I preached my third sermon today at my new congregation and finally got more then a "good job." Actually what was said was "Pastor gotta talk with you about that sermon that you got wrong."

In about 10 minutes I'll be getting my hair done. Yesterday we had worship in the park but because the weather threatened to rain we ended up having services in a park shelter with a potluck to follow. As it was also my grandmother's 82nd birthday and I wanted to be at her party (3 hours away) I only stayed for a bit of the potluck and then I ran to my grandmother's.

For her birthday we ended up taking her to my dad's favorite restaurant and it was my aunt, 2 uncles, grandmother and myself. My aunt and uncle don't realize that the there are tricks to being with my grandmother. One of those tricks is taking her to limited, but familiar places. My aunt wanted us to go to an Italian restaurant that she thought my g'ma would find pretty but the thing is that with my g'ma she might find it pretty but she'll also spend all of her energy trying to figure out where she is and what's that noise and what are those people doing over there, and who are they, that she'll never get comfortable and then she'll keep repeating herself and no one will be comfortable.

My grandmother has vascular dimension a disease that people confuse with Alzheimer's. VD is a series of small strokes throughout the brain and manifest themselves in no short term memory. So while my grandmother can remember who her family is she can't "remember" where she is and what she's doing. But if we go some place familiar then she's more likely to feel comfortable about being there. As such I'm constantly fighting with my family to establish this with them. The thing is that before she had this condition she would have wanted to go some place new and see and experience something new so my family thinks that the way to make her happy (she was notoriously unhappy before the condition). But I know that the way to make her happy is to make her comfortable.

It was a hairy situation but after I got everyone on board we had a great evening. The restaurant that we went to is situated on the river and as if I had read the script my grandmother sat in a seat by the window and said, "I could sit and watch the river all day long" (something I knew she loved to do). We had a lovely meal (I had the salmon and shrimp cocktail) and most importantly my grandmother enjoyed herself.

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/08/weekend_soundtrack/

If you follow this link, you'll get to hear my interview on the radio. For some damn reason I can't embed it.

When I was growing up junior high was my definition of hell (but then I went to the seminary). Then in my eighth grade ear I made friends with Z and for one glorious year I not only had Z, but I had Z's friends and her older brother G. Z and G's parents were famous mathematicians at the University and my mom was a single mom and a student. Apparently at some end of the year party someone stole a camera out of her parent's bedroom and without asking me or questioning me about it they just assumed it was me and I couldn't be her friend anymore. When high school started I was so excited to finally see Z again but she was aloof and we never really connected again. It wasn't until my senior year that she told me about the camera and I was floored. I had never stolen her parent's camera and as I said, they had never even given me a chance to defend myself. I was tried and convicted without evidence. All of these old friends of mine remain friends with one another and Z and G, but not me. I tried to send G an email but he didn't respond. I generally don't think about it, but sometimes I feel like going over to her dad's office and confronting him. They aren't religious people so I'm sure that they wouldn't care that I was a pastor and that my mom was working on her PhD, and I'm sure that they would never admit their wrong. But it would be nice to at least be given the chance to try my own case.

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/28/spring/

(btw I tried to embed this so that you could click on it and hear the audio from LJ but I guess I did it wrong so you'll have to follow the link and listen to the story of G on the radio from the link above which I'm too lazy to format even though I'm willing to write about how I'm too lazy to do it).

And I love Bright Eyes. I can feel a little mellow and maybe a little down and listening to them makes me feel like I'm floating in a soft blue sea watching a bird circling in a sky full of soft white clouds.

Ever since I moved to Montana I've been dreading this day... moving day. Actually, it began before then when I moved from Minneapolis to St Paul and the seminary. It's not this particular move that I've been dreading, but the inevitability of another move. It's funny though, because I don't even know when that day's going to be except soon. I just know that I'll be moving again and leaving this place and everyone behind.

What's hard about living life this way is actually learning to live life this way. I struggle between making here easier verses making the move easier. What I mean is the debate of whether or not it's worth trying: trying to get to know the place and trying to get to know the people. When I moved to Montana I wanted to get to know the people, but they judged me pretty quickly and they thought that they knew me. When I moved to Alaska I was amazed how quickly I got to know the people and was integrated into the community. Moving back to St Paul was always an experience as I was never really integrated into the community in the first place so no one ever seemed to miss me.

And then I moved "here". I'm from this part of Iowa so one might call it home but I've never lived in this community before. When I came here I didn't know how long I was going to stay but I knew that I would be moving. On one hand I don't want to start relationships that'll have to end: I come with an expiration date. But on the other hand I'm sick of living this way. It makes me feel like I'm living for tomorrow and not today.

Frankly living this way only serves to keep me in my safe shell. It's become easier for me to assert my work personae than I am at the personal personae. Therefore, justifying not trying to get to know others becomes just another justification.

So I joined a church (and I'm on the verge of planning an ordination!) and I started volunteering in the community and in politics. I haven't made as many friends here as I did in Alaska (evidence by the fact that if I don't plan it then nothing happens), but I've still made some. I've made enough connections here that it'll be bitter sweet to leave. This time I wont just be leaving Iowa, but a little piece of home.

