Arrival

I'm here at the Monastery, but can't sleep yet. Perhaps that "Rockstar Energy Drink" I had around supper time has something to do with this insomnia? We arrived around 9:30pm, which is around 11pm monastery time. In other words, most people are in bed or at least headed that way. The place was quiet. We took our bags to our room and then I did what I always do when I come for retreat here, I visit the chapel and pay my respects to the Founder. His tomb is behind the altar in the crypt chapel. Saying prayers by the flickering light of the vigil candle always seems like a perfect way to begin a retreat.

What I notice most strongly this time are the smells. It smells like Holy Cross. Every part of it. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could smell the earthy, almost yeasty river. In the chapel it was incense. Near the pantry: coffee. In the library: books. Each of those scents familiar from other places, and yet here they have distinct notes that mark them as belonging to this place alone. I guess what I'm saying is that this place smells like home to me. Or one of my homes, at least. Certainly my spiritual home.

This time around the monks put us in a room that was my office the last time I did an extended stay. In fact, the ethernet wire I'm using was the one I ran back then, some 4 or 5 years ago--wow, has it been so long? When I say "extended" I mean weeks or months rather than days. Hard to get so much time in a block now, married and a pastor as I am. It's in the basement, nice and dark with thick, quiet walls.

Sleeping in the basement of a building so substantial as this is no small thing. Henry Vaughn designed this place--the first new monastic building since the English Reformation. Solid as the convictions of those that built it.

On my mind this evening--the feeling in my gut that this time is precious. Precious for how it can change me. Already I can feel the pavlovian-like reflexes toward holiness kicking in. Already I've prayed, kneeling with arms outstretched in front of the chapel high altar, for openness. Amazingly I got my answer right away: "of course!"

You have to be careful about what you pray for around here. The results can be terrifying in their sweep. I suspect the reason for this is partly situational--prayer is answered here because it can be answered. It's the nature of the place that people are more receptive but also that they have the supports in place to deal with massive upheavals. I've known many guests who have gone through massive internal changes while here. I often thought that those changes had been the works for a long time, but here the person finally had permission to change.

I'm very excited about being here. I can't wait for Mattins (Morning Prayer). Such a relief to be here...

-t

Road Trip Prep

We can't leave for Holy Cross until Betsy is finished with a Tutorial that she is responsible for. So I'm having a relatively (for vacation/retreat time) busy morning packing and getting the house ready for us to be gone for a few days. Besides packing clothes and the usual sundries, we are bring a full kit of electronic gadgets. I want to get some images of Holy Cross. So I'm bringing what I need to record video, audio, and stills. I'm even hoping to do a taped interview with Bede.

Already my mind is at West Park. I'm really, really looking forward to settling into the rhythms of life there. It will only be a couple of days--but I plan on getting as deep into retreat time as I can. I'm especially looking forward to praying the Offices. And getting into that non-hurried head space that is possible there.

I miss living there, as I have done for various lengths of time in my life. I'm sure I'll have a chance to do that again some day.

Note: the photo above was taken by Br. Randy, OHC. If you want to see more of his photos look at his Flickr Albums.

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More Website Upgrades

I've been making various improvements to the COTM website. I know it's my vacation and perhaps I shouldn't be tinkering with a work project--but I do find it enjoyable. Anyway, take a look at what I've done. Basically, I took the static news page from the website and essentially configured Blogger to post to it. The previous was okay, but it made posting harder than it actually need to be. Using Blogger to manage the news section has other advantages as well--like an RSS/Atom feed and the ability to authorize other people to post, etc. So then blogger is acting like a content management system (and it's free). I could add some other features like Comments and so forth, but I don't think I need them at the moment. I suspect I'll updating the news section of the website more often now.

The next challenge will be adding a dynamically generated calendar of some sort. But maybe I should wait a few weeks, first!

BTW, the Wiki for Geeks for Jesus is now up and running. This will be a place to organize our plans and also create some documents that will be useful for others. Feel free to contribute that conversation even if you can't come to the meetings! One of our next tasks to setting a date for the conference we've been talking about.

What's next? Tomorrow as soon as Betsy finishes her Tutorial we're off to Holy Cross. I'll bring our cameras with us, so we should have have some nice stuff to post. Stay tuned!

-t

Man Walks Down the Street with a Katana...

