Right now it is a time for silence here and speaking elsewhere. I do have plans for a revamped Web site at some point, so please check back occasionally.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Perhaps [...] future historians revisiting the 20th century will say the 21st century saw the ecological reformation of the churches. Perhaps they will write that Earth-honoring religious practice found real traction and thousands of congregations became serious centers of creation care. Perhaps this is what is next for the Reformation, itself, as a living tradition.One could hope. We discussed the city of Pasadena's intention to extend its contract with a coal-burning power plant in Utah, an issue brought to my attention at PTF. See also an article in a recent edition of the Star-News.
Pasadena's Municipal Services Committee will discuss the contract extension at 2 p.m. Wednesday, 150 S. Los Robles Ave., Room 200. The recommendation will likely go before the City Council on Nov. 20.We looked at the power content label we recently received in our electricity bills. In 2006, the percent of coal-derived power in the regular, non-green power mix is projected to be 68%, up from 38% in 2005. I encouraged people to consider signing up for Pasadena's Green Power program and to call their district's city council representative. A small thing given the global situation, but at least something an individual can do.
Certainly, it's damp and raw. Rain is forecast. Now is the time to act, to begin. As Ishmael says in Moby Dick, "whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." He means it's time for human deeds. Without our contributions, nothing will happen, life will have no meaning. [...] "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible," said St. Francis of Assisi.
[T]he failure to lead the conventional life, to find the conventional way early, may signify more than having been dealt a poor hand of cards. It may well be the forming of a life in the service of a talent felt, but unrecognized and unnamed. This condition is marked by a profound sense of vocation, with no idea of what that vocation is, and by a strong sense of inadequacy and deprivation. (pp. 52-53)The EECW site and an earlier conversation got me thinking again about the issue of women in the church and home, an issue that has been stored on the high shelves of my mind's bookcases for quite a while. So I took it down from the shelf again and blew the dust off the top edge by reading through the relevant chapter in Willard Swartley's Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation (another redone book cover).
We need not feel defensive about this apparently unproductive time-out at turning points in our lives, for the neutral zone is meant to be a moratorium from the conventional activity of our everyday existence. [...] In the apparently aimless activity of our time alone, we are doing important inner business. Walking, watching, making coffee, counting the birds on the phone wire, studying the cracks in the plaster ceiling over the bed, dreaming, [waiting for the bus to arrive, knitting, sorting papers into piles, moving books from one shelf to another, jbb] waiting for God knows what to happen, we carry on the basic industry of the neutral zone, which is attentive inactivity and ritualized routine. (p. 114)Bridges states that in some traditional societies initiation rituals included a person spending time alone in the wilderness in order to cultivate different levels of awareness and knowing. These days, the neutral zone is often experienced as a feeling of emptiness.
It is the phase of the transition process that the modern world pays least attention to. Treating ourselves like appliances that can be unplugged and plugged in again at will or cars that stop and start at the twist of a key, we have forgotten the importance of fallow time and winter and rests in music. We have abandoned a whole system of dealing with the neutral zone through ritual. (p. 130)So I am dipping into Bridges' book again as a guide during another time of change.
Current estimates indicate the world has just 41 years of known oil reserves and 65 years of natural-gas supplies. It has enough coal reserves to last an estimated 155 years, with some of the largest reserves in the two biggest oil-consuming countries, the U.S. and China.Two problems with converting coal to oil are cost and environmental impact, not only of mining the coal but of the carbon dioxide emitted by the processing plants.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based environmental advocacy group, estimates that the production and use of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other fuels from crude oil release about 27.5 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon. The production and use of a gallon of liquid fuel originating in coal emit about 49.5 pounds of carbon dioxide, they estimate. Even some boosters of the coal-to-oil plants describe them as carbon-dioxide factories that produce energy on the side.In the U.S., Montana, Illinois, and Kentucky, which have large deposits of coal, are very interested in building coal-to-oil facilities.
What Congregations Can Do: Study resources—"The Cry of Creation: A Call for Climate Justice" (.pdf); and the ELCA social statement "Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice" in English and Spanish.Recording all those links took too long. Now it's my bedtime, which I can't ignore or I'll not be able to get up in the morning for my ride to work. The weather has been perfect for riding these last days, especially today.
Join California Interfaith Power & Light (or a similar organization in other states) and sign the covenant. Do one or more of the six covenant actions. Energy Star for congregations.
Advocate for just and sustainable public policies.
Emphasize creation throughout the liturgical year. Celebrate A Season of Creation in September - October. (The coordinator of A Season of Creation, Norm Habel, is a Hebrew Bible/Old Testament scholar in the form criticism "school," the same method I was being trained in.)
