Happy Fourth!

We're having an atypical celebration here in Urbana.

It started out damp, with a trip in the rain to the market and grocery store, as well as a quick stop to claim our spot on the parade route.

Then I decided to take a nap, and Todd didn't realize I hadn't gotten up until right before we needed to leave. So, we tossed all the stuff in the car and got to the start line just in time for the youth run to line up.

Emma ran in a sprinkle, and we're very proud of her for running the whole way this year.

She and I then left for the 5K/parade route, but didn't make it in time to see Todd running north, although we did see him on the second half. We crazily tried to set up our dining fly (which we've only done once before), and I'm sure amused those who were watching us try, as it kept raining harder and harder. We gave up after a while & used it to cover our stuff, sitting on lawn chairs with umbrellas, thoroughly soaked & getting more and more cranky as time went on.

When Todd arrived from the end of the 5K , we just threw stuff together and between the three of us hauled it back to the car. As we were about finished packing, they canceled the parade--for the first time in it's 59 year history. They had said all along that they would only cancel it for lightening, so I'm not sure what happened.

Once in the car and out of the downpour, I learned that he did well, despite treating it as an easy run more than a race as he had to take a few weeks off training & didn't want to push it.

A little bit ago they rescheduled the fireworks for tomorrow. So, we are going to head over to a friend's, bringing our picnic food that we had intended to share tonight at the park.

All in all, we've had a pretty nice family day despite missing marching bands and clapping for veterans.

ttfn.

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy was really busy last night. She didn't get to our house until after Emma had woken up. While Emma was downstairs eating breakfast, she finally arrived, and was in such a hurry that she left the window open and the curtain askew when she left. At least she left a gold dollar coin as a special prize.

Whew.

Thoughts on Faith and Religion

We sang the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory" in church today, and the familiar melody was soothing. At the same time, its phrases echoed in my heart and stirred me to take some action. First, I had an urge to revise them a little bit to match my understanding of God and religion. I'd like to share that with you to start what may become a long (you've been warned) posting:

God of grace and God of glory, on all people pour thy power;
crown the old creation story; bring this bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour, for the facing of this hour.

Lo there is much evil round us. Scorn for those who seek your grace!
Fears and doubts too long have bound us; free our hearts to find new ways.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days, for the living of these days.

Cure your children's warring madness, curb our pride, grow self-control;
shame on wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
help us fill the deep dark holes, help us fill the deep dark holes.

Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore;
let the search for peace and justice be our goal for ever more.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving those who need our care, serving those who need our care.*

Mike went on to preach about our need to develop our faith. God does not ask us to blindly accept what we are taught, and we come to a deeper faith and a better understanding of ourselves by wrestling with our doubts, not by ignoring them.

One of the things that I have been wrestling with is my need to justify my chosen faith journey to others, at times almost apologizing for it. I believe that there is one Truth that we are not capable of knowing. To try and approximate that Truth, we have constructed a system of truth that is not necessarily better or worse than other systems of truth (I'm borrowing some of the language here from an author whose name and text I can't recall at the moment.). Yet, I have chosen to embrace and, at times, share one system of truth: Christianity. I am unsure if this is a rational, defensible position. Two related analogies that Mike has used, one during a prior meeting and one today, have helped me with this struggle.

Analogy 1:
If you are in a familiar house with a crowd of people, and the house catches on fire, you will take the people nearest you out of danger using the route that you know. You don't stop to argue with other leaders who are taking people out of danger via different routes, and you don't stop to discuss the different potential paths from the house and the relative benefits and costs of each one.

The world is 'on fire' from injustice and corruption, and people are in anguish. We can reach out to people near us, and relieve their anguish by inviting them to join our faith journey. We can save them by joining them to a community who struggles to do what is right in a world that often pushes us to do what is wrong. We have our set of 'stories and songs' (an oft-used phrase of Mike's) that guide us in this struggle. Some of them are downright strange, some are hard to understand--and most there is disagreement as to what they mean. But, through discussion of the meaning, we learn more about ourselves and about each other, and strengthen our community.

Analogy #2:
You walk past a pond, and a person calls out that they are drowning. You throw them a rope. The person who is drowning doesn't really care if it's purple or red or blue--they are simply glad that you are there with a lifeline to save them.

Addition to Analogy #2 (by me, not Mike):
Once the person is safe, they might decide that they want to use a different lifeline to rescue another person--and that's fine. (So long as it's a lifeline and not a snake in disguise--but how you would go about determining this is another topic altogether.)

Unfortunately, there's a negative stereotype about churches. People worry that you don't really want to save them--you just want them in the door, to help out with Sunday School classes and to take some of their money.

We've been struggling with 'revitalization' in our church by trying to answer three questions:

Who are we?
Who is our neighbor?
What is God calling us to do?

One of the issues is to keep ourselves on track--that this effort is about discerning God's will for our congregation and to follow it, inviting our neighbors to join the faith journey with us. It is not about 're-institutionalization,' a.k.a. 'getting more people in the doors so we can keep doing what we've always done.' To me, the key is in being genuine: about our own doubts and struggles, but also about our faith and the strength it brings us. I hope we can overcome the stereotype as we extend our lifelines to people in spiritual need.

So, what does this mean in terms of my need for action and why I am writing this down on our semi-public blog? One avenue of action, with two lanes, is in the revitalization efforts. First, I think the congregation has lost some fervor for the idea, and we need to rebuild that. Some great ideas for this came out of a meeting last week that I wasn't able to attend, and I hope to help enact some of those ideas.

Second, my prayers and thinking are that we don't really know our neighbors. Some people have driven around the neighborhood, and we've looked at statistics and read some descriptions about what people in different categories tend to be like. But that doesn't mean we know them, and I intend to find a way to get to know them in a more meaningful way. I'm not sure exactly what that is yet, but I look forward to reporting on this in the future.

The other avenue of action is in my personal life, and my own action (really, mostly inaction) to fight the evils I deplore. There are opportunities to do this right in my town, in my own circle of friends, in my church, and probably within my own family. I am committing myself to take a more active role in fighting injustice in the coming months, and I will start by renewing my commitment to a civic group that I was involved with a few years ago (so, Nikki, I will be at the next meeting).

I won't get bogged down in all the details of what I'm doing, but I will post from time to time about my experiences in my continuing struggle with life and faith.

ttfn

*I know the last phrase screws up the rhyme, but I couldn't think of anything else that fit what I wanted to say. Hymnal's version of the words can be found here (requires quicktime).

Summer is here/almost here

Emma asked me last week when summer started, and my answer was 'that depends.' Memorial Day is the start of summer, but summer doesn't start meteorologically until mid June, and others would say it's summer when school is out. Yesterday she asked Todd the same question, and I burst out laughing when he started his answer with 'that depends.'

This summer is going to be a crazy one. If there are any blog readers who aren't on facebook or haven't heard some other way, I'll be starting a new job on August 1. I'm nearly unreasonably excited about it. I'm joining the faculty in the School of Nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. It is a great opportunity that came along when I wasn't even looking for it yet. The thought of competing for this type of job was something I saw in the future, not now.

The reason it makes it a crazy summer is that I have very few days to finish up several projects at my current job while also thinking about the new one. And, I keep daydreaming about the freedom we'll have as a family next summer, which makes that project work move very slowly.

Todd is also increasing the running camp program he started two summers ago, by running it four times. He thinks he will earn enough through this to fully outfit their home cross country meet in the fall. He is getting a great response from both current and future middle schoolers, and several who ran the camp previously have since joined the cross country team.

We are hoping to get some serious masonry work scheduled for this summer, as well as gutter work & landscaping. The dream is that this will fix our water seepage issues and lead to further planning for house updates and improvements. If not, we'll have to address the water some more before we can move on.

Since my last post:

I graduated, went to Albuquerque on business (and the Pres stayed in the same hotel while I was there--very exciting), went to Ft. Lauderdale on business, and attended to life at home, including several celebrations with friends along with the drudgery of laundry and cleaning.

Todd wrapped up the track season with a disappointing state meet, attended a Sci Fi movie event in Chicago, and did a lot of single parenting. Softball season has started, as well as a variety of end of year activities for school.

Emma finished her dance class, and has had a lot of end of year activities at school as well. In general, she is always active from the moment she wakes up until the moment she drops off.

In the coming days/weeks:

I will be going to Chicago for a conference and trying to find time to work some long days to get these projects done. Car shopping will be starting in earnest, too (the new job means commuting an hour each way on the days I am on campus, so we'll need a second car). I also have a 'gig' with our bell choir coming up in June--we'll be playing in Carle's clinic lobby during lunch, a series with local performers that happens every Thursday during the year.

Todd will be wrapping up the school year and packing up his classroom for a move over the summer. He will be heading to Boston with other history teachers for a week in June as well. The summer 5K season will be starting soon as well.

Emma will be starting a summer schedule of spending time with dad alternating with Nature Day Camp at the park district.

Emma & I will be going to Chicago for some girl days, staying with my friend Kristin and seeing Mary Poppins, among other things.

Todd & I will be celebrating our 13th anniversary, and we're hoping to find some time to spend together around that day as well. A lot of the weekend/day will be devoted to packing his classroom, so we might be into July before we find that time.

I have pictures from Albuquerque to get posted, as well as video & pictures from the dance 'informance' and Emma's tap performance at school back in April. I'll have to overcome my facebook addiction that takes up a lot of my free time to get that done (lol).

ttfn

Say, Say, What does this say?

Speaker: Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral, said he's seriously considering a challenge to Specter in next year's Pennsylvania primary.

"The Democratic political establishment reached into the GOP establishment to give us the Democratic candidate for the future. I don't think we want to re-establish the establishment," Sestak said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not theirs to make, it's ours to make. That's really what moved me. It's the ideal. It's not what we came to Washington to do is tell Pennsylvanians what they are to do in their Democratic choices."

(Source: NPR)

The "house cleaning" we've been waiting for

Blagojeivch holdover Steven Guerra fired

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By Bernard Schoenburg

GateHouse News Service

Posted May 04, 2009 @ 04:00 PM

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Steven Guerra, a holdover from the Blagojevich administration as the governor’s deputy chief of staff for social services, was fired Friday.

Marlena Jentz, spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn, confirmed today that Guerra was dismissed on Friday, effective immediately. She said she could not comment further on the personnel matter.

Guerra, 55, of Chicago, was paid $120,000 annually from the Department of Human Services budget.

He made news in late 2008 when the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he had served 23 months in prison after being convicted of contempt of court in New York in 1983. He had refused to testify in connection with investigations of a Puerto Rican separatist group that claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. that killed six and injured dozens from 1974 to 1983.

Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman at the time for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said last year that Guerra had never been a member of the FALN and wasn’t involved in activities that posed a threat to the public.

“He clearly and unequivocally condemns the violence attributed to FALN,” she said, according to the Associated Press.

Guerra joined the state in 2003. He had held leadership positions with nonprofit organizations, including Jane Addams Hull House Association and Chicago Youth Centers.

State Journal-Register

Updated Graduation Information

It's getting close, and I've had requests for information from different quarters, so it seemed best to put it all in one place and save some time.

1) leisurely morning at home
2) drive to Chicago, arrive approximately 12 noon
3) informal gathering for lunch at La Vita (my favorite place, anyone who would like to is welcome to join us, just let me know, it is $$$) this would be about noon
4) after lunch, a leisurely walk (depending on weather) over to the Forum (click here for information on the Forum's location and parking)
5) arrive at Forum by 2:30 (deadline for participants, time when doors open for guests)
6) graduation starts at 3:30, ends at 5:30
7) after graduation, mingle with the crowd, take pictures, etc.
8) drive to La Grange for dinner, hosted by Betty, menu TBD
9) head back home, to hotels, etc.

If anyone not attending would like to, the ceremony is webcast. You can find links for this (they won't be live until the day of) here (requires RealPlayer, sorry...). I have not attended before, so cannot provide pointers as to when you would want to start watching if you wanted to skip the speeches and just see the degrees awarded. I don't even know where PhDs come in order of graduates.