So, my cousin sent this to me. I normally hate these things – so often said, I know.
It was right. Does it work for everyone? Living in New York, I had to limit my eating out experiences to 10.
YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH
It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read …
Be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it’s fun.
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would
like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757… If you haven’t, add 1756.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born. You should have a three digit number.
The first digit of this was your original number. (I.e., How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)
The next two numbers are
YOUR AGE ! —— (Oh YES, it is!!!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS
Profoud change and our failing
I’m reading through the lectionary readings for this Sunday (Proper 5). I find in them a theme of profound change – the two sons being raised from the dead – profound change physically. Paul describing his profound spiritual change. Whenever we come into contact with God wantingly and willingly, there will be profound change – that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Within that gentle and often slowing transformation caused by the Holy Spirit, people begin to perceive the transformation (if we allow ourselves to be changed). Some react positively and some react negatively (to some we become the smell of life, to some the smell of death – as Paul describes).
The problem we have in this Church (and the problem infecting American Christianity in general) is that we don’t understand God’s ways of things. We cop the world’s ways and attempt to make them our own. The politics being played out in our Church and Communion these days are straight from the World’s playbook, not from God’s. We may attempt to justify our politicking, our misrepresentation of the facts – spin, our hatred, our conniving and scheming in holy, godly, or standing-up-for-the-truth kind of language, but our methods and attitudes are the world’s. We try to justify to the world (and ourselves) our methods and means of dealing with our differences and pressing issues and concerning how we deal with one another, but the non-Christians and the world look at us and say, “How are you any different than politics in Washington or the hatred of other people we see in so many parts of the world?” They aren’t stupid. They see through our self-deception and lies and know that we are hypocrites in our relating to sinners of the world.
They are right. In this case, the world’s critique of us is right on target. We act no different than worldlings as they try to get their way, force their political or social perspective upon everyone else, or justify their brutality. This is an attitude and behavior irregardless of political or social persuasion, and we have aquiesed to it rather than being transformed into a different way of being and doing – one in which the world cannot deny that there is something profoundly different than what they commonly see in the world.
Take the reaction and attitudes of the Amish in Pennsylvania when their school was attacked and their children killed. The world took notice and was amazed – this is a profound example of the transformation that the Gospel of Christ should cause within us as we respond and react to situations of life and belief. To act and understand in ways that the world simply cannot understand, but to which they are drawn. Instead, within the Episcopal Church and within much of Christian American, we just play politics and fight and call one another often vile names.
The world is not impressed, because we are just like them. Too bad we are not more like the Amish, who are so much further along in understanding how to love God with everything, love their neighbor, and even love their enemy, at least as demonstrated in the recent tragedy.
New Political Quiz
I took a new “political-economic’ survey to find out what I am. Will this ever end? Anyway, it is an interesting website (Neo-Liberatian) and the quiz is the “3-Line Quiz.”
I turned out to be a “Liberal-leaning-Capitalist-leaning-Republican” There ya go.
Liberal-Leaning – Those moving in the direction of individual autonomy, critical of government, opposed to sin taxes and moral codes fall in this area. A majority of Americans fall here or in the moderate section.
Capitalist-Leaning – Many Republicans and some Democrats fall here, and support balanced budgets, tax reform, free trade agreements, estate tax repeal, and spend more time talking about the problems of small business than raising the minimum wage. They like to push middle class tax cuts and associate economic success with production, wealth, and especially with high rates of consumerism and ownership.
Republican – This includes a large bulk of modern-day American politicians, whether Republican or Democratic. This includes values of basic racial equality but not necessarily affirmative action. It’s a strong rejection of racism and a strong embrace of democracy, but not into the social levelling or hyper-secularism of the democrat level.
via: Dappled Things
Anniversary
I got an e-mail from a friend in Cleveland today. This guy is an organizational wunderkind. The subject line said, “Happy Anniversary,” and I thought, “I wonder to whom John is wishing a happy anniversary.” Well, it was me.
It is sad when a friend has to remind me that it was one year ago today that I knelt before Bishop Arthur Williams and was ordained priest. I didn’t remember.
Well, today is the first year anniversary of my priesting.
