Spiritual Birdwatching

Fog...

2009-11-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

Trying to ease myself into a weekend retreat, I paused on the drive at a quiet beach cove. A sunny Friday afternoon in October had brought a handful of families to the beach. I walked from the boulders guarding one end of the cove to the scrabble of rock brought down by a mountain stream on the opposite side and climbed up on a driftwood tree trunk. I watched the waves crash, noticed a girl not much older than one of mine carried by her father into the surf, piggy back style. I studied the sunlight glinting off the water as it ran back into the sea, and laughed at sandpipers as they darted in and out of the waves. Suddenly I noticed the temperature drop. A tiny cloud had drifted between me and the sun; further down the beach was still sunny, but here I was sitting in my own personal fog bank.

That picture of a personal fog bank stayed with me through the weekend, a picture of my own spiritual life over the past few years. Something shifted in me Saturday morning when I sat with a quote offered in our retreat materials:

It is only self-love that grows weary and despondent in doing nothing, seeing nothing and understanding nothing. Yet let self-love grumble to its heart's content. Its very weariness and despondency will rid us of it in the end. By cutting it short of food, we shall make it die of hunger -- a death to be desired indeed! (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

Oh, someone had my number! Weary and despondent in doing nothing, seeing nothing, understanding nothing. That was life inside my personal fog bank. And how I had let self-love grumble about how dissatisfying the whole deal was. Starve that grumbler -- heck, I'd been feeding it scraps under the table for years!

Grumbling had become habit; the fog wrapping around me was the enemy (if not actually The Enemy). It was my distracted mind, the tyranny of the urgent, the spiritual disciplines that no longer "worked" to produce some sense of progress in growing in God. Fog was the obstacle to be overcome, the pull of gravity weighing me down.

Gradually, over the course of the weekend, a new idea dawned: what if the fog was not my enemy, but my friend? What if, instead of struggling against it, I was meant to rest there in the dimness, right in the middle of not knowing, not seeing, not doing. What if there was an invitation to experience God with me there in the fog?

Pantry Update

2009-08-11T19:54:00.001-07:00

Since I posted about working at the AIDS pantry, I got an email from 'S', the director -- due to state budget cuts (I'm sure there isn't a non-profit in California left unscathed by the sea of red ink coming out of Sacramento), his last day is Friday. The pantry will go on, with other staff covering, instead of one person dedicated to coordinating it. More opportunities for those of us on the "unpaid" staff to serve... I'm off for the summer with the kids, but plan on being back there after Labor Day. Keep you posted...

Spiritual Discipline: Serving at the Pantry

2009-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

Christine Sine is sponsoring a summer synchroblog focusing on "What is a Spiritual Discipline?" I promised to write something....Summer being, of course, the worse time for mothers of school-aged children to even think about discipline. Then I left a comment on Jon's blog about volunteering at a local AIDS food pantry, and he encouraged me to write about that. So in the interest of killing two birds with one stone (well, perhaps the birdwatcher in me should find a different idiom), here goes...

It must have been one of those typical Sunday mornings when I really did not want to be at church, turning the bulletin over looking for something interesting to read (the pastor's wife offers up the occasional NT Wright or Miroslav Volf quote for our edification), when I saw the invitation: Help needed at the AIDS pantry, Monday evenings, Tuesday mornings, Thursday afternoons. Call Bob. No thunderbolts, no drama. Just two thoughts that connected in my addled brain: I've been thinking about food and our food systems, why not get involved in helping those who don't have enough food? And, somehow, this might be a place to encounter Jesus.

So I called Bob, and shortly thereafter found myself spending my Tuesday mornings shelving canned goods and "shopping" with the clientele of a decidedly secular GLBT organization that provides supplemental food for people affected by HIV/AIDS. Some of my fellow volunteers are also clients who will take a break to shop for their own needs. S. the director, tells so many stories about his glory days in San Francisco that one day I finally blurted out, so why do you live here now?

Most of the time, working at the pantry doesn't feel particularly spiritual. Often enough I leave wondering whether I've been tainted by the conversations flowing around me. One day another volunteer spent the morning flirting outrageously with the clients. Another morning S. put on the 6 inch heels that had been hanging on the coat rack all winter and revealed a bit of that wild personality he boasts of. There are clients who come in and grouse about whatever is going wrong in their lives, and others who are clearly moved with gratitude that they don't have to be hungry this week.

What's a middle-aged, white girl to think of all this? At the very least, it is entering into the world of "the other" -- folks whose life experiences are about as far from mine as I can imagine. As sophisticated as I might think myself, I'm sure my eyes bug out when S. starts in on his stories of drag queen races. I wonder what I have to offer, besides decades of experience in grocery stores. "How's your Spanish?" S asks, before introducing me to a young woman with a hesitant smile -- not so great, but I try.

Richard Foster's classic "Celebration of Disciple" defines a spiritual discipline as something that gets us into the ground where God can work on us (rough translation). Working at the pantry has its formative moments -- those times when I find my tendency to snap judgments and even idle curiosity putting a distance between me and the people I'm serving or serving with. I'm challenged to see into someone else's world -- as different as it may be from my own -- and find common ground. I'm learning what it means to love someone I'm not naturally drawn to, to serve in simple ways. I haven't seen Jesus walk through the doors yet, but perhaps my eyes and heart will be tuned by showing up week after week, and one of these days...

2009-05-29T08:52:00.001-07:00

Jon at Blog One Another posted an interesting take on a recent episode of This American Life, the NPR radio show. In the segment in question, Ira Glass records a couple of phone conversations between Kris Hogan (a high school football coach who enlisted his team's fans to cheer for a team from a local juvenile hall) and a woman who was moved by the story, and wanted to talk about faith. Trisha is a lapsed Catholic trying to reconcile her desire to believe in God with the recent death of a friend from cancer.

