Talking Notes

What do the existence of both ecstatic dancing and formal dancing about our relationship to forms and the desire for freedom. This note explores this idea at the nexus of tap dancing, apprenticing to become a pastor, and life.

LINKS: Sanctuary Ministries, Hillary McBride, Pheeroan AkLaff, Rashied Ali, DayBreaker, Henry LeTang.

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The tap dancer Bubba Gaines, in taking on Bettye Morrow as an apprentice, told her that he was happy to teach her because she hadn’t been taught wrong. Wrong teaching is everywhere, and by it comes the need for correction. Correction is described as a painful experience, but does it have to be? In this episode I wander through Psalm 23, Tap Dance Land, and my own relearning to explore...

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In a world in which we have had to define posed purpose and meaning as a thing to have to experience the good life, and made meaning something we can pull out of thin air, it is as if we have forgotten that meaning is everywhere, already. Here, through my experience in Tap Dance Land, I explore this idea.

LINKS: TiDii

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Special Guest – Esther Mun

Andrew and Esther discuss the journey of the creative person. We meander through conversations about dream, projects, prayer, and what growth looks like in the middle of the work.

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Exploring improvisation as a mode of being – a framing of the skill of choice-making that can be trained towards. In this note I start with my experience of improvisation in Tap Dance Land, then draw a bridge to the improvised life as it relates to the journey of spiritual transformation.

LINKS: a song performed by Sammy Davis, Jr., Studio Notes.

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Keeping with the theme of spiritual transformation, this note explores how the ideas of honesty and forgiveness conspire to create a unique way for transformation.

LINKS: the last note, spiritual formation for artists course, Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart, John Maxwell's 4 seasons of change.

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Judging rightly is one of the key aspects of spiritual formation. but judging rightly doesn't only have to do with the answer we arrive at, it has to do with how we are judging. In this episode Andrew explores how processes of judgement, definitions of knowledge, and visions of the good life all interact. Underneath it all? The idea that we can change – spiritual transformation.

LINKS: Thoughts on anger in the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, the instagram video that started it all.

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Thinking about what creates the climate for war and how to undermine that is what this week's episode is about. In particular, I explore the framework of the tribe in terms of formation and interaction, and what a different frame might look like. LINKS: My past writing on war, about conversations, and the hermitic life.

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Being a perfectionist and aiming for perfection are not the same thing. In this episode I share a little of my journey with this idea.

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A ladder on the highway, a self-justifying driver, and a contemplative drive home. I’m driving on the highway. This episode explores self-justification – by way of achievement orientation or the idea of authenticity – as one of the great lies that prevents true transformation.

LINKS: Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story, Saving Private Ryan

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