Osler's Razor

I'm a little obsessed with my dad's series on Milt Hinton-- you can see part 2 here. Hinton was a legendary jazz bassist who played with everyone from Cab Calloway to Paul McCartney. He also took photos along the way, such as the one above of Dizzy Gillespie with French kids or this one of Billie Holiday:


I think part of what is so compelling to both me and my dad is that Hinton was both participant and observer. He was with Gillespie and Holiday not because he was a photographer lurking in the corner, but the bassist who momentarily grabbed a camera between takes (in the studio) or sets (in a club).

At our best, that is what my dad and I am, too.

He is an artist who is at his best working with other artists. Outside of that context, he embeds himself in what his subjects are doing: He paints people in church because he goes to church with them. He takes a photo of a person wading in the ocean because he is doing the same thing.

My writing is rarely objective or removed-- I, too, am at my best when I am both participant and observer. I write about drug cases because I work on drug cases; I advocate for clemency because I go into prison and take down the stories of people who want clemency.

I realize, too, that I have an inherent hostility to those who pose as objective observers, above the fray. If you want to know dirt, plunge your fingers into the earth.

That's part of what is fascinating about Jesus: God becomes not just observer, but participant in the world he created. Jesus feels pain, rejection, joy. He is in it with us. How transformative is that?