Jon does a nice job of pointing out how stuck in Christianese Hogan is, and how unhelpful some of his apologetic arguments are. His wife adds a concluding point, blaming those who taught him this form of evangelism:

"The coach was doing his best with every tool he had been given. He was taught this stuff, just like you were taught it, and it's pure crap. The teachers are totally to blame."
Most of what you were taught about evangelism is now irrelevant. Actually, in a post-Christian society, it's worse than irrelevant — you may inadvertently be practicing "devangelism"! For your outreach to be effective, you must adopt a missionary mindset and missionary methods. If you have a teacher who is talking about evangelism without training you to be a missionary, walk away and find another teacher. With the Holy Spirit guiding you, that teacher needs to be a "native."

The whole post is worth reading, but a couple of thoughts are stirring in my mind. We may need to peel the onion back a few more layers. I'm not sure that the problem is that traditional evangelism lacks a missionary mindset -- in other words, it misjudges the distance in terms of culture, language and worldview between the evangelist and the other person. If that's the case, then the coach just needs to find a new language for expressing the old arguments.

What if we throw out the whole idea that what we're doing in evangelism is providing answers or reasons to believe? What if this is not an exchange of information between people who know about God and those who are curious or ill-informed? If the evangelist is not teaching/preaching/arguing, what are they doing? Ironically, the image that comes to mind is Hogan's profession: coaching.

What I have in mind here is spiritual direction, but you could call it coaching. Trisha calls Coach Hogan willing to reveal the tenderest part of her heart -- her grief and questions around her friend's death. Jon describes the scene well:

So they try another phone call, being clear that the purpose is to discuss Trisha's questions about why God allowed her friend to die. It's a good question. It's a tough question. And from my perspective, even a direct question like this should not have an immediate answer, but be treated as an invitation. Trisha is exposing a very sensitive part of her heart, and that calls for respect and an exchange of trust.

Again with the Christianese.

But Kris Hogan doesn't waste any time sticking his foot in his mouth: "This is the most common question that folks who are anti-God ask."
Whoa! In a single statement, he slaps Trisha as "anti-God," and dismisses the possibility that earnest followers of Jesus also wrestle with that same question.

One way to reduce the distance between Christian and non-Christian is to fess up to the fact that this is the most common question human beings faced with loss or tragedy ask. Yes, Christians may come at it from a different perspective, but anyone who says they don't ask Why? of God is either deep in denial or lying. And we don't always get neat answers, or completely satisfying ones. People of faith, by definition, are the ones who keep wrestling, keep believing despite the questions.

So what if Coach Hogan could put himself in the position of a spiritual coach and offer Trisha some resources as she wrestles -- including first of all a listening ear and a safe relationship where all questions are admitted? If might mean entering into that uncomfortable space where Sunday School platitudes and philosophical arguments get exposed for what they are, while we wait together for God to speak. The old apologetics might still be helpful to frame the questions or define new ones: What does it mean to live in a fundamentally broken world? What can we expect if God's Kingdom is here but not yet? A coach's role is to offer resources, teach some skills, but in the end the athlete is the one who who plays the game. Spiritual coaching assumes that the Holy Spirit is at work and trusts that those who seek will find.

I'm just an April Fool!

2009-04-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Dang, twice in one day!

First it was Bro Maynard's story about how his former church wants to engage him as a consultant to monitor their change of heart...

Then, the food sustainability stimulus story from Civil Eats!

I guess it's easy to get sucked in by things you'd like to believe are true...

Slow Food, Real People

2009-03-23T09:57:00.001-07:00

It rained over the weekend, or I would have attempted to get some veggies into the dirt in my backyard. I've been procrastinating -- even Michelle Obama beat me to it this year! I finally got a chance to watch the 60 minutes piece from last week featuring Alice Waters and the Slow Food Movement. While I'm sure Waters deserves all the credit she gets for moving sustainable food from the fringes to at least the mainstream media, a slow burn was growing in me as I watched the piece.

What irks me is the mindless association of fresh, local, sustainable food with the notion of being elitist. Yes, I want to cheer when I hear Waters say: "I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that's not elitist." Absolutely. Amen and amen.

But then she goes on to purchase grapes for $4 a pound and cook Stahl a lovely breakfast that no one that has to get children to school or themselves to work could afford to labor over for so long (not to mention the gazillion-dollar kitchen in which it was cooked). And like a compliant dope, Stahl asks "probing" questions about whether schools can afford to teach kids to grow and cook their own food. As opposed to training them to take multiple-choice tests till the cows come home? As opposed to feeding them fast food and candy bars in the cafeteria? But the whole exercise demonstrates nothing better than the inability of the major media outlets to hold an intelligent converstation. If Stahl had been doing her job, she might have left Waters in her dream world and asked some of the other folks shopping at the Farmer's Market how they balance their food budgets and juggle dinner prep. Here's a clue -- look for the women with kids grabbing samples off the tables.

What the sustainable food movement needs is not a gourmet chef explaining how to roast an egg over an open fire, but a real Mom explaining how fresh and local can be affordable, and how real food can make its way to the table via a few simple techniques before the kids melt down. Thanks, Alice Waters for launching the food revolution. But please, go back to your kitchen, and let some regular folks take it from here.

16 Decisions for Kingdom Living

2009-03-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe not 16. As promised, I'm posting some thoughts I have about some key commitments that might help us resist the lure of affluence and materialism in favor of Kingdom values. I'm taking off the Grameen Bank's list of 16 Decisions, which guide their members -- mostly poor women -- in lifting themselves out of poverty . For the most part they are simple and concrete, memorable and measurable.

So here are some ideas -- feel free to suggest additions or deletions.

We will attempt to follow the great commandments: to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We will work together to help each other become better stewards of the resources we have -- breaking the power of consumerism by sharing together and talking about how we spend money.
We will be better stewards of the environment: waste less, buy local, grow our own food, carpool, etc. [Maybe some of these need to be spelled out separately?]
We will include the poor, marginalized and those not like us in our lives through acts of friendship, hospitality and service.
We will give time and money to help empower people in need in our community and around the world.
We will nurture one another's love for God through worship, prayer and other spiritual disciplines practiced together.
We will maintain an attitude of repentance regarding our own failures to swim against the current of our culture and grace towards one another.
We will enjoy God's creation, regularly spend time outdoors and teach our children to appreciate and protect natural environments.