This is a modified recipe that I got from Gourmet magazine:

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
3 T paprika
2 T freshly grated black pepper
2 T kosher salt
2 T Mrs Dash
2 T garlic powder
1 T ground mustard
2.5 tp cayenne
2.5 tp dried thyme

4 4-oz Salmon fillets

Cooking spray
( Read more... )

I've been spending a lot of time with my grandmother and in fact I think it's one of the reasons that the Lord has me here at this time doing what I'm doing. While I still have anxiety about employment and I struggle with the on again, off again desire to move away from home (bright lights! big city!) one of the reasons I struggle is because of my grandmother and her impending demise.

My grandmother didn't have an easy life and without the benefit of feminism and Oprah Winfrey she didn't have much of a choice. After most of her children had grown and she finally entered the workforce she said the world opened up for her and ever after she always loved working. And undoubtedly it's from her that both my mother and I have earned such a strong work ethic and the freedom that it gives a women. But like me she struggled with having a place where she belonged. It always seemed she was under a slightly gray cloud because she was never quite happy enough where she was. After she split from my grandfather she moved to Florida but after only a handful of years she moved back because she missed her family and back and forth she went from there.

I have always been close to my grandmother because as a single mother my mom relied upon the help of her mother in order to give her time to achieve the things she needed to. This was fine with me because I adored my grandmother who as she says, "loved to dress me up and take me places." That said it was true that there were sort of two sides of me, there was the side that allowed her grandmother to dress her as she pleased and was very sweet and well behaved and then there was the slightly disheveled and rebellious me that read a lot of books with her mother.
( Read more... )

No more crashing from page to page. No more "thinking, thinking, thinking" every time I try to type a letter. No more crashing from application to application, "Send Report to Mac?" Yesterday I picked up my new and fancy MacBook. Actually this is the first new computer I've ever owned. In the past I've always received my mom's handmedown's or as in the case of my iMac I bought it used from M. I'm so excited to learn some of the new applications on my new baby. I've already been shooting little videos with its camera. Tres cool.

I just found this really cool website called Fullness of Faith. It has all of these "indie" Orthodox things like a t-shirt with the logo, "Hummus is the new peanutbutter," or a logo with a black alb and the phrase, "the man in black." Check it ou.

Battlestar Galactica Season 3.0 spoiler
( Read more... )

This is a discussion of Battlestar Galactica Season 3.0 if you haven't watched it yet, or aren't up to my episode it's all behind the cut. So, please no spoilers. Episode: A Day in the Life

( Read more... )

Tomorrow I'm going to preach for the first time in a while. Since finishing school I've been working for my step-dad and waiting to be assigned (either domestic or overseas). However, as my pastor is going out of town for the holiday she's asked me to preach and lead worship for her. Normally I wouldn't find this challenging at all, but true to form I've developed the flu and feel utterly under the weather (I guess that's the definition). Thankfully I had already written the sermon and all I have left to do today is iron, but I'm just not feeling it. Ugh.

This week I fell in love with the family of Pat Tillman, the army ranger who was killed by fratricide in Afghanistan. As I listened to his brother Kevin give his testimony I was moved by his search for the truth and by the obvious intelligence of both him and his mother. As they described Pat again he sounded like a very likable young man. In a clip from the radio I heard Pat speak from the grave, his great-grandfather had been at Pearl Harbor and he said he had never done anything to deserve what he had and it was time to give back. As someone who also comes from a long line of military I respected that.

I also resonated with his mother when she testified that she was a history major and from her studies she couldn't understand the tactics the day that her son die. While I'm not a military historian, one of my mentors was and so before I came to the seminary the bulk of my ancient and world history was tactics and maneuvers in time of war. I never thought that I could be interested in that kind of thing, but when one has a talented teacher one can be interested in any subject. Mary Tillman asked why the troops were split up that day? Why wasn't the enemies truck taken out? Good questions.

So, I did what I typically do, I started to search the internet about the Tillman family. I read again Kevin's open letter that I had first read a year ago (?) and I was moved again by his reasoning. But then I started to find sites that talked about the Tillman's "spirituality". Curious whenever spirituality or religion is the topic I clicked on those. Most were blogs and some were news sites. But it was clear that people are obsessed by Mary's lack of religious conviction. Some are supportive like this guy's (but by the name of his blog, "Future of the Book" I first thought he would be a critic, however it turns out that he's an atheist and a sci-fi fan).

But it was in this this blog that I learned about the controversy.
( Read more... )

I for one don't care if Don Imus got caught in a 'slow news week' and therefore is suffering the consequences. Neither do I care that he's said racist remarks before and not gotten in this kind of trouble. He said them. He got caught. Not only was he racist, but he was sexist and against young woman who really didn't need this trouble. But the good news is he was fired and those young women have more than proved that they were to the challenge of defending themselves. Kudos to coach Vivian Stringer as well. I've thought that she was awesome since her days at Iowa. The only sport that I really enjoyed watching growing up was women's basketball at the U of I and I always felt that her teams had both skill and grace on the court. And in interviews she has proven the same of herself.

