My gentle giant cousin, Charles III, passed away last week. He could play the piano so beautifully. He rarely spoke, but the music poured forth his whole life. One of my early memories of him is when all us cousins were playing football. I must have been 10 or 12 at the most. I remember he simply picked me up by the back of my belt and there I was running in mid-air, until he carried me over to our “sideline” and dropped me out of bounds. That’s how he politely declined to engage in the violence of the sport, lucky for me.
Candace and I watched the livestream service together this morning, and we so wish we could have driven up to Des Moines to join the family there in grieving and giving thanks for Charles’ miraculous, beautiful story. We choked back tears start to finish. The beautiful music throughout. Chris reading the opening scripture. And Joel’s words were a culmination to the beauty of the symbolism and music and meaning of the service. I’m so thankful for the faith of my family, and overjoyed to hear any telling of Charles’ story, and the last months of his pilgrimage here. Now Uncle Charles and Aunt Ilene have welcomed him home, and I imagine him playing piano with Grandma Jewell.
The family have made available some of Charles’ music: Spotify. Apple Music.
“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.… in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:23-27)
“Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don’t half-know to this day?” — Thomas Carlyle
Old books offer us the opportunity to recover meaning in what we do. The night sky is filled with hundreds of stories which remind us that a knowledge of the heavens has always been part of what makes us human.
What memories do you have of watching the stars? What stories do you like to tell about the night sky?
Hevelius star atlas. 2nd “Golden Atlas.” Includes three books, usually published separately: (1) Uranographia, or Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (“The Firmament of King Sobiesci, or Map of the Heavens”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (2) Prodromus Astronomiae (“Preliminary Discourse for Astronomy”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (3) Catalogus stellarum fixarum (“Catalog of the Fixed Stars”; Gdansk, 1687). Can you find the title pages and frontispieces for each of these three books?
In a public presentation, Starstruck Tonight, Candace and I describe most of the astronomical works on display in this section, along with poetry and literature about the night sky.
The Sky Tonight:
The images that fuse the beauty of modern deep space photos with historic star atlases may all be downloaded at my website skytonight.org. Information about each atlas is available under the “Sources” tab. Constellation images are found under the Constellations tab, etc.
Leonard Digges, addition by Thomas Digges. Leonard Digges, A prognostication euerlasting of right good effect…; Lately corrected and augmented by Thomas Digges his sonne (London, 1605).
Johann Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicum (Tübingen, 1596).
Andreas Cellarius, Harmonia macrocosmica seu atlas universalis (Amsterdam, 1708). First edition: Atlas Coelestis (Amsterdam, 1660/61). This 1708 edition includes the frontispiece and all of the plates of the 1660 edition.
Delamarche orrery (Paris).
“Einstein,” in Steve Jobs, Think Different (1998). Leaflet.
Background video: Many of these examples are discussed in the music section of my video lecture “Interdisciplinary Relations.”
Background: See the brief “Music of the Spheres” overview in Appendix 2 of my PDF essay on “George MacDonald and the Scientific Imagination.” (Blog post; to be published Sept 2026 by Winged Lion Press.)
kerrysloft.com: my personal blog; search for any names or topics.
kerrymagruder.com: my professional blog (under construction). See the “videos” tab. It also has a bio page.
lynx-open-ed.org: When you see references to “lynx-open-ed.org,” those resources will eventually reappear at kerrymagruder.com. The Lynx Open Ed website crashed and no longer exists. I am slowly reconstructing it at kerrymagruder.com but right now only the videos section is useful.
repository.ou.edu: Many of the books displayed are digitized and available in the library’s open access online library.
Become a researcher at the OU History of Science Collections:
You are welcome to come back as a researcher. You do not need to be an academic scholar. There is a registration process. After that, the books will be brought to you in the Reading Room. It’s good to request the books in advance so they can be pulled and waiting for you. All this is explained on the web page for the History of Science Collections. Go to the University of Oklahoma Libraries website (libraries.ou.edu) and navigate to the page for the History of Science Collections. There you can register online, request the books you want to see ahead of time, and ask any questions you have for Collections staff. And then come and sit with the books.
In this latest episode of his YouTube series, “A Spell in the Library,” Malcolm reads and muses upon “The Healing of Harms,” the final chapter of The Silver Chair. The passage includes a poignant scene where Jill and Eustace find themselves walking in Aslan’s country, after the aged King Caspian’s death: “Then they saw that they were once more on the Mountain of Aslan, high up above and beyond the end of that world in which Narnia lies. But the strange thing was that the funeral music for King Caspian still went on, though no one could tell where it came from.” The sorrow of the music brought tears to their eyes, even in the presence of the beauty of Aslan. Later they watched Caspian rise from the river into new life, at Aslan’s call, resurrected in a new creation.
In recent years, we have sorrowed and rejoiced in the passing of so many whose lives and homes have been centers of our common gatherings and joys throughout our lifetimes. On the Comstock side, Candace’s parents Junior and Phyllis Comstock, Aunt Bernidene, Uncle Charles, and many others, old and young (Emily, Lorie, Jeff). On the Magruder side, the five Magruder siblings and all their spouses except one, and several others. My parents Jack and Sue Magruder. Charles and Eileen Magruder, Steve, Charles III. Marjorie and Ernest Glass. Carolyn Baughman. Mitchell Magruder. Joe and Dorothy Potter. Charlie and Aleta Fountain. Dale and Joyce Brimer. And several from my own generation and younger still. Friends we have known from early in our lives are beginning to part from us also (Lee).
