This blog was created as part of a final project for the BYU class TMA 494 "Transcendence: Religion and Film." The idea for this project came as I thought about our text Transcendental Style in Film and Paul Schrader’s definition of cinematic transcendence and particularly about his conception of “the everyday.” As I read, I often found myself disagreeing with the way he described everyday life. At one point he wrote: “in the everyday nothing is expressive, all is coldness.” At other points he would use words like “static,” “bland,” and “predictable” and he would constantly imply that our “ordinary reality” is something undesirable that must be escaped or “transcended.”
It is my personal belief that tremendous beauty and meaning can be found in everyday things. I also believe that traditional craftwork like sewing and bread-making can connect us to our families, our communities and to God and that crafting yourself a simple, humble, typical life as a member of a family or community is something truly beautiful and admirable. With this in mind, I decided to title my project “Daily Bread” after the line in the Lord’s Prayer. We can find grace and feeling even in something simple like a meal with homemade bread, or a hand-sewn shirt. The mundane and the miraculous might not be as far apart as one might think.
