Episcopal Bookstore: As I see it. Episcopal Books, Resources, Reviews & More

Will you sell to us?

2012-01-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

A woman phoned today and asked about ordering a Parish Register to record baptisms in her congregation. She explained that her congregation is one of the Anglican churches that has pulled away from the Episcopal Church. Recently they have been told that the building belongs not to them but to the Episcopal diocese. They are setting up church on their own.

She asked if they would still be able to purchase merchandise, like the Parish Register, from us since they have severed their relationship with the Episcopal Church. I replied that we accept orders from other churches, even (with a grin) Lutherans, United Methodists, Roman Catholics, and others. I reassured her that if her congregation has a need for merchandise that we can supply we are glad to do it.

As our baptismal covenant states, “Respect the dignity of each person.”

Seattle snow

2012-01-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean and the onshore weather systems Seattle usually experiences mild weather, not too hot in the summers nor too cold in the winters. The trade off is an abundance of clouds and moisture that arrives with the marine weather.

It’s been a couple of years since we have experience snowfall in Seattle. Last Saturday, after days of media hype, a light snowfall began.

Immediately the customers visiting our store disappeared. An hour or so later we told Daniel who had come in to help us on Saturday that he could go home even though the snowfall had stopped by then. An hour or two later some sun peaked through the clouds. We had perhaps three customers “brave” the improved weather.

Sometimes we refer to ourselves cynically as weather wimps. More likely we simply are not used to snowy weather. That, coupled with our numerous steep hills and overcrowded streets, makes for a city that does not handle this weather comfortably and encourages most individuals to have opinions about it.

The Feast of the Epiphany

2012-01-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

So, I try again at this blog-thing. It’s been way too long. Advent and Christmas activities at our store used up my time and creative thinking. Christmas is past. Perhaps I can share some thoughts with you again.

The Season of Epiphany recognizes the days between Christmas and Lent. Here’s a memory. Many years ago when we lived in another community and had a set of close church-going friends we enjoyed a special Twelfth Night celebration. On the evening of the Twelfth day of Christmas, which was also the night before The Epiphany, several friends would gather at our home. We all would offer the left over Christmas goodies, including cookies, candies, and cookie-like things (home-made marshmallows, krumkake, and others) to share with each other. A recording of excerpts from Handel’s Messiah was played and we all sang along. It was a special way to mark the end of Christmas with our friends.

This week our son who is the Episcopal priest shared with us an event at his congregation for this the First Sunday After The Epiphany. One of the traditions of Epiphany is the celebration of the Magi, the three kings arriving to honor the baby Jesus. Grace Episcopal Church, San Marcos CA is urging its members to bring to the Sunday Eucharist service their family’s figurines of the three kings. All of the figurines will be displayed in the sanctuary as part of the worship service on Sunday.

I love this sharing of the church families’ three kings at the Feast of the Epiphany. It will be fun for the worshippers to see the many variations and kinds of figurines. All who participate will feel included in a special way in the service. It will add a special festive atmosphere to the worship space. The result will be a memorable time of sharing during worship. Excellent!

Visiting a nearby worship service

2011-12-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

When we lived in a smaller community there was really only one Episcopal church to attend. One of the joys of living in a city is that there are several congregations from which to choose. Last Sunday I visited a nearby congregation. They were celebrating Advent with a service of Nine Lessons and Carols. What a treat!

The music was quite good, excellent. The readers spoke and read well. Generally the service was quite good and worthwhile. I was surprised that some of the lessons were read from older biblical translations, but apparently not all of them. I appreciate congruence within a worship service so the different translations were a small disappointment.

About equal to the worship experience was an interaction with one parishioner. A woman came in after I did and sat in the pew next to me. She introduced herself and asked my name. And, as it goes for me, within two sentences her name had vanished from my mind, and has not yet returned. She invited me to coffee hour, downstairs, after the service. The invitation was quite remarkable.

Recently I had visited several congregations on several occasions as I looked for a congregation that fit me the best. In the past two years I have worshipped with this congregation probably six or eight times. In many ways they are a good, strong congregation.

There are a couple of areas where they failed me. As I experienced this congregation in worship one aspect that they fell short was in pastoral care. After several visits I realized that I did not feel comfortable asking any of the four clergy for help in a pastoral emergency. The parish runs excellent programs and is active in many important causes, but I had not felt that there was a clergy person that I could call on for personal pastoral help if I needed it.

The second negative aspect concerned coffee hour. I am rather socially shy. I’m not one who can confidently barge into a social setting. The church building is arranged with the sanctuary on the ground floor and coffee hour in the basement. As a stranger I felt too exposed to “take the plunge” and go downstairs after a service and join some kind of coffee hour that I knew nothing about. Each time, exiting through the front door seemed easier than going past it and committing to “downstairs.” Then, last Sunday, this woman sitting next to me invited me and encouraged me to attend coffee hour. I realized at that point how powerful it was to be personally asked to join coffee hour.

I almost did go down those stairs, but the rest of the day was full of things on the “to do” list, and the sun was shining. As I scooted out the front door I assured myself that next time I would indeed venture down to coffee hour.

Perhaps a third point about this congregation that I missed was that they don’t need me. In each of my visits there I have not seen a place where I could put my talents to use with that congregation. As I see it, more powerful than being sincerely invited to coffee hour would be some moment of sincere interest in me that would result in showing me a place where I could be of use to the congregation. Okay, I know that if and when I do attend coffee hour then there would be a much better chance that someone would talk with me and perhaps show me that a clergy person there has a pastoral attitude or that someone else would invite me to join some activity that would put me to use. Most of it is my fault, but this is “how I see it.”

A story of outreach gone astray.

2011-11-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

It’s a good story, to me.

A customer just shared this story about our “outreach.”

The woman customer, several years ago, was in the hospital in another State at the birth of their daughter. On a day or so after the birth the mother was in the bathroom and the new mother’s mother talked to her through the door and said, “Honey, stay in the bathroom. The Episcopalians are coming.”

A few minutes later the new mother’s mother opened the door and told her she could go back to bed. The young mother asked, “What was going on? Why did you want me to stay in the bathroom when the Episcopalians came to visit?”

The mother then explained. The Episcopalians that had taken on the job of visiting the sick were old, dour, negative women, wearing black dresses. Their visit included a very gloomy mood. It was not at all what young mothers in the hospital wanted to experience.

Our customer stated that it was an example of Christian outreach that had gone astray.

Don’t we just do it to ourselves sometimes?!

One of our saintly customers

2011-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

I received the following message from a customer this morning to whom we had sent five pendant crosses (on chains).

I volunteer at a home for abused and emotionally disturbed children. Four of the children are going to foster homes the first of next week, and I wanted to give them something special. These crosses are perfect.

Once again I am reminded that we have the best customers in the world.

Humbly, John

How watching football reminds me how to handle my life.

2011-11-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

I've been impressed recently by professional athletes and their response to errors and mistakes. I've watched a few football games this season on TV. The Seattle Seahawks have won two games and lost five. They haven't scored a touchdown in the past two games. I watch the quarterback, whichever one they try for a game. He makes big errors. And, I watch his face after the error. He looks upset for a few seconds, then he gathers the team gives them the next play, and continues on with a positive outlook. Had I made such an error as the last play I would kick myself and be discouraged at my mistake, and with thousands of people watching me, I would want to leave the field, leave the locker room and escape from it all. I see in football quarterbacks, and others, an attitude that they have learned. It goes something like this, "That mistake that I just made is behind me. There is nothing that I can do about it. I have a team counting on me to get it right this next time. I'm putting out of my mind my errors and expect the best with this next play." I marvel that they can do that, repeatedly. It is a learned response. I try to do that in my life too. I don't want to forget my failures because that will allow me to make them again, but I try to not dwell on them. One image that I use is that a mistake that I have made, an error in judgment, a bad decision, or a harm that another has done to me. I put it in a package, like a cardboard box, then I mentally place it on the ground, next to the path that I'm walking on. I walk on. I remember where that package with the loss, failure, or whatever, is located, but I do not carry it on my back with the other baggage of my life going forward.

I don't mourn the loss of some organs that have been removed from my body to keep me alive in years gone by. I also don't forget what I did, the stress that I had put on myself, prior to the time that those surgeries occurred. I don't worry about how long or how short my remaining life may be. I simply try each day to do the best that I can, to help others, to stay healthy, to enjoy the gifts of life each day. Watching the football quarterbacks of a team with a losing record reminds me and encourages me to stay positive, look ahead, take care of my health, find happy moments and relish them, a enjoy whatever each day brings.

Honesty, courage, and faith.

2011-10-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

A visitor, K, last Saturday described this situation. Her husband, P, was a baseball umpire while he was also a Lutheran pastor. He was a huge fan of baseball throughout his life, enjoyed the game, and also enjoyed being “not pastor” when he was officiating a baseball game.

P, is now in hospice care. He is facing the end of his life on earth. He watched the World Series and enjoyed it. After the last game P said, that it was the last baseball game that he will see. To me that is facing reality honestly, with courage, and with faith.

I admire that very much.

What is God's plan for my life?

2011-10-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems presumptuous and even silly to share thoughts on blogs, but I will give in on this day and join the fad.

Here are some thoughts of mine on the occasion of my seventieth birthday. Thanks go to my sister G who encouraged me to think about my reaction to this birthday.

When I was young I set goals. I knew that I had to graduate from college no matter how long it took (6 years). I discerned while in college that I wanted to be a teacher of science in secondary public schools.

At that time I was also trying to discern God’s will for my life. By the time that I decided to be a teacher I had accepted that being a teacher was what God wanted me to do.

Twenty years later I had the strong feeling that God was calling me to be ordained in the Episcopal Church as a deacon. It seemed to me that I would then be able to teach and work more effectively in the church. A few years later it became rather obvious to me that I was not going to be ordained. Although I had thought that God had called me to be a deacon I now see that was an error.

And, a few years after that, after cancer and two major surgeries, I knew that I could not be a teacher any longer. If it was God’s plan for me to be a teacher, then that plan had ended.

Could God have more than one plan for my life? How would that work?

Nancy and I now work together every day at our bookstore. I find a deep joy in our working together with the business and the ministry which is the store. I never had thought about owning our own business and what such a life would be like. As it turns out it is very good for both of us. We also realize that neither of us could manage the store by ourselves. It takes both of us to do it.

Is God’s presence in the store? Certainly! I see it nearly everyday. Is this God’s plan for my life? I think, now, at this sage old age (ha, ha, ha!) that it is the wrong question.

Is it my will that my granddaughter Victoria is married and living in Brazil? Wrong question. Victoria gets to choose her own life, her own struggles and rewards. My will for her is that she makes good decisions and that I support her emotionally the best that I can. I think, now, that this is something similar to God’s actions in our lives.

God cares about how we live each day of our lives. God is with us. And yet, God allows us the dignity of making our own decisions, which includes our own mistakes and bad choices.

It has happened so many times that I’ve come to expect it. That “it” is that when something important is happening in the store, especially when someone is sharing something important with us on a normally busy day, there is a lull in the phone calls and in the customers entering the store. When whatever the important event is has finished, or sometimes about to finish, then the normal store events pick back up, the phones ring, customers or delivery persons come in and life returns to normal. Is God present in those times? God is present in every time and every place, but yes, something special happens in those special times.

I no longer live by setting goals. Instead, I am very happy to allow each day to happen and watch and enjoy the moments and challenges that come, all in God’s presence.

With gratitude for all,

John

A conversation with the author

2011-10-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a conversation between a bookstore owner, John Marshall, and the author of the book Christianity in Evolution, Ralph Armstrong, during September 2011. It has been slightly edited for readability.

John’s message to the author:

Ralph, you have invited me to share my thoughts about your book with you. I am doing that here.

I am uncomfortable sharing criticism of your book with you because I know that you have put a huge amount of time, energy, and work creating the book and it is not part of my makeup to cause any distress in you, or in anyone. On the other hand, I want to share with you my own thoughts about what I think is an important book on a current topic.

The first part of the book reports on recent scientific information concerning living organisms, cells, the DNAs, and other molecules. I found parts of this section breathtaking. Similar to looking up at the night sky in an area not polluted by light as the mind tries to grasp the immense size, depth, and abundance of stars and other heavenly bodies in the universe, Armstrong offers us a look at the cell, molecular functions and activity within the cell, various forms of DNA and other molecules that offer as an amazing view of the universe as does sky gazing.

Ralph, you argue, convincingly through my reluctance, that cells and even molecules act within the definition of intelligence. The biochemical molecules that sense their environment and make changes in response to the environment are, at that level, intelligent, and incredibly so.

The second part of the book describes the your view of Christianity. Unlike the first part of this book you do not reference research papers or scientific studies, but offer your own views. Most of the descriptions report first person experiences. They are anecdotal. Unlike science where anecdotal evidence is dismissed in favor of peer review studies of populations or specific analyzed experimental evidence, this second part of the book does not use the same rigorous data.

Here are some examples of my concern with the second part of the book:

1. There are many paths to and through prayer. The author’s view of prayer is one, and only one, of them.

2. Sources for data: The first part of the book relies upon contemporary books and research papers listed in the Notes for each chapter. The references in second part of the book are in stark contrast, from my perspective, by frequently referencing John McKenzie’s The Dictionary of the Bible that was published decades ago, well before the latest research results from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi manuscripts made it into the literature. The other significant sources of material for this section are Wiki articles and images, and online dictionaries. Ralph, your use of your pocket concordance is not at all in the same league as the references in the first part of the book.

3. Your reference to the gender of God as always male does not fit with either recent theological research or with contemporary language.

My general conclusions:
It is as if there are two books that have been bound together. I can read either book with little need to reference the other book. Both books are good, interesting, and enlightening, but they do not require each other.

On a very positive note, you gave me a new definition of salvation that has been very helpful. I have come to reject the theology of salvation as meaning that God gave humankind “His only begotten son” as a sacrifice for our sinning. In order to appease God’s wrath Jesus’ suffering and death became the sacrificial offering to God that allowed God to accept us humans. This theology lacks for me the grace and love I see demonstrated for all of creation, including each individual human, by God. (See Brock and Parker’s Proverbs of Ashes and Saving Paradise) As a result I had come to the point to refuse to recite the Nicene Creed because it expresses a fourth century view of salvation that I can no longer accept. Thanks to your description, Ralph, of salvation as a form of communion with God and with one another I am much more comfortable with God’s saving grace.

With blessings to you and your work,
John Marshall

Ralph Armstrong replies:

Hi John,
I am delighted that you found the science half so engaging. I appreciate your struggle to take the idea of molecular intelligence. It goes against everything in the reductionistic mindset we were all trained with, and it takes effort to see another worldview in all the data.

I am also moved that you chose to risk offending me by criticizing the second half of the book. Your comments made me examine my self, and my motives, intents, and methods. As a result, I have a new insight into myself that I had not articulated before. So, thank you, thank you.

I agree that they are two books. But that is the way it has always been, as we talk about evolution and Christianity. The task has been to put them together. My first task was to characterize life, and that came off pretty well. As I think about the second half, I realize where I am coming from. You again are right, the second half is very light on theological data, because, I realize, I am looking at Christianity from the standpoint of a pastoral counselor or chaplain. Recall that I taught pastoral counseling at a seminary, and wrote a book about it. In chapter 7, I introduced my method of Bible study, that of the use of mentalization. The last chapter delves into mentalization even more. My references to my own difficulties and therapies, along with the mentalization parts, are part of the applied or practical theology of the pastoral counselor or the chaplain. A goal of the pastoral counselor is the paradigm shift, and the book proposed a bunch of them

I had a lot of paradigm shifts as I wrote the book. One of the biggest ones for me was the study of conflict. I have always struggled with the idea of Sin, particularly as it has been attributed to Adam and Eve. Now I am convinced that Original Sin is better characterized as Original Conflict. I saw this as I realized that conflict in life is all the back (billions of years), all the way across (every living thing), and all the way down (to the molecules). And there is no end to it. So God's saving action, culminating in Jesus, is to take us beyond conflict, so that we can indeed experience the joy of communion with God and with each another. I wrote that Jesus is the ultimate mentalizer; now I realize that he is also the ultimate conflict manager. Isn't it ironic that our ultimate move against God, crucifying Jesus (God), initiates the beginning of the end of conflict. (You wouldn't know it by reading the newspapers, but I do think we have made a lot of progress).

I look forward to your comments on the above.
Ralph

Ralph,
I apologize for the tardiness of this reply. To receive your thoughtful reply to my critique of your book is a huge gift to me. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. We have been busy at the store, and in our personal lives so this reply has waited until I could think and write without interruption. As with my first message to you I am writing this from home. (I forwarded this thread to home, where on this Saturday morning, I am able to think without interruption, a rarity at the store, then send it back to the store to send to you.)

I have two responses to share with you.
1. Yes, the mentalization descriptions were more difficult for me to understand, to fit in to the discussion. I think that is because the term "mentalization" was new to me in the context in which you use it. Mentalization to me, before reading your book, had referred to the use of our mental abilities to think. I think that my view was more about "mentalizing" with the rational left-brain compared with the feelings from the right brain. So, for me, the use of the term in a new context took some getting used to, or perhaps I did not really get used to it as I read it. And, I admit that I did not stop and work on fitting the new-to-me definition of mentalization in to the context in which you were using it. This resulted in my giving the term and your use of it less importance. By giving it less importance I see now that I missed some important parts of your argument about God and Christianity. That was my loss.

2. On our website there is a section where Nancy and I display our Best Picks, of books that we find especially meaningful. I would like to display Christianity in Evolution as my latest Best Pick. I think that it would be helpful to our readers to include our conversation in this thread of messages. Up to now the descriptions of the titles that I have included in the Best Picks section have been solely my thoughts and writing. Before I include your replies to my message to you I want to have your permission. Our customers would learn more about your book, and about your thinking that resulted in the book if this thread was included. It would also be, by far, the longest description for one of the Best Picks. (I don't know if that is good, but I suspect that it is.) What do you think, Ralph?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me,
John

John,
Once again, thank you so much for sharing your inmost thoughts in the dialogue we are having. I am most touched that you want to move Christianity in Evolution to your "best pick" status. Yes, by all means use our dialogue as a part of your advertising. Our give-and-take has been most straightforward, and I think its intensity and directness should make it very interesting and illuminating to readers. I would suggest the dialogue be edited. I notice several typos in some of my responses.

In turn, I would like to ask you if I can use our dialogue in some of my advertising. I hope to persuade Henrietta Speaks, of the Episcopal Bookstore in Birmingham, to stock the book. There are some other Episcopal bookstores out there, and I want to contact them. Then there are the many independent bookstores; I just signed up with Bookmasters to distribute the book, and I can see them using our dialogue, also.

I am a month into a publicity campaign with SmithPublicity. I would like to mention you and Nancy and the Seattle Episcopal Bookstore during the course of interviews with media, should the opportunity arise. And there may be other times or venues to mention it. Immediately I think of posting our dialogue on my blog at http://www.christianityinevolution.com/ .

Ralph

Greeting cards in the mail

2011-09-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Customer Pamela was just in the store and purchased some greeting cards. We remarked about greeting cards compared to E-mail and how many individuals enjoy receiving a real card in the mail.