Time is precious. They loved us well. Their loss is as inexpressible as the joys remembered. The New Creation feels more like the home we long for now.
As we have carried these griefs and sorrows, I have found consolation in Malcolm Guite, Love Remembers: 40 Poems of Loss, Lament, and Hope. I prize all of Malcolm’s books, but this one is special — like David’s Crown, do not miss this. As with his superb anthologies on Advent and Easter, this book features poems by a variety of contributors: Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dante, Shakespeare, Donne, Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Luci Shaw, Scott Cairns, George Herbert, Holly Ordway, Christina Rossetti, and N.T. Wright, among others. With a few pages of reflection, Malcolm opens our hearts to the meaning of each poem and each poet’s story. The poems and reflections are grouped into the categories of “before and beyond the threshold of death”; “the shock of loss”; “loving lament,” the “bitter-sweet experience of loving through sorrow”; “remembrance of things past,” when “everything reminds us, painfully or poignantly, of the beloved”; “letting go”; and finally “receiving,” when the “veil lifts, we glimpse the goodness of things deepened and sharpened by sorrow.”
Malcolm cautions that these are not phases of grief. And true, indeed, in my experience they are shuffled all about and I found myself reading them in any order, and repeatedly. In the first six months after my father died last fall, no matter how I was feeling, there was always one that matched what I needed… one short chapter that was not too burdensome for a weary evening. This is a book I will live with, returning to often amidst life’s sorrow and beauty, until I myself awake in Aslan’s Mountain.
“But if you believe that the Son of God died and rose again, your whole future is full of the dawn of an eternal morning, coming up beyond the hills of this life, and full of such hope as the highest imagination for the poet has not a glimmer of yet.” — George MacDonald, Proving the Unseen, p. 9.
Update: (The following paragraph is a composite of part of what I’ve written to two friends when sending them a copy of the book.) Malcolm’s poetry has sustained me through the last 15 years to the degree that I consider him a pastor. All of his poetry books. Over the last year, this one has kept me going, after the loss of my parents in recent years. I hope the poems and reflections in it will be a consolation to you, too. I have lived with this book in hand this past year, and expect to do so again for a few years, if not perpetually, whenever I, too, feel existential grief or simply the gaping hole of their physical absence. I don’t think we get over grief; it just becomes interleaved with remembrances of joy, like one of those honey pastries from the Middle East — baklava. Or the coffee and deliciousness of tiramisu, my favorite desert. My phone rotates wallpapers of my Mom and Dad (and others of us, especially Candace and Ethan). But that is only one way of many that they are still with me. I depend on their affirmation and encouragement all the more, despite the poignant loss of the ability to sit beside them or give them a call. Several times a week I find myself instinctively thinking I want to call them, before a split-second later remembering that while they can hear me, I cannot hear them. Yet we are still together in the invisible yet real “communion of the saints.” I do believe they are with us and helping us and we are not left on our own in the family of God. I am so glad that they now understand our lives completely and (I believe) see the goodness we can’t imagine that lies ahead. We cannot wound them with our sorrows. To know that they can share our sorrows but with hope undiminished is better, in one way, than if they were still here.
“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21)
“You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) offers downloadable Red Card templates to print off and hand out to educate your immigrant friends about their rights. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) offers know-your-rights flyers with practical guidance. Both are in English and Spanish. Why not post them in your neighborhood, church, grocery store, and institutional bathrooms?
Update: After writing the above, a pastor friend here in Oklahoma replied:
“We are aware of the red cards and the fliers, but the way ICE is working there is nothing that can be done. They ignore the cards, they take the people regardless of what they say, book them and tell them that they will need to say that to the judge, which they will never get to talk to. By the time someone gets a lawyer to help the detainee, they are already gone, in a bus to Houston. They are not listening to anything one has to say in self defense.”
So awful! A travesty of outrageous injustice and rampant lawlessness. I’m grieved by the sheer lack of mercy and violence of it all. We have lost our communities. May God bring relief to all the vulnerable. May he raise up his people to cry out on their behalf as he cried out on the flight to Egypt.
“We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world…”
–Malcolm Guite, “Refugee”
Complete poem with a reflection and a recording of Malcolm reading.
Update: Malcolm comments on a wondrous example of understanding overcoming enmity. This short reading from the Lord of the Rings may help us learn to see the immigrants among us as our neighbors and worthy of our love. May we all become like Galadriel in this moment:
The Connects 2025 program is now available! See the final schedule, with presenters, descriptions, and links to abstracts, at the Connects website: https://connects.geosociety.org/program
The HPG Division is sponsoring the following sessions morning and afternoon Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The luncheon is between the two sessions on Monday. Also remember to stop by our booth in the Exhibit Hall, where we’ll have some merch for sale and some stickers to give away.
Tuesday, morning and afternoon: Pardee Day 3. Geoheritage Without Borders: International Perspectives on the Conservation and Celebration of Geodiversity. Room: Stars at Night Ballroom.
Posted July 14 on the discussion board for members of the History, Philosophy, and Geoheritage Division (HPGD) of the Geological Society of America (GSA).
We hope you are making plans to come to San Antonio for the annual Connects meeting October 19-22. With the fusion of history, philosophy, and geoheritage into the Division there will be much energy and enlightening conversation!
Five topical sessions are listed below. In addition to those, there will be a Pardee session devoted to Geoheritage (Tuesday, 21 October, P3). We will announce a student luncheon with an award ceremony and a business meeting shortly.
Abstracts must be submitted before August 5th, but why not now?
We hope you will present a paper in one or other of the sessions listed below, so make plans now to come to the meeting and submit an abstract asap!