Well, that's a start. Have at it -- debate, discuss, add, subtract.

Lenten Journey: Broken

2009-03-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm following along with Christine Sine's Lenten Guide this season. See her blog for a list of others writing on the topic.

I have to say I'm having a tough time getting into Lent. Ash Wednesday was the one day last week I could hang out with my parents before they flew back to Boston, so I went ashless. Since I've been worshiping with my Episcopal friends on Sunday mornings, I had really been looking forward to starting Lent right, but so much for my plans...

I haven't decided to give up anything specific for Lent, but I've done enough of the self-improvement sort of fasting from chocolate or coffee that I still feel a bit uncomfortable reaching for dessert or a glass of wine. I almost gave up caffeine by accident, but decided that sleep walking through Lent might not be the best plan, either.

So here I am again, with all my efforts at spiritual disciplines falling to dust around me. Really, should I be surprised at this point?

I walked the beach again today. I found myself wrestling with a question I'd read in Gerald May's book on the Dark Night of the Soul: In the midst of the dislocation of the dark night, would you really want to go back to the way things used to be? It was one of John of the Cross's diagnostic questions for recognizing a "dark night" or season when God was working in hidden ways in the soul. For me the question came out, would I want to go back to 1995? That's another story altogether, but whenever I bump into the fact that all is not as I would like it to be in my life with God, I find myself looking back to that particular season. I don't know whether I was sadder at the idea of giving up that idealized -- idolized? -- picture of the spiritual life and its consolations or at the realization that I was so deeply attached to that particular set of experiences.

So I think I've figured out what I'm supposed to give up for Lent: control, expectations. Sounds simple enough, let me make my list of ten things I'm going -- oh ... yeah.

16 Decisions

2009-02-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

No, I haven't changed my mind about New Year's Resolutions ... I've been reading Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World without Poverty. I have to say it's one of the most inspiring books I've read in quite some time. In case the name doesn't ring an immediate bell with you, Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, pretty much the inventor of the idea of microcredit for the poor and winner, along with Grameen Bank, of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

One of the things that struck me reading Yunus' account of the evolution of Grameen Bank was the 16 Decisions that every member of the bank pledges to follow. They support the agenda of social transformation -- Grameen Bank is not simply about lending money to poor women, but about lifting families and villages out of poverty. I'm going to quote them in their entirety, because they form such a powerful statement of how a society mired in poverty can be transformed. And they made me think about how those of us trapped in affluence might formulate a similar set of decisions to help us swim upstream in our own culture:

The Sixteen Decisions:
1. The four principles of Grameen Bank -- Discipline, Unity, Courage, and Hard Work -- we shall follow and advance in all walks of our lives.
2. We shall bring prosperity to our families.
3. We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work toward constructing new houses as soon as possible.
4. We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus.
5. During the plantation season, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible.
6. We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health.
7. We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education.
8. We shall always keep our children and the environment clean.
9. We shall build and use pit latrines.
10. We shall boil water before drinking or use alum to purify it. We shall use pitcher filters to remove arsenic.
11. We shall not take any dowry at our sons' weddings; neither shall we give any dowry in our daughters' weddings. We shall keep the center free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage.
12. We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone; neither shall we allow anyone to do so.
13. For higher income we shall collectively undertake bigger investments.
14. We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help.
15. If we come to know of any breach of discipline in any center, we shall all go there and help restore discipline.
16. We shall take part in all social activities collectively. (pp. 58-59)

I've spent a little bit of time in South Asia, and these commitments struck me not simply as nice ideals -- the way I feel about my daughter repeating the Girl Scout oath -- but as a powerful counter-cultural statement by people who have decided that they no longer will live under the oppression of poverty. They are practical (grow vegetables; dig latrines) and measurable. They are radical (rejecting dowry and all the enslavement to debt and endangerment of girls that goes along with that practice). They are commitments to community and to hope.

I was in Las Vegas this weekend for a family wedding. With the worst of American culture's enslavement to greed, lust, entertainment and consumption on vivid, neon-lighted display up and down the strip, I began to think that anyone choosing to move out of that oppression into the freedom of the Kingdom would need some simple, direct statements about their day-to-day life, too. The kind of affirmations people stick on the bathroom mirror or repeat at 12-step groups. Maybe 16 is too many; maybe not. Grameen's list evolved out of the experience of people striving to escape the grinding poverty of Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s. I can imagine neighbors talking to one another, urging them to stand firm in their decisions. This is life and death for our families: We will send our kids to school; we will take the time to boil water. There is no going back to disease and despair. As hard as it is, we must move forward.

There is something in me that wants to take a stand against the forces of materialism that would have me fritter my life away in shopping malls and in front of the TV. It rises up in me as the need to say NO! to the lies of the advertisers offering convenience and something bigger, better and newer. I want to have some friends who stand with me and remind me that my kids do not need that new gizmo or another set of lessons. I want to worship with brothers and sisters who do not believe that Jesus came to make me a better consumer of religious goods and services but an active participant in the expansion of his Kingdom in this world.

So here's my question: What would be on your list of 16 (or however many) Decisions for Kingdom Living? I have some ideas I'll share in few days, but first it's your turn.

Google Meme

2009-02-22T20:31:00.001-08:00

I've been out of town for the weekend, and actually have some thoughts to write about when I'm not so tired, but I saw this meme at Kingdom Grace and wanted to have a go at it.

I was tagged by Bill Lollar to do this meme. So I took a few minutes to check it out.
Google your full first name and the word "needs" like this - "William needs" - and then post the first 10 things that Google finds.

