The Infusion

Report from the Zinfandel Festival

2012-01-29T13:26:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of working at a winery is occasionally scoring free tickets to wine events, such as this week's Zinfandel Festival hosted by ZAP, the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers. And so on Saturday morning, a friend and I headed over to San Francisco for the Grand Tasting event. So awesome! I'd never been to an event like it, so I'm still a bit overwhelmed.

The first thing that happens when you walk in is that you get an 80-page booklet detailing all of the wineries at the event: first by appellation (where the grapes are grown); then by whether they are old vines or single vineyard wines; then by number of cases of wine produced; then by price; and then alphabetically by winery, including what vintages are on hand.

Then you hand over a ticket and pick up your glass, inscribed with the ZAP logo, that you will use to taste all the wines you care to taste and that you get to bring home as a souvenir.

Goody! A souvenir!

Then you walk a little further and a man wearing white gloves hands you a mini-baguette wrapped in a napkin.

Goody! Bread!

Then you think to yourself, "I wish I'd brought a tote bag," since you don't have the four arms required to hold wine glass, baguette, and program while taking notes on the wines you are tasting. Nevertheless, you press on and enter...

the Grand Tasting itself...

where every Zinfandel producer from Acorn Winery to Zynthesis Cellars is set up...

with open bottles of wine, ready to tempt you. It was daunting, and there's no way to do them all so you have to be selective. We stopped by the Hendry table to say hello...

My co-workers, Luis and Angela (my boss!)

...and to get some suggestions on whose wine to try. Even then, it was still too much to do; my sense of taste got burnt out pretty quickly. But with bites of bread and sips of water in between each sample, I think I was able to get a good sense of what I was tasting.

We ended up sampling wines from about 10 different winemakers, and it's astonishing how different they can be--even from one winery, going from year to year or location to location.

Rosenblum (Alameda, represent!) was especially noteworthy for using grapes from different sources and having completely different wine profiles. All so good! D-Cubed, whose winemaker is the current president of ZAP, served both 2008 and 2007 vintages, which were notable for how different the years were.

Two of my favorites were the 2010 R.W. Moore Vineyard Zin from Robert Biale Vineyards--poured for us by Bob Biale himself--and the Mayacamas Range Zin from Storybook Mountain Vineyards.

I'm not going to say which one was jammy or peppery or had a lot of red fruit flavor, mostly because I don't have a clue what I'm talking about, but I can tell you that tasting all of these Zins at once--well, first of all, I can understand why they gave out a baguette; but secondly, it was amazing to get the sense for what wine people are talking about when they talk about the differences among wines. They were all so distinct. I'm sorry I didn't get a better chance to write notes while I was tasting as opposed to scribbled memories on the BART train back home. But I tell you one thing, when people talk about how wines and wineries and vintages have individual characters, I have a better idea of what they mean. It's so fun to get the opportunity to learn something about it. What a treat.

Sunday Funnies, January 29

2012-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

We're in the mood for a little poetry here at the Infusion, starting with this from Nate Silver's blog tracking the numbers in the presidential primaries:

You can find pretty much every species of poll in Florida right now.

There are polls where voters checked a box. There are polls that were reported on Fox.

There are polls that called the voter’s house. There are polls where voters clicked a mouse.

Though the numbers were here and there, the outcome was the same everywhere.

Unless there is a major glitch, Mitt Romney will beat Newt Gingrich.

Well, we'll see on Tuesday.

**
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the blogosphere, Tim Schenck, Lent Madness Uberlord, has written The Annual Meeting Haiku:

Budget blah, blah, blah
Something about Jesus Christ
Please up your pledges.

Think he's been to one or two? Naaaah.

Various & Sundry, January 27

2012-01-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

I think my favorite obituary of the week was for ChiChi, "Perhaps World's Oldest Dog," who died at the age of 26? 25? No one really knows. Poignant, though. “'We just feel completely empty; the whole apartment’s empty,' Mr. Pavich, 38, said in an interview. 'That little 10-pound guy fills up not just your apartment, but your life.'" Aww.

Also this week, I was very sad to see that organist Gerre Hancock died. He was a master of improvisation, as you will hear if you listen to the improv at the end of this post. "When asked about the difference between sacred and popular music, Hancock replied: 'It's all sacred as far as I'm concerned. Some works better in nightclubs than in churches, but anything beautiful is sacred.' A fitting epitaph, and by that measure, he gave the world a vast treasure of sacred music." Amen.

Liturgy geeks, take note! Jonathan Hagger, aka MadPriest, has started a new venture, offering New Words for Holy Communion, a monthly, downloadable resource providing prayers, intercessions, acclamations, biddings and blessings for use in the eucharistic services of the church. He does very good work, and I can imagine this being an excellent resource.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has done an amazing series of posts this week confronting some "comfortable history" about the Civil War. They are long, but well worth reading. Part I addresses the situation facing Lincoln when he took office; Part II speaks of the economics of slavery; Part III compares the American Civil War with the end of slavery in other nations.

Part I ends very powerfully this way:

I have come to a fairly recent regard for Lincoln. He rose from utter frontier poverty, through self-education and hard work, to the presidency and the upper reaches of American letters. His path was harsh. His wife was mentally ill. His son died in office. He was derided in newspapers as ugly, stupid, a gorilla and white trash. For his patience, endurance, temperance and industry in the face of so many troubles, Lincoln was awarded a shot to the head.

Now in some sectors of the country for which Lincoln died, patriotism means waving the flag of his murderer. The party he founded supports this odious flag-waving and now gives us a candidate who would stand before that same flag and peddle comfortable fictions. What hope is there when those who talk of patriotism brandish the talisman of bloody treason?

The matter falls to you. Don't conned. Don't be a mark. Live uncomfortable.

Psst...need a Lenten program?

2012-01-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

While I'm on this self-promotion kick, I wanted to make sure you know about the Lenten program I wrote for Every Voice Network. Called Eat, Pray, Grow (which was not my choice, I admit) it's a five week program (natch) on food: how it's viewed in the Bible, how we use it in the church, its history, and its current place in our culture. And I think it's pretty good. If you're still casting about for what to do at your church for Lent, this program will give you everything you need. You can find out more about it here.

I just finished completely redoing the last session to talk about how we waste food. This session was first inspired by The Big Waste, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and was a total eye-opener. From there, I found the book American Wasteland and the blog wastedfood.com, both from Jonathan Bloom who has made reducing food waste his #1 priority. After reading his book and blog, I can see why. He estimates that in the United States, we throw away (are you ready?) about 40 percent of the food that is produced here. FORTY PERCENT!

Between food left unharvested in the fields, food that is damaged in transport that grocery stores won't even put on the shelves, food thrown out by stores when they reach their sell-by date, and food left to languish in refrigerators, enough food is thrown away in this country to "provide three meals per day for 43 million people." Wow!

I highly recommend this book. It will change the way you look at food wherever you may be.

Guess who's going to be a celebrity blogger?

2012-01-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

Oh, go on, guess! No, not Queen Elizabeth... No, not Miss Piggy. Oh, all right, it's me! I've been asked to be one of the bloggers for Lent Madness, now entering its third year of high impact, head-to-head, saintly smackdowns as the blessed throughout the ages battle for the coveted Golden Halo.

Who knew that all those years of church calendar geekery would lead to such a prestigious position? I'd like to thank Scott Gunn and Tim Schenck for including me in the tremendous line-up of celebrity bloggers. It is an honor and a privilege. And now I need to write some kick-ass profiles of saints.

So head on over to Lent Madness, check out this year's bracket, sign up for email updates, and generally get ready for some holy mayhem starting one month from now. I'll be there!

Monday Morning Preacher: Me and my best bud, Phillips Brooks

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast day of Phillips Brooks, most well-known (rather condescendingly I feel) as, "The priest who wrote, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'." But as I was looking into him a little more, I stumbled across his series of Lectures on Preaching, delivered before the Divinity School of Yale College in January and February, 1877, and I thought, "Brother! Dude! Where have you been all my life? Speak to me!"

Take, for example, his snarky critique of those preachers who love, as he calls it, the "bric-a-brac of theology": "I suppose that all preachers pass through some fantastic period when a strange text fascinates them; when they like to find what can be said for an hour on some little topic on which most men could only talk two minutes." Isn't that fabulous?

Or his take on personality, which he thinks is one of two elements of preaching (the other being Truth with a capital T): "Be yourself by all means, but let that good result come not by cultivating merely superficial peculiarities or oddities. Let it be by winning a true self full of your own faith and your own love."

The longer I preach the more I think one of the most important tasks of the preacher is to deal with your own stuff. Only I generally don't think "stuff." (In the presence of Phillips Brooks I feel I must show some propriety.) And by that I mean, the issues that are raised in your own life by the texts that week in the context of your situation. What does this bring up? What do you really believe? What is your genuine reaction and response? How does this affect you?

You deal with your stuff not on the congregation or through the congregation, but through the hard work of "winning a true self" before you even step in the pulpit. And in so doing, you can bring yourself to the sermon in a way that is not needy, or vain, or self-promoting, or self-avoiding.

So often when I go to hear others preach, I get the sense that they were not willing to go there, to deal with whatever their stuff is, and so they end up preaching, as Brooks calls it, through "criticism."

By the tendency of criticism I mean the disposition that prevails everywhere to deal with things from outside, discussing their relations, examining their nature, and not putting ourselves into their power...There are many preachers who seem to do nothing else, always discussing Christianity as a problem instead of announcing Christianity as a message.

I can understand the tendency, as "going there" can be very hard work. Much easier to find something interesting in the commentaries and link it to the news than enter into our own issues and frailties, subjecting them to the light of the gospel.

I certainly felt that way this week. It was a difficult week for me, preaching-wise, as I clearly found myself in the gospel's power. The gospel text--the call to the first disciples to "follow me"--was the very first gospel I ever preached on, 12 years ago when I was in seminary and thought I knew what my career in the church was going to look like. It hasn't turned out the way I expected. At the same time, I believe that in all the zig-zags and reversals, I have been following Jesus as best I know how. I feel I am doing what I am called to do.

And so it was a very odd experience, seeing myself 12 years ago and thinking, "You have no idea," and seeing these disciples leaving their nets and thinking, "You have no idea." It was unnerving, in fact, and as close to an out-of-body experience as I've had. But the thing for me was that I both had to deal with my stuff and also bring my self to the preaching. And can I tell you, that was not easy. Not my best sermon either, but still one I feel good about, largely thanks to Phillips Brooks' encouragement and the sense I get from him that I was at least on the right track.

As he says,

The gospel you are preaching now is the same gospel that you preached when you were first ordained, in that first sermon which it was at once such a terror and such a joy to preach; but if you have been a live man all the time, you are not preaching it now as you did then. If the truth had changed, your life would have lost its unity. The truth has not changed, but you have grown to fuller understanding of it, to larger capacity of receiving and transmitting it. There is no pleasure in the minister's life stronger than this.

Sunday Funnies, January 22

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

In honor of Miss Piggy's recent guest judging on Project Runway, a little divatude:

Where's my mineral water?

Review: Toxic Charity

2012-01-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

In my ongoing quest to be a better philanthropist, I recently read Toxic Charity by Robert D. Lupton. The full title is Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It) which was a big title to live up to, and it didn't completely do it for me.

I appreciate his thesis: that in our compassion we may end up doing things that hurt and undermine the very people we intend to help. In our good intentions, we give people things that they might be better off working for themselves. His assessment of mission trips is particularly brutal, as he shows us unemployed people standing outside the gates of a church being poorly painted by volunteers who are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege. When I think of the time and energy I spent rousting groups of people to do labor that might have gone to someone who needed the work and the money, I just cringe. For this information alone, I am glad I read the book.

I also appreciate his experience. Lupton is writing from his own background of 40 years in urban ministry, and is open about his mistakes and what he has learned from them. His anecdotes showing what is said and done behind the scenes of the projects that make us feel so good are sobering.

But for me the weakness is that his argument seems to rest almost entirely on anecdotes. Some things are presented as statements of fact without any corroborating evidence whatsoever. For example, he writes that "Decades of free aid from well-meaning benefactors has produced an entitlement mentality and eroded a spirit of entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency." That may be true, but he presents no evidence to support it. It's a tremendously sweeping statement and one I would have liked to see some data to illustrate.

The other problem with an anecdotal argument is that it is just as easy to argue the other side with other anecdotes. He's not very enamored of food pantries, for example, but I'm sure you could find plenty of anecdotes from people who used a food pantry for a while to get back on their feet--and who do not feel it eroded their spirit of entrepreneurship. Who's to say whose anecdote is right? I found myself aching for more research and more data on each approach and its results and effects.

I wish this were a stronger book because I think it has some important things to say, such as its astute insights into the short-term service industry, its approach to community leadership and intervention, and its examination of how one-way giving poisons relationships. I still recommend it as a starting place for discussion and understanding, but only as a starting place.

Even so, it changed and challenged my thinking. I'll need to continue in my quest, but Toxic Charity at least gave me food for thought.

All-star obituaries

2012-01-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

I meant to write this yesterday but got caught up in the drama of building a mini-greenhouse that I got for Christmas. There has been much cursing, my friends, and I am sad to report that after two days I still have more to go (hampered by a key piece being somewhat chewed, Harper). I shall report when it is complete.

At any rate, some obits from this week that rate your attention:

Let's start with espionage, shall we? Loved the obituary for Russian agent Gevork Vartanyan who helped foil a plot to assassinate President Roosevelt during WWII. The story is a bit long to include here, but if you want to know more about the skulduggery behind the Tehran Conference of 1943, I suggest you give this obit a read.

Can you imagine doing work that would save at least 800,000 lives--and counting? Mary Ellen Avery discovered that premature babies' lungs lack a foamy coating that enables people to breathe. From that one insight, the survival rate of premies changed. "When Dr. Avery started her work, as many as 15,000 babies a year died from [respiratory distress] syndrome. By 2002, fewer than 1,000 did." Amazing! (Along with being "the first woman to be appointed physician in chief at Children’s Hospital; the first woman to head a clinical department at Harvard Medical School; the first woman to be chosen president of the Society for Pediatric Research; and the first pediatrician to lead the American Association for the Advancement of Science.")

