Essential Equipment

You absolutely must go read this hilarious post by Richard at Caught By The Light. Someone we all know and love is going to be insanely jealous.

Bed, Bath, And Beyond

Back in December of 2005, at Street Prophets, Deborah Brown placed a post called "Stuff" before her readers:

It's very PC at the holidays to bemoan the commercialism: the blatant, greedy, toddler-like grab for stuff.

The truth is, I love my stuff.

....

But there is no denying that some material things really do give us pleasure. As much as love and peace and togetherness are all anyone ever needs, there is much joy, beauty and fun to be found in many worldly, material, straight-from-the-mall items.

....

So today for a little low-key Friday fun, I invite you to tell us about some of your favorite things--and I do mean "things." No messages of time spent reading peacefully, but tell us about the book. You can talk about the joy of family dinners, but please describe your favorite serving platter. And you can mention love and romance and friendship, but also dish about that special piece of jewelry.

Over at SP, you get to give your comment a title. Here was my response:

Bed, Bath, and Beyond

I love my bed with the pillowtop mattress; it's so hard to get up out of it, especially on cold mornings.

I love my hot bath, although I'm told I'm too old to be taking hot baths. Warm maybe, but not hot; but I do it anyway.

Sometime I luxuriate in my bed and bath to such an extent that I am ashamed of myself. I am tempted to pray, "O God, if I make it through the pearly gates, please give me my pillowtop mattress and my hot bath".

Today I'd say the same about those two pleasures. I look forward to them and luxuriate in them every single day.

For those of you not familiar with the names of American chain stores, there's a little insider play on words here.

We Passed A Good Time

Our beautiful pool


It's good to have time away, but it's good to come home, too. I was thinking of getting a laptop, so I could have access to a computer when I'm away from home, but the keyboard is so tiny, and frankly they're a pain to use. I guess you get used to them if you use them regularly. I know that I would not like one for my main computer, and why do I need more than one computer anyway?

We stayed at Eden Condominiums in Perdido Key, FL, just over the Alabama line, in an area that is not quite as congested as Orange Beach, in part, because it is near a national seashore area, which excludes development. The picture shows the main pool, which really was lovely. There were several pools, a baby pool, a wading pool, an indoor heated pool, and a hot tub, in addition to the main pool.

Having the two condos next to each other was convenient, as there was much going back and forth between the two, especially the children. We ate well, with Grandpère and my son-in-law doing the cooking. Those two guys have food on their minds all the day long. As soon as one meal is over, they're planning the next meal. That's fine with me, just so the plan does not include me doing the cooking while I'm on vacation. I'll do breakfast, but that's it.

My son, who is newly divorced, and his two children saw that they could have an enjoyable vacation, even without their ex-wife/mom present. Good for them, because I don't see the parents sharing a vacation any time soon.

The children included boys 13, 11, and two 7 year olds, and one 11 year old girl. The cousins love each other and enjoy their time together. The two young boys played together and the three older ones hung out together.

My son believed that he was too old - 42 - to be attractive to women, however, women are pursuing him as word gets around that he's single again, and I think he's beginning to see that there is life after divorce. What's sad is that many of the women his age seem rather desperate to find a man. My son is in no hurry to move into a serious relationship, which I believe is very wise.

As the title of the post says, we Cajuns passed a good time. The one Italian among us passed a good time, too.

Back To The Swamps - Good-bye Beach

My next post will come from the swamplands of south Louisiana. I wish I could blink three times and be home, but I'm forced to do road travel, which I don't like. It's been a good week.

Gone To The Beach

Picture from Desktop Pictures


We're off to the beach. Tomorrow, my husband, two of my children, my son-in-law, five of my grandchildren, and I head for northwest Florida. Yes, all ten of us will be invading Florida. It will never be the same. We have two condos, next to each other. My daughter, her husband, and their three boys will stay in one, and Grandpère and I, my son, my granddaughter, and my grandson will stay in the second condo.

Very likely I will not have internet access, and I will not be posting during the next week. I'm turning off my comments during my absence. If I find that I have easy internet access, that may change.

My time on the beach is mostly limited to early morning and late afternoon. I love walking on the beach around sunset. During the day we do other things or just lounge around and relax. I'm taking lots of books and magazines with me.

