Summertime Friday Five

It's been a while since I've had a chance to do a Revgalblogpals Friday Five, so we must really have moved into the slightly slower speed of early summer!  Today, we're asked to "share five things that are happening in your life, personally or professionally or some of each, in this season of life.

1.  For me, the biggest thing in summer is the garden which at the moment is full of  peas, zucchini, beets, carrots, and collard greens ready to harvest.  All the radishes, sugar snap peas, kale, and garlic have been brought in already but tomatoes, other squash, eggplants, cabbage, sweet potatoes and more are on their way.  And so far this year, while we’ve had a groundhog and deer in the back yard, neither has made its way over the new fence to eat the plants.
2. Workwise (until August when I take my vacation break from both) I continue to both do my pastoral job and teach philosophy at a local college. But starting next week, my denomination (PCUSA) will have officially begun to live without G-6.0106b—yes!—so it’ll be a chance for this out lesbian pastor to switch my energies toward getting the denomination to allow same-gender marriages.
3.  I’ve started participating in a year-long online version of a nonviolent communication group and am both enjoying working more thoroughly on some of the ideas in Rosenberg’s book and trying to apply them in my daily life.
4. At home we’ve been inundated with unexpected plumbing problems that are setting us back thousands of dollars that we hadn’t budgeted.  It feels a bit overwhelming, especially for the summertime, and the work is by no means done yet.
5. And, though I only discovered it last evening, I’m very excited about the possibility of practicing flute in my county’s Really Terrible Orchestra.  The music is a bit intimidating for someone who had less than a year of flute lessons a good number of years ago but the contact people have been lovely and I’ve very psyched about what fun this might be!

Friday Five: Christmases Past

At RevGalBlogPals Jan writes: “Tell us about five Christmas memories you have.”

1.    1. Almost every year that I can remember from the time I was four or five, we’d have either Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas afternoon dinner or both up in Tarrytown at my Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Harry’s home.  My mother, my grandmother and I (and once I was married, Max) would gather there with my most of my grandmother’s sisters and brothers and their families and often my Aunt Eleanor’s extended family as well.   People would sit around the tree and talk for a while and, once everyone had arrived, exchange gifts. Then we kids would go upstairs to the attic or down to the basement to “explore” while some of the adults finished up dinner prep stuff. We’d all gather back together around the dinner table for lots and lots of food- turkey and ham, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, two or three vegetables, homemade rolls, gravy, stuffing, and then several homemade pies and various cakes and cookies. Depending on how many people were there, children might or might not be at a separate “children’s table.”  If the “family highchair” was out (one that most of us of several generations around the table had sat in during our babyhood) people would comment on the new addition.  After dinner, the women of my grandmother’s generation would go into the kitchen to clean up and chat more.  Then most of us would gather again around the dinner table to play the card game “pennies” (that each of us would save pennies for for weeks ahead of time).  I loved these intergenerational, extended family gatherings and have always wished that I had had a way to do something similar for my children.

2.  2.   I was about four months pregnant with Dan at Christmastime.  I’d just begin to feel him quicken at the time and was still in awe of the experience.  Feeling him bouncing around as we sang Silent Night at the end of that year’s Service of Lessons and Carols surrounded by the stars from the slideshow has always stayed with me at later Christmas Eve services

3.   3.  From the time Dan was about six I’d let him go on the Christmas Eve Midnight Runs with Frantz and me.  We’d go in a series of cars to about four or five stops – outside the United Nations, at the Bandshell in Central Park, in Riverside Park, at St. Thomas’ Church, and a few other places that’d vary each year--and distribute pieces of hero sandwiches, homemade cookies, mulled wine and eggnog, and gifts of hats, thermal underwear, and gloves to the homeless poor living on the streets of New York City.  One year, when Danny was about eight, Max was with us and driving us in his Jeep.  The radio was on playing Christmas music and, as we pulled into the 79^th street Rotunda in Riverside Park, the announcer said that Santa had just been spotted flying over Philadelphia and was heading up the east coast toward New York City.  Danny got so worried about not being at home before Santa got to New York that we had to quickly get into our car and head home so that he could be in bed before Santa got to our apartment.