Kerry Magruder, for the HPG Division Board
Topical Session 85: Crossing Borders in the History and Philosophy of the Geosciences
Session Advocates: Kerry Magruder, David Spanagel, Rex Hanger, Christopher Hill, Patricia Coorough Burke
Description: Presentations explore how the geosciences cross borders, whether disciplinary, geographical, national, political, institutional, social or philosophical in nature, including women and minorities in geology, international and interdisciplinary collaborations, connecting the field and lab, colonialism, social aspects of geological maps, etc. (To submit abstract, search for “85” or use the tag Primary Discipline: History and Philosophy of Geology)
Topical Session 86: Crossing Boundaries: Histories of Geoheritage
Session Advocates: Kerry Magruder, Rex Hanger, Renee M. Clary, Stephen K. Boss, Christopher Hill, Patricia Coorough Burke
Description: Presentations explore the range of meanings of geoheritage from a variety of perspectives that cross boundaries, whether historical, disciplinary, geographical, national, political, institutional, or philosophical in nature. Papers may address geo-sites and geo-collections which are contested, marginalized, or unjustly forgotten. (To submit abstract, search for “86” or use the tag Primary Discipline: History and Philosophy of Geology)
Topical Session 180: Philosophy of Extreme Events and Landscape Evolution on Earth and Other Planets: Thinking Geologically in the Spirit of Victor Baker
This session highlights Victor Baker’s contributions to Earth-based and planetary research on catastrophic events in shaping landscapes and the role of outrageous hypotheses in scientific inquiry. Presentations explore these transformative influences on understanding surface processes. (To submit abstract, search for “180” or “Baker”)
This special session will bring together researchers whose work intersects with or has been inspired by Professor Baker’s wide-ranging contributions. Presentations will highlight: Paleoflood Hydrology and Flood Geomorphology: Advances in flood hazard analysis, paleohydrological methods, and Quaternary geomorphology. Ongoing work examining catastrophic flooding events on Earth and their implications for understanding Earth’s climate and geomorphological evolution. Planetary Geology and Comparative Planetology:Investigations into surface processes and geomorphic features on Mars, Venus, and other planetary bodies. Connections between terrestrial analog studies and planetary exploration missions. History and Philosophy of Geology: Explorations of the historical development of geological thought, including the role of catastrophic events in shaping landscapes. Philosophical perspectives on scientific inquiry, including the nature of hypotheses, theories, and interdisciplinary research methods.By merging insights across these thematic areas, the session will reflect Professor Baker’s holistic approach to geology-linking observational data, modeling techniques, and theoretical frameworks to enrich both Earth-based and planetary research. We aim to feature a combination of invited and contributed talks that showcase current innovations and highlight the continuing influence of Baker’s scholarship. Professor Victor R. Baker-Regents Professor of Hydrology, Geosciences, and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona-has been a pioneering force in advancing multiple fields of geoscience during his nearly six decades of GSA membership (49 years as a GSA Fellow). His influence spans research topics ranging from paleoflood hydrology (a field he helped define), flood geomorphology, and planetary geology, to the philosophy and history of Earth and planetary sciences.Professor Baker’s interdisciplinary insights have profoundly expanded our understanding of how catastrophic floods shape landscapes on Earth, Mars, and Venus, as well as how geological thinking intersects with broader scientific and philosophical realms. He served as President of the Geological Society of America (1998) and chaired three GSA Divisions-Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology (1987), Planetary Geology (1986), and History and Philosophy of Geology (2010)-while also holding prominent roles in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Union for Quaternary Research. Among his numerous GSA recognitions are the 2024 establishment of the Victor R. Baker Graduate Student Research Grant Award, designation as the 2012–2013 Inaugural GSA Distinguished International Lecturer, and the 2010 Distinguished Career Award from the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division. Given his prolific scholarly output (over 1,100 scientific contributions) and international recognition, this session will celebrate Professor Baker’s enduring impact on geoscience, provide a platform for reflecting on emerging research that builds on his foundational work, and inspire future directions in geology’s integration of physical, planetary, and philosophical perspectives.
Topical Session 87: One Century of Oil and Gas in the Permian Basin
Times, colleagues, tools, and technology have all changed over the past 100 years. The professionalism and comradery of geologists in the Permian Basin remains. Historical perspectives to help innovate for the future. (To submit abstract, search for Primary Discipline: History and Philosophy of Geology). (To submit abstract, search for “87” or use the tag Primary Discipline: History and Philosophy of Geology)
Session Advocates: Francesco Gerali, Daniel Minisini, Julie Bloxson
The Permian Basin (an area that covers just 86,000 square miles – 220,000 km2) first boosted and then dramatically influenced the United States’ hydrocarbon supply starting the 1920s. Since the 1990s, it has been the epicenter and crucible for research and development of those unconventional technologies and new geological knowledge instrumental to sustain and implement the today level of hydrocarbon production. Knowledge and understanding of the history of the Oil & Gas industry are essential to analyze and interpret the energy transition process with due maturity and awareness. The history of oil is not just “a look at the past”: it is part of the training path of the energy and environmental science professionals ready to face emerging global challenges.
