pinakidion.*

I want to take the time to thank a lot of people. This should be my last post about our daughter unless something changes dramatically. Anyone that wants details can email me. Treatment for her will be quite manageable, but will take about six months in total.

Thanks to salguod for a wonderful post and well-wishes. The song lyrics were very helpful, especially as I shared to you that my struggle has not been a lack of faith that Elani would be okay. Next time you actually speak to me on the phone, I won’t sound as distracted, I hope.

Thanks to Scott for the prayers. I’m not really sorry that we are devoid of cigars for this birth. We look pretty green in the picture I have.

Thanks to mrtool for the rambling phone call Thursday or Wednesday (I don’t remember.) and for checking on me quite a bit. I called you back and left a message earlier. Visitation will be Friday night or Saturday if all goes well.

Thanks to Rock for the thoughts and prayers and encouragement. I was honored to help read pre-release versions of your book. I really look forward to seeing you again and introducing you to my son and daughter.

Thanks to Milly for the continued prayers and support. Thoughts of chickeny goodness kept me going.

Thanks to Mark for the prayers and support. If there is a next time, I hope you win the pool. I also hope that both our churches back out of the UP before the end of the year.

Thanks to beg, the squeamish (You should have seen the eye exam, I actually wretched.) for the prayers.

Thanks to Alan for the prayers and support - not just for Elani. There is a reason you are an elder.

Thanks to TTK for the prayers and thoughts. You’re right, Elani arrived first. For the rest of you, I’ll let you know the news she preempted after someone finally decides to post it.

Thanks to my buddy Kurt, who really should move to Nebraska. It gets cold here. Seriously, though, thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I know I said that I wouldn’t ask for it anymore, but seriously, I no longer want my five percent (or six percent).

Thanks to Bobber for the prayers and blessings. I thought about you during the ordeal, especially my very warped, and unCalvinist perspectives of predestination that many would call Calvinist. Thanks for the things you have shared here.

Thanks to Daughter for the thoughts and prayers. See you at Nonny’s site - I’ll post more.

Thanks to P. Allan Fredrick for the many thoughts shared. I value what you share and appreciate hearing from you from time to time.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, our son’s first babysitter. She kept watch over him for many, many hours, especially after the loss of her own mother a few days before. I’m glad that I could create a temporary website for her.

Thanks to both families for their love and support. We long to see you, especially my family in NC. We had planned for summer, but Elani’s continued care may require a delay until September. (It won’t be October because our son won’t be free for half that month.) We appreciate the thoughts and prayers.

Thanks to the many churches that had Elani for their prayer lists. This list is not limited to and includes:
The Omaha Church of Christ, The Colington United Methodist Church, and The Jarvisburg Church of Christ

Thanks to many across the country that only knew a name mentioned by a friend. Folks in Texas, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Indianapolis, New York, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Mexico, Washington, Utah and other places have prayed for her in one form or another. Those prayers and/or thoughts have been from individuals of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, LDS and Buddhist faiths as well as individuals that find their spirituality in Native American traditions.

The internet can make the world very large and very small at the same time. I am grateful for how small it has made the world for this time of temporary grief and sadness. I talk about unity sometimes and how much it means to me. In some ways, our daughter has been a part of something larger than i have ever seen. Six degrees of separation? Maybe twenty years ago. I’d wager of no more than five.

I also want to thank the United Methodist Women of Nebraska that met together in Alma, Nebraska in June of last year. Alma has about 1200 people that live there. Our daughter has a beautiful quilt because of their simple encouragement of love. See, small churches can do a lot.

Lastly, there are many that I may never know that have offered encouragement, prayers, and other things. I am grateful, even if I am not currently aware of what you have done. I do not believe that any prayer is too small or insignificant. God hears them all.

Thank you.

Thanks to everyone for the support. I feel a lot better now, thanks in part to prayers and well-wishes. Also thanks in part to a good lesson about Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10. More on that later.

Most of my difficulty has been with God and not the fact that surgery was coming. Still, they are going to put my baby under and it is unnerving.