Perhaps this is what has allowed Coach Spurrier the courage to stand up for his convictions as well, and for that I am that the issue is being carried foward.


Spurrier calls for removal of Confederate flag/ Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The Confederate flag shouldn't fly at the Statehouse, South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said Saturday after the Gamecocks' annual spring game.
Spurrier's comments came in response to questions about something he said Friday night when he received an award from a volunteer organization. According to people at that event, Spurrier said the flag should come down.

"My opinion is we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol," Spurrier said Saturday. "I don't really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."
( Read more... )

A late-30's, attractive white woman driving a 80's era Volvo with 3 bumperstickers: 2 which read, "Condi Rice '08" and 1 which was pink and black and read: "This is My Pug's World."

By MURRAY EVANS, Associated Press Writer
Cherokee Nation members voted Saturday to revoke the tribal citizenship of an estimated 2,800 descendants of the people the Cherokee once owned as slaves.

With all 32 precincts reporting, 76.6 percent had voted in favor of an amendment to the tribal constitution that would limit citizenship to descendants of "by blood" tribe members as listed on the federal Dawes Commission's rolls from more than 100 years ago.

The commission, set up by a Congress bent on breaking up Indians' collective lands and parceling them out to tribal citizens, drew up two rolls, one listing Cherokees by blood and the other listing freedmen, a roll of blacks regardless of whether they had Indian blood.

Some opponents of the ballot question argued that attempts to remove freedmen from the tribe were motivated by racism.
( Read more... )

It's seriously pissing me off... Darfur, Afganhistan, and Iraq. What's the deal? If we can start civil wars in Afganhistan and Iraq can't we try to end one Darfur? Isn't it at least worth a try? Oh, there's no oil there, I forgot.

Animal Advocacy Group Says It Finds Coats, Some With Designer Labels, With Fur From Dogs

By KASIE HUNT
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - That fur trim on your jacket that you think is fake? Tell it to Fido. An animal advocacy group says its investigation has turned up coats some with designer labels, some at higher-end retailers with fur from man's best friend. Some retailers were set scrambling to pull the coats from shelves, take them off Web sites and even offer refunds to consumers.

The Humane Society of the United States said it purchased coats from reputable outlets, such as upscale Nordstrom, with designer labels Andrew Marc, Tommy Hilfiger, for example and found them trimmed with fur from domestic dogs, even though the fur was advertised as fake.

"It's an industrywide deception," said Kristin Leppert, the head of the Human Society's anti-fur campaign.
( Read more... )

Attention, unmarried people of America: You can splurge on a fancy new wristwatch without having to explain yourself. You can stay out till 3 a.m. without having to phone home. You can leave the toilet seat up. In fact, there are many, many ways that single life rocks, though you may forget that fact when your relatives are grilling you about settling down.

Not only do you have the freedom to do anything you want—it’s also the best time in history to be flying solo. The marriage rate has declined nearly 50 percent since 1970, according to the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, and right now, there are approximately 100 million singles in the U.S. And there’s strength in those numbers: “Today’s choose-to-be singles differ from the poor-me singles of past generations; there’s less of a stigma attached to being single, ” says Jerusha Stewart, author of The Single Girl’s Manifesta. “Singles are traveling, buying homes and doing everything they want to—you don’t have to get married anymore to live your life with style.”

Want more specifics on why you should celebrate being single? Here, 10 fascinating benefits to being unmarried:

Reason #1: You have a better body.
We’ve all been there—you get into a relationship, and suddenly you’re trying out new recipes all the time and cuddling instead of exercising. Well, things tend to get worse with marriage. A recent Cornell University study found that women generally gain five to eight pounds in the first few years of marriage and unhappily married women gain an average of 54 pounds in the first 10 years.

For the unmarried, though, the motivation to stay slim remains: “Singles look at themselves through the eyes of others and want to be attractive to potential partners,” says Susan Davis, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in New York City, “so they’re still ‘working on themselves.’” In short, being single is way better than any New Year’s resolution or exercise DVD to motivate you to stay in shape.
( Read more... )

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer

Police on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a New Jersey man suspected of roughing up Nobel laureate and Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel at a San Francisco hotel earlier this month.

The warrant for 22-year-old Eric Hunt includes charges for attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and committing a hate crime, police said.Wiesel was a featured speaker at a Feb. 1 peace forum at the Argent Hotel. He was approached in the lobby by a man in his 20s who asked for an interview, authorities said.

When Wiesel consented to talk in the hotel's lobby, the man insisted it be done in a hotel room and dragged the 78-year-old off the elevator on the sixth floor, police said. Wiesel began screaming, and the man fled. Wiesel, who was not injured, then told police.

Police have said they were aware that a man claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an anti-Semitic Web site registered in Australia. Police did not comment further on the case Friday.

"We're reserving any comment until the time when suspect in custody," police Sgt. Steve Mannina said. Wiesel couldn't immediately be reached for comment at Boston University, where he teaches, or through his institute in New York.

There was no telephone number listed for an Eric Hunt in Sussex County, N.J. Police were not aware if Hunt had an attorney.

Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.