We all have a natural call

We all have a natural call

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I found this quote by Sister Natalia to be a very powerful and spot on understanding of religious life.

Sister Natalia

“We all have a natural call to marriage, but some of us have a calling to celibacy. That calling doesn’t come instead of a desire for marriage – it transcends it. My desire for a spouse helps me lean into Christ as my bridegroom.”

Today’s society is full of confusing and contradictory stances on sexuality that seem to be constantly and often radically changing directions every few years. One has to stop and ask themselves what is the truth of our sexuality if there is no agreement that lasts more than a few years? This isn’t just academic, it has far-reaching impacts on how we form families, pair bond, and how we define the happiness of the most meaningful long-term relationships of our lives.

That’s why I love Sister Natalia’s quote. She understand rightly that we all have a natural desire and calling to find a deep, fulfilling relationship in which we can express ourselves fully (including our sexual energy). That expression, however, is above all else relationship. Deep, fulfilling, open, vulnerable, wild, crazy, and sometimes frightening relationship that fully expresses our being in all dimensions.

As a person that explored religious life for 4 years at a monastery, I can firmly say that kind of fulfilling relationships is what all of us really seek. To reduce religious life, or ourselves, to our sexuality is to really miss the mark. As sister Natalia says, it is all about relationship – the relationship you have with God and bringing our COMPLETE selves to that relationship.

Have you found your complete fulfillment in your relationship with God above all others? Does it appear you have the gift of finding that expression of your love with God and being with him every day through what you are called to do and be for Him? Do you find that every day, you ‘lean into’ Christ as the most important person in your life more and more? Hopefully all Christians can say that, but for a person with a religious vocation, they find that ‘leaning in’ day by day with Christ to be the most important relationship. To the point that to do otherwise would be to deny who they are. And isn’t that the kind of self-fulfillment and self-expression we all seek?

Papercraft animals

Papercraft animals

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Wolfram Kampffmeyer crafts vibrant paper polygon sculptures and taxidermy-style busts that he then translates to DIY kits sold under the Paperwolf brand. Minimal and playfully colored, Kapffmeyer’s menagerie includes a seated koala, multiple birds in flight, and of course, the original wolf. In addition to patterning pieces for his Etsy shop, the designer also works on a variety of commissions and collaborations, which result in large-scale sculptures in steel and wood.

Using round displays

Using round displays

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Penk Chen created a nifty little computer with a round display. Even more cool, he made the project completely open source – including the 3D printable parts . Just gather up the right parts and give it a go:

I was always a big fan of Manny Calavera’s computer in Grim Fandango. Maybe this is an opportunity for me to make one.

Dinner Party VR experience

Dinner Party VR experience

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Dinner Party is a VR movie experience that tells the story of Barney and Betty Hill, an American couple who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19 to 20, 1961. It was the first widely publicized report of an alien abduction in the United States. Their story was adapted into a best-selling 1966 book The Interrupted Journey and a 1975 television film The UFO Incident.

Now, it’s been turned into a VR movie experience. You start by going into a real world 1960’s era dining room set, sit at the table, don your VR goggles, and watch the experience in 360 around you.

Trailer:

Information about how they created the experience:

Daniel Rozins’ Mechanical Mirrors

Daniel Rozins’ Mechanical Mirrors

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If you’re in New York City, you can see artist Daniel Rozins’ mechanical mirrors at bitforms gallery Here are two sculptures, “CMY Shadows Mirror” and “RGB Peg Mirror.” Both works reproduce full-color reflections, although the former uses the subtractive color model and the latter additive color.

CMY Shadows Mirror

RGB Peg Mirror” (2019), anodized aluminum knobs, motors, 3D camera, control electronics, computer, custom software. See more of Rozin’s works on his site and Instagram.

Check out one of his other interactive devices like “Trash Mirror #3″

Nakagin Capsule Tower comes to an end

Nakagin Capsule Tower comes to an end

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Completed in 1972 the Nakagin Capsule Tower was a rare remaining example of Japanese Metabolism (alongside the older Kyoto International Conference Center), an architectural movement emblematic of Japan’s postwar cultural resurgence. It was the world’s first example of capsule architecture ostensibly built for permanent and practical use.

The capsules that make up the main structure of Nakagin Tower were designed to be rotated and replaced every 25 years. However, lack of funds resulted in rotation and replacement of capsules that never took place and ultimately led to a deterioration of the structure.

Inside Japan did a fabulous video that toured the inside of the units and talked with one of the remaining owners.

The building, however, fell into disrepair. Only around thirty of the 140 capsules were still in use as apartments by October 2012, while others were used for storage or office space, or simply abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. There is the additional problem that the structure no longer adheres to modern earthquake standards in quake prone Tokyo.

Now the tower’s time has come and the building is now officially being dismantled. There is one bright spot: the current owners, Tatsuyuki Maeda, explained that a team is trying to preserve some of the capsules and regenerate them as accommodation units and museum installations around the world. Maeda’s statements are based on an announcement by the Kisho Kurokawa Chiyoda-ku Office of Architects and Urban Design that it aims to dismantle the iconic architecture and reuse its capsules as accommodation units and museum installations. Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project is extracting and preserving various unique unit components and extracting unit A606 to put on display with all of it’s original equipment.