Just wanted to let everyone know.

I go to work on Wednesday thinking in the back of my mind that my wife may give me a call and say come to the hospital. It’s what happened with our son, so I figured it might happen again. There’s a certain advantage to avoiding the worry of whether or not to drive to the hospital because the contractions are a certain length apart. It’s almost like going to a baby store.

Sure enough, my wife calls and I quickly post a few words here to let folks know. (Another advantage. Had I been at home, there would have been no post.) Knowing the drill, I calmly and casually beat down the door to my office and run to the car. Everything was calm and serenity in my mother-in-law’s Honda, which was a good thing. There was all kinds of chaos going on around my car: people diving onto the ground, cars swerving, and lots of people waving their arms yelling and carrying on. Like I said, the calm of the car was comforting as the stick-shift groaned and gasped into unfamiliar gears.

I got to the maternity ward and everyone was happily awaiting our blessed event. It turned out that my wife’s water was dangerously low, so they were going to induce her as mildly as possible. It involves something called posteglanderin (sp) and is a good bit milder than petosin. We wiled away a few hours waiting for the effects to take hold. My son played happily on the floor and generally made certain that he was the center of attention for as long as possible.

I have no idea where he gets this need to be a ham.

About 7pm, my wife begins to wonder if she is feeling contractions or not. The monitor says that she is, but she is never quite sure. As she had decided to have no , and no epidural, we began the relaxing exercises to deal with the pain. As the medicine took effect and the contractions came more frequently, my wife became the picture of calm.

Seriously, ask anyone that was at the birth. They would watch the contractions on her belly, read them on the monitor, and stand agawk that her expression never changed from one of perfect serenity. She was in another place. This turned out to be good as I popped my ankle while sitting next to her. She didn’t hear the pop or the muffled strangulation noises coming from me as I searched for my happy place. Our friend signed to me asking if I was ok. I signed back that I was trying to be calm like my wife. I bit my hand to demonstrate how much it hurt - I noticed later that I still had the bite marks.

About 10:30 pm, she decides to go to the bathroom. When she doesn’t want to come out, I know that the baby is coming. She asked for the bathtub to be filled and I am relishing the idea of climbing into the jacuzzi tub with her for the final part of the birth. After what seemed to be a few days, the tub finally fills enough for her to get in. It’s then that I realize that this was the room with the single tub, not the family sized tub. She also indicates to me that she doesn’t want the jets running. Sorry, Kurt, no jacuzzi action was involved in the birth of our daughter.

Once in the tub, she finally breaks her silence to say that she is not going to be able to finish the delivery. She didn’t raise her voice at all, she said it about as matter-of-factly as you would tell someone that you’re going to the store. By this time, the nurse midwife and two nurses are in the room, but not the bathroom. The nurse midwife quickly reassures her and everyone prepares for another long period of labor.

What happens next can only be described as a tornado. There was a lot of concentrated, yet furious activity that occured in the space of about five minutes. I was sitting on the tile floor next to the tub with my hand of my wife’s shoulder. I figured out that my role was to be seen and not heard. (This was much better than last time where my role was to be chided, cramped, and not comforted.) The touchstone to the malestrom was my wife saying, “I think I need to push.”

The nurse midwife asks where the pressure is occuring and as my wife is saying where it is, she lets out her only yell. My mother-in-law and my son wake up upon hearing this and make their way to the bathroom. The third year med student in the bathroom with us begins to process what is happening, but is somewhat frozen by the effect of everyone else’s activity. The nurse midwife throws off her coat in a Zorro-like motion and dives with outstretched hands toward the tub. The nurse in the other room hears the nurse midwife’s order for something, and dashes toward the bathroom as well. Our family friend, a physician’s assistant and witness to hudnreds of births knows that she needs to get the video camera, but is unable to move toward the camera to retreive it due to the flow of people coming in. It was something like a salmon swimming against the current and all I could think was that our child would be born soon and I hoped that it was a .