Pamela remarked that she has a young relative to whom she sends cards. She has now has adapted to his habits. After she mails a card to him she sends him an E-mail telling him to check his mail box. He says that otherwise he does not check anymore on his own because he does not receive any mail of consequence.

Libertarianism

2011-09-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

A short article in Christian Century spurred my thinking about libertarianism. Here is my thought about it today.

Americans favorably view the idea of libertarianism. We like the idea that we can rely on ourselves, do it ourselves, take on the battles of life on our own and win or lose by our own skills. It is part of what helped create this country and this culture.

I think that libertarianism works especially well when the population is small and the land and natural resources are large. The freedom to choose for ourselves which part of our environment we will use to improve our life is appealing. Neighbors may be nearby but they are not intruding on our space. Discarding of our wastes does not affect them.

Our population has grown. We are much more crowded on this little planet than we have been. The population has doubled more than once in just my lifetime. As the population density increases our natural resources shrink, our waste products increase, and our neighbors’ actions affect what we can do for ourselves.

It seems to me that in today’s world we can not afford the luxury of libertarianism, as much as we love the concept of it. My freedom to do as I want to do impinges on the lives of too many others. Because of our population increases and dwindling natural resources we are losing the capacity of the natural world to absorb our own desires to “do it my way.” Increasingly we need to take into consideration the needs of others.

Libertarianism is a great concept. It works in smaller populations with abundant natural resources. We have passed the point where we can afford the luxury of libertarianism. We need to think about and care for our neighbors’ needs at least as much as we care for our own needs. Interacting in caring ways in community is more important now than ever.

A pregnant scene

2011-09-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Thelma visited the store yesterday. Among other catching-up conversation she shared this story.

Thelma’s daughter, in her 20s, is an actress. Presently she is in Los Angeles trying out for many acting jobs.

Thelma received an E-mail from her daughter with the subject line stating “I’m pregnant.” Of course that caught Thelma’s attention!

In the body of the message her daughter described that she landed a part in an episode of a TV series where she plays a pregnant woman.

Thelma’s next response as a mother, after recovering from the initial reaction to the pregnancy statement was with fright, “Do you get killed in that episode?” A mother does not want to experience her daughter being killed, whether in real life or as an actress. Her daughter replied saying, no, she was not killed and actually the good guys save her.

There is drama and even trauma waiting for us around every corner in life, or so it seems some days. Some are real and others are perceived to be real.

Zi and a new feature

2011-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

Several years ago a man named Zi entered our professional lives. As owner of a small website development company he worked with us to completely rebuild our website so that, among other things, it could accept credit card payments securely. We admired Zi for his creativity, knowledge, and interpersonal skills. He fits the description of “one of the good guys.”

Since that time Zi sold his company to his friend and co-worker, Daniel, who has worked with us on several upgrades to the website. Zi then went on to “bigger and better things.”

About three weeks ago Zi phoned me. We had not talked for perhaps five years, although we have worked with his sister Kira and her Search Engine Optimization company and through Kira had kept informed about him. Zi has been working in an Internet business that, among other things, adds a specific feature to the websites of multinational corporations. That feature may be described as “Customers who bought this item also bought…” and variations on that idea. The computer application tracks your visit to a website and then offers you feedback on other shoppers who have also visited that website and viewed what you have viewed. To be able to track and report to you the movements of other shoppers requires some sophisticated programming and manipulating of large amounts of data. Our website is not at all that sophisticated.

Zi’s company has created this feature for the million-dollar websites (and the tens-of-million-dollars websites). He described to me that huge corporations that can afford this feature are primarily in this large, somewhat homogenous, and shopper oriented country of ours. By contrast Europe, being about the size of Texas and populated by several cultures and languages, has not been a fertile place for large English speaking corporate websites.

The idea for Zi’s company has been to develop a very capable smaller website application that can offer much of the same functions as found on the huge corporate websites but designed for the smaller but successful websites in Europe.

In a few weeks Zi’s company will be displaying their new website feature at a trade show in Europe. Before they display it they need to have it functioning on some smaller websites that they can use as examples. Zi phoned me to ask if he could have this feature installed on our website, immediately, so that he could use it as an example at the trade show in Europe in a few weeks.

Due to our previous work together we know each other and trust each other. Zi made the offer so appealing to us that we could not turn him down. As a result the last couple of weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind of activity for me and our website. The feature was installed a couple of weeks ago. It gathered data from visitors to our site for until it had accumulated enough data to display it accurately. Two days ago it “went Live” on our site. The computer algorithms are smart. They are watching and learning from our website visitors. Within a few weeks it will have refined and narrowed the information that it displays to visitors.

We get the use of this new feature for one year at no charge, as part payment to us for agreeing to their demonstration of it for their customers in Europe. At the end of one year we will need to pay the going rate for it if we are to keep it. The “going rate” is breathtakingly large. We can’t imagine that we could afford to pay for it. But at least for a while it is fun to be able to display a quality feature for our website visitors. Another part of this-ministry-which-is-the-store is our willingness to help others. We are helping Zi and having an interesting time with the new feature.

Jail chapel ministry

2011-08-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Linda stopped by this afternoon. Before asking for suggestions for reading, she told us about her help with the local jail chapel ministry.

Once a week she joins usually three other women, one of whom is a deacon, as they visit the local jail where they offer a prayer service. With a career as a Certified Public Account, Linda has not been associated with a jail or prison ever in her life. I could tell that it was quite a leap of faith for her to agree to join the deacon and be, as Linda described, a “presence” in the jail for the prayer service.

First she took a four-hour class that trained her in the culture of the jail. Mostly, it appeared to me, to be instruction in what one does not do in a jail setting, rather than what one does. Her animated delivery as she described the experience told me that it was very meaningful for her to be able to be part of that particular jail prayer ministry.

I admire Linda’s care and concern for women in jail. Linda is living her Baptismal covenant by “respecting the dignity of every person.” I also admire her courage by being part of the jail prayer ministry.

Harold Hansen, organist, wonderful human.

2011-08-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

If nothing else, Harold Hansen is steadfast, and he is much more than that. After 73 continuous years Harold is putting away The Hymnal Accompaniment book as he retires from his career as organist and choir director at All Saints Episcopal Church, Tacoma WA. Harold is 95 years old.

Harold was in his sixties when he moved to the Puget Sound region after retiring from his full-time career as organist at a famous Episcopal Church in Hollywood CA. He began his “retirement gig” at All Saints, has been the only organist for that congregation since then, and announced his retirement this week. His last Sunday at All Saints, Tacoma, will be on September 10th.

Two of the many stories that I recall from Harold include hymns and license plate numbers, and the famous Hollywood actors that used to sing at his church. In 1982 the Episcopal Church adopted a new hymnal replacing The Hymnal 1940. Harold mourned the loss of the old hymnal because he had memorized most of the 740 hymn numbers in the old book. He enjoyed playing the game of the three-digit number on the license on the car ahead of him while driving and remembering which hymn corresponded to that number. For instance, the license on the car ahead of him would include the numbers 266 and Harold would say, “Holy, Holy, Holy” (…Lord God Almighty). The “new” hymnal of 1982 moved "Holy, Holy, Holy" to hymn number 362. For some time Harold’s game of license numbers and hymns was over, until he began memorizing the new hymn numbers.

Harold loved to recount to us choir members at All Saints about the famous Hollywood actors who sang in his choir in his Hollywood church. He’d say, “Oh, yes, (name) sang with us when we performed this anthem,” and we would be amazed and encouraged to sing it better.

Harold Hansen has been beloved by all throughout his long career as organist and choir director in the Episcopal Church.

Happy retirement, Harold!

The book titles for the grandmother and her grandson

2011-08-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay. I’ll tell you the books that I recommended to the grandmother in Hospice and her grandson.

But first, a story.
When I was a science teacher I had a few activities that I enjoyed sharing with my students about how science works, about how we take observations, form them into hypotheses, test the hypotheses, then develop theories that fit the data. In these activities I would present the students with information, and only the information that they asked for concerning a specific situation. I encouraged them to make hypotheses from the information, and test it, ask more questions, gather more information, then to create a theory that explained all of the information that they has acquired. At the conclusion of these activities inevitably the students would ask, demand, that I tell them the Real Answer. My response was that the answer was what they developed in their process.

“But is it Right?!” they would demand. And I wouldn’t tell them, because what is “the Right answer?” Do we really know, to anything?

I presented one of these activities to the school board, at their request, one evening. They expected the same thing, that I tell them the Answer at the end. They even made statements like, “But, we are the school board. You can tell us. We want to know what the Right answer is.”

A few of the school board got it, caught the learning, that their answer was what they had in the end.

With that caveat, and somewhat against my first intentions, here are the books that I suggested to the person who asked.

Lessons for the Living: Stories of Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Courage at the End of Life, by Stan Goldberg. I found this book to be remarkable, the stories of the author and the individuals that he assisted through Hospice are profound. But, each person’s story requires several pages of reading. If they have the time for it I think that both the grandmother and her grandson could have fruitful conversations about each person’s story in this book.

The Art of Dying and Living: Lessons from Saints of Our Time, by Kerry Walters. These stories are even longer, about 25 pages per individual person’s story. A distinction between the individuals recounted in this book compared to the first title, above, is that in that title listed above the individuals are mostly ordinary, every day people, while the ones in this book are more famous people. Some of us gather more insight from famous people, while others learn more from “people like us.”

Grief: A Month of Meditations, from the publishers of Forward Day By Day. An advantage to this little volume is that each selection is short, one page in length. If the grandmother does not have long to live and the grandson does not have much time to spend with her, then perhaps this one-a-day for 28 days will suffice. A disadvantage is that this book is about grief, about the loss of a loved one. The grandmother has not yet died, although they both, no doubt, are grieving.

And, Final Gifts, that is temporarily out of stock.

A book to read while in Hospice care.

2011-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of this ministry-which-is-the-store is hearing parts of our customer/friends stories, and then offering help where we can.

Here is a part of a message from a local deacon that I received yesterday.
A parish member who is in Hospice care asked my advice today about a book for a 16 year old grandson. He is trying to deal with her illness, and is not very good at “God talk.” I’m not sure how strong his faith is, although he has been raised pretty carefully. He has lots of questions for her about whether or not when she dies it will all “be over.” She has asked me to try to find a book they can literally read together and then talk about. Have you any suggestions?

Some of my thoughts about this message include:
1. The media and the news seems filled with answers for the less important questions, such as which car to buy, how to make yourself look younger, sexier, more appealing, or which politician to support or urge to vote a different way. But, as I see it, this grandmother and her grandson are working on the much more important questions. They are the questions about life and death. It is grace to me to be asked for some small help for these two caring individuals.
2. Both the grandmother and grandson are facing the concept of imminent dying, hers. Do they both have questions or has the grandmother figured it out? And, oh, is she prepared to have her “figuring out” changed as she passes through death to the other side?!
3. I imagine that the grandson will remember their time together through the Hospice care for the rest of his life. I wonder how it will change his life. Yes, they will both remember their time together, for the rest of their lives.
4. One of my questions for the deacon is “How much time do they have?” Both, how many hours do they have right now to spend together reading and discussing a book, and how many days does the grandmother have on this side of life? Part of my suggestions for books was influenced by this consideration.
5. No doubt you the reader will have some ideas about books that the grandmother and grandson can read and discuss together. Imagine the range of answers from all (both?) of you!

Tension between publishers and authors

2011-08-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

We received this as part of a reply message this morning.

We are using it as our Sunday School literature, this fall. Coincidentally, our pastor is Jim Evans, who wrote this volume. The publisher will not allow him to purchase author copies to resell, however; so we must depend on the Episcopalians in Seattle for our ten copies.

My reply included a brief mention that publishers are having tough times these past several years. Copies of an author’s book were usually quite readily available to the one who wrote the thoughts that became the book. Not any longer.

Here is a longer answer for them, and perhaps for you.

In my humble opinion, from what I have read, not all, but much of the problems for publishers have been the result of Amazon.com, and later to Barnes and Noble and perhaps Borders. First, Amazon did it to the independent bookstores by selling books below the price that bookstores, including Amazon, could purchase them. They did that long enough (several years) to drive out of business tens of thousands of independent bookstores across the country.

Then they did it to the publishers. For a moderate book with a print run of 1000 copies, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, and a couple of others, would purchase more than half of the print run. Within a few months they would return thousands of unsold copies to the publisher for a full credit that they would use to purchase other books. During those few months the publisher may have sold out of that title and ordered another print run because sales looked brisk. Then the huge returns arrived and the publisher had way too many books. If they sold the overstock as remainders at pennies on the dollar, the bigger stores would purchase them and price them and sell them well below market price. Once again cutting into the profit margin and stock of the publisher, while reaping large profits for themselves. Alternatively, the publisher could send them to a recycler to make scrap paper out of the books that they had published and thereby losing all of their investment in that book.

Recently, publishers are trying to keep up with the surge of interest in electronic books. Old established book publishers are well practiced at creating books. Adapting to the digital world has been exceedingly challenging for them. You may have seen some of the turf wars where a huge bookseller, like Amazon, sets their price for a new digital book at a specific price, like $9.95 for a book that would sell as a new hardcover book at $25.95, and demanding that publishers sell them digital copies well below that price, that results in not enough margin to pay for the cost of creating the book.

These business decisions have been immensely difficult for publishers. One small result is not allowing authors to obtain copies of their own books without purchasing them at retail price.

The Service Cross

2011-07-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

An older man phoned today. He related part of his story to us. In 1966 when he was in Viet Nam he had an Episcopal Church Service Cross attached to one of the cords on his parachute. He found it very comforting when he was descending in his chute into a war zone.

Over the years he has missed having that Service Cross with him. When he found it available on our website he was very happy and phoned us so that we could send one to him.

Helping veterans connect with their past in positive ways is just one small but significant part of this ministry-which-is-the-store.

Thanks for “listening.”

Contrasts of three businesses, and what will the future bring?

2011-07-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

The bookstore giant Borders is going out of business and is for all intents and purposes a failed business. It is reported that the decision makers at Borders made a series of bad decisions over many years. They initially farmed out to Amazon their online sales when they should have been growing their own website. They invested heavily in music CDs just as the market for CDs was collapsing. Their heavy investment in large stores in malls across the country saddled them with real estate commitments that kept them from being flexible and adjustable to changing conditions.

Elliot Handler died recently, at age 95. Mr. Handler and his wife grew a different business. It was named Mattel. Mattel began as a small home-based picture-frame business that branched into toys. They created a brand of small cars, Hot Wheels. Mrs. Handler created the Barbie doll in 1959 and named it after their daughter. The Handlers made different business decisions than did Borders, with very different results.

Nancy and I own and manage our single-location religious bookstore. It remains a ministry for us as well as a business. Almost daily we are confronted with decisions that would affect the future of the ministry and the business. Do we try to compete on price with the Big Boys? Can we afford to offer discounts like many big retailers or will we continue to offer our books at fair market prices and help assure the continuing progress of this endeavor? Should we increase our take home pay to be comparable to other businesses or keep the money in the business to keep it healthy?

We exist in a niche market. So far any attempts to step out of our niche market have not been beneficial. We like our niche market. We have no desire to become either a Borders or a Mattel. We love our customers and our staff. Both are the best that we could imagine a business having. In putting our customers and our staff first we think that we will be able to continue as a healthy business for a while longer. And who can really expect more than that?

Who can know what will happen, even after August 2nd and the decision by the federal government to either raise the debt ceiling or not to? Will we survive if the country encounters a financial collapse? What happens to this ministry which is the store if our individual health suffers a major collapse? We continue to plan for a healthy future, as individuals and as a ministry and business, but who knows when events outside of our store will impact us all? So, we continue on in faith, trusting that good will come out of whatever happens, as we always have.

Vegetarian reasoning

2011-07-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

A woman shopped in our store yesterday for a prayer book. After several minutes she had decided on a prayer book with an imitation leather cover. At Check Out she mentioned that it was a difficult choice because she is a vegetarian and although she really wanted a leather prayer book she could not purchase one that was wrapped in a cow.

She seemed open to conversation, and she brought up the topic. It is one of my favorite topics; hearing which values of a person helps them decide to become a vegetarian or vegan, or not.

This woman stated that she does not eat mammals because they are too much like humans, who are also mammals. Besides, mammals have feelings so it’s not right to kill them and eat them.

“So, just mammals?”

“Yes."
"Until I met a woman who raised chickens. She showed me how much she loved chickens and how nice they were, so now I don’t eat poultry. As I get older I am becoming more selective in what I eat.”

“But it is okay for you to take a nice fresh, live carrot an peel its outer skin off and eat it live?”

“Carrots are alive, but they don’t have feelings. Although it is kind of bad that I eat them when they are alive.”

I find it fascinating that some individuals offer the reason that they won’t eat certain foods because those organisms have feelings and other foods do not have feelings. Two aspects fascinate me about it. Having feelings becomes a very important determiner. How do we know for sure which living things do have feelings and which ones don’t? Or, perhaps, how much feeling is needed to cross the threshold of “feeling?” Have you ever been fishing and poked a worm with a hook, or perhaps gardening and noticed a half a worm squirming? Do worms have feelings? (Worms are just an example of a "lower" animal that feels pain. I know, most of us don't eat earthworms--knowingly. "What's worse than a worm in an apple? A half a worm in an apple!" Fact check: there are apple worms that are not earthworms.)

There are many aspects to our decisions of what we think is ethical to eat and what is not. The cattle were not killed, “harvested,” for their hides, but for their meat. So is it cruel to then use their hides to cover a book? Is it ethical to drink milk from a cow when the cow is not harmed, and it may be argued that it is helpful to the cow to be milked? Where does it fit in the decision about eating animals or their products whether it is ethical to use their excrement for fertilizing our plants that we accept as food?

I’m thinking of a diet where no living things are harmed. It could include fruit from trees, like apples, because the tree will produce apples whether we eat them or not, but not carrots or potatoes because they give up their lives for the harvest. And not grains or corn, because it is “toast” for the plants that produce them. Perhaps vine produce is okay. Grapes and berries. Squash, pumpkins, and watermelons? You can pick them without killing the plant. And, milk, cheese and eggs would be okay because the animals do not die as a result of the harvesting. Oh, the eggs would need to be unfertilized, otherwise we are eating babies.

Some individuals eat in order to stay alive. The starving may not care where their food comes from as long as they can eat some and live a little longer or a little better. Others have the great luxury of choosing a diet based upon their ethical standards. I find examining the ethical decisions that we make about our diets to be fascinating topic.

A thought on a dark, rainey Saturday morning in July.

2011-07-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

I expressed this in a message to a friend this morning and include it here to share with you.

Some stuff that I have been reading lately has been referring to how God is present in our worship services, in our sanctuaries, and even in the adoration of the consecrated communion host. And I think "How narrow is that thinking!" God is with us all the time. St. Patrick's Breast Plate: before me, above me, beneath me, around me, in me. God is there before we get there, wherever "there" is. We don't have to go to church to be in God's presence. Yes, it is good to worship together. Worshipping together can heighten our sense of Presence, but it is not the only place where God is.

Inspiration from one customer/friend's life

2011-07-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is an exerpt from a message from a customer/friend. It inspires me to care for others and not just myself.

Well, let me just tell you and your wife that, as you know, there are several places online to purchase these types of items, but because of your outstanding customer service, for me, there is only one place online and that is the Episcopal Bookstore.

