some random notes to begin 2007 with … to be fleshed out in more detail later this year …

… I think the “gospel” is bigger and more mysterious and more surprising than people commonly understand it. I think phrases like the “kingdom of God/heaven”, and “giving your life”, and “life eternal”, all have contemporary meanings that people assume so much (”heaven”, “dying”, and “life after death”) that they take them for truth, but those meanings are completely different from what those phrases REALLY mean. I think such interpretations actually work AGAINST the real “gospel”, the real good news, which has multiple dimensions only one of which is the availability to humans, here and now, of the God-given power to live life to the fullest in community and in radical revolution against oppressive/paralyzing systems of thinking. As Jesus said 2000 years ago, the “kingdom is at hand”, it is here.
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Well, we’ve been back from our mega-trip for a few weeks now, but it still feels like we just got back, and we still feel vaguely disoriented from time to time.

So… about our recent 6-week “vacation” to visit family in Egypt and India… I’ve wrestled with writing up a “short summary”, but I find that just thinking about writing about it gives me stomach ulcers.

It was a traumatic trip.

Yes, I could write an overview that only mentions the good parts, the highlights of the trip if you will. Especially the wonderful time spent with my sister and her family in the UK. Yes, we could post pictures of the fun times, or the feel-good pictures where we’re all smiling in front of the Taj Mahal.

But I’ve swept baggage under the carpet for many years now, and I’d like to stop doing that. I know firsthand the pain that such unresolved emotions can cause when they manifest themselves at the most inopportune times.

My family, like most families, doesn’t talk about big elephants in the room, the turbulent stories that run violently deep under the smiling pictures - things get bottled up, not talked about, left unresolved, just so that appearances get maintained.

Well, the buck stops here. I’m not about to do that. Several major things happened to us, Alexis and I, on this trip that need to be talked about. We grew a lot closer together, we experienced things nobody has ever written about, and we desperately need to process all that stuff healthily. For our health, especially, it is critical to process some of these things with friends who really know us and love us. For healing, for sanity, for clarity, for peace of mind.

But not online.

So I’m back home (yay!) and Alexis and I are lounging around in the living room on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Alexis is busy looking up information on Nottingham, UK, where we are going to be next week on the first leg of our multi-farious vacation (see our trip details link for complete itinerary).

She is reading out various bits of interesting information out to me as she’s browsing, including this gem : “Nottingham is where lace was first produced, and is the site of the Nottingham Lace Museum!”

Which made me think…

… Scene: a dimly lit room in the Museum. Enter, stage right, a GROUP of TOURISTs. They amble along the chamber, gawking at various exhibits. Enter, behind them, ETHEL P. WOODBRIDGE, senior tour guide at the Museum. She dates from the Industrial Revolution…

ETHEL : “And heah we have some fi-iine English lace, worn by Robin Hood himself during special night dances in the forest with his merry men…”
TOURIST 1 : “Uhmm, you mean by Lady Marian?”
ETHEL : “No, young man, by Robin Hood - his merry men all rather took a fancy to him in lace, dontcha know?”
TOURIST 2 : “Errrr, perhaps over his leather jacket, like, you know, how an armored knight has chainmail over his shirt, like that kind of lace?”
ETHEL : “Well! Aaa-ctually, Robin rather preferred wearing JUST lace… that’s what his merry men wore as well, see, just lace.”
TOURIST 1 : “So, wait a minute, Robin and his merry men spent their time dancing in Sherwood forest wearing just lace?”
ETHEL : “Tut tut, it wasn’t called Sherwood Forest back then, we locals knew it as Sheer Wood Forest!”

Nottingham, here we come!

Alexis and I were recently in Austin, Texas, and we visited a “small” church there for Sunday services. The church service was held in a high-school gym, and as we were leaving I noticed that there were a lot of people in the back of the room who had been sitting on the bleachers during the service.

This got me thinking - how about a “bleacher creature” section in church?? That would be the place where there would be plenty of beer, banners, beachballs, and tailgating parties before and after service! Complete with a concession stand selling peanuts and hot dogs! That’s where most of the guys would be, I bet! Imagine - during service they could start chanting : “Saaaaa-tan… Saaaaaa-tan… Hey Satan, YOU SUCK!”

And, when the sermon gets too long, you can count on the bleacher creatures to start a wave!

Of course we would have to shut off the alcohol in the seventh inning…

One strange thing about American culture - there’s a magazine for *everything*. Usually more than one! For, of course, the educated consumer MUST have reading choices!!

And it is frankly ridiculous how many bizarre specialty topics have their own magazines - you want a magazine exclusively about sofa covers? I betcha there is one! With its own catalog, monthly contest, special promotional posters and mugs, and traveling bikini wet-tshirt team!

I have an idea - how about a magazine called “modern terrorist”? Of course the title would have to be all lower case, you know, to give it that chic post-modern look.

Imagine …
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