Random Thoughts

1. I realize that I conflate extroversion with moral virtue and superior character.  2. The 18 + hours I just spent cooking dried chickpeas in a crock pot leaves me uncertain about whether humans are actually meant to eat them.  3. Caturday?????? Adopt a Cat - Animal Welfare Just another WordPress site KWHUMANE.COM

1. Now that I know how easy it is to make a cheese sauce becoming a vegan is going to be very hard. 2. I ain't never, ever, never "going home to Rome" --the way power operated to cover-up of the priest abuse scandal (see the Netflix series "The Keepers" for the most recent reflection on this) mitigates against any theological attraction of "universalism." 3. Whoa! The trailer for Wrinkle in Time! Looks awesome.

1. Monopoly: the official board game of perdition.  2. Finds that being in positions of leadership exponentially increases ones use of metaphors drawn from sports (and that I am not immune to this practice.) 3. I laugh every time I hear a Canadian say Regina.

1. Believes that pastoral care and preaching are interconnected tasks. 2. The secret to excellent pulled pork/chicken seems to be Coca-Cola.  3. Tee-ball has convinced me that Sam is kind of a nihilist.

1. There is always something. (One of my Mother's many sayings that makes more sense as time goes on.) 2. It is hard when you love something/ someone so much, but you just can't find the words to recommend it to other people. A short list: the children's book "The Great Gilly Hopkins," Gilead, the Inspector Gamache mystery, the Mennonites. At the top of this list: Jesus.  3. Is so thankful to not have to constantly prove I am smart enough anymore. It was an impossible part of the first 15 years of adulthood.

1. Sesquicentennial is a great word. 2. I think that Mma Ramotswe is an excellent pastoral mentor.  3. Even Sam realizes that the cancellation of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was a loss. 4. Is opposed to Lobster Mac and Cheese on principle.

1. The first day of summer vacation is always the worst day of summer vacation (the absolute inverse of Christmas break.) 2. let it go  let it go – the smashed word broken open vow or the oath cracked length wise – let it go it was sworn to go let them go – the truthful liars and the false fair friends and the boths and neithers – you must let them go they were born to go let all go – the big small middling tall bigger really the biggest and all things – let all go dear so comes love e.e. cummings 3. My therapist advice to write a letter to Dad looms like an Undergrad reflection paper.

1. A bran version of shredded mini wheats is overkill.  2. Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain. 3. Wonder if summer is coming or whether instead we are going to be stuck in a T.S. Eliiot poem until Fall.  4. I know what a scourge it can be on society as a whole, but I am really benefitting from the current fashion of people desiring "authentic" leaders. It reminds me of how lucky I was to enter college just as curve-less bodies, wavy hair, and khakis were in their ascendency.

1. I think the therapist would have told to write "a letter to Dad" no matter what I told her, but it is still good advice. 2. If you liked Moana you'll love Wave Rider. 3. Visiting people near to death makes one realize how much we are distracted--even at the end--by paperwork. 4. I want to be a better person, but not just yet. (yes, a play on Augustine.)

1. Spaghetti, Salad, and Garlic bread almost always makes me feel better.  2. You can't let gender based micro-aggressions destroy your momentum. There are goods worth achieving even if you do have to try harder, explain yourself multiple times, or even--sometimes-- let someone else get the credit. {I don't think you should let someone else 'take' the credit.} 3. That said: I don't think any goals are worth wearing uncomfortable shoes to obtain.  4. Will it ever stop raining?

(1) My first cat was named Wonder because I tried to think of a word to match the splendidness of this little white kitten. I stand by that choice. (2) Do beautiful people get tired of people telling them that they are beautiful (especially on FB)? (3) I am not committed to keeping Numbers in the canon. (4) Spent an hour and a half googling "thrown out back" and "grief"--last time I threw out my back was seven years ago (go figure.)