Blessings to all. Y'all take care, and be good while I'm gone.

UPDATE: Tomorrow we head back home. We've had a lovely time. The cousins, especially, enjoyed being together. Everyone got along, thanks be to God. Grandpere was a little frustrated that everyone did not fall in immediately with every one of his control-freaky plans, but he got over it. He got over everyone but him sleeping late, too. Vacations are for doing what you like, right?

There's something quite calming about watching and listening to the surf come in and go out, time and again, world without end. Amen. 6-28-07

Is George Angry With His Friend Tony?

Is Bush angry with his old friend, Tony Blair? Will Tony be desperate for a job when he leaves office? What's going on here?

I have absolutely no expertise in Middle Eastern politics, but this, to me, flies in the face simple common sense. I am a wee bit more familiar with the manner in which certain of Condoleezza Rice's cockamamie schemes have played out in recent history, which makes me all the more skeptical.

Bush must surely have Blair's acquiescence before putting this word out, but one can't be sure with our president.

From the Washington Post:

The Bush administration is laying the groundwork for an announcement of Tony Blair's appointment as a special Middle East envoy for Palestinian governance and economic issues after he steps down as Britain's prime minister, following two months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, according to U.S. officials.

Blair would report to the Quartet overseeing Middle East peace efforts -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- and focus on issues limited to the internal workings of a future Palestinian state. Political negotiations involving Palestinians, Israelis and the Arab states would be left to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the officials said.

What a quartet! I can hear it now.

The Palestinians have yet to be approached on the possibility, but U.S. officials believe they would welcome a Blair appointment. Among Palestinians, Blair is known to have a good working relationship with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas, but he is considered strongly pro-Israel and is closely associated with the Bush administration's Middle East policies, according to Palestinian analysts.

Why ask the Palestinians? Why on earth would their input be needed?

Russia hasn't signed on yet. I see reliance on a significant number of "ifs" here. I have heard of such a thing as floating a trial balloon, but this balloon seems to have been floated - how shall I say it? - way too prematurely!

Asked if Bush had spoken with Blair about the idea, Snow said: "I don't think he has. I don't have any knowledge, and my guess is I'd know. But, no, I don't know anything."

What! Blair may not have been consulted yet? British officials won't comment. What kind of nonsensical announcement is this? Where will this scheme cooked up by Rice and Olmert go?

Look, I'm for any realistic plan to bring about peace between the Palestinian factions and peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I'm all for realistic plans to bring about peace anywhere in the world, but this one appears extremely unlikely to be fruitful. Of course, I could be wrong.

Shopped Till We Dropped

Shopping with an 11 year old girl is not for the fainthearted. A good portion of yesterday was spent with my 11 year old granddaughter, buying a summer wardrobe. You may ask why she needed a whole new wardrobe. Didn't she have any clothes?

There's no other way to tell this story, except to say that early in this week, her mother, my son's ex-wife, told him that their daughter would not be taking any clothes that she had paid for when she went for her time with her dad. He was going to have to take responsibility for her wardrobe at his place. Two wardrobes? OK, fair enough.

I called my GD to assure her that I would take her shopping, and that she would have clothes for the time at her father's house. Trust me, my son was not the appropriate person to accompany her on a whole wardrobe shopping trip. He can't stand to shop, and he knows nothing about buying girl's clothes. I don't really like shopping any more either, and I buy most of my clothes online, but I rose to the occasion today, and I had a most enjoyable day with my beautiful and sweet GD.

I am quite fond of this girl, as she is the only female in the lot. All five of my other grandchildren are boys. I love them all equally, but my GD is special, as the only one of her kind. We bought shorts, shirts, flip-flops, and a swimsuit cover-up at Old Navy. I mention their brand name, because we were able to find nearly everything she needed there, either on sale or at quite reasonable prices. We had a buffet lunch, after which we were off to Target to shop for a swimsuit, intimate apparel, and a beach towel for her and her brother. We had a lovely day. One good that has resulted from the divorce is that she and I have drawn much closer to each other.

My GD has quite good taste in clothing; she knows what suits her and how to match up her outfits. She knows her sizes, and she did it all pretty much on her own. I was along for the ride and to pay the bills and to "oooh" and "aah" about her choices. I'll collect part of the cost from my son, but I would give this GD of mine the moon if I could, because she is taking the break-up of her family very hard. She's a beautiful girl, inside and out, and I hate to see her hurting so. At one point during the outing she said, "It's kind of fun to have two wardrobes". You go, girl!

When her mother came to pick her up, she showed her every article of clothing, and what matched with what, with great delight. I'm sorry to say that I experienced a bit of shadenfreude (mea culpa!) during this scene. The clothes did not travel with her to her mother's place. I marked them all with my son's name, for that is her wardrobe for her time with him. I felt petty about the labeling, but if she's going to have separate clothes for each place she stays, then they need to be easily identifiable. Lord, have mercy.

Thomas Merton - My Mouthpiece

As Moses needed Aaron as his mouthpiece, perhaps I am in need of a mouthpiece, perhaps of several mouthpieces. In my previous post, Archbishop Ndungane was my mouthpiece. In this post, I choose Thomas Merton.

The Living Spirit

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

"Well, Amen, In Deed, Guvner."

MadPriest has posted the entire text of a sermon given in Westminster Abbey by Anglican Archbishop Ndungane of South Africa.

I'm not going to post the whole sermon. I'll pick and choose, because I view portions of the sermon as pertinent to my post below, which I now see as lacking in both eloquence and right thinking, and yet, though I may have strayed off track, I ended up in the right place, in my humble opinion.

Archbishop Ndungane:

...The life of faith is first and foremost about our relationship with our God. It is not about how good our behaviour is. Nor does it hinge on how correct our theology is. Nor does it hinge on our stance on human sexuality. What God really cares about is whether we love him.

The first commandment is that we should love him, with all our heart and mind and soul and strength - that in the depths of our being we should yearn for him, and yearn to grow in love and knowledge of him, above all else. God loves us with an outrageous exuberance. He loves us far, far more than is reasonable or rational or sensible. He loves us to death - literally, to his own death, in Jesus on the cross. And the desire of this God, who is love, is that we should share in this overflowing, excessive and abundant love - with him, and with others.

....

Paul argues a similar point - it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we are justified. We are not saved by being orthodox in our theology, or good in our behaviour. What matters is whether Jesus is the touchstone at the heart of our lives. Our primary identity must be that of being 'crucified with Christ' so that 'it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.'

The first consequence of this is that by being united with him, we are automatically united to everyone else who is 'in Christ.' This is a gift of God, and it is a given. No matter how deep our divisions, we cannot change this fact. We would do well to remember this. The second consequence lies in remembering that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and he is the one who, by the Spirit, will continue to lead us into all Truth. Being led by him is what enables us to dare to tackle the difficult question of how to enunciate the eternal gospel truths in the changing circumstances of our world. In other words, being in Christ is what allows us to change our interpretation of Scripture.

I hope I have not shocked you by saying this! Please be reassured that I am NOT saying that 'anything goes' and we can make of Scripture whatever we like - or just ignore it where it suits us. But we have to be honest about this. There are areas of life where we have made great changes - not to Scripture itself, but to how we understand it. For example, it is entirely clear that slavery is accepted within the pages of the Bible. Even St Paul says 'Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called. Where you a slave when you were called? Don't be concerned about it!'

....

But we have NOT changed our position on Jesus, and I do not see that we could, and still call ourselves Christians. If anyone wants to pick a fight with me about my faith, let it be on the grounds of my relationship with Jesus, and my belief in who he is: the belief to which Scripture attests and the creeds affirm.

....

Jesus Christ remains the same, yesterday, today and for ever! So, even though some of the church is in turmoil over issues of human sexuality, that should never become the touchstone of orthodox belief. Rather, let the heart of your faith be your love for God, responding to God's love in Christ for you.

Archbishop Ndungane's wisdom and eloquence shine forth the light of Christ.

I did pick and choose large chunks of the sermon, because I believe that it's nearly perfect. I cannot speak as the archbishop does, so perhaps, I should not speak at all. Perhaps, I should allow my life to reflect the light of Christ, or not, whatever is the reality.

However, there's a part of me that says that a humble Christian in the pew, without great knowledge or scholarship, with no position of power whatsoever, may be permitted a few words.

Thanks to MadPriest for the title of this post.

I Did It My Way

The web site, Homosexuality and the Bible, put together by Mennonite, Loren L. Johns, was a great help to me as I tried to work out my views on same-gender sexuality in relation to the Bible. Johns says:

Although my attempt in these pages has been to represent fairly and honestly the best arguments on both sides of this issue, I would like to say at the outset how I personally approach this matter. This issue has proved to be one of the more intractable issues the Mennonite Church has faced. Official church documents clearly call for celibacy on the part of gays and lesbians while also calling the church to remain in loving dialogue as we continue to study the Bible on this issue.

It seems that Johns comes down in favor of the Mennonite Church's call for celibacy, but I believe that he does present the issue, both pros and cons, in an even-handed manner. In a three-column format, he lays out in the first column all the Scripture passages that remotely or possibly reference same-sex sexuality, however tenuous the connection might be. In column two, he gives the interpretation for the passage that demonstrates why it indicates that same-gender sexuality is wrong. In the third column, he explains how another interpretation could show that same-gender sexuality is not necessarily wrong.

When GC 2003, voted consent to the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, I agreed with the vote cast by my bishop, Charles Jenkins, who voted against consent. But I could not forget that a majority of the Episcopalians in New Hampshire wanted him for their bishop. Why shouldn't they have him?

As I said in the first of my Confessions,

As the controversy continued to swirl around, I decided to search out the references to homosexual behavior in the Bible. The source that I found most helpful was from the website of Loren L. Johns, a Mennonite. The Gospels, which, to me, are the heart of the Bible, are, as you know, silent on the subject of homosexual practice. Either Jesus did not mention it, or the writers of the Gospel did not think it important enough to include in their accounts of his life and teachings.

Now some will argue about the inclusion or exclusion of certain passages from Johns' list, and others may argue about his interpretation of the pros and cons. Folks have told me that the centurion's servant was really his sex partner and that Jesus' healing of the servant meant that he approved of their relationship. I am not convinced about that, but I am not a Scripture scholar, and I could be wrong.

The passages from the Old Testament were, for me, rather easy to dispose of, because there are so many laws and instructions from the OT that we do not follow today.

I moved on to the New Testament, Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. For me they were less then completely persuasive, because they include instructions and traditions that we no longer follow with respect to such issues as slavery, women in leadership, women covering their heads, and women keeping silent in worship.

Although Johns puts his list in the sequence that the books appear in the New Testament, I saved the Gospels for last, because I see them as the lens through which I read the rest of the Bible, the heart of the Bible. The Gospels were, for me, the final word. Jesus says nothing about same-sex sexuality. He says a good deal about love and faithfulness. If the proscription against sexual activity between persons of the same sex is vital to the faith life of his followers, why did he say nothing about it? That was most persuasive to me of all.

Whatever the combination of nature and nurture that causes a person to be attracted to members of the same sex, whatever the science - and I believe that we don't yet have all the scientific answers - I'm convinced that being gay or lesbian cannot be reduced to a "lifestyle choice".

Upon thinking and praying further, I came to the conclusion that, since my God is a loving God, that he loves his whole creation, why would he create persons who are attracted to members of the same sex, with the same strong sexual desires as persons attracted to the opposite sex, and expect them never to act on those desires, to live lonely lives bereft of love, and companionship, and faithfulness to another? The God I know and love would not do that.

My friends, this was the path the I traveled, and it is not one that I urge on anyone else. This is my story for better or for worse, from one without great knowledge or scholarship. I may have taken wrong twists and turns. Indeed, I may have come to conclusions based on interpreting the evidence wrongly. I am not lesbian or gay, so I cannot speak from experience. Everything I see in the Jesus of the Gospels points to his welcoming and including all who wished to follow him and help build God's Kingdom on earth.

Whatever mistakes I may have made in finding my way - mostly on my own, with very little advice or counsel - I believe that I came to the right conclusion in the end. I sense the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout as I made my way, and, for me, I believe there's no turning back.

I offer this story humbly, with full knowledge that it is, no doubt, full of imperfections, nevertheless, I thank God for where I am now, and those of you who read this, I thank you for your patience.