I live, Eustace said, in nature, where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is its passage around the sun. The course of water over the earth is circular, coming down from the sky and circulating through the world to spread life and then evaporating up again. I live in a circular teepee and I build my fire in a circle, and when my loved ones visit me, we sit in a circle and talk. The life cycles of plants and animals are circular. I live outside where I can see this. The ancient people understood this. People say that I do not live in the real world, but it is modern Americans who live in a fake world, because they have stepped outside the natural circle of life.
Do people live in circles today? No. They live in boxes. They wake up every morning in the box of their bedroom because a box next to them started making noises to tell them it was time to get up. They eat their breakfast out of a box and then they throw that box away into another box. Then they leave the box where they live and get into a box with wheels and drive to work, which is just another big box broken up into lots of little cubicle boxes where a bunch of people spend their days sitting and staring at the computer boxes in front of them. When the day is over, everyone gets into the box with wheels again goes home to their house boxes and spends the evening staring at the television boxes for entertainment. They get their music from a box; they live their lives in a box! Does this sound like anybody you know?
Read more about Eustace Conway at his nature preserve Turtle Island.
- Taken from the book The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert, ppgs. 18-19.
June 30, 2006
Check back for audio posts from Annual Conference
Brenda and I are going to be leaving tomorrow morning with some friends for Des Moines, Iowa. The CoB Annual Conference will be taking place from July 1st to the 5th. I will plan to audioblog my thoughts and reflections from Des Moines starting tomorrow or Sunday. You can also check in on A.C. by checking its daily web coverage throughout the week here.
Savior with an attitude
I am thankful that my understanding of Jesus hasn't gone this direction. However, I have wondered from time to time just how much of 'our crap' Jesus actually gets tired of putting up with? WARNING this article from Fake News veteran The Onion, can be somewhat offensive, but I encourage you to read it with a bit of humor and even truth found in it. Ultimately, remember that Jesus is mercy and grace.
Beyond our reach
Continued from previous post
In the same chapter, author Bill McKibben expounds:
So what if you know what a widget is? Or that you can read an html? Can you identify five edible plants in your bioregion and their seasons of availability? Or can you name five resident and migratory birds in your area? Or what the soil, rocks and minerals around your home are?
I believe that McKibben has named it well. How many things that were common knowledge about the land to people 150 years ago do we still know today? Probably very little if any; I’m including myself as well. I am living a paradox here because I probably spend as much time on the computer every day as I do actually being outside in nature, even though most of my posts of late have been in regards to nature and the environment. A trend that I am slowly reversing. See, I grew up in the country and it was not until I was 19 and went to college that I actually lived in a town or city setting. Since then, (7 years later) I am living in an urban setting and to be quite frank, it is killing me! I can link so many things that have hindered me by being in the city: I was much more inactive than I used to be, easy accessibility to fast food chains that added pounds, and actually preferring to stay home or inside more often. I have wondered how much would be different if I still lived in the country.
Ok, so we have traded in what was once considered basic knowledge for our ancestors 5 generations ago, in order that we might obtain more knowledge and information. Information overload I call it. And all that it is really doing is keeping us more confined and isolated than ever before. But hey, I know what Technorati is! And yet here I am, instead of telling you about what I think as we walk through the woods, I am sitting at my computer blogging it. Dammit!
In the same chapter, author Bill McKibben expounds:
We believe that we live in the age of information, that there has been an information revolution. Yet vital knowledge that humans have always possessed
about who we are and where we live seems beyond our reach.
So what if you know what a widget is? Or that you can read an html? Can you identify five edible plants in your bioregion and their seasons of availability? Or can you name five resident and migratory birds in your area? Or what the soil, rocks and minerals around your home are?
I believe that McKibben has named it well. How many things that were common knowledge about the land to people 150 years ago do we still know today? Probably very little if any; I’m including myself as well. I am living a paradox here because I probably spend as much time on the computer every day as I do actually being outside in nature, even though most of my posts of late have been in regards to nature and the environment. A trend that I am slowly reversing. See, I grew up in the country and it was not until I was 19 and went to college that I actually lived in a town or city setting. Since then, (7 years later) I am living in an urban setting and to be quite frank, it is killing me! I can link so many things that have hindered me by being in the city: I was much more inactive than I used to be, easy accessibility to fast food chains that added pounds, and actually preferring to stay home or inside more often. I have wondered how much would be different if I still lived in the country.