So here's what Maria needs…

On second thought … that one seems X-rated, and this is a family-friendly blog. Moving right along…
Maria needs further surgery (thankfully, not me)
Maria needs – Leicester (huh? I think that's a city in England … pretty sure I don't need it)
Maria needs a job (not yet, anyway)
Maria needs your love
Maria needs your help
Maria needs your prayers (am I seeing a theme developing here?)
Maria needs you (now we're getting to the point)
Maria needs shadow to save (again, huh?)

and my personal favorite…

Maria needs diamonds

On that note, I'm going to bed and will hope to write something profound another day…

Desire

2009-02-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

I was standing in front of the altar waiting for communion. The manger scene was still set up, right in front of me. I was making surreptitious glances to the right to make sure I didn't goof up when the elements came to me. I wasn't expecting the realization that hit me that moment -- how much I wanted Jesus -- baby Jesus, crucified Savior, risen Lord.

Somewhere in the dark of last winter, there was a Sunday morning when I opted out of church and walked on the beach. The darkness was spiritual and emotional; I think it was a sunny day. A smooth pebble caught my eye and I bent to pick it up, and then another. My handful of rocks reminded me of another beach, encountered at the end of a chaplaincy internship at Children's Hospital. A rock for every deathbed I attended, every child whose family I connected with at some level. Tossing rocks as far out into the waves as I could, I said their names and grieved and tried to let them go.

I tried to name my frustrations and griefs as I picked up rocks. False promises -- a daily quiet time and you'll always have God's peace. Disappointments -- why is church the hardest place to make true friends? My pockets were getting a bit weighed down as I approached the slough. I turned toward the incoming tide and started launching. Done with that one. Give up that expectation. I can live without devotions, without church and its trappings. Finally I was down to one smooth stone. Its name was "desire" -- my desire for God. I looked down at it, turned it over in my hand a few times, put it back in my pocket.

So now on Sunday mornings, I stand with a handful of brothers and sisters and open my hands and receive. Body and blood, food from heaven, forgiveness and grace, life.

Is it Friday already?

2009-01-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

It wasn't quite an invite to an inaugural ball, but a friend called us last week and invited us to help out/attend a meeting of the Explorer's Club being held at our local Natural History Museum. It's always interesting to see how the other 1% live. Our friend is the most humble, down-to-earth guy ever, and he's due to get an award for his humanitarian efforts around the world, but the Explorer's Club is definitely an old-fashioned elite establishment. It was a lovely dinner, with interesting speakers discussing everything from recent missions to Mars to kayaking through Antarctica. I found myself the most interested in the discussion of local Chumash Indian culture from a staff member of the museum. As much as I enjoy travel (I'll stick to subarctic regions, thank you very much), I find myself more and more interested in my own backyard -- and I realize how little I really know this place I call home.

Meanwhile, in my own backyard baby grass is poking its collective head up out of the ground. It's looking like our eventual plan to relocate the patio closer to the new addition will be a smart one -- there's very little sun in that area, and precious few blades of green so far. This weekend is fully booked, so there goes another week for planning the vegetables...

The weekend is largely taken up with a board meeting for a non-profit some friends of our started. I've been treasurer for a decade now, and much as I would like to give the job away, I know there will be no takers. It isn't a huge amount of work (we don't raise that much money), but it has its moments, like figuring out tax forms and such. So I thought nothing of it when a friend asked if I'd consider being the treasurer of the PTA this year. There's so much piddling paper work, trips to the bank with several hundred dollars in coin, etc. Such fun! I'm starting to wonder whether I'm like the deer with the target on its belly in the Far Side strip -- do I have a sign on my forehead that says "Will do bookkeeping for non-profits"? Need I mention my father is a CPA, and used to take me to work with him on occasion -- setting me to foot long columns of numbers with an adding machine. I knew from an early age that accounting was not for me. Heck, I consistently make addition mistakes with my own bank deposits!

My parents arrive Saturday evening for a month's respite from frozen snow-and-ice-land (also known as Boston). Ray has been counting down the days for while now. About two weeks ago she was saying they're coming the day after the day after tomorrow. Well, not quite. Now we're down to "Grandma and Grandpa come in two more days!" Meanwhile she came home with a book in her backpack -- "Countdown to Grandma's House." How appropriate, but where did it come from, exactly? First, her teacher gave it to her. Then a friend -- whose name she can't quite remember, but maybe it's Ariel -- gave it to her. Or loaned it to her. I've got to remember to track that one down today. Dear little Ray is turning out to have an aptitude for fiction, I'm afraid.

Doe had a late afternoon snack last night, and being less interested in dinner than usual, decided to give us a recap on a story her teacher read today. "It's realistic fiction," she explained. "That means it's non-fiction," Ray countered. "No, it's realistic fiction. That means it could have happened but we don't know." I didn't realize that was a technical term, so I tried to paraphrase for her, and was soundly corrected: "It means it could have happened but we don't know." OK, that's how your teacher defined it, that's good enough for me.

I've been meaning to write a church update, but for now I'll just say that Communion has opened up for me in a whole new way. I've been thinking about the process of receiving from God, and what he gives in that simple sharing of bread and wine. Ricci Kilmer links the Lord's table with food issues, and asks about giving: "What does it mean to BE Christ’s body for people? What does it mean to say that his body is offered freely? And how should that change me?" I wish I could join her for her "Justice at the Table" workshop next week.

Food safety sermonette of the week: If you needed another reason to avoid high-fructose-corn-syrup (beyond obesity, diabetes, etc.), check this out: It turns out that many foods sweetened with HFCS contain mercury, left as a residue in the production of caustic soda, a key ingredient in HFCS. And worst of all, the FDA and the industry have known about this potential toxin and has continued serving it up since at least 2005. If there's any merit to the claims of many parents that mercury in vaccines is behind their childrens' autism, consider how much more exposure kids have from sodas and other foods laced with HFCS.

Friday's here again... 7 quick takes

2009-01-23T08:34:00.001-08:00

I'm thinking about renaming my blog "7 Quick takes Friday" because that's about all the blogging I seem to be doing these days. But Jennifer might object, and she's gone to all the trouble to put together this nifty logo.

The big news (locally) this week is that my father-in-law made it through his surgery with flying colors. He was home the next morning and is resting comfortably at home. He seems to have better color and alertness -- something to do with getting enough circulation to the brain, no doubt. Thanks to those who prayed.

