of detail that I have not been able to find while trying to learn Eastwest, Thanks for creating the course I thoroughly enjoyed it
Amazing and very deep course. If you own the EastWest libraries this is the course you have to watch. Thanks David.
This course opened my eyes to how robust the EastWest libraries are for composers. David Earl is an outstanding instructor going through the libraries on a guided tour and explaining how they can apply to a variety of music in any composition. His pace is great for beginners who want to know the ins and outs of the graphical user interface of PLAY. I enjoyed all the libraries in context with the compositions David shared at the end of the course. I am hoping he will create a course going more in depth setting up templates and understanding workflow when producing music in a DAW such as Logic with EastWest libraries. I enjoyed the technique of creating extra tracks to control key switching, modulation, and expression separate from the musical midi track. I am so glad that MacPro Video offers courses in EastWest PLAY! I look forward to many more from David.
Truly one of if not the best and most in depth looks into the power of the EW libraries and PLAY engine I've found. This course not only made what I once considered overwhelming and impossible possible, it has inspired me to explore. Can't wait to apply these concepts into my work. A+
I've been navigating blind for far too long in this program. SO AMAZING to finally know what everything means.


text:
Description from owner
Description from owner
7 Full baths
More Property Details
Book this 8 bedroom house in Seacrest Beach today! A total of 30 people can sleep here comfortably.
Travelers are sharing their opinions on this property. It has an overall rating of 5/5 thanks to an average of 5 reviews.
Costs vary, with the average weekly rate as low as $9750, depending on travel dates.
The owner responds to 80% of inquiries and last updated the property's calendar Aug 16, 2018.
Read more Read less
About the owner
About the owner
Luann D.
Luann D.
- Response rate:
- 80%
- Calendar last updated:
- 16 Aug 2018
- Overall rating:
Languages spoken: English
- Check in time:15:00, Check out time:09:00
- If you have any questions about check-in or check-out times, please contact the owner/manager.
- Payment
This owner does not use online booking. Please contact them and they will be able to offer you a secure way to pay for your stay. Never pay for your vacation rental by wire transfer (such as Western Union or Moneygram) as this type of payment is untraceable.
Damage deposit: $1,200.00
- Smoking
- No smoking at this property
- Cancellation policy
View Policy
Proximity to TripAdvisor's Top Seacrest-beach Attractions
- Air conditioning
- Ceiling Fans
- Central heating
- Clothes dryer
- Linen provided
- Towels provided
- Washing machine
Phone / Internet
- Internet access
- Telephone
Pool / Spa
- Jacuzzi or hot tub
Property Features
- Wheelchair accessible
- Dishwasher
- Freezer
- Fridge
- Microwave
- Stove
- Toaster
- CD player
- DVD player
- Satellite TV
- Balcony or terrace
- Deck
- Grill
- Patio
- Tennis in town
- Children
- Pets
- Smoking not allowed
- 7 Full baths
Reviews (5)
– based on 5 reviews
5 reviews
- Excellent
- 5
- Very Good
- 0
- Average
- 0
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- 0
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- 0
"Neptune's Retreat"
We really enjoyed the house last week. We were there celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary and all 22 of us (ages 6 mo. to 74) had a great time. I was so pleased with the house and its quality. The beach chairs, bikes and LSV were such a great value-added service. What a treat not to drag chairs to the beach every day and our teenagers loved the bikes and visiting all the shops. The LSV was such a great way to get all our little ones to the park and ice cream shops each day
"Comfortable, relaxing retreat!"
Neptune's Retreat is in an ideal location. The house is a very short walk to the beach (easy enough to go back and forth during the day). The neighborhood is quiet and the surrounding area is very relaxing - much better than the busy Seaside area. The house provided ample room and amenities for the 11 people in our group. The master suite was very spacious and comfortable, offering beautiful views. Guests enjoyed the comfort and privacy of their bedrooms. The kitchen and dining room offered enough space for everyone and features such as two dishwashers made quick work of clean-up. We ran into a few minor proplems (e.g. temperature of the pool/hot tub) but they were remedied promptly. The owner was very helpful and went out of her way before our trip to provide information on local features and upcoming activities to ensure we had the best stay possible. I would highly recommend this property for large groups.