Ok, so we have traded in what was once considered basic knowledge for our ancestors 5 generations ago, in order that we might obtain more knowledge and information. Information overload I call it. And all that it is really doing is keeping us more confined and isolated than ever before. But hey, I know what Technorati is! And yet here I am, instead of telling you about what I think as we walk through the woods, I am sitting at my computer blogging it. Dammit!
June 28, 2006
How deep?
As I was skimming through and rereading parts of Affluenza, I discovered an interesting concept about how deep our culture really goes. Robert Greenway, an eco-psychologist who has led many retreats into the wilderness makes this observation:
If that is true, then I can understand why people who do a Vision Quest are expected to spend at least 4 days and four nights in the wilderness. Only then does the possibility of their dreams become less of what they think their life is and becomes more of what it should be. If our culture only has a four-day hold on us then I challenge us to retreat from our culture for at least four days (hopefully longer than that) every quarter of the year.
On a wilderness trip, it seems to take about four days for people to start dreaming nature dreams rather than busy or urban dreams. This recurring pattern suggests to me that our culture is only four days deep.
If that is true, then I can understand why people who do a Vision Quest are expected to spend at least 4 days and four nights in the wilderness. Only then does the possibility of their dreams become less of what they think their life is and becomes more of what it should be. If our culture only has a four-day hold on us then I challenge us to retreat from our culture for at least four days (hopefully longer than that) every quarter of the year.
June 23, 2006
Borders... more than a store
This is a concept that I am exploring more. What are the borders that we choose not to cross in our own lives? This is from the School of Lost Borders website:
Most people live within well-defined borders. They will change these borders only if change is thrust upon them by fate. Do not attend the School of Lost Borders if you plan to remain the same person.You will come here to lose your borders, your boundaries, your limitations.
The first border you lose is the civilized one.
The second border you lose is your psyche.
The third border you lose is your mind.
The fourth border you lose is the one between you and spirit.
Most people live within well-defined borders. They will change these borders only if change is thrust upon them by fate. Do not attend the School of Lost Borders if you plan to remain the same person.You will come here to lose your borders, your boundaries, your limitations.
The first border you lose is the civilized one.
The second border you lose is your psyche.
The third border you lose is your mind.
The fourth border you lose is the one between you and spirit.
June 22, 2006
It's only hotter cuz we have hotter celebrities...
The Earth's temperature is at 400 year high, one study says. Here's what we can do to stop damaging our planet and its inhabitants. Also go see An Inconvenient Truth if and when it's playing anywhere near you.
Better than biofuel?
This should boost your miles per gallon no matter what vehicle you drive!
Maybe we should try to develop an automobile that runs on prayer. Except the problem would be that many of us don't pray enough in the course of one day to get us out of our driveway let alone a trip into town or Des Moines for Annual Conference! We'd still be polluting the air with our fears since most folks don't really pray unless they are in trouble. And the whole driving with your eyes closed isn't exactly an accident-free strategy either!
(This photo actually came from a gas station in my hometown of Greenville, Ohio)
June 21, 2006
Adventure seeker
1: Go white water rafting.
2: Go to Cedar Point to ride the coasters!
Two things that I am going to have to do in the next year or I'll go mad! I did these a lot in my high school days and it is time to pick them up again!
June 19, 2006
Refining the journey
Last week was a particularly long week. Thursday (15th) I submitted my letter of resignation to the church board. My last day at the church will be September 17th (three months from now). I am presently in conversation with another university here in Fort Wayne to finish my undergraduate degree in Religion as well as seeking other employment here in the city.
After nearly four years serving the church as pastor (since 2001, five years of pastoral ministry experience) I believe it is the right time to move on and start another adventure in my life journey. At the moment, I am leaning towards teaching and leading retreats in male spirituality and wilderness survival skills as well as writing. All of which I see as a part of ministry.
Keep Brenda and I in your prayers as we begin to make the transition and that I would be able to find work and attend classes in the fall. Hope to hear from some of you.
After nearly four years serving the church as pastor (since 2001, five years of pastoral ministry experience) I believe it is the right time to move on and start another adventure in my life journey. At the moment, I am leaning towards teaching and leading retreats in male spirituality and wilderness survival skills as well as writing. All of which I see as a part of ministry.
Keep Brenda and I in your prayers as we begin to make the transition and that I would be able to find work and attend classes in the fall. Hope to hear from some of you.
June 14, 2006
Messianic Man of Steel
Interesting article from Yahoo about the connections between Jesus, Moses and Superman. Also gives a bit of history on the comic book.