Declarations: Religious leaders' appeal to political leaders in California for mandating limits on greenhouse gases;
"National Council of Churches—Theological Statement on the Environment" (.pdf); and
"Joint Declaration on Articulating a Code of Environmental Ethics," by Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Organizations: National Council of Churches of Christ, Eco-Justice Programs, Climate Change;
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life;
Evangelical Environmental Network;
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops;
The National Religious Partnership for the Environment; and
Protecting Creation.
Wean yourself.The campaign is being put on by Geez Magazine, a new magazine to which I recently subscribed (again, thanks to The MinusCar Project). More-with-less for the 2000s.
It's time for the spiritual transition to a post-oil era.
The internal combustion engine is suffocating our souls as it suffocates the planet. So give your soul a break from the gas-powered frenzy. Relax a bit, and join the spirited slow-down.
[Yesterday] Pasadena had a record high of 109 degrees, 11 degrees more than the previous high set in 1988, said Dave Bruno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.And it's not cooling down much at night, which is not usual for this part of California. Fortunately, it's predicted to cool down a little this week.
"We've been well above normal since the middle of June," he said. "Persistently, every day is several degrees above normal."
Observing the Sabbath is saving my life now. For the first time in my life, I can rest without leaving home. With sundown on the Sabbath, I stop seeing the dust balls, the bills, and the laundry. They are still there, but they lose their power over me. One day each week I live as if all my work were done. I live as if the kingdom has come, and when I do the kingdom comes, for one day at least. Now, when I know the Sabbath is near, I can feel the anticipation bubbling up inside of me. Sabbath is no longer a good idea or even a spiritual discipline for me. It is my regular date with the Divine Presence that enlivens both body and soul.From an excerpt of Barbara Brown Taylor's book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. Via an interview on Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.
In a trend reminiscent of previous public-health fashions, affluent professionals seem to be leading the charge of commuters on bikes, just as they were among the first groups to embrace organic food, to stop smoking and to return to feeding babies healthier breast milk rather than formula. "So far, it's a white-collar movement," says Dave Growacz, a Chicago biking official and author of the book "The Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips."On my commute, which is not to a major urban center, I see more "blue-collar" riders, for example, construction workers or food service employees. Also, I see quite a few older folk who ride bikes to get around town and do their shopping or other errands, perhaps because of the large Asian immigrant population in the area.
Miller is pessimistic about the future of the conversational art in America and finds few witnesses who are not. The common explanation at the moment is the "polarized" state of our politics, which is said to be so advanced that sensible folk scarcely dare speak on any subject more arresting than food and weather for fear of igniting some human powder keg in a conversation-ending spew of rage.I think "food and weather" can be "arresting" subjects. Baker is also dismissive of "blogs."
[t]he conversation of course was affordable. It was free. Nowadays we are so rich in expensive ways to pass an evening that it may take considerable ingenuity and resolution to find anyone in the house willing to turn off the elctronic [sic] gimcracks and talk about Woodrow Wilson, or the ablative absolute, or how to dispose ethically of a broken laserjet printer.Another part of the review laments the
decline of the love for language and phrasemaking, which used to be as common among the plain people of America as among English majors. People incapable of taking pleasure in expressing themselves are not likely to be much good at conversation.This brought to mind my former housemate, whose memorial service I attended last week. One of my memories of her, and something that was expressed in the eulogies, was Nancy's beautiful diction and love of a well-turned phrase. It was pointed out that Nancy never used her quick wit at another's expense. However, Baker does give some examples of "brilliant insults" from the days when politicians were more articulate than they are today.
When I first started riding to streams, I had the same two thoughts that everyone else does: Wouldn't it take a long time? Wouldn't I be too tired to fish? As with most things living carfree, we tend to think of things in the wrong terms. We worry about loss and are completely oblivious to gain. Pedaling to a stream is not just a slower, more tiring way to get there anymore than bicycle commuting is a just a slower, more tiring way to get to work. It is an entirely different experience.(A very different context, but here's a link to a quote I copied out about how long church services can work in the same way to help us transition from a state of "fuss, rush, and care" to a place of inner quietness.)
What I notice on the bike is not that my speed is slow but that my time outside is long. The transitions from travel to stream become seamless in a way opening and shutting a car door can never be. Sitting on a padded seat in a sealed chamber, doing no work while moving 75 miles-per-hour, and then stepping out into quiet woods is jarring to say the least. It lacks something real, like watching television, and our minds only follow easily after acclimation.