"Best Vacation Ever"
I don't believe we could have found a better place to bring our family and celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. To have our children, grand children and great grand child all together under one roof was just perfect.The second floor kitchen-dinning room area was our favorite place. Thats where we always came together to eat ,celebrate, laugh, and sometimes cry, It couldn't have been better.
"Our 5th year in this house. Fabulous!!"
We have been coming to this area with a large group of friends for 9 years. We've stayed in this particular house for 5 of those and we love it. It is perfect for our group. Close to the beach, Rosemary Beach, and alys Beach. Beautiful decor and great amenities. We especially love the beach service! And now that we can fly down, it is even easier! Can't wait to come back this October!
"Two years running and can't wait for another!"
Another wonderful year with our whole family and seven grandchildren. Hardly left the grounds as it has everything we ever needed or wanted. Great place to stay and looking forward to next year.
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text:
A ten-year-old boy, Akash Singh, died on Wednesday night due to an explosion in the septic tank of a public toilet at Lokmanya Nagar in Thane. The explosion happened as the septic tank had not been cleaned in a long time.
Officials from the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had a meeting about the incident on Thursday.
A TMC official said on the condition of anonymity, "We had originally built the toilets far from the slum settlements, but now the encroachments have grown and spread around the toilets. There is no way for any vehicle to go and use suction to clean the septic tanks. There was probably a rock or some hard material stuck creating a blockage in the pipe and that must have led to the explosion."
He said that there are several such slum areas where the TMC now has no vehicular access to the toilets.
"The meeting today was to assess the situation and figure out how the TMC can routinely clean all such toilets using the best possible techniques to avoid the recurrence of such an incident," he added.
For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App


text: Established in the year 1998, the Department of Mechanical Engineering traversed the path of knowledge dissemination and generation as well as delivering many a Mechanical Engineering graduates to the Nation.Mechanical engineers focus on the design and operation of machinery and the prediction of machine behavior in industries such as transportation, power generation, energy conversion, environmental control, materials processing and materials. Materials engineers focus on problems associated with the design of materials and materials processes to meet specific needs in a wide range of industries. Career opportunities abound with traditional manufacturers.


text:
Ready to schedule?
Please email our Program Coordinator at firstname.lastname@example.com with any questions or concerns.
Why Book Arts? Book arts are a vibrant visual and verbal form of expression, allowing for growth in creativity, literacy, motor skills and art appreciation.
At Minnesota Center for Book Arts, our flexible lesson plans and knowledgeable staff allow you to integrate bookmaking with your existing curriculum. Our teaching style offers a mix of direct instruction and individual creative expression. The book form provides a familiar, accessible starting place for students.
Adding book arts to your curriculum will help your students with:
- Hands-On Learning
- Artistic Process
- Creative and Personal Expression
- Deeper Understanding of a Subject Matter
- Pride in Personal Accomplishments
- Collaborations with Other Students Discovery of a New Art Form
- Critical and Visual Thinking Skills
- Demonstrating Knowledge of Subject Matter in Various Book Forms
- Fine Motor-Skill Development
While book arts lives within the Visual Arts field, we firmly believe in the accessibility of bookmaking! You don't have to be an artist to commit your stories and ideas to the page. Our experienced teaching artists take students through a step-by-step process, in which youth will engage with actual bookmaking tools and techniques. Each student leaves the center with a completed project, which your classroom or community group can decorate to your style and curriculum.
Helpful Workshop How-To's
- Each workshop is planned so that students successfully complete a project. All book content is up to your discretion, and will be completed outside of the workshop time allotted. Ask about extended workshops if you would like to work on content at MCBA.
- Our studio capacity is 30 students, and we can accommodate up to 120 students at one time.
- One chaperone is required for every 10 students. Chaperones play a vital role in assisting students and are not charged admission.
- Dress for mess! Casual clothes and rubber-soled shoes are recommended.
- MCBA studios are accessible to all. Please let us know about special needs when registering.
- Workshop prices vary based on the cost of materials used and the length of the workshop.
The "2-for-$14" Option!
Choose any two of the workshops listed below for two hours of fun and learning, at $14 per student ($280 group minimum) — a savings of up to $1.50 per student. To qualify, both workshops must take place on the same day.
