Dane Ralph

The irony is not lost on me 🙈

“Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us and who produces varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”

“Canticle of the Sun” / Saint Francis of Assisi

Lyrics:

What if I threw my phone away
I think I’d survive the day (the day)
And the next one
And the next one after that
And everything would be okay (okay)
If I threw my phone away
What if I threw my phone away

I’d watch a flower bloom
A grape grow
From the vine
Planted long ago
I’d eat from the tree
Of good and evil
And of life
A god I’d be

I’d run down to the bank of the river
And it would share the secret of sinuosity
Is that no one’s out of reach

What if I threw my phone away
I think I’d survive the day (the day)
And the next one
And the next one after that
And everything would be okay (okay)
If I threw my phone away
What if I threw my phone away

“What If I Threw My Phone Away” written by Dane Ralph

Hope is a dangerous thing.

“When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified, the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope… As was natural, this inordinate hope was followed by an excessive depression. The certitude that some shelf in some hexagon held precious books and that these precious books were inaccessible, seemed almost intolerable.”

“The Library of Babel” / Jorge Luis Borges

Lyrics:

In the touch of a hand
In the dart of a glance
Hope is a dangerous thing
Gets you up real high
‘Til you believe you can fly
Then goes on and cuts the string
In the falling you’ll feel free
But on the ground you’ve lost everything
In the touch of a hand
In the dart of a glance
Hope is a dangerous thing

I think my life was better before I knew who you were
Before I gave a stranger all my power
Was it a give or was it a take
Does it matter when it’s gone either way

In the touch of a hand
In the dart of a glance
Hope is a dangerous thing
Gets you up real high
‘Til you believe you can fly
Then goes on and cuts the string
In the falling you’ll feel free
But on the ground you’ve lost everything
In the touch of a hand
In the dart of a glance
Hope is a dangerous thing

Original song “Hope is a Dangerous Thing” written by Dane Ralph

Drawing in the margins.

“Systemic abuse applies when a system that is designed to serve people is instead destroying them, reducing, harming, wasting, and dehumanizing those created in the image of God. Dignity, vibrancy, impact, creativity, building, and producing are silenced and crushed. This distortion results in the parts of the system standing together to serve the system rather than the people. When systemic abuse occurs in an organization theoretically unified around a good purpose, the overt or stated purpose is not in fact the governing one. For abusive conduct to be perpetrated by agents of a system, that conduct must be facilitated by fundamental, though often hidden, properties of the system itself. In other words, a susceptibility to abuse is built in at some underlying level of the system’s architecture. Any godly response to abuse requires restorative actions that work toward the recovery of the image of God that has been distorted.”

Redeeming Power (76) / Diane Langberg

Lyrics:

There is a fragment of charcoal
On Douglas Avenue
If you look closely
You will see the hand it belonged to

Talking it up as the light turned green
Under his breath and the honking
“Mr. Dane the doc said it’s Stage D”

Heart failure

There is a charcoal drawing
Floating on the wind
If you look closely
It’s an eye for the world that didn’t see him

Careful with them don’t know where they’ve been
Unclean generational sin
It ain’t you it’s the world with a case of

Heart failure

In circles and circles discussing
Humans as if they aren’t being
Slaughtered by our lack of action
Back and forth the pendulum swings
What will it take for you to see
It’s the same fate we’re all suffering

Heart failure

Original song “Heart Failure” written by Dane Ralph