Love is...

Once again it's Love Thursday

Love is...

When you just can't get close enough...

Warren and Boyd Blow my mind

A couple of weeks ago, after Dearie and I finished up David Letterman, we happened upon The Charlie Rose Show. As guests, were Rick Warren and Gregory Boyd. Now, I read The Purpose Driven Life and Dearie has read The Purpose Driven Church. The man is no idiot. He has alot to say. I ended up not liking the book, though because Warren made God sound like a whiny teenage girl. God wants me to constantly tell him/her how great s/he is. And God tested our friendship to make sure I really liked him/her. etc. etc. It just made God sound so...pathetic. I'm pretty sure God is confident in his omnipotence and God knows my heart and my weakness.

I had never heard of Gregory Boyd until coincidentally a few minutes before we came upon the show, Dearie was telling me about his church in St. Paul. (We love St. Paul and miss Minnesota terribly) from the New York Times article (there is a link on his website) " Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns. 'When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,' Mr. Boyd preached. 'When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.'" Boyd is a very influential conservative Christian minister. And this sermon series lost him 1,000 of his 5,000 members.

As we watched the show, my mind was completely blown. And in a good way. I felt such joy and warmth welling up in me. Here were two of the most influential Evangelical church leaders. Warren talking about ecumenism and finding common ground and that as Christians we have more in common than we do dividing us. And Boyd saying "When were we ever a 'Christian' Nation?" When we were slaughtering Native Americans as we colonized their land, when we were capturing and dragging thousands of African peoples here to be slaves? All I could say over and over as I listened to him talk was "Holy Crap!" I've just ordered his book based on the sermon series.

So, does this mean that I am moving farther from the left and more toward the center? Does this mean that they are moving away from the right and into the center? Yes, and no. No, because hopefully God will continue to reveal him/herself to us in vastly different ways so that we can see how none of us has a handle on who God is. So we can begin to understand that God surpasses our measily human understanding, is bigger than any box we try to put him/her in. I still disagree theogically with many of the Fundamentalist beliefs, and many of their social stances. But Yes, we are hopefully moving to the center, if the center finally becomes God and not our idealologies and earthly agendas. Yes, if we are ready to learn from each other. Yes, if we finally get the religion out of the government.

Love is...

Well, we find ourselves at another Love Thursday
So, here is mine.

Love is...having someone to share the view

oh Eve, not the apple again

yes. yes. YES! the apple again. For fear of disclosing info about my location, we will call these Wonder Apples. Though I would love to send you all out searching desperately for them, in the interest of protecting all the parties involved that the apple will remain anonymous.

The Wonder Apple was supposed to come out last Monday. But the stupid pecan farmers couldn't get their acts together well enough to get a couple of tons of premium chopped pecans to my local confectioner on time! How hard is it, people?!?! You grow the pecans, you harvest the pecans, you roast the pecans, you deliver them to my local confectioner where they take the beautiful crisp tart Granny Smith apples, dunk them in the richest creamiest caramel you can imagine and then finally dunk them into your humble harvest of nuts. So instead, for the last 8 days I have become an apple stalker. I have called everyday to find out if the Wonder Apples were ready. Please understand. This is a very small window of time. One week out of the 10 they are available is...well, one whole week!

I will confess to you all my profound addiction to the Wonder Apples. I have a 2-3 a day habit. 2-3 whole Wonder Apples. They had to have been joking when they made a half of a Wonder Apple a serving. Kind of like the 2 Girl Scout cookie serving that I have always assumed meant 2 sleeves. I need them desperately. I go against my own morals and values to get them. They are only available at the confectioners or at a chain of grocery stores that I have completely boycotted because they refuse to build in the city. But even these convictions are not strong enough during Wonder Apple season. Last Year, I was working part time at Borders bookstore and there were 2 Satan's Grocery stores within a mile of my work. Plus there was one right across the county line next to a car wash. It was a perfect set up. I could go in a buy up 6 Wonder Apples, make up some excuse about a Girl Scout meeting/Slumber Party/Grandma's favorite/Halloween party (because they give you odd looks when all you're buying is 6 giant Wonder Apples.) and I could have a pretty good rotation going on so nobody knew I was completely insane. Plus, my husband was amazed at the really shiny van we had for 10 weeks.

So, today I am driving Behemoth packed full of darling little ones on the way to pick Conor up from soccer practice. (I have to drive right by the local confectioner to get to his high school! *giddy hand clapping*) I drive by slowly checking for signs of the Wonder Apple and all I can find are ads for chocolate covered strawberries, which are lovely but not what I'm looking for. On the way back I see the sign. On the back of chocolate covered strawberry sign is Wonder Apples now available. This is where it gets sad and embarrassing. I pull Behemoth over and without even thinking about the fact that I have only $10 til tomorrow evening and I am supposed to be stopping to buy a gallon of milk (Back to School killed us this year) I run inside and buy not just 1 and then later a gallon of milk, I buy 2. leaving me $1 and some change.