4.    4.  The year that Becca was about three, I’d promised several of the men who I’d gotten to know on the streets of New York City that I’d bring her on the Christmas Eve Run.  Max agreed that we’d all drive down to the city together and do just the first two stops in Central Park, stops where people would be expecting Becca. That same year Max and Dan decided to get me a dog from the pound for my Christmas gift.   They came home with a white collie mix that was about five years old. Becca named her Christmas Joy (Joy for short).  The day of Christmas Eve they brought her home to me at our apartment and promptly freaked out our cat, Midnight.  The two just couldn’t get along.  Joy was spooked by noises from neighboring apartments and barked.  Midnight was spooked by Joy and hissed over and over.  That spooked Joy who barked.  It became a vicious circle.  I headed out to the 5:30 service hoping things would get better before I returned.  They didn’t.  It was clear that leaving Joy alone in the apartment barking while we were out on the streets of New York wouldn’t work so at 11:30, as we bundled Becca into the back seat, we also put Joy next to her.  Stop by stop, not only were the men delighted to be greeted by Becca, but they were also happy to have a dog standing beside her, wagging her tail as one person after another came to take a Christmas cookie from Becca’s hand.

5.    5. Our first Christmas together, the winter before we bought the place we’re currently living, Kathy and I had agreed to have Christmas at Kathy’s apartment.  Between the end of the Service of Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve and daylight Christmas Day it snowed a huge amount, though, and the streets were from my perspective impassable.  I wasn’t sure how to get to Tarrytown to get my Aunt Ruth, the one remaining sister of my grandmother still alive and in the area, much less how to get her and my children to Bronxville to Kathy’s.  Kathy, less skittish in the snow than I am, agreed to come get us all.  We slid our way over to Bronxville and were joined by her younger son, who came up from the city by train.  The snow continued to come down.  Just after Christmas dinner it became clear that all the roads back home were closed and, except for Jon who quickly left to walk the block to the train before it stopped running, we would all have to spend the night.  At about 7 pm Aunt Ruth announced that it was time for her to go to bed.  I suggested she take one of the two twin beds in the one bedroom, saying Becca could sleep in the other bed.  She said she wouldn’t sleep in the room with “the little girl”.  I asked if she preferred to share a room with Dan or with me.  Her answer was no to either suggestion.  That meant she had to take Kathy’s bed away from her to have a room to herself, that Dan would sleep on the living room couch and Becca, Kathy, and I would have to sleep on the two twins pushed together.  After a few complains about the height of the bed Aunt Ruth finally went to sleep.  About 11 or so, Becca went to sleep and around 12:30 or so, Dan, Kathy and I did the same. I was exhausted. At 4 am I awoke to a noise.  It was Aunt Ruth standing beside me, saying that she was rested and getting up now and “only needed a little breakfast”.  I put on my glasses and headed out to try to fix her something before she woke anyone else up, but she made enough noise heading through the living room and then complaining that there weren’t any of her usual breakfast foods, she’d soon awoken Dan, and then everyone else with him.  Even “the little girl” who usually slept through anything once she got to sleep, was awake.  

Friday Five: On the Road Again

On RevGalBlogPals, Sophia asks:

1. When was your last, or will be your next, out of town travel?

  It will probably be to Minneapolis for the PCUSA’s General Assembly in early July, but we’ll be flying, not driving.

2. Long car trips: love or loathe?

         Love seeing the places, but hate being in the car while we’re getting there.

3. Do you prefer to be driver or passenger?

          If the other person is a good driver, I prefer being the passenger.  If the other person’s driving makes me nervous (and many drivers do) then I prefer driving myself.

4. If passenger, would you rather pass the time with handwork, conversing, reading, listening to music, or ???

         I prefer a combination of knitting and talking—makes me feel like I’m getting something done and takes my mind off the actual driving.

5. Are you going, or have you ever gone, on a RevGals BE? Happiest memories of the former, and/or most anticipated pleasures of the latter?

         No

6. Bonus: a favorite piece of road trip music.

            For road trips I usually opt, not mainly for music, but for audiobooks.

Good Friday, Friday Five

On RevGalBlogPals, Sally asks:

1. Of all the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, which one stands out for you, and why?

Over the years this has changed.  In my teen years—perhaps because of Jesus Christ Superstar—it was John, with all its wondrous symbolism.  In seminary it was Matthew, especially for its Gethsemane scene and its Peter.  When I was first in a pastorate it was Luke that I loved to use in all seasons, because of its focus on social justice and the poor.  Now I’m happy to have all four gospels and to focus on different things each year.

2.Do you identify with any people in this account, how does that challenge you?

In many ways, I probably identify with Peter and with Judas. Living caught between God’s reign and the reign of the empire, it’s so easy to deny Jesus’ way or even betray it.