It's raining, finally. Hubby worked like a dog last weekend putting in grass seed in the backyard (leaving some edges for the vegetable garden), so at least I don't have to worry about keeping the precious little seeds wet. Hope they don't wash away. They weren't kidding about "when it rains, man it pours" in the old song. (There I go dating myself again...)

L.L. contends that Writing a Poem isn't Rocket Science. Maybe not. There are poetry people and there are prose people (I suppose fiction/non-fiction folks, too). Somehow poetry intimidates me. All those memories of high school English, the teacher digging obscure references out of words that sat opaquely on the page in front of me. But maybe I'll gather up my courage and try a haiku.

Speaking of intimidation, my first piano teacher had a theory that learning music was easier if you sang the notes you were trying to play. I understood that the spot on the page corresponded to a key on the piano, but to go from there to "do" -- a vibration coming out of my mouth and landing on the correct pitch, not so much. I can carry a tune if I'm standing right next to someone who's singing the same part (hubby has to sing some version of harmony no matter what, and consistently mixes me up!). All of this came to mind trying to follow the closing hymn with my new Episcopal friends on Sunday -- once a month, the organist comes in early and plays a hymn for the early service.

I heard the swearing in and Obama's speech on the way to the hospital waiting room Tuesday, then watched the TV coverage after the kids had gone to bed. I found myself wondering about what makes a leader. How does someone like Obama find themselves in possession of such a driving vision of what the country needs and how it must proceed to face the challenges ahead. For my money, he hit the right notes of hope and confidence measured with realism about the problems we face. So much of Obama's gift for leadership takes the form of oratory that comparisons with FDR or Lincoln seem inevitable, but it seems that is what we need these days -- words that will breathe courage into us as a nation.

It makes me wonder about leadership in the church. In the post-modern, emergent conversation, this kind of "man with a vision" leadership is roundly rejected (and yes, the leader in question is nearly always a man). There is talk of preaching, not as the pragmatic how-to teaching that is typical in most evangelical churches, but as proclamation meant to fire our imaginations with the possibilities of the kingdom. The trick, it seems to me, is to be able to articulate the biblical vision without putting oneself in the position of the one who makes it happen -- to share the vision and let it form a community that can put flesh on it.

I've been following the conversation around the new administration's choices for key players in Agriculture and related departments. The buzz from the sustainable food community is definitely mixed, with general disappointment at the appointment of friends of big Ag companies (Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak is cozy with Monsanto, for instance). The surprising news is that Laura Bush insisted on having organic, local food served at the White House -- all while her husband's policies were stacking the deck against those sustainable, organic growers putting the food on their table! Let's hope the Obamas can show a bit more teamwork!

7 Quick Takes Friday - Again

2009-01-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

So at least this way I post once a week, which is probably better than my average for the past year. There's a lot brewing inside, but most of it is fairly inarticulate mishmash right now, so I'll spare you that. It's been in the 80's here this week (apologies to those of you who are freezing to death and/or buried under feet of snow), so the new season that's beginning to emerge in my heart is feeling a lot like spring. A lot of people look to the fall as the time to launch new things, but I find the fall is usually a season of burnout (tried to launch too many things, usually), and January can often be a time of new beginnings for me. It's looking like one of those years.

My kids had their annual Winter Sing at school this week (which I kept calling Spring Sing). In honor of Martin Luther King, they sang a bunch of songs I would have sung at their age -- "If I had a hammer" and "This land is your land." I suppose elementary school programs don't change that much over time. A couple of 6th graders read the "I have a dream" speech between the different grades. (Sadly, the kids were out of the room during the reading -- though I can understand why having 70 first graders squirming through a 5-minute reading might not be good thing.) It struck me how those songs must have had a different ring in my school days, so much closer to MLK's original proclamation. I'm reminded of how far we've come as a society to be standing on the eve of inaugurating the first African-American president, and yet how far we still have to go to see "justice roll down like waters."

Now that we're back in the routine of picking up veggies at the farm every week, I'm remembering just how many leafy greens can be in one CSA share! Seriously, this week we got bok choy, napa cabbage (most of those went into a big stir fry last night), collard greens (always a challenge for this Yankee girl -- but they were great with the two big leeks in our share), and spinach. And I left the turnip greens for the compost pile there.

I remember doing a cooking badge in Girl Scouts. At the end of the session we had to put together a whole meal. The Girl Scout book called for a leafy green vegetable, but the Mom who was teaching us substituted broccoli or something else because, as she explained it, "The only leafy green vegetable I could think of was spinach, and I figured most kids wouldn't like it." Much later in life I did discover that spinach and my digestive system do not get along, so I do avoid the stuff. Still, how did we survive a childhood of frozen green beens and canned corn?

Speaking of seasons, Christine Sine is already thinking ahead toward Lent and Easter (Easter as a season goes all the way to Pentecost). She's putting together a Lenten guide with suggested activities for making the season more meaningful than simply giving up chocolate.

So here is where I would like your help. I would like to conduct a synchroblog during Lent and Easter to focus on the meaning of Lent and the celebration of Easter in this practical way. Would you consider being a part of this? I realize that it involves far more than a simple blog post as each person involved would need to engage in at least one of the activities listed. You may like to just use the guide for a single week. The most popular activity last time was the Mutunga $2 Challenge to restrict one’s food budget to $2 per person per day for a week.

Let Christine know if you'd like to be involved, and check out her post today on What is Lent Anyway?

Six-year-old Doe has a metabolism much like mine, which is to say that once her blood sugar level hits a certain low point, she melts down into a whining mess. We went exploring in the butterfly preserve the other day, and predictably, Doe lost it on the way home. We were driving past a lemon orchard near our house when she started asking whether people could pick the lemons. No, the trees belong to someone, I explained. Why can't we have an orchard? I want a big orchard. On it went, with the pitch and intensity of the whining escalating.