Major Kipper-Ridge saved about 200 lives, which may seem minimal by comparison, but then he was not quite 15. And a dog. Which certainly rates an obit in the Telegraph. He held the record for number of mines detected in Somalia, but he also worked in Lebanon and Kenya. Pretty impressive for a black lab from Wigan.

Finally, I loved the obituary for Lady Rosalind Runcie, widow of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and a wonderful character in her own right, it sounds like.

Her sense of humour was always irreverent. In the 1970s, when Runcie was Bishop of St Albans and the homosexual Labour MP Tom Driberg was employed by Private Eye as a compiler of obscene crosswords, it was noted that on one occasion the prize was won by a Mrs Rosalind Runcie of St Albans.

I wish I could have known her.

Sunday Funnies, January 15

2012-01-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

So many options this week! The Shit Choristers Say video? The Which Denomination are You flowchart? But no, I think I'm going with the article from the new Church Satire magazine The Lark entitled

Pastor's Wife Sends Body Double to Sit Pleasantly on the Front Pew

GRAND FORKS, Mich. — Unbeknownst to her husband or congregation, Trudy Smith has been avoiding church for two years, sending a look-alike in her place.

“I’m saddened to announce that the woman you’ve seen here is not my wife,” pastor Nevin Smith said to a hushed congregation at Belfrey Presbyterian church.

His wife Trudy began staying home after running into a woman at Kohl’s who looked very much like her.

“I asked what she did on Sunday mornings, and would she like to make a hundred bucks a week?” Trudy says. “She said yes and suddenly I was free.”

The impostor played the role successfully, greeting people, hugging her husband, listening to the sermon, taking copious notes. But she was found out when Nevin invited her up one Sunday for a spontaneous reprisal of an old hymn they sang early in their ministry.

“I knew the kids’ names, anniversaries and birthdays, but I didn’t know that song,” said the fake Trudy, who asked not to be identified. She made roughly $10,000 over two years.

“Worth every penny,” says the real Trudy, who’s back on the front pew. “You know, mannequins are getting more realistic …” •

Various & Sundry, Friday the 13th edition

2012-01-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

And it's your lucky day because I have lots of good stuff to share--so much stuff, that I'm going to do a separate Obituary All Stars post, probably tomorrow.

It was not a lucky day for this poor guy, Patron X, whose cell phone went off during the last movement of the Mahler 9th the other day. Oh, I feel his pain! Apparently, he had no idea it was his phone because it was a new phone to him and he'd turned it off and there was an alarm set and he didn't know the alarm would go off when the phone was in silent mode--oh, the misery in his apology is just palpable.

“You can imagine how devastating it is to know you had a hand in that,” said the man, who described himself as a business executive between 60 and 70 who runs two companies. “It’s horrible, horrible.” The man said he had not slept in two days.

It must be agony, but I hope he'll be able to laugh about it some day.

I'm not laughing about the post on bullying that Dirty Sexy Ministry posted earlier this week. Boy, do they nail the experience of bullying in the church.

Bullying is, in short, repeated actions that cause harm to others through verbal manipulation, intimidation, gossip, psychological assualt, and even physical assault. Most bullying behavior is extremely covert and subtle. Studies of people who engage in bullying behavior show that they use verbal and/or physical intimidation, that they demean others to promote themselves, and use guilt as a way of manipulation and control, and they are obsessed with authority (their own and others).

That is way too familiar to me, and to so many others. And the question of how to address it...well, I wish I had an answer.

I'll be setting up the DVR today to record the rebroadcast of a show on Food Network called The Big Waste. In it, Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, Anne Burrell, and Alex Guarnaschelli need to make a 4-course meal for 100 people using food that is designated to be thrown away. A big tip o' the hat to anibundel for bringing this show to my attention. She writes that "I had to pick my jaw up off the ground at least twice. Every segment."

MadPriest had a post on a topic near to my heart: the strange demand for tithing. I need to write about this myself one of these days, but in the meantime, I recommend his post on how tithing oppresses the poor as worthy of your attention.

Finally, also from MadPriest, this video is only worthy of your attention if you are a total Anglican Communion geek. If you are, you'll think it's very funny. If not, you'll probably just say, "huh?" So this one is going out to the geeks. Enjoy, compatriots!

World In Prayer, Jan. 12, 2012

2012-01-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

It was my week to write the World In Prayer prayers. Since it's the season after Epiphany and the collect of the week is about Jesus, the light of the world, I thought I would use that as a jumping off point. Lots of places in the world need light!

O Lord, you are our light and our salvation: shed your lightupon us and upon your world.

Shed your light upon

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has servedas a detention center for 10 years and where 171men from more than 20 countries remain held, most of them without charge ortrial.

Iran where MostafaAhmadi-Roshan, a nuclear scientist, was assassinated by a motorcyclehit man.

Nigeria where sectarian violencecontinues and protests over the end of fuel subsidies have sparkedprotests.

Shed your light upon

Afghanistan where 15-year-old Sahar Gulrecovers in hospital after being tortured by her husband and in-laws.

Mexico where nearly 13,000 people died in2011 due to drug-related violence.

Somalia and Kenya where six people haverecently been killed in border skirmishes.

Shed your light upon

the United States where thepresidential election is heating up and candidates for the Republicannomination jockey for position.

Burma where the government and Karenrebels have signed a ceasefire agreement.

Haiti as we mark the second anniversaryof its devastating earthquake and recovery is slow.

Shed your light upon

those who are seeking diplomatic talksbetween the United States and the Taliban.

those who explore our creation asastronomers find planets in solar systems beyond our own.

the United States’ immigration policyas the Obama administration seeks to amend regulations to allow families tostay together.

all your world, O Lord, that it may befilled with your love, your justice, and your truth.

And shed your light on us, O Lord, that by the brightness ofyour light we may either see your kingdom in this world or find the path tocreate it.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ, the light of theworld. Amen.

Giving up shame

2012-01-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

Sermon for The Baptism of our Lord

Normally I only do New Year's Resolutions retroactively; I look at what I did in the past year, and whatever I actually accomplished was clearly what I had resolved to do. But this year, I did in fact make a resolution: I resolved to give up shame.

This came about because of a video I recently saw with Brene Brown. In it she explains that there's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is when you hear the message "I did something bad." Shame is when you hear the message "I am bad." There's a big difference.

And so I resolved to give up shame. It's not going so well. And what happened the first time I found myself feeling shame is that the voice that popped in my head said, "Man, you're so awful you can't even give up shame! What kind of idiot are you?" I was ashamed of feeling shame! Which was just so laughable that it became bearable because I could see the shame at work and tell it to get lost.

Because this is what I'm working on, I'm seeing this theme of shame everywhere, such as in the gospel this morning. Here's John the Baptist saying he's not even worthy to untie the sandals of the one who comes after him; that he is, essentially, lower than a slave. And without saying a word, Jesus comes along and undoes all that by having John baptize him. Without saying a word, Jesus shows John, "Yes, you are worthy. You are worthy of far more than untying my sandals."(1)

Every time I try to talk to someone it's "sorry this" and
"forgive me that" and "I'm not worthy"...

It's so difficult for us to believe we are worthy. We tell ourselves we're not smart enough, we don't have the right credentials, we don't know enough, we don't have the skills, we're not holy enough, we're just plain not good enough. But from the very beginning, God has called creation good.

In my first job out of college, I worked as a classroom aide.(2) In one of the classes with a kid named Tony who was difficult at the best of times. One day there was a substitute teacher and Tony could not, would not settle down. Finally, when the substitute asked for the nth time for Tony to take his seat and start his work, Tony blurted out. "I'm doing it! So shut up!" The whole room gasped. The substitute took a deep breath, paused a moment, and then said, "Tony, can I talk to you out in the hall?" Everyone's eyes were wide as the two of them left the room. Less than a minute went by before Tony came in, walked to his desk, sat down, and started working. You can bet everyone worked diligently through that hour as we all tried to imagine what terrible threat the substitute had used to get Tony to settle down like that.

After class, I got to ask her what she'd said. She said that she had gone out to the hall and said, "Tony, I know you're a good kid." And Tony had said, "I am a good kid." And the substitute said, "Then let's just move on from here."

Such a perfect example of guilt instead of shame. The substitute started from the position that this was a good kid who had done something he shouldn't. But the baseline understanding was that he was good.

What about you? What messages are you hearing about yourself? For all that the voice from heaven came to Jesus in his baptism, always remember that you too are a beloved child of God.

Jesus has found you worthy. God has called you good. Do not be ashamed.

(1) I owe this insight to Mary Ann Tolbert who points this out in her commentary Sowing the Gospel, which is terrific, if you're looking for a good commentary for year B.
(2) OK, I was a sign language interpreter, but that would have taken too long to explain. This was close enough.

Sunday Funnies, January 8

2012-01-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Did The Media Treat Bachmann Unfairly Because She's An Insane Woman?

thanks to Scott Gunn of Seven Whole Days fame for the heads up.

Various & Sundry, New Year's edition

2012-01-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I did a V&S post--and I'm not promising to be faithful about it, mind you. But I'm in a mood to post and I've seen some interesting things float by, so here you go.

Best Obituary Ever award goes to Jennifer Anne Church who died on New Years Day. Really, you must read it all to get the full impact, but if you don't want to, here's the heart of it:

Mrs. Church worked for nearly 30 years in Harrisonburg, Lynchburg and Roanoke as registered nurse specializing in gerontology. Her death was the result of a vicious attack by a renegade pack of Miniature Schnauzers. With her bulldog, Bella, at her side, she fought gallantly. Mrs. Church had a unique sense of humor and seldom followed a path of traditionalism.

Hmmm...you don't say. A follow-up article in the Roanoke Times goes into detail. I also like the part about offering a bottle of wine in lieu of flowers.

Bravest Blog Post Ever award goes to The Bloggess for revealing her struggles with depression and self-harm in a forum where she could easily have been attacked by Miniature Schnauzers. She writes,

I hope to one day I see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle and that they celebrate the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.

I hope so too.

Best Life Ever goes to Rob who blogs at A Gardeners Calendar. "I work as a gardener on an English country estate and this is a journal of my life here," he says in this profile, and I have been more jealous than I have ever been of anyone this week as he has recounted his daily schedule. Let's take a look at what he did yesterday morning, shall we?

Calendar For Today.
07:05 - 07:20 Get up and dressed ( Personal record )

07:20 - 07:30Prepare the dogs dinner ( Personal record )

07:30 - 07:50 Walking the dogs ( Personal record )
Note: Took Tommy and Tess as far as the horse field.

08:00 - 08:30Had breakfast ( Personal record )
Note: Had a bowl of Cornflakes and a mug of tea.

08:30 - 08:50See to the sheep ( Work Book )
Note: Took across some hay.Checked and counted the sheep.

08:50 - 09:00Check the fruit store ( Work Book )
Note: Check the mouse trap set yesterday, there was nothing in it.

09:00 - 09:15 See to the greenhouses ( Work Book )
Note: Checked round.

09:15 - 10:30Potting up ( Work Book )
Note: Dug up some Chrysanths and put them into pots ready to take some cuttings from.

10:30 - 10:50Break for tea. ( Personal record )
Note: Had a mug of tea and a couple of chocolate biscuits.

10:50 - 12:45Pruning ( Work Book )
Note: Made a start on pruning the raspberries.

***
He'll make up for it in the spring, summer, and fall, though. Won't you, Rob? Or am I going to have to be eaten by jealousy all year round?

I was very touched by the blog The Adventures of Homeless Girl which I found when someone tweeted her most popular post, Should You Give a Homeless Person Money? I appreciated her insight on this question as well as her follow-up post.

Finally, for you Anglican music lovers out there, today I found a list of the Best Anthems in the Anglican Choral Tradition. If there's something you think is missing, you can add it on. In the meantime, enjoy!

A season of receiving

2012-01-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

cross-posted on the Confirm not Conform blog

Today I happened to look at the collect for the First Sunday After Christmas--the only post-Christmas-Day collect we heard this year, what with Christmas Day on a Sunday. It reads:

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

It made me think of Christmas as a season of receiving. For all that we are told that Christmas is a season of giving and sharing, I was reminded that one of the best things I can do to celebrate Christmas is to remember and give thanks for what I have been given. But not just to remember: to accept the gift. To take some time to rejoice in the gift of the Word made flesh who entered this world as a gracious presence of light in the darkness. In all of my efforts to give and share and be generous, there's something wonderful about being reminded on this last day of Christmas that I needn't hustle. I don't need to do anything. Instead, I can simply settle in and allow myself to receive.

All of this has made me think of Christian formation as an opportunity to receive. It's not about learning stuff. It's not about having more faith. It's about receiving the light that pours out all around us. It's about allowing that light to reach others. I don't need to control it. I just need to be as clear as possible so that the light can reach me and reach others through me.

But first I need to remember to receive, to bask in the light. It is from this receiving that I can go forth and give--not things or money, but only myself shining forth. And I can shine because of what I have been given, what I have allowed myself to receive.

It's the last day of Christmas and with the consumer frenzy over and the parties done and the decorations down and the presents unwrapped and the resolutions already broken, I feel I am finally in a position to receive. The pressure of Christmas is off. Perhaps the presence of Christ may now enter. I hope and pray that I may receive it.

I hope you receive something too, some light in your life this day. May God's light be poured out upon you and may it shine forth from your life. And a very merry Christmas.

The Constitution can take it

2012-01-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

Two very interesting obituaries today, both about people who respected the Constitution enough to challenge the law.

The first is for Robert L. Carter who fought school segregation as part of the team arguing the case of Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court.

“We have one fundamental contention,” Mr. Carter told the court. “No state has any authority under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens.”

Thurgood Marshall is the familiar name in the case, but according to this account, Mr. Carter is the radical "always urging his colleagues to push legal and constitutional positions to the limits." He was appointed a federal judge by Nixon.

Very interesting man, Judge Carter. And I appreciate that he didn't merely argue school desegregation on its own terms ("separate but equal") but argued for a much more expansive understanding of personhood and equality.

