My friend, Doug, who peregrines around the land hath tagged me once again. It is the dread 8 random facts meme … but I’m not so into random facts lately. I don’t know what to do here. I want to point people to 8 … somethings. But in the end that’s really pointing to me and what I like and there’s something about these memes that are ultimately very self-centered. Of course, the whole blogging thing is too for that matter.
So I am tasked with coming up with 8 items of note about something, someone, or etc. Soo … here are 8 things I am thankful for today:
1. I am thankful that LightGirl’s temperment is not at all like mine. This is not because I have self-image issues, but because I am enjoying watching someone with an entirely different outlook explore and enter the world. I really love talking with her about different episodes in her life and hearing her perspective on them. She is so completely different from me and I am enjoying that very much.
2. I am thankful for antibiotics. I seem to have inherited my maternal grandfather’s predilection for sinus problems and so I’m thankful for the drugs that cure these ills.
3. I am thankful for coffee. I love coffee. If I could travel back in time, I would go back to the time when people first discovered coffee was good to drink and I would kiss their feet. Well … maybe not their feet. But I would hug them and kiss them and tell them what a wonderful thing they had done!
4. I am thankful for cotton. It’s one of three fabrics that feels good to my allergic skin and the other two are frightfully expensive. So I love cotton. I especially love it when it comes in the form of quilting fabric and I’m working on a quilt for someone I love (yes, GreatPea, your time is coming soon 😉 ).
5. I am thankful for BlazingEwe and TexasBlueBelle. They have kept my feet on the ground and helped me put one foot in front of the other more times than I can count.
6. I am thankful for the gift of creativity. The joy that comes from experimenting, designing, doodling and creating is without words. I love to play with color and words and shapes and make them all come together and “say” something using very few (if any) words.
7. I am also thankful for words, because I love to write. I love giving voice to the stories and ideas that wrestle in my head. I love to study the evolution of language and how words have depth, texture and meaning beyond what we think they do. That our language is not flat and two dimensional, but rich and deep and even four dimensional as it changes with time.
8. I am thankful that as I get older I am more and more able to embrace being an introvert. As a woman it is unacceptable to be an introvert, so I had to interact as an extrovert my whole life. But I’m learning how to balance cultural expectations with my own needs a little better now. Interpreted, yes, this means I’m learning to not care what others think quite so much anymore and I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that I’m growing more comfortable in the skin God gave me.
Sooo … the rules state that I’m to tag eight more people and they have to do this too.
WHATEVER!
Rules … schmools. Did I also tell you that I’m somewhat rebellious? I’m going to tag a few people … I don’t know how many … for the all new Thankfulness Meme … You have to list 6 – 8 things you’re thankful for and then pass it on to whomever you think might need this little exercise in futility … Here are my victims er friends: Doug JJ the Smu Makuta Lyn Mak Erin
… so LightHusband created himself and I am pleased to introduce:
Reginald Bean:
Then I got a little silly in the head and created the LightChildren. I’d let them create themselves, but they are with their grandparents and don’t have internet access. So they’re stuck with what their horrid old mother did. This is why we don’t have a college fund … we have a psychiatric fund for them. So here are Rosalie and Scooter Barnaby-Bean:
I found this all over yesterday, but it started with Mak. I almost got in trouble because I was multi-tasking at Bro. M’s when I should have been just talking. But here’s me … as a Simpson … and the funny thing is I have never, no never, not even one time, watched an episode of the Simpsons … not really sure why …
In any case, without further adieu, I am pleased to introduce you to, Olive Barnaby:
So … the glove was thrown down. I was asked to play with the boys. Doug tagged me to play a music game that guys usually only play with other guys. They don’t do this to be exclusive. It starts when they are early teens and it’s difficult to talk to girls. So they talk to each other and create their own language around music. Girls never quite get included in this club. They also never quite develop the love affair in quite the same way that guys do. But most of us do love music, so I was glad to get this tag and share my shuffle with y’all.
