HOLE-Y BOXES

The boxes stand about 10 feet tall. There are over 20 of them. Some act square as others elongate into rectangular behavior. Their concrete construction means you will not sneak off with one in the night.

Donald Judd, a founder in the minimalist art movement, placed each box just precisely so in the middle of a cow pasture outside Marfa, Texas. Tall grass lives with mesquite and cottonwood trees and concrete boxes that look like dice rolled out on a large tabletop. You can imagine the local ranchers’ reactions to this tableau. Maybe the boxes could be used to store hay?

We talk about box-y life in LifeSpace. Box-iness that constricts and minimalizes life with God. Judd found a way through the boundaries. His boxes are windows into another horizon as they frame the possibility of what is beyond. I got in the boxes and stuck my whole body out the other side into the expanse. I appreciated Judd’s portals into air.

When I am in despair over our uninspired way of being church or the ungraciousness of Christians or one more “Real Men Love Jesus” bumper sticker, the boxes help me remember there is a way through. There is hope. Joni