Select from:
- Intro to Papermaking
- Class Font: Print a Poster
- Thematic Pop-Out Books
- Tower Pop-Ups
- Softcover Journal with Pockets
- Accordion Books
- Tunnel Books
- Bridge Petal Fold Books
- Flag Books
- Small Stab Bindings
In-School Workshops
We can come to you! MCBA offers a wide variety of workshop opportunities in your classroom, whether for one class or for your entire school. For a more in-depth book arts experience, consider starting with a papermaking or printing workshop in MCBA's studios, and completing your bookmaking workshop back at school.
Papermaking and printing workshops are only held at our studios. Bookbinding workshops are offered at our studios as well as at offsite locations. MCBA instructors can bring all bookbinding materials and tools to your classroom, library, or community center.
Our typical teaching schedule is Tuesday through Friday, from 9 am to 4 pm. However, we are able to accommodate workshops outside of this structure, pending staff availability.
MCBA schedules workshops year-round. Please allow a minimum of two weeks for a normal workshop, and at least two months for a custom residency. We encourage early registration — our schedule fills quickly, especially for the spring.
Please contact MCBA's Youth & Community Programs at email@example.com with any questions or concerns.
Youth Workshop Descriptions
Class Font: Print a Poster
A great introduction to the history of written communication and printing through a collaborative printing project. After discussing symbols and typographic styles, each student will design one letter to mount on the printing press. The result is a unique limited edition class poster. Each student will crank the press handle and print his or her own copy of the class poster.
This workshop is suitable for alphabets from around the world and is a perfect way to explore the development of communicating with pictograms, hieroglyphs, symbols and, of course, letters.
Grades K-12
1 hour
$7.75 per person
$155 group minimum
Pressure Printing and Pressure Printed Poster
Experience the power of multiples in printmaking. Through a process of paper cutting and collaged paper, each student will create their own multi-tone print design. Students will print multiple copies of their individual design on a Vandercook printing press. Pair pressure prints with a book project! Choose from many formats: note cards, large postcards, 8 x 10″ prints, 11 x 17″ prints, accordion books, and meander books.
Grades 3-12
1.5-2.5 hours
$8-13.50 per person
$160-270 group minimum
Introduction to Papermaking
Students learn the process of turning plants — from papyrus to today's commercial wood pulp — into paper. Using authentic Western papermaking tools, each student uses a mould and deckle to pull wet paper pulp to make two sheets of cotton paper.
Grades K-12
1 hour
$7.50 per person
$150 group minimum
Exploring Papermaking
Embossing, handprints, shaped papers, double sided papers, and decorative inclusions allow students to explore a new papermaking technique! Ask about creating your own customized initial embossing. Choose the papermaking experience that best fits your class curriculum. This workshop gives students more time to experiment with the techniques of paper artists. Ask about combining your handmade papers with a bookbinding project.
Grades 2-12
1.5 hours
$8.50 per person
$170 group minimum
Paper Marbling
For centuries paper marbling was a highly guarded secret. At MCBA your students can discover the rich tradition of paper marbling as they marble sheets of paper that can be used in future classroom projects. Workshops are available in two different styles:
Ebru Marbling
Ebru marbling is a traditional Middle Eastern marbling technique in which students use "combs" to create patterns in colored paint, which is then applied to specially prepared paper. Consider using your students' marbled papers in a bookbinding workshop!
Grades 3-12
1 hour
$190 per group for 1 hour
$220 per group for 1.5 hours
Up to 16 students per group. MCBA's paper marbling workshop can accommodate up to two groups for a total of 32 students at one time. It's a great workshop for smaller groups.
Suminagashi Marbling
Suminagashi marbling is a Japanese technique in which students create concentric rings of colors with a brush, other tools, or even their breath! Consider enhancing any bookbinding project with beautiful hand-marbled paper.
Grades 3-12
1 hour
$190 per group for 1 hour
$220 per group for 1.5 hours
Up to 16 students per group. MCBA's paper marbling workshop can accommodate up to two groups for a total of 32 students at one time. It's a great workshop for smaller groups.
Thematic Pop-Out Books
Stretch your students' idea of what a book can be. One sheet of paper with a little folding and cutting is transformed into an endless number of possibilities. In addition to making a great first pop-out book, your students will practice their listening skills as they learn how to fold and use a template successfully. With space for writing, this is a great book for younger students. For older students, choose a larger format without a template, which allows students to create their own custom pop-out.
