As a little incentive to visit our puppetry troupe’s new website, here is the first of our puppet videos :
The Hardware Store. – A hardware store clerk meets a very persistent customer.
Enjoy.
The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival 2007
The 18th annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival starts tomorrow, August 30th in Orem, Utah and continues through Saturday, September 1st.
The storytelling festival is absolutely awesome! If you have never been, and can be in Utah County this week, it really is worth checking out.
Every year, they invite ten or so of the most accomplished national and even international storytellers to come to Utah to teach workshops and perform for the festival. The festival is well known among professional storytellers, and each year the tellers comment on how impressive the event is when compared to similar events nation wide. Thousands of people attend.
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Category: puppetry
Tagged: art, children, entertainment, festival, storytelling, utah
Category: puppetry
Tagged: art, children, entertainment, festival, storytelling, utah
Maxed Out Puppetry – Check out our new videos and website
Sorry for the lapse in blog postings during the last couple of weeks. Blogging is but one of my time-wasting endeavors. As many of you know, another is Puppetry.
My cousin Rus Wilson, his wife Kelly, my close friend Sean Healy, my wife Chastity, and I founded the Maxed Out Puppetry – Puppet Comedy Troupe nearly a decade ago while still students and recent graduates of Brigham Young University. Since then we have performed at museums, libraries, festivals, parties, churches, and many other venues, primarily in Utah County, but also as far north as the Davis County Library in Layton and as far south as Filmore.
Since then we have been joined by additional puppeteers: Caitlin Shirts, Patrick Svensson, and David Wilson.
We are very excited to present our brand-spanking-new website:
Confession – Having Doubts About Faith
No, no…this post isn’t about me. I’m not having doubts about my faith. So don’t worry.
I just wanted to direct your attention to, and solicit your comments on a great short story entitled “Confession” by a Philosophy student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City named James Hoskins. Hoskins’s story puts an interesting, fun new twist on a familiar scenario:
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Some time, somewhere….Adam began having doubts about his faith. His mother was deeply concerned about him. She had been an active member in the church for as long as he could remember and faith was her life. Adam’s doubts had progressed past his private thoughts and were starting to come out in his speech. His mother was heart broken to hear her son question all she had taught him. She feared he had been reading books of false doctrine or, even worse, that his brain had been corrupted by evil philosophies. But she feared most for his salvation. She urged Adam to go and talk with Father Antony. Finally, after much reluctance, Adam agreed. After all, he regretted his lack of faith almost as much as his mother did. Indeed, he felt guilty for it. Yet, there were so many things that did not make sense to him.
Father Antony was an extremely intelligent man. He had quite an impressive vocabulary, yet he could still put complex ideas into common vernacular in a very thoughtful way. As Adam entered the Father’s quarters, his eyes passed over a long bookshelf containing all the books of the Holy Canon. Father Antony looked up through his reading glasses and greeted Adam with a warm smile.
“Hello Adam! Good to see you here. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t entirely my idea,” Adam replied.
“I know, your mother called me,” the Father said with a grin.
“That sounds like her,” said Adam as he gazed at all the books.
“Your mother loves you very much Adam. She’s just worried about you. I’m glad you came. Please sit down.”
After a very uncomfortable silence of what seemed like an hour, Adam began,
“Well, I guess I should start by saying I’ve been having a lot of questions.”
“About what?”
“Everything!” Adam’s eyebrows raised.
The Father, twiddling his glasses in his hand, said calmly, “Why don’t you tell me some specifics and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.”
…
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Read the whole story:
Confession by James Hoskins (pdf)
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Interesting Statistics Contrasting Atheism and Christianity
In June, the Barna Group published a new study examining the numbers, lifestyles and self-perceptions of American atheists and agnostics in contrast to those who actively participate in the Christian faith. The “No-Faith” segment was defined as anyone who openly identified themselves as an atheist, an agnostic, or who specifically said they have “no faith.” “Active Faith” was defined as simply having gone to church, read the Bible and prayed during the week preceding the survey. The study says:
- 9% of Americans self identify in the “No Faith” group (1/11 adults, or 20 million).
- Only about five million adults, however, unequivocally use the label “atheist” and staunchly reject the existence of God.
- “No-Faith” individuals are younger, likely male, unmarried, college graduates, and earn more.
- The proportion of atheists and agnostics increases from 6% of Elders (ages 61+) and 9% of Boomers (ages 42-60), to 14% of Busters (23-41) and 19% of adult Mosaics (18-22).
