Tag Archives: Commentary on Human Condition

Mother’s Day…

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I’ve been doing a little research on Mother’s Day – origins, practices, etc. (HISTORY nerds unite…) in the hopes of discovering the basis for the overcommercialized, mass-marketed holiday that Mother’s Day is today. I found that a woman named Julia Ward Howe, peace activist & author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic was a post-Civil War voice motivating mothers of the world to unite: for peace, for family, for safety, against war, poor treatment of workers, poor sanitation, & abuse of alcohol.

Below is the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” written by Howe, a rallying cry for mothers – Enjoy.

Arise then Christian women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Damn! Damn!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace, man as the brother of man,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Male & Female

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For the last several weeks, I’ve been prepping for a series on ‘being male & being female” – exploring how God’s has put us together & created us; to me, this means understanding what it means to be male/female, & also how our identity, role assumptions, life choices, & ultimately every one of our relationships are greatly affected by sin/our fallen nature. BTW: the symbol at left is historically the one used for male – (& Austin Powers, but I digress) & originated from identification w/the little ‘g’ god, Mars… which is why the arrow points to the NE, & is supposed to remind us of Mars’ shield & arrow.) The symbol at right is the historical symbol for female & originated from identification w/the little ‘g’ goddess, Venus – the little cross is supposed to represent Venus’ hand mirror… (so, no, John Gray & Barbara DeAngelis didn’t come up with this Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus idea…)

In some ways, this study has been like descending a spiral stair case that seems like it couldn’t REALLY go any farther down, only to find that every ‘floor’ that is descended exposes yet another flight of descending stair. It would be easy to get lost in this topic. Some of the things that I’ve been sorting through:

-God’s intended role for Adam/Eve in Eden.
-what it means to live as a godly man/woman, & how much of who we are/what we become is unique, often not fitting too well with preconceived stereotypes
-how people w/infomation & education (often men) have used their info/education to exploit others
-how role expectations affect our behavior; whether it be how we embrace certain behaviors as “things men/women do” & conversely then, “don’t do” & how we can intentionally choose an opposite role of what we “should do” in order to protest/rebel/avoid not measuring up to an expected role we’re ‘supposed’ to fill.
-men & women: equal but different
-using/misusing the Bible for selfish purposes; in many ways, this has meant justifying sexist (or at least anti-woman) practices ideas, esp. when it comes to spiritual leadership.
-the emasculation of men as an overcorrection to the above behavior
-the effect of the curse on our lives, choices, actions, & behaviors – esp. in our relationships (see Genesis 3 – on the serpent, Eve & Adam)

I’m hoping to see great freedom, wholeness, restoration, & truth in our personal lives & interpersonal relationships as a result of where we’re heading… & at the same time, feel as though I’m heading into a minefield.

Ready for too much information?

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At the encouragement of Brintus Maximus… here’s a little pic from the downstairs TPLF WC… & a little story to go with it. I was takin’ care of business after a hard days meetings – the cardboard roll at left in the pic tells the story of the drama I faced. No mas.

No worries. There was a handy little package of baby-wipes for just such an occasion – as you can see, the package is wholly in German, but the package resembles the one we use, literally, at our house. It even had a cute little puppy dog on the package.

My first swipe w/the mystery wipes was effective, yet accompanied by a vigorous tingling, & not the good kind, in just the wrong place. My second swipe did the job, yet the tingling grew more intense… into pain.

Checked w/Johannes on the contents of the mystery package. Turns out they’re BLEACH wipes.

Duly noted.

sleep deprived…

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11-4. 11-5. 12-5. 10-4. My sleep schedule – isn’t working yet – a version of a cold/allergy/hay fever/sinus-y, coughing & sneezing fit is contributing. Hooray.

Pasty Gangster has his permit to drive – so we’ve been spending some time together in the car, albeit in opposite seats that we’re usually in. So far, the joy of driving has been limited to the Exp & the auto-tranny. This afternoon, we’re off to the Reed High parking lot w/the Jetta for a 5 speed lesson. Love it.

Lost In Translation Story from Deutschland – we were at TPLF for church, & a wonderful lady came up to reconnect & talk to the Bean about stuff. They talked for a while, & our friend ended the conversation, with, “I’m so glad that you’re here. Your smile is like a douche of happiness every time we see you.”

Musings…

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Ho there friends.

As usual, the return from Germany is accompanied by a funky-schedule. Up early today (4-ish) which may mean a nap later. Anyhow, I thought I’d take the opportunity to use my time, & process some of my thoughts & observations from the trip.