Cleveland
My goodness, the Cleveland Cavaliers have done it! They are going to the NBA Finals after besting the Detroit Pistons. (It funny when we have to say “done it” before the championship is decided. For Cleveland fans, simply going to a national final is “done it” enough.)
Now, anyone from around Cleveland will tell you that to root for Cleveland teams is to be a real fan. It seems that they break our hearts every time. This is tough for fans, but Clevelanders (and they are more than just people who live in the City of Cleveland proper!) has this undying sense of being for the underdog. Perhaps it is because of all the negativity that comes our way. (Despite the fact I live in New York, I will always be a Cleveland fan!).
So, now the Cavs are going to the finals for the very first time. I wish them well and pray that this time one of our teams will go all the way, not just to the edge.
I can’t watch the games. I know this is really lame, but watching the games at this point in the season is just too stressful. I will start watching, but have to just stop. Pathetic, I know, but that’s me. I almost had to be committed when the Indians almost won the World Series.
Cleveland Cavaliers website
Why? Oh, that’s why!
Two interesting articles. The first comes from the Washington Post’s review of the new book, RELIGIOUS LITERACY: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t, by Stephen Prothero.
Here are a couple paragraphs from the review:
The United States is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in all things supernatural — from God and the Virgin Birth to the humbler workings of angels and demons. Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.
“The book’s main concern, though, is ignorance about the role of religion in American history. Prothero dates the beginning of the long decline in our religious literacy to the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s. The fervor of America’s periodic cycles of revivalism, rooted in a personal relationship with God rather than in theology handed down by learned clergy, has always had a strong anti-intellectual as well as spiritual component.”
Read the whole article.
The second is an opinion piece that comes from the Dallas News about a renewed appeal of Tradition in religious observance, particularly among the younger folk. This is one reason why I chose an Anglo-Catholic parish to do my field-placement, and why I am still there as a priest. I need and want to learn due to the fact that I grew up in a religious tradition that did not keep Tradition, but it also appeals to that part of me that longs for the tried-and-true and that which is beyond me. The lived experience of millions upon million of people over 2,000 years and including some of the most brilliant human minds add to the Tradition that still speaks to the inner most part of us – Deep calls to deep. (I preaches a sermon on that, yesterday, Pentecost.) The last paragraph is vitally important when considering Tradition!
Here are a few paragraphs:
“What’s the least I have to believe and do to feel good about myself?
That’s the fundamental question modern religious seekers seem to be asking. For many contemporary Americans, religion is like a scented candle: The purpose of its light is to provide a comforting psychological ambience. But for a small, growing minority – for whom religion, properly understood, exists to illuminatethe challenging path to truth and holiness – there is an alternative: tradition… ”
“Traditionalists of any religion fundamentally differ from modernists in that they see truth as objective and delivered within the rules, rituals and teachings of the tradition. Truth, so considered, is something around which individuals must shape their lives. The modernist sees religious truth as subjective, something that can be shaped to fit the lives of individuals in different times and places. If they’re right, there’s nothing regressive about reclaiming attractive and useful elements of tradition within a modernist context.
Except that it’s a dead-end. Orthodoxy (right belief) cannot be severed from orthopraxy (right practice); both inform and reinforce the other, beholding the truth and embodying it in the rites and pious practices of individuals and communities. The writer and Orthodox convert Frederica Mathewes-Green warns tradition-seekers that the reason the outward manifestations of tradition – the chants, the icons, the liturgies – have such power in our fast-moving, throwaway culture is that their authority is embedded within a living and longstanding communal tradition. If you don’t accept the tradition whole, you cut yourself off from its transformative power.
‘It’s like gathering flowers: They look great when you bring them into your contemporary church, but they have no roots and they’re going to die,’ she says. ‘You’ll have to keep going out and getting more flowers. Eventually, the whole thing will feel stale. Unless you plug into the ancient-continuing church and let it form you, you’re just being a shopper.’
Modernists nevertheless make a point that traditionalists ignore at their peril. Tradition has to be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances without abandoning its core principles. A tradition that loses touch with the needs of the living community is in danger of degenerating into rigid formalism. Some traditionalists make an idol of sacred tradition, as if it were an end in itself, not the most reliable and efficacious means to God.”
