This article is thanks to Papa Dillon. I've been meaning to post it for awhile. (And frankily and as unpopular this might be, this has been the position I've aligned myself with for the last 3 years or so. This is only one (albeit strong) evidence ...
See U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works
Monday, February 18, 2008
East Pilsen Artist Colony...
...no joke, this is the official title Metromix has given my neighborhood. I rather like this place. So, for those of you who live many miles from here, I thought I'd post pictures from the weekend to give you an idea of where I live. Come visit!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
When A Kid Is An Angel
I know how kids can be. Particularly little kids. I nannied for 4 years for an infant and a growing 3 year-old who became a 4 year-old who... Understandably and I could objectively argue, these two kiddoes where, probably, the most well-behaved tots I know of. Heck, they rarely were embarrassing in public (what I have always believed to be a good thermometer of how cool a kid is). One of the two kids responded to discipline (pretty good odds, I'd say. That's 50%) They always ate the food I made them and rarely complained about having to finish their "whole" plate. They were athletic. Witty. Photogenic. Good dressers (they picked out their outfit each morning and whether they were two or five they always came up with stylish combos.)
BUT while they were kids to brag about, they, like any child, had a little devil in them. There was always the bedtime hour when they wouldn't go to sleep until ALL five books were read and even then, they got up for water and the bathroom ten times over two hours. And, the baby, she had colic (monitor was put in my room when I lived with them). They didn't poop in manageable little turds but in a messiest of rainbow shades. They splashed water ALL over the bathroom each evening during "bath time". And, I occasionally had to send the neighborhood kids home because my kids were being mean and hitting other children. They were periodically, in need of AA. Otherwise known of when you're five as an "Attitude Adjustment".
While I still babysit every now and then, it's been awhile since I've been around two + kids for a consistent, extended period of time. So, I suppose that means that when I am now around kids, I mentally tend toward turning them into angelic beings. Their smiles...their innocence...their simple lives...These things perhaps turns the age of five, in my imagination, into a grand utopia and their every behavior (good or bad) is simply "cute".
While I'll acknowledge my tendency, for today the five year-old will retain his/her angel-ness in my mind. You see...
It was a tough day at work (enough said), when this 5 year-old child, off from school because of some stomach ailment, came into the Sunshine office with his mother, who needed to make some photocopies. He was shy. And wore blue, plastic sunglasses. (Hey, the glare of the florescent lights makes sunglasses handy.) I asked him his name and his age. And with one hand over his mouth and a slight, shy tilt of his body away from me, he answered.
His Mom and I talked for a few moments about how she'd heard about our center. About their late night run to the E.R. because of his stomach aches and how she took him out of school and took off work herself because their stay lingered on until the wee-hours of this morning. She made her copies. In between her copies and my encouragement to return back to Sunshine for our adult technology classes and open access to computer with Internet, the little kid interrupted.
He looked at me and said, "You know, you're really pretty."
Kids can be charmers, I know. Especially little boys. But, in that moment, with me (internally) bumming about my day and counting the minutes until I could go home, those were the warmest, most encouraging words I could be told. It was his innocence, the simplicity of childhood, that made those words all the better. They were raw. No hidden agenda. No date to gain. No need to woo. No favor to be had. No status to gain. No popularity contest to win. None of the manipulative reasons we assume almost inheretly as part of adulthood. I didn't have to question his sincerity. None of it.
So, I don't know if it's faltery if it comes from a kindergartener but, I do recall Jesus allowing the little children (which I like to think of as kindergarteners) sit on his lap after a long day of teaching - a day, I can only imagine was bummy. And, I can only imagine that the simplicity of their lives, the potential they held, the innocence in their eyes is something that soothed a man undoubtedly deeply affected by the pain of this world. And while we know He had gentle words for them (and a lesson in faith for the adults around Him to learn in it), I have to think they had a few profound words of encouragement for the man too.
BUT while they were kids to brag about, they, like any child, had a little devil in them. There was always the bedtime hour when they wouldn't go to sleep until ALL five books were read and even then, they got up for water and the bathroom ten times over two hours. And, the baby, she had colic (monitor was put in my room when I lived with them). They didn't poop in manageable little turds but in a messiest of rainbow shades. They splashed water ALL over the bathroom each evening during "bath time". And, I occasionally had to send the neighborhood kids home because my kids were being mean and hitting other children. They were periodically, in need of AA. Otherwise known of when you're five as an "Attitude Adjustment".