3. Hymns or silence?

Though this year the Good Friday service will be built around “irreverent” country and blue grass music and I’m excited about its possibilities, silence is usually my preference.

4. Post a poem or a quote that sums up Good Friday for you?

I immediately think of Denise Levertov’s stuff like  “A Calvary Path” and “Tenebrae”, but Levertov’s poetry moves me in so many liturgical seasons that I’ve got to choose Robinson Jeffer’s  very dark poem-play “Dear Judas” as a Holy Week piece.  The whole piece is a Good Friday piece, but here are two excerpts:

“The Woman:                                               Oh happy

                  friend: for he must love you if you love him so well:

                  And maybe you’ve even touched him from day to day,

                  serving his food or the like: what does he ai at,

                  Do you think? What can he reach and have rest?

Judas:                                                      Mother:

                  Those that ascend the mountain toward God have none.

                  And whoever dares in the endless cross-waves of time pilot

                  The people,

                  Until misfortune wrecks him has none.”

Jesus: “Listen to me now, Judas, and remember.

         Because I know your scrupulous heart, and I don’t wish

         You to die despairing.  There is not one creature,

         Neither yourself nor anyone, nor a fly nor flung stone, but

         Does exactly and fatally the thing

         That it needs must; neither less nor more.  This is the roots

         Of forgiveness.”

5.Is there a tradition you could not be without, a tradition that makes Good Friday, Good Friday?

No.

            

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

On RevGalBlogPals, Songbird writes “By the time you're reading this, I'll be en route to a Great Big City to see my son in a play. I'll go by car and bus and train and no doubt cab and maybe even subway. Thus, our Friday Five.”

1) What was the mode of transit for your last trip?

We drove the Prius through parts of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

2) Have you ever traveled by train?

I used to commute by train and subway when I was in my 20s. And on vacation I’ve traveled by train through parts of France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

3) Do you live in a place with public transit, and if so, do you use it?

Yes, there are both buses around our area and trains into New York City. And no, I don’t use them anywhere near as much as I used to or, for environmental purposes, should. This April our church school is going to try to raise congregational awareness on how using green travel— mainly walking, bikes, and public transportation—would be more consistent with what we say our environmental concerns are.

4) What's the most unusual vehicle in which you've ever traveled?

Since animals aren’t vehicles, I suppose a hot air balloon would be the most unusual vehicle I’ve ever traveled in, though it was a very brief ride because my then two-year-old daughter wouldn't stop crying.

5) What's the next trip you're planning to take?

Next trip planned is London in February (and then it’s on to Minneapolis in July).

If

Not much time in my schedule today, so here are my brief honest but anything-but-creative answers for this week’s Friday Five . On RevGalBlogPals, Jan asks:

1. If you were a color, what would you be?
I think I’d either be lavender or beige, fairly neutral colors that fit in easily next to other colors.

2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be?
A hyacinth—probably a blue one—or a daisy.

3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be?
A dolphin or a black capped gull.

4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be?
Definitely a sneaker—probably a Converse.

5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be?
Either Arial (the font I use as my default font) or Consolas.

Friday Five; What's New?

At RevGalBlogPals, Songbird writes: “There's a new baby on my street, a double PK whose Mom and Dad are Methodist pastors and church planters. I'm hoping to go over and meet her today. I love new babies, the way they smell and their sweet little fingers and toes. Little K has me thinking about all the new things that please us with their shiny freshness.

Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new.”

1. A new box of crayons. I love the way they look, I love the way they smell, and I always, always hate it when I finally have to use one and ruin the new newness. (I’m not a big colorer to begin with so wanting to color has never overpowered my desire to keep the box looking so wonderfully new.)

2. A new hardback book that hasn’t been opened yet. No matter what the book’s about, I love opening it for the first time and watching how pages separate (often with a slight noise as they do so).

3. New tech stuff. I love new tech gadgets—whether it’s a new phone (oh, to convince my family that I need a Droid if not an iPhone!), a new computer, a new gaming system, a new software application, or whatever. I know that keeping up in this area is well beyond my financial means, but when I get the luxury to get something techie that’s just been released have and is new, I love it.

4. 4. New school supplies, whether I a reason to use them or not. The very idea of having new pens, new notebooks, new index cards, or other stuff I used to have to buy for school when I was young call up the excitement of a new school year. Which leads me to….

5. 5. A new course to teach or take on a topic I’m excited about but haven’t taught before. Beginning to engage with new material that has a connection with things I care a lot about is so much fun.