Grades K-12
1 hour
$7-8 per person
$140-160 group minimum
Pop-out book designs:
– house
– barn
– castle
– wigwam
– airplane
– frog
– kangaroo
– butterfly
– dinosaur
– bird
– fish
– woodchuck
– neighborhood
– landforms
– or design your own!
Accordion Books
Found in both ancient and contemporary bookbinding traditions, the versatile accordion book is created by folding a long sheet of paper to create individual pages. This structure allows the viewer to read a page at a time or to view the entire book at a glance. A structure for all ages, the accordion is limited only by the imagination. Three age-appropriate formats are available. New: accordion with a pop-out insert available for grades 3 and up. Enhance this workshop with additional techniques such as pop-ups, sewn pages or hidden pages.
Grades K-12
1-2 hours
$7.25-13.50 per person
$145-270 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
An Accordion Sampler
Students will explore basic binding techniques by making a hardcover accordion "sampler" book. Your students will learn how to cover bookboard with decorative paper, hinge boards together with book cloth tape, make a pocket endsheet, sew in a single signature with a pamphlet stitch, create a hidden page and a pop-up. Great fundamental knowledge for future independent work.
Grades 9-12
2.5 hours
$13.25 per person
$265 group minimum
Accordion Pocket Folder
An accordion book taken one fold further, the four-pocket folder is a great way to support student writing with text card-pages, hold project materials or to use as an interactive classroom tool. Available in two sizes.
Grades K-12
1-2 hours
$7.75-12.75 per person
$155-255 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
Sew in pages to make a journal!
Flag Books
Surprise your students and challenge them to incorporate text and images in a non-traditional book structure. Using an accordion spine, this structure has small alternating pages that wave like flags in the wind and open to reveal a hidden illustration or message. It's a fun book for poems, riddles and question/answer formats. The extended format is challenging enough for high school use. The full-page flag book stretches out to create a full picture with plenty of room for text. Great book structure for school reports by younger and older students.
Grades 2-12
1-2.5 hours
$7.25-12.25 per person
$145-$245 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
Ask about extended ABC books
Dos-a-Dos: An Accordion With a Twist
Two books in one! There are three different formats to choose from. The traditional dos-a-dos opens in two opposite directions; each is sewn with Western pamphlet pages. Not only does this offer plenty of writing space, it provides a format to write from different perspectives; one voice from the first side and a second from the opposite side. The landscape dos-a-dos combines Eastern and Western book binding traditions. Open the landscape dos-a-dos from one direction to find the traditional Western sewn pages. Open the other side to an Eastern-style accordion fold that lends itself to landscape scenes or single sheets for charts, graphs or pictures. The pop-up dos-a-dos includes the Western sewn pages on one end and a pop-out scene on the opposite end.
Grades 3-12
1.5-2.5 hours
$9.50-13.25 per person
$190-265 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
Tunnel Books
Whether you choose the single section tunnel with cover and writing space for younger students or the hardcover meander tunnel for older students, all will be encouraged to think creatively as they explore depth perspective with text and image. The new multi-section tunnel format allows for even more expansive layered imagery. Great for older students. No matter what the topic or size, tunnel books draw in the reader and creator to learn more.
Grades K-12
1-2 hours
$7-12.50 per person
$140-250 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
Colorful cover-weight papers available upon request
Petal Fold Books
This sculptural book has petal-shaped pages inspired by origami. Choose between the circular star format or the linear bridge format. A photocopier template for composing text is available prior to your workshop to create easy collaborative books. A versatile book form, the star format is easily turned into a color wheel book, Valentine heart book or snowflake book. Add a tassel and the bridge format turns into a graduation book.
Grades 3-12
1-1.5 hours
$7.50-9.50 per person
$150-190 group minimum
Softcover or hardcover
We can photocopy student writing for a fee
Usually offered with bright colored pages. Specific colors available upon request.
