Three Ways to Carry a Futon

I just moved into the cooperative house where David and I will live for the next 3 or more years while we're married and I'm in seminary. As part of the move-in process, I helped two other women carry a futon mattress up 3 flights of stairs. We lifted it onto our heads and the mattress hung down toward each shoulder. I was the third woman in single file; all I could see was the back of the person in front of me.

At first, it was like being in a fort. The soft (if heavy) mattress fell tent-like around me. We were sort of huddled inside; the mattress ceiling was too low, just like a sofa fort.

Then, it was like being on an amusement park ride. As we went around a corner, there was the exhilaration of my head being squeezed between the futon and the walls. We slowed down to go around the turn and then-- free again! Just like a roller coaster slows down before a fast part. Or like a log canoe ride going around the bend in the river.

And as we went up the last flight of stairs into the attic, pushing with all our strength to get through a soft but narrow tunnel, the narrow staircase made me think of being born.

Constructive Theology: Special Guest Star, Bob Dylan

So, my friend Lauren sent me a link to a youtube video, with the advice "long but worth it."

Today I handed in my Constructive Theology paper, the major systematic work which I've basically been working on since June. You can read the paper if you want, but you might get a better idea of what I'm trying to say with it all if you just watch this youtube video.



Thanks to all for your prayers and support as I worked on this project. Next up: ordination paper, then novel revisions. But first: goofing off!

by popular demand: spurious facts

Look, there's been a lot of clamoring in the comments thread (read: none) for an internet blog-related home for daily posts of spurious facts about long-dead famous people. And that said blog should post daily for at least a week and a half.

Well, clamor no more! My first spin-off blog: spuriousfacts.blogspot.com. Subscription recommended.

eschatology and gaza

I've been writing the eschatology section of my constructive theology. It is a hard and appropriate time to do it, focused as I am on Israel's ground invasion of Gaza. (A friend of mine works for maannews.net/en, if anyone wants to read about it from a Palestinian source.)

It's pretty weighty to try to write about the coming new creation when there's so much of the violent, senseless one going around today. Here's a quote from an old friend I keep coming back to:

"Give me a hundred preachers... who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the gates of hell and set up the Kingdom of God on this earth."
- John Wesley

Well?


[Thanks to Noah and Emily for the address correction. The above link should work now.]

Merry Christmas!
¡Feliz Navidad!

Here are some photos from assorted Christmas gatherings and traditions.


Lots of fireworks coming from all directions at midnight on Christmas Eve add greatly to the excitement! (this is the street in front of my apartment) Note the one just taking off out of the plastic jug...The fireworks start at about midnight, and run for about half an hour. This is not a controlled fireworks show, but every family in the city setting off their own fireworks in the streets, on the roof, everywhere!

Christmas tree in Sololá.

Melany and Irvin with an Irvin-sized tree.

My landlady and her family, waiting for midnight.

Commercialism and capitalism at it's best; a Christmas picture
with my friends Astrid, Lourdes, Irvin...and millions of teddy bears.

And, the fireworks on New Year's to top it off, video taken from the roof of my friend Shannon's apartment. (On Christmas it's just as exciting)

Everyone in the city setting off fireworks, coming from all directions!

Kites!

This is November 1st in Santiago Sacatepéquez. It's the day of the dead, or all saints day. They make these kites, fly them, present them and the town cemetery fills with people, flying kites, building kites, eating, watching, taking pictures, sitting on the tombs, etc. It's an amazing event.

These kites are possibly my favorite thing about Guatemala. These are the giant ones...not fly-able, but just look at how beautiful they are!! And how long it must have taken each team of young adults to make them...out of tissue paper, packing tape and bamboo.

And here's a video: fun stuff!

Grace and Mercy

I just had a wonderful lunch with two young women who are from Central America. One is Nicaraguan and has studied law, and the other is from El Salvador and is a doctor. They came over to my apartment and we made rice, beans, plantains, and a salad of cabbage, cucumber and tomato with key lime juice and salt. The food, and the Spanish we spoke, were Central American. It was lovely to hear them say "Fíjate que..." and "vos." We danced in my studio apartment to Nicaraguan marimba music and I sent them home with lots of leftovers. We talked about living in a foreign country, and we praised and criticized the United States and Nicaragua. They thought Chacocente was a great project for its attempt to help people become independent, instead of giving them charity. It was a wonderful conversation about religion, architecture, race, poverty, culture, homeplace, Spanish grammar, stress, and family. I am so grateful. Sometimes I feel so alienated from my experience in Central America, and from the person I was while I lived there. Talking with them helped me feel more reconciliation between my two selves. When they left, I felt I was the precious participant in grace and mercy, which seem so often to arrive unexpectedly. Aleluia.