tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post2019949185095704909..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Pitched past pitch of grief / 2Cord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-57921200476313481882008-04-26T06:51:00.000-04:002008-04-26T06:51:00.000-04:00I was one of Jason's classmates in the MFA program...I was one of Jason's classmates in the MFA program. This is a powerful post. The confusion of combining so many elements to make a larger story mirrors exactly the way I feel about what happened to him. It's hard to process.<BR/><BR/>As hard as it was to read this, I'm so glad to see that Jason was able to touch you in the brief time you knew him. He was like that, though. You couldn't know him without being affected.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-47627730915796724992008-02-08T13:47:00.000-05:002008-02-08T13:47:00.000-05:00Your posts have been wonderful. I am left needing...Your posts have been wonderful. I am left needing to reflect more on the issue of violence. I am a pastor at a Mennonite church and I certainly realize that being in a peace church tradition does not absolve me from violence. And if we cannot be absolved from violence than how do we articulate that? No responses at the moment. But thanks again.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17045950595392790139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-60611496598955563552008-02-07T17:26:00.000-05:002008-02-07T17:26:00.000-05:00indiefaith--you smoked me out way ahead of time an...indiefaith--you smoked me out way ahead of time and your question is the one that's been gnawing at me the most. I hope I addressed it somewhat in the last post.<BR/><BR/>jeffrey--thanks for your feedback and support and most of all the invitation to struggle with some of this aloud in the midst of such a great community of folks.<BR/><BR/>karl--*i'm* stunned, that someone else knows this little wordless text that has cast such a shadow over my life, for good and ill. i hadn't thought about it for years until Jason's memorial. i too don't really *know* how the dead call us to responsibility. i just know that they do and the echoes continue<BR/><BR/>msp--i've spoken with some of the class members and their experiences run the gamut from just moving onto the next thing in life to establishing an ongoing dialogue with me about these questions to literally laughing in my face about the way it caught me by surprise. teaching can be a tough business!dtklinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14754509776199786016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-10726857878039877192008-01-26T22:54:00.000-05:002008-01-26T22:54:00.000-05:00To comment at all seems presumptuous, nonetheless:...To comment at all seems presumptuous, nonetheless:<BR/><BR/>1) the course seems a fitting meditation in its own right; I wonder how the rest of the class has mediated their experience of suffering and the texts.<BR/><BR/>2) you have begun to accomplish for Jason what the writers and commentators have done for Isaac (and for Jesus): preserved his memory and probed the suffering (his, his parents,' your own) for meaning.<BR/><BR/>3) I still take my kids to church (and go myself) not because any of these stories have the answers, but because they can bear the questions.MLPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15841619034786706764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-6722225279848893402008-01-24T16:58:00.000-05:002008-01-24T16:58:00.000-05:00Finally had a chance to read this, Dan. I'm shaken...Finally had a chance to read this, Dan. I'm shaken.<BR/><BR/>I had that little colored booklet too, when I was a kid, and I can't help but be reminded of being a child and promising my love, each night, to Christ, praying that I not be sent to Hell, but knowing that I claimed love only to avoid Hell, and knowing that Christ knew this too. I know, then, that it was hopeless, and so each night I prayed in terror, wracked by my inescapable insincerity.<BR/><BR/>I can't help but connect, or think through, this terror (and, on a larger scale, Jason's murder) with 'useless suffering.' I don't know how yet to do this, but all I can wonder is how my inescapable eternal torment could call anyone to responsibility. And I wonder what the suffering of the dead does, how their lives call on us, even or especially when we've missed our chance.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-15234212262876986362008-01-24T08:24:00.000-05:002008-01-24T08:24:00.000-05:00I also want to share these lines, from Eileen Joy ...I also want to share these lines, from Eileen Joy and Mary K. Ramsey, lines that have haunted me since I read them and that seem appropriate here:<BR/><BR/><EM>Bodies (both alive and dead), history, and language, and all of the fiercely tangled relations between them -- what do the dead want from us, what might we want from each other at any given moment, and how might we sufficiently record our past and present histories in order to lend some kind of meaning and ethical content to what some of us fear, deep down, is a kind of unscripted chaos?</EM> ("Liquid Beowulf" LIII)Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-85718694376723089202008-01-24T08:19:00.000-05:002008-01-24T08:19:00.000-05:00Dan, this was so moving. You are quite a writer. I...Dan, this was so moving. You are quite a writer. I can't imagine a better memorial for Jason.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-886923158123610862008-01-24T08:03:00.000-05:002008-01-24T08:03:00.000-05:00Thanks again for these beautiful posts. The only ...Thanks again for these beautiful posts. The only thought that I have floating around is the relationship between Levinas' "uselessness of suffering" and your process of meaning-making. Do these in any way conflict or create tension? I do not know Levinas and cannot comment on that.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17045950595392790139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-27689545758949204572008-01-23T21:54:00.000-05:002008-01-23T21:54:00.000-05:00(o)(o)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com