**** is my families business. I'm a writer, but I moved back to Colorado to help out my family with their business. My father's health is not all that great. I write books as well as bits for celebrities including **** and ****. I had to leave my beloved church in Hollywood, St. *****, which I am a member. But I know in time I will return. So my identity as an Episcopalian is something I hold near and dear. Thank you for products that help me to remember who I am and why I love Christ (my family are Non Denominational). Thanks again.

The best customers in the world, chapter 357

2011-07-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

This morning a new customer entered our store. Her priest told her to visit us to shop for a new study bible. She has worn out her old one. (!)

I offered four books for her consideration and encouraged her to sit at the nearby desk, opened them to the beginning of the Gospel of John, and suggested that she read the study resources in each one for comparison. Twenty minutes later she said that she had decided on the book that she wanted. It surprised her because it was not the one that she thought that she was going to choose when she began.

She also informed me that she had inadvertently tore one page of one of the books, not the one she was buying. It was page 1884. She had laid another bible on top of it, then slid the top one off which tore the thin paper on the bible beneath. She was willing to purchase the $52.00 bible with the tear on page 1884.

We negotiated a compromise. I reduced the price of that volume by four dollars and wrote on the price label, “As is” “Page 1884” and the reduced price.

The woman insisted that she pay the $4.00.

How many customers in how many stores would have quietly closed the bible with the torn page and returned it to the shelf? Not this one. Not our customer.

We have the best customers in the world!

Is the Trinity too limiting?

2011-06-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Recently I’ve been thinking that the Trinity lacks some expression of God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all the One God.
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier. Or replace Sanctifier with Sustainer. Okay.

Do we have to fit into one of those three the awe of a sunset (or sunrise)?
Incredible gravity. Do you really understand gravity, or perhaps magnetism?
Okay, matter and energy may fit in Creator. But, if so, then does everything and every non-thing?
Music in our heads, what some refer to as “ear worms.” Which one of the Three gets to have that one?
What is the Mind? Where is it located. Which part of the Trinity does it “belong” to? Yes, I know about the Unity of the Trinity, but still.

Is the person crying on the other end of the phone transmitted through the medium to your ear via Creator, Lover, or Sustainer? Can we have another description of God that includes the medium through which we communicate our pain and reasurance to each other?

God is so much more than we can describe, but so also is the world that we interact with and through.

Can’t we add a few more “personae” without being a heretic?
Or, perhaps I’m just a heretic through and through. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

Book review of "Windknocker: A Novel of Friendship, Summer Sausage, and Last Gaspers," by Bud Malby

2011-06-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

A concern for our ministry-which-is-the-store is the huge increase in self-published books that is thriving at this time. A bookstore can run efficiently when it buys books from well-known publishers and through distribution channels that encourage efficient ordering and delivery of books. We know that Church Publishing, Inc. is an Episcopal Church publisher, Abingdon Press is United Methodist, Westminster/John Knox Press is Presbyterian, and HarperOne is a non-denominational publisher that offers titles from a wide spectrum of interest categories. We can order books from a combination of publishers through our favorite book distributor. It is efficient and we are confident in the products that we will be receiving as well as confident in delivery dates for them.

It seems that every city has at least one self-publishing business and most cities have several of them. If I write a manuscript that I want to become a book I can offer it to several well-known publishers and wait for their rejection letters. Madeleine L’Engle received rejection letters from about thirty publishers until one accepted her manuscript. With that beginning L’Engle went on to write dozens of books that sold millions of copies and became an author that many publishers would have been thrilled to have “in their stable.”

My other choice is to take my manuscript that I want to become a book to a local self-publisher, pay them to print and bind one print run that will become my book. The average print run for a self-published book is twenty copies. For a bookstore to find good books that fit our niche market from hundreds of self-publishers and small print runs is a formidable task.

We found one.

Windknocker is a novel about two life-long friends. They have many boyhood adventures, lose track of each other as young adults, then reconnect later in life. Their friendship seems as close as twin brothers. One of the boys, “Mew,” becomes a Catholic priest prior to the tectonic plate shift that was the result of the Vatican II council, and well before clergy sexual abuse of children made the news. He lived through and beyond the changes of Vatican II and worked with children and clergy during the abuse scandal reports and lawsuits.

Mew’s friend, Leezie, takes a different path in life, serves in the Army, is traumatized by his work in war, marries and has a child. Leezie does not have a church affiliation but he has an active spiritual life.

The first time I began the book I put it down after reading less than 50 pages. It was a story about two young boys and their life in a small town. It was somewhat interesting, but not enough to keep me reading with all of the other commitments in my life at that time.

Recently I picked it up again and gave it another try. Soon I had difficulty putting it down. I became connected with the lives of these two very close friends. The book takes us through their whole lives. It informs me about deep friendship that can be stronger than any other relationship. It also informs me about the Church and the spectrum of life of Catholic clergy, from loneliness to the power of authority, and how power helps a priest handle loneliness.

The author, Bud Malby, also critiques the institution of the Church. He exposes and describes where the institution pulls the laity and clergy away from God. Malby also illuminates what can happen when a strong faith and commitment to love your neighbor combines with deep-seated understanding that God loves and accepts you as you are more than you can possibly imagine. At the end of the story Malby offers us a riveting comparison of two lives and their impact upon those that know them.

I am glad that we stumbled across Windknocker by Bud Malby. It is well worth reading and pondering its message.

Nancy at booksellers trade show

2011-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Nancy flew to Chicago last Monday to attend her annual Episcopal booksellers trade show. She has spent the days in meetings, listening to famous religious book speakers, working with other bookstore managers, and communicating with and placing orders with dozens of book publishers as well as some suppliers of non-book items. Typically she has been up and involved with others for 18 hours each day, leaving only about six hours for sleep and little or no “down time” to herself. I will pick her up at the airport this evening. I will close the store and immediately zip to the airport where she will be waiting for me. She will be exhausted. I’ll try to help her recoup her life by encouraging her normal routine in Seattle for the rest of the weekend (Sunday).

Rehearsing or performing?

2011-05-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a portion of my weekly letter to my granddaughter who lives far away. This week’s offering is not specifically religious, but perhaps reflecting on it will do something for you.

Last week I wrote about the community choir concert that I was blessed to sing with. The concerts on both days, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon did occur. I think that they were pretty good concerts. The audiences seem to enjoy and appreciate them.

I’ve been trying to figure out since the concerts my level of joy while singing in the concerts. Being there, performing, was very good. Was it “fun?” I don’t think I can refer to it as fun. One good part about singing in the concerts was that I knew that when we began a piece of music that we would not stop singing until the end. That is very unlike rehearsals. Our director is adamant about not allowing us to sing a song incorrectly. (“Practice makes perfect?” Only practicing perfection makes for perfect.) He won’t allow us to go two measures when it is not right. As a result we stop frequently and continually when we are rehearsing. It is rather normal, when our rehearsals are approaching concert time for him to state, “Okay, we are going to sing this one straight through this time” only to be stopped, corrected, and to try it again before we are one-fourth of the way through the piece.

On the other hand, I am much more anxious while singing in a concert. I am more likely to make errors myself during a concert than during rehearsal and I do not like that side of concerts. A very good part of singing in a concert is when we finish a song and the director just freezes his posture for a second or two with a look on his face of pure joy and the audience is spell-bound enough to hesitate to applaud. Then I know that we “did it right” and that is a very good feeling.

The best part of singing in rehearsals is that I get to hear the singers of other parts of the music rehearse their parts. In this last concert there was a piece about the winter winds. The sopranos and altos sang a portion of the piece, singing “Ahhh” in harmonies that together felt like a cold wind swirling around in a winter storm. It was fantastic. I would feel chilled just listening to it. Then, when all parts are singing, and I’m singing, the upper voices’ chilling sounds become part of the whole piece and I can not hear them so distinctly. This is part, along with the lesser anxiety I feel during rehearsals that I enjoy more than the concert itself. The music itself if really enjoyable to me. Rehearsing is good and enjoyable. The performing, for me is less enjoyable, but not bad.

Putting our baptismal covenant to the test.

2011-05-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

From our baptismal covenant: (page 305, Book of Common Prayer 1979)
“Will you…respect the dignity of every human being?” Answer: “I will, with God’s help.”

Notice that there is not any “fine print” with exceptions. It does not say, I did not say, or was said on my behalf, that I will respect the dignity of only those that I agree with. It does not except those who have harmed me, abused me, or killed my son/daughter/brother/parent. They are all included in “the dignity of every human being.”
Osama bin Laden is included in “every human being.”

Who said living a Christian life is easy?

I grieve all those who have died because of the actions of Osama bin Laden.
I grieve that our world has become a place where killing of other human beings is an accepted practice, and is even, on occasion, celebrated.
I grieve for our President and all who acted to kill another human being.
I grieve that we all have supported the killing of others by supporting our government that kills humans, by electing those who make the decisions to kill others, by paying taxes to pay for the killing of other human beings.

Lent is over, are our actions and commitments?

2011-04-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Lent is over (obviously).
The actions, thoughts, things, that we give up for Lent, now we pick them back up again? What was the point of whatever we did for Lent if we then revert to our old routines? Was it just a time of trying out being a better person and now we slip, slump, back into our old ways?

Wednesday after Easter Day, I turned on the radio while I was ironing shirts. I had given up for Lent listening to the radio while I “worked” or did chores. The quiet time gave me time to think more. It was nice to be able to have some quiet time to think. Yes, I missed listening to some music and to some news reports, but not all of them. Should I keep the radio off after Lent? It did take me a few days to return to the habit of listening while busy with something else. Actually, I quickly discovered that there wasn’t any music on the radio that I wanted to listen to at that time so I put in a recording and listened to some music that I had not heard for many months.

My friend Grace used to give up book buying for Lent. And, within a few days after Easter Day she would visit the store and purchase all the books that she had been wanting during Lent. It seemed to me at the time that she was not giving up books for Lent, but just postponing the purchase of them. Grace died a few years ago. We miss her spirit. Yes, she was a regular book buyer, but that is not the part about her that we miss. I sometimes wonder if she was able to read before she died all of the books that she purchased. I rather expect that there were many unread books in her apartment at her end. She was, after all, a book lover.

Easter creep

2011-04-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

I write a weekly letter to my granddaughter who lives far away from me. It is a way in which I try to stay connected to her life. This is a portion of this week’s letter.

It is Holy Saturday as I write this. Traditionally this day has been for the Church a day to kind of hold our collective breaths. It is the part of the observance of remembrance about Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection. On this day, symbolically, Christ was dead and in a tomb. We all kind of held our breath from the time of his death yesterday until his Resurrection tomorrow.

For some, a few I think, today remains a quiet day of meditation, but for many congregations this is a day of preparation for the Easter Vigil service which will be held this evening, where the fast of Lent is broken and the light of Easter is celebrated.

I have two thoughts about this change to Easter Vigil on Easter Eve. One thought is that it feels like “Easter creep.” Easter has not remained on Easter Day. It has crept over to the night before. This creeping to the night before then puts the figurative breath back into Holy Saturday. We don’t need to hold our collective breaths while we remember Christ as being dead and buried, because we are preparing for the big celebration this evening. I am uncomfortable with “Easter creep.”

My second thought is that since so much of the world has given up on religion, that religion just does not mean anything to so many people today, that for those few of us to whom it remains an important part of our lives we seem even more anachronistic. We have become a quaint little sideshow that has no meaning to the lives of so many people. This both saddens and worries me. Whether they will recognize it or not, there is a very real spiritual side to life. By not being aware of it, open to it, or studying to learn from it they are short-changing their lives.

I read in the news earlier this week of a request for volunteers to help in a park this weekend in hiding “Spring Eggs” for the Spring Egg Hunt for the children. They couldn’t even refer to it as an Easter Egg Hunt. They have taken the Christian observance and tradition, removed the symbolism of new life from an egg, and made it a public fun event with evidently no more meaning to it than a fun little adventure for the kiddies.

Pretend that a new fad began that involved numbing our tongues so that we could not taste food. I certainly hope that such a fad does not begin. It would not be long until individuals and groups of people forgot that food had taste. They would eat without enjoying the flavors of the foods, the sweets, and saltiness, the bitterness of beer, the tartness of rhubarb, the hot spiciness of jalapeno peppers, the tangy flavors, the mixture of flavors in a butterscotch, chocolate ice cream Sunday. Neither would we receive the warning of very bad tasting food that has spoiled and is not good to eat. “Have you tasted this (or, “Please taste (or smell) this and tell me what you think…”) is it bad or spoiled, or do you think that it is okay to eat it?” Those aspects of food would be there but we would not be aware of them. Our lives would be less enjoyable and more fragile without the awareness that flavors in foods give us. I see religion and faith and acceptance of the spiritual realm in which we live as similar to food flavors. They are there whether we acknowledge them or not and life is in so many ways enhanced when we recognize them and grow in our understanding of them.

Singing for the non-listeners

2011-04-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

This evening the community choir with which I sing is performing at a benefit event. The local food bank is the recipient of a “soup bowl” event. Their publicity for it includes: “Buy a unique handcrafted bowl for a minimum donation of $15 get it filled with soup and bread, listen to music while dining with your neighbors!” according to the events listing. All proceeds benefit the Ballard Food Bank.

The choir will be the “listen to music” portion of the fundraiser. We have a few songs that are part of what we have been learning and practicing for our spring concert in May that we will be performing this evening for the fund raiser. I expect the performance to be quite different than what we are used to. Mainly, people will not, in my humble opinion, stop, sit, and listen to the performance. I expect that they will continue purchasing bowls, eating, and talking with their neighbors while we sing as a musical background. There are some tricky parts to the music, and one very funny piece of music, but to appreciate them an audience must be quiet and attentive. And, for us to perform them our best, we need it to be quiet enough so that we can really hear all of the other parts of the music that other choir members are singing. I don’t expect that to happen tonight. Well, we will see what comes.

It’s just N and me at the store today. About half the Saturdays we will have another staff member to help with the customers, orders, and sales, so we are a little short-handed today. I will need to leave early in order to get to the fundraiser in time to sing. This means that N will run the store for an hour or so by herself, and then close the store and finish the end-of-day accounting work, deposit the day’s cash and checks in the bank night deposit, and head home by herself.

In the early years of the store it was just part of our routine that one of us could manage the store, but that was when business was much less. I hope that N will be okay after I leave her this afternoon.

A life immersed in spiritual matters.

2011-04-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

(As part of a letter this week to my granddaughter I included this thought that I share with you now.)

I was surprised, and a little disappointed that Marvin did not include his thoughts about God, God’s actions in his life, or much of anything spiritual. Reading his book reminded me that I the world I now live in is a world where most of us live, talk, write, and read about spiritual matters. I was reminded again, that most of the world does not. I think that “most of the world” is missing out on an important aspect of all of their lives by not talking, writing, or reading about the spiritual experiences in their lives and the lives of others. It would be like talking with a famous sports star and only talking about sports. If I were talking with a sports star I’d be interested in their thoughts about the rest of their lives, including their spiritual experiences, not just what they are famous for. They are famous, but they are also humans like the rest of us. I’d like them to share their humanity with me.

Self publishing or book publisher?

2011-04-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

There is the continuing, eh, “situation” that I experience with self-published books. It evokes a few thoughts.

This morning I noticed in one book that I’m reading, Desmond Tutu’s, and his daughter Mpho’s Made for Goodness their pages at the back of the book, “Acknowledgements.” Without permission can I display some of it near the beginning?…”We thank God for the skill and sensitivity of Doug A… who is not only our editor but also a writing coach in disguise… We owe him a debt of gratitude for his many readings of this manuscript; for the gentle wisdom that has helped us to create a better “best” than we started out with.”

Recently I’ve read a couple of books by local authors who have self-published their books. Reading them it is obvious to me that they have not had the expertise of an editor or professional proof reader.

Dennis Michno, author of A Priest’s Handbook told me some years ago that he and the publisher went through an exhausting 40 revisions of his book before it was published. A Priest’s Handbook has remained in print for many years, now in it’s Third Edition, certainly due to its value to clergy, but also no doubt to the many revisions that made it excellent and “right.”

I wonder in this age of “me,” when we not only “get to” but expect to do it, whatever it may be, our own way, if some of us write the book that is in us and that we think the world needs to see without going through the tedium of many rejections by publishers or revisions that an editor and professional proof reader may require before it is ready to be published.

Those book publishers that have editorial staffs and proof readers reject many books. The famous author whose books we love to read and offer to others, Madeleine L’Engle, has described the thirty or so rejections from publishers that she received before a publisher accepted her first novel.

Some of us write our books, then pay a publisher to make, on average less than 100 copies. That is certainly different from the book publishers.

Book publishers also have distribution pathways that bookstores rely on for knowing about and for ease of ordering books. Why should we as bookstores spend the extra effort to find and purchase ten different titles from ten small, unheard of self-publishers, and receive a smaller profit on them when we can easily purchase twenty-five titles from known publishers from one book distributor, receive better terms of sale, and receive those books quickly through a method that we know and use frequently?

From a bookstore’s perspective there is more to writing and publishing and selling a book than many recent authors may consider.

How many sermons?

2011-02-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

I heard a good sermon yesterday. (It has been a while.) Besides the message that correlated the Gospel with our lives today the preacher mentioned the topic of how many different sermons a preacher actually has. He described a fellow clergy person whose idea is that every preacher has really only about six sermons. The same six sermons are described somewhat differently, but stay to the same themes throughout the preacher’s career. Yesterday’s preacher suggested that he has really only one sermon and it concerns the interior life and our finding of God within us as we work through our lives.

One of the aspects that made yesterday’s sermon good in my mind was that I could carry on a conversation in my head with the preacher while the sermon was presented, and then follow up conversation in my head after the worship service concluded, even in this morning. (Yes, it would have been good for me, and perhaps the preacher, to actually engage him in my conversation, perhaps during coffee hour.)

Part of my conversation concerns how many “sermons” each of us has within us as we “preach” our lives in the world. I am reminded of the quote attributed to Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Each of us is preaching our gospel by our actions in our daily lives. How many sermons do we have? I think that I have just one sermon, “God is love.” Grace, undeserved, unearnable gifts of love in our lives.

How many sermons do you express in your life?

The Tucson shootings

2011-01-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

I began writing a weekly letter to my teenage granddaughter, thinking that teenagers need support, and my writing helps me to think. My granddaughter is no longer a teenager, but the letters continue. Here is part of last Saturday's letter. Perhaps it will interest you.

Since last I wrote to you there has been the shootings and killing of those members of the Tucson AZ community. Nine-year old Christina. The judge. The husband who blocked the bullets for his wife. Others, and the congresswoman, Gabby Giffords. That was followed by the take down of the shooter by other bystanders who were just regular folks in the community, including an 80-year old (?) woman who wrestled the shooter's next clip of bullets from him. There was also the mild mannered, humble, very large man who was a member of the congresswoman’s staff who jumped to her rescue and held her head trying to stop the bleeding from the bullet that she received. And there are the trauma specialists and trauma surgeon who used all of their skill learned on the battlefields in the mid-east to help save the congresswoman’s life. Finally, there was President Obama’s speech at the community memorial service on Wednesday. I think that it was the best speech that I have heard him give. Among other things, it encouraged me to pick up a volunteer activity as my offering to the support of those in our community who need more help. For some reason the events of this week have resulted in me expressing more emotion about the deaths and injuries from this event. Have I been more deeply affected by this tragedy or am I mellowing and allowing my emotions to express themselves more fully? I don’t know yet.

