its noon at casacommunitas

Lynn is running right now. We're all still in our pajamas.

Addison has footies on his Paddington Bear jammies and they have a snap at the top which he is fastidious about having snapped at *all* times. Jaelyn's wearing the shiny pink strappy tops of her velour jammies from Gramma Glo, her green umbro soccer shorts and her pink disney princess slippers. I'm wearing hospital pants that Aunt Andrea stole from her former hospital (or at least that's the legend around them) and the Surfer Girl t-shirt designed by my friend Keith Kline.

Jaelyn and Addison have been having turf wars all morning over little people squabbles. Who should have the purple stroller? Should Addison have both of the two Paulys?

We had pancakes but ran out of syrup, so the kids opted for cookie sprinkles. I opted for french toast.

Everyone's got a little sinus infection, though Lynn and I are almost better.

Lynn leaves tomorrow for her first three-day-conference-away-from-the-fam in i-don't-know-how-many-years. I'm looking forward to the single Dad experience, but am fully aware that I can only look forward to it BECAUSE its only three days.

The homecoming football game is in two hours so we're looking forward to seeing more alum-friends and, of course, the game.

of course there are a million things we could be doing. Pulling the bramble out of the barely recuperated Eden outback, cleaning out the buick, grading papers, doing a rewrite on _Hide Out_ my current writing project. But sitting around in pools of peace seems worthwhile and neccessary right now.

If peace is a verb, sometimes it feels like it needs to flow out of its noun form. And my friend Matt and I were talking about how damnably American our lives are these days. Moving, rushing, doing, accomplishing at breakneck speed. These lives do not encourage peace. So I'm going to put off my shower a bit longer, put off the kick-into-highgear-pace for a few more minutes and just enjoy the...

peace~

Certainty vs. Jesus

In an interview with jeffrey overstreet, david o. russell (Three Kings & I Heart Huckabees) says:

Jesus would say this is true: If your spirituality is about your ego then your spirituality is fake. Our ego likes to control things, to have certainty. Certainty is very useful. If it wasn’t, we’d be sitting in our own excrement. But, that certainty can really close your mind off to the true light of Jesus and to the truth about what is. This film is about “departure points” … departures from certainty and the ego.

read the whole interview here.

what if integrity isn't such a great thing...?

I'm just wondering.

Isn't faithfulness a virtue that the Christian tradition embraces which accounts for all of the valuable contributions of character that integrity offers?

It seems like integrity is most often used to police those who don't have it, and those who we laud for having it -- would be just as honored to be labelled as faithful.

I've made the argument for some time that there's not substantial support within the Christian tradition for the idea that:

lying is wrong.

Lying lips (or habits) on the other hand are a different thing altogether.

I guess one of the reasons I like the idea of faithfulness so much better is because it seems to couch honesty in the context of relationship and community. Whereas integrity doesn't account for the *conflicting* demands that often accompany the subaltern status in any group....

cost of war in iraq

oh, yeah, and one other thing...

human life.

Calling Fate

I got a message the other day from Brian Hollingsworth. The callback number ended in big round numbers and I was supposed to ask for Brian when I called so I knew that it was the hospital I'd be calling.

So imagine my shock (!) my surprise (!) when the voice saying: "Akron Children's Hospital" -- WAS Brian.

What are the chances? I blurted to him. What are the chances of me just happening to catch YOU when I call?!

...

So occasionally there are these moment when the light of fate does just seem to break through the clouds and clarify all of your questions. Erase all of your doubts.

My friend Ann wasted her Saturday this weekend waiting to see G.W. as he passed through Akron. She waited in the rain and mist for three hours. Fifteen minutes before he arrived the sun literally broke through the clouds. She said: Its a sign!

I said: And then a dove drifted down from heaven and lighted on his shoulder.

She said: "This is my beloved president..."

But just then GW grabbed the dove and said: "What is this? Some kinda terrorist prank?!" And as he twisted the dove's neck, he held it up. "We live in a post-911 society!" (cheers from the crowd) "The best defense is a good offense!" (more cheers)

okay, all of it was true until she said: It's a sign. Because she just thought it was a funny...but nice...coincidence.

...

So Lynn started her new job with the Canton City Schools as literacy coordinator for Timken Academy. When I first met her, she couldn't really conceive of teaching in an urban school. Now she's not only devoted to working in that setting, but she also is a passionate advocate for justice in that setting. Yesterday she quizzed a visiting Ohio Dept of Education on the inequities that "No Child Left Behind" is creating for this (and many other) schools.

A position couldn't be more perfect for her growing interest in integrating literacy across the curriculum for adolescents. This is exactly what this job enables her to do. It's a perfect combination of her training, her developing interest and her growing passions for urban schools.


...

And Brian got a new job! It's really a perfect job for him. Still at the Children's Hospital but he'll be doing event planning. That's right -- getting paid to throw parties. Can you think of a title that would fit him better than professional party person. I'm really excited for him. So i asked him:

What are the chances!? What are the chances of me just happening to catch YOU when I call?!

Actually, he said, one in three.

Still. I insisted. The universe is smiling on us today.

hope it smiles on your day.

peace~

church + advertising = no objections on my part (?!)

this is something to write home about.



Props to tallskinnykiwi for the picture.

Nobody's Called Me.

Its disappointing, but it's true.

I, along with much of humanity have been searching for my destiny. If you read back through this entire blog, you'll find at least five posts that do nothing but writhe on the skewer of calling / vocatio / destiny....et. al.

I think its a powerful enough metanarrative that we all WANT to have a calling. To be made for something. To have some entelechial potential.

But the other day I realized that CALLING is really just an ideograph, a metaphor which helps us unify a number of cultural discourses in a way that helps us make sense of our life. That helps us establish a unity within the swirls of fabric that seem so patched together.

But the truth is:

Nobody's called me to anything.

I've radio'd heaven. I get mixed signals. i move the antenna. I switch the channels.

but....

nothing.

I've prayed for a calling. Listened for a calling. Blustered confidence that i'd heard one. I've asked friends for callings. I've read books about it, heard talks about it, studied it, but....

nothing.

So, today, I'm giving up the quest. And the word. Retiring that jersey.

(at least for now)

It's not that I think everybody should join me in dropping out, either. It definitely seems like a noble quest -- and I'm quite sure that for every me-not-hearing-any-calling...there are twenty callings that are not only worthy, but also spectacular in their revelation.

I'm parting ways with the metanarrative, but I think I'll always be dazzled by it. Always a little breathless at its incarnations.

So next time you talk about *calling* around me, don't monitor yourself, or stop your sentence in the middle. I *do* want to hear about your quest or receipt -- you'll just understand now why I'm raising my eyebrow when you start the story...

peace~