1. Wisteria is the most beautiful name for a plant. Hands down  2. I don't care how much you want Trump gone; there is no way that James Comey deserves to be played by Jimmy Stewart. [a tweet I saw] 3. You can almost always spot the murderer in American crime shows simply by virtue of the fact that they are the best actor.  4. 7 weeks and still no cat has mysteriously arrived at my door. I have kept one can of tunafish on hand just in case.

(1) If you sing like Art Garfunkel you get to be egotistical. (2) Pizza is rarely a bad idea. This is also true of Avocados, Bacon, Cheese, Tart Apples, and deserts with Rhubarb. (3) Smoothies are a racket and so are 500 dollar blenders. My 10 dollar blender has gamely smooshed and smoothed things for 8 years.  (4) Becoming Mennonite and marrying Doug were my two best adult decisions.

(1) When I was a kids pets just came to you (we lived near a dirt road where people would dump animals.) Wish a kitty would just arrive. (2) Read Nadia Bolz-Weber and found her personal narrative engaging, but I also realized that Lutheranism is the tradition that I resonate with the least.  (3) Doug spends hours and hours calculating election polls, but, in general, there is a pretty deep resonance between my gut and his polling. In other words, statistically speaking it is a very safe bet to predict that the person I have (or would have) voted for will lose.

(1) I browsed the humane society page. I really want a gray kitty that I can name Ms. Marple.   (2) I want to walk the Camino after reading  Doreen Martens ' blog. (3) Met with the preaching team and they were so over-the-top affirming that I feel like I need to preach a dud. However, truth be told, preaching is a very weird act and right now some spirit is telling me that I really would quite enjoy sitting her until Midnight working on this draft. (4) I just want to chat with my Dad-- about what I made for dinner and the LeBron James and my tomato plants.   # truelove .

(1) Watched Pete Seeger "The Power of Song" and folded piles of laundry because that was all I could manage. (2) 1 month.

(1) There is nothing more happify-ing than ducklings. I once snuck a duckling into our house inside my tshirt. Trust me about ducklings!  (2) Puppies are also pretty great and kittens too!  (3) I didn't get to preach this Easter so everyone will have to wait until next year to hear about my resurrecting duck!  (4) I asked the church accountant what mulch is for-- still not quite certain--but I am even more sure that mulch is the responsible thing to do!

(1) It is hard to generate random thoughts when you are also trying to write a sermon. (2) I don't understand mulch, except that it seems like the responsible thing to put in your flowerbeds. (3) Passive Aggression is to Aggression as Arthritis is to a Broken Arm.   (4) I don't need a dog either.

(1) Wonders if the colored background grants gravitas, or, rather, simply doesn't work for anything less pithy than "be calm and carry on." (2) Wonders if the whole "simple acts of kindness will change the world thing" is a massive propaganda campaign foisted on us all by global elites (not often just sometimes.)  (3) Thought it was already the 500th anniversary of The Reformation because of the lego Martin Luther set. (Why I never had the metal to be a Church Historian.) #1517

(1) Baseball is the game of democracy. (2) Those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are no joke. (3) Reads cookbooks for leisure and then cooks the same 20 dishes (it might be time to add a new dish to the queue). (4) This is the first time I went to the grocery store and everything didn't remind me of my Dad (just the pork chops--he used to make really yummy pork chops.)

(1) I am so thankful it has stopped raining.  (2) I still don't need a cat.  (3) Gratitude is wonderful, but evocation of its necessity shouldn't become a cudgel. Same goes for "enjoying the little things."   (4) That said: I am the boss of loving the little things--especially dandelions. (4) 3 weeks.

Johanna made a complicated crepe breakfast that involved pumpkin,chocolate, beer, apple sauce. She had to work under constraints as  Samuel Hatlem  ate the only apple in the house (lucky they sell those at the corner store). Being a mother means that you get to have a large role in introducing absolutely, unique, and brand-new chaos into the world--persons that are immutably good because they bear the divine image, but undeniably strange. My own hippie Mom had no idea that she would raise a religious zealot.