She kept on in this vein for what seemed like hours, despite my efforts to either get some food into her or talk her down from the edge of insanity. Amazingly, her vision of her future (or imminent) agricultural career evolved from moment to moment. I want to be a farmer. I want to have a big farm. I kept proposing reasonable alternative -- we have friends who manage orchards, our CSA farm has summer camp programs for kids. No! I want a big farm now. With animals. I want to take care of the animals -- and not just chickens and goats; I want horses and cows. I want a horse.

So is my budding astronaut/vulcanologist going to trade it in for overalls and a straw hat? Who knows. From what I've been learning about our food system, I'm beginning to understand the need for some smart young people to dedicate themselves to the hard work of feeding us in healthy, sustainable ways. I'm grateful that she's growing up 1) knowing what a leafy green vegetable is (and eating them!) and 2) having the chance to see something of farm life up close.

Meanwhile, I'm overwhelmed by the thought of planning our garden/landscape. It's the right time to be planting fruit trees and roses, and there are certainly early crops that could go in any time now. I can't seem to get one foot in front of the other to designate a spot for the compost pile!

Finally, I'd like to ask for your prayers for my father-in-law. He's facing surgery on Tuesday morning to clear a blocked carotid artery. It's a delicate job, and his overall health isn't very good.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2009-01-09T08:29:00.001-08:00

For most of the day yesterday, I shared my office with some of the local wildlife -- a mouse. Much as I promote sharing among my children, when it comes to sharing my living space with rodents -- not so much. Mom-in-law came in while it was peeking out from behind my desk, and commented, "Gee, she looks pregnant." Great. What I need is a family of mice living behind this heavy roll-top desk! I turned on iTunes to cover the sound of scrabbling behind the desk while I worked. Then she started making strange noises. "Don't you go into labor back there!" I yelled at the wall.

The critter was trapped and dispatched by the end of the day. Meanwhile, the cat is fired.

It's been one of those weeks. After two weeks of vacation, both kids decided to turn up sick on Monday (and one into Tuesday). There oughta be a law or something. Actually, I think there is one along the lines of Murphy's -- kids will always try to extend vacations, no matter how desperate Mom is for them to go back to school.

We've been scootering to school, though I've been finding excuses to drive the car down and pick them up at the end of the day! There's a whole set of muscles that haven't been exercised in my body for quite some time -- try standing on one leg for a couple of minutes and you'll get the idea.

Progress report on my first New Year's Resolution -- I visited the Episcopal church nearby last Sunday. Yes, there's definitely something there that my soul is craving. I'm not sure I'm ready to define just what that is, though the liturgy feels substantive and thoughtful in a way that praise songs don't. Now to work out the logistics of splitting time between two places on Sunday morning.

A strange memory about cravings: Several years ago, shortly after the birth of Ray if I remember correctly, I found myself at the grocery checkout with a cart full of red and purple produce. I had red grapes, red cabbage, beets, strawberries, eggplant, and probably a handful of others. A dietician friend of mine always used to say, "Eat what sounds good to you," on the theory that your body would tell you what it needed. I guess I needed something red that day. What does it mean if your body tells you it needs chocolate?

I've been spending a bit of time checking out the new Missional Tribe site since its launch on Tuesday. Many of the instigators behind it are people I've been reading for the past few years, so I haven't figured out quite what's new for me there. It's a social network space, but I have to say, I haven't quite figured out the benefits of that concept, either. My facebook account sits unnoticed for months at a time, too. Maybe there will be more call to connect around the content at MT.

Believe it or not, our CSA starts next week. I know most of the country is buried right now, but our little farm is producing away. I'm going for the small share this year in hopes that we'll start growing some food here. The weeds are thriving after the rain we've had, but we haven't had a chance to sit down and plan where things will go in the yard. Soon, I hope.

Just for fun -- Blogapalooza

2009-01-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Robert over at Middle Zone Musings (one of the Higher Calling Blogs) invited folks to share "What I learned from 2008" -- or their selection of the best posts from the past year. He's posting several each day during January. Spiritual Birdwatching is up today. It's always fun to look for an interesting new voice or perspective, so take a moment to check out Robert's blog.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2009-01-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying Jennifer's 7 Quick takes each week; thought I'd take the plunge since it's a new year and all...

In case you haven't noticed, I freshened up the look of my blog. So click through and take a peek. I'm not sure I love the new template, but I don't have the time or inclination to do much customizing.

The new year started off with a surprise (sort of) visit from hubby's sister, along with her husband, two grown daughters and one granddaughter. It felt good to have the house full of people, even briefly. Since we've decided to put off finishing the "cosmetic" part of the remodel for a bit (minor things like painting the living room and replacing 30-year-old carpet), I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to take a deep breath and go ahead with inviting people over. Don't like the look of raw drywall? Tough.

Highlight of Christmas: Santa decided that Mommy needed a scooter to keep up with kids who now will be riding scooters to school every day. The girls have been out riding most days since Christmas, and I've discovered entire muscle groups I didn't know I had.

My girls have decided that watching the Rose Parade (on TV) is their New Year's tradition. Two years ago, a friend of a friend who happens to be a city councilman in Pasadena got us tickets to the VIP grandstand. If you're going to get up at o-dark-hundred to watch a parade, that's definitely the way to go. Needless to say, my kids are now entirely spoiled for any sort of stand-on-the-sidewalk-craning-your-neck viewing of parades.

Are you officially old when you're in bed by 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve? Or just a parent?

My big project for the vacation: moving offices. Over the past year or so, my work space has shifted a few times as construction encroached. I've been working out of a small bedroom since the spring, and my approach to temporary quarters is to let them look very temporary -- and messy. So now I've negotiated for the new office (since hubby isn't working from home right now), and it's time to start moving stuff around. I even tackled the filing that's been accumulating for about a year! If only I can keep it clean.

I haven't finished watching this, but had to mention it now: The World According to Monsanto, a documentary produced for French TV that you won't see in the U.S. Do you want your food supply controlled by the company that brought us PCBs and Agent Orange? HT: Civil Eats blog.

New Year's Resolution: Escape from worship I-land

2008-12-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

I hate New Year's resolutions. Why promise yourself some major improvement in your life that you aren't likely to remember having committed to by President's day? But this year I'm about to make one.