Topical Session 32: New approaches to old fossil collections
Material collected during the early history of paleontology conserves deep time ecosystems and remains available for study. We invite presentations of new analyses and interpretations of well-studied collections in the context of the broader history of the discipline. (To submit abstract, search for “32” or “old fossil”)
Session Advocates: William Matthaeus, Bryton A Smith, Ingrid Romero, Jonathan P. Wilson, Scott Wing
Paleontology is more than two hundred years old, and much of the material collected during the field’s early history remains available for study in museum collections. These collections conserve the ground truth of deep time ecosystems. They also represent an enormous and often irreplaceable investment because the fossil sites can no longer be collected. As theory and technology advance, new analyses of these invaluable collections become possible and offer insight into the history of life on Earth as well as the history of paleontology as a discipline. In this session, we invite presentations that describe innovative approaches to gathering data from old fossil collections, particularly those of historical and scientific significance. While focusing on novel methods and results, we encourage presenters to briefly contextualize their work with the history of the collections and/or collectors, and to consider the effect of that history on their work.
He was talking to me when I glanced at the wall. All of a sudden I wanted to sit down and weep… Time seemed to stop, or I wished that it would.
Now more than a month later in my living room I think of other times when a work of art seemed to confront me, to unexpectedly seize my attention, to evoke my utter astonishment… Van Gogh in Paris, Masaccio in Florence, Albrecht Dürer in Berlin, the “Water Lilies” triptych by Monet temporarily brought together in Kansas City, “Chorus from the Rock” by Michael Barfield in St. Charles, and museums in Edinburgh, London, Prague, and the United States… but among numerous such memories, none will stand out more indelibly than suddenly encountering “Psalm 139” by Makoto Fujimura in The Estuary Gallery.
It leapt from the wall across the space between us. I felt I was swimming in outer space — not through a dark emptiness but through luminous clouds of light. It was more like the “heavens” of C. S. Lewis’ Ransom trilogy than what the Apollo astronauts experienced on their voyages to the Moon. I sensed I was surrounded by endless colored refractions of light. Earth and heavens met together in the deep blues and greens of azurite and malachite.
Psalm 139 painting, with light Photo by Mako Fujimura
I did not wish to snap a photograph. I knew the camera on my top-of-the-line iPhone would never capture the sensations of refracted light which enthralled me. Mako posted a pair of photos on Facebook, however, that begin to hint at the effect:
Psalm 139 painting, Facebook post showing the difference with the lights off and on.
As I commented there:
“This painting is overwhelmingly beautiful. I saw it in person recently and it seemed to come out into the room, invading my personal space with an undeniably captivating presence, as if azurite and malachite had taken on active form, alive and embued with a mind of their own, transfigured, riding thousands of beams of light, to transfix me. The experience brought tears to my eyes and interrupted all speech. I am still processing it while meditating upon Ps 139. Unforgettable. I felt searched and known indeed by a love greater than the stars.”
I am processing it still.
On reflection, I am reluctant even to call Mako’s art “paintings.” They are multi-layered crystal refractions. I told Mako he is a geologist, unearthing the deep beauty of minerals. He is an engineer of light. In many places in his works, Mako describes the traditional methods of Nihonga art:
“I will never forget the first time I walked into a Nihonga store nestled in the Shita-machi (the old-town) section of Tokyo…. Pure mineral pigments were lined up on the shelf in apothecary jars, glittering. Hundreds of hand made brushes hung in another large wooden cabinet. Exuberant and refined, the pigments held their own aesthetic world view flowing out of thousands of years of Japanese paintings. This, I thought, was the culture of Japan, this captured the aesthetic of Japan… Coarser mineral pigments, being literally sand, create ripples of color when allowed to cascade down. I stand the painting against the wall, and using broader strokes with abundant water, let the pigments cover the painting. When displayed in a gallery, the pigments will reflect the light and shimmer like stars. Finer pigments and earth colors, including sumi ink made from pine tar, can be used to create water stains…. Depending on the weather, and the season, how much glue is used varies. If the glue is too strong, the pigments will be dull; if it is too weak, they will not stick to the surface. The slow evolution of an image, with each layer adding a passage of memory-traces, leaves behind a residue of the process of painting itself.” — Makoto Fujimura, River Grace (2007), pp. 2-3.
On p. 4 of the same book, Mako recalls William Blake’s poetic exegesis of Psalm 139:
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
Mako writes:
“Crushed minerals are literally ‘Grains of sand,’ symbolizing a gift from both heaven and earth. The process of painting, then, mirrors my deeper struggle to return the gifts back to the Creator…. Nihonga materials create a cacophony of sensuality and extravagance…. All four gospels record a woman… who pours the jar of nard worth a year’s wages upon Jesus… I believe the Kata [tradition] of Nihonga is my jar of nard to be broken and poured upon Jesus’ feet.” — Makoto Fujimura, River Grace (2007), pp. 4-5, 16.
When Mako told his father, a remarkable scientist, that he wanted to be an artist, his father was not disappointed but replied, “that’s what I wanted to be, too.” Below is Mako holding his father’s easel, which now resides in the Osamu Fujimura Collection of the History of Science Collections of the University of Oklahoma.
Mako holding his father’s easel
Mako’s mother preserved his childhood sketch of a bird
“LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them-—they are more than the sand; I come to the end-—I am still with you.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139 NRSV
Makoto Fujimura, The Four Holy Gospels (Crossway, 2011) Amazon. Keep this on a dedicated table for slow, meditative reading.
Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Herman, and Christopher Theofanidis, QU4RTETS (2012). If you like T.S. Eliot or Jeremy Begbie, you’ll want to read this (youTube; Mako at Duke).
Makoto Fujimura, Golden Sea (Dillon Gallery, 2013), Amazon. A coffee-table collection of full-page color reproductions, with essays by Kei Tatejima, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Julie Hamilton, and others.