In northern Alberta, the oil-sands boom is remaking the landscape. The mining operations have clear-cut thousands of acres of trees and dug 200-foot-deep pits. The region is dotted with large man-made lakes filled with leftover waste from the mining operations. To chase off migratory birds, propane cannons go off at random intervals and scarecrows stand guard on floating barrels.Another cost is the huge amount of carbon dioxide generated by extracting the heavy-oil.
Alberta's energy minister, Greg Melchin, says oil-sands development creates a minimal environmental disturbance that is outweighed by the opportunities and jobs created. "It's worth it. There is a cost to it, but the benefits are substantially greater," he said.
Canada, which exports more oil to the U.S. than any other country, already is having trouble meeting its pledge to cut CO2 emissions largely because of its mushrooming heavy-oil production. By 2015, Canada's Fort McMurray region, population 61,000, is expected to emit more greenhouse gases than Denmark, a country of 5.4 million people.The descriptions of the machines used in "mining" the oil are pretty amazing, too. Cranes with buckets that can dig up 100 tons in one scoop; dump trucks that are two stories high and loaded weigh the same as a 747; machines that wash out the oil from the sand leaving toxic waste water that fill lakes.
Fran and I have old ski jackets, knee breeches with woolen knee socks and boots that lace up tightly and are big enough for an extra pair of socks. The boots have good, thick, mountain climbing soles. We do not need to be climbing to appreciate these soles. I have found that the boots [...] give one the sense of having seven league boots—that is, that the boots are carrying one along in the way the everyday shoes just cannot do. (p. 171)So Saturday morning, which was rainy and cold, I put on my hiking boots to go to the women's study at church. Then I strode about the almost empty Farmer's Market, where I purchased a low chill Sunshine Blue dwarf blueberry bush, partially, I'm sure, because the boots made me feel more like a farmer somehow. Later, I walked to the library.
A walk in an evening rain in any setting is to walk in the midst of God's loving attention to [God's] earth, and, like baptism, is no simple washing. (p. 66)
The center of discipleship is connection to Jesus, a life spent growing in the perceived clarity of Jesus' call, gaze and touch. Listening for his voice, keeping our eyes centered on him, staying in touch with him: This is a relationship of tremendous intimacy sustained by love. [...]~~From Sunday's Gospel reading about the transfiguration of Jesus:
[Jesus'] call comes as the in-breaking voice of God—announcing a new form of life in radical discontinuity with the old.
The voice of Jesus creates a reality in which people are invited to live.
[F]rom the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. (Mark 9:7-8)~~From Monday's reading in Exodus 19, just before the giving of the commandments:
Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. (Exodus 19:17-19)~~From the first chapter in Volf's book, Free of Charge, on our (false) images of God versus God's reality:
We...need eyes and ears that can recognize the true knowledge of God when we come across it. [...] Our eyes and ears need a heart ready to receive the truth of God's reality rather than one that longs for the comforts of false gods. (p. 23)
Yeah, I marvel at Michael [an extrovert] who can always somehow turn the conversation right over effortlessly and keep it going even when what he says is not necessarily profound or interesting. What he comes up with is perfectly tuned to the sense and flow of the conversation. But it's not words that are particularly intended to convey ideas or mean things. It's words that socialize—that simply continue the conversation. It's chit-chat. I have no gift for that. I have to think about what to say next, and sometimes I can't think fast enough and end up saying something stupid. Or sometimes I just come up dry and the conversation kind of ends for while until I can think of another topic. This is why it's work for me. It takes positive cognition on my part. I think that's probably a core introvert characteristic that you and I have in common and which can probably be distinguished from shyness per se—that small talk takes conscious effort and is very hard work. There's nothing small about small talk if you're an introvert. But we're good at big talk.On introverts and the Internet:
[Interviewer] Your article “Caring For Your Introvert” has also been one of the most popular pages on our Web site. We posted it three years ago, and it still gets more hits than practically anything else on the site.[Just in time for introverts: rainy weather (finally!) at the start of a holiday weekend.]
[Rauch] Yes. The Internet is the perfect medium for introverts. You could almost call it the Intronet. You know the old New Yorker cartoon with a dog sitting at a computer saying to another dog, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." Well, on the Internet, no one knows you're an introvert. So it's kind of a natural that when The Atlantic put this piece online, introverts beat a path to it; it's the ideal distribution mechanism by which introverts can reach other introverts and spread the word.
The Exxon result amounted to a profit of about $80,842 per minute during the quarter. It was one of the biggest quarterly profits of any company in history. Though a handful of other companies have posted higher quarterly profits, those were largely through accounting adjustments, while Exxon's result came mainly from operations.Why?
The biggest driver of Exxon's surging profit was high energy prices amid the world's increasing thirst for oil and natural gas. [...] Exxon's profit soared even though the company produced less fossil fuel.