The other obituary is for Gordon Hirabayashi "who was imprisoned for defying the federal government’s internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II." I admire the heck out of this: he was sure the law was unconstitutional so he disobeyed it, despite the cost to himself. He was convicted, imprisoned, and when he contested the law, the Supreme Court upheld it.

The Hirabayashi, Yasui and Korematsu cases were revisited in the 1980s after Peter Irons, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, found documents indicating that the federal government, in coming before the Supreme Court, had suppressed its own finding that Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were not, in fact, threats to national security...

“I want vindication not only for myself,” Mr. Hirabayashi told The New York Times in 1985 as he was fighting to have his conviction vacated. “I also want the cloud removed from over the heads of 120,000 others. My citizenship didn’t protect me one bit. Our Constitution was reduced to a scrap of paper.”

And how quickly it can become simply a scrap of paper when we feel threatened. That's the thing that gets me about our post-9/11 world: the moment the Constitution became hard, it seemed to become negotiable. What this Hirabayashi story says to me is that we've learned before that this leads us down the wrong path. Why do we need to learn it again? Why do we seem to feel the Constitution is some dainty thing that needs to be coddled when the going gets rough?

Obit du jour: Bob Anderson

2012-01-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

Such a plain name. The obit itself is fun, but it's the picture I love:

Oh yeah. Go Bob.

Monday Morning Preacher: Christmas in Chelsea Square

2012-01-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve at 11:30 pm, there was a special on CBS featuring a service of lessons and carols from the General Theological Seminary with a sermon by the Presiding Bishop called Christmas in Chelsea Square. You can see it here.

First of all, kudos to General for getting this on the air nationwide. Secondly, mondo kudos for starting with an image of Bishop Catherine Roskam and featuring the Presiding Bishop, showing the world all these images of women in religious leadership.

That being said, I'm afraid it was a disappointment. There's nothing quite like yelling at the television on Christmas morning, saying, "Would it hurt you to smile, dammit?!" And a merry Christmas to you, too!

Having had a week to reflect, I would like to offer these comments both for General, whose good faith effort I truly applaud, and for others who are thinking about doing more multi-media services and outreach.

First of all, who is your audience? At the beginning of the program, it seemed it was geared toward non-Episcopalians, explaining what General Seminary is and what the Episcopal church is. But the service itself seemed to be complete inside baseball--or inside church. I thought it appealed to a narrow demographic: those who were already steeped in high church tradition.

Which leads to the question, what will engage your audience? If your intended audience is people unfamiliar with the Episcopal church and liturgy, what will catch their attention from the start? A hint: singing all eight verses of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is not going to do that. As a friend of mine said, "That sound in verse 6 was the sound of televisions turning off all over America." Yeah, that's a real barn-burner, that one.

Here's one difference between going to a church service and watching a church service on television: once you're inside a church, there is a significant social cost to leaving, because to do so would draw attention to yourself in a very hushed environment. Watching on TV, there is no such cost. It is very easy to leave. Therefore, you want to make it easy for people to stay by keeping their attention engaged all the time.

Also important: make sure the delivery of the message matches the message! O Come, O Come, Emmanuel already has a dirgelike quality, very at odds with the message of joy it brings. To compound the issue, the congregation singing "Rejoice, rejoice!" looked absolutely miserable. Eddie Izzard had it nailed:

Another difference between going to a church service and watching one on television is that on television, the congregation are also (for lack of a better word) performers. They didn't seem aware of that--and the show was not edited in such a way to bring out what enthusiasm there was in the assembly. I feel for the guy in the red sweater who yawned. Why was that left in the final edit? Because there's nothing that says, "Boy do I want to be part of this church!" than watching its most stalwart members exhibiting boredom.

If there's one thing that I think would have made Christmas in Chelsea Square much better, it would have been to tell the congregation, "Remember that the television viewers' eyes will be on you as much as they will be on those up in front. How you comport yourself will say a great deal to the viewers about what is going on here--whether it is joyous or dreary, whether it is a time of celebration or boredom. Be an outward and visible sign of the grace you receive here today. And make sure it's visible!"

Sunday Funnies, Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Obit du jour: Eva Zeisel

2011-12-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

Eva Zeisel, ceramic artist, died yesterday at the age of 105. I was sad to hear it, though not overly surprised. I mean, 105. I'd heard her story and blogged about it a year and a half ago.

One of the things I love about obituaries is hearing the stories. I just wish I heard more of the stories--or were more attentive to them--while people were still alive.

On the other hand, would I have been saddened about Eva Ziesel's death had I only heard about her for the first time today? It's the knowing people and losing them that's heartbreaking. But more heartbreaking still, knowing people but sticking to the surface of things, not finding out until they are gone what went into the shapes and contours of their lives, the things I could have known.

Reflections on Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

Every year since the year 2000, I've preached on Christmas morning. This year I stayed home and the silence of it was breathtakingly beautiful. No rushing, no music, no message. Just silence.

The night before we'd sung "Silent Night" and the congregation had held candles as the ushers turned off the lights; as soon as the hymn was over, they turned the lights on again. I found myself thinking, "What was the point of that?" Tradition, I guess. But people didn't seem to know if it was all right to blow out the candles. I blew mine out. Why leave it lit?

I was sorry Christmas Eve wasn't more magical. There was no incense. There was no cope. In fact, there was nothing unusual about the service at all, except that it was at night. And there was a moment with a candle. But very soon after the service started, I realized "this is just a garden-variety eucharist," and I was instantly bored. I knew that I would be there for about an hour and 15 minutes. I knew I would wade through the sermon and let my mind wander. I knew I would receive communion. And then it would be done.

So I did Christmas Eve. Like I was supposed to.

A couple of days earlier, I'd seen an article in the Telegraph in which the writer reflected on a couple of funerals he had attended. At the end, he related the story of the 7th Earl of Yarborough who "at his village carol service, he read the lesson about the shepherds deserting their flocks to see the baby in Bethlehem. “I’d just like to say,” he told the startled congregation, “that if these men had been my shepherds, I’d have sacked them.”" What it made me think was how going to pay homage to the Christ child is a deeply irresponsible act. And how hard we all try--perhaps at Christmas especially--to be so very responsible. But that maybe God is not calling us to act responsibly.

I made myself some French toast. I had some tea. I didn't do much of anything. And it was lovely.

Christmas Oratorio by W.H. Auden

2011-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.

[h/t Andrew Sullivan]

There's never too much inflatable Christmas decor

2011-12-22T22:47:00.001-08:00

We live across the street from someone who I think has every inflatable Christmas decoration known to humankind. Each year he sets them all out on his small front yard and porch. And if you're going to use inflatable (and often animatronic) Christmas decorations, I think "tastelessly and outrageously" is the way to do it.

Here's the full picture:

But let's take a little closer look, shall we?

Note the green item to the right of the picture. That would be a trailer. That Santa lives in. And you know this because the door opens and Santa pops out. (You can see him in the door in the first pic.)

But what is Santa doing here?

There, behind the bushes! Leaving aside the "Snow Angel Station" with Santa spread eagled on what looks like an air mattress, what exactly is Santa up to? Let's go to video, shall we?

Oh, Santa! You may call it a "Rocking Horse." I'm not so sure.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

On Trinity Wall Street and Occupy Wall Street and the reactions thereunto

2011-12-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

Headline: The Church that Aided Wall Street Protesters is Now Their Target

The displaced occupiers had asked the church, one of the city’s largest landholders, to hand over a gravel lot, near Canal Street and Avenue of the Americas, for use as an alternate campsite and organizing hub. The church declined, calling the proposed encampment “wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious.”

When I was in seminary, a group of us looked into the possibility of allowing those who were homeless to sleep on the grounds and offer them coffee in the morning. After much consultation, we discovered a number of things:

1) When homeless people slept on campus, the groundspeople were required to clean up human feces and other detritus after them (and we did not bear any responsibility or burden for that work);
2) We were asked what would happen during school breaks and during the summer;
3) We realized that though we wanted to do something, this didn't actually help homeless people out of their difficulties; it just made us feel better.

What we ended up doing was almost the opposite of what we had first thought: we sent the homeless away. We posted signs around the campus with information about where the nearest homeless shelters were. And we volunteered to be part of the cooking rotation for another organization that offered dinners to those who lived on the streets. It was humbling because it required the painful realization that doing what was best in this situation made us look heartless. It also made me, at least, realize how much of my motivation was wanting to appear noble--even though other people would bear the burden for my noble cause.

Should Trinity have allowed the protesters to camp? I don't have all the information so I can't say. But to me that's not the issue. What gets to me about this brouhaha was neither OWS's desire to camp nor Trinity's decision not to let them. It was how quickly I saw many people--clergy particularly--jump from, "I think they should allow OWS to camp there," to "Trinity Wall Street isn't interested in justice." That's a mighty big leap, and one that I think is dangerous and divisive to make without full and Godlike knowledge of all the facts and the thoughts of everyone's hearts.

On the feast of St. Thomas

2011-12-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Collect for the day:

Everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in your Son's resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I would just like to say that I hate this collect. To me, it completely misses all the best parts of the story of St. Thomas: the part where Thomas fearlessly says that he doesn't believe, and that he won't believe until certain conditions are met; the part where the other disciples (apparently) don't try to argue him out of it or castigate him for not believing; the part where Thomas is willing to let his conditions go by the bye in light of new information.

Nothing perfect about that. Certainly it's not without doubt. And I am confident that if my faith is found wanting (and I don't doubt that it will), that God's grace will more than make up for my lack.

There's still time before Christmas...

2011-12-19T07:51:00.000-08:00

...for you to get the Barbie lover in your life the fabulous

h/t Design Fetish

Guest post: on Vaclav Havel

2011-12-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

My friend Molly D. sent me this email this morning. I asked for her permission to post it here:

I was really sorry to learn today that Vaclav Havel has died. Back in 1989, I was working on Captiol Hill when he was named President of the newly-free Czech Republic and came to address a Joint Session of Congress. I was working on a number of things at the time, and had the TV on in the background as he began. Within a few minutes, however, I had put everything down and focused completely on what he had to say. And when it was over, my boss returned from the floor of the House, deeply moved, and asked if I'd heard the speech. We talked about its message and, at my suggestion, he bought full page ads in the nine newspapers of our congressional district and reprinted the speech. We both felt that, at such an astonishing time in history, Havel provided a grounding in what mattered most.

What follows is the key section of that speech, and what strikes me now is A) that he's still right, B) the entire Congress needs to hear this speech again and C) how refreshing it is to read a speech with complex ideas rather than the simplistic drivel that passes for thought these days.

Molly

-----------------------------------------------

Ladies and gentlemen,I've only been president for two months, and I haven't attended any schools for presidents. My only school was life itself. Therefore, I don't want to burden you any longer with my political thoughts, but instead I will move on to an area that is more familiar to me, to what I would call the philosophical aspect of those changes that still concern everyone, although they are taking place in our corner of the world.

As long as people are people, democracy in the full sense of the word will always be no more than an ideal; one may approach it as one would a horizon, in ways that may be better or worse, but it can never be fully attained. In this sense you are also merely approaching democracy. You have thousands of problems of all kinds, as other countries do. But you have one great advantage: You have been approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more than 200 years, and your journey toward that horizon has never been disrupted by a totalitarian system. Czechs and Slovaks, despite their humanistic traditions that go back to the first millennium, have approached democracy for a mere twenty years, between the two world wars, and now for three and a half months since the 17th of November of last year.

The advantage that you have over us is obvious at once.

The Communist type of totalitarian system has left both our nations, Czechs and Slovaks as it has all the nations of the Soviet Union, and the other countries the Soviet Union subjugated in its time a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum of human suffering, profound economic decline, and above all enormous human humiliation. It has brought us horrors that fortunately you have not known.

At the same time, however unintentionally, of course it has given us something positive: a special capacity to look, from time to time, somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience. A person who cannot move and live a normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not trapped in this way.

What I am trying to say is this: We must all learn many things from you, from how to educate our offspring, how to elect our representatives, all the way to how to organize our economic life so that it will lead to prosperity and not poverty. But it doesn't have to be merely assistance from the well-educated, the powerful and the wealthy to someone who has nothing to offer in return.

We too can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that has come from it.
This is a subject for books, many of which have already been written and many of which have yet to be written. I shall therefore limit myself to a single idea.

The specific experience I'm talking about has given me one great certainty: Consciousness precedes Being, and not the other way around, as Marxists claim.

For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human humbleness and in human responsibility.

Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our Being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization, will be unavoidable. If we are no longer threatened by world war or by the danger that the absurd mountains of accumulated nuclear weapons might blow up the world, this does not mean that we have definitively won. We are in fact far from definite victory.

We are still a long way from that "family of man;" in fact, we seem to be receding from the ideal rather than drawing closer to it. Interests of all kinds: personal, selfish, state, national, group and, if you like, company interests still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and thoroughly vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation, and not just a part of it, and that therefore everything is permitted. There are still many who say they are concerned not for themselves but for the cause, while they are demonstrably out for themselves and not for the cause at all. We are still destroying the planet that was entrusted to us, and its environment. We still close our eyes to the growing social, ethnic and cultural conflicts in the world. From time to time we say that the anonymous megamachinery we have created for ourselves no longer serves us but rather has enslaved us, yet we still fail to do anything about it.

In other words, we still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone of all our actions if they are to be moral is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where all our actions are indelibly recorded and where, and only where, they will be properly judged.

The interpreter or mediator between us and this higher authority is what is traditionally referred to as human conscience.

If I subordinate my political behaviour to this imperative, I can't go far wrong. If on the contrary I were not guided by this voice, not even ten presidential schools with 2,000 of the best political scientists in the world could help me.

This is why I ultimately decided after resisting for a long time to accept the burden of political responsibility.I'm not the first nor will I be the last intellectual to do this. On the contrary, my feeling is that there will be more and more of them all the time. If the hope of the world lies in human consciousness, then it is obvious that intellectuals cannot go on forever avoiding their share of responsibility for the world and hiding their distastes for politics under an alleged need to be independent.

It is easy to have independence in your programme and then leave others to carry out that programme. If everyone thought that way, soon no one would be independent.

