Art Ross - Outside Reading 1, "The Eighteen Inch Journey"

The Eighteen Inch Journey is self described as a collection of writings, art, recipes and photography to inspire friendship with the Trinity. In each of my outside reading blogs I'm going to focus on a different part of the book.

I think the best place to start, as with anything, is at the beginning. The Eighteen Inch Journey...where the heck does that come from? What journey takes place over eighteen inches? Probably an easy one. But not here, this eighteen inch journey may be the most difficult adventure in which any of us embark. The eighteen inches in this context refer to the approximate distance between your head and your heart. Surely we all know the challenge in marrying the two perspectives; oftentimes our flesh is looking to satisfy short term, impulsive wants while our heart advocates long term benefits of living well. I think we can also look at the Head and the Heart as marrying Experience to Myth. In our hearts are the deeper, realer laws of the world: forms of good and evil, beauty and hope, etc. and in our heads are logic, cynicism, judgement and selfishness.

If we can let Myth (God) flow into our whole being I believe our lives will be far more whole than they ever could be alone. And that's where the Journey begins...