Temporary URL change...

For the next 5 months I'll be reporting from South Africa. Check it out:

http://www.9000mileadventure.blogspot.com

Bridges

Compassion means to build a bridge to others without knowing whether they want to be reached.
-Henri Nouwen

It's amazing to me that humans ever get to know one another. Starting any relationship, any conversation, is a risk. The person sitting next to us could insult us; she could be an ax murderer; he could be your competition for a promotion; she could have a contagious illness; he might be an auditor for the IRS on his way to ruin your best friend's life; or he or she could become your best friend.

I'm sure many of us have been assaulted with that trite statement, "There are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet." I don't know about that. I see huge leaps. Every person we encounter is a leap waiting to be taken. Do we go for it, extend our hand and greet the person? Or do we simply avoid eye contact and keep walking down the street?

Every greeting, every introduction, every new person we meet is an exercise in courage and compassion. We smile and give our best, a tiny part of us, to this stranger. They can accept or reject us, love us or hurt us, maybe both even. How is it, then, that we reach out? I hope for you that it is openly, courageously, lovingly, and, most of all, with grace.

I got nothing

I miss ASP. I went to visit a friend who is on staff this summer and that's the conclusion I reached. It was the most exhausting and interesting job of my life, and I miss it desperately. I miss being sweaty and dirty and exhausted. I miss watching volunteers learn and interact with families. I miss getting to know families and talking with them about their homes and their lives. I even miss long, tense, and sometimes punchy staff meetings. Suffice it to say that being away from staff only gives me a greater desire to go back.

I really enjoy driving alone. I'm not sure why that is, since I'm an extrovert and normally try to be around people all the time. Yet I get great satisfaction about steering my car down the road with no one else in the vehicle. I ponder things like these:
- Why are there all these pro-life and pro-choice billboards on the interstates in the midwest? Do people actually make decisions about reproductive rights while they're driving across the country? I have to say that I think perhaps this use of outdoor advertising isn't the best move.
- I wish the U.S. had better public transportation. I'd really like to be able to hop on a train like people in Europe can. Trains are such neat, economically, and environmentally friendly ways of getting around, and here's we are with Amtrak going bankrupt.
- Bubbles should always be utilized to combat construction-traffic-boredom. Besides, nothing makes the other drivers think you've lost your marbles like blowing bubbles in traffic.
- I love Flying J. I can't even explain to you how much I love Flying J.
- Indiana has "No Stopping or Standing" signs along their interstates about every 3 miles. The key word here is INDIANA. No offense to the state of Indiana, but if you pull over and leave your car on the side of the Interstate, where are you going to go? Are you going to just take off walking through the nearest soybean field? The only reason for stopping or standing by the side of the interstate, as far as I can tell, is because your car has broken down, and then you don't have a choice anyway!

There you have it... thoughts of a solitary interstate driver.

You are all sheep!

Editor's Note: For the life of me, I cannot remember where the above quote comes from. I really have no recollection whatsoever. I simply remember that I thought it was hilarious and it seemed to fit this situation.

I went to the Annual Conference for my area of the United Methodist Church last week. In short, 3000 people gathered in a tiny little village and trying to stuff themselves into an airplane hangar with ancient wooden seats. The worship services were really good, of course, but the meetings were incredibly disheartening. People said some incredibly closed-minded things that made me lose some of my hope for mankind and particularly the church. There were things said that were so ignorant that they made me sick to my stomach. I don't understand how people can be so prejudiced and belong to an organization that is based on spreading God's love and understanding! How can "evangelists" ever hope to reach people if they insist on being so judgmental and self-centered that they fail to acknowledge that the people they're rejecting and insulting are "Beloved, child of God, and beautiful to behold." I still don't understand. I felt like the onle person in that enormous auditorium who was appalled by the hurtful things being said. As Mary says in Saved!, "So everything that doesn't fit into some stupid idea of what you think God wants you just try to hide or fix or get rid of? It's all too much to live up to. No one fits in one hundred percent of the time, not even you. [...] Why would God make us all so different if he wanted us to be the same?"

"Where you are is where I belong"

I went to see Dave Matthews Band in concert in St. Louis last week. The music was great, but the people in the crowd were terrible. I went with six friends, but we were surrounded by a hord of idiot high school and college students who were smoking and shoving people and screaming and singing so loudly that we could scarcely hear the band. I really wish they'd come to hear the music instead of coming to scope members of the opposite sex in small clothes. But, nevertheless, the performance was AMAZING and I really enjoyed getting to go out west for a bit.

I'm really enjoying just getting to hang out at home with my parents. I know it sounds weird, but my parents are really cool people and I actually enjoy spending time with them. A few nights ago, for instance, we sat around and played that wonderful elementary school girl game: "Electronic Dream Phone" after dinner. They were really fun to play with, and we gave dad endless ribbing when HE actually won the game. Imagine, if you can, two twenty year olds and two people in their mid-fifties playing a game designed for ten-year-old girls. It was hilarious.

I'm starting to get really nervous, about my upcoming interviews. I have to meet with the people in my church for an interview and get them to approve me if I ever want to have a chance of becoming a minister. That means my fate is entirely in the hands of a few people at my church. If they decide I'm unacceptable, things get really hairy and I may never be able to serve. With me getting nervous the interview will probably go something like this:
"Hello"
"Mrgh.."
"What is it you feel called to do?"
"Serve and...stuff..."
"Could you explain that?"
"Um... *long pause* no."
"Oh. Well then, how did you come to this realization."
"Dunno."
"Right. Why did you choose the Methodist church."
"I like it."
"Why?"
"Because I do."
"Well, I think we've got enough. Ready for a rejec, I mean, vote?"
Sheesh.

Well, I'm off to go prepare for Annual Conference and contemplate how to fit all of the essentials of my life into one duffle bag. Happy and merry.

What color are their hands now?

I survived the last of finals and work, packed everything I owned and finally got home again. (Insert huge sigh of relief here) I even managed to get my best grades ever this semester. Now I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until I leave for the big "study abroad adventure". So far during this waiting period I've visited Cedar Point, Baltimore, and Colonial Williamsburg. I've also gotten to see several friends from school and home, though I have big plans to see many more before I take off again.

I should probably disclose, probably should have disclosed a while ago, that I broke my resolution. I said I wasn't going to get involved with a guy for 2 years. I made it 9 months. While the timing wasn't what I'd planned, a guy got into my heart. He's amazing and, I'll admit it, I'm smitten. So, for all of you who didn't already know, now you do.

For everyone out there who aspires to be juvenile delinquents, I have a recommendation for you: packing peanuts. Think of someone you really hate, then take tons of styrofoam packing peanuts and scatter them throughout the person's lawn. This happened to my family this week, and it was a huge pain. These non-biodegradeable objects must be picked up before the lawn can be mowed and are INCREDIBLY irritating. And if I ever find out who did this to my family, I'm going to put limburgher in their exhaust manifold. Oh, SHNAP.

I have no terribly exciting stories to tell, I've been mostly spending time with my family, reading, and relaxing over break so far. Should anything terribly exciting come up, I'll blog about it immediately. And by immediately, I mean sometime between now and the time I leave for South Africa.

T-Shirts and Transitions

I put on my Sociology T-Shirt this morning, only to discover that it had the words "Question Your World" on the back. I was pleased... I hadn't even noticed that there WERE words on the back when I bought it, much less an amazing, stimulating message. So then I got to thinking what a T-Shirt for Interdisciplinary Studies (which doesn't actually exist) would have on the back. I came up with these suggestions:
"I don't understand it either"
"Translation: Indecision Studies"
"Who Says You Can't Have It All?"
"Categorize THAT!"
"Future Owner of a Van Down By the River"
"Knowledge Without Limits"
"Think Outside the Curriculum"
"Wait, I have to get a job after this?"

My last two weeks have been completely shrouded in unreality and I just realized at 4:00 today that the school year is totally over tomorrow. I had been so focused on papers and finals and stuff that I totally missed the coming of the end of school. Even the arrival of finals week didn't snap me out of my reverie. Tomorrow, way before I'm ready, all of my friends who haven't already bid me adeiu will be departing, not to be seen again for 8 months. It's bizarre coming to grips with that sort of separation. In three months nearly all of them will be back, but I won't be here with them. Then I'll return in January for a sort of strange half-life before leaving permanently for seminary.