Read the whole article.
I got this stuff from: SARX
Archade Fire
P.E.T.A.
I was walking through Red Hook on Saturday to a new garden center on the tip of the Island called, Liberty Sunset. Why Liberty Sunset? Because the place has an incredible view of The Statue of Liberty and sunsets, that’s why. Anyway, this place is incredible (don’t think typical suburban garden center). So, I first walked to my new favorite little cubbyhole restaurant for a bit of brunch (if brunch can be had at 2:00 pm, rather than just having breakfast at 2:00 pm).
Oh wait, it wasn’t at the restaurant. Okay, so next I walk to the garden place that is owned by a couple people, one of whom is from Hungary. Since he is from Hungary, his partner told me on their grand-opening, he is really into hospitality. At a certain time on the weekends, they fire up the incredible grill in their amazing kitchen that is part of a huge warehouse room where they have waterfalls and grow lights and photography space and an enormous table in the midst of pots and scattered plant projects that was salvaged from some place, but is a horizontal slice from an ancient Redwood. They have like twenty chairs around this table. Mind you, this isn’t the tourist destination kind of disneyfied mega-garden center. This is the place of work of some unique people! So, since the Hungarian co-owner is really into hospitality, they cook up some food and open some bottles of wine and invite anyone shopping or looking around to have a snake (or a meal, depending on how hungry you are). People just grab some stuff (the day I was there it was Hungarian specialties of sausages, and the like). I didn’t eat, but thanked the other co-owner when she offered me some food and wine.
That’s hospitality!
But, it wasn’t at the garden center, either. This building used to be a warehouse. Red Hook is a port area of Brooklyn. The very modern Queen Mary II docks there now whenever it sails into New York City. I can see the smoke stacks from my living room window, and pretty much the whole thing when I’m on the roof. On one of my few runs these days, I ran through Red Hook and down by the dock to see the Queen Mary II in all its glory. (A bunch of us from General saw it sail up the Hudson on its maiden voyage along with a few thousand other people standing along the river at 6:00 am.) Anyway, I ran down by the docks and noticed a ton of police everywhere. I guess to guard against potential terrorist attacks. No problem. Well, until I ran down a deserted road that dead-ended on the bay and gave an incredible view of the front of the ship. I don’t think they trusted me. A cop car followed me all the way, sat there while I look at the boat and the Statue of Liberty, and then while I ran away.
Okay, so this garden center is in the warehouse building along with a few other business whose proprietors seem to be equally unique (don’t think hippy type, but just industrious, do your own thing, live a good life, hip-cool kind of people who are at stages in their lives where they can afford to do this kind of thing). Around the corner of the building is a Key-lime pie bakery. The most authentic key-lime pies in New York, its truck proclaims. After my breakfast at 2:00 pm, a nice little personal key-lime pie was in order. Refreshing on a hot, sunny day, before buying pots at the garden center. It was here that I saw it.
One of the owners of the garden center, I guess (I think they are all in cahoots with each other) fired up a new waterfall into a huge above ground custom built wooden pool that will be used for marsh plants right outside the door of the pie place; so one of the owners had on a t-shirt that had printed on the back P.E.T.A. I thought, great, it figures that one of this crew was a PETA member. But wait, I read on.
P.E.T.A, for this guy, meant, “People who Eat Tasty Animals!” I had to crack up. The shirt was from some b-b-q place in the South. Eating my little, personal key-lime pie, I thought, “This guy fits in perfectly with a garden center that serves up sausages and wine to his customers.” That’s the kind of place I would like to work. “People who Eat Tasty Animals.” Just too funny.
Coming Out Insurance
Okay, this is bad, but it is really funny, too.
Oh, the fallout!
The ongoing fallout from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation to next year’s Lambeth Conference can be seen:
Titusonenine Note: Kendall has a new website.
Thinking Anglicans (UK)
I am once again involved in an ongoing “discussion” over at Titusonenine with regard to Bishop Gene Robinson’s response to not being invited, thus far, to Lambeth.
Read it if you will, and let me know how I can do better.