When we get back to the house, I slice one to share with my protein and calcium deprived offspring and HIDE THE OTHER IN THE BACK OF THE FRIDGE TO EAT WHEN EVERYONE IS IN BED. That was just now. I have justified this activity with the fact that a growing Flea needs the fiber and protein and fat to thrive just weeks away from delivery. I haven't abandoned ALL of my children. The littlest ones need the most care.

and tomorrow...I'll be picking Conor up from soccer practice again. Bob better get his ass to the bank in time.

Summer in the City

What could be more fun living in an Urban Heat Island (UHI) than taking advantage of your neighbors watering their front lawn and then sharing a towell with sibling or cousin. The little girl with Rosie is Grace, my sister's daughter. Don't worry, we of course followed up with Bomb Pops for everyone

I've never met a nun I didn't like...

picture from Unveiled

well, not yet anyway. You want to talk about some of the coolest original feminists, you need to hang out with some nuns. Take Sr. Jeanne. Sr. Jeanne lives across the street from us. We live in an urban "transitional" neighborhood. Sr. Jeanne has lived here since way before it became transitional. She has kicked out crack dealers and pimp houses. She's probably 75-80yrs old. Who knows? She worked for 30 years as a nurse midwife in migrant farming communities in Florida and Texas. Now, she heads up a battered women shelter.

Yesterday as Dearie was walking to work, he rounds the corner at the top of the block and sees Sr. Jeanne with some guy backed up against a car and she is yelling at him, "I saw you with your hands on her!" Dearie looks around. Quickly assesses the situation. A crying hysterical woman sitting on the curb with 2 other women. Police sirens in the distance getting louder. Two men, who later turned out to be other witnesses, on the OPPOSITE side of the street. Dearie walks over to just backup Sr. Jeanne, as if she needed it.

Turns out the man had dragged the woman screaming from the apartment building into the alley behind it. It also turns out he had a knife from her kitchen. Luckily for this woman, Sr. Jeanne was driving by and saw it.

Now yes, I am Catholic. And I'm completely aware how cool it is to beat up the Catholic church right now. And yes, I am fully aware that the rights and powers of women and lay people in general seem to be going backwards at the moment. (I'm Catholic, not an idiot.) But, I am still surprised by how the Catholic church is attacked as being anti-woman. You see, the reality is I learned to be a feminist in Catholic schools. And no, feminism does not need to be directly linked to Pro-Choice. At least it used to be much more than that.

I was having a discussion with a female pastor in Dearie's denomination about how I must have suffered as a girl stifled by the Catholic church. I looked at her puzzled. I asked her how many women in posititions of power she saw in her own church upbringing. The reality is that eventhough denominations are ordaining women, they are still getting the crap jobs and not getting paid near as well as the male pastors. Sure, it is a step in the right direction, but let's not pretend we're there, yet. And the Protestant denominations have all but stripped Christianity of it's women. I began to explain how I was raised by the Catholic church surrounded by women of incredible rebellion, strength and power. Hell, my own patron saint, whom I chose when I was confirmed was none other than Joan of Arc. I was given role models of the likes of Catherine of Sienna, a Doctor of the Church or St Margaret of Antioch who refused the advances of a man by pinning him with her foot to his neck, and said, "Lie still, proud demon, under the foot of a woman." She was later tortured and beheaded for her refusals. Women who spoke directly with God and whose words are still sacred and studied today for they way the contributed significantly to the formulation of Christian teaching. St. Teresa of Avila, St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Julian of Norwich. These were women who defied dictators and governments, fought their own church hierarchy, and stood up for justice and women at some of the world's darkest times.

And then there were the women who educated me as a girl. Women who disappointed their families and joined convents so they could be educated and live their own lives of faith and charity. Women who went to and were killed in El Salvador. Women who hung a banner in the front hall of my high school that said "If they can put men on the moon they can put women in the Constitution" Women who led our masses and only brought in the "rent-a-priests" for Consecration and Confession. Women whose mission was to educate and empower us as the leaders of tomorrow. Women who don't just talk about social injustice to women, they pull their car over and stop a man from dragging a woman into the alley and ensure that they have adequate prenatal care even when they have no legal status. No the women of the Catholic church I know, actually "do" feminism they don't just walk around with banners and buttons. So, yes of course the governing body of the Catholic Church has a long long way to go (especially since it seems to be going backwards) but the women of the church have been and continue to be incredible examples of power, wisdom, and faith.

And I'm glad to have Sr. Jeanne across the street so Jellybean can beg to go to her apartment and stare with love and wonder at all of the statues and paintings Sr. Jeanne has of Mother Mary breastfeeding her infant Jesus Now that is power...