Portrait pop-up
Pop-Up Books
Explore the third dimension in bookmaking through paper engineering. Create a simple portrait or a tower base that transforms into animals, real or fanciful. Explore a variety of pop-up techniques to create a landscape scene. From the simple to the elaborate, there is a pop-up book that will fit your curriculum and inspire your students. Options include hardcover or softcover. Format options include:
– 3-section or 4-section pop-up
– Landscape pop-up
– Tower pop-up
– Portrait pop-up
Grades K-12
1-2 hours
$7.75-13.50 per person
$155-270 group minimum
Sketchbook / Journal
This classic hardcover book is a great introduction to Western bookbinding techniques. Students often experience a sense of accomplishment when they bind the traditional personal book. This blank book is perfect for future writing or drawing activities. Completed student writing may also be bound.Grades 3-12
2-2.5 hours
Hardcover Sketchbook/Journal:
$12.75-16.75 per person
$245-335 group minimum
Softcover Journal with Pockets:
$7.50 per person
$150 group minimum
Pockets and/or a CD holder may be added upon request
Ask about page layout for student writing
Stab Binding
Students will learn an Eastern bookbinding technique with this simple yet elegant design, well-suited for single sheets. Students make a blank book and learn a binding skill they can easily apply to future school projects. Ideal for publishing student writing. New: Advanced decorative stitching available for high school students.
Grades 3-12
1 hour
$7.50-8.00 per person
$150-160 group minimum
Available in two sizes
Publishing and template available for student writing.
Folders to Books: The Japanese Paper Folder
This Japanese folder is a single piece of decorative paper folded several times to create multiple pockets. By itself it is perfect to hold papers or cards. Add sewn pages to create a softcover book. Utilize the many pockets for a great research journal. The small format is the perfect size to hold CDs!
Grades 3-12
1-1.5 hours
$8.75-10.00 per student
$175-200 group minimum
Hardcover Post-Bound Portfolio Journal
Not just for photo albums, the versatile hinged screw-post binding is useful for gathering single sheets to use as a portfolio, journal, or to publish student writing. The removable screw-post allows for addition, subtraction and reordering of pages in the classroom. Two sizes are available. Holes can be spaced to allow standard 3-hole punched paper in the large format.
Grades 3-12
2-2.5 hours
$14-19.75 per person
$280-395 group minimum
Handmade paper covers
Historical Book Structures: Faux Limp Vellum
Looking for a historical book? Using the ancient tacket binding and faux leather with sewn pages, this lovely book is reminiscent of books from the Middle Ages. It's great as a personal journal; sturdy and flexible with a faux leather strap closure.
Grades 3-12
1 hour
$12.25 per person
$245 group minimum
Easy ways to add additional pages for more student writing:
- Most projects you see here start with a standard 8 sheets of paper — that can equal up to 32 usable pages!
- The structure of the traditional dos-a-dos offers 16 sheets of paper — twice the number of most other structures.
- The post-bound portfolio is quite versatile — adjust the length of your screw posts to the thickness of your pages.
- In a stab binding, adding more pages is easily; it simply requires MCBA staff to drill holes in additional pages before your workshop.
- The sketchbook journal can be made as a double or multiple signature book. A signature is a section of 8 pages folded in half.
Custom project: St. Anthony Park 5th grade pop-up biography books
Custom project: South High School, All Nations humanities class "Teen Voices" pulp painting and pressure printed postcards
Don't see exactly what you are looking for? We can customize a project to suit your needs.
Design a richer learning experience for your students by combining workshops. Suggestions include using prints, marbled papers or handmade paper as the covers for hardcover books.
Enhance your workshops by adding an Open Book building tour. This walking tour of our building exposes students to the larger literary community.
Rental space is available at a small fee to accommodate bag lunches.


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Prince of Peace® Tiger Balm® Ultra Strength Pain Relieving Ointment
Item # 492802
Size: .63 oz(s)
The product quantity for an item in your shopping cart has exceeded our Maximum Purchasing Policy. Please adjust your quantity to (12) and try again.
Your product couldn't be added to the basket because it is out of stock.
Product Information
TIGER BALM® NON-STAINING ULTRA STRENGTH Pain Relieving Ointment
Sports Rub
for Sore Muscles & Overexertion
Provides soothing relief for aches & pains due to:
"Works where it hurts"
Active Ingredients:
Inactive Ingredients:
|Cajeput Oil
|Cassia Oil
|Clove Oil
|Dementholized Mint Oil
|Paraffin Petroleum
PRODUCT DIRECTIONS / ADDITIONAl INFOApply Ultra-Strength Tiger Balm to the affected area. Feel the warmth of its ingredients helping to relieve muscle soreness and stiffness. Rub well on affected area. Repeat 3-4 times daily.