Touching Holiness Friday Five

At RevGalBlogPals, Sally writes:

Yesterday I was privileged to join the thousands of pilgrims who had flocked to York Minster to see the casket containing the bones of St Therese of Lisieux. People came from miles around, some with deep faith came to venerate the Saint, others with none came out of curiosity. The Christians who came represented a mix of denominations, I went because I have read her writings and out of sheer curiosity having never been to anything like this before.

To put it in crude terms I was blown away by the by the deep sense of God's presence, of gentleness, of holiness and purity. Today as I reflect upon the experience I recognise that there have been other places and other times when I have experienced a tangible touch of God. I wonder if it was because the message that Therese had is so much needed today, she experienced God as a God of love, and encouraged others to draw closer...

How about you, where do you find God's peace and presence, is there:

1. A place that holds a special memory?

Farmer Jones’ field in the Berkshires, a place where, as a young teen, I first learned to sit in silence and let what wanted to speak do so.

2. A song that seems to usher you into the Holy of Holies?

Music of all kinds can do this for me—from U2’s “Walk On” to the Largo of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” to Luka Bloom’s “Blackberry Time” to Cris Williamson’s “Song of the Soul”

3.A book/ poem/ prayer that says what you cannot?

“Mohammed’s son pores over words,

and points out this and that,

but if his chest is not soaked dark with love,

then what?

The Yogi comes along in his famous orange.

But if inside he is colorless,

then what?”

--Kabir

4. How do you remind yourself of these things at times when God seems far away?

Ah, there’s the rub. Taking time to sit quietly and center myself works some times. Centering of other kinds—be it through swimming or focusing on music—sometimes works. Yet at other times, the best I can do it to try to pay attention to and be grateful for the beauty of whatever surrounds me.

5.Post a picture/ poem or song that speaks of where you are right now in your relationship with God...

“The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.”

-Sri Nisargadatta

(The painting is Asher Durand’s Cathedral Ledge. I’ve chosen it because both the Hudson River School of painters and the White Mountains of New Hampshire often remind me of the awe and majesty of God and our relationship to both God and nature, all of which must be experienced to be understood.)

Affirmations

At RevGalsBlogPals, Singing Owl writes:

“Lately I seem to be encountering many people who have a very difficult time finding anything good to say about themselves. They are able to extend grace and forgiveness's to others but find it difficult to extend that same grace to themselves.

With that in mind, let's share some healthy affirmation today! Tell us five things you like about yourself!”

1. I am what Barbara Shur calls a “scanner”. I love to learn, participate in, and experience a wide range of things rather than just having one or two passions or areas of interest.

2. I’m someone for whom family is extremely important.

3. I’m enthusiastic and fairly indefatigable, even on projects and in situations where most people lose steam or give up.

4. I’m playful.

5. I am, behind the intellectual veneer, someone who makes decisions and acts based largely on intuition and empathy.

Friday Five: Games

On RevGalsBlogPals today, Jan explains that this week’s Friday Five is
So this Friday Five is about games, so play on ahead. . .

1. Childhood games?
Kickball, Spud, mumblypeg, Horse, and Red Light-Green Light were the big ones.

2. Favorite and/or most hated board games?
Favorites as a child would be Candyland, Clue, and Go to the Head of the Class; my least favorite was Parchesi. As an adult, I still love puzzles and games including Pictionary, some versions of Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and puzzle type (Myst type )computer games.

3. Card games?
As a child, rummy (with my mother), Spit/War and SlapJack (with my friends) and especially canasta (with my grandmother, aunts, friends, etc.) As an adult it always seems to be canasta first.

4. Travel/car games?
As a child, when we went on a trip of any distance we always sang in the car. For very long trips, there were the “find license plates from different states”, “find words beginning with each letter of the alphabet” games, and I Spy. With my kids it was trivia questions and game boys along with the same games I played.

5. Adult pastimes that are not video games?
Reading, puzzles (jigsaw, sudoku, wordfinds, etc), playing music, knitting, gardening, and swimming.

Friday Five: Exercise

At RevGalBlogPals, Sophia writes:

I just got back from an 8 mile bike ride down the beach boardwalk near our home, and was struck with the number of people out enjoying physical activity. Runners, other cyclists, surfers, swimmers, dogwalkers, little kids on scooters....

She asks:

1. What was your favorite sport or outdoor activity as a child?

Swimming. As I got older, basketball became a close second.

2. P.E. class--heaven or the other place?

The worst time of the school day.

