Play Every Day for Rice!!

As I worried about world hunger today in my post The No Food Diet, I have learned how the "FreeRice internet game emerges as a web phenomenon." This is sponsored by the World Food Programme. You can see a place to click on the game on my sidebar underneath my Profile, where you can see that 7,200 grains of rice equal a cup. When I play the game, each correctly chosen word earns 20 grains of rice. It is an addicting game, and I usually earn 1/3 cup of rice each time I play.

The article says:

Rome, 7 March 2008 - The award-winning Internet word game has revealed a surprising staying power as a web phenomenon and six months after its birth has now generated 21 billion grains of rice for the world's hungry.

"I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success," said FreeRice creator John Breen, who says between 300,000 and 500,000 people are currently playing the game every day.

Read the rest of the article here.

And here is a video about the FreeRice Internet game:

Books

I prefer Thomas Jefferson's words to John Adams in an 1815 letter:

"I cannot live without books."

The No Food Diet

I need to lose weight. I struggle to lose weight as I live in overabundant USA. There is always a food crisis in the world, which is getting worse as prices rapidly rise. Last week the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called for urgent action to tackle the “silent tsunami” of rising food prices which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger. The UN article is here.

Also Quaker Dave posted about The New Economics of Hunger.

How Texan?

I've lived in Texas longer than anywhere else in my life (about 24 years total), so I thought I'd see if I've grown "Texan":

You Are 24% Texas

You're as welcome in Texas as a skunk at a lawn party.

How Texas Are You?

Presbyterian Gal scored 48%, and she doesn't even live in Texas! (Could there be some similarities to TX and CA? I wish TX could be more liberal.) About my 24%, all I can think is that each year another percent was added onto my Texan profile!

The Small Bible

This was written by a Presbyterian minister after the last Presidential election; the issues for this election seem much the same to me.

by Rick Brand

12-01-04

I have got to get me one of those new small Bibles. I haven’t seen one yet, but I know they must be out there. From what I hear, lots and lots of people have them. It certainly sounds like these new small Bibles make life a whole lot simpler. They are smaller and they cover less material.

These small Bibles must be what so many of the Christian fundamentalists have been reading and studying.

The reports from all the exit polls after the election last Nov. 2 indicate that the No. 1 issue mentioned by voters was morality. Of course, lots of things were mentioned in those polls, but the item that got mentioned the most was moral issues, which is exciting. People care about the quality and the morality of society. The polling data went on to claim that “moral issues” were defined as abortion, gay rights, and same-sex unions by the Christian fundamentalist who voted.

Those are important moral issues. Society has been engaged in a very long and heated debate over the issue of abortion. The questions of gay rights and same-sex unions have come to the top of the list in the last few years. They are issues that every church in the country is talking about and they will be in front of us for a very long time to come. They are very significant moral challenges for our society. I am glad so many people take them seriously.

But if the Christian fundamentalists only have these three issues as a part of their moral agenda, then I need to get the small Bible they are reading. If abortion, gay rights and same-sex unions are the only moral issues they find in their Bible, then I need to get a copy of that small Bible. My Bible has a host of other moral issues that keep me up at night.

My Bible has a whole host of pages in which Jesus is talking about how to treat the poor. In my bigger Bible, Jesus tells his disciples that entrance into the kingdom of heaven depends on how one cares for the sick, the thirsty and those in prison. So for me in my Bible, the whole issue of how to care for the poor and the troubled is a moral issue.

My large Bible has lots of pages about how the people of God are supposed to welcome and care for the aliens in their midst. Be kind to strangers for thereby you may entertain angels. So the whole issue of immigration is a moral issue in my thick Bible.

This new small Bible talks about three moral problems: abortion, gay rights and same-sex unions. My big black Bible has stuff in it that makes me think that prisons and the death penalty have to be called moral issues. There are passages in my Bible that say we are supposed to be stewards of creation and that means environmental issues are moral issues.

There is even this one line that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” To me, this seems to make the national debt a moral issue because we are sticking the grandchildren with a pretty big problem. In fact that line about loving our neighbors means the question of taxation has to be seen as a moral issue. And I am not sure that going to war is a good way to love my neighbors.

See! My big black Bible has too much in it. It makes too many things moral issues. I need to get me one of those small, shorter, easier Bibles where the only moral issues are abortion, gay rights and same-sex unions. Those aren’t easy issues, but it is easier than having so many moral issues.

If you see a copy of that new Bible, I hope you will let me know.

Rick Brand is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Henderson, N.C.

Last Request

From April 28 NEW YORKER, page 138:

"America, America"

KESTER--Rose Rothstein, of North Andover, MA, formerly of East Norwich, NY, March 1, 2008. Widow of Harold E. Kester. Survived by Linda and William Cotter of Concord, MA; Marjorie and Peter Smith of Durham, NH; five loving grandchildren; five great-grandchildren and her sister Anne Gerber. In her memory, please vote Democratic in November.

