Jessica Gazzola

Today’s Icon is a farewell gift to my friend and teacher, Jeffrey Miller (aka Mef, Jeff, Jeffers, assorted other nicknames perhaps unsuitable for a G-rated blog).  Jeff is moving to New Orleans to follow the muse that has led him through death and back (sometimes in the span of 24 hours).

Jeff wears many hats: sculptor, painter, performer, improv comedian, yogi.  But when I first met Jeff a little over two years ago he described himself as a priest, quoting Jean Cocteau: “Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.”   The image I chose for Jeff’s icon points to his own person as the art he offers at his priestly altar.  The title, “Jeff Miller a Priest of the Almost-Not-Yet,” speaks to the hope (eschatological hope … to all you theology dorks out there) that Jeff embodies.  He always expresses a sense that he and the world are teetering on the edge of something new, the almost-not-yet.  And, in a way, he is always right.

I experience Jeff’s priesthood as the “wounded healer”[i] sort.  Not afraid to pursue with reckless abandon the many paths to enlightenment, he also admits when the path becomes littered with carnage, mostly his own limbs and heart laid bare.  But Jeff is a unique combination of the man beaten on the road to Jericho and the compassionate Samaritan that shelters him until strength returns.  Along this perilous road he has chosen for himself he has demonstrated that it takes more than death to kill a person and life returns with a new dawn.  He teaches through his yoga instruction that gentleness and compassion lead to openings unimagined by rigid beliefs.  It’s in the humanness of the Way that I and others connect with Jeff – in the day to day sufferings and ecstasies.

And sometimes, he teaches, you just need to yell.  Some mornings, staring down the tranquil Tower Grove vista, Jeff and his students roar at the invisible forces within that nag us with their stiff jointed persistence and, for a moment, we cry out that we are not our pain!  We are infinite… and then the echo dissipates.

If you want to know more about the professional styling of artist and performer Jeffrey Miller visit his website.

I and many others will miss your face, your energy, and the sun glinting off your head as you arch toward the sky in cobra, Jeffrey.  May the waters of the Mississippi carry the cargo of your memories.  Unpack them and comb through their bitter beauty, transforming them into light and sound and story for the good people of New Orleans.  And return to us in St. Louis the new creation you are already, not yet.

What do you see in this icon?

If you have an icon you wish to share, please post it on my facebook page with the hashtag #todaysicon.  I’ll collect the images and stories to create a collage of icons to be featured on the page, Today’s Icon.

Holiness is everywhere!

[i] Carl Jung coined the term, but Henri Nouwenn used it to describe the person in ministry.