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To live in the world is to live with shadows, even more it is to create shadows. In a universe that revolves around a sun, to live is to cast shadows. There are only a few times when we don’t have a shadow: high noon, cloud cover and night. All three are inescapable realms of life.

Night is often be feared; our difficulty seeing at night heightens our fear of the unknown; and of course crime, sneak attacks, and espionage often are perpetrated under the cover of dark but “dark” is so much more. Though often frightening, the night is also is our time for rest. Work ceases, communities gather to tell stories and dance, night is for intimacy and expressions of love. This light/dark dance is a daily rhythm. Every moment is either growing darker or lighter; it is simply the way life works on planet earth; a constant move from one to the other.

Remember God’s first act of creation in the Genesis one account is to separate light from dark. But the separation was not the whole story; rather it was the relationship between light and dark that together made day. The God-given shared identity “Day” that gave meaning to both light and dark. And God called the existence of light and dark together “good.”

Cloud cover forms when the convergence of the invisible warm water vapor in the air with cool air or surface condenses the vapor into visible water droplets or ice crystals. Basically cloud cover is about convergence, warm meets cool. What happens when “my world” meets your “your world”? When my cool front (my last name is pronounced “freezen”) meets your warm front. Sometimes I get steaming mad; sometimes my thinking gets foggy, still other times my vision clouds over. When opposing forces collide clouds, thunder storms, or even tornados are likely to follow. Clouds also give us rain, and who would chose draught over rain. The collision of worlds is vital to life.

At first glimpse the shadowless state of high noon seems so perfect. High noon is life directly under the son, life without shadows. Well that’s not entirely true; at high noon we stand on our shadows. The short period of time directly around high noon exposes sun-dwellers to the dangers of sun stroke, sun burns and dehydration like no other time in the day. One of the challenges of being in the sun is that we are often having so much fun that we lose track of time and before we know it we look like lobsters, feel faint and are in desperate need of a cool drink and some shade. To live in the sun requires time in the shade and vis versa.

What about good and evil?

peace, dwight

I want to say a bit more regarding yesterday's batman no more post. 

Bruce Wayne was certainly striving to be compassionate, in fact Batman's compassion one of the key themes of the film.  Liam Neesson's character saw Bruce Wayne's compassion as his great weakness.  After all, Batman not only had a desire to save the the people of Gotham but he also refuses to deliberately take the life of his enemy.  My concern has more to do with understanding oneself in opposition to another.  I believe that any view of the world which reinforces an "us verses them" is a threat to humanity.

The goal of love is not to destroy the other but to redeem, restore, reconcile and move toward one's in through God.  When discipline is punishment or vengeance then the relationship has shifted from seeking the best for the other, to making them pay. 

"Seeking the best" for the other is necessary vague, as the nuances of each relationship will require unique Holy Spirit guides action.  That's why love is impossible to legislate or enforce. 

Batman was cut from the same clothe as the Shadow League.  The Shadow League with their historic sense of moral superiority saw their acts of terror as a holy act on behalf of an ignorant people.  The Shadow League believed the destruction of Gotham was a prophetic act on behalf of humanity.  

Unless there is a higher ethic than "opposing the other's worldview" who can say that Batman has a stronger case than the Shadow League?  Who can claim that the United States has a stronger case than Iraq?  And on what grounds can such claims be made?

The ultimate mission of the Shadow League was the same as Batman's: their mission was to defend the defenseless.  Granted, their methodologies were significantly different.  Their similar mission reveals an important truth about evil.  Evil is good-twisted.  Evil has no intrinsic substance.  Thus naming another as evil, or evil-doers or evil-personified, hurts us all.  When we look underneath every "evil" act we see a desire for love, truth, beauty and transcendence.  ". . . the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God" (Bruce Smith, The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith, 1945, p. 108 - this quote is commonly ascribe to G. K. Chesterton though I can't find where he said it). 

It seems to me that when we begin to define ourselves as being "against" we open ourselves up to "twisting the good."  However when we see our attempts at justice and discipline as being "for" we may be moving in a healthier direction.  I'm not so naive to to think that a sharp dichotomy between "for" and "against" is possible.  Every "for" carries "against" with it just as every "against" carries with if "for". 

This is why relational theology is so important.  Relational theology lives into the paradox of "for" and "against" and chooses "us." 

peace, dwight