June 08, 2006
Seperated from creation
I believe that something is lost when we gather in our church buildings, temples, mosques, and sanctuaries. I am beginning to believe that we can best worship/revere the Creator when we are in creation. I have wondered if by us gathering with walls separating us from creation, that we actually are elevating our position above that of creation. Maybe that is why children have such a profound experience when they are at camp. They get outside the walls of our church buildings and experience God in God’s natural abode. I remember reading from Ohiyesa’s book, The Soul of the Indian about just such an understanding:
“There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the American Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky!”
Maybe it’s time to re-think how we arrive at meeting God. There are many contemporary churches that are beginning to look more and more like auditoriums and less like sanctuaries. The challenge is to do away with all that stuff in order that we might be natural/organic in our worship/reverence of our Creator. Think of the vast amounts of money that we dump into the maintenance and repair of our structures. I can think of thousands of ways in which we could better use that money.
May we meet Him in the mysterious and wonderment of God’s creation.
“There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the American Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky!”
Maybe it’s time to re-think how we arrive at meeting God. There are many contemporary churches that are beginning to look more and more like auditoriums and less like sanctuaries. The challenge is to do away with all that stuff in order that we might be natural/organic in our worship/reverence of our Creator. Think of the vast amounts of money that we dump into the maintenance and repair of our structures. I can think of thousands of ways in which we could better use that money.
May we meet Him in the mysterious and wonderment of God’s creation.
June 06, 2006
Is this really me?
Advanced Global Personality Test Results
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personality tests by similarminds.com
The Right to Rave
- The air shall be cleansed of all poisons except those born of human fears and passions.
- In the streets, cars shall be run over by dogs.
- People shall not be driven by cars, or programmed by computers, or bought by supermarkets, or watched by televisions.
- The television set shall no longer be the most important member of the family.
- People shall work for a living instead of living for work.
- In no country shall young men who refuse to go war be imprisoned, rather only those who want to make war.
- Cooks shall not believe that lobsters love to be boiled alive.
- Historians shall not believe that countries love to be invaded.
- Politicians shall not believe that the poor love to eat promises.
- Food shall not be a commodity nor shall communications be a business because food and communication are basic human rights.
- No one shall die of hunger because no one shall die from overeating.
- Education shall not be the privilege of those who can pay.
- Law enforcement shall not be the curse of those who cannot pay.
- No one shall be taken serious who can’t make fun of himself.
- taken from an old 2002 Plough magazine.
- In the streets, cars shall be run over by dogs.
- People shall not be driven by cars, or programmed by computers, or bought by supermarkets, or watched by televisions.
- The television set shall no longer be the most important member of the family.
- People shall work for a living instead of living for work.
- In no country shall young men who refuse to go war be imprisoned, rather only those who want to make war.
- Cooks shall not believe that lobsters love to be boiled alive.
- Historians shall not believe that countries love to be invaded.
- Politicians shall not believe that the poor love to eat promises.
- Food shall not be a commodity nor shall communications be a business because food and communication are basic human rights.
- No one shall die of hunger because no one shall die from overeating.
- Education shall not be the privilege of those who can pay.
- Law enforcement shall not be the curse of those who cannot pay.
- No one shall be taken serious who can’t make fun of himself.
- taken from an old 2002 Plough magazine.
June 05, 2006
Observing Nature
In the previous week I have noticed that there are a lot of animals that have been coming up to our back porch and windows (our apartment is partially underground). Aside from the multiple Canadian Geese and their gosling, there have been many squirrels and birds and the occasional snake that I have noticed in the 7 ½ months we’ve lived here.
Today was especially interesting, I have been trying to do more sit-spots since the weather has gotten warmer and today while in the woodlands behind our apartment I noticed a Red Fox quickly move through the woods. I almost didn’t get a good look at him since it moved so fast. Once I was done with my sit-spot I walked over to where I saw the fox and looked around for some tracks and after about 10 minutes of looking I found a pair. Exciting!
Then on my way back to our apartment, I spotted a Groundhog and it didn’t notice me since I was fox walking. It was really great to be able to witness creation in such a neat way. I don’t know if it was the same Groundhog or not but about an hour later I noticed a long ball of fur move across our living room window and watched as it scratched at our window. I ran to get the digital camera to get a close-up of him as he moved towards our back porch but as I tried to slowly open the back door he sensed me and quickly ran off into the woods. Guess I need to keep the camera closer to the porch so I can snap some pics for all of you.
It is simply amazing to me that since there has been a strong interest for me to do more nature observation and tracking I have noticed more and more of creation and creation has noticed more and more of me. I thank God for this sense of harmony that I find in the midst of nature.