Maybe this is what I need!

It's almost Monday

I cannot go to sleep. I'm tired, but I wiggle in bed. I wonder if my knee is hurting. I try praying, but lose track. What will I do if I cannot sleep? So I'm at the computer and the cat, locked in the bathroom, keeps banging on the door to be let out. Can't do that as I'll never catch her and she'll scratch and bang on all the bedroom doors if she's not put into "her" bathroom at night. I tried to journal, but not much came up. It's easier to ramble on the computer. . . .so where's the ramble mumble jumble? Not much inspiration in the wee minutes of Monday morning. Hope your Monday is happy wherever you are!

Ours will be cooler than usual, because we've been surprised by another COLD front! Yay! It's supposed to be in the 50s in the morning, which will be a time to enjoy. Soon it'll always be in the 70s in the mornings, never cooler until October. I hate it when the "low" temperature is 78 degrees F. day after day after day.

Seeing God in all Things

"Words can become idols, as believers have always known – even the word ‘God’. They are much more likely to be mistaken for the reality than a statue or a picture. “If one knows anything in God,” said Meister Eckhart, “and affixes any name to it, that is not God. God is above names.”

How then do we see God in all things? We search for God all our lives; but God is not lost. We are lost. God is always present, and when we become present God is present in that awareness. As long as we are present – to anything, even to a tree – we are present to God.

-- Donagh O’Shea OP

Thank you to Ellie at Does Not Wisdom Call?

Seeking, Longing, and Finding the Lord

During the sermon today, our interim priest connected today's Gospel reading (John 14:15-21) with the prayer on a prayer card that she uses for a bookmark that she loses in half-read books and finds again over and over. I liked it so much that I had to find it, and good old Google came to the rescue:

Lord, teach me to seek You,
and reveal Yourself to me when I seek You.
For I cannot seek You unless
You first teach me,
nor find You,
unless You first reveal Yourself to me.

Let me seek You in longing,
and long for You in seeking.
Let me find You in love,
and love You in finding.
Amen.

~~St. Ambrose (338-397)

A Telephone Call!

I was thrilled to have a phone call this morning from the Episcopal priest who baptized, confirmed, and married me in Bellingham, WA! Fr. Winn has been retired for 12 years, although I did not know that.

I've been thinking of writing to him for a long time and finally did this past week. I'd previously gotten his address by emailing the secretary at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bellingham.

With my return to the Episcopal Church and how much it means to me, I wanted to tell him of my life since 1971 and about the dramatic changes in my spiritual life since then. So I sent him a copy of the talk I gave last year at All Saints to the women of the church about My Faith Story, some of which is recorded on this blog.

It was wonderful to talk with him, and he read me a Rilke poem, which he promised to send me. He also suggested quantum theology books by Diarmuid O'Murchu to me.

Fr. Winn still introduced himself to me on the phone as "Father Winn," which is how I continue to think of him. He showed me how much a phone call means to someone, which is a big message for someone like me who rarely calls anyone. Also, I realize that following that nudge was the right thing in writing to him. I felt connected and cared about by his call and amazed that he would search to find my phone number and call me after 37 years!

Be Thankful

Let us rise up and be thankful,

for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,

and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick,

and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so,

let us all be thankful.

~~

Buddha

Hanging Out

I like to hang clothes out on the line; in fact, I did that today. So, of course, I liked this cartoon that Miss Cellania posted today:

Feelings?

Where would I find "blah"--"apathy"--"ennui"--"acedia"?

When I was in therapy a decade and more ago, I was told that I needed to identify my feelings with the acronym JPFLAGS--joy, pain, fear, loneliness, anger, grief, and shame. That was a good way for me to learn to ascertain them, but today I am blah.

Waiting

Life is painful
because of the ones who have died.

Joy is painful
because of the ones who are crying.

Love is painful
because of the ones who hate.

And while I am loving, laughing and crying,
I am waiting for you, my Lord.

Julia Esquivel

Today is my mother's birthday, only she died 16 years ago. She would have been 89 today. I wish she had lived longer than she did. Here she is with baby MJ. (MJ is now 18.)

A Must See!

Morningstar Chronicles posted this, which brought back memories of seeing so many orphans when I was in Zambia two summers ago. Please watch this short, short video:

Some people are gay. Get over it!

At the end of our weekly lectio divina group today at my former Methodist church, the conversation turned to the United Methodist Church General Conference beginning today in Fort Worth, TX. The website masthead is:

Nice saying, but not lived out when people condemn homosexuality as a sin. And that's where the conversation went this morning. Love the sinner but not the sin. I find that condescending and holier-than-thou self-righteousness.