3. What is your favorite form of exercise now?

Swimming and yoga

4. Do you like to work out solo or with a partner?

In swimming I like to go to the pool with others but then swim by myself. For me doing laps becomes a meditation. I prefer yoga in a class. For my daily aerobic exercise and/or biking, I prefer to be alone.

5. Inside or outside?

Swimming in a pool in the sun is my favorite!

Friday Five: Life is a Verb

At RevGalBlogPals, Jan writes:

Jennifer recommended this book, which I got because I always value Jennifer's reading suggestions. The author of Life is a Verb, Patti Digh worked her book around these topics concerning life as a verb:

Say yes.
Be generous.
Speak up.
Love more.
Trust yourself.
Slow down.

As I read and pondered about living more intentionally, I also have wondered what this Friday Five should be. This book has been the jumping off point for this Friday.

1. What awakens you to the present moment?

Lying in the hammock looking up at the trees, working in the garden, petting the cat, focusing on my breathing, and so much more

2. What are 5 things you see out your window right now?

Hanging baskets of flowers, my car, strawberries and blueberries, roses, the composter

3. Which verbs describe your experience of God?

Embrace, create, laugh, love, play

4. From the book on p. 197: Who were you when you were 13? Where did that kid go?

The 13-year-old loved playing basketball and swimming, enjoyed school but was a bit of a troublemaker, was intrigued by spirituality of all kinds, wanted to live in harmony with God, and had just decided to go into ministry because of the involvement of MLK and his clergy colleagues in civil rights issues. The kid’s still here, though is often forgotten because of all the institutional issues that she never dreamed she would need to deal with. Part of my summer goal is to give up some of the adult that’s gotten in the way and get more of that kid back .

5. From the book on p. 88: If your work were the answer to a question, what would the question be?

How do we make the world a bit more just and kind (because God is reflected in everything/everyone around us)?

Bonus idea for you here or on your own--from the book on p. 149:

"Go outside. Walk slowly forward. Open your hand and let something fall into it from the sky. It might be an idea, it might be an object. Name it. Set it aside. Walk forward. Open your hand and let something fall into it from the sky. Name it. Set it aside. Repeat. . . ."

Friday Five: Taking a Break

On RevGalBlogPals, Songbird writes: Where we live, it's February School Vacation Week!
Yes, that's an odd thing, a vacation extending President's Day. But it's part of our lives here. Some people go South or go skiing, but we always stay home and find more humble amusements.

In that spirit, I offer this Taking a Break Friday Five. Tell us how you would spend:

1. a 15 minute break
2. an afternoon off
3. an unexpected free day
4. a week's vacation
5. a sabbatical

1. a 15 minute break—I’d use it to sit and meditate.

2. an afternoon off – On a day like today when it’s very cold outside, I’d probably either read or go to a movie. If it were warmer, I’d work on the yard or go down by the river. And if it were –oh, I can’t wait—spring or summer, I’d go somewhere where I could be among flowers!

3. an unexpected free day – Depending on the weather, going to the theater or a museum, hiking, swimming, visiting friends.

4. a week's vacation – Travel, travel, travel to some place I haven't been yet!

5. a sabbatical – Assuming there was money for it and my family could come with me, I’d go to live in another country for a while—perhaps Italy or the French countryside—learn to speak the language better, do some short trips to neighboring countries, and spend the rest of the time writing a book.

Fall Equinox Friday

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Songbird wrote: “It's that time of year, at least north of the equator. The windows are still open, but the darned furnace comes on early in the morning. My husband went out for a walk after an early supper and came home in full darkness. And yes, where we live, leaves are beginning to turn. As this vivid season begins, tell us five favorite things about fall:”

1) A fragrance: In my neighborhood at this time of the year, some folks (including us) are still grilling, while others have begun to use their fireplaces. The combined smell of wood burning and food grilling—not quite the same as food cooked over a campfire—reminds me of fall.

2) A color: the blazing scarlet red of Japanese maples at this time of year.

3) An item of clothing: It’d be a toss up between a fleecy and my fingerless gloves, that I just got out this morning.

4) An activity: sitting on the front porch watching it grow dark, listening to the kids hanging out on the street and the noise from the football game down the block, and greeting people who go by.

5) A special day: One of the wonderful things about fall is that there are no ‘special’ days. The school and church years have already started, none of the kids have birthdays yet, and there are no major holidays. Once in a while—if there’s no major soccer tournament or church gathering planned—there’s just a simple, quiet, ordinary autumn weekend. How I love those!

