Calling Card Collection
© 1992 Ginger Henry Geyer
glazed porcelain
5 boxes with app. 400 cards, 6 ½" x 18" x 24"
How do we discern the call of God in the midst of the clamor of this world? Here, in this buzz? This collection of small porcelain cards, similar to Victorian calling cards or modern business cards, is like a brain dump on the word call. It includes a wide variety of statements, scriptures, and bits of phrases that have something to do with sorting out who's calling whom. This piece was begun several years ago and has continued to expand as visitors add their own two cents. So feel free to flip through these and add a card. It seems that no matter how hard we try to nail down a divine mystery (such as the call of God), the more it expands. When our compulsive logic is applied to the evocative it has to be laced with humor, or its earnestness becomes absurd. And, it quickly becomes apparent that porcelain cards are fragile, breakable and create an annoying sound when shuffled....not unlike some of the calls we receive, ignore or act upon.
Here's a few. Send me some more.
"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (Frederick Buechner)
"All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names..."
"The real question isn't whether you'd do something God asked but how do you know it’s God? One of the few tests is if the command makes sense in ethical terms.” (Bill Moyers, Genesis: A Living Conversation, p. 231)
"Here's 25 cents. Go call someone who cares."
"Do not despise prophesying, but test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thess. 5:20-22)
“Chanting bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in thee…” (verse 2, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee)
“On a megachurch’s voice mail: ‘If you’re calling after hours about a death in the family, press 9’ “.
“The reason Sinai is so special and why we are unable to hear Torah all the time is because the noise, static and muzac of this world drown out the sound of God’s voice.” (Rabbi Kushner, God Was in This Place and I, I Did Not Know)
“Some call it fate: I call it Italy.” (E.M. Forester, A Room with a View)
“Stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni.”
“They called Jesus a glutton and a drunkard.” (Matthew 11:19)
"And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will give." (Isaiah 62:2)
"Well, I ain't much, but we call it home."
"Blessed are peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9)
"Dying"
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like Hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.”
(Sylvia Plath, from Lady Lazarus)
"Call girls."
"Just have your people call my people."
"A call is not a private possession."
"The call for intelligence is a call for openmindedness, sound judgment, and love for truth. It is a call for men to rise above the stagnation of closemindedness and the paralysis of gullibility." (Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love)
"You have the right to call an attorney."
"Thou wilt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt long for the work of thy hands." (Job 14:15)
"Ding dong. Avon calling!"
"The dog left its calling card."
"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls." (Psalm 42:7)