While I still babysit every now and then, it's been awhile since I've been around two + kids for a consistent, extended period of time. So, I suppose that means that when I am now around kids, I mentally tend toward turning them into angelic beings. Their smiles...their innocence...their simple lives...These things perhaps turns the age of five, in my imagination, into a grand utopia and their every behavior (good or bad) is simply "cute".
While I'll acknowledge my tendency, for today the five year-old will retain his/her angel-ness in my mind. You see...
It was a tough day at work (enough said), when this 5 year-old child, off from school because of some stomach ailment, came into the Sunshine office with his mother, who needed to make some photocopies. He was shy. And wore blue, plastic sunglasses. (Hey, the glare of the florescent lights makes sunglasses handy.) I asked him his name and his age. And with one hand over his mouth and a slight, shy tilt of his body away from me, he answered.
His Mom and I talked for a few moments about how she'd heard about our center. About their late night run to the E.R. because of his stomach aches and how she took him out of school and took off work herself because their stay lingered on until the wee-hours of this morning. She made her copies. In between her copies and my encouragement to return back to Sunshine for our adult technology classes and open access to computer with Internet, the little kid interrupted.
He looked at me and said, "You know, you're really pretty."
Kids can be charmers, I know. Especially little boys. But, in that moment, with me (internally) bumming about my day and counting the minutes until I could go home, those were the warmest, most encouraging words I could be told. It was his innocence, the simplicity of childhood, that made those words all the better. They were raw. No hidden agenda. No date to gain. No need to woo. No favor to be had. No status to gain. No popularity contest to win. None of the manipulative reasons we assume almost inheretly as part of adulthood. I didn't have to question his sincerity. None of it.
So, I don't know if it's faltery if it comes from a kindergartener but, I do recall Jesus allowing the little children (which I like to think of as kindergarteners) sit on his lap after a long day of teaching - a day, I can only imagine was bummy. And, I can only imagine that the simplicity of their lives, the potential they held, the innocence in their eyes is something that soothed a man undoubtedly deeply affected by the pain of this world. And while we know He had gentle words for them (and a lesson in faith for the adults around Him to learn in it), I have to think they had a few profound words of encouragement for the man too.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Evangelicals (Even) a Liberal Can Love
by Nicholas D. Kristof for the New York Times (2.3.08)
At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make a pejorative comment about Barack Obama’s race or Hillary Clinton’s sex. Yet it would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee’s religious faith....Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this case it also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals have moved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur.
...Helene Gayle, the head of CARE, said evangelicals “have made some incredible contributions” in the struggle against global poverty. “We don’t give them credit for the changes they’ve made,” she added. Fred Krupp, the president of Environmental Defense, said, “Many evangelical leaders have been key to taking the climate issue across the cultural divide.”
Read the whole column here.
For those of you who have read the 2006 bestselling book, "Who Really Cares?", I think this is a solid recap of the book's premise and apt translation to the current electoral process.
At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make a pejorative comment about Barack Obama’s race or Hillary Clinton’s sex. Yet it would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee’s religious faith....Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this case it also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals have moved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur.
...Helene Gayle, the head of CARE, said evangelicals “have made some incredible contributions” in the struggle against global poverty. “We don’t give them credit for the changes they’ve made,” she added. Fred Krupp, the president of Environmental Defense, said, “Many evangelical leaders have been key to taking the climate issue across the cultural divide.”
Read the whole column here.
For those of you who have read the 2006 bestselling book, "Who Really Cares?", I think this is a solid recap of the book's premise and apt translation to the current electoral process.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
What Would Jesus Do?
...not post this ad on Craigslist. Once I got past the anger, I found humor in this.
Those Random Interactions
Inherent to living in the city is the almost compulsory interactions with strangers - interactions you likely wouldn't have with such frequency if you living in such a great concentation of people. This very fact is perhaps one the greatest things about living in the city.
Sometimes the interactions are awkward. Sometimes they are encouraging. Sometimes they are baffling. Sometimes they are disturbing. Sometimes they are hilarious. And, sometimes they are simply frustrating. I was realizing today that, in any given day, I have at least one interaction with a stranger and more often than not my interaction falls into one of the categories. I think that maybe I've become so accustomed to these extra-ordinary events that I don't even make note of them later in conversation however baffling or frustrating or hilarious they may be.
For instance, Wednesday. In a grimmy, slushy, straight-out-of-an-action-thriller creepy parking garage next to Columbia University down on Wabash, I encountered a rather large, stumpy Polish man who, after locking my keys in my car, proceeded to ream me out for his own mistake, blaming it on me. with his broken English, I could not tell you exactly why he believe it was my fault but, it was simply, in his mind, my fault. I should have told him this was going to happen. 30 minutes later. still can't get into my car. he walks back in to the front office and proceeds to argue with me about my payment for parking. he argued this time that, because I wasn't a student at Columbia I should not have received validated parking and therefore owed him another 20-some dollars. I proceeded to respond (in a contrastingly calm demeanor) that he was ridiculous. it was not his decision who should receive validated parking but, rather, it was Columbia University facility security that had cleared me. (Nevermind the fact that he locked my keys in the car and, if I had it my way, I shouldn't have to pay anything for my inconvenience.)
But, then, backup one week. Last Friday. It's early morning and I've not prepared enough time in the morning to dig myself out of the 5-foot snow drift in front of my car nor the 18-inches which accumulated overnight behind my car. In fact, I don't even own a shovel. (I did last year and I don't know where it is now. Because I believe I've only misplaced it, I won't go out and get another one. Poor reasoning. I know.) AND, I had planned a road trip for later in the day on Friday and had a ridiculous number of bags to schelp out to the car.
I figure it was best to tackle this project like any other - one step at a time. I brushed off my car. Trudged through the snow to the auto mechanic's shop and borrowed his shovel and just when I was about to embark on the biggest step of all for a weakling such as myself, a maroon Jeep (Grand Cherokee!) pulls up. A Hispanic neighbor (I'm presuming) of mine jumps out and, without any mastery of the English language, charades to me that he is willing to shovel me out. There was one shovel, though, and two of us. A dynamic which immediately threw me into a personal dilemma - the feministic bursts out of me every now and again at, I will admit, very inconvenient times. I had to watch as this gentleman who, thank God still values chilvary (and hence, retains the "gentle" in front of his name in my book) literally bails me out. I had nothing to repay him with! A true gift. I could only thank him and proceed on to work.
Backup another couple days. Tuesday of last week. I was driving home at 11 p.m. down Lake Shore Drive in the cold and the snow dump. Despite the cold and the weather, I figured this would be as good a time as any to make my grocery run. No one would be in Dominicks, right? And, I had the energy. Why not? Sure enough, it was just as I thought. Only the folks stocking the shelves and I took up space in the store.
While I retain that this was a good idea, I will be honest...it was a bit eery. The quiet. The florescent lights. No beeping of any kind or overhead music. And, I had this feeling I'd run into someone I knew who, would incidently have had the same random idea as I. I was jumpy, needless to say. It was at that moment, when I was walking down Aisle 2 - the soup aisle - that I receive a tap on the shoulder. I jumped, naturally. And spun around. (Quickly doing a count of the number of people I knew who could POSSIBLY be shopping at this store at this time in this ungodly weather.) I turn around and it's a Dominicks' employee hoping only to...let's say, strike a fancy with me. But, the scared look on my face was not the pretty one he'd seen walking fown Aisle 1 a couple minutes earlier. So, he promptly ran (no joke!) away with a quick wink. And I...was completely weirded out.
Like I said, it's the daily interaction with strangers in the city which make for great stories. Keeps life interesting! and keeps me beholden to city life.
Sometimes the interactions are awkward. Sometimes they are encouraging. Sometimes they are baffling. Sometimes they are disturbing. Sometimes they are hilarious. And, sometimes they are simply frustrating. I was realizing today that, in any given day, I have at least one interaction with a stranger and more often than not my interaction falls into one of the categories. I think that maybe I've become so accustomed to these extra-ordinary events that I don't even make note of them later in conversation however baffling or frustrating or hilarious they may be.
For instance, Wednesday. In a grimmy, slushy, straight-out-of-an-action-thriller creepy parking garage next to Columbia University down on Wabash, I encountered a rather large, stumpy Polish man who, after locking my keys in my car, proceeded to ream me out for his own mistake, blaming it on me. with his broken English, I could not tell you exactly why he believe it was my fault but, it was simply, in his mind, my fault. I should have told him this was going to happen. 30 minutes later. still can't get into my car. he walks back in to the front office and proceeds to argue with me about my payment for parking. he argued this time that, because I wasn't a student at Columbia I should not have received validated parking and therefore owed him another 20-some dollars. I proceeded to respond (in a contrastingly calm demeanor) that he was ridiculous. it was not his decision who should receive validated parking but, rather, it was Columbia University facility security that had cleared me. (Nevermind the fact that he locked my keys in the car and, if I had it my way, I shouldn't have to pay anything for my inconvenience.)
But, then, backup one week. Last Friday. It's early morning and I've not prepared enough time in the morning to dig myself out of the 5-foot snow drift in front of my car nor the 18-inches which accumulated overnight behind my car. In fact, I don't even own a shovel. (I did last year and I don't know where it is now. Because I believe I've only misplaced it, I won't go out and get another one. Poor reasoning. I know.) AND, I had planned a road trip for later in the day on Friday and had a ridiculous number of bags to schelp out to the car.
I figure it was best to tackle this project like any other - one step at a time. I brushed off my car. Trudged through the snow to the auto mechanic's shop and borrowed his shovel and just when I was about to embark on the biggest step of all for a weakling such as myself, a maroon Jeep (Grand Cherokee!) pulls up. A Hispanic neighbor (I'm presuming) of mine jumps out and, without any mastery of the English language, charades to me that he is willing to shovel me out. There was one shovel, though, and two of us. A dynamic which immediately threw me into a personal dilemma - the feministic bursts out of me every now and again at, I will admit, very inconvenient times. I had to watch as this gentleman who, thank God still values chilvary (and hence, retains the "gentle" in front of his name in my book) literally bails me out. I had nothing to repay him with! A true gift. I could only thank him and proceed on to work.
Backup another couple days. Tuesday of last week. I was driving home at 11 p.m. down Lake Shore Drive in the cold and the snow dump. Despite the cold and the weather, I figured this would be as good a time as any to make my grocery run. No one would be in Dominicks, right? And, I had the energy. Why not? Sure enough, it was just as I thought. Only the folks stocking the shelves and I took up space in the store.
While I retain that this was a good idea, I will be honest...it was a bit eery. The quiet. The florescent lights. No beeping of any kind or overhead music. And, I had this feeling I'd run into someone I knew who, would incidently have had the same random idea as I. I was jumpy, needless to say. It was at that moment, when I was walking down Aisle 2 - the soup aisle - that I receive a tap on the shoulder. I jumped, naturally. And spun around. (Quickly doing a count of the number of people I knew who could POSSIBLY be shopping at this store at this time in this ungodly weather.) I turn around and it's a Dominicks' employee hoping only to...let's say, strike a fancy with me. But, the scared look on my face was not the pretty one he'd seen walking fown Aisle 1 a couple minutes earlier. So, he promptly ran (no joke!) away with a quick wink. And I...was completely weirded out.
Like I said, it's the daily interaction with strangers in the city which make for great stories. Keeps life interesting! and keeps me beholden to city life.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Dreadful to be Alone with the New Testament
Edith Stein in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Orbis, 2005)
"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."
- Soren Kierkegaard, “Kill the Commentators” in Provocations (Orbis, 2003)
"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."
- Soren Kierkegaard, “Kill the Commentators” in Provocations (Orbis, 2003)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Made it on a Winter Weekend Get-Away
Living in the Midwest it's always a challenge to add pizzaz to the dreary months of November through May. If it's not rain, it's snow, not snow, it's wind, not wind, it's clouds and fog. Fortunately, Chicago offers lots to do...indoors. But, sometimes, you just have to get away.
That, my friends, is exactly what I did, albeit not to a dry, sunny place but, to another cloudy place - Roberts, WI - that was made sunny by time well-spent with friends.
Little broomball for folks...
...little hot air balloon festival in town.
And, a winter weekend getaway, is not complete without this....
that's right. a nap.
(I can't take credit for any of these pictures. While I brought my camera, I soon decided to leave the task to others who had big cameras, with lots of lens, and wore the thing like it was a 5th apendage.)
AND....on a completely unrelated note. Care of my friend, Anna. This Really? What the heck is this gal thinking. I would think this was all tongue-and-check but, the t-shirts? there is a line to tongue-and-cheek and I think she's crossed it. What do you think?
That, my friends, is exactly what I did, albeit not to a dry, sunny place but, to another cloudy place - Roberts, WI - that was made sunny by time well-spent with friends.
Little broomball for folks...
...little hot air balloon festival in town.
And, a winter weekend getaway, is not complete without this....
that's right. a nap.
(I can't take credit for any of these pictures. While I brought my camera, I soon decided to leave the task to others who had big cameras, with lots of lens, and wore the thing like it was a 5th apendage.)
AND....on a completely unrelated note. Care of my friend, Anna. This Really? What the heck is this gal thinking. I would think this was all tongue-and-check but, the t-shirts? there is a line to tongue-and-cheek and I think she's crossed it. What do you think?
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