Perhaps, hopefully, writing more about my thoughts and feelings will result in a better understanding by me of these events.

The shooter. Evidence indicates that he was mentally spiraling down and out of reason and rational thought. That our community’s safety net did not capture him and begin a process of healing and repair is both sad and yet somewhat understandable. He had not reached the level of major concern by those who need to identify such individuals. Certainly there are others in our communities and nation who are more radical, perhaps more insane, than he is. He must be insane in order to be able to plan and attempt such an awful event.

The families and friends of the victims. None of us are guaranteed that our lives will be free of such violence and tragedy. Should we all avoid community gatherings where such events might happen? A family living on a single-family farm in a rural setting is much less likely to experience such community violence, but it won’t guarantee a life without tragedy. Besides we can not all live on isolated farms. It is better that we work with our community to build healthy relationships between disparate factions so that we can disagree and yet respect the dignity of each individual. I heard a statement last evening about civility. To be a civil society, a civil community, we need to nurture civility within the community. And, civility is not a trait that can be learned in isolation. We need to interact with others who have views that are different from our own in order to grow in our understanding and acceptance of others that differ from us so that peace among us can be nourished and grow.

The victims that are still alive. Their lives have changed “forever.” Whether they are the individuals who received bullet wounds, or they are the family, friends, or co-workers of those who were shot, their lives have changed. How will they cope? How will they live with and heal from the tragedy in their lives? What will they do to help prevent such events in the future? How have these events changed their faith?

The community leaders who realize that such a horrific event could happen to them personally. How do they go forward? Are armed body guards now to become either normal or required? Will they isolate themselves from their constituents in order to be safer? Will the knowledge of this event cause others who were thinking of devoting their lives to public service and community leadership decide to avoid such roles in their communities resulting in fewer leaders who are committed to listening to the residents and bettering our society?

Guns and ammo. Is this a call to make major changes to guns in our communities? If we allow individuals to own guns “for sport and personal protection” do we need to allow semi-automatic weapons that can fire a clip of thirty bullets in seven seconds? What kind of “sport” does that cover, or what kind of personal protection does that provide? Has our culture encouraged higher levels of violence through the sports that we watch (our national religion), the movies that we view, the computer games that we play, and our encouragement of winning at all costs that results in the acceptance of guns and killing in our communities?

Can we pass laws that will prevent all of this?

Will our personal interactions change to more civil, more moderate, and more understanding of those who differ from us?

I only have questions, mostly, with few answers.

What can I do? I recommit myself to listening with my full self to the views of those who differ from me. I will try harder to understand the thoughts and experiences of those who have different values than I do. I intend to pick up volunteering in my community again in order to try, in some small way, to assist those who need the help that I can give. As much as I may want to avoid hearing the news about what is wrong with our country and my community, I recommit myself to studying the news, listening to commentators who try to make common sense out of events and trends in our culture so that I can act for the betterment of the world community. Of course I will continue to vote, but I intend to do more than that.

How does a Christian respond to these tragic events? Pray, certainly. Pray for the victims and their families, friends, co-workers, and communities. Pray for the shooter, and his parents. Pray for the responders and medical personnel. Pray for our communities to “get it (more) right.” But more than praying, I must act. I must change my activity so that I can help change our society so that we lessen the possibility of such events happening again.

Thinking "about" and thinking "on"

2011-01-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

Thinking "about" things in life does not take much time. I've been thinking "about," and acting upon, replacing a printer, hiring a staff member (welcome Jon!), and fixing the leaking toilet.

Thinking "on" things of life takes more time. Not during the Christmas busy-ness at the store is there time. Not after Christmas with its own busy-ness has there been time.

Anticipating the chance for a snow event that would put normal life on hold causes me to realize "I must replace some of the busy-ness with thinking time." Reading time helps me find thinking time.

I can't wait until Lent to create time for reading. I need to get back to reading now, in Epiphany. A major snow event would have encouraged the reading-thinking time, but I can order my own life without the intervention of a snow event, when I become aware of it.

I have become aware of it.
It's time to act, by reading and thinking.
Maybe you will want to join me, on your own, where you are.

New Years wishes for 2011

2010-12-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

Here are my New Years wishes for you for all of 2011.
Click on this link.

Two noteworthy individuals this week

2010-12-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

There have been two individuals with whom I have conversed this week that you may find interesting.

George visited our ministry-which-is-the-store on Saturday, the eve of the First Sunday in Advent, which the beginning of the Advent season, preparing for Christmas. George was coveting a special large nativity set that is noteworthy depicting Joseph holding the baby Jesus. Oh, George loves nativity sets. He collects them. “Today I begin setting out my nativity sets” he told me. Knowing that he has collected them for many years, I asked him how many nativity sets he has. “Oh, something like 220 or 230.” It takes George most of the season of Advent to display each of his nativity sets.

George’s wife has put her foot down, harder this year. She insists that he can not bring another nativity set in to the home unless he removes one. George was really captivated by the nativity set with Joseph holding the baby Jesus, but he was also conflicted over making the decision of which nativity would he give up in order to bring home the new one. (We do not display our nativity sets on our website, for several reasons. Mostly we don’t because they are in limited supply and we can order them infrequently. Displaying them on the website “does not compute” with our resources for supplying them.)

Wayne phoned from Alaska today. He had spent about one week visiting the faithful of the Church in Lower Yukon. Wayne says, “You really can’t get there from here, or from almost anywhere.” Upon his return Wayne was thrilled and spiritually uplifted by his interactions with the community in three small villages in Lower Yukon. They do not have telephone service nor do they have TV reception. They live very simple lives of survival in a very primitive place.

Wayne was housed in a village’s government building since there was no room in the small residences of the villagers, and there was certainly no hotel or other lodging. No mall. No shopping center. No chain grocery store. In the winter you travel when the weather allows, and when it doesn’t “you get along.” Wayne described his lodging: wake up and get up from the sleeping bag, wash your face and shave in a bowl of lukewarm water, and eat with others in their homes. The lodgings would not rate even a single star on the hotel five star rating scale.

Wayne experienced a very different world that exists in the U.S. in the 21st century. And, he can hardly wait to return to it! because of the sturdy folk with whom he met.

A story of commitment

2010-11-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

A youngish woman artist friend has wanted to help her two older men artist friends who are down on their luck. Their food stamps have kept them alive, but without housing. Together the three of them found affordable housing in a small rural one-stoplight town a few hours from Seattle at the foot of the inspiring mountains. All three moved there a couple of months ago. The men are beginning to thrive and produce art once again.

The woman works in Seattle. The routine is that she and the man who owns the old pickup truck awake at 4:30 each morning. He drives her about one hour to the commuter bus stop where she catches the bus for the long commute to work in Seattle.

A few days ago the Seattle area experienced a strong windstorm. Broken tree branches took down power lines in many locations. The woman and the pickup truck owner went to sleep at their normal time. The other man usually stays up later. After the two were asleep the electric power went out. It was then that the one still awake realized that all of their clocks were plug-ins and had stopped. How would the woman know when to get up to go to work?

He stayed up throughout the night listening to his battery-powered radio. At 4:30 AM he awoke the other two so that they could begin the morning transportation routine. And he went to bed and sleep.

Commitment. She is committed and giving her heart to help the two old artists renew their art and their dignity. They each are committed to helping her do the work that she loves and needs to do.

Am I thoughtful enough to care about others’ needs sufficiently that I would stay awake all night so that others could be awakened at the time they needed?

When does the season of Advent begin?

2010-11-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

The season of Advent begins a week from Sunday, officially. We have had Advent and Christmas merchandise on display in our store for a most of this month. Filling orders for candles for Advent wreaths as the days are shorter and it’s dark when we leave the store in the evening is a warm feeling of lights in the darkness, of which Advent is a part. Each day the numbers of orders grows as we all prepare for the season of preparation. I ran across a radio station this week that is playing Christmas music 24/7.

So when does the season of Advent really begin? Stating that Advent begins on the First Sunday of Advent is like saying that a marriage relationship begins at the wedding. Oh, no it doesn’t. The wedding commemorates a relationship that has been growing. And, in good marriages the relationship will continue to grow and change as time passes and the years go by.

Did Advent begin when Nancy began ordering Advent and Christmas merchandise back before Easter? Did it begin when Julie lovingly used her talents to display the Advent and Christmas items early this month? I know that officially Advent is not yet here, but it doesn’t seem that way today in this ministry-which-is-the-store.

Blessing the animals on the Feast of St. Francis

2010-10-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

We have been selling a picture wall calendar that displays animals blessed in religious services around the world. The calendar has received considerable interest. Each day I have been more and more interested in experiencing the animals in our lives being blessed in a worship service. Three church websites in Seattle informed me that they were blessing animals during the Sunday morning services this morning. “Which one would have the best turn out of animals?” I asked myself.

I chose St. Mark’s Cathedral. It was a good choice. Big cathedral. Lots of animals.
The main pew section to the left (old Gospel side) had signs, “Cats only in this section.”
The main pew section to the right (Epistle side) had signs, “Dogs only in this section.”
Part of the further-left section read “Pet-free area.” It was a thoughtful touch.
The further-right section of pews’ signs read, “Pets other than cats and dogs.” I sat at the back of that section. The woman next to me had Thumper, a beautiful longhaired rabbit. There were also small animals in small cages including gerbils, hamsters, and a Guinea pig.

The homilist asked if there were any chickens this morning. She missed having chickens attend. I missed seeing any birds or snakes.

The liturgical leader reminded us at the start of the service that God is present in chaos, so when we experience chaos during the service, just remember that God is present.

My informal tallying indicated a significant majority of dogs, of all sizes, ages, breeds as well as mixed-breeds. Many worshippers were very appreciative of other animals as well as their own. The community was very engaged.

What I experienced this morning in the blessing of the animals during the Sunday worship service was a happy, alert, alive congregation that was only marginally distracted by all of the animals. During the Eucharist the liturgy seemed to struggle keeping the pets and their owners engaged in the seriousness of the Body and Blood of Christ, but otherwise the service flowed and connected very well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sharing of our worship service with those beloved animals that share our lives. We are blessed each day by the presence of the pets in our lives and this morning the pets were blessed, after the recessional hymn, by the Church. It was very fitting.

A curious performance comparison

2010-09-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

I sing in a community choir. We have completed the rehearsals and are ready for our concert on Saturday evening at a local Lutheran Church. (If you live in the Seattle area you may be interested in more details at http://www.marketstreetsingers.org/schedule.html )

There is a little sadness this morning as I think about the music and our singing. Throughout the summer we have been practicing the songs for the concert. Each week we have learned and improved our singing of the music. It has been enjoyable and fun. Now that we have practiced the music we will present the concert. Once. Then it will be over and we will not sing that music again. I will miss it and this saddens me, somewhat.

I am contrasting that this morning with what the professional music groups do. In my humble opinion a professional group will collect the music that they want to perform, much of which they have performed previously. They rehearse until they have the music ready. I suppose that they practice less than the community choir does because they are professionals and pick it up faster as well as having more talent and experience with more music and they have sung much of it before.

The professional performers then schedule many performances of their work. They may even take it on the road and perform the same concert in many different cities.

The contrast strikes me. The pros practice less and perform more while the amateurs practice more and perform less.

I wonder where else in our world there is this difference?

A note from a Taiwan customer

2010-08-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

This was sent to the Seattle Times daily newspaper. Perhaps you will be interested in it. Each day, each of us (you, too) may not know what may result from our actions.

Seattle Merchant Flexes for Foreign Trade

On August 16th John Marshall, co-owner of Seattle’s Episcopal Bookstore received a note from a potential customer in Taiwan who had a problem. The Rev. David Alexander, a staff member at Tainan Theological College in Tainan City, had wandered into the EpiscopalBookstore.com website hoping to find good prices on interesting items, and hit what he considered to be a jackpot in the On-Sale section of the site. He selected five books and, with the click of a mouse, transferred them into his shopping cart. Complications came at checkout.

As is common in cyber-commerce, both billing and shipping addresses were required. The website was well engineered for international orders except for one thing. When it came time for Rev. Alexander to select the country, his only option was “Taiwan, Province of China”. That didn’t sit right with him, so the transaction stalled.

Rev. Alexander is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, a group that has, for decades, stood for the independent recognition of Taiwan as an entity separate from China. The church often points out to the world that Taiwan was removed from Chinese sovereignty in 1895 and fell under control of the Nationalist Chinese following the Second World War. It continues under that government today. The government of the People’s Republic of China, which came into existence in 1949, has never held control over Taiwan. The assertion that Taiwan is one of China’s many provinces is considered insulting by most people in Taiwan, including Rev. Alexander.

In the past, when cyber-shopping and encountering the provincial option for billing and shipping, Rev. Alexander has stopped. This time, though, because he really wanted the books and because the prices at Episcopal Bookstore were considerably lower than ordering them from an alternative shop, so he wrote.

Mr. Marshall, in Seattle, did some research and responded. He discovered oth that the U.S. Postal Service lists Taiwan as a separate country and that the commercial postage and shipping label application that his business uses lists Taiwan separately as a country. This was the first time it had been brought to his attention that the Episcopal Bookstore’s own website did not list it separately. He promised to have the site changed. A joyful correspondence followed between Seattle and Taiwan resulting in the order being placed a week later.

Vendors using web-sites depend on pre-packaged software to facilitate things. Much of that software reflects either a political agenda or a lack of concern for the sensitivities of people in places like Taiwan. A kind person (and astute businessman) from Seattle has made a friend, and secured a customer, overseas.

The Muslim mosque near Ground Zero.

2010-08-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, they have a right, to freedom of religion, to build a mosque for prayer wherever it fits them.

Yes, others will take offense that they are planning to build a mosque so close to the site of the 9/11 disaster.

No, they shouldn’t build it now and by doing so show respect for those to whom it would offend. Show some respect.

No, those who are opposed should not expand the situation to be larger than it is. Show some respect.

Both sides have strong opinions.

What would be an Anglican/Episcopal response? Show dignity to both sides. The historic Episcopal resolution, in my humble opinion, would be to postpone the construction of the mosque. Work at a continuting dialog about Muslim and Christian faith, beliefs, and world views. In a few years most likely many of the opposition’s concerns will have moderated. At a time when feelings are not as strong I think that the mosque could be built, for the right reasons and with much less animosity.

In communication with God

2010-07-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

I heard a thoughtful sermon this week.

From the Gospel of Luke: 11:9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

The homilist, Fr. Dave, described his 5-month old son: he cries and he gets fed, or changed, or cuddled to sleep. This is the young, early relationship between parent and infant. The infant asks through cries and his needs are attended to.

Fr. Dave’s 7-year old son was compared to the infant son. To the older child the parent can say, “Please pick up the toy (rattle, or whatever) that your brother dropped and give it back to him” and the older son does as he is asked. Most of the time.

The relationship between parent and older son is more fully developed. They communicate on a different level, a mutually interactive level.

So, too, is our faith relationship with God. In early stages of faith we ask God for help, and if we are paying close attention, our prayers are answered, though perhaps not in the way that we expect. In more mature stages of faith the communication with God is more complex. God asks us to help with God’s purposes. God asks us to help by assisting others, by showing love through actions to others. We become God’s helpmate by working to fulfill God’s desires on earth by helping others with the resources we have. When we lack the resources God works with us to help us develop the resources that we require to do God’s will.

This description fits what I have seen in the world of faith in my life. I appreciate the description. I know that Fr. Dave has lived this message, too. In his life he has heard God’s call to action for Dave and Dave has responded in amazing ways. Just one of those responses resulted in Fr. Dave terminating his job, and with his family they sold their home and moved a thousand miles away so that Fr. Dave could attend seminary to become a priest. For the three years of seminary they lived on the proceeds of the sale of their home, and at the graduation were out of money and in debt. That, in my mind, is called jumping off the cliff in confident faith that it is what God asks to be done. Fr. Dave used the resources that he had available (the value of their home and security of a job) to obtain the resources that he heard God asking him to develop so that Fr. Dave could persue more fully the work that God was asking of him, in his case to become a priest and now rector of a congregation.

That is powerful stuff to me and my faith.

Was it the presence of the Holy Spirit?

2010-07-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a quiet July afternoon at our ministry-which-is-the-bookstore. There had been few customers. Gradually, quietly, that changed.

A young couple and their baby-in-stroller entered the store. They were looking for a very specific icon. It was Jesus as King and High Priest. Their words and descriptions showed that they knew little about icons, but what they did know was that they needed one very specific icon. It had to be a Russian icon, not Greek. “Is this a Russian icon?’ “How can you be certain?” I am not a icon scholar, but I pointed to the lettering on the icon and asked is that text in Greek or Russian (Cyrillic)?” They didn’t know, but I suggested that it looked like Russian letters to me.

During the few minutes of their questions and my replies, as I offered them a catalog of icons with descriptions and a book about icons, as I tried to leave them alone to talk on their own, some other customers had entered the store. I became aware that we now had in the store customers who included a bishop in the United Christian Church, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, and a bishop in a conservative Orthodox Catholic church. Although this last bishop told me that he had been so overworked and tired that this was his first chance to visit our store in months, he soon gravitated to the icon shoppers. Almost immediately he engaged the couple in a teaching situation as he described the icons and their meanings.

The woman of the couple came to me to ask if there were other stores in town that had more icons than we have. I explained that most of the Russian and Greek Orthodox congregations have gift shops attached to them. Although those shops have limited shop hours of operation they are nearly always open immediately after their Sunday worship services. Not only do they have icons, they really know and appreciate their icons and would be more knowledgeable than I. I offered the name of one, St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, certainly having a well-stocked store, although they are Greek and not Russian. “And where is it located?” Let me show you in the phone book. “Oh, I don’t use phone books. I haven’t used a phone book in five years. You have given me the name of the church and I will locate it in my computer.” “But, that is only one congregation and the phone book will list the various Russian and Greek Orthodox congregations.” “No. I don’t use the phone book and don’t want you to use it.”

Several minutes later the Orthodox bishop had stopped trying to teach them about icons. The couple had found two icons that they were interested in. One of the icons depicted Christ’s hand in one position. In the other icon Christ’s hand was in a different position. Placing both icons on the counter the couple continued to discuss them. They liked one icon, but not the depiction of Christ’s hand in that one. They preferred his hand in the other icon. Their discussion evolved to the topic of Photoshopping one icon and replacing the hand in it with the hand in the other one so that it would fit what they wanted.

By this time we all had given up trying to help the couple with the icons. It was obvious that they had no interest in the centuries of tradition and reverence for icons and iconography. They were only interested in getting a nice picture that fit what they wanted. As the bishop had earlier explained to them, icons are not pictures, they are an entry into the mystical nature of God. As I had tried to point out to them in books and descriptions of the icons in a supplier’s catalog, the specific icons have a specific history and meaning. These reproductions of the original icons refer back to the time when the “writer” of an icon would fast for 40 days, then seek permission and guidance from the bishop as to what the icon that was about to be created should manifest. Then, in all spiritual devotion, they would painstakingly attempt to create the work of spiritual art.

Nope. The couple intended to Photoshop the two icons so that they would have the one that they wanted and could put that picture of Jesus as King up in the window of their apartment.