Here it is: I need to find a place where I can worship God with other people. I'm thinking a church, but I could be wrong.

I've been turning this idea over in my mind vigorously since yesterday morning, when it took all my effort not to just run screaming from the building. This morning, I ran across this quote that Beth posted. Chesterton just says it better than I ever could:

People are losing the power to enjoy Christmas through identifying it with enjoyment. When once they lose sight of the old suggestion that it is all about something, they naturally fall into blank pauses of wondering what it is all about. To be told to rejoice on Christmas Day is reasonable and intelligible, if you understand the name, or even look at the word. To be told to rejoice on the 25th of December is like being told to rejoice at quarter-past eleven on Thursday week. You cannot suddenly be frivolous unless you believe there is a serious reason for being frivolous.
--GK Chesterton

To paraphrase GK, I have lost the power to enjoy "worship" because it has been so identified with enjoyment. I have lost the ability to sing "worship" songs that are primarily about how I feel about God, or how God makes me feel, or how it feels to sing about God. Or something like that. Mostly I find the songs just don't make sense, or to the extent that they make sense, I just can't say them. I'm having trouble remembering the lyrics from yesterday, but one line stands out: "No one sees the way he looks at me." A song that starts that way should be a makeout track, not a worship song. Even a song entitled "My Confession" started out with a verse of all-about-me-and-how-I-feel.

What ever happened to singing songs about God or to God that are actually about God, not me? I seem to remember songs that talked about God's love or faithfulness or grace, that retold the story of the cross, or longed for God's reign in the world. Didn't we used to worship God, instead of our feelings? Here it is, five minutes after Christmas, and we've put aside the carols (which have quite a bit of substance to them, along with the silliness of "no crying he makes") for the feeling-good-today drivel.

So, in one of those "blank pauses of wondering what it is all about," I find myself longing for a different kind of worship and googling Episcopal churches in the neighborhood. There's one right down the street from the community center where the church we attend meets -- with a quiet communion service at 8:30 am.

I've resisted this move for a year now. One the one hand, I think the way forward for us will eventually be something more like a house church, so investing in institutional church of any form seems like a step backwards. As a practical matter, hubby and the kids like this church. Hubby is invested in the children's ministry, which has the double advantage of using his gifts (leading singing for the kids) and getting him out of the service. I thought I could quietly sit through an hour and a half of a service I really don't like without any harm, but I'm not so sure now.

So here's my resolution for the New Year: I'm going to go to church with the intention of worshipping God. I'm going to stick it out long enough that the liturgy doesn't seem strange. I'm going to let the narratives of salvation form my heart and mind. I'm going to sing songs about God, not my emotional states. I'm going to learn to worship again.

I feel better now...

2008-12-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

In light of my last post, it's comforting to know that even the economists don't know what they're talking about -- or at least, can't agree on what the facts are or what the theories mean. Check out this from Peter B. Meyer on The Gristmill blog:

And you wondered why you couldn't understand economics? You thought it was your problem. But what if the problem lies in the economics?

Don't worry if two analyses don't seem to be consistent. Accept that they are not, and look for the assumptions that lead them in different directions.

(The devil is not in the details, but in the assumptions ... but finding those devils requires digging into the details.)

When we make policy decisions without looking at which economics is guiding us, we have a problem. We make inconsistent decisions, we make foolish decisions, and, perhaps worst, we defer decisions because the results confuse us so much we can't decide which way to turn.

Meyer promises to continue posting on this theme of examining different schools of economics -- so maybe I get my wish after all. Meanwhile, I can't help but think of a title from one of my favorite philosophers: Whose Justice? Which Rationality? MacIntyre's writing is a fair slog, but the point is that when competing systems of rationality (Meyer's assumptions) come into conflict, there are actually ways of sorting them out -- one generally does a better job of accounting for the problems of justice in the real world. Which in the end isn't too far away from what economics is supposed to be about.

Is it too late to change my major?

2008-12-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

Every so often I find myself wishing I’d been a bit less of a purist in college and had taken an economics course or two. As it was, many of my college peers were econ majors, heading straight to places like Goldman Sachs after college. I had no idea what an investment banker might actually do (still really don’t), and no interest in finding out. I was a true liberal arts die-hard. I put together my own major studying the history of ideas and the interplay of ideas (and ideologies) and culture.

The irony today, a quarter century later, is that the ideas I find myself wishing I better understood are not existentialism and Marxism and the other “isms” I got into back then, but the ideas that must have shined with the promise of a brave new world to my economics-major classmates: supply side, free trade, trickle-down, deregulation, the power of markets to make the world a better place. Because from where I sit now, it seems that the ideology that dominates our world didn’t come from European philosophy but from the University of Chicago. And the cultures that ideology impacts are not the literary and artistic museum culture I was drawn to in college, but the lives of farmers and small business owners around the world.

If it were only about stock market meltdowns and global recession, I probably still would give economics a passing yawn. But I’ve spent that past week or so working my way through Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel, and my desire to discuss the utter moral bankruptcy of this economic ideology is matched only by my outrage at the way agribusiness, in the pursuit of free trade and free markets, has increased hunger, malnutrition, diet-related illness, injustice, ecological disaster, even an epidemic of farmer suicides – and not just in our country, but around the world. It’s one thing to be on this little pilgrimage I’ve been on to buy local produce in the interests of feeding my family fresher, more nutritious food while also reducing our carbon footprint. It’s quite another to have the global implications of that industrial food system that I’m trying to escape thrown in my face for 300 pages.

This is what I’m talking about: Patel, in his discussion of NAFTA and its aftermath, points out that the main beneficiaries of the free trade agreement in Mexico are large landowners situated close the border. They can produce the fresh fruits and vegetables we’ve come to expect to see in the grocery regardless of the season. The fact that most Mexicans living on the land grow corn, which they can no longer sell since the market is flooded with cheap (heavily taxpayer-subsidized) corn from the U.S., means that basic staples like tortillas cost a lot more than they used to, and the poorest Mexicans are more vulnerable than ever.