(1) Posts honoring Mothers on Mother's Day often make me feel like I am not ethereal and selfless enough.  (2) You can get pumpkins beer all year long at the LCBO--the rest of the year it is simply called "Chai Beer"--you are welcome.  (3) Enjoying Moltmann playing with the opening of The Confessions in the following passage:  “When I love God I love the beauty of bodies, the rhythm of movements, the shining of eyes, the embraces, the feelings, the scents, the sounds of all this protean creation. When I love you, my God, I want to embrace it all, for I love you with all my senses in the creations of your love. In all the things that encounter me, you are waiting for me. For a long time I looked for you within myself and crept into the shell of my soul, shielding myself with an armour of inapproachability. But you were outside - outside myself - and enticed me out of the narrowness of my heart into the broad place of love for life. So I came out of myself and fou...

(1) Death, taxes, AND dishes.  (2) I just ordered my first port-a-pottie.   # administration   (3) Looking forward to a visit with  Heather Tigchelaar Van Boom . Let the wild rumpus begin. (4) Contemplating whether I need to do the dishes before she comes.  (5) The Book of Ruth and the Story of the Good Samaritan tell the same story and it is the story we most need to hear.

(1) I walked to work today (5km) and enjoyed the birds and the sound of running water, but then started feeling uneasy being all alone in the woods. [introspection]  (2) Thought a long time about the deep-seated desire that white folks have to be exonerated of racism and how that seems to fuel an endless variety of packaged "conversion experiences."  (3) There is some karmic action that happens more quickly in a church. For instance, today I sent someone in our church Turkey Chili and immediately received a call from someone offering to bring our family Turkey Chili.

(1) I am pretty bereft of thoughts both random, and nonrandom, after sitting through meetings all day. (2) Men repeating (and getting credit) for things woman say is a real thing, my friends.  (3) I loved Anne of Green Gable when I was younger and, of course, the love story between Anne and Gilbert, but the last time I read the book (as an adult) it was the love story between Anne and Marilla that really got me. [Mother's Day] (4) I don't know if I am doing well enough to return to work full time, but the alternative has included: attempting to get Sam's sock truly white, trying to get dandelions out of our lawn (even though I love dandelions), and spending an inordinate amount of time skulking around the internet reading gossip about my alma mater. The only thing I have to show for this are holes in Sam's socks.

(1) It looks like our church will have our refugee family here by this Fall. It is an exciting sign of life and Pentecost amongst us.  (2) Wonders how and under what circumstances someone becomes obligated to write a book.  (3)  Robert W. Gauthier  really should consider starting a breakfast sandwich food truck. Thank you for visiting us.   (4) Have been tempted to get either a patio set or a working bike. Ugh, opportunity cost and priorities.

(1) The sun! This is usually the kind of day that I would quote e.e.cummings on the true blue dream of a sky. (2) If you live in the Eastern Woodland—as I have most of my life—you always experience the blue sky as something in interplay with leaves and branches. (3) I haven’t gotten to the part of grieving where i feel like I need to go running. Kind of dreading that part, but I did lose about 20 lbs last time as compensation for the shin splints. (4) I don’t need a cat.  (5) Two weeks.

(1) I napped nearly 5 hours today--grief is a tiring business. (2) I haven't preached since the first Sunday of Lent (and that is entirely too long). (3) "So What" by Pink is a practically perfect break-up song. It is a bit less triumphal than Dylan's "Most Likely You Go Your Way," but I think it gets the binary nature better (i.e. mood swings). It works just as well for breaking up with the academy, and I played it in the background when I  got the the "we don't want you" call from Westmont. I would like to have more bravado and say with Dylan:  "Then time will tell who has fell And who’s been left behind When you go your way and I go mine" Yet, I think the best I can do is: I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind You could have done better but I don't mind You just kinda wasted my precious time But don't think twice, it's all right.  (4) I literally waited with anticipation for Scorsese's Silence for t...