Here are the rules. Just write down the first 10 songs that your iPod plays when it’s on shuffle. No sweat. So. Here are my first 10:
1. “O, The Deaths We Would Have Known If You Had Not Been With Us” by Seth Woods on Songs from the Voice, vol 1 – Please Don’t Make Us Sing That Song
2. “Truganini” by Midnight Oil on 20,000 Watt R.S.L.
3. “(Nothing But) Flowers” by Talking Heads on Naked
4. “Praise Him” by Burning Spear on Jah Kingdom
5. “Yahweh” by U2 on How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
6. “The Pink Panther Theme (Dance Club Mix)” by Dream Chaser on The Pink Panther Theme Remixed
7. “Psalm 114: B’tseth Israel (When Israel Went Forth from Egypt)” by San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble on Ancient Echoes: Music from the time of Jesus and Jerusalem’s Second Temple
8. “It Is Well With My Soul” by Audio Adrenaline on Underdog
9. “Quiche Lorraine” by B-52s on Wild Planet
10. “Somewhere I Belong” by Linkin Park on Meteora
This was a welcome respite from the other processing I’ve been doing of late. So I’m grateful to Doug. Now, to spread the love … I’m going to tag Mak, Julie, Erin, Scott, and Paul(ie).
Grace tagged those of us who read her blog (so now it’s dangerous 😉 ) to tell the world what books we’re reading … just so that she can get a sneak peek into our libraries. Well … since she kindly gave us a sneak peek into her reading list, I thought it only just that I comply.
Drumroll, please … here are seven books that I am currently wending my way through (in no particular order):
>> Cry Of The Soul (How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God), by Dr. Dan Allender & Dr. Tremper Longman III – an excellent book about emotions that our culture has deemed negative but that can bring us closer to the heart of God if we will embrace them with a heart that is seeking after Him.
>> The Artists Way, by Julia Cameron – for anyone seeking to find their inner artist, or give it a nudge. A really wonderful book.
>> The Places In Between, by Rory Stewart – a great book about a historian walking across Afghanistan during the current war. But it’s also about how we humans view one another and get along.
>> Healthy Congregations (a systems approach), by Peter L. Steinke – a good solid piece on how people in churches actually work together in healthy ways, and how to build on that.
>> Desire of the Everlasting Hills (The World Before and After Jesus), by Thomas Cahill – the third in his “Hinges of History” series (the first two were How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews). I’ve read the first two and am now thoroughly hooked. Cahill has a fascinating perspective on history and is a great story teller.
>> Exiles (Living Missionally In a Post-Christian Culture), by Michael Frost – required reading for those in the emerging conversation and I’m behind.
>> On Writing Well (The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction), by William K. Zinsser – LightMom gave me this book recently and I’m really enjoying it. It’s helping me to think about how I write, and why. Perhaps you, dear reader, will even see a difference here and there as a result of this book.
Bonus … arrived yesterday and I can hardly wait – Organic Community (creating a place where people naturally connect), by joseph r. myers. I often just throw books in our familial shopping cart on amazon.com, sometimes LightHusband places an order, then I get a surprise. Yesterday was such a day. I think I’ll be reading this while we’re in Vermont.
As far as tagging people … if you read this and feel inspired, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to see what books you’re reading.
I challenged John Smulo to a meme, and he did me one better. He started one of his own. It’s way cool. It’s the Five Things I Dig About Jesus. He tagged Grace and Grace tagged me … so. Here are my five … at the end I’ll tag five more people. You know the drill, leave your link in the comments (so we can keep track of who says what and where) and tag five more from your blog.
**I dig that he’s Jewish and Mary is the original Jewish mother. But that didn’t get Jesus down at all. He still listened to His Father.
**I dig that so many of his metaphors about his relationship with us concern a bridegroom and a bride … then his first miracle was at a wedding. Is that the coolest foreshadowing or what?