Makoto Fujimura, Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering (InterVarsity Press, 2016), Amazon. To appreciate hope, suffering, Mako, and why American Christians need to understand Japan, don’t miss this. If you can read the Japanese version, do — it is not a simple translation, but has extra material.
Makoto Fujimura, Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life (InterVarsity Press, 2017) Amazon. Don’t want to be captured by the culture wars? This books lays out an alternative path toward living in a way that is generative in loving others. If you like Tim Keller, you’ll want to read this.
Makoto Fujimura, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021) Amazon. Why the New Creation matters for art… or for our work in any vocation. If you like N.T. Wright, you’ll want to read this. It applies as much to ecology and science as to art. Apply it to your own work.
Makoto Fujimura, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture (NavPress, 2024), 15th Anniversary Edition, Amazon. Short essays on a variety of topics, many with an autobiographical dimension. Read this at bedtime as an introduction to Mako’s art and vision.
Makoto Fujimura, Art Is: A Journey into the Light (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025, forthcoming). Can’t wait for this to arrive this fall!
Haejin Fujimura and Makoto Fujimura, Beauty and Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage (Brazos Press, 2026), forthcoming. Haejin’s work with Embers International is visionary. I first heard her speak at Painters-Prophets-Poets last fall, and her talk moved me deeply and memorably. Watch this video and then I predict you’ll want to pre-order this book.
Study the artwork reproduced in Mako’s books. But make every effort to see one of his pieces in person. Only then may one imagine the reality that lies beyond what the flat image on the page can capture. I intend to go back to The Estuary Gallery soon with time to just sit for a while in front of “Psalm 139.”
“Makoto Fujimura, 2025 Commencement Address at Gordon College” presents Mako and Psalm 139 in a nutshell. “You are called to create the future beyond the storm. The future is built by love,…”
The Galileo Inclined Plane working replica that was expertly crafted by Ron Mitchell for the OU Galileo’s World exhibit back in 2015 is urgently in need of a new home. It is a beautiful work of art as well as a functioning precision scientific instrument. Here’s the flyer PDF from back in those days.
Galileo described his experiment with an inclined plane in Two New Sciences (1636). Unfortunately, he omitted many details about the plane itself. Sparing no cost, we asked master craftsman Ron Mitchell to design an inclined plane that would have delighted Galileo. It incorporates design details as described by Galileo, such as lining the ball channel with vellum. As an experienced musician, Galileo timed the duration of the balls’ descent to a 10th of a pulse beat, but we can use stopwatches if we prefer!
The greatest design challenge was to make the tilt of the beam adjustable, unlike the replica at the Museo Galileo (photo here). Ron’s brilliant solution was to employ one of Galileo’s favorite simple machines, the balance. In Ron’s elegant design, one may slide the massive beam to a desired height with a single hand. After careful research, Ron painstakingly constructed the plane according to the methods of Venetian shipbuilding.
Inclined plane in high position (compare with photo at top)
The balls ring bells as they roll down the track
The track is lined with vellum
The inclined plane works perfectly for 2-minute explanations of Galileo’s physics with visiting kids. Using two balls of the same diameter, one solid steel and one wooden, let them hold the balls and feel that the weight of the steel ball is many times heavier than the wooden ball. Have them place the two balls on the track at the elevated end, the steel ball in front of the wooden ball, and let go of the balls at the same time. Ask:
“Which ball will roll down the plane faster?”
If the steel ball is at least twice as heavy as the wooden ball, shouldn’t it reach the bottom at least twice as fast?
High school and undergraduate students can use the inclined plane to rigorously replicate Galileo’s experiments establishing the law of free fall. They can replicate Galileo’s experiments, first with the beam in its high position and then again in the low position, demonstrating that the angle of tilt makes no difference, and thus suggesting that the same results would obtain if the beam were raised to 90 degrees or the vertical position.
One of the most distinguished living Galileo scholars saw this inclined plane in person ten years ago. He was amazed at both its workmanship and its design. He said that all future attempts to replicate Galileo’s inclined plane should use it as their exemplar and be measured by their fidelity to it.
Two balls of unequal weight; will the heavy ball reach the bottom faster?
Students from Gordon Cooper experimenting with the inclined plane
It’s free! This is a remarkable instrument and a cultural heritage object. Nevertheless, we need to find a home for it by the end of the month — it can go to any educational entity or educator willing to come pick it up. The instrument is 26 feet and 7 inches in length. It is segmented and can be taken apart for transportation. The beams are heavy though, so a crew of stout young backs to help transport is needed. You’ll need a dedicated space. To fit it into a very wide spot in a hallway may unfortunately intrude upon fire marshal guidelines: plan for a minimum space 28 feet in length and 5 feet in width to accommodate it. We set up stanchions to keep people from tripping over the platform when not in use, and to keep folks from bumping their heads into the elevated end if someone left it raised in the high position. Perhaps you can get a sense of its dimensions from the photos above (click to expand).
Please share this link with anyone who might be interested.
Update: I’m happy to say that, as of Wednesday, August 13, 2025, this beautiful instrument was safely transported to Stillwater, Oklahoma, by Prof. Flera Rizatdinova, professor of physics at Oklahoma State University, where it will be treasured for years to come. We appreciate the work of Flera and other OSU personnel, including Dr. Dorinda Risenhoover, to make this superb cultural treasure available to students and visiting groups there. Contact Dr. Rizatdinova if you are interested in visiting OSU to see it.