Today was especially interesting, I have been trying to do more sit-spots since the weather has gotten warmer and today while in the woodlands behind our apartment I noticed a Red Fox quickly move through the woods. I almost didn’t get a good look at him since it moved so fast. Once I was done with my sit-spot I walked over to where I saw the fox and looked around for some tracks and after about 10 minutes of looking I found a pair. Exciting!
Then on my way back to our apartment, I spotted a Groundhog and it didn’t notice me since I was fox walking. It was really great to be able to witness creation in such a neat way. I don’t know if it was the same Groundhog or not but about an hour later I noticed a long ball of fur move across our living room window and watched as it scratched at our window. I ran to get the digital camera to get a close-up of him as he moved towards our back porch but as I tried to slowly open the back door he sensed me and quickly ran off into the woods. Guess I need to keep the camera closer to the porch so I can snap some pics for all of you.
It is simply amazing to me that since there has been a strong interest for me to do more nature observation and tracking I have noticed more and more of creation and creation has noticed more and more of me. I thank God for this sense of harmony that I find in the midst of nature.
June 02, 2006
The Need for Initiation
There has been an area of study that has really fascinated me for the last 3 years or so. I even put it in my Declaration of Major for Manchester College a year ago as one arena of possibility for me to explore at greater depth. As of now that may be the only thing that still remains true to what I want to do. I sense that I will somehow be connected to this for the rest of my life.
The subject matter is that of initiation or rites of passage for youth in our culture. I believe that relates more towards boys than girls at the present age. I began asking myself questions about my own formation and journey into manhood. When did that happen for me? It certainly wasn’t when I got the keys to the car when I was 16. It wasn’t when I was baptized a year earlier at 15. Was it when I lost my virginity at 17? Living on my own at the age of 20? All of these were a resounding NO. When did I become a man? I can testify that my life fits the mold of what Richard Rohr calls being “over-mothered and under-fathered.” I looked back for particular instances where I may have felt like I had just had rites of passage with my own father and kept coming up empty.
I looked around at the present to see if America has any forms of initiation today. I came up with one. The military. Think about it. How often have you heard the expression “Joining the (pick your branch) will make him a man!” That certainly didn’t fly with me because of my strong anti-war/conscientious objection stance. Being in the military doesn’t make you a man.
Since then, I have charted out a life map in which I recall and detail important events in my life and continue to update it today. And I continually return to one event that may have marked my passage into manhood. February 2004, my mother passed away at the age of 47 from complications due to myelodysplasia. I was 23 years old. It seemed to me kind of late in the journey to become a man but remember my earlier statement about being “over-mothered and under-fathered.” I want to avoid the language of me being a “Mama’s boy” since I also had a very close relationship with my father, who still lives today. I was most like my mother and my sister I thought was more like my dad. It was just that my father didn’t do the things for me that you typically think a father shares with his son… I needed to be given boundaries and an identity not just from my mother but my father as well, if not more. I’m not here to lay a guilt trip on my father; I fully recognize what he did teach me.
I can best explain my longings now to be involved in creation and wilderness survival skills as well as my strong desire to do my Vision Quest as a compensation for what I missed out on when I was younger. I am longing to connect with that sense of a healthy masculinity that gets repressed often because of my tendency to revert to the more sensitive guy (which I am more than thankful that my mother instilled that in me).
I also read some books during this time that really helped shape my present understandings of why we need to have a good initiation in our culture today. They are:
Journeymen by Kent Ira Groff
Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
by Robert Moore, Douglas Gillette
The Wild Man’s Journey: Reflections on Male Spirituality by Richard Rohr, Joseph Martos
Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation by Richard Rohr
I will continue to post thoughts and reflections on this topic as I am able. Till then check out some of these books and see if there is a sense of longing within yourself as well.
The subject matter is that of initiation or rites of passage for youth in our culture. I believe that relates more towards boys than girls at the present age. I began asking myself questions about my own formation and journey into manhood. When did that happen for me? It certainly wasn’t when I got the keys to the car when I was 16. It wasn’t when I was baptized a year earlier at 15. Was it when I lost my virginity at 17? Living on my own at the age of 20? All of these were a resounding NO. When did I become a man? I can testify that my life fits the mold of what Richard Rohr calls being “over-mothered and under-fathered.” I looked back for particular instances where I may have felt like I had just had rites of passage with my own father and kept coming up empty.
I looked around at the present to see if America has any forms of initiation today. I came up with one. The military. Think about it. How often have you heard the expression “Joining the (pick your branch) will make him a man!” That certainly didn’t fly with me because of my strong anti-war/conscientious objection stance. Being in the military doesn’t make you a man.