In many ways Germany seems very familiar re: church culture… in Deutschland, the church culture is a few hundred years older than ours – & it is more obvious there (to me) that churches often take on the expected (but perhaps unspoken) role of “what churches do” & “don’t do”) – (e.g. meaning meeting on Sunday, in a “church” building, the calendaring of events, creation-or lack thereof, of specific programs). Much of what becomes normal seems to be based on what is “successful” – not necessarily a bad thing, but only as long as the definition of success matches Jesus’. Otherwise, success is the number of people at church. It is the lack of conflict. It is reputation. It is sticking to what others are doing – esp. when the other church is experiencing “success…” There’s a thought of “why re-invent the wheel? We’ll just follow what others are doing.”

This shows up in the adoption of models – (not Zoolander silly,) rather, meaning the copying (almost exactly) a particular church/organizations structure/plan – the state church, Hillsong, Willow Creek, Saddleback, Emergent, Church on the Way, etc. These models may “work,” but is it right?

So, I’m pondering conformity & normalization in the context of church, especially the local church – seeing this organization through the lens of another culture has spurred me to comtemplation mode… esp. from asking clarifying questions about things that I’d observed in the church structure – questions like:

-What is “normal” for the local church? What has made this “the norm?” (Think: traditions, identifying something as especially important/sacred, churchy-ness/religiousness etc…)
-What does it look like for the local church to be developing its own unque identity? esp. in the context of “conformity” – where outside pressures/influences (personal aspirations & agendas, denominational forms & norms, city/community ‘standards’, &/or expectations, to name a few) intentionally or not, exert force/pressure to shape the church into something it may/may not supposed to be becoming…
-Are there non-negotiables for every church (behaviors, norms, practices, methods, etc.)? If so, what are they? (beyond a statement of faith &/or an intellectual affirmation of values.) If not, why not?
-How do you determine the methods you will use to get from point A to point B with the people of your church?

More to come… your input is welcome. Probably.

glasses

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When I was a kid, my dad would take me & my brother fishing – I wasn’t very good at it, didn’t catch much, & really struggled with the touching of the bait & the fish… seemed like it took forever to get the smell of salmon eggs off of my fingers. Something I could never understand is how my dad would know where to stop & fish – sometimes he’s even say, “There’s a few fish right over there.” I thought he was just trying to get me to wet my line…until the time that he took off his sunglasses & let me wear them.

They had this cool polarized effect, which eliminated the glare & allowed the wearer to see under the surface of the water. Now I knew why my dad said that there were fish over there – I could see them too. But I couldn’t see them until I had the glasses & was able to get past the powerful glare on the water.

Sometimes I feel like I’m still wearing the glasses, & that I can see things that are flowing under the surface of life as plainly as if they were exposed & in the open. I wonder why others don’t see it too. And when I try to describe what I’m seeing, all I get is a blank stare. Or worse, conflict. Sigh.

PS. cg- I changed the sunglasses pic because I couldn’t stand the starburst “white” outline around the glasses on the jpg.

A Quirk

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One of my favorite smells in the whole world is bleach. No particular brand, though is there any brand but Clorox? (CG- I know there is, but I needed to ask the question so you would post a URL to a pic of another brand of bleach…)

I associate it with clean. With fresh. With contentment. The other day, I got some coffee (espresso actually) on the sleeve of my white Gonzaga U. sweatshirt – the one I bought when my brother got accepted to Gonzaga’s law school, the one I bought to feel closer to him, though he was moving 13 hours away by auto.. the XXL sized shirt, the one that I put on when I get home, the one that makes me feel comfortable, in an oversized hoodie type of a way. The brown spot on the cuff of the sleeve of my right arm of the sweatshirt bothered me… maybe because I could see it everytime I looked down. Reminded me that I can see my hands all the time. How do you get a brown espresso stain out of a white hoodie? With a Clorox (R) bleach pen – just write on the affected part, wash, & presto! It’s all good & clean.

It took 42 minutes for my washer to wash the hoodie. Thought that was funny, because the timer at the beginning said 40 minutes. It’s off by 2 minutes. Should that get looked at by a guy? Should that bother me? The dryer took about 18 minutes to dry the hoodie – it might have taken less time if I hadn’t kept opening the door of the dryer to check on the dryness of my favorite sweatshirt.

When it was dry, (really dry, not just mostly dry) I took it out & examined the cuff of the sleeve to see if the espresso stain had come out. It had. Boy howdy. In its place was a white, really white spot – I deduced that the bleach pen had taken the brown stain of the espresso drip & had removed it – in the process, whitening the spot where the pen touched. To Super White. Uber white.

I had thought my Gonzaga U. hoodie was white – now I see that it is truly “off-white” in color – & that the only really white spot is on the cuff of the right sleeve in the shape of a starburst

I see it all the time. And I like the white. Now, to get the rest of the hoodie white.

Don’t know why, but when you add it all up, it comes out as me.