WarningsFor external use only. Avoid contact with the eyes. If condition persists for more than seven days, discontinue use and consult a physician. May cause allergic reaction in some individuals with sensitive skin; test on small area before use. If severe irritation occurs, discontinue use immediately and consult a physician. Do not apply to wounds or damaged skin. Do not bandage tightly. As with any drug, if you are pregnant or nursing a baby, seek the advice of a health professional before using this product. Keep this and all drugs out of the reach of children, In case of accidental ingestion, contact a poison control center or physician immediately.
For children under 2, consult a physician.
Imported by:
Prince of Peace Ent., Inc.®
3450 3rd Street, #3G
San Francisco, CA 94124 USA
Manufactured by:
Drug Houses of Australia
(Asia) Pte Ltd for Tiger
Medicals Ltd under licence
from Haw Par Brothers
International Ltd.,
Product of Singapore
5.0 / 5.0
2 Reviews
works great
Works great, very strong smell which I don't particularly mind but it could bother some people.
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March 31, 2014
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- Flag as Inappropriate
Great product and will buy again!
Great product for when you have arthiritis and tendonitis and other body aches
- Was this review helpful? Yes (11) No (1)
- Flag as Inappropriate
February 15, 2010
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- Flag as Inappropriate
Browse 1 question Browse 1 question and 1 answer
does this works like bengay or better
BEST ANSWER: Much like Bengay, Tiger Balm contains menthol and camphor, which acts as a slight local anesthetic to relieve pain.
- Reply
- Inaccurate
- Community Answer on Dec 8, 2013


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Conduct of Hearing
The appeals examiner will conduct the hearing in a manner so as to give ample opportunity to each party to be heard on the issues under appeal. The appeals examiner will ensure that each party is treated fairly. He/she will assist any party in asking questions. The appeals examiner is charged with the responsibility of developing a record as to the facts and circumstances concerning the issues under appeal and giving each party an opportunity to present all relevant evidence. All testimony at Appeal Tribunal hearings is taken under oath or affirmation.


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WA Gravity Enduro
Gravity Enduro is a racing format everyone can enjoy – from the elite to the weekend warriors to the first timers – our Community is welcoming, warm and well watered after the race…
Enduro 2018>>
7 unique locations throughout south-west WA with each location offering completely unique course with exciting elements for competitors from 8 to 68 – we welcome, U13's, hand-cycle, weekend warriors and elite! Come and experience exciting racing or make some noise from the sidelines and cheers on your mates
Special thanks to our 2018 sponsors
WA Gravity Enduro donate to local trail custodians, promote exciting mountain biking experiences, promote tourism opportunities and engage with State and Local Governments in finding new mountain biking opportunities.
We always need help managing these events so if you can spare some time to volunteer or are interested in paid roles, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com


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Julekake or Julekaga – Norwegian Christmas Bread (Egg Less Recipe)
1st Jan, 2015 Wishing all my readers a Very Happy New Year 2015! Looking forward to yet another great year taking you all through 'My Cooking Journey'. Thanks for all your support and encouragement. This is my first bake for


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Weight loss medications are flooded in the market and no drug has claimed popularity like Phentermine. This can be called as the best weight loss medication because of the highest success rate that it possesses. Since it is popular, it is known that there are many people in the world for taking the diet pills. Due to the intake of Phentermine by various kinds of people, the dosage strength for each person would vary.
Phentermine dosage strengths
The most commonly prescribed Phentermine dosage strength is 37.5mg. This would be suitable for most everyone. In recent times, people commonly preferred to buy phentermine 37.5mg online which was even prescribed by the doctor. But, there are also chances that this dose is not right for few people. So, how to identify the appropriate Phentermine dose? This should be done with the help of a health care professional.
The selection of the dosage strength involves various steps. First is the examination of the health condition. Phentermine is a medication that is taken by a person who has a body mass index of more than 30. The drug would be prescribed for the people who are in immediate need to lose weight to stay healthy. Most of them would suffer from various medical ailments.
Next step is to analyze the appropriate dosage strength for the person. You need not worry as a doctor would take care of it. For few patients taking the dosage strength of 18.75mg which is half the tablet before or after the breakfast per day would be more than enough. The doctor would prescribe to take 18.75mg twice in a day for few patients. So, we are trying to say that the dosage strength varies from person to person and you need a medico to find the best pick for you.