I think that Americans should understand this way of thinking. Wasn't it the best minds of your country, people you could call intellectuals, who wrote your famous Declaration of Independence, your Bill of Rights and your Constitution and who above all took upon themselves the practical responsibility for putting them into practice? The worker from Branik in Prague, whom your president referred to in his State of the Union message this year, is far from being the only person in Czechoslovakia, let alone in the world, to be inspired by those great documents. They inspire us all. They inspire us despite the fact that they are over 200 years old. They inspire us to be citizens.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed," it was a simple and important act of the human spirit.

What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that the author backed it up with his life. It was not just his words, it was his deeds as well.

I will end where I began. History has accelerated. I believe that once again, it will be the human spirit that will notice this acceleration, give it a name, and transform those words into deeds.

Sunday Funnies, December 18

2011-12-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Those Improv Everywhere folks strike again!

Obit quote du jour

2011-12-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

"She also leaves a cat, Mikey."

From the obituary "Edie Stevenson Dies at 81; Wrote ‘Let’s Get Mikey’ Ad"

I can see why you would name a pet after Mikey; it got her a promotion to VP.

Sunday Funnies, December 11

2011-12-11T09:20:00.001-08:00

Let's see if this works.

And while you're at it, I suggest either reading or listening to The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris.

Enjoy!

Strong reaction

2011-12-09T08:08:00.001-08:00

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when presidential candidates can disparage those serving in the military and tell outright lies about our nation and its president.

As a voter, I will do my part to work against slander and falsehood. And I'll fight against attacks on our religious heritage that twists religion into a platform for fear and hatred.

I'm an American citizen, and I approved this message.

Here's the ad I'm reacting to:

And I thought they looked like that so we could hang them on Christmas trees...

2011-12-08T14:01:00.001-08:00

h/t MD who was probably looking for a Christmas Moose.

Obit du jour: Peter Lunn

2011-12-08T13:44:00.001-08:00

A classic. Let's start with this fabulous opener, shall we?

Peter Northcote Lunn was born on November 15 1914 into British skiing aristocracy. His grandfather, Sir Henry Lunn, was a one-time missionary who, having failed to convert the Indians to Methodism, moved to Switzerland, where he embarked on encouraging the British to ski.

Then let's move on to the part where he becomes a "gentleman spy" after WWII, using the tunnels under Vienna (a la The Third Man)"to tap into the underground cables which the Soviets used to communicate."

He even bought a villa on the route of the cable that linked the Soviet headquarters in Vienna with the city’s airport and its overall command station for Austria at St Pölten. From the villa, his team could excavate undisturbed.

If I am ever a spy, I would like to spy from my Austrian villa, though he did say, "You think it’s going to be all wine, women and song. Well, let me tell you, old boy, it’s all beer, bitches and broadcasting.”

He went on to serve as head of station in Bonn, and during the 1960s in Beirut, where he enjoyed skiing at The Cedars, a resort where, as he recalled, discipline in the lift queues improved dramatically after an attendant shot dead the two worst queue jumpers. Even so, it was “not so stimulating as Mürren”, and throughout his years in the service he always brought his family to Mürren for a month at Christmas.

Oh, and let us not forget the books he wrote: "The author of several technical books about skiing, in 1947 Lunn published a novel, Evil in High Places, about a psychotic mountaineer."

Oh my yes. Simply marvelous. Enjoy.

Thoughts on holiday giving

2011-12-05T09:28:00.001-08:00

It's December, which is of course a big month for charitable giving. Over at Good Intentions are Not Enough, Saundra Schimmelpfennig has prepared a Holiday Guide to Charitable Giving that offers practical thoughts and suggestions on selecting charities that, in the words of the Episcopal Church's Baptismal Covenant, "respect the dignity of every human being." I highly recommend it. I think it would also be a great study guide for church groups considering how to help those in need.

The main thing I would say is this: Beware of the curse of SWEDOW! SWEDOW is shorthand for "Stuff We Don't Want"--the things we give away to "the poor who might want it" when we clean out our closets and cupboards. As Saundra pointed out on an earlier post, when we do this, the problem we are trying to solve is not helping the poor in their poverty, but getting rid of clutter. As she puts it, "our waste is not the solution to other people’s problems, our waste is our problem."

Cartoon by Andy Dietsche

One of the hardest things I have had to do was throw away clothes. OK, there have been harder things, but it went against the grain. I wanted to give them away so that I didn't feel wasteful. But part of the lesson of SWEDOW is accepting that perhaps I have been wasteful and learning to deal with that, rather than assuaging my conscience and letting someone else deal with my trash as the trash it actually is.

Sometimes the best thing we can give organizations is our money. Maybe it makes us feel good to do something active or give something tangible, but the point is that charitable giving is not about what makes us feel good. That's just a side benefit. The real question is: What will actually help the people or cause we say we want to help? That's what we need to discern and do.

Sunday Funnies, December 4

2011-12-04T19:05:00.001-08:00

Oh, that mournful Gypsy music!

Singer: Keeper
Accordianist: My mother, playing Czardas by Vittorio Monti

I would have posted this earlier, but it took me forever to figure out how to rotate the video, seeing as I used the wrong orientation. In case you're wondering, I finally used this great website called (cleverly enough) Online Video Rotator. Thank you, Online Video Rotator!

Garden Update, December 3

2011-12-03T15:56:00.001-08:00

It's December, which means, of course, that the roses are blooming.

Oh, all right, it's the last little few, but they're still amazingly beautiful and fragrant.

You know what else has finally decided to put on a show?

Yes, indeed. It's a holly hock that decided to sneak out of the side bed and plop itself right in front of the house.

I'm letting it be for the moment, but I was completely ruthless with the hydrangea this year. I either killed it or I'm going to be able to see out my office window next year (I suppose that would be true if I killed it, too). But I pruned those suckers to within an inch of their lives, or at least the last possible green shoot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh the brutality!

And finally, over in the raised beds, I'm hoping to get some cauliflower one of these days. And I'm hoping Harper doesn't dig them all out before I get them.

They're mighty slow growers. But then so am I.

Hope you're staying warm wherever you are. Seasons greetings.

Reflections on World AIDS Day

2011-12-01T10:03:00.001-08:00

Cross-posted at the Confirm not Conform blog

It occurred to me today, on this World AIDS Day, that for many of the youth in our churches, AIDS is something that happens to Other People Far Away. But for many of us who work with youth, we went through the time when AIDS was a death sentence that affected people close to us. I wonder if sharing those stories and memories will help to make our current response to AIDS more compassionate and more urgent.

At St. John's Oakland, where Confirm not Conform was developed, we are lucky enough to have a story of AIDS from halfway across the world who came to live among us. Chris Ategeka, whose parents both died from AIDS in their home in Western Uganda, was sponsored by a family at St. John's and eventually came to live here. Last May, he graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. You can see his commencement address here. He is now the executive director of Pedal or Power, a nonprofit that helps people in Western Uganda build their own bicycles and scooters. Among its goals, this program will allow AIDS/HIV positive patients easier access to anti-retroviral drugs.

The youth of St. John's have had the opportunity to see up close that AIDS is not just something that happens to Other People. What stories do you have in your congregation that can help your youth--and other people--see AIDS as something real, present, and worth fighting?

Remember this?

Protect the kiddies! Bible stories!

2011-11-28T18:21:00.001-08:00

I was struck by this post at the Episcopal Cafe about the Lego Bible being removed from Sam's Club because of "the mature content that was contained in what was supposed to be a children's book."

A big tip o' the hat to the illustrator Brendan Powell Smith for reminding people that the Old Testament is not a children's book! Mild example:

Judah and Tamar

Though it's not like Lego sex is all that offensive.

So much to do, so little time

2011-11-28T18:17:00.001-08:00

In thanksgiving

2011-11-25T09:52:00.001-08:00

Sometimes when the news seems too depressing and the nights seem long and (to name a completely random example) your back goes out on Thanksgiving day when you're putting stuff away in the freezer, it's a wonderful thing to watch small English girls in pink fluffy dresses dance and sing with joy and abandon. Enjoy!

Sunday Funnies: Nov. 20

2011-11-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

h/t Chow

Epistolary Pastry Petulance: An open letter to Peet's Coffee

2011-11-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

I am posting this on my blog because, when I tried to send this via the feedback form on the Peet's site, it said "The specified URL cannot be found." And because it may help you to know this yourself. Did you know that restaurants with 20 or more outlets are required to include calorie labeling on menus, and to provide additional nutrition information on request? Very useful info. At any rate: rant follows:

To: Peet's Coffee

Let me start by saying I love Peet's, not least because you actually take tea seriously. I'm grateful to have a place to go that has a wide range of teas and treats them well.

This letter to you relates to the labeling of your pastries.

Like many people, I'm counting calories, and I'm very grateful that you provide nutritional information about your baked goods. I'm especially glad because I was surprised at how little relation there was between those items that were low calorie and those labeled "low fat" or "reduced fat."

It was very strange to see that (for example) the Reduced Fat Fruit and Nut Scone had 100 more calories--and 90 more calories from fat--than the Cranberry Walnut scone. Is not Cranberry a fruit and Walnut a nut? What on earth makes the "reduced fat" scone merit that name when so many other things on the menu have less fat and fewer calories?

When a customer sees that something is labeled reduced fat, we expect that it will, in fact, have less fat than other items that are not labeled reduced fat. The designations given to your pastries now seem ambiguous at best and deceptive at worst. I would urge you to revisit your labeling policy to make it easier for your customers to make the choices that are best for their health and dietary needs.

Incidentally, I had the whole wheat honey bran muffin. It was delicious.

Obit du jour: Mark Hall, a creator of "Danger Mouse"

2011-11-19T09:43:00.001-08:00

I loved Danger Mouse as a kid, so I was affected when I saw that one of its creators, Mark Hall, has died.

And if you don't know Danger Mouse, well, you just need to that he's the dashing eye-patched rodent superagent who lives in a pillar box with his hamster assistant Penfold.

Oh, heck, here's the theme song:

Obit du jour: Rose Robertson

2011-11-14T07:48:00.001-08:00

A spy obit, and so much more. Let's start with this great sentence:

After leaving school, she took a series of secretarial jobs, but her unremarkable existence changed dramatically during the war when she was recruited into SOE and later parachuted into Nazi-occupied France.

Yes, that would change one's existence. While there, she worked with "two young gay anti-Nazi fighters," which leads us to stage two:

In 1965 she took in two young male lodgers. On eventually learning that they were gay and had suffered because of their parents’ homophobic attitudes, Rose Robertson set up Parents Enquiry. This was the first organisation in Britain — and possibly the world — dedicated to advising and supporting parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual children. She ran it almost single-handedly, without payment, from her home in south-east London until the 1990s.

Perhaps the best part of the story is that Parents Enquiry no longer exists, in some measure because it's no longer needed. And in some measure it's no longer needed because she offered it.

While I wasn't looking

2011-11-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday Funnies, November 6

2011-11-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

You tell 'em.

Various & Sundry, November 4

2011-11-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

First of all, a head's up: a week from today is Nigel Tufnel Day. Or at least it ought to be. Why? "The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven..."

If you haven't already disposed of your Jack O'lantern, I learned this week that you can donate them to wildlife centers where they can be used to feed the animals. Or maybe they have already been used to feed the local wildlife.

I was sorry to read that Prairie Home Companion sound effects man Tom Keith ("Mr. Tom Keith") died last week.

He was serious about silliness and worked hard to get a moo exactly right and the cluck too and the woof. His whinny was amazing — noble, vulnerable, articulate. He did bagpipes, helicopters, mortars, common drunks, caribou (and elands and elk and wapiti), garbage trucks backing up, handsaws and hammers, and a beautiful vocalization of a man falling from a great height into piranha-infested waters.

He will be a great loss to the show.

On the theme of death, I loved this Flickr feed of Ofrendas, shrines and altars for Dias de los Muertos. Really some amazing pictures. Here are just a couple of examples:

And finally, I got a phone call from my parents last weekend waxing rhapsodic over a concert they had just heard with Philippe Jaroussky. I can see why! Here's a video with the added bonus of being filmed in Versailles:

A rather autumnal aria for a November evening. Enjoy!

World In Prayer, November 4

2011-11-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

It was my week to write the World in Prayer prayers, and they didn't turn out as I hoped. I had been pondering them early in the week, but ended up writing them in a rush yesterday in order to make our deadline (which I still missed). I had wanted something to tie in neatly with the gospel reading for All Saints...but I'm not sure they tied in as well as I would have liked. Nevertheless, here they are.

As we remember this week all your saints, O Lord, and all who have died in Your loving embrace, we give you thanks and offer our prayers for all the blessed, known and unknown, whom you love and call your own.

We pray for the poor in spirit.

· We pray for the dozens of Chinese miners trapped in a pit in Henan province after a "rock burst."

· We pray for all who were born this week, as the UN estimated that the world's population reached seven billion people on Monday.

We pray for those who mourn.

· We pray for those whose families have been killed in conflicts throughout the world.

· We pray for those who have lost loved ones to hunger or deprivation, to disease and injury.

· We pray for those who mourn the loss of their livelihood or their home.

· We pray for those who mourn any loss.

We pray for the meek.

· We pray for the people of Oakland, CA (USA) as they try to address issues of income inequality through the Occupy protests in the face of retaliation and violence.

· We pray for those whose lives are affected by decisions they cannot control. We pray for wisdom for the European Union as they make financial decisions whose impact reaches millions of people.

We pray for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

· We pray for those who participated in the second Africa Human Rights Defenders Training in West Africa last week, as they return to their homes to carry on this work.

· We pray for the work of the Ecumenical Water Network Forum, who address the literal issue of thirst throughout the world.

We pray for the merciful.

· We pray for Venezuela, where officials are trying to negotiate the release of two police officers taken hostage during a prison riot in the western state of Tachira.

· We pray for Serbia, where 27 Roma families in Belgrade face imminent forced eviction from their homes to make way for new commercial housing to be built by a government-owned company.

· We pray for Housing Justice in the UK, which welcomed the news that Westminster Council is dropping its proposal to introduce a new by-law making it a criminal offence to feed homeless people on the streets.