We had a smaller group than usual today, and two of the five women hoped that the homosexuals would not disrupt the proceedings of the meetings. Of course, one brought up that the Bible declares it a sin, which is when I stepped in to say that not everything in the Bible can be taken literally and that the culture of the time and translations should be considered in trying to understand those scriptural references, so we disagreed on the literal reading of the Bible. More was said until I told them that I preferred not to talk about this as I am very emotionally involved because my daughter is gay and that she was born this way. Even after this, one wondered why "they" didn't just stop practicing it and then everything would all be fine.

I felt pained and hurt, especially by one person, whom I've known a long time and did not realize she felt this way. I ache for my daughter and her partner, as well as other LGBT individuals who are condemned both silently and vocally more often than I will ever know.

The United Methodist Church agreed at the last General Conference:
"Homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. All persons need the ministry and guidance of the church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self. Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God's grace is available to all. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons." (From "The Nurturing Community," a section of the church's Social Principles, Par. 65G).

What else is "incompatible with Christian teaching" that we participate in? Rev. Russ Whaley wrote:

"If I toss out gay people because of their unrepentant attitude, there are a number of unrepentant persons who, in all fairness, I should also excommunicate. For instance: members who gamble or won’t stand against gambling, though they know full well the United Methodist position on the practice. Also, members who use tobacco (our Book of Discipline says that use of tobacco is not a morally indifferent issue) or alcohol (after all, we did start Prohibition)."

This is an issue that is dividing churches and communities. What about the Golden Rule and loving your neighbor as yourself? What about opening our hearts, our minds, and our doors to others?

I am glad I returned to the Episcopal Church.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And thanks to Grandmere Mimi, I found this excellent post about homosexuality and the Anglican Church at Mark Harris' Preludium and here's a small section:

"I believe Christians are ill equipped to condemn persons of the same sex who are in love with one another for acting on that love in physical ways or for seeking ways to establish and maintain commitment to one another and for seeking blessing from God and the community. Moreover, given the realities of past Christian willingness to condone a wide variety of moral behavior that we would now consider reprehensible and the tendency to resist change from that behavior, the Church carries a beam in its own eye and has no business demanding that others remove the speck (if there is one) in their own."

To read the rest, go here.

Earth Day

Ellie at Does Not Wisdom Call? writes about an Earth Day sermon given by Joseph C. Hough, Jr., President of Union Theological Seminary in New York that is excellent. Go here to read it.

Going Beyond Our Wants

"Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, "Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind," we do not know what to choose.

"As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to go beyond these wants and discover our mission in life."
~~Henri Nouwen

From the free daily message found at the Henri Nouwen webpage. Subscribe.

This is what I needed to read this morning!

junk, junk, junk

MJ has spent the evening cleaning out old clothes from her chest of drawers.

I have so much to clean out that I feel defeated before I even get started. I have clothes that fit me 13 years ago when I was 50 pounds thinner and as I grew fatter over the ensuing years until now. I have been stuck for years about cleaning out and getting rid of these old clothes. Look at what I wrote three months ago:

For a long time, I have been feeling stuck in many areas of my life: prayer, weight, papers, closets! The list could go on and on. . . .

With the realization that I'm stuck, Sunday's quotation from Simone Weil returned to me many times with the thought that "every separation is a link" to God. My link is my resistance, which I am now offering to God.

I certainly need to remember that "every separation is a link" to God. And oddly, I just wrote a letter to the Episcopal priest who baptized and confirmed me in high school and then married CB and me in college. Having returned to the Episcopal Church, I wanted to share with him how the seeds he'd helped to plant have grown. My faith story shows that the separation away from the Episcopal Church no longer exists and that I am linked through it to God.

MJ acts today, while I only ponder. I have felt dissatisfied in my dithering today; am offering this to God. . . awareness, acceptance, ACTION!