My wife is the eye of the storm. She pushes without much sound and I see our child make an entrance into this world. The nurse midwife asks my wife to push, despite the lack of a contraction. She pushes one more time and our daughter is born.

Moments later, my mother-in-law, our son, the nurse from the other room, and the video camera arrive simultaneously. Our friend asks me how to work the camera, but I find I don’t remember myself. I take the camera and go on instinct, an instinct which proved to be right.

What Happens Next

Our daughter is very beautiful. She was, of course, covered in white mikly fluid and a lot of other things. I got to cut the cord and see her snuggle against her mother’s chest. Her big eyes and dark hair are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

However, we all notice that she is not turning pink, but remains quite purple. I see her quiver her bottom lip and realize that she cannot breathe.

“Not again,” I think. “Lord God Almighty, not again.”

My wife was able to hold her and the team tried all kinds of things to encourage her to breathe. Nothing is working and the nurses go to rush her to the nursery for more care. My wife and both think that it is happening all over again and we sit in shock for awhile. The nurses encourage her to move to the bed to deal with the placenta and cord and all of that. I lose perspective of time and space long enough to just try and focus on my wife.

Some time later, they come in and tell us that they cannot pass anything through her nostrils. Babies, by definition, can only breather through their nose, so she was rushed into the NICU and intubated. We have a few more visits with other doctors, but the long and short of it turns out to be that, like our son, she has a blockage in her nose. Unlike our son, it is her entire nose.

I think I can tell you that I was very angry.

I hospitals and as nice as the staff is, I really really do not like ICU. I spent 11 days in the NICU with our son and I had hoped to avoid seeing the brand new NICU. This was not meant to be, I guess.

There are a lot of very good people here. All of this is really comfortable in a strange way. It was like driving my morther-in-law’s stick shift, it all came back to me after a little bit of time. I have relationships with all these people that I saw exactly 18 months ago for a similar thing. We can all compare stories and contrast them with our son’s experience. A part of me wishes that I had met these people in everyday life and not as a result of their professional expertise.

Two children with blocked airways. Two surguries. Two NICU stays. Two six figure hospital bills. Two missed opportunities to come home with our new child like most Americans do. Somedays, I hug the bassinet with our daughter and cry. Somedays, I just look out the window. I shouldn’t be as comfortable with all of this as I am. I had hoped for something more and it upsets me that it did not happen.

I think about how good the coffee is in the family room of the NICU. I think about the surgery our duaghter will undergo. It’s similar to our son’s, but it is more risky as she cannot breathe at all without being intubated. I think about talking to the surgeon that operated on our son and how he remembers us from only 18 months ago. The staff is the same, no one appears to have aged very much at all. I look like I’ve aged ten years. My long hair is graying quite a bit when it is clean and I look tired. As with everything else in this world, I feel every emotion at once. My feelings sort out on paper like marching toy soldiers. They are not as organized in my mind.

Pray for our daughter. I beleive that she will be totally fine. There is not indication of Goldenhar’s Syndrome or other genetic defect outside of her nose. She is doing well and is exceedingly beautiful. If things go well, she will be operated on in a couple days. I am not worried about her health. Pray for me - this is hard to accept for me. I am grateful for my wife who once again is the calm of the storm.

Her name? Elani Rose Payne was born at 10:55 pm on April 18th. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 10 ounces. She is strong-willed and spirited. She demands nothing less than to be treated like the princess she is. She is loved by many.

I’m off to the hospital.

In times like these, I really feel that the best thing to do is say little and pray much. My wife is a very sensitive soul and she is grieving the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I think it is appropriate to mourn and reflect. The biggest struggle for many Christians, I imagine, is how a loving God allows tragedies like this to happen in the first place. I’ll be the first to tell you that I do not know the answer - I don’t even have a opinion. This is something that I have to work out in my own heart, especially at shocking events like the Va. Tech shootings, or Darfur, or our Government, or why certain individuals are still in power within the ICOC.