When I was walking down the street today I saw a man coming towards me with a Katana wrapped in a cloth in his left hand. Now, it was the way he was holding it--like one holds a Japanese Sword--that caught my attention. Looking closer I confirmed that it was, indeed, a Katana wrapped in the sort of carrying cloth you something see to keep the scabbard from getting scratched, etc. It's possible it was just a Bokken (wooden practice sword) except then why the very nice-quality cloth covering? I don't think he realized that the Katana was perfectly obvious to anyone who knows anything about martial arts. As he passed close I said, "Nice Katana," but he ignored me. Probably because he was listening to his iPod.

Speaking of Katana--check out the new computer wall paper I found. I've been using it lately as my desktop wallpaper. I find it... calming...

If you don't recognize it, this is what a Katana looks like when it's been disassembled. The Katana is one of the finest pieces of craft, workmanship, and technology even conceived. No living master can accomplish what was done at the height of the Japanese medieval age.

So when I saw someone walking down the street with this legendary weapon I did a double-take. Hopefully he was just on his way to the Dojo at the end of the block...

-t

Vacation?

Supposedly my vacation started today, though I actually did come in for most of the day to work on two projects. One is repairing the roof from the leak we had at Christmas Eve--remember that one? So I was up there today with one of my Wardens and the Roofer. Looks like a relatively minor repair is necessary, but he expects the roof itself should last about another five years, which is good to hear.

The other project I was work on was finishing the grant proposal for the ARC. I ended up making a sharp-looking application, IMHO, take a look:






It looks better, and more read-able, as a PDF. The printed version with bleeds and so forth is nice and spiffy. The text was somewhat of a group effort, but the design was based on a template from InDesign that I spiffed up. It's at the printer now.

Any-who.... Time to go home and start my vacation for real. 'Nough this coming-into-work stuff!

-t

Cat Scan Art

A medical student, Satre Stuelke, has been making art using a CT Scan. Here are some samples...




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De gustibus non est disputandum

I was checking out the "Barter" section of Craig's List Toronto the other day came across this gem:

Funny Barter...But Serious-Ladies...

Date: 2009-03-13, 9:46PM EDT

I've had this wish forever but have done nothing to realize it! Here is what I'm offering.....
Seeking a young (21 to 40) career woman for whom I can buy NICE Ferragamo, Cole Haan, 9 West Pumps for you to wear. Then at the end of the summer, I just want to give you a new pair of shoes in exchange for the old stinky pair. I am willing to do this over, and over! ;) Please, someone attractive, cute, help me realize this fantasy. ;-)
Yes, it is freaky, but smelly heels happen to be my curse of a fantasy. I am an otherwise normal guy with a 9 to 5 job...just love women's foot. Thanks...eagerly awaiting response. (source)

Thing is, I totally sympathize that this "normal" guy who has a a "curse" of a fantasy. He likes what he likes. Stinky shoes aren't my thing, but hey: De gustibus non est disputandum: "There is no accounting for taste. And like all true fetishes, it's completely out of his control. Hence his evident humility and his language of this being a "curse." Poor guy, I genuinely hope he finds someone willing to take him up on his offer of free shoes. It takes serious courage to put an ad like that on the web.

The ad raises all kinds of interesting questions about the nature of desire in the internet age. These days people with the most obscure interests--say collecting photographs of lawn gnomes or building replicas of Captain Kirk's Chair--can connect with each other via the power of the Internet. It's not just that fixations on the most obscure interests are more acceptable, it's that the attention to such interests are being rewarded. These days, if you are obsessing over building the perfect replica TARDIS you can connect with lots of people with precisely complementary interests. In fact, the more obscure the interest, the more rewarding it must be to connect with others who share it.

Growing up as a kind of nerdy guy, I remember alternating between feeling very alone in my interests and yet also very gratified that I knew more about them than most. For instance, the high school version of myself could have sketched out, in detail, how to make basic explosives (nitroglycerin, ANFO, etc.). I wasn't crazy, just curious and capable of backing up that curiosity with a little library research. Of course, I never tried it--partly because my research also revealed how dangerous this stuff is.* Like a lot of people, I think I felt that my passion for learning about the things that interested me isolated me from the mainstream. Probably most people feel this way about some things in life. If I could talk to myself at age 12 or 13 I could say some very reassuring things about just how valuable that curiosity would be. Most of us only really excel when we align our passions with our occupations.

The sad thing is all the people out there who never have an opportunity to pursue their interests. The Internet has made information (on anything) cheaper to attain, but it's still not free! Even if it were possible to give access to everyone, it might not be advisable. As Paul says, all things may be lawful, but not all things are beneficial. In other words, just because we can share secrets, doesn't mean we should! Some knowledge is dangerous. Really. And I'm not just talking about chemistry.