Since then, I have charted out a life map in which I recall and detail important events in my life and continue to update it today. And I continually return to one event that may have marked my passage into manhood. February 2004, my mother passed away at the age of 47 from complications due to myelodysplasia. I was 23 years old. It seemed to me kind of late in the journey to become a man but remember my earlier statement about being “over-mothered and under-fathered.” I want to avoid the language of me being a “Mama’s boy” since I also had a very close relationship with my father, who still lives today. I was most like my mother and my sister I thought was more like my dad. It was just that my father didn’t do the things for me that you typically think a father shares with his son… I needed to be given boundaries and an identity not just from my mother but my father as well, if not more. I’m not here to lay a guilt trip on my father; I fully recognize what he did teach me.
I can best explain my longings now to be involved in creation and wilderness survival skills as well as my strong desire to do my Vision Quest as a compensation for what I missed out on when I was younger. I am longing to connect with that sense of a healthy masculinity that gets repressed often because of my tendency to revert to the more sensitive guy (which I am more than thankful that my mother instilled that in me).
I also read some books during this time that really helped shape my present understandings of why we need to have a good initiation in our culture today. They are:
Journeymen by Kent Ira Groff
Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
by Robert Moore, Douglas Gillette
The Wild Man’s Journey: Reflections on Male Spirituality by Richard Rohr, Joseph Martos
Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation by Richard Rohr
I will continue to post thoughts and reflections on this topic as I am able. Till then check out some of these books and see if there is a sense of longing within yourself as well.
June 01, 2006
Feeling Nostalgic
There is something I miss from my childhood.
Actually there are a lot of things I miss from my childhood.
One of the more vivid memories for me is when my family would take a Sunday off from our home congregation and go to an Old German Baptist Brethren worship service, which was where most of my mom's side of the family attended. At the time I absolutely hated being there for 3 hours or so, unless there was a breakfast before the service. My mother was raised in an OGBB family but never joined because by the time she was in her mid-teens (the age that most in the OGBB and even Church fo the Brethren are baptized and join the community) my grandparents left the OGBB for a couple of years and started attending what is now my home congregation. So my mom joined, married my dad and raised my sister and I there. Here are some things that I miss about going to the OGBB worship services:
The hard benches that demanded good posture from a kid that loved to slouch,
Turning around, facing the bench and kneeling to pray, even if it meant a chance to nap,
Singing in one unison pitch that sounded almost haunting... like chanting,
Meeting new people and finding out I am related to them,
Wondering what I would look like in plain clothing, black hat and a beard (with no mustache!)
Sitting with Grandpa on the men's side knowing I couldn't hound him like I could Grandma,
Going to Annual Meeting and having to discern who was who, since they all look alike,
The community that they formed with one another not just on Sundays but through the week.
Actually this coming weekend June 3-6, there will be upwards to 6,000 OGBB gathering near Union City, Indiana for their Annual Meeting during Pentecost. I may have to take a day off and go make a visit; being that it is only about an hour and half south of here.
- Picture comes from 1998 Article form the Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA.
One of the more vivid memories for me is when my family would take a Sunday off from our home congregation and go to an Old German Baptist Brethren worship service, which was where most of my mom's side of the family attended. At the time I absolutely hated being there for 3 hours or so, unless there was a breakfast before the service. My mother was raised in an OGBB family but never joined because by the time she was in her mid-teens (the age that most in the OGBB and even Church fo the Brethren are baptized and join the community) my grandparents left the OGBB for a couple of years and started attending what is now my home congregation. So my mom joined, married my dad and raised my sister and I there. Here are some things that I miss about going to the OGBB worship services:
The hard benches that demanded good posture from a kid that loved to slouch,
Turning around, facing the bench and kneeling to pray, even if it meant a chance to nap,
Singing in one unison pitch that sounded almost haunting... like chanting,
Meeting new people and finding out I am related to them,
Wondering what I would look like in plain clothing, black hat and a beard (with no mustache!)
Sitting with Grandpa on the men's side knowing I couldn't hound him like I could Grandma,
Going to Annual Meeting and having to discern who was who, since they all look alike,
The community that they formed with one another not just on Sundays but through the week.
Actually this coming weekend June 3-6, there will be upwards to 6,000 OGBB gathering near Union City, Indiana for their Annual Meeting during Pentecost. I may have to take a day off and go make a visit; being that it is only about an hour and half south of here.
- Picture comes from 1998 Article form the Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA.