On a lighter note:
1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice!
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks . Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
5. In the memo field of all your checks, write 'For Marijuana'
6. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.
7. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat.
8. Specify that your drive-through order is 'To go'.
9. Sing along at the opera.
10. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you have a headache.
11. When the money comes out the ATM, scream 'I won! I won!'
12. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling 'Run for your lives! They're loose!'
And The final way to keep a healthy level Of insanity
13. Tell your children over dinner, 'Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.'
Send This E-mail To Someone To Make Them Smile.
It's called...THERAPY
I'm not sending it in an email. I'm posting it.
Blame it on Doug.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Comment Moderation Is Turned On
I'm sorry to do this, but I'm getting bombed with anonymous trolls and Jenny. For now, until the pests go away, I have turned on comment moderation. I'm sorry to use controls, since I like to keep access to the blog as free as possible, but until the annoying commenters go away, I'm afraid this is how it will be.
Of Course, The Haters Were There
From the Huffington Post:
Appearing at the primary public entrance to the pre-Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, representatives from a group calling itself "Brother Ruben and the Official Street Preachers" protested openly-gay Episcopal Gene Robinson's participation in the event.
With a diverse and otherwise joyous crowd of adults and children of all ages streaming by, the three protest participants shouted about hate, hell and "homo-sex" - using a megaphone to assert that "homosexuals are eternally damned" and "Jesus doesn't love homosexuals."
Read the rest of the post and check out Brother Ruben's website. I won't link to it, but there's a link in the HP piece.
Bishop Gene Robinson's Prayer
By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
From the Episcopal Café.
H/T to Ann.
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
From the Episcopal Café.
H/T to Ann.
Bishop Gene's Schedule
Elizabeth Kaeton at Telling Secrets posted Bishop Gene's schedule while he's in Washington, DC. The bishop says:
1. I will be blogging from Washington, using my summer's blogspot: Canterbury Tales From the Fringe.
Perhaps this should be renamed "Tales from Closer to the Center" but I didn't have time!
Read the rest at Elizabeth's blog.
1. I will be blogging from Washington, using my summer's blogspot: Canterbury Tales From the Fringe.
Perhaps this should be renamed "Tales from Closer to the Center" but I didn't have time!
Read the rest at Elizabeth's blog.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Obama
The Barack Obama family on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last Saturday
Tonight, after we came home from the play, I viewed parts of the videos of President-elect Barack Obama's train ride from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, DC. The adjectives which came to mind as I watched him give his speeches were: poised, self-assured, graceful, magnetic, at ease. I could go on.
And then, I remember Counterlight's words, "Never fall in love with a politician". Well, maybe for only a few days? Would that be all right?
Click And Click
Being Peace posted two videos, Born Again American and A Long Way that are worth a look. Click on over there to see.
A Father's Cry
From Juan Cole:
The father of the dead little girls, Dr. Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish, appears to have been a sort of an Arab "Dr. Sanjay Gupta" who came on Israeli television frequently. He was about to do an interview on Israeli television when the word reached him of the atrocity against his family. His wife had earlier died of cancer, so his children were all he had left. He commuted to Tel Aviv from Gaza and told the girls to sleep near the stone walls to stay safe in his absence.
Doctor Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish, 2009-01-16, Israel Channel 10
I'm posting this video to demonstrate the reality of an Arab doctor's gut-wrenching grief upon hearing of the deaths of his daughters and niece in Gaza. My intention is not to stir controversy. Keep in mind that the video is a clip from an Israeli TV station.
A fair warning: If comments to this post get ugly, I shall close the comments down.
The father of the dead little girls, Dr. Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish, appears to have been a sort of an Arab "Dr. Sanjay Gupta" who came on Israeli television frequently. He was about to do an interview on Israeli television when the word reached him of the atrocity against his family. His wife had earlier died of cancer, so his children were all he had left. He commuted to Tel Aviv from Gaza and told the girls to sleep near the stone walls to stay safe in his absence.
Doctor Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish, 2009-01-16, Israel Channel 10
I'm posting this video to demonstrate the reality of an Arab doctor's gut-wrenching grief upon hearing of the deaths of his daughters and niece in Gaza. My intention is not to stir controversy. Keep in mind that the video is a clip from an Israeli TV station.
A fair warning: If comments to this post get ugly, I shall close the comments down.
Feast Day Of Antony Of Egypt
Before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 312 AD, back in the days when Christianity was still a persecuted religion, the act of becoming a Christian involved turning one's back on the pursuit of security, of fashionable prestige and popularity, of success as the term is widely understood.
James Kiefer at the Lectionary.
I wonder whether I would choose to be a Christian if I faced persecution. I hope that I would.
Readings:
Psalm 91:9-16 or 1
1 Peter 5:6-10
Mark 10:17-21
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
"Jesus, looking at him, loved him...." I find that it's easy to skip over the words, as they're almost a throwaway phrase, but how fraught they are.
PRAYER
O God, who by your Holy Spirit enabled your servant Antony to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil: Give us grace, with pure hearts and minds, to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Image from Wiki.
Friday, January 16, 2009
"The McDonaldisation Of Church Learning"
In his post titled "Church and Education" Pluralist Speaks writes:
So much that passes for church learning I must criticise. Alpha, for example, is the McDonaldisation of church learning: bite size ready answers for whatever questions may arise. It is a recruiting method (or a recycling method, really). It is marketed and carries power connotations: power and influence for Holy Trinity Brompton, power and influence for generally one kind of Christianity delivered with a copyright notice. It's capitalism in religion. It is also lazy teaching and learning, a sort of unwrapped national curriculum of sectional Christianity.Very well spoken. It's surely an apt description of my experience of Alpha, although I could not have put it so well. I disliked the course rather intensely.
Read the rest of Pluralist's post. He describes his model of what church education should be. I find little there with which to disagree.
That's Pluralist's self-portrait up there.
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