Soon after the icon shopping couple left the store I realized that the clergy who had converged on our store had departed as well. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit was present during that event last Saturday afternoon as the clergy gathered, were present during a couple’s shopping experience, and then went away.

What do we do with the choices that we make in life?

2010-07-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

I read the following piece in the Christian Century this week:

You’ve heard of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of the hugely successful Apple computer company, but you’ve probably never heard of Ron Wayne, Apple’s other founder. Wayne bailed out of the firm after only 12 days because he was afraid of losing his shirt in a risky venture. His original 10 percent stake in the company would be worth more than $22 billion today—if he had held on to it. “I left Apple for reasons that seemed sound to me at the time. Why should I go back and ‘what if’ myself?” Wayne said recently. At age 76, he is living off Social Security checks and earnings from the sale of stamps and coins.

I think that there is quite an important lesson here. Wayne made a decision many years ago. There are two different ways to handle looking back on decisions that we all make. We can either wish that we had made different decisions and beat ourselves up for not making a different decision, and perhaps using it as an excuse for why we are where we are today, or we can admit that we made the decision and move on with a positive outlook for what we are doing today and plan for the future. Some people see the glass as half full of water and some see it as half empty. Same glass of water. It’s what we think about it, and feel about it that makes all of the difference. This doesn’t mean that we should forget the past. We can learn from our past decisions and actions. We can also forgive ourselves, put down the load of carrying around those old burdens, remember where we put them down so that we don’t forget the lessons, but not be burdened with continuing to carry the old burdens that will hamper our life today and in the future.

What’s happening around the ministry-which-is-the-store this week.

2010-07-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

After weeks of work, discussion, and collaboration, we signed the contract and half paid for the website upgrade. This is the first in two years, which is a long time in website time. You probably will see the results about the end of July.

We are preparing for our 20th annual big summer clearance sale next week. Nancy looked at the numbers of each item in our inventory to determine whether it will go on sale. It took her a long time and she was bleary-eyed by the end. I have created the postcard graphics, with Nancy’s help. Everything involves Nancy’s help. The postcards design and addresses for the local store friends have been sent to the printer and mailing service, through a jobber. Two E-mail newsletters are ready to go, one for our Frequent Buyers and another for our regular monthly E-mail newsletter. Twitter notice, and Facebook notices are being prepared. The advertisement button on our website is ready to “go live.”

We are preparing to start pulling the books and non-book items. They will be stickered and re-priced. Store signs are being made. Monday we will be closed for the Independence Day holiday which gives four of us several hours to revamp the insides of the store so that we can open with the Sale on Tuesday morning, July 6th.

A postal challenge

2010-06-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

It is just a little challenge, but it is part of what makes running the bookstore fun.

You may have seen the Postal Service ads for their flat rate Priority Mail packages. Whatever you can fit in one of their flat rate mailers is shipped for a single price. It is not dependent upon weight.

We use Priority Mail almost exclusively with our sales on our website. The industry standard traditional shipping pricing has been based on weight. Each item has a weight, add the weights together and calculate the shipping charge by weight. For the past several years we have been using a simpler method, counting the number of items in the order. The first item costs a specific amount for shipping, and each additional item is added at a reduced amount. Books are weighted more in this scheme than are non-books because books generally weigh more.

This past week Nancy and I have been figuring out a new way to calculate shipping charges for our web customers. It is based on volume. What can be shipped in each flat rate mailer is not based on weight but on volume, so we have been devising a method of determining each item's volume and replacing our current shipping calculation with this new one. Yesterday, as we neared the completion of this new method, I remarked to Nancy that the process was like inventing a new wheel. In her wisdom she replied, "You've seen the ads. Many businesses must be changing their shipping from weight-based to volume-based. Trucks and airplanes have figured out how many packages fit in a shipping container. Volume matters more to them than weight." We are not the only business that is, or has, changed their method of calculating shipping charges.

FYI, we are not measuring the specific volume of each item in the store in cubic inches or any other normal unit of measure. Our unit of measure is a flat rate mailer. If a flat rate mailer will hold a single volume, like a bible, then that item's volume is One. The same flat rate mailer may hold four smaller paperback books. Their volume is then 1/4. And, at the extreme end, 50 decals will fit in a flat rate mailer so their volume is 1/50. We have larger numbers for big items. One big object might be a Three, for instance (No, we will not cut the large item into three pieces to mail it!).

It's been challenging and, therefore, part of what makes managing this-ministry-which-is-the-store fun.

My first Quaker Meeting

2010-06-08T08:18:00.001-07:00

I attended a memorial “service” for my dear old Godmother, Betty, last Saturday in a Quaker, Friends Meeting. They referred to the event as a Meeting and not a service. Here are some of my observations concerning my first Meeting. This comes from my history as a life-long Episcopalian.

It was my first experience at a Quaker gathering. I have always wondered and been curious about attending one of their services, eh, Meetings.

The Meeting room was large, rectangular, with one wall of large windows looking out on trees and all sorts of vegetation. Beautiful nature! The remaining three walls were covered with large panels of soft textured material and the floor was deeply carpeted. Well-padded chairs were set in rows looking toward the center where there was neither altar nor table. There were six sections of chairs of about eight rows deep. My estimate is that the room was about 80% full and was attended by close to one hundred people.

We had been informed before hand, and at the beginning of the Meeting, that we would begin with the usual 15-minutes of silence. Then, as it fit each individual, there would be time to stand and speak what you wanted to say, then sit down. That would be followed by a time of reflection until another person stood to speak. We were encouraged to project our voices when we spoke because the room was designed for quiet and absorbed sound.

The 15-minutes passed quickly for me. Sitting in silence with nearly one hundred other people, nearly all of whom were strangers to me, was not uncomfortable. It was actually, very comforting, quieting, and reflective. I felt a sense of deep peace in that room with those present.

Then the speakers began. Individuals related Betty stories for about an hour. Each one spoke about Betty and about an event that they had shared in her life. No one asked questions. Each person was free to say whatever was on her/his mind. The only reference from one speaker to another that I noticed was a gentleman who stood and began speaking after several others had spoken. “I have been quite humbled by what I have heard. Betty and I have worked together on social justice issues for a few years. I thought that I had a very special relationship to Betty. Now I see that Betty gave that same special relationship to everyone she knew...”

My heart felt full as I went home after the Meeting. There was also a feeling of deep gratitude for Betty’s life and her influence on so many people. I think that my feeling of deep peace was due to the silence and mutual respect from all who attended the Meeting. It was not “church” to me, but I could very easily return to participate in another Meeting.

A connoisseur of liturgy.

2010-06-03T08:05:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday I visited St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Seattle. The Rev David Marshall (no relation) presided and gave the sermon. My determination of a good sermon includes whether I can remember it on Monday. Some Sundays I have not been able to recall the message of the sermon on my way home from church! Fr. David’s sermon stays with me this Thursday morning. I need to share it with you. Actually, I will share with you what I remember about last Sunday’s sermon on this Thursday. It may surprise the priest by being different than his intended message, but that is part of the risk of life and faith.

Fr. David used the metaphor of a wine connoisseur for our thoughts about our liturgy. As a connoisseur of anything, a wine connoisseur knows many details about wines. She/he has knowledge about the differences in wines from different countries and regions, perhaps even different years for the same wine region. Understanding the uses of the different wine glasses for different wines helps the connoisseur to enjoy the unique benefits of each wine. The proper storage of wines as well as the proper methods of opening and tasting wines is also part of the knowledge of a wine connoisseur.

If the wine connoisseur encounters a thirsty person, one who is “dying of thirst” would the wine connoisseur take the ailing person to the wine cellar and describe the various vintages? Or, would the caring person offer the ailing one a large glass of fresh water to begin to quench the thirst? Water would be the appropriate and needed drink for a dehydrated, thirsty person.

Likewise in our denomination, Episcopalians are, in many ways, liturgy connoisseurs. We know the details of good liturgy, only the raw basics of which include when to sit, when to stand, and when to kneel. Will you offer the host for intinction at the mass? Will Communion be offered at stations? Reading prayers or spontaneous prayers? It is “Aayy-men” or “Ahh-men?” Only one is acceptable in refined liturgy.

Then, as liturgy connoisseurs what should be our response to a visitor to the Episcopal Church? Do we require that they learn all of the liturgy before they can participate? Do we offer them a fine wine or a drink of water to quench their thirst for a taste of God’s loving presence?

I’ve been “chewing on” this bit of wine during this week. I wonder what your thoughts are about it.

Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith

2010-05-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

It is like the first time I sang a Psalm that I had read and spoken for many years. Singing it was “the same, but different.” The words were the same, the meaning was mostly the same, but the music gave the words a new emphasis. So it is for me with this first work of fiction by one of my favorite authors, Marcus Borg.

Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith, by Marcus Borg, HarperOne, 2010, hardcover, 342 pages, $25.99.

Kate Riley is the main character of the book. In many ways she reminds me of who the author may be in real life. We can only truly write about ourselves and our own lives, even when we write what appears to be a fictional story. Kate Riley is a college professor of religious studies, as is the author. I wonder how many of the events described by the author in Kate Riley’s life have been a part of Borg’s life.

I have enjoyed Borg’s books about Jesus, Christianity, and our views on religion for many years. The Heart of Christianity, The Meaning of Jesus, The God We Never Knew, The Last Week, The First Christmas, The First Paul, Jesus, and his very popular Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. They are all works of non-fiction. Borg’s writing in them reminds me of an excellent college instructor. He states what he will tell you, then lays down the thoughts in a very orderly manner, and concludes with a summary of the main points. Clearly written, well researched, and organized.

In Putting Away Childish Things, Borg weaves the same information that I have read in his previous books into a gripping, page-turning story. My best test for his fiction writing occurred last night. Reading before bedtime nearly always puts me to sleep quickly. Last evening I was so engrossed in the events in Kate Riley’s life that I read longer than I had planned and was not ready to stop for the night. Borg has passed my test for engaging reading by keeping me engaged in the story line late last evening.

Kate’s life has encountered the two different ways of interpreting the stories in the Bible. The more conservative Christians, the ones who, in my humble opinion, have kidnapped the term Christian and defined it in their own narrow meaning, view the Bible as being the inerrant word of God. They believe that every word in the Bible is literally true and historically factual. The other group of more liberal minded Christians view and read Scripture as the story of human’s interactions with God as written in poetry, metaphor, parable, and as Borg writes in this book, as “overture.” In a symphonic piece of music the overture presents all of the major themes of the work in a condensed form and gives the listener a glimpse of the larger work of music that is to follow. Marcus Borg works through the lives of characters in his book to show the dynamics and theology of each view of the same Scripture.

For me, this work of fiction is the best way to read, learn, and think about theology, Christ’s life, and where we are in Christianity today.

What is the relationship between social justice and worship in the local congregation?

2010-05-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve known a congregation that appeared to me to worship the worship service. They spent huge amounts of time and money to make the worship service as perfect as they could. I thought that their priorities were misplaced. From what I know Jesus’ actions did not include emphasis on making the worship experience perfect.

Much of the Gospel record shows Jesus caring for the poor, those with illness, the lowly, those filled with demons, and feeding the crowds. I translate this to “social justice” actions by Jesus.

How much should the Church be involved in social justice issues compared to building the institution which is the Church, remodeling the worship space, and supporting the education and other programs that benefit the members?

In Sara Miles’ book, Take This Bread, she describes how her congregation changed from the typical church worship activities to developing a total commitment to offering free food to the hungry.

Certainly St. Gregory’s, San Francisco, where the transformation took place, has swung far to the side of social justice issues. How far do our individual congregations go in serving the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the outcast, prisoners, jobless, mentally ill who reside within our communities? As I see it, the commitment is something like our Lenten disciplines. We are doing something, but we could do more. It is so easy to gravitate towards taking care of the routine activities of the congregation and to put off pushing ourselves to help others in need.

John 21: 15-18
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Nonduality

2010-05-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Nonduality is rather more complex than can be explained in a brief blog entry, but humans are good at simplifying to the point of nonsense. I’ll give it a try.

There seem to me to be three states of spiritual consciousness.
1. There is only me and my surroundings. What I see and feel and experience is reality. Nothing else is. God is a figment of our imagination.
2. I am here and so are the trees, the dog, my residence, and “stuff.” God exists, “out there.” I go to church and God is there. God is in heaven. This is described as duality. There is the spiritual world and there is my world.
3. God as Spirit exists both out there and within me and within all things. At special times, when we are attuned to it, we can sense the unity of Spirit and our bodies. There becomes no difference between the All of God and our wholeness and our world. This is referred to as nonduality. (Actually, I feel this often, almost whenever I look up from what I am doing, or when I stop for a minute to just take in my surroundings. I know, I feel, that God is here, present.)

Some eastern spiritual traditions practice becoming aware of the nonduality of existence. Our western culture has been focused on the reality of the physical world. “Seeing is believing.” Rational thought and testable scientific evidence has more influence on us than spiritual existence and experiences.

Recently there have been some interesting scientific studies (reported in a magazine article that initiated these thoughts of mine) that compare brain activity while we are in two different “states” or mindsets. One is a meditative state, such as praying or emptying our active thoughts to dwell on inner peace. The other is active thinking activities such as problem solving. There are some early suggestions that the state of nonduality can be measured with magnetic imaging in some individuals. It appears that our brain functioning is different when we perceive God as part of us, and part of all that is, compared to when we think of God as separate from our individual lives and being.

Is there hope that the rational western modes of thought, including science, will be able to meld with some eastern spiritual modes of being that will find a harmony that includes nonduality?

Is time changing or is it me?

2010-05-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

The days and weeks seem to be flying by. I have always heard that relative time changes, speeds up, as we age. I wonder, why?

Could it be that I forget the time between events so that the events seem more compact? Am I slowing down so that it takes longer for me to accomplish routine activities that results in my sense that time is flowing faster? I don’t think so. But then, you know that the easiest person for each of us to fool is ourselves.

I’m reminded about the descriptions of traveling near the speed of light. As I remember it, the faster that an item travels in space the larger its mass becomes and the slower that time occurs to that object. Viewed from outside the object, such as to those of us on earth if we were observing a clock traveling near the speed of light as it traversed space, to us the clock’s time would slow down. A person traveling with the clock would age slower than the observers on earth and that person would observe her/his view as accurate and that time for us who are not traveling so fast would be speeding up.

Are we something like that when we age? No, I don’t think so. I can still keep track of a minute of time as well as younger people. Do you want me to come back and talk with you in about ten minutes? No problem. When I return we will both agree that it has been about ten minutes.

Then why has the last week and the past two months seemed to have passed by so quickly to this old guy I call me?

Faith and religion, the same thing?

2010-05-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are religion and faith the same thing? I think that many people consider them the same and get mixed up in that thinking. From what I know faith is about our relationship with God. One’s faith is that belief, that trust, that God is there, exists, cares for you, listens to you. Faith is the relationship between you/me and God.

Religion is a system of beliefs and practices and attitudes that have been formulated by an institution. We join a religion, or a denomination within a religion. By joining it we accept and internalize the attitudes, practices, and beliefs of that religious system. This isn’t bad, in and of itself. Many learned scholars over the centuries have worked on defining and describing the beliefs, practices, and attitudes of each religion or denomination. It is a good thing to find one that fits you. By joining a religion you will be able to mold your life using the attributes of that religion or denomination within a religion.

Still, we have our own personal faith that is different from the religion to which we ascribe. If our lives are congruent, then our religion reflects our faith and our faith can grow through our practice of our religion. A disconnect between our faith and our religion causes incongruence in our lives.

Does our faith change as we mature, age, grow older, in the different stages in our lives? I think that it should change as we perceive the physical world and the spiritual world differently. Perhaps one of the stumbling blocks in our lives is when our faith evolves over the years but our religion does not accommodate our changing faith. Do we cling to the old religion and subvert our faith or do we change religious affiliations in order to keep our faith congruent with our religion? Perhaps we can find that our religion has a different lens than the one we have been using. Perhaps we can keep the same religion by looking at it through a different frame of reference as our faith matures.

With whom do I talk?

2010-04-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday’s Gospel lesson has me thinking. It was the story about Christ’s third appearance after the Resurrection. Jesus meets some of the disciplines on the beach after fishing. He feeds them fish. Three times he tells Peter, “Feed my flock.” At other times Jesus is reported to have said “In as much as you have done it to the least of my children you have done it to me.” From these and other statements has grown the social gospel of caring for others.

I wonder, and want to ask questions of those faithful among us who state that they are conservative, and leaning toward libertarianism, meaning to me that they support individual effort and accomplishment and disdain broad social programs by the government. I want to ask how they fit their emphasis on individual freedom and reduced government with the apparent instruction of Christ to care for, and feed, his flock, the “least of these.”

The question soon became, “Whom do I ask?” and “Where do I find a libertarian-leaning, thoughtful person who is faithful to Christ’s message that will answer my question?” And soon the question of where do I find someone with whom I can engage in a meaningful, respectful conversation on a topic on which we may disagree? It did not take long for this question to overshadow the original question about the social aspect of the Gospel and one’s individual liberty. From what I see in our culture today a conversation between two people with very different political, social, or religious views is, at least, unusual, and more likely avoided because it will result in hate-filled speech.

One of my cousins warned me about her brother, another cousin, obviously, whom I have seen at a family party only once in the past half century. She said, “If you mention religion or politics with my brother he will yell at you with his very strong conservative opinions, and when he is finished he will not speak to you ever again.”

I have poked around the Internet looking for chat rooms and blogs where I might find a religiously faithful politically conservative, thoughtful person with whom I could converse. What I have read has not encouraged me to begin an interaction with them. Everyone, it seems, is only conversing with others with whom they agree, or in a flaming rage about those with whom they don’t agree.

Decades ago there were politicians who described carrying on long and vigorous debates with their colleagues in Congress and afterwards they would go out to dinner with those same colleagues and share their friendship that surpassed their political differences. It is evident that such an atmosphere does not exist in Congress today, and I don’t see it in the rest of us.

I wonder if it is possible to locate a thoughtful, caring conservative and/or libertarian with whom I could have a meaningful conversation about how that person’s views fits with the Gospel lessons that I heard on Sunday.

Three important couplets

2010-04-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

A customer/friend, Wayne, who has become a friend-and-an-occasional-customer shared this description with me today.

The heart of the Christian story consists or three parts. These parts are irrepressibly tied to Good Friday and Easter.
1. Mercy and Grace
2. Dignity and Respect
3. Forgiveness and Reconciliation

When we omit, forget, or skip over one of the parts we do so at the peril of our faith.
My response consists of two responses.
I have not been able to put down Wayne’s description today and that informs me that it has importance (and so I share it here).

The other response is the realization that it is so very easy to forget, or skip over one of the parts of each couplet. I can demand Mercy without remembering, realizing, and accepting Grace. I can demand Respect without giving Dignity to the person(s) from whom I want respect. I can want Reconciliation without having to forgive. When I do or think these things, then it is a shallow event and I am the lesser because of my thoughts.

Three important couplets. Perhaps, hopefully, by writing them to you they will grow stronger in me.

I gave up church for Lent.

2010-03-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well, that is an overstatement. I am trying to decide what my future will be in relationship to an individual congregation. I have actually, mostly, given up attending the congregation that I have been worshipping with for the past nearly ten years.