We pray for the pure in heart.

· We pray for Honduras, where 176 police were arrested in a purge against corruption and organized crime.

· We pray for those Muslims who are taking part in the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

We pray for the peacemakers.

· We pray for Syria, where Syrian forces killed at least 12 people just one day after the Arab League brokered a plan to halt violence and convene talks between the government and the opposition.

· We pray for relations between Pakistan and India, after the Pakistani government's recent decision to award "most favored nation" trading status to India.

· We pray for peace in Gaza, where Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday shortly after two snipers on motorcycles fired at Israeli troops patrolling the border fence; and where Israel has announced that its navy will attempt to stop two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for the Gaza Strip.

We pray for those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

· We pray for Qiu Xiang, a Buddhist nun in China’s southwest Sichuan Province, who died Thursday after setting herself on fire.

· We pray for those who are mocked or despised for their desire for justice or peace; for those who seek justice and do mercy and walk humbly with their God.

And we pray that we may be counted among the multitude of saints who are your witness and workers in this world. Give us courage and wisdom to do your will and persevere through all things, that we may end our days in your peace and rest with you eternally, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What's wrong with this picture?

2011-11-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine posted this to her Facebook page:

Sounds good, right? Reminding us to care for the poor and needy rather than our own selfish wealthy Western selves? But I would argue that this is a dangerous distortion that hurts the poor.

It's clear to me that the photo on the top is the 1%--the poorest of the poor. This kind of thing is often referred to in aid circles as poverty porn, used by charities to drum up donations. This skewed view of poverty leads to discrimination throughout society. Fox News did a segment during the summer on the "so-called poor" complaining--complaining--that 99 percent of them have a refrigerator. The Heritage Foundation uses the Census Report to proclaim that

For most Americans, the word “poverty” suggests near destitution: an inability to provide nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter for one’s family. However, only a small number of the 46 million persons classified as 'poor' by the Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity.

THAT is why this picture is so dangerous. It establishes a picture of poverty that requires the poor to be absolutely destitute before they deserve any pity. Clearly if "the poor" look well-fed and happy then they're not really poor, are they? Just lazy whiners.

Let's take a look at another picture of poverty, one I took while I was working with Kiva in Uganda.

These women are all entrepreneurs getting microfinance loans. They fit any definition of "poor" you care to name. Do they look miserable enough? Should they even be getting a loan? In fact, there was another photo (that I didn't keep) of this same group hamming it up and smiling which I didn't post to the Kiva website because I was afraid that lenders would think they didn't need the money because they looked too happy.

Luckily in the picture I took, at least the poor in question are African women. At least they are the right color and gender to appear properly poor. How dare a white male suggest he could be part of the 99 percent! Except if he earns less than $47,500 a year, then he is. Not just in the U.S., but in the world. Leaving aside any other consideration: what do we know about this guy? Absolutely nothing. He could be doing an unpaid internship. He could be unemployed. He could have a good job somewhere. He could come from a wealthy family--we don't know.

But it is presumptuous to claim that he is part of the top 1 percent without information. We are basing that on a stereotype of rich and poor that is not helpful to anyone. It certainly does not get to the issues behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. This image is a cheap shot and it isn't good for anyone.

Dinosaur clean up on Aisle 5: A guest post from LKT's mom

2011-11-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

As you can guess, I've been too busy to blog, which makes me unhappy. I was going to write something about the very cool trip my parents recently took and then I thought--hey! I'll just get them to write it! Thank you, mom, for being my first guest blogger! (I note that you didn't include any photos of yourself. Hmph.)

An Archeopteryx is thought to be an intermediate
between modern birds and predatory dinosaurs.

So what can only be found in Berlin Germany, London England and Thermopolis, Wyoming? Give up? Why a fossil of an Archeopteryx of course.

A few weeks ago we (LKT's mom and dad) spent an amazing week at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, a town of 3500 people in the middle of Wyoming, with a Road Scholar program learning how to prepare dinosaur bones.

We spent hours and hours hunched over a camarasaurus femur using toothbrushes, water and dental picks to remove mud then transitioned to small hand held jack hammer like tools to deal with the rock or matrix that still surrounded parts of the bone. This was followed by an application of an epoxy to repair and stabilize thin or broken parts.

Dinosaur femur pre-cleaning

LKT's father engaged in femur cleaning. They paid to do this!

Stegasaurus bones

We got to see the bones for a Stegasaurus already prepared and laid out ready to assemble as well as how foam casts are used for missing parts or parts too heavy to mount (see below). The hours, days and years necessary for preparing the final displays we see in the museums are many and speak to a dedication on the part of some pretty special folks. We were delighted to be a part of this for a short time.

Foam casts of bones

More photos from the exhibits at the Dinosaur Museum below:

Awww...mama and baby dinosaurs--how cute!

The Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis, WY

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Is this not the Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch you have ever seen? We managed to get 5 pumpkins this year. Four of them were mostly orange.

In case you're counting, I had already picked one (hence, ouch).

And did you know that those stems are prickery? I actually used sandpaper on them so I could pick them up--after experiencing some serious ouch.

Also, before it's no longer pertinent, I wanted to pass along this recipe for Carrot-Ginger Quinoa Pepper Jacks which sound really good, though I doubt I'll be able to get them so picture-perfect. Just the thing with leftover Snickers.

Braaaains!

Happy Halloween!

Sunday Funnies, October 30

2011-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Uganda Little League breaking news

2011-10-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

World Series--whatever. Awesome news from the maker of the documentary Opposite Field (which I highlighted a while back):

"The team that Uganda was scheduled to play in Williamsport in 2011 was the Canadian champion from Langley, of course that game never happened... until now. We will play the game, this time in the ghettos of Uganda. In January 2011 [I'm assuming he meant 2012] the Canadian team will board a plane and fly to Uganda to play 'the game that should have been'."

Donations to get the Canadian team to Uganda are being collected through Right to Play.

Sunday Funnies, October 23

2011-10-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

"I used to be more liberal, more accepting of differences, and then the living dead came to church..."Full scriptAudio:

Various & Sundry, October 21

2011-10-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Whew! It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I'm gearing up for a garage sale tomorrow, but I wanted to post a couple of things to keep you occupied this weekend. Let's see here...

Loved this story about the man who accidentally received as size 1,450 slipper--not the 14.5 he ordered. Or it may be a PR stunt. Either way, this is a great photo:

In baseball-related news, according to the Futility Closet, "In 1990, weary of repetitive interviews, Phillies pitcher Don Carman posted this list of responses on his locker." It certainly...covers the bases.

Alton Brown also offers a great list of responses on how to fake it as a food and wine connoisseur. e.g.:

How to fake it as a wine connoisseur:Look at the wine list and narrow in on something like the Brunellos. Then look for a year that's missing, and say, "Do you have the '84?" And the waiter will say "no." And then they might recommend a different year, but you should reply, "Yeah but that year was too 'wet'" and they'll agree because they won't know the difference. And soon the conversation will get going and you're safe.

Very good, sir.

I was touched by this report in Stars and Stripes about gay and lesbian servicemembers adjusting to life after DADT. The video interviews are particularly lovely.

I thought I knew both cheeses and fonts, but Cheese or Font showed me I don't. Quick now: Carnova--cheese or font? See? It's tough!

And finally, the fabulous PeaceBang stands up for the rights of fat people to have opinions about aesthetics. Preach it, sister:

Vocation does not come in small, medium and large. The love of beauty and aesthetics is a calling, an orientation of the eye and of the heart. Pigeons, never let anyone tell you that you have the wrong sized body for the work you were called to do. Never let anyone tell you that you’re too ugly to be out in front. And never stop helping your people see the difference between admirable self-discipline around diet and exercise and moral righteousness. They’re two different things but have been intentionally, ingeniously and successfully conflated by the multi-billion dollar diet and beauty industries to be equivalent in the public mind. Self-hating people are much more susceptible to the latest weight-loss or beauty product. There’s a lot of economy riding on you and me feeling bad enough to go spend some money about it.

Jesus never said nothing about loving only skinny kids.I was no better a person when I weighed 105 lbs than I am now.It just takes a whole lot more denim to get around my butt.

Amen, amen.

Obit du jour: Elouise Cobell

2011-10-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I haven't had a lot of time to blog, but I wanted to pass along the amazing story/obituary of Elouise Cobell, "whose Blackfeet name was Yellow Bird Woman and who...sued the United States government for billions of dollars plundered from American Indian lands – and won."A-ma-zing.

And is that not a look? That's not a woman to trifle with, though trifle they did. At their peril.

Sunday Funnies, October 16

2011-10-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Check out the Occupy Sesame Street website! And in response to Cookie Monster's greed...

Various & Sundry, October 7

2011-10-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows of my adoration of The Bloggess. I spent much of last night watching the developing story of The Bloggess's pwning of a PR firm--my my my. I'm sure the PR firm was glad to see the debacle featured on Business Insider this morning. Killer line expertly deployed: "Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy." Oh man! AWESOME!

Also awesome? This memo Gov. Jerry Brown sent to the legislature:

(h/t Passive Aggressive Notes)

In light of the controversy over the name of Rick Perry's family hunting grounds, I thought Ta-Nehisi Coates, as usual, offered light where many provided only heat. His thoughts on racism are, in my opinion, very important and get at something very deep. I cannot encourage you enough to read these posts. On the same topic, I thought The Daily Show's take on the controversy was fantastic.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The Amazing Racism - Geographical Bigotry

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

In the ongoing story about Uganda Little League, there's now a feature film about it, called Opposite Field. I've signed up to receive updates about it; the video is a killer. I hope the film turns out well.

ESPN Feature Opposite Field from Jay Shapiro on Vimeo.

In the meantime, go Milwaukee! Go Cards!

Stay hungry, stay foolish

2011-10-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

Text of speech here.

I'm not sure you need any other obituary.

Sermon from 9/11/11

2011-10-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

I preached this sermon in Fort Bragg, CA, a town that was suffering from a far more recent trauma in the murder of a city councilman. [The suspected murderer was himself killed last Sunday.] The service started at 10, the time when all the churches, police, and fire stations in town were requested to ring bells or sound sirens to mark the day. The following is an abridged version of what I preached, as best I can remember it, piecing it together from my notes.

To prepare for this sermon, I read the Archbishop of Canterbury's reflections on 9/11, Writing in the Dust. He was actually there when the towers were hit, preparing to give a presentation at Trinity Wall Street, so he's not writing about this from a distant perspective.

One of the things he said that I liked very much is that he is "very suspicious of any action that brings a sense of release, irrespective of what it achieves; [he's] very wary of doing something so that it looks as if something is getting done."

I think that includes forgiveness.

The gospel for today is a particularly tough one, I think, made more difficult because we in the church want to jump to forgiveness, sometimes before either party is ready. Too often this passage is used as an excuse for people to hurt others over and over. Too often those injured receive no repentence and yet are told if they do not forgive, they will be punished.

But the phrase that leaps out at me is the one at the very end of Jesus' lesson: the three words "from your heart." And once I focused on that, I started seeing the heart everywhere I turned. Starting in the collect where we ask God to "direct and rule our hearts" to the collect for purity in which we concede from the outset that "all hearts are open" to God to the post-communion prayer in which we ask "to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart," it's clear that our heart needs to be in the right place.

And so it seems to me that our first task is to ask ourselves, Where is your heart? Not where you think it ought to be, or where other people tell you it ought to be, or where you would like it to be: Where is it really?

Another theme that Rowan Williams kept returning to in his book was the need for breathing room. It's strange to say, but even after 10 years, I'm not sure we've ever allowed ourselves any breathing room around 9/11. What would happen if we did? If we didn't need to fix it or understand it or resolve it?

And so I would suggest that our second task is to give ourselves time, to give ourselves breathing space. It may be that time itself will allow us to move on more than we may think. After any momentous event--good or bad--, it simply takes time to absorb what happened and adjust to the new reality. The Israelites left slavery in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, and then spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Give yourself some breathing space.

Whether it's 9/11, or the death of a friend and neighbor, or some personal slight that has rocked your world, breathe; uncover your heart; and only then, without force or compulsion, and as you find it in your heart, forgive.

Addendum: Reflecting on this, the one thing I wish I'd thought to add was a section about how we can trust and believe that God will lead our hearts to a place of forgiveness, if that is what we desire. That's why we don't need to provide forgiveness under compulsion; God is working in our hearts and so we can be at peace, even knowing that we are not where we want to be. I believe God will lead us there.

Sunday Funnies, October 2

2011-10-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping this might make some of you Red Sox fans out there feel just a little bit better.

Various & Sundry, September 30

2011-09-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Let's see here...What have I been stockpiling during the week? Mostly aid and development news, interestingly, but there might have been a bit of baseball news as well.

How about them Red Sox, eh? According to Nate Silver in the NY Times, the chances of the Red Sox not getting a Wild Card spot was one in 278 million. Maybe they should all play the Lottery.

I loved this video revealing the amazing customs of the Austrians. I admit I didn't watch it all, but what I did watch was revealing. I doubt you'll ever watch a National Geographic special the same way again.

In a similar vein, this post on what to consider before volunteering overseas is an eye-opener.

Also in the world of aid and development, this profile of Paul Polak was fascinating. Among other things, he developed treadle pumps that help people in remote areas get access to water. Whoo-ee, does he have some harsh things to say about traditional aid programs! Just to make sure you see it, here's the final question:

Q. What are your principles for success?

A. In 1981, I said, “I’m going to interview 100 $1-a-day families every year, come rain or shine, and learn from them first.”Over 28 years, I’ve interviewed over 3,000 families. I spend about six hours with each one — walking with them through their fields, asking what they had for breakfast, how far their kids walk to school, what they feed their dog, what all their sources of income are. This is not rocket science. Any businessman knows this: You’ve got to talk to your customers.

Well, there's a notion!

In obituary news, I hope you all heard about Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She's the founder of the Green Belt Movement--an incredible person.

Wangari Maathai, who was planting a tree in the shadow of Mount Kenya when told she had won, was clear: “Wars are fought over resources. If we did a better job of managing our resources sustainably, conflicts over them would be reduced. Protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace.”

Finally, very much in non-aid related news, let us all enjoy either for the first time or once again this clever and oh-so-satisfying advertisement.

What are the odds?

The two faces of Harper

2011-09-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Noble hunting dog Harper

"Did you say something?" Harper

Yeah, she's still a puppy.

Garden update, September 25

2011-09-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know you've been wondering for weeks now, "What's up with the garden? Where are our lengthy updates with dozens of photos of various plants? We want information on every variety of tomato under the sun!" But in your patience, you decided not to pester me. Because that's just the kind of forbearing folks you are.

But at long last, your patience will be rewarded! Mostly with the information that this has been a pretty lousy year for the garden due to a Certain Puppy Who Shall Remain Nameless. There's a reason when we let her out of her crate in the morning we say, "Release the Kraken!"

Exhibit A:

Maybe it was locusts...

Here's what didn't survive the summer:

basil
carrots
peas
peppers
green beans
corn
sunflowers
strawberries
various bedding plants

It's not all the nameless puppy's fault, however. I managed to kill the plants in the window boxes all by myself, due to neglect. I feel like a murderer.

I'm glad to report that the tomatoes did survive and are producing abundantly. Lots of BLTs and Caprese Salads are the fruit of my labors.

But here's what I want to show you. Do you remember the pumpkins I planted? Here's a reminder of what they looked like in July:

And here is that same spot today:

Peeking underneath the leaves, there are a few pumpkins plumping up nicely. I just hope they turn orange soon!

The beds along the house are also looking...ok, though it's been uneven, to say the least. The white flowers in the foreground are cosmos that went absolutely crazy...and the small fluffy frond of a plant at the end of the bed is the VERY SAME COSMOS that never even bloomed.

As the predator puppy lurks...

All in all, an OK year, but lots to do as the fall approaches. Kind of like the baseball season: a rebuilding year with lots of hopes for the winter trade deadlines and spring to come. But I'm proud of those pumpkins. (Famous last words.)

Sunday Funnies, September 25

2011-09-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

For depressed A's fans who will be glad to see the end of a lousy season.Hopefully, the even more miserable Mariners will help us end on a positive note.Also, Moneyball was fun.

Various & Sundry, September 23

2011-09-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

Let's see...shall we start with the news? Now here's a headline you don't see every day: Gordon Ramsay's Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead in a Badger Den in Wales. Of course, if you saw it every day, it wouldn't be news, I suppose.

I thought this story in the NY Times was very touching. A regular business blogger there received a heartfelt apology from a former employee he'd had to fire 10 years ago. As the blogger, Jay Goltz, said, "On paper, business is about marketing, management and finance. In reality, it is also about relationships: the good, the bad and the ugly." And later, "I now realize that just because you try and fail with someone doesn’t mean you are a fool. It means you are a boss." Or maybe just human. Really lovely, and about so much more than business.

In the world of social media, I just finished posting a series of blog entries on the Cephas Media site on Starting a Twitter Feed: Follow graciously, Interact generously, Share consistently, Grow Patiently. I think they're pretty good, if I do say so myself. If you're trying to figure out how to use Twitter, or whether to bother, take a look.

One obit I particularly noticed was that of Stetson Kennedy, an investigative journalist who infiltrated and exposed the KKK, revealing in particular "how silly they were."

I can't imagine why someone would think I would be interested in the Run For Your Life 5K Obstacle Course. "Runners will navigate a series of 12 obstacles throughout a 5K course in an attempt to reach the finish line — all while avoiding zombies. At the end of this adventure race, you get to celebrate survival (or zombie transformation) with live entertainment and music, local celebrities, vendors, food, and of course, beer!" Frankly, I'm glad there isn't one locally. I'm sure I'd be dead.

Finally, a friend of mine posted this to my Facebook page about a woman pastor's dark secret. I admire the way they built suspense through the video. Oh, those Unitarian ministers!

Teaser Tuesday: One Of Our Thursdays is Missing

2011-09-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

A very quick Teaser from the book I'm currently reading, One of our Thursdays is Missing:

We walked down the seemingly endless corridors, every door placarded with the name of the department contained within. One was labeled OLD JOKES and another NOUN-TO-VERB CONVERSION UNIT. Just past the offices of the Synonym Squad and the Danvers Union headquarters was a small office simply labeled JAID.

The truth is, probably very little of this book will make sense unless you've read any of the other Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde. That man has the most amazing imagination. Enjoyable reads for readers, though the plots never stick with me.

Undercover Clergy: Whose altar?

2011-09-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

I almost went to a real-live church service yesterday. I had every intention of doing so before heading to work at the winery at noon. Then I looked at the potential church's website.

The "Welcome" page didn't say the address or the times of service (which itself makes me think hmmm...), so I went to the "worship" page, and beneath the times of the Sunday services found this:

All baptized Christians for whom this is a normal expression of faith are invited to receive communion at our altar, keeping in mind that it is the teaching of the Episcopal Church that Christ is truly present and God's power of love is truly at work in this blessed sacrament.

The more I thought about this, the madder I got. Now, I'm an open communion person, meaning I don't think you must be baptized before receiving communion, and I understand that this is not the official position of the Episcopal Church. But I thought, why put this here? Is that really the first thing you want to say about communion, is that "if you're not already in, you can't have it"?

But it was the "our altar" that really got me. It's yours? Really? For my money, if you have to put any phrase there at all, I'd suggest changing that to "at St. Swithins". The altar you leave to God.

And what's with this "keeping in mind" business? Again, that reads as an "our altar" moment; if you don't see communion this way, well, then, you really don't belong here. The Episcopal Church's sign says "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You." In this case, I'd add the addendum, "...more or less."

Am I being hyper-sensitive here? What's weird is that I am completely offended by this, and I'm part of the in-crowd. The hyper-in crowd as an actual ordained minister in this denomination, more than welcome to receive communion under these conditions. But what do you hear in this description?

As for church, I did what is now my usual thing and attended the terrific podcast of St. Laika's. I thank God and MadPriest for it, and for allowing me to attend communion after all.

Sunday Funnies, September 18

2011-09-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

I want to make sure you know that tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arr!

My pirate name is:

Calico Mary Cash

Often indecisive, you can't even choose a favorite color. You're apt to follow wherever the wind blows you, just like Calico Jack Rackham, your namesake. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

And in case you want to celebrate early and religiously, here is the infamous Pirate Eucharist! Arrrmen.

Various & Sundry, September 16

2011-09-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

A quick update on Harper's Cone of Shame: I am now sporting a great many arc-shaped bruises on the back of my calves from where Harper has been ramming me with said cone. I am also very glad to report that she is no longer wearing said cone.

All right, a few tidbits:

From the world of Social Media, I loved this article listing 5 signs your organization is ready to use social media--and 5 signs it isn't. The article says it's about healthcare, but I say substitute, oh, church, for example, for healthcare, and it works just as well. (The "it isn't" list is particularly helpful.)

Although for the most part I am feeling some serious 9/11 fatigue, I was still moved by this book of photos that reports on the lives of the now-elderly dogs who took part of the rescue efforts in 2001.

Also in books, I loved this snippet of history about the man behind the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift, among others. He himself apparently wrote more than 1,300 books. Now, that's prolific.

I don't know if you heard the story about the three passengers detained after a flight to Detroit because they were "suspiciously" Indian and/or Israeli. Both James Fallows and TaNehisi Coates at The Atlantic had some sharp stuff to say about the incident, which is good because all I have to say is pretty vulgar.

Continuing in this cheerful vein, the Internet Monk asks why people are angry at the poor? I draw attention to this because if we want to change people's attitudes towards the poor, I think it helps to understand what is driving the current attitude.

I found this article about how Whole Foods primes you to shop fascinating--down to what shade of yellow makes a banana most appealing. The author has written a book called Brandwashed that may have to go on my list. Not to buy, though. Why would I want to do that?

Let's pick up the mood a little bit with this report from the World Health Organization, announcing that malaria deaths have declined by almost 40 percent over the last 10 years--and may be zero by 2015, at the time when the Millennium Development Goals are set to expire! Wouldn't that be fabulous? Let's keep that going!

I have a new blog I follow called Confessions of a Funeral Home Director. He had a great post yesterday asking "Which funeral home wins the title of 'Worst funeral home name ever?'" It was a tough call.

Finally, get your Kleenex back out to watch this video about Sherrie Gahn's amazing work with the kids at her elementary school:

Have a terrific weekend!

It's only a Cone of Shame if you allow it to be

2011-09-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

A life lesson ably demonstrated by Harper.

"What? Oh, this? It's a CONE!"

"You know what else is good to get under the cone? CATS!!!"

My new job

2011-09-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

I will have even less time to blog than before because I have a new part time job at Hendry Wines!

It's an amazing coincidence, actually. I went to a tasting and tour with a friend of mine who said, "When I retire, I want to work part time at a winery," and the woman giving the tour said, "Are you available now?" Two weeks later, and voila! I am doing data processing, taking orders, answering the phones, and generally trying to make myself useful--and absorb information about wine in the process.

If you're ever in the Napa Valley, call for a tour. I may be the one answering the phone.

Sunday Funnies, September 11

2011-09-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

The Oatmeal reveals What we should have been taught in our senior year in high school, including:

Various and Sundry, September 10

2011-09-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm on my way to Fort Bragg shortly, so this will be brief.

Let's start with an obituary for the fabulous Miss Betty Skelton, daredevil, stuntwoman, test driver, potential astronaut, and all-around record breaker. I'll give away the ending: "Latterly, with her second husband, Allan Erde, a retired Navy doctor, who survives her, she lived in a retirement community at which most of the residents travel about in golf carts. Betty Skelton, however, drove a red Corvette convertible that almost matched the colour of her hair."

I stumbled across this site that obsessively (or perhaps compulsively) catalogs the religious affiliation of comic book characters. Supervillains have a strong predilection towards atheism. Lex Luthor, I am sorry to say, is a lapsed Episcopalian. I found myself thinking, "What could his youth minister have done?" (Superman is good Midwestern Methodist.) You will also be glad to know that Captain Underpants is Jewish. I told you they were obsessive.

Finally (I did mention this would be brief), I loved this Ted talk on tinkering. True for kids, true for adults too. I think we worry too much about Messing Up. What if Messing Up were a good thing and part of the whole process?

World In Prayer

2011-09-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

It was my week for the World In Prayer prayers. I found it difficult to get the balance between acknowledging 9/11, which is on everyone's minds, and the many other things going on in the world. Here's what came out:

O Lord, our God, how glorious is your name in all the earth.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we remember the pain we felt and the suffering that has echoed throughout our world since that time. In the jumble of emotions and stories and interpretations around us, give us the humility to recognize that we know only in part; comfort us with the faith that you fully know. Help us at all times to love.

Help us also to bear one another’s burdens. Open our eyes to the needs of our world today. Give us the courage to move onward, following you though you may seem to us only as a cloud.

As we pause in our wanderings to join with one another in prayer, let us call to mind the needs of the world.

We pray for Syria where Syrian forces have killed at least 28 people in response to continued popular protests.

We pray for Brazil where thousands of people joined anti-corruption demonstrations on their Independence Day.

We pray for Somalia where more than half the population is in crisis after the worst harvest in 17 years has led to famine.

In the United States, we pray for the state of Texas (US) where wildfires have destroyed more than 1500 homes and more than 175 fires have affected over 125,000 acres. We pray for those being evacuated from their homes due to flooding and heavy rains in Pennsylvania and New York.

We pray for India where an explosion in a courthouse in New Delhi killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 60.

We pray for Russia where a chartered plane carrying the members of a Kontinental Hockey League team crashed killing 43 people.

We pray for all those affected by the global financial crisis. We pray for Europe as its leaders continue to search for solutions to the debt crisis in the Eurozone and as people are impacted by those decisions. We pray for Australia whose unemployment rate rose to an unexpected high in August. We pray for all those who are looking for work.

We pray for all those who mourn; all those who suffer; all those who are sick; all those in want.

We pray, O God, you would fill us with compassion and guide us into all truth. May we remember you in all we do. May we find you in all places. May we see you in every person. May we be your light to the world.

Amen.

Sermon prep for 9/11

2011-09-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm preaching this Sunday up at St. Michael's Fort Bragg and would love to get a little input as I mull over the readings. Specifically the gospel, which is this passage from Matthew:

Peter came and said to Jesus, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

"For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, `Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, `Pay what you owe.' Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, `Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, `You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Here's the thing: the 10th anniversary of 9/11 seems like a great time to talk about forgiveness, but I don't want this to be cheap grace or easy platitudes. This is not an easy gospel, nor was 9/11 an easy moment; I don't think the sermon should be easy either. In fact, there are a lot of ways this gospel works against preaching about forgiveness. After all, are we talking about other members of the church? And weren't the events of 9/11 more than owing a few hundred denarii?

But there it is, and I think the gospel demands being faced head-on and in conjunction with all the remembrances and events. But this will require some care and consideration. And I'd love your help.

What comes to your mind, hearing this gospel in tandem with remembering 9/11?

Ground rules: State your own opinions and respect those of others. Personal reactions are just that: personal. If you have a completely different reaction it's because you are a completely different person with a different experience and perspective. How people should feel or what people should think is irrelevant. I am grateful for your honest thoughts; I hope that you will be kind to one another.

A poem for this Labor Day

2011-09-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Calling Him Back from Layoffï»¿ by Bob Hicok : The Poetry Foundation

Calling Him Back from Layoff

BY BOB HICOK

I called a man today. After he said

hello and I said hello came a pause

during which it would have been

confusing to say hello again so I said

how are you doing and guess what, he said

fine and wondered aloud how I was

and it turns out I’m OK. He

was on the couch watching cars

painted with ads for Budweiser follow cars

painted with ads for Tide around an oval

that’s a metaphor for life because

most of us run out of gas and settle

for getting drunk in the stands

and shouting at someone in a t-shirt

we want kraut on our dog. I said

he could have his job back and during

the pause that followed his whiskers

scrubbed the mouthpiece clean

and his breath passed in and out

in the tidal fashion popular

with mammals until he broke through

with the words how soon thank you

ohmyGod which crossed his lips and drove

through the wires on the backs of ions

as one long word as one hard prayer

of relief meant to be heard

by the sky. When he began to cry I tried

with the shape of my silence to say

I understood but each confession

of fear and poverty was more awkward

than what you learn in the shower.