Which is the right place for buying Phentermine online in proper dosage strength?
A legitimate online pharmacy would be the right place for buying Phentermine online in the most appropriate dosage strength for the weight loss treatment. It is possible to get in a traditional brick and mortar store but the benefits that an internet pharmacy provides make us suggest it to our readers to go for online rather than local pharmacy.
What would happen if Phentermine is taken with wrong dosage strength?
If Phentermine pill is taken with wrong dosage strength for your body then you would not be getting enough effectiveness. Timely reduction of the weight does not occur. It would delay if lower dosage strength is taken or there are chances that you might not even lose weight at all.
If you take phentermine high dose than what your body requires then you would get into trouble. Certain ill effects might happen.
Important Note:
Phentermine should be taken for a certain long period of time to enable successful weight loss. This "more often" not covered by an insurance company drug would be very cheap on the legitimate site. A person need not have to worry whether their insurance covers phentermine or not. The cheap weight loss pills would also be an authentic quality which is the most important factor. Moreover, there would be discounts and offers in an online pharmacy.


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You want me to save the planet by paying for plastic bags?
Fine. But I'm going to get my money's worth . . .
Instead, you decided this was an opportunity to climb onto your high horse and enlighten me.
"It's for a good cause," you said.
"What cause, the store's profits?" I retorted.
"No, you're saving the environment," you said.
And that propagandic platitude is what did it.
"No I am NOT saving the environment," I hissed. "I am still getting the goddamn bag, only now I am paying you for it instead of you giving it to me for free!"
"Well they don't decompose," you persisted.
"Well then why are you selling them?" I said. "I'll tell you what, when Exxon Mobil stops spilling a gajillion gallons of oil into the sea and UAE airlines stops flying jets the size of Cuba hither and yon perhaps then I'll do my bit by not buying this piddling five-cent bag!" (There may even have been spittle. I actually am sorry about that part. That's just gross.)
At which point the poor bastard who agreed to come grocery shopping with me started tittering nervously and saying "Oh she doesn't mean that, she's had a bad day, she's tired, she's off her meds..." and so forth until I turned to him and said, "Don't YOU start!" and the two of you froze and looked at each other in an "Is she gonna go postal on us here?" kind of conspiracy.
And at that point I came to my senses and realized this is not your fault. And that you looked uncomfortable. And that you are probably about 16. So for that, I apologize. But I forewarn you, I will be back next week. (Your prices really can't be beat.) And the next week. And the week after that. And every time, I will be buying the five-cent plastic bags ... and probably complaining about it.
Editor's note: She usually comes in on Mondays. You might want to adjust your work schedule.


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We recently had Ryron Gracie do a seminar for us at our Jiu-Jitsu academy. Since I am a big proponent about the Gracie Diet, I used that as an opportunity to ask him about its history, what its central ideas area, and what was it like being a kid growing up with it.
More information about the Gracie Diet, including the book written by Rorion Gracie that can get you started with the theories behind it, some recipes, and whats safe to order when your out and about at restaurants, can be found on the Gracie Diet website.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Interview with Ryron Gracie about the Gracie Diet
1 comment:
Hello! I read that you follow the Gracie Diet and also did insanity and P90x. I'm starting Insanity again and also doing the Gracie Diet, I was wondering how that worked out for you? Where the combinations enough to keep you going? How about protein levels, did you add more nuts or cottage cheese? I wan't to stick to the diet but dont want to loose muscle mass with the workouts. I'm also planning on working out right after waking up, around 5 am? any ideas? I appreciate any tips you might have!ReplyDelete
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The filmmakers behind La La Land, Manchester By The Sea, and Moonlight will battle it out for the top prize at the 2017 Producers Guild of America Awards.
Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge, Deadpool, Lion, Fences, Arrival, Hidden Figures, and Hell or High Water are also in the running for the coveted Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Picture.
The brains behind Zootopia, Finding Dory, Moana, Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Secret Life of Pets will compete for the top animated film prize.
The winners will be announced on 28 January (17) during a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California.
The PGA Awards has a good track record of honoring the producers behind the eventual Best Picture Oscar winners, matching the Academy's picks in 19 out of 27 years.
The two organizations agreed on the top pick for eight consecutive years leading up to the 2016 awards season, when PGA officials named The Big Short their best film, while Spotlight was named the Best Picture at the Academy Awards.