**I dig that he was unafraid of the taboos of his day and let us know that we don’t have to be afraid of the taboos of our day. He came to do away with taboos; to replace exclusion with inclusion.
**I dig that he made his ideas easy to remember … so when I get confused I just have to remember a couple of things. When I think I might be off course, I measure myself this way … am I trying to set captives free? restoring sight to the blind? am I trying to love my neighbor as myself? Those aren’t always easy questions to answer, but they are easy to remember and it’s only a few.
**My favorite thing about Jesus is that we’re all the same to him. No one is better, and no one is worse. He’s the original Democrat, the original utopian, the original socialist. I love that. We’re all equal and we can’t change it … not one bit. There’s no money, no glitz, no buying our way in. There’s no merit, nor work, nor talent. We just are … and that’s enough.
I tag …
Julie Erin David Brother Maynard Doug
Really … it’s what Kievas said …
He said (and I quote):
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
So … that’s what I’m doing. It’s meme time again!
1. I love coffee (love, love, love it). And I love chocolate (the darker the better). BUT … I do not like to mix them. I don’t even like to have coffee with chocolate dessert. Those two tastes cancel each other out somehow.
2. I used to drink Diet Coke by the bucket. But I don’t anymore. Now I’m trying to kick a vicious rootbeer habit.
3. The annoying thing about all this hockey in the LightFamily now, is that I hated it when I was growing up because my brother always got to watch Hockey Night in Canada which came on right in the middle of the Waltons.
4. The only kind of music I won’t listen to is country … but I’ll even listen to country if it’s got some kickass bluegrass in it.
5. I don’t like pasta with marinara sauce. I think we ate it too much for several years there and now, I just don’t care for it.
6. One of my goals in life is to learn to play the bagpipes.
7. I’m excited that I get to teach the LightChildren a unit on anatomy and physiology next year. That was one of my favorite subjects in highschool.
8. I find it very amusing that some of LightGirl’s favorite songs now, were some of my favorite songs … way back when. She is always shocked and then dismayed by this. Which I also find even more amusing.
I cannot possibly tag EIGHT whole people … it would make my head blow up. So I’m going to double tag four people: Makeesha, Jamie, John and Scott. Har …
… even better than what Star Wars character is what LOTR character am I? oooohhhhh … I could hardly wait to find out. I’m a much bigger fan of LOTR than of Star Wars. Thanks to Lyn/Frodo who led the way.
You are most like Gandalf. You are very smart for your age, but don’t get too proud. With that great brain of yours, you have a tendency to over-analyze stuff. Life isn’t as difficult as you think it is. You have a great sense of responsibility to care for others, and that’s good! Just make sure you don’t neglect yourself in the process.
I think I’m seeing a trend here … and it’s kind of funny. Funny-haha and funny-weird as my GrampyO would have said. But I supposed I ought not to place too much emphasis on these silly character tests.
As everyone knows, I love to keep up with the Jones’ … so in the interest of keeping up with the latest blogology quiz, I’ve decided to reveal my “Star Wars Character:” Obi Wan Kenobi
This is decidedly hilarious for me on so many levels that I cannot even begin to tell you about. It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh deep in my heart. But especially funny for me (the homeschooling mom), in particular, is the last sentence of the description: “Now if only you could get your padawans to listen to you.”
Which Star Wars character would you be? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com
HT – Paul
Prologue
It all began with Bill, and his rather delightful polemic, The People Formerly Known as the Congregation. Bill was thinking out of the box a little and using a rubric that had been used in another format in order to get our collective attention. He accomplished that. Several others jumped aboard the train (Grace, Jamie A-R, John, Lyn, Greg, Dan, Heidi, Copernicus, Sola Gratia, Brother Maynard, and Paul) and wrote other pointed pieces that continued in that vein and I think we are now up to parts 9, or perhaps 10. I don’t know, my reading turned to skimming somewhere around part 5. I just got sad. I began to see backlash on institutional church blogs; people who are linking to these in anger and bitter humor. (UPDATE: several hours after posting this I read the second of Brother Maynard’s three part series in this meme. Dear Reader, you really need to as well.  My post is but a shadow on the wall.)