After he hung up I went outside and sat

with one hand in the bower of the other

and thought if I turn my head to the left

it changes the song of the oriole

and if I give a job to one stomach other

forks are naked and if tonight a steak

sizzles in his kitchen do the seven

other people staring at their phones

hear?

Various and Sundry, September 4

2011-09-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

The reason I'm so late with the V&S this week is because on Friday I had to make an EMERGENCY trip to Sebastopol to get Gravenstein apples after reading this article about how those big bully grapevines are pushing those thin-skinned apples around. Here's a picture:

I have Gravenstein apples and you don't! ha ha ha!

But I did want to fill you in on a couple of things.

I loved this fabulous flowchart to help you decide which baseball team to root for. First option: "I have a soul." If no, you root for the Yankees. If yes, move to the next option. Apparently, I'm a Colorado Rockies fan.

This was written for writers, but is true of so many things: about how we need to focus on goals rather than milestones. Meaning this:

Too many people, when they create lists of goals they’d like to achieve in their year, choose to list milestones over which they have little control. Saying you’d like to sell a novel as a ‘goal’ is possibly not in your control. The market may not be right. You may not have written a good novel. But you can certainly somewhat control writing a novel and submitting it.

It's a very practical application of the Serenity Prayer.

In social media, I really liked this blog entry on Twitter that covers all of the basics in a clear, comprehensive, British, and non-social-media-guru way. For example:

"TIP: Don't be a wanker and pretend you're Cameron's personal advisor."

Words to live by.

Speaking of Twitter, I also loved this which I found on Flickr:

That's what most people are really thinking, of course.

This UCC minister also reveals what pastors are really thinking when someone explains to us that they are "spiritual but not religious."

Next thing you know, he's telling me that he finds God in the sunsets. These people always find God in the sunsets. And in walks on the beach. Sometimes I think these people never leave the beach or the mountains, what with all the communing with God they do on hilltops, hiking trails and . . . did I mention the beach at sunset yet?

Oh yes!

Finally, for all the over-doers among us, I highly recommend this column, Stop Giving One Hundred Percent!

I think I'll go kick back for a bit. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sunday Funnies, September 4

2011-09-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

A new sculpture for your garden, available from Zombie Gnomes:

They also have a Facebook page which of course I have liked.

What I am discovering about being a social media consultant

2011-08-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

You know, when I became a priest, I thought I would be spending most of my time in conversations with people and I found, to my surprise, that I spent most of my time at the computer.

When I became a social media consultant, I didn't think I'd be spending much time with people at all, but of course I realized that the people who needed my services were the people who weren't already using social media. What it means is that I spend much of my time either meeting with people, calling people, or making plans to meet with or call people.

At least it gets me out of the house!

Off to make a phone call...

Sunday Cuteness, August 28

2011-08-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Three photos of Harper and the saintly Andy that I hope will make you go awwww...

Black Diamond Mines

2011-08-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

For the past month or so, we've been going out Saturday mornings to hike at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch with the dogs (Andrew and Harper, if you have not met them before). I had never heard of it, but it got a great write-up in the Dog Lover's Companion to California and so off we went.

What a fabulous place! It's part of the always wonderful East Bay Regional Park District, but it has a couple of unique features.

For instance: a cemetery! So you know I'm going to love that.

The Rose Hill Cemetery was located halfway between two small mining towns and is the final resting place for miners and their families. Many of the graves were vandalized, but the Park District is working to restore them. Here's the headstone for a not-quite-3-year-old child.

Being a mining community, you will not be surprised to hear there are also mine shafts you can see in the park where people used to mine coal and silica. There's a tour of one of the mines which sounds pretty interesting. Despite how the picture looks, this shaft is safely barred off.

To get to either of these, however, involves climbing hills. Lots and lots of hills. The trails are terrific, but did I mention hills?

In this picture, you can sort of see the cemetery on the other hill waaaaay over on the other side. It's the part with the smattering of trees. You know how I was able to get this picture? Climbing hills, that's how.

The great thing is, once you get to the top, the views are magnificent. And you feel like you've really earned it.

I apologize for spoiling the view.

Harper, however, thinks the very best thing is the horse trough waiting at the base of the trail.

Various and Sundry, August 26

2011-08-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

So apparently today is Women's Equality Day. How nice. "Women now represent one in four state legislators, 17 members of the Senate, three justices on the Supreme Court, 74 generals in the armed forces, and seven Cabinet-level positions in the Obama Administration, according to [Secretary of Labor Hilda] Solis." Yeah, so that's equality right there, you betcha.

I thought this report on The Secret Life of Pronouns (yes, pronouns) was fascinating. As the researcher himself said,

"Never in a million years would I have thought that pronouns would be a worthwhile research topic. I ran study after study and initially found large and unexpected differences between people in their pronoun use. In hindsight, I think I ignored the findings because they didn't make sense. One day, I lined up about five experiments that I had conducted and every one revealed the same effects. It was that day that I finally admitted to myself that pronouns must be meaningful."

I liked this obituary for the Horror film writer Jimmy Sangster, largely because he seemed so sane. I mean, there are a lot of obituaries of sane people, but he just didn't seem to be a tortured artist in any way.

Asked by the Web site Hammer Graveyard what led him to the horror genre, he replied, “I wrote horror movies because it was my job,” adding, “So, when anyone asks me what were the influences that prompted me to be a ‘horror film’ writer, I tell them it was Wages!”

The title of his autobiography is Do You Want it Good or Tuesday? There's a realist for you.

At long last, we have learned the answer to why God doesn't answer prayer. It was, of course, the Bloggess who figured it out who, along with her sister, determined the other things God has to do with his time. Such as “Just because God doesn’t answer your prayers it doesn’t mean he’s not listening. It probably just means you’re boring. Maybe try incorporating car chases into your prayers. Or something with vampires. Vampires are really hot right now.” I'll be doing that.

Continuing on this religious note, in light of the recent earthquake damaging the National Cathedral, and the hurricane hurtling toward New York, I thought it would be worth passing on this Parish Emergency Planning Kit developed by the Diocese of Texas. It looks like a very useful resource. I encourage you to pass it along before the next earthquake. As well as including car chases in your prayers.

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

2011-08-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

So said the headline after the Ivy League match-up in November 1968. A Harvard grad who'd been there at the time made a documentary about it for the 40th anniversary and I had wanted to see it ever since. I finally got a chance a couple of days ago, and I'm very glad I did.

It's a very simple film: clips of the game are interspersed with clips of interviews with the men who'd played the game, now in their late 50's or early 60's, sitting in their kitchens or offices, pulling back the memories of that particular day. And they say things like, "I brought my girlfriend to campus...actually, I was dating Meryl Streep at the time."

But less interesting than the name-dropping to me was watching how this one rather insignificant event--a college football game--continued to color and inform these men's lives, and how vivid the memories still were for them.

And even though--even though it says right there in the title what happens, you still won't believe it's happening. It's still amazing to watch.

Do your best to get your hands on this. It's worth it.

Here's the website, and the trailer is below:

Monday Morning Preacher: Relying on memory

2011-08-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

For the first time in simply aaaaages (well, actually since the 4th of July weekend), I didn't have to preach on Sunday, and it felt mighty good. I lounged around at home, reading a thriller, watching the A's game, paying bills, putzing around in the garden...just what the doctor ordered. If I were taking a doctor's advice, that is.

At any rate, I still thought about preaching when I saw this snippet on Andrew Sullivan's blog about how we remember.

Briefly put, the human brain is manifestly better at remembering images and spaces than it is at recalling numbers and letters. Cicero, then, counsels, “The best way to memorize a speech” is to “make one image for each major topic” and “place each of those images at a locus.” You might not easily remember every topic you need to cover in a speech, but you will, in all likelihood, effortlessly recall the layout of your childhood house. The task, then, is simply to build the speech into that house.

I'm going to have to remember that for my next sermon. I do pretty well from notes, but this might be very useful for getting away from notes entirely.

What techniques do you find useful for remembering what you want to say?

Sunday Funnies, August 21

2011-08-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

This joke was posted as a comment in response to another Cajun salesman joke over at the MadPriest's blog. I thought this one deserved a wider audience. And the original joke some serious eye-rolling. h/t Hooper, whoever you may be.

So this Cajun guy used to work at a store in Louisiana, and he was a very faithful man who always took an opportunity to quote scripture when ringing up his customers. For example, if a child bought a stick of candy, he would say "Let the little ones come unto me." If a elderly couple came in for Geritol, he would say "Honor thy mother and thy father."

The owner of the store was always amazed that the Cajun salesman can think of an appropriate scripture in every single situaltion, and watches him closely to see if he ever fails.

One day, a rich Texas race horse owner pulls up in a stretch Cadillac towing a trailer with a thoroughbred on board. He comes in and says, "You folks here got a horse blanket?"

The Cajun man says. "Sure enough, we got'em, das for sure. Dey in de supply room, I'll go get you one"

Now, this store is only a little general store, and while they have horse blankets, they are all the same, just different colors. The Cajun man goes to the supply room, gets a blue blanket, and comes back.

"Dis here horse blanket will be 15 dollars, suh" Cajun man says.

The Texan says, "Son, that's not good enough, that there horse in that there trailer is Lightning Bolt, and he's gonna win the Loosiana Derby, and this here blanket ain't good enough for him. Go get a better blanket."

Cajun man thinks real hard, goes back to the supply room, and gets a green blanket, same kind, just a different color.

"Dis here a better blanket, gonna cost you 45 dollars" says Cajun man.

"That's still not good enough...what's your best blanket you got back there?" asks the Texan.

"Yessuh, I be right back, I garontee."

Cajun man comes back fronm the supply room with another 15 dollar blanket, this time a gold one.

"Dis here the best in the house, nothin'n but the finest for you and ol' Lihgtning Bolt. But, suh, I gotta tell you, it's gonna cost you 155 dollars, and dat don't include the tax, but it's the best in the house, dat's for sure..."

The Texan responds, "That's what I'm lookin' for, glad you found that for me, Lightning Bolt gonna look good with this here blanket, I'll take it!"

Cajun man goes over to the register... he pauses to think of a scripture verse appropriate for this scam... and his boss looks on as well... what will he say?

Cajun man looks up to the heavens, punches in the total with tax of 167 dollars, and as he rings up the sale, he speaks...

"He was a stranger, and I took him in!"

Update on Uganda Little League

2011-08-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

There was a poignant story in the NY Times about the Ugandan Little League team watching the games from home after not being able to get visas to play there themselves. My heart breaks for them. I encourage you to read it.

Various and Sundry, August 19

2011-08-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

I'm not getting anything done right at the moment, so I might as well blog and entertain myself by sending scads of random articles your way.

Let's see here...[shuffle, shuffle] We seem to be heavy on the social media geekery this week. Just shows where my mind is at.

I LOVED these social media propaganda posters, which you can buy separately or in this all-in-one version here. h/t Design Fetish for bringing these to my attention.

I also thought this infographic on the Psychology of Twitter was terrific. If you like that sort of thing. Which I do. Obviously. Because I'm being nice to you, I'm not copying the infographic here because I suspect some of you might have other ways you want to spend your time than learning what makes people retweet a tweet. Yeah, never mind I'm moving on now.

Gardens! And garden snakes! Isn't that better? I loved these photos from Phillip Oliver over at Dirt Therapy who "got quite a jolt when I walked up the side gate to water the portulaca and saw this -"

Yikes! I enjoyed following the snake around the garden through the safe distance of these gorgeous photos.

In the obits (since the Week in Death feature seems to be overkill, so to speak), I would like to draw your attention to Nat Allbright, Voice of Dodgers Games He Did Not See.

Mr. Allbright, who died last month, went on to be a master of what is now a lost, almost hard-to-imagine art. Like a young radio broadcaster named Ronald Reagan, he took bare-bones telegraph messages transmitted by Morse code (“B1W” for Ball One Wide); embellished them with imagination and sound effects; and then broadcast games that sounded as if he were in the ballpark hearing, smelling and seeing everything, from steaming hot dogs to barking umpires to swirling dust at second base.

Apparently, there were "rain delays" when emergency repairs were needed. An impressive example of carrying on, I say.

And finally, if you are in the Portland, Maine area, please stop by the store Ferdinand tomorrow. Why? It's celebrating its 10th anniversary. And it's my sister's shop. Pretty awesome. Way to go, Diane!

Feast of William Porcher Dubose

2011-08-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Haven't done a feast day for a while, but I was drawn to the feast of William Porcher Dubose in part because I find it difficult. He was, after all, a chaplain to the Confederate Army. I'm not so sure that I find "it" difficult as I find him difficult.

I was directed via Twitter to this lovely post about Dubose, written a year ago by the Dean of the Cathedral in Atlanta, which says Dubose "was, if you will, 'entangled.' His lot in life was to live in several places at once. In fact, I believe that is the lot for all of us in life." So I've been thinking about that.

And then I read some of the introduction to Dubose's book The Gospel According to St. Paul, in which he writes,

The ultimate aim of each one of us should be not to save ourselves from error but to advance the truth. We may safely rely upon it that our truth will in the end be accepted and our error corrected. If I had been too much afraid of going wrong I should have made no progress in growing right; — who of us that has really thought or spoken may not say that of himself? For my own part, I have not merely traditionally believed but become personally convinced that there is a truth of the Scriptures and that there is a mind of the Church; and that each of these will take care of itself as against the infinite errors and vagaries of individual thinkers and writers. I have in my mind not only an implicit faith but a rational science or philosophy of these things, which at least satisfies myself and gives me security and rest from the fear of even my own shortcomings or too-far-goings. I do not hesitate to say then, on the one hand, that I hold what I hold subject to the revision and correction of the deeper truth of the Scriptures and the larger wisdom of the Church; and, on the other hand, that, leaving to these their function of final acceptance or rejection, I conceive it to be my duty to the truth, and my best service to them, to think the thoughts and express the conclusions, as best I may, which I have found to be to myself their own best interpretation.