Gifts of the Spirit

Today at RevGalBlogPals, Presbyterian Girl wrote: Anyway, it's Pentecost (You won't know it's Pentecost at South this Sunday. People have inappropriately loaded so many other things into the service that there's no time left for Pentecost.) and my very first Friday Five! Thinking about all the gifts of the spirit and what Peter said of the "last days"......

Have you or anyone you know

1. ...ever experienced a prophesy (vision or dream) that came true?

I’ve had two extremely vivid dreams in my life that continue to be guiding truths for me. Would I call either a prophesy? Nope.

2. ...dreamed of a stranger, then actually met them later?

No.

3. ...seen a wonder in heaven? (including UFO's)

Seems to me that so much of the heavens are so awesome that I see wonders whenever I look up. But UFO’s- no—though I keep hoping to see the U.S.S. Enterprise appearing in the sky!

4. ...seen a "sign" on the earth?

Nope, no “signs” in the sense that you probably mean them, though plenty of signs that have come to function for me as “signs”.

5. ...experienced knowledge of another language without ever having studied it?

Some languages I’ve had to learn—Hebrew for example—have come to me almost immediately when I’ve begun to study them while others—like Greek or German—have been almost impossible for me to get my mind around. But I’ve never just started speaking or understanding another language out of the blue.

My grandmother, perhaps the wisest woman I've ever known, believed that all of these "gifts of the spirit" were possible and had stories about most of them, so I've always been open to experiencing them, but so far I haven't.

Back? To the Future?

On RevGalBlogPals, Mother Laura asks questions about both time travel and Lent after pointing out how we’re in a time of transition (both because of Daylight Savings Time and Holy week). Here are her questions and my answers:

1. If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?
My first instinct was to pick a time period when I could see my parents and/or grandparents when they were younger to see how they became the people that I got to know, sort of like Marty McFly did in the Back to the Future films. I especially thought it might be fun to stop in on my father’s mother, Elide Venturini, when she was growing up in Poggio Rusco, Italy, to see what her life was really like then. But on further reflection, while it’s tempting to do such traveling, I’m not sure it’d be wise. People reveal what they want known about those times, so respecting their views of what occurred and their privacy about things they didn’t share may make more sense. Instead, since I've so enjoyed visiting the ruins of places like Ostia Antica, I might travel to some place in the ancient world—Egypt, Greece, or Rome (though only as long as I could travel there as an observer, not a participant).

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?

There are so many. I’d like to see a medical tricorder like the one they had in Star Trek that could pick out a problem and then fix it with a wave of the instrument, a transporter that could wisk us from one spot to another (so I could begin to satisfy my desire to see lots of places I’ve never been to), and a holodeck, where I could visit historical situations and experience various adventures and activities safely with none of the downsides of being there in real life. But even with all these things, I think we’d still be dealing with most of the same issues—war, disease (not from lack of ability to cure them but from lack of resources being made available to everyone), exploitation, and poverty. So if there was a futuristic development that would wake us all up to living an economy of sufficiency for all rather than the one of overabundance/ scarcity that we have today, I’d choose that.

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?

I enjoy remembering the past and gaining new insights from my reflections on it but I like dreaming about the future even more. What will the lives of my kids be like when they’re my age? How will we deal ethically with developing technologies that give us so many new possibilities in health, communication, and exploration? How can we/will we deal with issues of global warming, AIDS, the growing economic divide, and discriminations of all kinds? I love both the abstract and the more “practical” dreaming that the future offers. But, though I love dreaming about the future, I probably wouldn’t want to travel into it if I was given the opportunity. Instead, when it comes to such a possibility, I find myself with Garth Brooks in his song “The Dance”:

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go.
My life is better left to chance. I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance.

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?

A year from now, there probably won’t be much about this Lent that I’ll remember. While we’ve tried some new things in Lenten worship, because of the extra work around my DMin project and our family’s battles with flu and respiratory problems, there hasn’t been anything terribly unusual that would make Lent memorable this year.

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week? What part do you look forward to most?

Working, cleaning, working, cooking, working. Next Tuesday I’ve got a presentation on virtual worlds to give to the faculty of the college at which I teach, services to prepare for at church (starting with a Palm Sunday sermon for which I need some inspiration), and family and friends coming next weekend to share Easter and its festivities. While I love almost everything I’ll be doing during Holy Week, I’m also looking forward to Easter Monday when it’s all over and I can sit down and stare at a book or a TV show.