But look again at those relative winners—those growing tomatoes a few miles south of the border. Yes, the landowner is making a profit. But who actually grows the tomatoes? A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a few days at a ministry in Baja California that our church had been involved in supporting. It’s a well-developed outreach, with an orphanage, medical clinic, food distribution and other ministries. Then there was the evening we went out to the “camps” with a meal, a program for kids and an evangelistic film. The camps, it turns out, are migrant worker camps set up for the people who grow those tomatoes. The workers come mostly from Oaxaca, and live in what could only be described as deplorable conditions.

Anyone who has read this blog at all knows I don’t buy those tomatoes. Simply opting out of the food system isn’t going to change the fact that there’s a market for slightly-pink tomatoes 365 days a year in the U.S., and that the people growing them are going to be squeezed for the lowest return on their labor. There are bigger forces at work here than can be dealt with by signing up with a CSA and recruiting my middle-class neighbors to do the same. It doesn’t change the fact that inner-city neighborhoods have been targeted by fast food joints and liquor stores, but redlined by the big grocery chains. Buying fair-trade coffee won’t change the fact that most growers receive pennies out of the $4.00 latte at Starbucks. The question is how to leverage a system that is controlled by huge corporations that don’t answer to governments – they tend to force governments to make the rules that suit them. I have no idea what the answer is, but it seems that there are no answers without understanding the nature of the problem. So if anyone has some old economics textbooks they want to get rid of…

In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with the sentiments of Bruce Cockburn: "Kick against the darkness till it bleeds daylight" (HT Bill Kinnon)

N.T. Wright on the economic crisis

2008-12-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post something about third-world debt relief for some time, ever since I read N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope earlier this year, and was struck by the way he highlights debt relief as an issue that those who hope for and work for the Kingdom of God should be focused on. I'm not sure I have much to say about it right now ... but here are a few of the good bishop's words in the House of Lords yesterday, courtesy of Empire Remixed (HT Beth and Mike):

Now, my Lords, whenever I, and others, have spoken about these things in the past, we have faced a chorus of excuses telling us that we don’t understand how the world works, that people who borrow money must learn that they have to pay it back, that the borrowers were wicked or irresponsible or incompetent, and that any debt relief will only be siphoned off to fund yet more extravagance on the part of the few. But recent events have blown this excuse clean out of the water. Governments, including our own, are bailing out banks, and at least one bank is being refloated in such a way as to continue unchecked with large bonuses and shareholder payouts. ... The very rich are doing for the very rich what they have refused to do for the very poor....
My Lords, we should not try to return to ‘business as usual’. It is business as usual which has got us into the mess. What we need is a paradigm shift. ... Behind the sudden new squeals for help from the very rich we must listen to the long-term cries from the very poor.

I like his parting shot:

My Lords, I hope in years to come we will look back to this moment not as a disaster followed by a muddle, but as a time of fresh vision and bold action which made a real, lasting difference both globally and locally.

I'm not sure how much confidence I have in governments not to follow the disaster with a muddle, but I do think having the failures of the economic doctrines pursued over the past few decade splashed across the headlines day after day offers the opportunity to rethink some of our basic assumptions about money, wealth and how we manage that business of living "in the world but not of the world."

Things I've Done

2008-12-09T08:44:00.001-08:00

I saw this meme at Julie's blog today ... thought it would be quick and fun. If you want to play, just copy the list and bold the items you've actually done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (jr. high orchestra)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (Mt. Monadnoch in NH – very small mountain!)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped (I’m with Julie here -- never, ever ever…. )
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (of the moon)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Gaeta, Italy)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (vicariously as hubby climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (and learned I’m a bit claustrophobic)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (never, not ever, never… see #11)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (as a ghost writer)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (saw it in December … didn’t bring my suit that day!)
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a mobile phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Michael Pollan interview

2008-11-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm officially a Michael Pollan groupie. I've even signed the petition to nominate him for Agriculture secretary in the new administration, which may be more silly than anything else. But here's a 20-or-so minute radio interview that sums up the problem with our food system today. Well worth a listen, and then zip over to your local library and check out The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. (My favorite concept from the latter book: don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. My grandmother came from Italy and always cooked like she was feeding an army, but she definitely would recognize a chicken nugget as something that should be ingested!)

If you want to read something on the relationship of food policy to our current state of over/undernutrition, check out this post that I've had saved in my reader for most of the year.

UPDATE: Pollan wrote an open letter to the next president a few weeks ago in the NYTimes Magazine. Among other things he suggests the position of "Farmer in Chief" and turning the White House lawn into a Victory Garden. Yeah!

Tomato

2008-11-10T21:14:00.001-08:00

Last summer a few of us attempted a synchroblog on "Tomato Theology." Apparently Rob Bell got inspired. Well, maybe not by us, but definitely inspired. I can't figure out how to point you directly to the new Nooma video on Facebook (for a week or so), so here's Mike's link to it.

All Saints Revisited

2008-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

So it's fallow time... so I'm going to repost something from last year. Ben's prayer for All Saints day reminded me of this conversation...

We were trick-or-treating through the neighborhood last night with our next-door neighbors and their threesome, when Doe said something about the next day being a holiday, too. I told her it's a kind of holiday that some churches celebrate called All Saints Day (I do remember enough of my Catholic upbringing for that). She continued, "My teacher told me it's a day to celebrate being afraid." Really?? A couple of minutes to think about that one. "No, it's a day to celebrate not being afraid." Hmmm...

The kids raced off to the next house for another handful of loot.

As we were tucking them into bed someone said something about tomorrow being a holiday. "It's All Saint's Day. It's a day we remember all the saints. Do you know what a saint is? A saint is someone who loves Jesus."

"Like you, Mommy and Daddy?"

"Yes."

"And like me and Ray?"

"Yes, that's right."

I'm not sure where the celebrating not being afraid came from (a kindergarten teacher's attempt to lessen the spooky factor of Halloween?), but it's not a bad way to think about All Saint's Day. So for all the saints reading this(HT Christine).