I like that very much. I like especially that the fear of going wrong is far less important than the search for what is right. I see too often that people of faith are not true to what they actually believe because they fear it is "wrong." This is a comforting passage, knowing that advancing the truth takes precedence over saving ourselves from error.

But I still find him difficult. "It will all work out in the end"--fair enough; but people can be hurt in the meantime. It's not all just an intellectual exercise. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something in all of this that disturbs me.

Yes, we are entangled. But I think part of our work as Christians is to examine closely those things that entangle us. And not simply through our intellect, however impressive that may be, but through every part of ourselves.

No answers, but this is just about starting the conversation, not having a definitive answer. And, as Dubose says, the Church will guard against the vagaries of individual thinkers and writers, such as myself.

Tuesday Book Blogging: Dick Francis lives!

2011-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, is referenced anyway, in the awkwardly titled Dick Francis's Gamble by Felix Francis. After all, Dick Francis isn't gambling, is he? Perhaps this should be called G.P. Putnam Sons's Gamble on Dick Francis's Name. But I snark.

I saw it at the CostCo a couple of weeks ago and did not buy it (yay, me). It came in at the library very quickly, making me wonder if people fear the Francis brand has been diluted. But it reads like a Dick Francis, that's for sure, perhaps a hair off the usual Dick Francis, but all the elements are there: the racing connection, the person dropping dead on the first page, the self-contained protagonist caught up in it all. I'm enjoying it a lot.

Here's a teaser from the opening sentences:

"I was standing right next to Herb Kovak when he was murdered. Executed would have been a better word."

Doesn't that sound like a Dick Francis thriller to you?

Sunday Monday Morning Funnies

2011-08-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

I meant to set this to post before I went to Fort Bragg...ah well.

In honor of my mother getting a new Android phone:

Various and Sundry, August 12

2011-08-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to squeak in a quick V & S post, but it will be brief--good thing I have to hustle otherwise I'd be here all day with new stuff.

OK, so this isn't new but it was new to me: the president of Electronic Recyclers International in Fresno talks about Why I Hire Former Convicts and Gang Members. "There are no absolutes, but I’ve generally found that when you hire someone who’s looking for one last chance to turn his life around, he’ll roll up his sleeves and give you everything he’s got." Great stuff.

A couple of things I liked spoke to Gov. Perry's Prayer Rally in Texas. The first, from Roger Ebert, talks about The Error of Political Prayer and of the "horizontal prayers" that are prayed so that others may hear them. Very good stuff. And the other speaks more generally to the claim many Christians make of persecution. "You see, there seems to be this perception among Conservative Christians, such as yourself, that if you’re not allowed to do or say anything and everything you want, it’s persecution." He points out that persecution, to those actually being persecuted, looks quite different.

From Tales of Unintended Consequences-or-how idealism makes fools of us all, two articles: one, how a well-intentioned bill designed to eliminate "conflict minerals" has devastated Congo. The other delves into the conundrum of voluntourism: does it help or hurt locals? The answer: there are no easy answers.

In our ongoing theme of Zombies, a Facebook friend pointed me toward the T-shirt with this nifty Venn diagram. Description: Just so you know where you stand with them.

So it's a good thing for us in the Bay Area that we live close to Sensei Keiko Fukuda who, at the age of 98, became the first woman EVER to attain a 10th degree black belt. I was fascinated by her story, and glad to see they are making a documentary about it. It's very moving. A clip is below:

Obits du jour: Agents and spies

2011-08-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist any more and wanted to bring to your attention two obituaries from the past couple of days.

I just saw this one for Charles Gittens, the first black Secret Service agent, who joined the service in 1956. By 1971, when he was named the head of the Washington bureau (OK, wow), "only 37 of the Secret Service's 1,200 agents were black." I wonder what the situation is like now.

He just sounds impressive as all get-out. Love this snippet: "When asked about the chances of being shot as a Secret Service agent, Gittens reckoned he was 'a hell of a lot safer being a Secret Service man that I would be driving cabs in either New York or Chicago'."

OK, and let's just hear it for The Telegraph--in, may I remind you, ENGLAND--for this terrific full-on obit. There's nothing in the NY Times (yet), and the Washington Post--for SHAME--has a reprint of an AP wire story. Just embarrassing, the state of our obituaries.

The Telegraph also did a great write-up for Nancy Wake, aka the White Mouse, who was "famed as a resourceful, dauntless Resistance leader, who topped the Gestapo’s most-wanted list and had saved hundreds of Allied lives." The ending is rather poignant, however, as they report, "In old age Nancy Wake was to be found on a leather stool in the hotel bar most mornings, nursing the first of the day’s five or six gin and tonics." But I suppose if you're in your 80's and have done as much living as she has, why not.

The Empire stops for a cuppa

2011-08-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

"I find your lack of milk disturbing."

The sermon I actually gave...

2011-08-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

You may remember that last week I posted the sermon I wrote on Jacob wrestling that I had every intention of giving, had the church where I was preaching actually used the Genesis reading. Instead, and to my shock, I found myself presented with Isaiah 55 ("Ho, everyone who thirsts,come to the waters;") and the feeding of the 5,000--lovely readings both, but I had no intention of preaching on them. In fact, I had clearly chosen not to preach on the gospel because I felt I had absolutely nothing more to say about the feeding of the 5,000. But then I found I did. Here's what I ended up preaching as best I can recall:

I had a really good sermon for today. Unfortunately, it was on a reading that you didn't hear so I'm going to give a sermon that I made up in 5 minutes in the sacristy before the service instead. It will be very short [at the 10:00, someone clapped, which I made sure to point out].

One of my tasks as the managing director of Confirm not Conform is to post things regularly on their Facebook page and Twitter feed. A couple of weeks ago, I found a quote from Annie Lamott that really struck me. If you know Anne Lamott, you know she is a writer who has written extensively about her life, and especially her life of faith. This particular quote came from the commencement address she gave at UC Berkeley in 2003. In it, she details how she came to be successful at her chosen profession, only to find that it didn't provide her the satisfaction she had expected.

She put it in this remarkable way that has stuck with me ever since:

Fake doesn't feed anything.

Isaiah says that too when he says,

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Fake doesn't feed anything. In fact, I realized when I thought about it, fake requires energy. So many of us put up a persona of the person we think we ought to be: competent and cool, spiritual, or savvy. And the thing about that is, to keep up the persona requires energy. It doesn't feed anything; instead, it requires feeding.*

In the gospel today, Jesus tells his apostles to feed the multitudes. "All we've got is 5 loaves and two fish," they tell Jesus. But it is no coincidence that using the little food that they have turned out to give them 12 baskets left over--one to feed each of the apostles.

Fake doesn't feed anything.

That's all I got. I hope that feeds you. Amen.

*it is probably around this point that I started crying--quite a horrible feeling; however, given that the whole point of this message was that "keeping up a persona of competence requires energy," the very emotion itself proved the point. I hate it when God does that.

Sunday Funnies, August 7

2011-08-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

I took this picture at the coffee place I went to between services last Sunday.

I tipped generously.

Tuesday Book Blogging: "Bitter is the New Black"

2011-08-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Really, is there anything better than someone who's nasty and knows it writing a memoir about her precipitous fall and (I'm hoping) redemption? Especially if that person is very, very funny.

The full title of such a memoir is Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-ass, or why you should never carry a Prada Bag to the unemployment office. And it is quite savory.

Here is a teaser from the salad days:

"Speaking of Meri, she's a shoo-in to be named manager of the year at the final banquet tonight. She runs the Houston office and helped her team raise sales almost 400 percent last year, so the fact that she's sleeping with her director is totally irrelevant."

It is all terribly, terribly wicked. Enjoy!

I finished the Matthew Shardlake mystery Revelation--really good as all of them are, but it had a degree of grisliness I had not remembered from before. I'm glad to rest easy with a little backstabbing.

The sermon I would have given...

2011-08-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

...had the church where I was preaching actually used the lesson from Genesis as their Old Testament lectionary reading, rather than the Isaiah option. Oh my. I will tell you about the sermon I actually did preach...tomorrow, probably. Talk about having your worst fear realized!

Ironically, this is the one time in weeks I've actually fully written out my sermon. I thought I was so prepared! God was definitely messing with me, big time.

At any rate, here's the sermon:

Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address at Dartmouth this year. It was, as you might imagine, very funny. It was also, in some ways, a very typical commencement address. But it was also amazingly personal. And at the heart of it was a simple message. After he spoke about his disappointment of not getting the Tonight Show job and being cast out of NBC and the misery of that experience, he said this:

There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized.

For O’Brien, that experience led him to try new things in what became “the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life.” And he told the graduates that the cliché “follow your dreams” is true—with the caveat that your dreams are going to change, and you aren’t going to have the same dreams at 42 that you have at 21.

It was a great commencement speech, and I love a great commencement speech. But here’s the thing: when you’re 21 can you really hear that? Hear that and understand it in your bones? And this is not about callow youth. This is just to say that understanding failure and struggle and renewal may be one of those things you can’t learn about second-hand. You can only get to it alone.

The thing this story of Jacob struggling with the man gives us is the realization that we are not the first people to go through this kind of struggle.

[Context of story here]

A couple of comments about this story:

First of all, it takes place at night, when “the busy world is hushed and the fever of life is over.” If we are going through some existential struggle about who we are and what we should be in this world, it’s easy enough to keep ourselves occupied and distracted during the day, but at night…not so easy. This struggle, and this man Jacob struggles with, seems to come out of nowhere. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve had the experience where as far as I knew things were fine, but when night came on, I found myself in struggle I didn’t know I had.

Secondly, it’s a wrestling match. Jacob has always been a schemer and a swindler with an eye for the main chance. He’s never been a physical fighter. He tricks people out of stuff and then runs away when they want to kill him. Here, his usual methods do not work. All he has is himself, and it is to his great credit that instead of running away, he holds on and struggles.

Third, it is not without pain. Jacob has his hip put out of joint. Ow. Big ow. I wish I had a great deal more time to talk about this because what I do not want is, if you are in pain, for you to leave here thinking somehow pain is always good and you should live with it. At the same time, I disagree with the message we get that when we have painful experiences that is in itself a sign that we have done something wrong or gone against God’s will. All I can say in this short time is that sometimes the things that bless us also pain us.

Finally, it may take a long struggle to receive a blessing. Longer that you would like it to be, and not without pain. I think a lot of is have been taught that if you’re blessed that means things are easy for you. One thing the story of Jacob makes clear is that receiving this blessing ain’t always easy.

Maybe this means nothing to you. Maybe you have never struggled in the night, wrestled through the pain. This sermon may wash right over you, and that’s all right. Because Jacob and his many, many children who have been through this same struggle will be there when you need him.

Or maybe you’re in the middle of the wrestling match, sitting there wondering when on earth you are going to receive any blessing at all. To you I hope this story will be of some comfort, to know you are not the first, you are not alone. I don’t know how it will turn out for you. But I hope you will know that to struggle is no sign of God’s disfavor.

And to you who have been through it and come out on the other side: I hope you will find ways to support those who are in the midst of the struggle, by sharing your story of your fight through the night.

Hold on to God fiercely and be blessed. Amen.

Sunday Funnies, July 31

2011-07-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the dog days of August.

The Infusion

Report from the Zinfandel Festival

Sunday Funnies, January 29

Various & Sundry, January 27

Psst...need a Lenten program?

Guess who's going to be a celebrity blogger?

Monday Morning Preacher: Me and my best bud, Phillips Brooks

Sunday Funnies, January 22

Review: Toxic Charity

All-star obituaries

Sunday Funnies, January 15

Various & Sundry, Friday the 13th edition

World In Prayer, Jan. 12, 2012

Giving up shame

Sunday Funnies, January 8

Various & Sundry, New Year's edition

A season of receiving

The Constitution can take it

Obit du jour: Bob Anderson

Monday Morning Preacher: Christmas in Chelsea Square

Sunday Funnies, Happy New Year!

Obit du jour: Eva Zeisel

Reflections on Christmas 2011

Christmas Oratorio by W.H. Auden

There's never too much inflatable Christmas decor

On Trinity Wall Street and Occupy Wall Street and the reactions thereunto

On the feast of St. Thomas

There's still time before Christmas...

Guest post: on Vaclav Havel

Sunday Funnies, December 18

Obit quote du jour

Sunday Funnies, December 11

Strong reaction

And I thought they looked like that so we could hang them on Christmas trees...

Obit du jour: Peter Lunn

Thoughts on holiday giving

Sunday Funnies, December 4

Garden Update, December 3

Reflections on World AIDS Day

Protect the kiddies! Bible stories!

So much to do, so little time

In thanksgiving

Sunday Funnies: Nov. 20

Epistolary Pastry Petulance: An open letter to Peet's Coffee

Obit du jour: Mark Hall, a creator of "Danger Mouse"

Obit du jour: Rose Robertson

While I wasn't looking

Sunday Funnies, November 6

Various & Sundry, November 4

World In Prayer, November 4

What's wrong with this picture?

Dinosaur clean up on Aisle 5: A guest post from LKT's mom

Happy Halloween!

Sunday Funnies, October 30

Uganda Little League *breaking news*

Sunday Funnies, October 23

Various & Sundry, October 21

Obit du jour: Elouise Cobell

Sunday Funnies, October 16

Various & Sundry, October 7

Stay hungry, stay foolish

Sermon from 9/11/11

Sunday Funnies, October 2

Various & Sundry, September 30

The two faces of Harper

Garden update, September 25

Sunday Funnies, September 25

Various & Sundry, September 23

Teaser Tuesday: One Of Our Thursdays is Missing

Undercover Clergy: Whose altar?

Sunday Funnies, September 18

Various & Sundry, September 16

It's only a Cone of Shame if you allow it to be

My new job

Sunday Funnies, September 11

Various and Sundry, September 10

World In Prayer

Sermon prep for 9/11

A poem for this Labor Day

Calling Him Back from Layoff﻿

Uganda Little League breaking news

Calling Him Back from Layoff