The one thing that I do know, however, is that this reaction from Dare2Share founder, Greg Siter is way off the mark. I feel like it is important enough to write something about careless and thoughtless reactions to tragedy.

As far as is known at this point, the fault of the shootings is Cho-Seung-Hui’s. He pulled the trigger. Blaming violent video games for this shooting is irresponsible - I suppose that what is happening in Darfur is because members of the Janjaweed played too much Mortal Kombat. I haven’t seen a report yet that speaks of Cho’s addiction to World of Warcraft or Halo2.

Worse yet is somehow blaming yourself and by extension, the entire Christian community for not doing ’something about it’. The something is not defined, nor is any real reason given for Greg’s culpability in this tragedy. The causes and solutions are much more complex in the real world than banning violent video games. There is no simple one-sentence answer.

I think about the reasons for tragedies like this and I have to understand that I do not know the reasons. If I spend time forcing the blame, I’m certain that I could rationalize blaming the President, the Virginia State Government, Va. Tech Administrators, Blacksburg police and Swat teams, specific department heads, immigration policies, inflation or the economy as a whole, Satan, American culture, South Korean culture, and many more. I guess for Greg, the first socially acceptable recipient of the blame was violent video games and violence in American culture. It is Cho’s fault, but assigning fault still doesn’t answer the question, “why?”

I ask God this question a lot, especially in regards to this. I pray for wisdom and wait for an answer. I know I may not get one and that is difficult. I know that I may not like the answer and that is also difficult. Somehow, though, I believe I know enough that I do not envision the Almighty answering by saying that I need to picket Gamers for selling Grand Theft Auto.

More than that, though, my question has more to do with why God allows it to happen, not why it happened at all. I think others, like my wife, struggle with that question more. Maybe I am weird and out-of-touch, but it is easier for me to believe that a person can convince themselves that shooting random people is the right thing to do rather than believe that God, knowing it will happen will choose to allow it to happen. I’m not Arminian enough to say that God was powerless to stop it. I’m not Calvinist enough to believe that it was preordained before the creation of the world. I’m not simplistic enough to believe that the answer lies ’somewhere between these two extremes’. A logical fallacy is still a logical fallacy.

So in the middle of my struggles to understand why, I don’t appreciate those divert the question. I would love to blame Hollywood and Rockstar Games and make them pay. Truth is, though, that the battle is not against physical things. There is no map with X’s to mark the locations of the enemy. The battle is internal and spiritual - to trust God when it feels easier to doubt Him.

The site of this massacre is sacred ground. It is the place where 30+ souls transitioned from Earth to the grave. It should be respected and treated with dignity. There is no doubt that Cho-Seung-Hui was a troubled soul - his struggles may never be known. There is no minimizing the sense of loss and pain that many feel at the loss of loved ones. What can we do now? We can embrace those hurting. We can help families to heal and forgive. We can be there for each other as we struggle to understand what this means to each of us. We can pray.

Shame on you Greg. There’s no excuse for this guilt-mongering and thoughtless response.

That means a few folks are starting to drop off the list.

But never fear, you’re second chance is here!

We’re hoping something happens by Wednesday at the latest, a family friend cannot be with us during the delivery if Dancing Bear comes any later.

That’s all the news!

I have been fascinated lately with variations on chess. The one played by many in Europe, including current Grandmasters, is Janus Chess. The board has two extra spaces (10 x 8 board) and each side has a Janus, a combination of a knight and bishop.

Having a combination piece means that a player can be checkmated with a Janus alone.

Reading about it, though, I stumbled upon a website with many, many different chess variants. People have combined pieces of all kinds, including ones from Shogi (chinese chess) and Tamerlane. Folks come up with some wild variations, including some rather unplayable ones. There’s a rabbit that can make as many knight moves in a counterclockwise fashion as it can. (Am I in check from your rabbit? Let me check.) There’s variations of the knight that make the “L” longer, wider, or both. There’s a checker piece that captures by jumping. The list is really large at chessvariants.org.

My favorite, however, is Chess with Different Armies. Four different armies have been playtested by the inventor and it is fascinating to see a game being played. Both sides are pretty much equal, but the tactics of each of definitely not the same. I imagine a tournament where players can switch armies between matches. I imagine two variant armies squaring off will be the most exciting matches.

If I ever live out my fantasy of opening a store, I’d like to create and sell Chess with Multiple Armies. It could be like the release of Deadwood with new armies every year. Heck, I may do that anyway.

Of course, I also like Arimaa, designed to confound computers. Enjoy the wikipedia reading.

No Baby Yet.

Okay, let’s take a guess at when you believe Dancing Bear will be born. The original due date was April 11. Our son was born around 6pm and was 11 days late. Most non-scientific means of determining gender point to Dancing Bear being a girl. There has been no indication yet that labor has begun.

Post your guess of the day and hour in the comments.

UPDATE FROM DOCTORS APPT: The baby is at -1 Station, dilation is 2cm. So all you folks guessing late are probably more accurate.

And no, Dancing Bear is not here, yet.

First, I have to say that Wordsworth is one of my favorite poets, next to T.S. Elliott, Williams Carlos Williams, et al. I’m not even that upset about putting “Daffodils” to hip-hop music. After all, Nas has recently declared that hip-hop is dead. However, there is something fun in watching a giant red squirrel deliver what is 95% Wordsworth poem in syncopated recitative.

Another is that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr is dead at 84. I first encountered Welcome to the Monkey House as a play in high school. I played the role of Harrison Bergeron, mainly because I had the voice for it, though not the build. I did not make it through Slaughterhouse Five, but I did read his other works and a couple of essays. Here is someone that thought differently than others, and I appreciated that a great deal.

He said in 2005 that he wanted his epitaph to be “The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.”

Lastly, my cousin in going a book tour. His book, Inside the Danger Zone, is a look at an incident involving the attack on the USS Stark. The synopsis on his site is better, so you should read it there. Congrats on a great first book. I look forward to the second.

The only thing that I’ve written lately, is a reworking of the Wikipedia article of Durak. Durak is a Russian card game that looks like fun at parties. The original article confuses the rules with strategy tips. This is how most of us describe the rules of the game. In a conversation, this works quite well, but in a written medium, it is terribly confusing.

So, for your perusal, here are the rules of Durak, edited by me.

Durak

Players
2 to 5 players.

Required Materials
Traditionally, a deck of 36 cards ranked A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 are used. This can be achieved by removing numerical cards 2 through 5 inclusive prior to play.

Setup
The deck is shuffled, and each player receives six cards. If multiple games have been played, often the loser of the previous game shuffles. If any player has six cards of the same color, the game is reset.

The top card of the remaining deck is drawn and placed face up on the table. The remaining cards are then placed face down across the revealed card so that the rank and suit of the revealed card is visible. All of these cards, including the face up card, comprise the draw pile.

The revealed card at the bottom of the draw pile determines the trump suit.

The player with the lowest trump plays first.

Gameplay
The starting player is the first attacker. The player to the attacker’s left is always the defender. After each turn, players replenish their hands from the draw pile and play proceeds clockwise. The attacker opens the turn by playing one card face up on the table as an attacking card. The player to the attacker’s left is the defender.

The defender has three options:

• Pass on the attack: To pass-on an attack, the defender must play a card of the same rank on all the attacking card(s). Once played, the turn ends. The player becomes the new attacker and the person to the player’s left becomes the new defender.
• Repel the attack: To repel an attack, the defender must play a higher ranked card on each and every attacking card. Cards of the trump suit are considered higher than any card in a non-trump suit. Once a defender has begun to repel an attack, any player (except the defender) can add attack cards provided that the new attack cards have the same rank as a card already in play and there are not more attacking cards than the number of cards in the defender’s hand.

  For example, if Player A attacks Player B with a Jack and Player B repels with a Queen leaving three cards in his hand, any player (even Player A) can add another Jack or Queen as an additional attacking card. No more than three additional attacking cards can be played.

  When the defender has successfully repelled an attack, all cards in play are discarded and the turn ends. Once an attack is repelled, the player begins a new attack on the player to their left.

• Concede: If a defender is unable to successfully repel or pass-on an attack, he or she must concede defeat. Any player (except the defender) can add attack cards provided that the new attack cards have the same rank as a card already in play. Once any new attack cards are added, all cards in play are placed in the defender’s hand and the turns ends. The defender also forfeits his or her turn. The player to the left becomes the new attacker and play continues.

Defense

• The defender is responsible for determining the order in which other players added attack cards while repelling or conceding an attack.
• If the defender runs out of cards in his or her hand while successfully repelling an attack, the defense is successful and the turn ends immediately. This usually happens when an attack is passed on several times.
• It is possible for a defender to concede after he or she begins to repel the attack. This usually occurs when players add other attack cards which the defender cannot overcome. Changing from repelling an attack to conceding an attack does not change the order in which other players added attack cards.

End of turn
At end of a turn, whether or not defense was successful, the players replenish their hands from the draw pile. Each player in sequence replenishes his or her hand to six cards as long as cards remain in the draw pile. In order, the attacker replenishes his or her hand first. Next, other players contributing attack cards replenish their hand. These players proceed in the order determined by the defender. Finally, the defender replenishes the cards in his or her hand. Any player that does not have any cards after replenishing is out of the game. Play continues clockwise. No players may examine the discard pile at any point.

Culmination of the game
The last person left in the game with cards in his or her hand, is the loser (the durak). The durak will be the dealer for the next game, and the person to the left of the durak is the first attacker of the next game.

Durak with Epaulettes (Shoulder decorations)
If the very last card played by an attacker is the lowest rank (6 in the standard game) and the defender concedes, the defender is cheerfully pronounced “durak with epaulette” and the low card is slapped onto the shoulder of the loser. If the last two cards played by an attacker are both of the lowest rank, the attacker slaps a card on each shoulder.

These endings are considered by some to be a demonstration of skill, because the winning attacker makes himself or herself handicapped by keeping the lowest ranked card through the final part of the game.

Clarifications

• As soon as a defending card has been played, the defender no longer has the option to pass the attack to their left; they must defend or fail.
• It is possible for the defender to concede, by picking up all attacking cards before any defending cards are played.

Options / Variants

• There is also a “Pairs” variation of the game, which can be played with four players. In this version, teammates sit across each other, and the game goes normally. The difference is that a player cannot add to an attack on his or her partner. The team which has both their players lose all their cards is the winner.
• For six players, the rules are the same except that the deck has 40 cards. The 40 card deck of 40 cards is ranked A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. For eight players, the a standard 52 card deck is used with the same rules.
• For a two person game or four person game of two teams “epaulettes” are an actual score point. Once a player or team receives an epaulette with a 6, points are scored if a team or player can confer an epaulette of a 7 onto the durak. Play continues until an ace card is landed onto someone’s shoulder. The team or player conferring the epaulette of an ace is considered the winner.

Hey, what do you know, a more later that actually has more later.

Cue the band, The Last Day is upon us.

I have been thinking a lot about what a community looks like, especially the ekklesia, commonly known as the church. How does ekklesia express community? Moreover, what does this look like in worship, decision-making, and even corporate discipline?

Here are factors I would consider to be important:

Sacred Space
1 Peter 2:4 – 10

The author of Hebrews and Peter share a common thought in regards to sacred space. The community of believers is God’s sacred space, not a temple or an ark. In this passage, Jesus is described as a living cornerstone, and all the believers as living stones being built together into a house of God. Sacred space on Earth is not so much a patch of ground but the union of human hearts.

When believers come together, especially in worshiping together, seeking divine guidance, or helping each other, it is important to focus on this aspect of holiness. It should be plain to everyone that the gathering of believers creates sacred space. Hymns and prayers can serve as a reminder of this important principle. Therefore, it is important that when believers come together to worship, there needs to be a reminder of some kind to establish the idea of sacred space in everyone’s mind. The Spirit will always work, but being mindful of our own sacred space allows each of us to participate in that work. I have this mostly written out, but cannot transcribe it right now.