This reminds me of Trevor Hudson writing that experience (or revelation) without reflection amounts to nothing. Mere "awareness" counts as nothing, too.

~~~~~~
And I was just helped by a gorgeous picture of pussy willows and a story of hope at Cheesehead's blog.

Be a Sheepdog! (according to Evelyn Underhill)

"Now those sheep-dogs that afternoon gave me a much better address on the way in which pastoral work among souls should be done than I shall be able to give you. They were helping the shepherd to deal with a lot of very active sheep and lambs, to persuade them into the right pastures, to keep them from rushing down the wrong paths. And how did the successful dog do it? Not by barking, fuss, ostentatious authority, or any kind of busy behavior. The best dog that I saw never barked once, and he spent an astonishing amount of his time sitting perfectly still, looking at the shepherd. The communion of spirit between them was perfect. They worked as a unit. Neither of them seemed anxious or in a hurry. Neither was committed to a rigid plan; they were always content to wait. That dog was the docile and faithful agent of another mind. He used his whole intelligence and initiative, but always in obedience to his master's directive will; and was ever prompt at self-effacement. The little mountain sheep he had to deal with were amazingly tiresome, as expert in doubling and twisting and going the wrong way as any naughty little boy. The dog went steadily on with it; his tail never ceased to wag.

"What did that mean? It meant that his relation to the shepherd was the center of his life; and because of that, he enjoyed doing his job with the sheep, he did not bother about the trouble, nor get discouraged with the apparent results. The dog had transcended mere dogginess. His actions were dictated by something right beyond himself. He was the agent of the shepherd, working for a scheme which was not his own and the whole of which he could not grasp, and it was just that which was the source of the delightedness, the eagerness and also the discipline with which he worked. But he would not have kept that peculiar and intimate relation unless he had sat down and looked at the shepherd a good deal."

~~Evelyn Underhill

_________________________
"The Teacher's Vocation" chapter in Evelyn Underhill's, The Mount of Purification: (The Inner Life Series), Longmans, 1960.

Prayers for Jiff

Jiff's mother died on April 13. The memorial service was on April 18. They have returned home. Please support Jiff with your love and prayers.

In the Solace of the Night
by Roy Gonzalez Tabora

Amazing Grace: Just the Black Notes!

Did you know of the pentatonic scale (5 notes) and the history of Amazing Grace?

I knew of the scale and the lyricist but not of the piano black keys as the basic notes of Negro spirituals. Enjoy, this is so BEAUTIFUL!!

Friday and Saturday in San Antonio

On Friday MJ and I drove to San Antonio, because on Saturday there was an early (8 am-3pm) orientation for incoming freshmen at Trinity University. We stayed Friday night with different friends, who only lived two blocks away from each other.

I stayed with my friend Carol, who is an elementary school teacher. I used to stay with her when I spent nights in San Antonio for classes at Oblate School of Theology, but it has been three years since I did that. In that time her mother, whom she cared for, died of Alzheimer's and Carol has had two different bouts with breast cancer. I hadn't seen her since the summer her mother died and she discovered she had breast cancer. She kept on teaching while having chemo every three weeks for the past eight months. I did not even know that she had a double mastectomy last summer. I am sorry I lost track of her, but am glad we reconnected. We talked as if we regularly saw each other and rediscovered our friendship. I am glad. I need to be more faithful in keeping in touch.

On Saturday, MJ and I went on a long tour of the Trinity campus until the parents were put in a separate group. Students and parents went to different talks until meeting again at 2 o'clock. I stayed for two talks by a professor and a panel of students, but left for several hours, because MJ is my fourth child to go to college, plus is my second one to go to Trinity. (I had fun going to the Container Store, which does not exist in Corpus Christi.)

It was funny that a couple whose son MJ goes to school with came over to talk to us, because the husband recognized me from walking in the mall every Saturday! He walks with his father, and I walk with my friend DH, who is a biology teacher, on Saturday mornings. It was funny to make that connection, so we did not only know each other through being parents of our children.

When MJ was in 5th grade, her sister AE gave her a Trinity sweatshirt. Maybe that was the beginning of her desire to go there. It also helped that AE graduated from Trinity and liked the school tremendously. I was glad that MJ's desire to go there was confirmed by the orientation.

This is funny!

Ellie posted this funny (and short!) video at Child of Illusion:

Silence and Light

Silence and Light
by Tomas Paces

Sad and Happy Both

The Hesitation Between Sad and Happy
by Sonji Hunt

Today is BJ's 23rd birthday. We thought we'd drive to Victoria to visit him after work, but he's on a job at an oil well and won't get home till late tonight, if then. I am sad that we won't be seeing him, sadder than I would have expected, since we've had few of his birthdays with him for several years--and I should be used to not being with him. I was counting on seeing him today, taking him out to dinner, and giving him his presents. So I am happy remembering BJ's quick birth (before the doctor arrived) and BJ as a smiling, cute little boy. And I am sad I won't see BJ, the tall and strong young man, and I feel badly for him having to work such a long day on HIS birthday. As both a mother and a teacher, I would say, "Life isn't fair." But BJ will have fun this weekend because he's going to Houston to be in a friend's wedding.

Prayer via Google

It is so funny what comes up with a Google search. I wanted to get the quotes from Anthony Bloom's book Beginning to Pray without having to find the page by looking through the book. Here's what I found:

Being with God is the end itself, not the means to any other end. A good example of this is from the late Russian Orthodox archbishop Anthony Bloom who tells of an eighteenth-century priest who once asked an aged peasant what he was doing during the hours he spent sitting in the chapel. The old man replied, "I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy." [Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray (New York: Paulist Press 1970), 62.]

And this was found on a wonderful site about "Prayers" at Ministries with Youth (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.) There are descriptions of and instructions about Contemplative Prayer, the Jesus Prayer, Breath Prayer, Centering Prayer, and Praying with Music that inform and inspire any age level! I am so impressed! Go and look here.

Another site that I discovered had suggestions about prayer by Graham Kings, from a Fulcrum Newsletter, March 2006, about "Listening in Lent."

He wrote:

In the Anglican Kenyan Service of Morning Prayer there is a moving prayer, based around Psalm 16:11, which may be used after a period of silence:

Your silence is full, irresistible;
your presence is joy unspeakable.
People drifting into mind
we lift to you and pray they find
health in sickness,
life in deadness,
strength in weakness,
light in darkness.
Their loss you bear, mysteriously;
Your peace you share, eternally.

~Anglican Church of Kenya, Our Modern Services (Nairobi: Uzima Press, 2002), p15

Minneapolis skywalks and books

I'd only seen one or two skywalks in my life before going to Minneapolis. "The largest network of skyways is in Minneapolis, 8 miles of skyways connecting 69 blocks, making nearly every building in the city's downtown core skyway accessible." (Wikipedia)


I was very impressed with myself that during a lunch hour of the ERD Conference, I found my way to the Barnes and Noble store and never went outside! I had to travel up an escalator, over three different skywalks and going through two buildings with stores in the middle of them to get there. I'm not a good map-reader, so I followed the hotel receptionist's directions of left, right, and left again.

Of course, I bought a book, which is intriguing me greatly. I had time to read almost all of it during my travel day on Sunday: The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge, M.D.

I bought it because I remembered Gartenfische mentioning a book like this on her blog. However, I have since learned that she recommended a different book that I may still have to read: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves by Sharon Begley, which is about meditation changing one's brain. I am grateful to Garten for planting that seed, because I am learning so much in The Brain That Changes Itself, which relates scientists and case studies in the new science of neuroplasticity.

What if?

"What if this year we were to let the Holy spirit turn us into people of overflowing fullness?"

~~Brother Roger of Taize on January 1, 1974 in his diary

(As quoted by John S. Mogabgab, editor of Weavings, in the May-June 2008 issue.)

Bush and history

From U.S. News and World Report:

The First Draft of History Looks a Bit Rough on Bush

By Kenneth T. Walsh

Posted April 11, 2008

President Bush often argues that history will vindicate him. So he can't be pleased with an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted by the History News Network. It found that 98 percent of them believe that Bush's presidency has been a failure, while only about 2 percent see it as a success. Not only that, more than 61 percent of the historians say the current presidency is the worst in American history. In 2004, only 11.6 percent of the historians rated Bush's presidency in last place. Among the reasons given for his low ratings: invading Iraq, "tax breaks for the rich," and alienating many nations around the world. Bush supporters counter that professional historians today tend to be liberal and that it's too early to assess how his policies will turn out.

Some Wishes for You

By C. S. Lewis

I wish for you a troubled heart at times

As woes of world and friend come close beside

And keep you sleepless.

I wish for you the thrill of knowing

Who you are,

Where you stand,

And why.

Especially why.

Not prosperity, but dreams I wish for you;

Not riches but a sense of your own worth I wish

For you.

Not even long life, however proud we’d be to have it so.

But life that is crammed with living,

Hour by hour.

And love I wish for you;

May you give it frequently.

I wish for you solitude in the midst of company,

And a mind full of company within your quiet times.

Full todays I wish for you, and full tomorrows.

Jan and Diane

I'm home!

Yay! I'm home, only three hours later than expected. My flight from Minneapolis went very well, but the little American Eagle plane had problems. We all got on and sat for about 30 minutes until they told us to get off the plane. About every 20 minutes, they'd tell us to wait another time period. It turns out that a passenger call button light would not work, and they were trying to fix it. After two hours they sent us down to another gate to a new plane. Fortunately, that one left DFW.

While waiting in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, I decided to send the picture of Diane and me taken with my cell phone to me. Never having done anything like this before, I could not figure out how to put @ in the phone, so I sent it to my oldest son DC. He just emailed it to me, so I'll try to post it.

Minneapolis!!

I'm here! Amazingly, on Thursday MY flight was the ONLY American jet to fly from DFW to Minneapolis! I got here so easily that I still find it hard to believe. Now we'll see if I can get back home as easily.

I left Corpus Christi on a day where it got up to 93 degrees F, and it was in the 30s here. It has been lightly snowing here since I arrived (first in the rain), which is fun to see. Doesn't seem to be sticking though.

I had a wonderful dinner and time with Diane and her husband last night. It was like meeting old friends, even though this was the first time we'd met face-to-face. It was a lot of fun to be with them. They even gave me a tour of Minneapolis, which makes me wish I had more time here or could come back.

I only just now discovered a computer I could use and now have to go back to a meeting.

American Airlines and my travel plans

At O'Hare International Airport today

My travel to Minneapolis on American Airlines does not look positive for Thursday.

"The growing disarray was felt by tens of thousands of travelers Wednesday, as American Airlines canceled 1,094 flights to make sure some wiring on its fleet of 300 MD-80 jetliners was secured correctly inside wheel wells.

"The cancellations are expected to spill over into Thursday. American said late Wednesday that it expected to cancel about 900 flights on Thursday. The worsening condition of the airline industry, however, is being felt in many ways. A new round of airline bankruptcy filings — including ATA Airlines, Skybus and Aloha Air — have begun in recent weeks and is probably far from over."

And Michael M. Grynbaum writes:

So, the best advice if you are planning to travel on Thursday?

“Don’t fly,” said Joe Brancatelli, editor of joesentme.com, a site for business travelers, and a longtime observer of the aviation industry. “Seriously, if you can re-arrange your travel, do it.”

The fallout from the cancellation of more than 1,000 American Airlines is expected to disrupt schedules for every major airliner on Thursday, and severe thunderstorms in the Midwest are likely cause further delays at some airports.

But if you simply must fly on Thursday — or even at any point through the weekend — stay patient, and stay alert.

“Assume the worst, get there early, have lots of patience,” Mr. Brancatelli said. “And, truly, do not listen to anything the airline tells you about what they know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am pretty sure I can get to Dallas because an American Eagle plane goes there from Corpus Christi, but I don't know if or when I'd be able to leave DFW!

Looking on the brighter side, if I don't post until Sunday or Monday that will mean I've gone to Minneapolis!

Minneapolis! (I hope)

Tomorrow I fly to Minneapolis, IF my American plane has not been grounded by American Airlines for safety reasons. More and more flights are being cancelled--up to 1,000! I change planes at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, and it was a mess last night and today. A spokesman for the airlines said:

"The Fort Worth-based carrier had canceled about 460 flights that were to depart Tuesday on MD-80s, giving American nearly 1,500 cancellations in two days.

"'There are about 30 MD-80s in service as of 7 a.m., and we should roll more back into service this morning and this afternoon,' said American spokesman Tim Wagner. 'The situation is fluid, though, and that is why we have gone ahead and cancelled the 850. We do not know at this point if that number will climb, but it might.'"

I (hope I) am going to the Episcopal Relief and Development Conference, which is titled "Healing a Hurting World." Let that be so.

And the most exciting part of the trip will be meeting Diane! I hope I'll get there to meet her!

I'll get home on Sunday.

"A Jewish Take on Easter"

A friend sent me a very interesting article entitled "A Jewish Take on Easter" by Rabbi Rami Shapiro. He writes about the Gospel accounts and analyzes history versus myth.


"The transformative power of faith is not rooted in outward signs and historical facts, but in inner awakenings and literary narratives. Only in our day has the human imagination become so degraded as to reduce truth to fact, and myth to falsehood. Only in our day does story pale before history."

My faith journey has brought me to find greater truth in the stories in the Bible than in the so-called "literal" reading of scripture. Facts are black and white, while story or myth goes deeper and deeper into meaning.

"We all seek meaning in the tomb of the dead. We all seek revelation, wisdom, and knowledge in the past. We are obsessed with the known, the conditioned, the fixed, and the frozen. But life lived in the moment is unknown, unconditioned, unfixed, and fluid. The living is not in the past or in the future, but only in the now. When Jesus calls Mary's name he is calling her out of the tomb of the past and into the garden of the present."

This is very interesting reading, whether you agree with the rabbi or not. Questions are good to live with and strengthen our faith, as I experience it. And he asks questions: "What else would we expect from a Teacher who loved to eat, drink, and walk? What else could we expect from a Teacher who welcomed women to his table? What else could we expect from a Teacher whose commissioned act of remembrance honors body and blood?"


I was surprised that Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an author of at least ten books, plus some e-books. And being the bookaholic that I am, I've already ordered one of his books! The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice.

What recession?

What is expressed really depends upon the group one is in. Husband CB and I went to a monthly dinner on Sunday night, which is made up of about seven men who used to work at the same chemical company and their spouses. Oddly, most are 10-20 years older than us. As we sat around the living room, the men started talking about how the liberals and media are deluding the American public about the economy's downturn. Obviously, this is a predominantly Republican group. Partly the denial of a recession is based upon being in a part of Texas that has remained pretty steady economically and where there has not been a decline in building or house prices. Since I am so often a "vague liberal," I did not say anything.

Today's cartoon from the Center for American Progress illustrates part of their attitude:



Go over to FranIAm to read about the cost of the War. Also follow her links and read those posts and articles.

Also, go to Misplaced Economic Priorities at Campaign for America's Future.

Episcopal Relief and Development Conference

I have been named the West Texas Diocesan Coordinator to Episcopal Relief and Development. I am going to the ERD Network Conference in Minneapolis on Thursday through Sunday of this week. I hope I will learn a lot about what my job entails, since few people I've spoken to even know what it is. When I was asked to do this, I was told I could do "as much or as little" as I felt like doing. Our interim priest commented that obviously the past coordinator did very little; neither have I so far!

Province VII is one of nine regional groupings in the Episcopal Church, USA. Look way down to the bottom and you will see the Diocese of West Texas, which has 91 congregations. There are over 27,000 members spread across 60 counties of South Central Texas; from Brady in the north to Brownsville in the south, and from Victoria in the east to Del Rio in the west. I attend one of those 91 churches--All Saints Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi, TX.

I am excited about going and don't know what to expect. I just hope I'll learn a great deal and also be inspired to act.

ERD provides emergency assistance in times of disaster; rebuilds devastated communities and offers long-term program development solutions to fight poverty.

ERD’s mandate is found in Matthew 25: 37-40.

Parent or Grandparent?

Am I older than I realize? Probably so, since last night CB and I were asked if we were at the Senior Party for our GRANDCHILD! That was as we were leaving as chaperones. The young girl who asked was the receptionist; we had been standing near her to check kids in and out. (If an adolescent left, he/she could not return.)

This reminds me of how MJ is our youngest of four children, while most of her friends are the firstborn in their families. So CB and I are older--at 57 to have an 18 year old daughter.

Last night was MJ's high school's Senior Party, which is rather an elitest event since the parents of seniors pay for their seniors to be involved in this. This may only occur in Corpus Christi or in south TX, as my two sons also participated in their Senior Parties. (Daughter AE saved us a lot of money by NOT wanting to be involved.) At least, each (paid) "host" gets to invite six guests. I was glad that MJ invited girls from her soccer team that probably would not have been included.

Our shift for chaperoning was 10pm to midnight, which is past my bedtime. Fortuitously for us, several inebriated teenagers had already been escorted away by the time we arrived. We were told that some teenagers drink an excessive amount BEFORE arriving somewhere that is being scrutinized, and so that must be what happened. The site only had one entrance, because it was on the sixth floor of a building. Only one elevator was turned on to work.

There is still the Senior Prom at the end of this month, but we don't have to do any duties at that. We "old" people can stay home. . . .

Us vs. Them: Two Kinds of Americans

A friend forwarded me a link to an article by Sara Robinson entitled "Two Kinds of Americans: Us Versus Them," which is on the Campaign for America's Future website. I was very struck by the article, because I am still reeling from the forwards sent to me by a relative from a very conservative website called Center for Individual Freedom. I was unaware of both sites until this morning. The latter one engages in legal, legislative, and educational activities "to protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution," which sounds good until I looked at some of their lawsuits and alerts to contact members of congress.

Anyway, about the article by Sara Robinson--

She describes the way groups, even families, can feel comfortable and committed when they feel like they are the "right" ones and others are not, but eventually such division corrodes society when one group grows more dominant and vocal, which creates an ever-widening gap between the groups. Sara addressed this "political-norm" of America by looking at its origins and its effects. Next week she'll look at ways to bridge the separation.

I was interested that she pointed out that Spiro Agnew began the dramatic divide in 1969:

"That November, Agnew proclaimed the end of that era, in a speech that tore into the country's liberal leadership with a ferocity that stunned the nation. He called the leaders of the anti-war movement (which, by that late date, represented well over two-thirds of the country) "political hustlers" -- "who would tell us that our values are lies." "America cannot afford to write off a whole generation for the decadent thinking of a few," he argued -- a few who "prey upon the good intentions of gullible men everywhere," and who were best characterized as "vultures who sit in trees and watch lions battle, knowing that win, lose, or draw, they will be fed." The real enemy, of course, was liberals -- and the Democratic party, which was guilty of something akin to treason for harboring them."

Of course, I cannot help remembering that Agnew accepted bribes when he was Governor of Maryland and continued to accept them when he was Vice President! He resigned in 1973 and was also disbarred from the practice of law in MD. What about his values?? (Accepting bribes seems like "decadent thinking" to me.)

However, Sara Robinson did not bring up Agnew's transgressions in her article.

She writes that effects of this polarization in the USA are faltering economy, failing infrastructure, global war on terror, unaccountable government, bad decision-making, and the death of the common good.

"Whenever a society devolves to Us Versus Them, the common good is the first and worst casualty of the ensuing war. The conservatives worked overtime through the 1970s and 80s to convince us that the common good was nothing more than a mass delusion that weakened society, and was probably a Communist plot. By 1987, Margaret Thatcher was publicly admitting that "there is no such thing as society;" and conservative intellectuals were insisting in peer-reviewed journals that "communalism" -- that is, the notion that we have any obligations to each other at all -- was a dangerous and backward superstition that needed to be extinguished."


I find this language frightening. No wonder society and churches are concerned about the need for community in the face of the post-modern quest of individualism. (Like the Center for Individual Freedom, as if we need help in assuring our single focus.)

I hope you will go and read this entire article.

Live the questions now

Cannon Beach Sunrise - Oregon
Elliot Teskey

Sometimes I miss the Pacific Ocean.

... have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and to try to love the questions themselves
as if they were locked rooms or books written
in a very foreign language.
Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

What would Jesus NOT do?

Please still look at the post below about Nan Merrill's FREE newsletter. But I couldn't resist copying this from Missy over at St. Anne, Pray for Us.

"Friends of Silence" by Nan Merrill

Nan Merrill is the author of a favorite book of mine, Psalms for Praying, among others. Nan Merrill has published a modest newsletter, "Friends of Silence," for many years as a labor of love. At the top of each monthly mailing is this: "Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?" (T. S. Eliot) In its pages, she explores silence, solitude, and community with the universe, grand themes but in a gentle and modest tone.

In the March 2008 newsletter, Nan Merrill wrote, as a prelude to the variety of quotations she collected for this issue:

"May our prayers include pauses of simple be-ing. . . of gratitude in the Silence for the present moment of live, nature's gifts, and Love-ever-with-us. Throughout each day may we be mindful of our thoughts, for strong thought--positive or negative--are, in a real sense our prayers. As has been wisely observed, 'as we thinketh, so we become.' Thoughts, like prayer, radiate energy that matters, depending on our focus, intensity, intention, and accompanying source of reception. May our prayers be from the heart, breathed into the Silence. . . May our thoughts be loving, gentle, and kind. . . May both our prayers and thoughts lead us to fulfillment; service and sharing wherever we meet a need. . . May our gifts and creativity grow in the Silence."
~~Nan Merrill

The "Friends of Silence" newsletter is published eleven times a year and is free. Donations are gratefully accepted. To subscribe, go here.

And to learn more about how this newsletter ministry began, along with an invitation to join in quiet prayer together, go here.

26,500 children are dying today.

Ever the procrastinator, I am preparing a talk to give to a United Methodist Women's circle tonight. I was going to talk about my June 2006 trip to Zambia, but I started looking up current statistics about poverty, children and women in the world and got immersed in information. With tears in my eyes, I have to share about some statistics I found about children dying:

Around the world, some 26,500 children die every day.

That is equivalent to:

• 1 child dying every 3 seconds
• 18 children dying every minute
• A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every week
• An Iraq-scale death toll every 15–36 days
• Almost 10 million children dying every year
• Some 60 million children dying between 2000 and 2006

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/death/


To read more, go to Global Issues and choose a topic to look at. There are many!

It is run and authored by:

Anup Shah, About this Web Site, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, February 03, 2008

My heart is so small
it's almost invisible.
How can You place
such big sorrows in it?
"Look," He answered,
"your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world."
~~Rumi

Texas Trivia or just my trivia

Instead of quoting and/or copying images, I thought I'd write something of my own, though I'm not inspired. However, what prompted me to do this is that I want you to look at the beautiful pictures of contrasting weather that my daughter posted on her blog. There are blossoming cherry trees on the University of Washington campus and then snow in Bellingham, WA! And today it got up to 86 degrees F. here in south TX. This makes AE glad she doesn't live here anymore, among other reasons. As it gets hotter and continues to do so, I'll start wishing I wasn't living here for TX extended summers. . . which start in the spring time.

I learned today that elbow bursitis (tennis elbow?) can persist for months. I was happy to hear that the best way to treat it is applying ice packs during the day. The swelling is down, and my elbow is just red and slightly enlarged. So it's better--and movement is back to normal. Yay.

MJ is at a regional soccer play-off final game where a different high school's boys' team is playing. (There are five high schools in Corpus Christi.) At the beginning of this school year, I was very irritated because the Ray HS girls' soccer coach (MJ's coach) for the past two years left them to coach a BOYS' team at a different (King) high school! Well, his expertise helped the boys to get this far into the playoffs. (However, the girls' replacement coach was incompetent, though pleasant.)

I am reading a book I bought five years ago, a fact I learned from Amazon's tracking system. I never finished it back then and am finding it to be "just right" for now. It concerns the spiritual journey from a Buddhist perspective and addresses spiritual greed quite well. The book is Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa. It reminds me of a video that I saw at Non-Duality Cartoons last week, where Eckhart Tolle says that if we are thinking that we'll be enlightened in the future, we are NOT in the present moment where we could be realizing we have and are everything we desire.

Well, even in my trivia, I managed to mention a book. Typical, right?

Small, little. . . .huge?

Time

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