Living word by word

climate change

A few weeks ago I wrote in Journey with Jesus about "the Dial and the Switch," and there certainly has been a "switch" in the amount of media attention to climate change in recent months. This is either

a. Good, because it is finally a mainstream issue

b. Bad, because more evidence of climate change means it really is happening, and faster than we expected

c. both

I'm going for c, but I am VERY encouraged by the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday which affirms the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases. YES!! It was a 5-4 split, so I'm praying for Ruth Bader Ginsberg's health a lot these days.

What continues to baffle me are those who say, "yes, there is climate change, but it's not human-caused." If you accept the science that we have a warming globe -- and only the fringe does not --, regardless of the cause, would you not want to ameliorate its affects anyway? Or are the naysayers so fatalist that they are content to let whoever suffers suffer, no questions asked?  Here is where the role of the U.S. Christian community becomes vital, I think, because as Americans we both contribute more carbon to the environment than most, AND we are in the best position to save ourselves. It will take a firm commitment from those who believe we should serve the "least of these" to turn this around so that the global impact of climate change is addressed.

article link

Friends have pointed out that my link to my Christian Century article didn't work. And under the current front page of their website, it's not easy to find. So here's the link directly to my article, which the editors re-named "Off road." John Buchanan also commented on it in his editor's note, which is here.

troublemakers

Don't mess with poets. That's the way firedoglake sums up the Poets Against War movement.  Laura Bush's comment that this had become a "political event instead of a literary one" reminds me of Larry Woiwode's comment on MPR when Governor Pawlenty refused to back having a Minnesota poet laureate. The governor rationalized that it was unfair to  the other arts to privilege poetry. Woiwode rightly pointed out that human beings govern with language; we use words to make law, to debate policy, to discuss the common good. Lawmakers use words, not music or sculpture. When those who govern start demeaning language with jargon and half-truths, you're darn right that poets are going to respond.

guest essay

I have a guest essay posted on Journey with Jesus this week for next Sunday's lectionary lessons. While you're there, check out Dan Clenendin's fine poetry and book recommendations.

letter to the editor

The Strib published a letter to the editor I wrote based on yesterday's blog about Katherine Kersten. I'll pick up on Joe's comment that what bugs me about Kersten is not her conservatism per se, but her unwillingness to break out of a party-line mold. Sometimes, when her focus is raising children or classical education, I find myself agreeing with her, because like many parents I know, I am not an "anything goes" liberal when it comes to the media. I know a lot of Christian progressives who disagree with parts of the Democratic party platform. But unlike the other Metro columnists, who are perfectly willing to call DFL'ers on their own stupidity sometimes, I don't think I've ever heard Kersten disagree with a GOP position or person.

forthcoming

Breaking news! The Christian Century is going to publish a piece I wrote: "Everything I needed to know about postmodern minsitry, I learned mountain biking." I've used it as a presentation over the years since my work at Spirit Garage, so it feels like an "old" thing to me, but thanks to my dear husband who finally convinced me to get it into printable form. I'll post the link when it's available.

amateur

Well, I've been fresh out of original thoughts this week. Might have something to do with re-entry from a monastery straight into a funeral, kindergarten selection for our oldest, preaching  and now 10 days of single parenting lying ahead. Whew.

So instead I've finally updated my typelists a bit. I've tried to keep these short and small, in part because I like the idea of actually knowing most of the people on my blogrolls. I can now say I've met the creator of Journey with Jesus, Daniel Clenendin, who was also at the writers workshop I attended two weeks ago. Good stuff there. And I really do know the creator of the Ironic Catholic, who wishes to remain anonymous. But I can vouch for her Catholic and her theological credentials, and I second her wish that the gift of bilocation be bestowed upon mothers. I mean really, it's wasted on monastic types.

home

The “Writing as Spiritual Practice” workshop last week was lovely. Mount Calvary Monastery in Santa Barbara is a bright and still place of refuge overlooking the bay. The quiet alone would have been restorative, but in addition I got the company of 22 writers, including Nora Gallagher and Barbara Brown Taylor. We had every morning to write and each afternoon to discuss, Eucharist every day if we wanted it, wonderful food, comfortable beds. I felt like someone opened the windows on a stuffy room in my brain.

But then Thursday evening I got horrible news. A member of our community was killed in a car accident, along with her sister-in-law. Friday morning I learned that my successor at Spirit Garage lost both his parents to a car accident last week as well. I changed my flight to a red-eye Saturday night so that I could be back Sunday for worship and visitation in the evening. Turns out a sister of the deceased was on the same flight.

The visitation took place here at the church last night, and people started arriving 30 minutes before the published time, blinking as if they’d just been awakened at midnight by a harsh and unfamiliar alarm. Members of our congregation who have entered this building thousands of times looked disoriented. Before long the line to the coffin in the sanctuary extended into the narthex and down the hall, the whole length of the building. People who rarely hug embraced as if they had been away on a long journey. Some stood in that line for two hours, but not a word of impatience was spoken, not a complaint about aching feet or backs.

Earlier in the afternoon we had hosted a birthday party for a woman in our congregation who has turned 100. She has outlived most members of her family, including her daughter, and there was no question that this was where the celebration should be held. She wore purple, a classy ulstra suede jacket and a big corsage. There were mounds of food and music and laughter, and then the odd transition began as the building put on its mourning clothes. Friends and family members packed up the birthday cards and sweets as the funeral home arrived with the body of this woman, just shy of her 60th birthday, killed in an instant.

I am proud of this community and the love it pours out in joy and in sorrow, but I am even more grateful for the existence of the church, this place where the old have family when the blood relatives are gone, and where families who suddenly find themselves literally motherless can also gather, where senseless loss is shared, and held, in the embrace of God.

published!

Hey! I’m published!

The letter I sent to the Christian Century months ago finally appeared this week (in shortened form) and Norman Wirzba, the author of the piece I was writing about, responded! Very cool. A version of the same thoughts appeared here on August 8, but sorry,  I'm still trying to figure out how to link to my own blog. Any techies out there who can help, let me know.