Listening
James 1:19 - 21

Being slow to speak and quick to listen is easy enough to say, but very difficult to execute. What does it mean to be quick to listen? Practically speaking, being quick to listen includes the following:

• Hearing another person without focusing on your own agenda
• Searching for the meaning of what another person is trying to say
• Asking questions
• Withholding assessments until a person is finished sharing.

Seek Understanding
Proverbs 18:2

The experience of God is what motivates an individual believer. Are we trying to give advice more than understand another brother’s experience?

Silence and Reflection
Psalms 46:10

Self-Control

Being Orderly

Build Trust

What is said in the assembly, stays in the assembly.

What does this look like practically? In some ways, not much different than a small group meeting. In others, it could look very different.

More later about practical expressions.

My wife has a big dream: she wants to build community through art.

It is simple to say and at first, I thought it was difficult to implement. However, we have pictures we share of her ‘baby shower’ for Dancing Bear (expected Wednesday). So, it is not as difficult as I first believed. After all, building community is involved with whomever shows up, not a quorum.

As we were talking yesterday about what this dream looks like in our future, we were talking to her mom about various ideas. I tend to look for the largest scope possible. How can art help heal the racial divisions in our city? How can art bring together various factions and schisms of the RM?

How can art bring our cul-de-sac together?

I met most of the people in the cul-de-sac under two circumstances: one was during deep snows and we shoveled out each others’ driveways. The other was my complaints at fireworks being set off. (They are illegal within city limits. I waited until 11PM to complain.) Every once in a while, I talk to a couple of my neighbors - it’s not anything really special. I know a few of them, but only superficially.

So what if our cul-de-sac had a small event this summer?

Most of us have gas grills, so food isn’t a big deal. But what if we had a cookout, a child-art activity or two, and a drumming jam session at the end? Now we got a community building idea underway. What’s more basic than grilled meat in the summer? What’s more fundamental in music than a drum?

I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

More later.

Tonight is the second half of teach week. My small group (and I think every small group in the church I attend) has been going through the last events in Jesus’ life culminating in the resurrection. Week one was the Last Supper, week two was the Trial, this week is the crucifixion, next week is the resurrection.

I was a bit bummed that we didn’t have a Palm Sunday sermon. I grew up with the tradition of Easter being a big honking deal. There were seders all over, watching the sun rise over the ocean on Easter morning, and many other things. My dad is really big on Lent, but I never figured out why. Palm Sunday was ‘the buildup’ and I miss it in a way. (The Buildup while I was growing up wasn’t hype or any kind of hyperthermodynamathayes. It was more or less an exultation of the Christ. Various ministers I have known really tried to infuse a sense of the excitement of the Triumphal Entry.)

But I digress…

Covering the Crucifixion is a bit of a big deal to me. The way I used to teach about it involved all kinds of dramatic presentation. It was pretty shamelessly theatric. Folks said that they enjoyed it and that it really moved them. I used to say that everyone I led the Cross study with got baptized. There’s a time and place for dramatic presentation (think Mel’s movie), but I was downright manipulative. I hope a lot of that doesn’t come back.

As far as Sunday, it went well. The big point that I hoped to make was that unbelief is not so much a lack of understanding as much as a lack of trust. That seemed to open folks up to share about various things. As far as the weird handbook, it was pretty conservative on this chapter as well. One thing about the Handbook: it is not broken up into chapters. It takes some effort to find things that pertain only to a given chapter. The Greater than Angels concept from Hebrews 1 seemed to get a lot of ink, but Greater than Moses was just casually mentioned. Oh well.

For those that were not there, I used all four of the previous columns. Neckties, brakes, all kinds of things. I enjoyed it, I think some others did as well.

That’s all for now, I’m off to switch drivers of the car with my wife.