Why did I decide to attend there in the first place? It was the best that I could find. It was also a long drive, one that took a gallon of gas and a half-an-hour of time each way. What attracted me included the thoughtful, creative sermons, the fantastic, creative, jazz-driven music, and the social conscience of the congregation that was most immediately obvious by seeing that at least half of the worship space was being used by a child care facility during the week.

At that point I was very tired of attending churches where the worship was either plastic or worshipped for itself. “Plastic” congregations to me were those where it looked nice and shiny, but where there was little or no substance. Some years earlier I had realized that every Sunday we were saying the identical words. I did not need to read them in the prayer book because I had them memorized. One may experience this with the Lord’s Prayer. Can you recite it so easily that you don’t need to actually think about what the words of the prayer mean? I was tired of attending worship services where the service words were mostly memorized such that one could attend the service and be little or not at all affected by it. It is kind of like saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag without thinking about what the words mean, what you are actually pledging to do. Worship is not simply a pledge to a flag, it is worshipping in a community to our loving and ever-present God. It therefore requires of me much more than reciting the memorized words.

Likewise, I found the sermons in most of those congregations to be that form of baby formula cereal that we call pabulum. My criteria for whether a sermon is good or not? If I can remember some thread of the substance of the sermon on Monday or Tuesday then I deem it good. In most congregations that I tried, back there ten or so years ago, I couldn’t remember the ideas in the sermon while on my way home from church, let alone the next day!

The other kind of congregation was the kind that worshipped the worship service. They spent huge amounts of time, energy, and money making the worship service unique and special. The emphasis was so much about the worship service that to my mind, they missed the reason for the service, which involves praying to God corporately as a body, listening to God, all-in-all, the community being in communion with God. In those congregations, in my humble opinion, the worshipping experience appeared to become their God.

Over the years, attending “my “ congregation I did continue to enjoy the creative music, but there were negative aspects to it. The location is so far away from my home that I can not drive my electric vehicle to it and home again without recharging the batteries, so I drove the “global warmer.” The preacher’s sermons had become more pabulum and less thought provoking. The childcare center moved out of the sanctuary and into its own portion of the building, which was added on specifically for it. As a result the child care center became less immediate to the life of the congregation, in my humble opinion. And, more and more, the distance, time, and gasoline that it took to travel to and from church weighed upon my mind and soul, and my environmental ethics.

So, I am taking this Lenten season to review and contemplate what I could do differently about worshipping on Sunday mornings.

For two Sundays of this Lenten season I have tried to stay home and not attend a worship service. That experience reminded me that ever since my teenage years I have been attending Sunday morning worship services. When I was in high school and did not have transportation, and while my parents and siblings remained home, I would walk about a mile to attend the worship services at the cathedral. Sunday morning worship services have always been an important part of my spiritual life. It is somewhat like eating lunch. Yes, I could skip lunch and not die before dinner. I have skipped lunch on occasion, for very important reasons at the time, but I am not comfortable missing lunch. I get really hungry before dinnertime. Oh, even when I do eat lunch I am usually pretty hungry before we get to dinner. For me, Sunday morning worship is the same way. I can skip it, but I feel…uh, hungry later. Perhaps it is my soul that feels hungry when I skip church. I’m not certain what it is but I know that it is definitely something lacking inside me when I have not been in a worship service on a Sunday.

The first decision that has resulted from me “giving up church for Lent” is that I realize that I can not continue to give up church. I really need to attend someplace.

The second realization concerns the music. I am now a member of a local community choir. We meet weekly, Tuesday evenings, for two hours. The director is the best choral director I have ever sung with. His musical knowledge and directing skills, combined with his sense of humor and philosophy of choral singing are amazing and fun to be with. I enjoy singing with that choir much more than I enjoy singing in the church choir, which really is not a choir but a small group of us who get together on Sunday mornings to sing back up to the instrumentalists.

The third realization is that in the past ten years other congregations in the Seattle area have changed clergy and some have changed attitudes about the emphasis and directions of the worshipping experience. I need to check them out again. One way that I have found to observe and sense the spirit and directions of local congregations is by studying their websites. A poorly maintained or sketchy website does not tell me to avoid a congregation, but well maintained and complete websites can inform me about a congregations mission, direction, activities, commitments to the community, and even some sermons. From reading and viewing local congregations’ websites I have formed opinions about several of them.

I intend to continue this thread with further developments later.

What makes us conservative or liberal?

2010-03-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

I read part of a FaceBook page from a friend from high school. On it she describes her political views as “conservative with constitutionist and libertarian leanings.” My views are more liberal/progressive. And I wonder, how did this happen to both of us?

In high school, as I remember it through the fog of a half-century, we came from somewhat similar families. Our fathers were blue collar workers. It was at a time when our mothers did not work outside of the home. We both lived in modest homes. The parents on both sides, as I remember it, were not involved in politics.

My parents were Republicans. When my siblings and I “came of age” each of us became more liberal and Democratic than our parents. Obviously my friend’s views went the other way, to more conservative.

How did this happen? I can certainly support and defend my views on the role of government in society, as I am confident that my friend also could. It appears that I have become more progressive in my thinking about what is best for society and she has become more conservative in what she thinks is best for all. Have these changes occurred due to family influence, or whom we married? Did our church affiliations influence us similarly and in opposite directions? Has it been other societal or life experiences that have taught us to view the world differently? Or has been a complex mixture of these influences and more?

This is one of those questions without an answer for me at this time. Thinking about it keeps me wondering about one more of the amazing aspects of living, and living for so many years.

I just taught a kid to lie

2010-03-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

A young boy, hard to determine his age, middle school age, entered our store a few minutes ago. He asked to do work so that he could earn five dollars. He was willing to rake leaves, but there are no leaves this time of year. He was willing to wash windows, but they are clean now, and not really needed.

I engaged him in conversation,
So, why do you need five dollars?
To buy a skate board deck.
That’s pretty cheap for a skate board deck.
They said that it was free. I rode the bus from the suburbs for over an hour to get here and get the free deck, but when I got there they said it was five bucks.
A deck? What would you do for wheels for the deck?
Oh, I have the wheels in my back pack. I need the deck.
Here’s a dollar. Now all you need is to go to other stores and work for four dollars.
I’ve been to all the other stores. They say that they do the work themselves. I can’t do any work for them for money.
Okay. Here is what you do. I’m giving you five one dollar bills. Put four of them in one pocket and one in another pocket. Go back to the skate board place and tell them you have only four dollars. Maybe they will sell it to you for four.
If they refuse, then walk away from them and go around the corner. Wait a couple of minutes. Then put the one dollar with the four and go back in and say that you found a fifth dollar bill. Buy it for five.
But, there is one more thing that you need to do to earn this five dollars.
What’s that?
Come back here and give me a report on how you did.
You want me to come back here and tell you if I bought it for four or five dollars?
Yes.
Okay. I will.

As he walked toward the door he was talking to himself, “I put one dollar in this pocket and the other four in this pocket…”
…
..
.
He just came back to the store. He is carrying an old beat up green skate board deck. He seemed pretty happy. Me too, even if I taught him to lie, or negotiate.

How much? Oh. Five. The kid said, “They were hard nosed.”

Jim Wallis and The Great Recession paradigm shift

2010-03-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

Have I given up blogging for Lent? No.

This has been a time of introspection. The radio has been silent. I get to think. I replied to my granddaughter on her FaceBook “wall,” and was self-conscious about it. She will read it, but who else will read it? Do I want to share my thoughts with others that I don’t know? Blogging, too. You all are very smart and thoughtful. What can I contribute? Being quiet and listening is good.

But, alas, here is something for us. Jim Wallis (The Great Awakening, and God’s Politics among others) writes a thoughtful article in the latest AARP Bulletin (Yes, I’m old enough to receive it and read. You may not be, but the article talks to all of us, in my humble opinion.) The article is about the good side of the economic troubles that we have been experiencing during The Great Recession.

Wallis reminds us that it is during challenging times that we re-think our daily patterns and outlook on life. Let’s face it, the past decade or two we have had the mindset of greed. It’s all about Me and what I want now. This past year or two has encouraged us to take a new look at our paradigm. Perhaps we will return to the mindset the builds community and well-being for others instead of focusing so much on ourselves. Jim Wallis’ article rings true to me today and I see it in the actions and comments of our customers. Maybe it will remind you of a different paradigm.

Lenten activities poll results

2010-02-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

Our store’s website offers an ongoing opinion poll (on the first page, left side, near the bottom). I find the results interesting but can not share them with others because the website is not set up to do that. Our next revision of the site will most likely include the option to view the results of the previous polls.

The current poll asks:
What are you including in your Lenten practice? Pray more. Fast more. Read more. Attend more church events. Increae my involvement in good works.

Here are the results at this hour:

1. All of the above. 20% have responded with this answer

2. Some of the above. 40% have responded with this answer

3. One of the above. 5% have responded with this answer

4. Something other than those listed. 5% have responded with this answer

5. None of the above, I don’t “do” Lent. 30% have responded with this answer

The Mom and Pop Store

2010-01-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

Nancy said that she gave me The Mom and Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving, by Robert Spector mostly because she liked the title. But it turns out that I am enjoying it immensely. Here’s why.

There are different economic realities in employment in our culture. I have previously worked for institutions and corporations. I did not know what being an entrepreneur entailed when we began working at and then purchased the Episcopal Bookstore. It is really a different world of work. The Marshall family was a product of parents who worked for employers, for businesses and corporations. We did not know about the world of the entrepreneur.

The book’s author, Robert Spector, traveled around the country and took a few international trips with the purpose of finding and interviewing the owners of the mom and pop stores. His book is mostly just a retelling of dozens of their stories. Mostly all of them are in retail, or the restaurant business, which, I guess, is also retail. Bicycle shops. Corner grocery stores/delis. The local hardware store. Yes, bookstores, and many other businesses are reported in this book. (My favorite hardware store, Stone Way Hardware, is locally owned, one location, and they are thriving even more than is our bookstore. As I heard one similar hardware store owner state, “You could put our hardware store in the parking lot of Home Depot and we would still be as busy as we are now.” In my hardware store there is no reason to spend twenty minutes roaming the aisles looking for something. And, you can ask anyone of the staff questions like, “I want to do this thing. What do you have that will work?” and they will have an immediate answer and the product in your hand in less than two minutes. I love it!)

Here are some of the items of note, that I and Nancy and I “do” but I have been less aware about. People often remark that we don’t take enough vacation time. As I see it now, IMHO, vacations are mostly for people who work for others. Since one is working for someone else it is good to get away from that environment frequently. We are working for ourselves. If the work environment is stressful then we can change it. Often on my day off I have an urge to go to our store because there are things happening there that I want to be a part of. Usually Nancy and I spend most of an hour at the end of the day off for either one of us catching the “off” one up on what happened at the store. The “work” of the store is very different from work that I have performed for other employers.

Along that same line, those who have worked for employers ask us, “When are you going to retire?” I think today, that it is a question to be answered by employees, not by entrepreneurs. It’s different. By retiring we would have to give up on what we enjoy doing so much. That wouldn’t be much fun. “You could then travel a lot.” Hmm, travel requires two things, the desire to go other places and sleep in strange surroundings, and the saved money to do it. I don’t have either of those. I don’t need to retire so that I can travel and miss the joys of the events in our store each day. Yes, this is narrow-minded, from a non-traveler, but it is “where I am today.”

Remember the credit crunch where businesses could not, many still can not, obtain loans that they needed to meet payroll and many filed for bankruptcy or simply failed? We were astounded to learn that bigger business would borrow money in order to meet payroll. We told each other, “What kind of business model is that?!”

As a family we did not grow up with the entrepreneurial model. We did not know what it was like. Therefore, in my humble opinion, we all went into jobs as employees of large organizations. Robert Spector describes how many mom and pop businesses pass the business down to succeeding generations. The kids grow up working in the store and they learn about that good life. As adults they often choose to be entrepreneurs. I see this in my sister Julie’s family too. Her husband has been, well, in several employment positions, often working as an entrepreneur. Now their son, after college, has spread his wings and is trying to keep his own business, Anchor Light Productions, flying.

The author points out another element to this business scene. None of the mom and pop storeowners entered the business planning on making lots of money. They all knew that they were not in it for the money. They have instead a passion for their business. Spector also steps around those individuals who began by owning a single store location, then grew it into several stores, a chain, and became successful and rich. Mostly he avoids those individuals because their model is very different from the mom and pop storeowner.

Now that I know about the life as an entrepreneur and have lived that life I want to share it with others. But the others in the family have lived in the employee-to-a-corporation-or-institution and do not know about this different style of living with work. I don’t feel badly for them or wish them a different lifestyle, but I am very happy with my life as an entrepreneur.

All are parts of the Body of Christ

2010-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday’s Scripture passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians (12:12-30) struck me especially. You know the one, we are all members of the one body, the Body of Christ, the Church. There are no more separations between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free. We are all members of the same body. Further, all parts of the body, can not be identical and are all vital to the life of the Body. The ear and the eye are different. Neither is wrong or contemptible, both (all) are necessary for the life of the Body. At least this is my recollection of the words that were read in that lesson yesterday.

What struck me about this passage at this time is the idea that all (“ALL”) parts of the Body of Christ which is the Church are necessary for the life of the Church. “All?” Does this mean those branches of the Church that some think are wrong, or perhaps are even abominations? Does the Northern Cone of the Anglican Communion need, have necessity of, the Southern Cone? And, does the Southern Cone have necessity of the Northern Cone? Evidently, from what Paul wrote, we do.

Are the gay and lesbian faithful members of the Church, even the ordained, even the gay and lesbian bishops “necessary” for the Church? Evidently, from what Paul wrote, they are. They are part of the “All.”

Are those who read the Bible literally just as needed as those who interpret the Bible as metaphor and poetry? Evidently they are. And, those other denominations, even those that some have referred to as sects? Those who worship on Saturday, of Friday? The Mormons? Evidently we are all necessary for the life of the Church.

But, but… I want to categorize and niche people. It makes it so convenient to name the Other as less. Okay, I really try not to categorize and put others in little boxes, but I know that the temptation is there. Good old Black or White. I think that guys are especially prone to divide people into such categories. What I heard Lucy read in church yesterday reminds me that Paul argued against such handy categorizing. I’m working on it.

I've added Followers

2010-01-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kimberly W. and at her encouragment I have added the Followers button on the left margin of this blog page. Kimberly wants others to follow this blog and tells me that this is the way to do it. If you add your address to the Followers then your reference will be displayed among the Followers.

Let's see what happens with it. Both you and I can always change it. I can turn it off and you can remove your contact information if that fits you better.

In faith, John

A Christmas story at the bookstore.

2009-12-24T13:56:00.000-08:00

This Christmas story occurred on Tuesday, December 22, 2009

We received an order three days before Christmas from our website from Karen. She needed two prayer books to be imprinted with two names on them, and she needed another seven prayer books for the pews in her congregation.

The books to be imprinted our sent to a custom bindery in town because they make the imprinting look very much better than we can do it in the store. The bindery knows how to take vacations. They are closed between Christmas Eve and New Years Day. It was too late to have the books delivered to the bindery for the imprinting. They would be imprinted and returned to us on January 6th.

I thought that Karen ought to know this so I phoned her home. No one answered and I left a message. Looking at her order I noticed the church phone number, but it was after 3:00 PM Seattle time and Karen was in Washington DC, where it was after 6:00 PM. “I might as well try the church and leave a message too.” I thought.

The phone was answered when I called the church. Karen answered. My first question to her was “What are you doing answering the phone at church after 6:00 three days before Christmas?” She replied that the work for Christmas was not completed, and had to be. I then explained about the delay with imprinting the two prayer books.

Here follows the E-mail correspondence that occurred later that day.
Hi Karen,
We have the best customers in the world. And, we have excellent support organizations too.
About twenty minutes ago, “and what to my wondering eyes should appear..” but a little rotund man, so jolly and bright, from the bindery.
As things worked out today we delivered Todd’s and Ellen’s books to the bindery because a fellow was headed that way. That was unplanned and the bindery was working late. As it worked, certainly the Holy Spirit was working too. The bindery owner’s granddaughter needed a ride to her competitive rowing session on a lake somewhat near our store. The bindery owner, grandfather, delivered her and returned your two BCP/Hymnals all nicely imprinted to us.
While Nancy and I listened to Phil’s stories (the price of keeping him happy, and besides, his stories are good ones) Joe, Julie, and Geneva scurried around here, opened cartons, changed invoice information, and closed the cartons with Todd’s and Ellen’s books inside. Joe has just left this ministry-which-is-the-store to transport today’s shipping to the Post Office.
You will receive your completed order before you need it on January 3rd.
Merry Christmas. There is a Santa Claus and he works at and owns the bindery.
With a happy heart,
John
Episcopal Bookstore, Seattle
Karen's reply:
I AM BOWLED OVER! I can't even tell you how this has made me see God at work in my life, even when I doubt it.
Thank you so much to everyone that made this possible, especially you and your co-workers, the bindery owner saint, and the rower granddaughter!
And obviously, you have a customer in St. …, Washington DC for ever and ever, AMEN!
Merry Christmas!
Karen

What is the meaning of Christmas, to me, at this time, this year?

2009-12-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

I write weekly letters to my teenage granddaughter. She is a survivor. As with nearly all teenagers she can use emotional support of her family. Sometimes I share here parts of what I write to her. Here is one from this week, modified slightly to read here.

First, there are a couple of books that I enjoy reading, Saving Jesus from the Church, by Robin Meyer, and The First Christmas, by Borg and Crossan. They give me pause to ponder some good ideas.

First, the Borg and Crossan book looks at the biblical record of the birth of Jesus and compares it with the popular Christmas story of our time and culture. You know the story. Joseph was engaged to be married to the young woman Mary. Before they were married Mary informed Joseph that she was pregnant, not from him, not from anybody, and that an angel told her that she would bear a holy son. The two of them traveled to Bethlehem for the census, could not find lodging in an inn and accepted spending the night in a stable with farm animals. During that night the baby Jesus was born. Then they were visited by shepherds and three wise men who traveled on camels from the east.

Borg and Crossan dissect the Gospels and show that each of the parts of the story-that-we-all-know are located in different parts of the Gospels, and upon further reading in each Gospel, the one story does not fit the various writings of Scripture. Was Jesus of Nazareth born in Bethlehem or Jerusalem? A stable or a room? How many wise men? And on and on.

Then, Robin Meyer reminds us of the danger, or impossibility, of reading Scripture as a news story or history story of the actual recordings of events of history. Until the past century or so that has not been, for more than a dozen centuries, the way that Scripture has been understood. Scripture is not a literal historical account. Scripture is metaphor and poetry that tries to describe humankind’s relationship to the ultimately unknowable God, who is at times a stern father figure that specifies rules, at other times, a “person” with whom we can argue and change God’s mind, a nurturing mother, a compassionate, loving, always present friend. God, the Creator of molecules, matter, and the spectrum of energy that includes light, heat, and radiation, who perhaps “designed” water molecules that form bonds of two hydrogen atoms attached to one oxygen atom at an angle of 103 degrees (or is 105 or 105? I have forgotten) that “miraculously” results in water enlarging when in solid form so that it floats on top of its liquid form that allows liquid water to remain beneath the solid state of ice and that allows living organisms to survive deep freezes. Hundreds of billion galaxies that contain hundreds of billions stars in each one, many of which have planets circling them. And gravity that helps hold all sorts of stuff, including planets and galaxies, together.