Enter the wild with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow…
Our 18-month-old grandson was touring wild areas of Washington and the Olympic National Forest the week before last with his parents. They sent us adorable photos of him utterly absorbed in watching, looking, touching, learning the names of every created thing. Starfish on the beach, waves upon the shore, the bark of trees in the forest, snow upon the mountains, whales out in the ocean. Our little word-acquirer walking through nature wide-eyed, learning to speak what he is seeing, to “be the singer and the speaker….”
While they were out west, we were connecting with friends in St. Charles. Two members of the family there, Melody and Micajah, are contemplating returning to Switzerland this fall. Melody’s mother, recently retired, spear-headed for many decades a Forest Kindergarten in Germany. Micajah is the one I would most want to lead me on a mountain trail. On a nature walk, I’ve never known anyone with a more observant eye to discern every creature and speak their names. It’s built in to who he is; almost preternatural. More than once I’ve seen him pick out a four-leaf clover from ten feet away. In another age, his penetrating eye might have cast him under suspicion of witchcraft, but it’s a God-given gift. He’s an embodied answer to Francis Schaefer’s prayer in Pollution and the Death of Man that we might treasure each buttercup on a Swiss mountainside.
And just a few weeks ago, Candace penned a letter to our Turnpike Authority voicing our lament by, and drawing renewed strength from, “speaking the names” of the creatures in our particular place, who live with us on the borderlands where the prairie of the great plains meets the forests to the east.
These several threads interweaving prompted me to meditate on “The Lost Words: Blessing.” This inspiring song accompanies the book The Lost Words (2017), by the renowned nature writer Robert Macfarlane, wondrously illustrated by Jackie Morris. Every nature-lover will treasure this stunning, large-format book. Hundreds of copies have been gifted to schools and hospices all over the UK. The John Muir Trust offers Explorer’s Notes for teachers, educators and parents to download free. The book invites us to recover nature words deleted from the Oxford Junior Dictionary (read the story here and here).
The “Blessing” is the final song on the album “Spell Songs” (2019) which accompanies the book. They released this video of the creative journey behind the album:
Julie Fowlis describes singing “The Blessing” live (above, top) as “always profoundly moving… I rarely leave the stage without weeping. However, it must be said that Spell Songs live shows are also filled with so much love, laughter and pure joy.” That live version of “The Blessing” is released on “Gifts of Light” (Hudson Records, 2023), performed at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Performers are Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kris Drever, and Seckou Keita. A Spell Songs II album was released in 2021.
In The Lost Words, Macfarlane describes each of the following creatures, omitted from the dictionary, with a poem: acorn, adder, bluebell, bramble, conker, dandelion, fern, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, magpie, newt, otter, raven, starling, weasel, willow, wren. The lyrics to “The Blessing” quote from or allude to these poems. The Spell Songs and Gifts of Light albums include additional songs about creatures not in The Lost Words. These are indicated below in quotation marks, e.g., “Silver Birch” (from Spell Songs II) or “Charm on, Goldfinch” (from Gifts of Light).
Enter the wild with care, my love [bluebell]
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river [heather]
May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter [kingfisher]
May you enter now as otter without falter into water [otter]
Look to the sky with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding [lark]
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light [“Charm on, Goldfinch”]
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling [starling]
Like the little aviator, [heron]
sing your heart to all dark matter [lark]
Walk through the world with care, my love [bluebell]
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding [“Thrift”]
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, [fern]
let the heron still your breathing [heron]
Let the selkie swim you deeper, [“Selkie”]
oh my little silver-seeker [“Silver Birch”]
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus [lark]
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home [raven]
Lament for Lost Words
Malcolm Guite has a Spell in the Library episode (2021) devoted to The Lost Words. He reads his poem, “Lament for Lost Words,” which he wrote and sent to Robert Macfarlane after Macfarlane published an article about the lost words (before The Lost Words book was created). Malcolm shows his copy of the book, with a wonderful inscription.
With the last line, I cannot help but think of Mr. Raven, the Sexton, in George MacDonald’s fantasy Lilith (1896), who invites the protagonist to enter into the sleep of death and awake to resurrection. For an introduction to Mr. Raven, watch Malcolm Guite, “When a Heart is Really Alive” (the Mr. Raven segment begins nearly 28 mins in). This was the keynote address for the George MacDonald bicentennial gathering held at Wheaton College in May, 2024.
For MacDonald, nature is the storehouse that fills and shapes our imaginations to make it possible for us to apprehend beauty and love, in one another and in God as well as in nature. Not even the gospel makes sense to us if our thought is not first deeply shaped by the forms of nature, which grow out of the very heart of God.
“If the world proceeded from the imagination of God, and man proceeded from the love of God, it is easy to believe that that which proceeded from the imagination of God should rouse the best thoughts in the mind of a being who proceeded from the love of God.” — George MacDonald, “Wordsworth’s Poetry,” A Dish of Orts
Our grandson in the Olympic forest, our friends in the Swiss mountains, our home in the Cross Timbers, the creatures remembered in the Lost Words, and George MacDonald all disclose to us that when we love others as ourselves, we count the creatures of the Earth among our dearest neighbors.
How do we begin to love? Speak and sing their names.
As God has spoken them into being and calls them each by name.
By doing so, we participate in the love of Christ who is the Priest of all Creation.
Speaking the names in love is a practice of anticipating the New Creation. It is a way of entering into the Love of God that is carrying us there.
Update, November 2025: With the above thoughts in mind, Candace and I and Karen Noad led a devotional at the Torrance retreat in Killin, Scotland.
Candace
Isaiah 40:26: “Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.”
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create all the stars of the heavens, not one is excluded from your love. You see them all and speak their names.
