so i guess its a bit more conventional to start with a preface. but i choose a proface. a preface is a face before. a proface is a first face. and i, of course, want to put my best face forward. so, what is my first face? today, of all days, i begin this little cyber-journey to maybe put some pixels together, some letters together, into a kind of first face. i want to fill this space with discoveries and disappointments. i want to be honest about my most hidden hopes, and leave space for the holy hushes of mystery and magic. i want to wander through my thoughts and ideas and dreams (both day and night) and expectations. and so i don't begin this blog with a theme so much as with some questions: what can it mean for me to share these words with you? what is up around that bend? can we find community in the midst of a culture of consumerism? can a thing be Christian? what makes art good? or bad? or sacred? or profane? who is the greatest steelers linebacker ever? where do we go when we die? what is it about putting images together in unusual ways that uncovers a corner of the shroud of mystery for me and allows me to see just a glimpse of some great and scary and completely unbelievable God? i'm not sure these are the kinds of questions that get answered. but i'm not here for answers. i hope you aren't either. i'm here to ask questions. and enjoy the journey. so i am looking forward to it, for forward is the only way i can look, with this, my first face. greg.