Christ among us. It means to me, that in all of the unimaginably huge universe that contains all of the galaxies, stars, and “planets in their courses” that on one of those planets where we are fortunate enough to exist, and for the billions of us on this small rock of a planet, God cares enough about each one of us that God became part of us, in human form, fully human and fully divine, to show us how much God cares for us.

Christmas informs me that God is not solely the divine Presence of the universe, but that God also cares intimately for, about, and with each person. God lived and loved, suffered, died, and overcame death, to show us how much God loves us as we are.\

And, what is the meaning to me in all of this, this year? Robin Meyer urges us to not worship Christ, but to live as Jesus lived. And how did Jesus live? He cared for each person as a person. No one was discarded by Jesus. The poor and the diseased mattered more to Jesus than did the rich and powerful. Jesus did not write a book. The most that we record in the Gospels that Jesus wrote was with a stick in the sand that has long since been erased. But Jesus’ influence in our lives, in our world, continues to this day. Yes, we have really, royally screwed up his message, as we have screwed up so much of what is good and worthy in the world. But each day we get to wake up and have the opportunity to try again to live as Jesus lived, loving and caring, and respecting the dignity of every human being. In these more ecologically sensitive times we can no doubt extend that love and respect to each living thing, plant, animal, protist, and fungus.

So, I say, Hurray for Jesus’ birth that showed us that God really, really cares for us individually and collectively, has overcome death to show us what to expect, and forgives us as we need to forgive others. “God among us.” The Incarnation of God as a human being.

Happiness is in our expectations.

2009-11-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

Garrison Keillor remarked about happiness last week on his radio show. It stuck with me. Here is what I remember from what I heard him say.

Our happiness is based on our expectations. When a situation or result is better than we had anticipated we feel happy.

One strange example that Keillor gave:
You are a passenger on the prison bus going from the county jail to the State prison. The bus encounters mechanical difficulty and pulls over to the side of the road. All of the inmates are removed from the bus. There you are, shackled hand and foot, standing in the ditch at the side of the road and you look around and notice that it is a very nice day. Your heart feels happiness that you are enjoying part of a nice day in the out of doors, even though you are a prisoner, shackled, and standing in a ditch.

Perspective. Happiness results from our perspective and expectations being exceeded.

A hymn

2009-11-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

I write weekly letters to my teenage granddaughter. She is a survivor. As with nearly all teenagers she can use emotional support of her family. Sometimes I share here parts of what I write to her. Here is one from this week, modified slightly to read here.

On another topic, we sang a really good hymn in church last Sunday. It was one that resonated with me and my soul. When I returned home I checked in my prayer book to see if I had a copy of that hymn. In the front of my prayer book at home I keep a few extra papers. They are mostly copies of hymns that speak deeply to me. They are hymns that I have trouble singing without choking up with emotion. Perhaps at my funeral someone will look at them and perhaps sing one or more of them.
I want to share this one with you. I think that it “reads” better when set to music, but I can’t do that in this letter so you get just the lyrics and not the music.

These are the treasures to strive for and prize: be gentle, live simply and have the humility to shy from the struggle to put oneself first, these are the pearls.
If mercy’s abandoned by those who’d be brave, economy squandered by those who’d be generous, humility slighted by those who would lead, this is sure death.
Be gentle and you can afford to be bold, be frugal and so have enough to be liberal, be humble and thus be a leader of all, this is the way.
Through gentleness those who attack win the fight, and those who defend have their safety in gentleness; this gentleness rests in the children of God, this is their sign.

Our three lives: Public, personal, private

2009-10-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

I write weekly letters to my teenage granddaughter. She is a survivor. As with nearly all teenagers she can use emotional support of her family. Sometimes I share here parts of what I write to her. Here is one from this week, modified slightly to read here.

V, another topic that I wanted to write about concerns the three lives that each of us lives. This description has been resonating with me the past few weeks. Each of us has three lives at the same time, our public life, our personal life, and our private life.

Our public life is that which we share with mostly everyone. For you I know that it includes that you are married to Douglas, that you are Russian or come from Russia, that you are smart, and young and beautiful. Some people do not share that they are smart. Others don’t think of themselves as beautiful. For those people they have other qualities that they share with most everyone.

Our personal life is usually shared with those we love, including dear, close friends. In my message at the top of this letter that I sent to my family I include thoughts and feelings about my personal life. I would not and do not share that with customers at the ministry-which-is-the-Episcopal-Bookstore or with most of the people at church or in the community choir, or at the boxing gym.

Our private lives include those thoughts, and perhaps actions, that we do not share with anyone. They include what we think and know that we should not say out loud. At each age in our lives I think that the private thoughts change. What a middle school kid would not want to be caught dead saying may be perfectly acceptable to that same person at age 40 or 50. I think that it is our private lives that are what we share with a counselor or therapist when real work is getting done on our individual issues. If with a counselor we only share the public and personal lives then it is a waste of time for both people.

Each of us works at deciding what thoughts we share as part of each life. I see some people who share personal stuff on Facebook (and for me Twitter is worse at this) that they shouldn’t share. Other people act out in public in ways that I think are at least personal and perhaps private. I know a man in his twenties who scratches his crotch and such when with a group of people. Perhaps he did not learn to not do that in public. I often have wondered about that about him.

And, there is, I think, the constant decision of how much of our private thoughts to share with our spouse or family. You may see in my message to my family that I waited to write to them. I did not want to take away from my brother the trauma that he is going through about his prostate cancer. Finally I decided, with some help from Nancy, that I should share it with them.

Some of our dreams fit into the category of “do I share that with my best friend/spouse or is it better not to?” Further, I think that for some people it is the old slippery slope. I would be embarrassed to share THAT with Nancy so I won’t. Then later something else comes up, “Oh, I would be embarrassed to share that with her.” After awhile there is a long list of things one does not share with anyone. The dam holding the water which are our personal thoughts gets fuller and fuller. Sometimes the dam breaks and all sorts of stuff come out, most of it should have come out much earlier and it would have been easier to deal with it earlier, but I think that is part of our nature.

Perhaps there are other personalities that share way too much. Their private dam does not fill up. I’ve met some whom I have thought should have raised their dam a little bit higher, like “I really did not want to know that personal item about you.!”

In my humble opinion we each decide what to share with others in our public lives, in our personal lives, and what we keep to ourselves in our private lives.

Borg & Crossan at Diocesan Convention

2009-10-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm writing from our Diocesan Convention in Vancouver WA where on this second and final day bleary-eyed exhibitors still enjoy talking with delegates and guests.

During convention sessions when few delegates visit our display I've been reading and enjoying The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth, by Marcus Borg and John Crossan. In this volume we learn more about the Christmas story of the Bible, of the Christian tradition, and as if fits our time and culture.

Borg and Crossan show us the vitality of the Christmas stories that are beyond and outside of factual history, and beyond and outside of mythic/legend fiction. The authors instruct us in scholarly biblical theology that differs from the popular cultural depiction of the Christmas birth narratives of today. Borg and Crossan write thoughtful commentary that is very appropriate to read during Advent as we prepare for Christmas.

The parish surfing picnic

2009-10-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Grace Episcopal Church, San Marcos CA sponsored a church outing and picnic a week ago Sunday. I was blessed to be able to attend it. It was unlike any church picnic that I have attended in my life. It was a surfing picnic.

About thirty members of the congregation, of all ages, drove about 20 minutes from their church building directly after the main worship service last Sunday morning, to a public beach in Carlsbad CA. They brought food, surfboards, boogie boards, beach chairs, and beach towels with them. The parish banner on its staff was one of the first items on the beach. It informed the participants as well as the others that this was a church gathering.

Perhaps a dozen surfboards and as many boogie boards were brought by a few of the church members for the participants of the party to use. Two older men, Tom and Gary, who have surfed all of their lives encouraged everyone by giving instruction to groups and individuals. They did not hotdog by showing off all of the fancy maneuvers that they could perform. It was clear that they were there to help others, to encourage others to get out in the water and have fun safely.

Throughout the afternoon young kids to senior citizens picked up a surfboard or boogie board and gave the surf a try. The usual activity was to take an idle board out in the surf and play and practice with it for awhile. Then the person would bring it back to the party on the beach, put down the board, stop by the refreshments and get something to drink or a hotdog and some chips to eat. There would be conversing with others and watching others have fun in the surf, then, when the spirit moved them, they would pick up a different board and go back out to try something else.

Those on the shore, while conversing, watched the participants in the surf. There were cheers for even small successes and laughter frequently. Some of the surfers would end their ride or their fall with a graceful bow to the cheers and laughter on the beach.

I am confident in stating that a good time was had by all.

Ocean surf is a few hours away from my home parish in Seattle. Surfing is not a popular activity in my home parish. We don’t have surfing picnics after worship on Sunday. I wish that we did. Surely God was present with Grace Church at the beach in Southern California last week.

Posting here had been delayed, but I'm back

2009-10-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

I have not posted a blog in too long a period of time. There are a few reasons for this. Most of them revolve around reluctance to write drivel. There seems to be so much drivel written these days and I have not wanted to add to it.

One solution that may work for me involves choosing a specific person, in my head, and write what may make sense to that one person. If others “listen in” it is acceptable to me, at least now. It’s not so much that I have nothing to say. I keep thinking and continue to have a dialog, at least in my head. It is more difficult, I think, for introverts, and especially male introverts, to write their thoughts to groups of others.

One way I can get past the tendency to keep my thoughts to myself is to begin writing to so-and-so. Perhaps that is you today. What do you think about that?

Whatever the reason, I am now back in a different frame of mind and intend to keep posting to this blog.

Quote from the Presiding Bishop

2009-08-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

I read the following passage this morning in Presiding Bp, Katharine Jefferts Schori’s new book, Gospel in the Global Village: Seeking God’s Dream of Shalom.

Read: Joshua 24:14-18; John 3:1-12; Surah al-Ma’ida (5):48 texts on religion and violence from three Abrahamic faiths.

Bp. Katharine states:
How do we hear these texts? As Jews, Christians, or Muslims, do we hear only our own tradition?
Do we hear with the ears of one who has been liberated from slavery? Then choose this day to serve the God who has done that.
Do we hear what we have always heard, justification for where we are, what we believe, the community in which we live and move and have our comfortable being? Careful—nobody gets to see the kingdom on God without being born again.
Do we hear with the assumption that we have the full and final and only truth? Well, God is still as work—don’t be too eternally certain.

What I have learned from Link Light Rail

2009-08-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

I have been learning a new lesson. The new Link Light Rail project in Seattle has set an example for me. It is not about riding the light rail train in place of my “global warmer” vehicle. Besides, it is difficult to get me out of my electric vehicle conversion that I drive daily. Further, Link Light Rail does not travel where I need to go.

However, the Light Rail project has taught me by example about studying and learning before it is “crunch time.” Fully one month before the light rail trains opened their doors to the public which happened a couple of weeks ago they were running the routes. For several weeks I saw the light rail trains running on their tracks without riders. It was easy to think, “That’s dumb. They are just driving the trains for weeks at a time without riders.”

During this initial phase they were breaking in the equipment and breaking in the engineers who would be driving the trains. I think that they also used those practice runs to set the train schedules.

In most other civic projects additions are made to what is already in place. For instance the bus system may add new drivers, new buses, or even new routes, but they are adding on to a system that is up and running. Light Rail is a completely new public project for Seattle.
What I have learned from Link Light Rail for my own life is how good it is to start a new project while the old one is still functioning. Run both projects side by side for longer than one might think is needed. When the new system is beyond working out the flaws and bugs, then one can switch over to the new system in a more seamless manner.

At our store I have been investigating a new postage and mailing label system. If, or when, we use it there will be many aspects of our routine that will change. It is critical to make certain that all of the bugs are out of the system before it takes over as the sole method of producing mailing labels with postage on them.

More details. From an offer I received in the mail I hesitatingly tried Stamps.com for creating mailing labels and postage for our shipping needs. For the first few days Stamps.com looked good. It was easy to use. The graphics were very helpful. Their technical support reps on the phone were excellent and always available.

Always, always, verify by trying out the technical support system before you purchase or use a program. They can make or break a good application. I have seen more than one bookstore, and certainly one book distribution facility go out of business due directly to adopting a new computerized system that had too many flaws for them to continue in business. Using Stamps.com showed me a system that would improve our store operations and our shipping methods. It imbued me with enthusiasm, but its design did not fit our needs.

After several different attempts and a couple of phone calls I learned that Stamps.com is designed for customers with a much smaller address book than we have. Loading our whole address book on to their software was possible, but it was unusable. Stamps.com’s search method for the addresses was not compatible with our addresses. Reluctantly I cancelled our trial subscription with them.

By further searching I found another company with a similar application. Endicia is built for larger mailing operations. Ah, but, Endicia is a company that has been purchased by a multi-national corporation. They have trimmed their expenses. From my experience the wait on the phone to talk with a technical service person averages about 30-minutes. Such a long wait is intolerable for our business. We can not afford to have me, or anyone of us, wait on hold for 30-minutes. Endicia offers a somewhat extensive technical database on their website. If I am patient, read directions carefully, follow their links to further instructions, and am not interrupted by customers, phone calls, or staff questions, then the information that I need is generally available. There remains an issue with the address book, but for this issue we have developed a “work-around” method that looks functional. I think that we can make the work around satisfy our needs.

In the past couple of weeks, when I have had the time, and for a few customers, I’ve tried using Endicia. I see that, especially when we purchase the correct printer and postal scale, it will very likely save us time and money. There is more testing yet to be done before we change our shipping routines and cancel our relationship with the postage meter supplier, and make the commitment to using Endicia as our sole shipping label system. I think that we are at about a 90% commitment to Endicia. In another week or so I expect that we will make the decision.

Thanks to Link Light Rail I know that we need to test, test, and retest the new system and all of its components. Then we will run them side-by-side for some time until we fully commit to the new system and change our routines. This is just one more example of how this ministry-which-is-the-store continues to be an enjoyable and challenging learning experience.

The woman who wanted a Bible

2009-07-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

Our store is in the middle of our annual Summer Sale. Part of the sale includes what we refer to as Porch Books. They are books that were on sale last summer and then throughout the rest of the year, and still have not sold. We put them in display boxes on our front porch (well, it is hardly a porch, but it is outside the front door).

Another part of this story concerns a few of our visitors who see the world differently than I do. One woman came in this week carrying two Porch Books. She asked, “Are these Bibles?” One was a full-size hardcover book that was a Church Annual that lists all of the congregations, their addresses, and the names of the clergy. It is certainly not a Bible. The other was a non-descript paperback book. It was very obvious to me that neither of those books were Bibles. I replied to her, “No, those are not Bibles. Do you want a Bible?” “Yes,” she said and immediately deposited those two books on the counter and went back outside. She then came in with two other books and asked if they were Bibles. Once again I said “No.” And, I asked if I could help her find a Bible. She wanted a Bible for one dollar but we did not have one for even $10 that I may have given to her for a dollar. She finally purchased a dollar book that included some Bible quotes in it.

What was obvious to me was that this woman could not read. She had no idea about what the words inside a book looked like to be called a Bible. I was deeply saddened that she was so handicapped that she could not determine on her own the kind of contents that was in a book. A bible usually has written on its cover the word “Bible.” She could not determine even that much. Another feeling that I had for her was worry about how vulnerable that woman was to anyone who could read words when she couldn’t. How easily she could be taken advantage of or be harmed by people who know the meaning of written words. At the same time, she knew that having a bible was important and she wanted one, even if she could not read it.

Ah. My heart hurts for her.

Changing or remaining steadfastly the same?

2009-07-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

I had an E-mail conversation (several messages back and forth over a few hours) with Barbara, a parish secretary or administrator in an Episcopal congregation. Her congregation has not moved along with the rest of the Episcopal Church in the past several years. In the Episcopal Church the Scripture lessons to be read in church each week are listed in the back of the prayer book. Perhaps nine years ago there was a move to change the lessons. The Revised Common Lectionary is the new listing of lessons to be read in church. They are “revised” from the previous list. They are “common” meaning that several different denominations, including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and others have agreed to use the same list of lessons. A “Lectionary” is the list of lessons.

Six years ago the Episcopal Church, nationally, agreed to begin using the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for “trial use.” It was up to dioceses and congregations whether or not they use them. Three years ago was the time for all congregations to use them, but the old Lectionary was still permissible to use. Beginning this Advent (the beginning of the new church year near the end of November) the old Lectionary will not be able to be used and we are all supposed to be using the RCL.

Barbara’s congregation, probably with the leadership of the priest, is not changing to the RCL. They are continuing to use the old Lectionary. She wrote to me wanting to order the calendar that they have always used, the one that lists the old Lectionary readings on it. Barbara said that last year’s calendar did not have the old Lectionary and it has been a burden to them that she wanted to correct. I explained that the calendar publisher was not including the old Lectionary on their calendars now.

In a series of messages Barbara kept coming up with other questions and possible solutions to find a calendar that will list the old lessons for each Sunday. I could read her feelings of stress in needing a calendar to meet her congregation’s needs.

I was saddened and felt sorry for Barbara and her congregation. The Church, in many of its denominations is moving onward. Throughout history things have always been changing in the Church and they continue to change. Barbara’s congregation has decided not to change. This is coupled, in my opinion, with the results of the “me, now” generation. That is, the “I want it my way and I want it now” view of life. In the past generation this has become the norm for those of us living in this culture. Barbara’s congregation has not changed and kept up with the changing Church, but they still “want it my way and want it now.” She did not get as indignant as I may be presenting it, but the underlying concern of Barbara’s was “What do you mean that we can not obtain the calendar printed with the lessons that we want on it?”

It is, to me, a sad situation for Barbara’s congregation. They, or perhaps just the priest who is their leader, have made the decision to stop growing in the life of the Church. Part of that decision results in the rub, the pinch, that comes from wanting what no longer exists.

What a corner we box ourselves into sometimes by wanting things to remain as they have been but can not be that way any longer.

Some help for keeping up with General Convention 2009.

2009-07-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

Are you curious, interested, fascinated, or urgently need some information and insight on the progress, events, and actions of the Episcopal Church’s triennial national meeting, General Convention, being held in Anaheim CA?

Here are some links to blogs from participants. Perhaps you can browse them and find one or two that “speak to you.”

From the Diocese of Olympia (Western Washington State) participants:

* Young Adult Deputy Katrina Hamilton
* Bishop Greg Rickel
* Diocese of Olympia deputation

From the Diocese of San Diego CA participants

Twitter links:

* www.twitter.com/ecwwtweets
* www.tweetbeep.com

Offering one-stop shopping for worldwide coverage of General Convention, this site features video, audio slideshows, news stories, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, Flickr photo galleries and more. Visit it here.

Do you have other sources to suggest? Add them as comments or E-mail them to me and I will consider including them in this list.

So many books, so little time!

2009-06-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

It has been way too long since I posted to this blog. I intend to change that.

My most enjoyable, inspiring, uplifting, hopeful book this week is not a book from our store. I’ll tell you about it anyway.