Karen
Psalm 147:3-4:
The Lord heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create the stars of the heavens, you see our wounds and heal us all. You see us all and speak our names.
Candace
“So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field.” (Genesis 2:19-20 NRSV)
Kerry
Oh Lord, you have set us upon this Earth to care for it and all living things, to love them and speak their names.
Our then 18-month-old grandson was touring wild areas of the state of Washington and the Olympic National Forest this past summer with his parents. They sent us adorable photos of him utterly absorbed in watching, looking, touching, learning the names of every created thing. Starfish on the beach, waves upon the shore, the bark of trees in the forest, snow upon the mountains, whales out in the ocean. Our little word-acquirer walking through nature wide-eyed, learning to speak whatever he is seeing. As he grows, he is growing in love for all that he calls by name.
Do you have a child in your life who is learning to speak the names of what he loves around him?
Just a few days ago, we talked with him on FaceTime. He gently caressed our daughter’s cheek, saying Mommy. He reached out his other arm to pat Stephen, saying Daddy. His parents then patted him on the chest, saying Ethan. He gave a sigh of delight and nestled snugly into his mother’s arms.
Speaking one’s name is always a part of what it means to love and be loved.
Karen
Matthew 1:12-16: “Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.”
Kerry
Remember now those you love by quietly whispering their names to God in prayer. Close your eyes if you like. Know that as you speak their names, your love for them is grounded in God’s love for them. You are participating in God’s own love for them. Whisper their names in love…
Someone you love
Family and friends
Those in your church, workplace, and neighborhood
Someone others tend not to see
Someone you know who is poor
Someone you know whose life has been marred by evil
Someone you know who has been abused, oppressed, and suffered trauma
Someone you know who has passed into the communion of saints
Someone who has shaped you but whom you have never met
Some forebear whose name is unknown to you
The face of someone whose name is unknown…
Someone you know who is in need of hope
May God deliver them. May they hear his voice call them by name.
God loves them all into being and part of his loving them is also his care for you.
Karen
John 20:13-14: [Mary Magdalene] turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
Kerry
Do you hear God call you by name?
Candace
Isaiah 43:1-7: “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Kerry
He speaks your name, in love.
When Jesus speaks our names, he brings a new reality into being. As Alan said last night, Jesus reconstituted Simon through speaking his new name. As Bob said this morning, his word is truth. He speaks a dynamic, creative word.
Karen
Matthew 16:17-18: “And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter.”
Kerry
God will address you, too, and give you a new name that is good beyond your boldest imagination.
Candace
Revelation 2:17: “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create all the stars of the heavens, we here and now, in the midst of sorrow, are not excluded from your love. Even our darkness is not dark to you. You know our names. You are the God who speaks from all eternity. See us all now, know and behold us, and speak our names. Open our hearts that we might hear when you call, that we might hear you speak our names. For we bear your name. Amen.
Karen and Candace:
Will lead us in singing a slightly revised version of “Fear Not, For I Have Redeemed You,” originally by The Fisherfolk, based on Isaiah 43.
Six years ago! Can’t believe it’s been that long. So many miles traveled, for both The Arcadian Wild and for us. How appropriate for this time of year, but this is not just for graduates! I still go back to this song with appreciation as I ponder the progression in the lyrics from individual to community, from seemingly unaccompanied to an unexpected ending. It reminds me of the encore they performed, of “In the Middle” by Jimmy Eat World, when last we heard them in OKC.
“The Graduate”
When you were younger You dreamed of being tall
But you discovered Growing up just leaves you feeling small
While you were sleeping Everything changed at once
You woke in the morning And stepped into the stinging light of dawn
You are wandering through the wild
You are wondering if and when you’ll reach the other side
Weighed down by a heart of stone
Bound to a body of broken bones
Fragile and feeling alone
But the whole story hasn’t been told
When you were younger You saw all the world was yours
But you don’t have the same eyes And you cannot believe that anymore
You studied the pieces Scattered around the room
Failing is fruitful So long as we do not forget to move
We are wandering through the wild
We are wondering if and when we’ll reach the other side
Weighed down by our hearts of stone
Bound to these bodies of broken bones
We carry such similar loads
Turns out we are not alone
We could cling to comfort, Content to run in place
Frozen, cause we fear the cost
But how could we expect to find out where we ought to go
Unless we get a little lost
We are wandering through the wild
We are wondering when, not if, we’ll reach the other side
We share a heart of gold
We are a body of broken bones
When were we ever alone?
Together we’ll make our way home.
Isaac Horn, Lincoln Mick, Finch in the Pantry, 2019.
Lyrics reproduced from the booklet Annotated Lyrics for Finch in the Pantry. Lincoln notes both that the album was released in May, graduation season, and that he began writing this song during his senior spring semester. He writes of himself as a “collaborator” working to help the creative ideas in the songs materialize. “Sometimes ideas will grow a little tired of waiting, and they’ll leave to go find another partner more willing to share their time and attention. But on other occasions, an idea will be incredibly patient and hang around for weeks, or months, or years until its creator FINALLY notices it….” There’s much more to read there. Lincoln’s lovely name for the progression in the song is “evolving choruses” (look for the same pattern in other songs). In case you’re wondering (as was I), it turns out a finch really did fly into his pantry (it survived). These annotated lyrics booklets are a delight, in both content and design.
I and my family live in the proposed path of the North-South Connector near 60th SE and Lindsey in a beautiful wooded neighborhood of 60 homes on 2½ acre lots that has been here for 50 years. I have friends who built their homes and raised their families between 48th and 72nd SE in the proposed corridor and have multiple generations of their family living out here. We are in the heart of the unique Cross Timbers region of central Oklahoma. Our neighborhood contains native post oak, blackjack oak, pin oak, shumard oak, and chinquapin oak; hickory; black walnut; rusty blackhaw; roughleaf dogwood; sugarberry; redbud; gum bumelia; pecan; coralberry; beautyberry; sumac; persimmon; cottonwood; American elm; and loblolly pine. I’ve loved learning the names of these majestic beauties. When I walk the neighborhood, I often collect Oklahoma’s distinctive rose rocks from the narrow vein that runs through here. I gather morel mushrooms and dewberries in season.
The wildlife is vibrant here, particularly the birdlife. As I write this, I see a flurry of activity in my backyard as bird parents are introducing their recently fledged hatchlings to the smorgasbord outside my windows. I watch a mama bluebird venture out of her birdhouse where she’s brooding five eggs. Our neighborhood is home to cardinals; white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches; eastern bluebirds; blue jays; tufted titmice; Carolina chickadees; pileated, downy, hairy, red-bellied, and flicker woodpeckers; crows; ruby-throated hummingbirds; roadrunners; barred owls; red-shouldered hawks; Mississippi kites; white winged and mourning doves; mockingbirds; pine siskins; yellow-rumped warblers; brown headed cowbirds; painted buntings and indigo buntings; goldfinches, purple finches and house finches; robins; Carolina and house wrens. These are the birds we see from our windows. In the tree canopy we hear and hope to catch fleeting glimpses of blue-gray gnatcatchers; great crested flycatchers; northern parula; white-eyed, red-eyed, warbling, and blue-headed vireos; summer tanagers; Nashville, yellow-throated, orange-crowned, black-and-white, Tennessee, and yellow warblers; cedar waxwings; brown thrashers and Swainson’s thrushes. Every morning and evening we watch a great blue heron wing its way to and from Lake Thunderbird to our east and its heronry somewhere to our northwest.
We and our neighbors are stewards of this land and of the wildlife that’s found refuge here, the fox squirrels, rabbits, opossums, armadillos, turkey, deer, foxes, bats, bobcats, coyotes, skunks—some of which are considered nuisances to our urban neighbors to the west. They have found refuge here and so have we. We’ve been here for 16 years and have stewarded our few acres with love and care, avoiding chemicals in our yard that would inevitably end up in Lake Thunderbird just a mile or so away and damage the habitat we share.
I realize this land is just a plot on a map to you, a potential route for a toll road. But I’m asking you to take a moment to see this land through my eyes. I beg of you, please do not destroy our land and our neighbors’ land and take our homes for something that isn’t needed or wanted but instead will devastate the Cross Timbers ecosystem. I don’t presume to understand your motives. I cannot judge your hearts. But your actions speak for themselves.
Yesterday, I drove through Picher, Oklahoma on my way home from visiting a friend in Kansas City. Picher is an ugly nightmarish wasteland of mountains of toxic chat from the lead and zinc mines, a ghost town with the life sucked out of it, what remains after a valuable commodity was removed from the earth without understanding or regard for how it affected the people or the ecosystem there. Then I drove down Kickapoo Turnpike just to see what you accomplished there. I saw very few cars but a vast unnecessarily wide swath of engineered and prettily turfed wasteland where homes once stood and the ecosystem was forever altered. Take a moment to remember what happened in Picher. Heed history. I know your toll roads are easy on the eye compared to Picher, but we who live out here know what will be destroyed and disappear forever if you build your toll roads through here. We will stand against what you think is good for what we know is best.
Sincerely,
Candace Magruder
PS: For more information and to follow public objections to the turnpike extension, we recommend Amy Cerato’s substack.
Webinar: “Foundations of U.S. Geoheritage Efforts: Preserving the Past, Advancing the Future” — Geological Society of America. May 14, 10am US Central. Watch recorded video (free registration required).
Melanie Brandt, MBA, CAE, Executive Director and CEO of The Geological Society of America
Tom Casadevall, Ph.D., Chair of the U.S. Geoheritage Advisory Committee and Scientist Emeritus of the USGS Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Denver, Colorado
Renee Clary, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Dunn-Seiler Museum in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University
Kerry Magruder, Ph.D., Chair of the GSA History, Philosophy, and Geoheritage Division and Curator of History of Science Collections at the University of Oklahoma Libraries (Slides pdf)
Drew Andrews, Ph.D., GSA Strategic Outreach Consultant and Mapping Manager for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (Moderator)
Update: For anyone who is new to geoheritage, I can’t imagine a presentation better crafted than Tom’s to provide an overview of current geoheritage efforts. It is well worth the time to watch and take notes. Renee and I followed up with two short talks to illustrate why the US Geoheritage Committee is being located within the History and Philosophy of Geology Division of the GSA — which just this past March was renamed the History, Philosophy, and Geoheritage Division (retaining the same acronym HPGD). Renee recounts the ways in which geoheritage and the current work of the Division overlap to a remarkable degree. She is the ideal person to make that case, and in so doing crafted a winsome welcome to the Division for everyone in geoheritage. My short talk is more of an addendum addressed to existing members of the Division, who may have been tuning in with questions about whether we are diluting our focus. All of us could have talked about where we are going with future initiatives, but first I wanted to put on record the reasons why this expansion into geoheritage is not contrary to our nature as defined by our past experience even in the “history of geology” per se. So Renee’s survey of recent and current activity, and my delving into early Division activity, provide a basis for the future initiatives that we will be focusing on at the Connects 2025 meeting in San Antonio this fall.