More than that, an ever-widening rift is developing between the old and the new. The piece of the Church that was to be “just a conversation†is hardening it’s lines or perhaps the lines are being drawn for it and the piece that is the old, the institutional Church, is calling names and making faces. Oh, it’s being slightly more dignified than that, but it’s the adult version of, “I’m packing up the marbles and keeping them for myself. Nyah.â€
So, what follows has been on my mind for quite some time now. I began writing it over a year ago. The imagery comes and goes, but I have not been able to get it out of my head (which probably is some indication of my level of insanity). I began reading the latest round of postings which began with Bill‘s TPFKATC with hope that has degenerated into sadness. We are all continuing to circle the drain with our anger. It’s not that anger or expressing it is bad, but we must begin to harness it into something constructive, redemptive, conciliatory or we will ultimately lose the true battle which we ought to be fighting.
As you read what follows, please understand that I am in NO manner attempting to speak the mind of Jesus. I am taking the metaphor of the Bride and Bridegroom and playing it out in imaginative fashion; so, dear reader, you may make of it whatever you will.
The People Known As The Bride of Christ
Jesus is coming. Jesus the Bridegroom. He is coming for His Bride. He dressed in his tuxedo. He’s been preparing the universe for this time since He called time into being. He’s longing for this Bride dressed in dazzling white. Pure. Clean. If He is to be Lord of Lords, then His Bride will be the Queen in the Kingdom of God.
What sort of Bride do we present Him with? At the moment, she is dressed in the tatters of a whore, no dazzling white here. She is behaving as though she is possessed of multiple personality disorder. In serious distress, this disorder is causing her multiple personalities to be at war with one another as she stands at the back of the church ready to walk down the aisle.
Now Jesus sees past the clothing and the MPD; He sees only His beautiful Bride. Not so the guests at the wedding. They are frightened by the spectacle of the tattered rags, ratty hair, dirty skin and raging arguments from within one person. They are leaving the church in small groups, and ones and twos. Slowly, but they are leaving. The banquet feast that Jesus has set for them is not enough to keep them there.
It soon becomes apparent that the wedding which was a central event in society, written up in all the best papers is now so insignificant that it’s barely worth mentioning by word of mouth. It was to have happened in the big church in the middle of town, but now it’s being held in the tiny little church down the road a ways. There just aren’t enough guests anymore. The Bride has frightened them all away with her squabbling, fractious nature and all of the rules she set for coming to the wedding.
Jesus opened the doors wide. The Bride started to close them. No drinking she said. No smoking. No dancing. Only come on Sunday. Wear beautiful clothes. I must have beautiful clothes. And your hair must be just so. Make sure your children behave. Raise your hands in worship. No, don’t. Yes, do. No.
These things and more are the issues She is now fighting about within Herself.More and more guests just keep slipping away. And The Bride? Well, She appears to be unaware, indifferent; far more concerned with her inner demons than with her guests. She knows she ought to be thinking of them and their needs, but she cannot seem to pull her eyes off of herself.
Epilogue
I have not written this because I feel that we ought all just get along and sweep our differences under the rug. I’ve written it because I feel that we ought to be picking our battles more wisely. There are really only a few battles that need to be fought. “In things essential, unity; in doubtful, liberty; in all things, charity.†Thomas aKempis. Is the church possessed by demons? I don’t know. But we’ve become a fringe element of society and it might be good to think about embracing that rather than continuing to act as if we’re the biggest show in town. Arguing about how to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic is a waste of time and energy. But perhaps we could learn some new patterns and begin to work together in and through our differences. Reminding ourselves of what we have in common more regularly might be a good place to start.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen
