I've been away from home for several days this past week, from Sunday through Wednesday afternoon, and you know how it goes----it takes awhile to unwind from a stimulating experience, there are tons of things to catch up (laundry, shopping, meetings, that sort of thing), and somehow all that took precedence over posting. My brain just hasn't been able to pull together coherent thoughts about anything but the catching-up process.
So a series of news items:
1. It is beyond thrilling that Iowa has legalized same sex marriage. What a beautiful surprise! I didn't even realize it was in the works. Yay for Iowa.
2. Maxie did NOT pee on anything while I was gone. I couldn't believe it for awhile and carefully sniffed every surface for the evidence, but I haven't discovered anything.
3. The retreat center had a computer that could be used by visitors, but it was clunky and its office chair was even clunkier, so I came home with incipient muscle spasms in my back which have now become a real treatable problem.
4. The Pete concert is trundling along pretty well. Our Wednesday night rehearsal wasn't so hot; we have one member of the planning committee who insists on telling others how to do their songs and kibitzing constantly throughout the practice. But I think somebody nailed him/her afterwards, because last night at the jam, s/he seemed to have had a "come-to-Jesus" moment and was entirely pleasant.
5. I paid someone to come do all the windows in the house last week and it is so wonderful to have clear, not grimy, windows all over the house.
6. A wonderful person in the congregation has agreed to be Worship Chair for next year! Hallelujah!
7. Our Thursday night acoustic jam has been kicked out of Mike's Place in Langley because of copyright concerns. We have been singing in one corner during their "open" hours and somebody apparently got a bit peeved and ratted us out to BMI, who called Mike and said it was a no-no because we were entertaining paying customers. I am a fervent believer in artistic property rights, but this seems a bit much. It's a jam, not a performance. So we are looking for a new space, where this won't be a problem.
8. It's a beautiful day on Whidbey Island after days of rain. Late last night, apparently a beaver dam on a small creek near Clinton gave way and released a flood of water down a slope, damaging several houses and washing out a section of road.
9. I will be speaking on one of the last words of Jesus on the cross, on Good Friday. My set of words is "Woman, here is your son....and....here is your mother". The FS can rest assured that I will invoke my experiences as his mother in writing this reflection.
10. In about an hour, I will be enjoying supper with the Young Adult parents group. Chicken-kebob, I understand. Yum!
I will try to be more coherent and less twittery in a post once I am caught up on my life.
7 comments:
Love your twittery self! Great to have you back, Ms. Kitty!
The Iowa outcome, with which I am delighted, was consistent with long-term Iowa attitudes, as I came to know them in the course of 11 years' residence in Iowa City,
which I remember with affection.
Iowa reflects the mixed politics of the late nineteenth century Bismarckian Germany from which it was largely settled. It is progressive on social issues (like Bismarck in the 1880s), although conservative (generally in a positive sense)on national political issues. Once one is aware of that split, the other attitudes follow in the long run, although they sometimes take a while to work their way out.
Thanks, Kari!
I have the same Last Words passage for our local ecumenical service. So far, I'm focusing on the strangeness of the interaction, and how Jesus changed things.
A busy several days, it seems! Glad for Iowa, glad for Maxie's bladder, sad for your MacBook and performance space, but glad for the good fortune you seemed to have received overall during the past days. Alleluia!
Thanks, all. By now you know my MacBook is on its way to the hospital and possibly hospice, as it is giving out on me. I hope by tomorrow I will have a new or repaired laptop to keep up with you on.
Given the leeriness many of your congregation feel about Christianity, I'm a little surprised that you're tackling Good Friday. A lot of Christian festivals are fairly applicable to other religions (Easter with rebirth, Christmas with peace on earth, and such), but that one's pretty solidly Christian. I'll be interested in how you handle it.
I'm looking forward to your thoughts on that quote, too. (As a Catholic among Protestants, I find myself at odds with a lot of people over the meaning of "behold thy mother.")
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