The worst abuse of this knowledge-as-power idea in the realm of religion comes in the form of what Christians have classically called "Gnosticism." At the root, this is a fetish for "secret" initiations and "knowledge" hidden from casual view. it leads to hierarchies of initiation and the notion that some are more advanced than others simply because they have been given access the "secrets" hidden from others. Think of the religious groups that require people to pay to receive the teachings of the "church." But from the Patristic age the Christian mainstream has believed that the wisdom of Christ is available to all who seek it. In that sense, the christian enterprise has always been allied with those who want to share information, not hide it.

Edward Albee spoke once at my college. In the Q&A time I asked him what he thought of those who propose that unlimited access to information leads to chaos in the Internet age. (I admit, I was baiting him to say something pro-openness as I was advocating for greater openness in the College's Internet policies at the time.) Anyway, he startled me with his direct and clear answer: "I'll take chaos over censorship any day." He said it with a ferocity that I felt in the bottom of my spine. He wasn't kidding.

At the end of the day we are all pursing our diverse and arbitrary interests. I sympathize with anyone brave enough to advertise them on Craigslist!

-t

*Closest I ever came to making explosives was (while supervised by my professor) making gun powder based on sugar for a College chemistry class. I had to balance the Redox reaction and then actually mix the stuff and then burn it. The flash was very satisfying.

Sermon - Lent 4 2009

I preached on Lent 4 about the nature of spectacle as an effort for communities to reintegrate themselves by a shared exercise in meaning making. This is done by squarely gazing, as a community, on the suffering/sin we wish to heal. The scripture supporting this is Numbers 21:4-9. I was also heavenly influenced in preaching this by a Jewish sermon on this part of the book of Numbers by Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis Berman.

It's like this, people are getting bit by snakes. God says, put a bronze snake on a pole and look at it. Later, we Christians say something similar about the cross. Look upon the suffering of God for love and be changed by faith in that sacrifice. The take home lesson is that transformation comes from the courage to engage the darkness. The light of observation brings healing (cf. the other lections for the day--Ephesians 2:1-10 and John 3:14-21).

I was intrigued by this line of thinking from a theoretical point of view--but it's certainly a complex reality to preach on! And let no one say that I don't preach about the Old Testament lessons!



Here's the audio...


Here's a direct link to the MP3 file...

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A Cartoon History of White House Gardens

The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Pretty soon we have to get growing on planting our personal garden at home as well as the church landscaping and vegetable garden. Yep, we are going to create a church vegetable garden on a patch of grass that begs for it. Why not?

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Encouragement

Remarkably, eight people showed up for the Healing Prayer Service (plus me makes nine). Even cooler, three, yes three, were simply people from the neighborhood who felt the need for some healing prayer after seeing our posters. How cool is that! It actually worked. I had my doubts--but there are people who actually saw my little poster and came because of it. Amazing. I know three might not sound like a lot, but for us that's a big deal. I'm pleased as punch.

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The Captain's Chair

It has become popular in certain circles to create replicas of Captain Kirk's Command chair from the Starship Enterprise bridge. The New York Times has an article about the obsessive hobbyists who spend months or even years making precise replicas of the chair. So, once you've made an exact replica of the chair, what do you do with it?

“You sit in the chair,” Mike Paugh said, “and you’re watching an episode and pushing buttons and you find yourself saying, Fire photon torpedoes or whatever, and you’re making the sounds yourself because I don’t have the sound effects yet.”

“Personally,” said his wife, Barbara, “I think my husband is a nerd.” (source)

Others have more serious intentions for the chair:

Some watch TV in theirs, or simply loll, and some seem to find the chair an empowering place from which to deal with others. “When we have a little family powwow — I have four children — I sit in it to lay down the law,” said Mr. Boyd, the auto parts manager.

And most, of course, indulge their fantasies, imagining doing battle with Klingons and otherwise cruising the cosmos. “Sitting in it,” said Mr. Bradshaw, the graphic designer, “I find myself striking an action pose quite unconsciously.” (source)

Do I want one of these? Of course I do. How cool would it be to have a replica of Captain Kirk's chair in Man Town (that's what we call the room with the TV in it)?

-t

White House Veggie Garden

A lot of people (including me, in my small way) have been lobbying for the Obama family to plant a serious vegetable garden on the White House lawn. They've decided to do just that.

They are using kids from a local school as some of the labor, but some White House staff are volunteering and the Obama girls will have garden work as one of their chores. Apparently the White House Chefs are especially pleased with this turn of events.

-t