The first gardening book that turned my gardening world upside down maybe fifteen years ago was Jeff Ball’s Sixty–Minute Garden, Rodale Press, 1985. I incorporated his creative and fresh ideas in my garden immediately and have enjoyed continuing to use his ideas over the years. I just love those authors who take a fresh look at what we all know how to do, or all know “what is,” and give us new methods to try. The changes that Jeff Ball encouraged were so different and thoughtful that I couldn’t wait to utilize them those many years ago. His ideas result in working in my garden less than sixty minutes a week. He eliminates the continual battle with garden hoses for water and other tasks like weeding. And, they work! They have been working in my garden for about fifteen years.

Now Mel Bartholomew has a new book, The All New Square Foot Gardening, Cool Springs Press, 2005, paperback, $19.99. Each page has refreshing new ideas about gardening that are thoughtful, reasonable, and I can hardly wait to try them. I have been reading a page or two at every opportunity, avoiding continual reading because I may forget one of the nuggets on each page. Bartholomew’s enthusiasm spills over into other parts of my life with creative ideas that are “outside the box.” One example from this book: instead of using a lot of heavy dirt to grow the garden plants the author offers a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost that results in no weeds, no fertilizer, and very little watering. At first it sounds strange but stick with the author and he shows you how and why it works.

Inertia

2009-05-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Three related stories.
One. Last Wednesday, at the boxing gym, I had a brief conversation with AraJane. She is thirty-four years old, I think. In reply to how she was doing, before our exercise class began she said, that she had been at home, feeling grumpy and achy and thought, “why go to the gym.” But she got up and came to the gym. Then she said, “I feel better already by just being here.”

I thought about her comment for a few moments and realized that it is actually a rather profound statement. Feeling lethargic, grumpy, achy, and not wanting to do anything is not an uncommon human condition. But, AraJane made the effort to get up and get to the gym. Just by the act of making that much effort and her mood and feelings rose. It may seem like “getting up and getting going” is not such a big thing, but I think that perhaps it is actually a very big thing. It makes, if not all of the difference, then certainly it makes an awful lot of difference to what we do and how we react to life and the stuff that Life puts in our way.

Some mornings I wake up and think for a brief moment, “Should I get up and go to the lake to jog around it?” Then by the time that I go out the front door I am looking forward to the run that morning, wondering what will come of it, what will the weather be like, how will the jogging be this morning. And almost always I think on the way back home from running, that it is really a great way (for me) to begin a day. Dawn at the lake is beautiful –even last Tuesday when the rain was coming down steadily with a stiff south wind. I was soaked before I was half way around the lake. The rain water running down my face was actually kind of nice. It added to the adventure of it. Certainly those few people that I met going in the other direction smiled or nodded giving me the feeling that we were out there in the wind and rain together. When the weather is nice there are more people going around the lake in the morning, but fewer make eye contact and acknowledge others.

Two. I had a haircut last week. That’s nothing. My current barber is a woman. The last time we met she told me that she was going to attend college studying sustainable agriculture. So, we had a chance to talk about her start of college while she trimmed my hair this time. She (I don’t know her name) is just a normal twenty-something woman barber who has not previously shown much of her personality. Barbering does not encourage expressing much of one’s personality, I think.

I asked her about here studies and her college classes. She came alive! Her personality blossomed and exploded. She is so very excited about her classes and the learning that she is doing. She frequently stopped trimming my hair so that she could talk more about her experiences with what she is learning. As it should be her course work is opening up a whole new world, a world of learning new things that are important to her. It was great fun just to watch her react and describe her experiences.

At one point she mentioned and then I asked more about it, that she is “by far” the oldest student in her class. I tried to encourage her that she is in no way too old, as she expressed her distress that she had wasted so many years up to now by not learning the things that she is learning when she was younger. I tried to tell her of the changes in the activities and learnings in my life from the time I was 30 years old and where I am now: When I was thirty I did not have even a thought about an making or owning an electric vehicle, my organic gardening, building my backyard greenhouse, working closely every day with my wife in the bookstore, and more. Perhaps it was just some ranting of this grandfather.

Anyway, her enthusiasm spread to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the time while she was exclaiming and describing her experiences in the past several weeks while she trimmed my hair.

Three. My sister is 65 years old. Last fall when she was “only” 64 her employer of more than 20 years laid her off. It was part of the cost cutting measures that are so common today. Janet is not ready to retire. What to do? She rallied her resources. She enrolled in a class to help her find a new job, to interview effectively, and other aspects of being wanted by a new employer. She is seeing a counselor, exercising, dyed her hair, and other activities to “get ready.”

A month ago she was interviewed for a case management position. It was much less than she was qualified for, but it would be a job. At the conclusion of the interview the interviewer said to Janet, “You are actually qualified for a management position. Would you be interested if one were to become available?” As Janet relates it, she thought, “Damn right!” and replied, “Why yes, I would be interested.” In the following weeks she kept checking with this organization and when a management position was posted she immediately contacted them. The result is that she starts next week at what she thinks is the dream job. It is exactly what she loves to do! She can hardly wait to get in and help them.

What do these three stories have in common? We each decide when we are ready to do what we want or need to do. We are never too old until we decide that we are too old. We don’t know where the next bend in the road will take us. But that bend in the road will take us very much farther than sitting at home complaining.

Northwest Catholic Women's Convocation IV

2009-05-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

Nancy left a few minutes ago, Saturday morning. She is working with three other women at the NW Catholic Women’s Convocation yesterday and today in Bellevue. Twelve hour days of selling books. The conference has about 2000 women attendees and about 30 women speakers, all of who have written books. We are selling the books. It is a non-stop marathon of bookselling for these two days. When Nancy arrived home last night at 10:00, having left at 8:30 that morning, without having had dinner (no time), she was pretty tired. She will be exhausted this evening.

The Catholic women organizers have taken more heat from the Church than in previous years. This is the fourth such conference that have occurred about every four years. As the Catholic Church bends to the conservative right the pressure on the organizing women escalates, alas as it has throughout history.

Our St. Francis mural & the artist who painted it.

2009-05-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

On a day last summer a rather scruffy man entered our store and told me about a passionate mission that he was following, painting murals on the walls of buildings in Seattle. For free yet. Was he believable? Just barely. Then we drove around to addresses he gave us and saw some of his work.

We, at the Episcopal Bookstore, are delighted to be included in a segment on the SeattleChannel, a local cable channel recently. The segment reported on the mural painter Ryan Henry Ward who created the mural depicting St. Francis and the animals on the side of our store’s building.

Ryan Henry Ward is a unique and marvelous man. You can learn more about him that even includes an interview with me in that 10-minute segment. (Click on the previous word, “segment.”)

Rent-a-Crowd & Rent-a-Pallbearer

2009-04-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a Roman Catholic priest and friend of the store visited us. He mentioned in passing his Rent-a-Crowd and Rent-a-Pallbearer, for funerals. And we said, “What! Okay, we need to hear this story. You have special mourners and pallbearers for funerals?!”

First, you need to know that this priest is the only priest at a very large local Catholic church. He also answered my query yesterday about how many kids will be receiving their First Communion this Sunday, with “about 64.” It is a big church with a large number of members, big enough to have 64 pre-teen kids all about the same age who, after completing the classes for training in the Church will take Communion, for the first time.

The good Father told us yesterday that when a 99-year old woman dies she deserves a good funeral just as much as anyone else. A not uncommon problem for the very old is that all of their friends and family have died before them and there are none, or very few, who would attend their funeral. Likewise, for the very old, there are often too few friends or family members who have the health to be able to lift the casket with the dead person’s remains inside. Pallbearers are the ones who escort and carry the casket.

Father has a group of healthy individuals who will attend a funeral as the pallbearers when needed. He can contact his mourners and/or pallbearers and they will attend the funeral of someone they don’t know but who needs a good, decent, and dignified funeral. He said that he has over one hundred mourners who will attend a funeral when needed.

We were impressed with the thoughtfulness, as well as practicality of having pallbearers and mourners on hand and available for whomever needs them. Yes, each person, no matter who, deserves the dignity of a decent funeral. It is very practical, and very thoughtful and caring to have members of the congregation who will attend a funeral, not for their own grieving, but out of respect for the deceased person’s life.

Why don't we follow the Acts of the Apostles?

2009-04-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Today’s New Testament Lesson:
Acts 4:32-35

4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.

4:33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.

4:35 They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

For all of the fuss that the Biblical literalists give to keeping Scripture accurately no one seems to expect, let alone demand, that we follow this description of the very early Christian community.

Yea, verily, no acts of same gender sexuality, nor marriage of same gendered couples, and women must obey the head of the household, the man, or so sayeth many fundamentalist Christians, but none of them say that we should all pool our ownership of everything, sell everything and give it to the community, and distribute it to each as any has need.

I do not remember every hearing an Episcopal sermon on this topic either.

Could it be that when scriptural faithfulness meets political socialism that politics always wins?

What do we do with our Lenten practices during Easter, and Pentecost?

2009-04-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Our Lenten Practices are over, or are they?

Now (that we are singing alleluias again) is an interesting time to evaluate our Lenten practices.

Part of my practices included reading Lent With Bishop Morneau during breakfast. Reading a book during lunch (I made it through two books during lunches in Lent.), keeping the radio turned off while driving and working in the kitchen and basement projects, deep cleaning rooms in the house, and rehearsing to refer to a transgendered friend by his male pronoun.

A few of the practices were easy. Others were more difficult. I managed to only deep clean three rooms in the house. I am relieved to find that I refer to my friend in the male gender unconsciously now.

How do we treat our Lenten practices now that Lent is over? Do we immediately grab for the chocolate that we had given up, perhaps even more so than before Lent specifically because we have shunned it for these several weeks?

I don’t think that I will continue with the deep cleaning of the house. I find that turning off the radio when there isn’t really something that I’m interested in is quite easy this week thanks to the practice of silence during Lent. I miss not having a book to read at lunch. My friend remains male in my subconscious.

What about you and your Lenten practices? Which ones remain with you and which ones were easily discarded?

Two books, two ways to read and write

2009-03-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Do you ever enjoy and care about characters in a book of fiction that when the book ends you want to follow them further, to know what happens in the rest of their life? I do too.

Ken Follett has a solution, at least for me. In his recent fictional history World Without End he did it again. He made the personalities and the lives of the characters in the book so memorable that I wanted to follow their lives further. This historical fiction takes place in the middle 1300s in the English town of Kingsbridge. The monks and nuns own the cathedral. The earls own their serfs. Power and hierarchy seem to invade everyone’s lives. Freedom as we know it does not yet exist.

In World Without End the question, “What happens after they barely survived through that situation?” is answered again and again. Instead of one book, this volume is more like seven books in one. We follow the lives of some of the characters from children through to old age. The story and history keeps evolving.

The only negative for me about Follett’s World Without End is that is more than 1000 pages in length and even in paperback it is a heavy book. I found that resting the book on my lap on top of a throw pillow from the couch helped keep the book high enough to read without having to hold it up on my own.

The other way to read a good book of course is to read it a second time. That is what I plan to do with Barbara Brown Taylor’s most recent book, An Altar in the World. It is my Lenten luncheon reading discipline. As a Lenten “discipline” I get off easy with this one because Taylor writes so well. I keep finding pages or paragraphs that I want to share with specific other people. I know that when I finish this book that I will want to read it again so that I can enjoy and be stimulated by her thoughts and descriptions of how we live our lives and where God is as we live in our pain, suffering, beautiful landscapes and seascapes, and in our friends, relatives, and strangers. I don’t expect to wait until next Lent to pick up this book again and read it.

My book for lunch during Lent

2009-03-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

I'm reading An Altar in the World at lunch time during Lent. I used to enjoy being stretched by the author of this volume Barbara Brown Taylor's books of sermons. I have even read good sermons during Sunday Eucharist when the preacher has been less than interesting. With An Altar in the World I have the delight of reading Taylor's thoughts about finding God in everyday places and events. Oh, yes. There is so many encounters of God each day that I can recognize when I am renewed in my perceptions as this author probes me to see.

Here is a little kernel from page 91 that she elaborates with meaningfulness, "The great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed."

Nearly Spring outside, nearly Winter in the economy

2009-02-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Spring will come. The economy will recover.
One or both of those is correct.
I'm hoping for both. It's like we are just entering the winter time of the financial crisis. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Some old financial trees and bushes are not going to survive, others will be harmed and will need pruning, but we hope that the "winter," though record breaking, won't be too severe.

Meditating while exercising?

2009-02-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

Active meditation is a new term to me. I viewed a report on it last night on one of our few favorite, regular TV shows, “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” on PBS. (The half-hour show airs at a strange time so we record it for convenient viewing later.) I have always known about the practice of meditation, attempting to sit quietly and emptying my mind in order to reach inside and to God for centering my soul. But I have not known about active meditation. The news report that I viewed described active meditation to be present in even, or especially in, very vigorous physical activities such as kung fu. The report described, as I understand it, active meditation as a method of emptying one’s mind, to live in the moment without thoughts about anytime or anyplace other than where one is at that very moment.

Previously, when I have been jogging or other moving exercise in the mornings or at the gym I have been disappointed that I have been unable to meditate at the same time. Now I see that focusing on the immediate action that I am doing is a form of meditation that empties my mind of all of the extraneous diversions that my mind is encumbered with during its normal multi-tasking activity, including the mundane task of keeping track of time. This “meditating during vigorous physical exercise” is a form of centering. I’m not quite ready to see it as “centering prayer” because there is not yet the perceived connection to the Other in my activity. However, this gives me a new way to contemplate what meditation is and what I am doing when I am engrossed in a specific exercise. Perhaps I gain some “credit” for meditating when I am actively involved in vigorous physical exercise.

Lenten Practices work better than New Years resolutions

2009-01-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

I think that I have an idea about why New Years resolutions don’t work for me. There hasn’t been time before New Years to plan, evaluate, and anticipate the resolutions.

The penitential season of Lent begins in about one month. For several days now I have been contemplating what Lenten practices would improve my life, my spiritual life, my faith life, my physical life. What book will I read for Lent? What activities will I pick up for Lent that will improve my relationship with Life and those who are traveling with me in this life?

Yesterday I was thinking about how the house never really gets the deep cleaning that it needs. It used to “spring cleaning” but that doesn’t happen in my spring times. What if I were to add just a little bit to my usual housecleaning routine during Lent? Could I deep clean the living room one week, the bathroom the next week, the kitchen the next week, and onward for just the weeks of Lent? (Oh! The basement? The garage?)

I do not know yet whether the deep cleaning of the house will be added to my Lenten practice. I don’t have to decide yet. A month before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, I have the gift of time to contemplate what activities and actions would be best for me and my whole being, my faith, my spiritual self, and my relations with others and the environment this Lenten season. New Years resolutions come directly at the end of Advent and most of the Christmas Season when there is not time in my life to mull and contemplate resolutions that may improve my personal life. Lent works better for me than New Years for trying again to improve the actions in my life.

2009-01-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

For a few years I have been writing a letter weekly to my teenage granddaughter. I think that probably most teenagers need all of the emotional and spiritual help that they can get. I write. She does not reply, but I know that she reads the letters. Here is an excerpt from this week’s letter.

We really need to keep track of our past so that it informs our decisions today using are goals and plans for tomorrow so that we process our way through our lives. I think that works for grandfathers as well as teenage granddaughters. So, what do I do with thoughts about how my life would have been different had I joined the military instead of pushing on toward my college degree, or if I had married the first woman that I loved? I try to remember that life would have been different. I try to remember why I made the decisions that I did and in making those decisions what I learned about living my life today. At the same time I look forward to the future and put into practice some actions that will help me whatever the future brings. I live today so that if it is to be my last day, that I was doing the things today that I think are important to be doing today while fully expecting to be living with the consequences of today’s actions in the future.

The pathway through life is seldom clear, but we do the best that we can as we try to find the pathway. I’ve been carrying a backpack in my life that at times seemed like a struggle but I’ve grown used to carrying it and it does not seem like a struggle now. The pathway forward in my life is still unclear, but I can see the path along which I have come and that gives me courage that I can continue through the murkiness of the future.

The marriage decision

2008-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

How?
In what specific ways? List more than one, more than five.

2) Will marriage bring you more or less security?

Financial security?
Physical security?
Emotional security?

3) Are you willing to give up looking at, flirting with other hot men?
4) How long do you expect this marriage to last?

Are you intending to not ever give up on it “until death do you part?”
Or do you see it as a marriage “as long as it works for us?”
Or “as long as it works for me?”

5) What are the boundaries, the limits, that you would refuse to allow to happen and still keep the marriage?

If Douglas has affairs with other women?
With men?
If Douglas gets violent with you, beats you, causes you physical harm?
If Douglas contracts cancer next year and loses half of his weight, and his job, and you have to work enough jobs to keep you both alive?
HIV/AIDS
You find a guy that is rich, hot, handsome, who wants you?

6) What freedoms are you giving up when you marry Douglas?

Your mornings alone, or evenings alone?
Friends that you like but that you know that Douglas does not like?
The schooling, education, college, that you hope to have for yourself?

7) What is it about you that Douglas finds so good that he wants you all to himself?
8) What parts of you is Douglas allowing you to share with others?

Emotional (Will Douglas be “okay with” you going to a friends residence and crying about a huge disappointment in your life like the death of a loved one or a hurt that Douglas caused you?)
Physical (can you kiss another man as a friend?)
Financial (a friend wants to borrow $200 from you)

V, have you read into any of this that I disapprove of you marrying Douglas? I hope that you have not thought that. The decision for you to marry Douglas is completely, 100%, your decision. (And Douglas gets the same right, 100% his decision). I have tried to tell other people that I love, at other times in my life, that the person they were intending to marry was not right for them, or that that person was right for them. Through the “school of hard knocks” I’ve learned that I can not predict what will be a good marriage and what won’t be. I love you a lot and I want you to be safe and happy. If this marriage does that, then I will be very pleased. If this marriage harms you more than you have already been harmed by your short childhood, then I will be very unhappy and worried. But that is me. You certainly should not decide to marry or not to marry so that grandpa will be happy! That’s another very wrong reason to either marry or not marry.

Diocesan Convention Stories

2008-11-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

A major part of the joy of attending our local, annual Diocesan Convention with the ministry-which-is-the-store as vendor with the exhibits is the interactions with the attendees. Many have become friends over the years, others are quickly becoming friends, others are just very interesting to talk with. Here are a few stories from this weekend’s convention, from our view with out exhibit.

The alphabetical Episcopalian: He told me that when he was about 20 years old he decided to shop for a different religious tradition than the Mormonism in which he was raised. He studied a book that listed the characteristics of each denomination and found four that he thought worthy of checking out. They were Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians. Since there were congregations of each of those in the town where he lived he thought that he would begin looking at them alphabetically. He visited the Episcopal church, found it to his liking and did not leave. He said, “So, I’m an alphabetical Episcopalian.”

The priest who is a competitive rower told us of her success this summer at a big regatta on the Charles River. She also commended her congregation who supports her in her rowing passion by allowing her to be away from her congregation on four Sundays this past year so that she could compete in rowing regattas.

Two intertwined stories from a Franciscan monk visiting the convention from Alaska: We have a priest friend who lives in a town near Anchorage. We have not met him in person. Over many years, with many phone conversations we have shared our lives with each other. The Franciscan monk knows the priest. We plied Br. E with many questions about our priest friend whom we have not actually met in person as we also shared our stories of his life with the monk. What fun it was to learn that our priest friend is, among many other attributes, “normal size” and not the large bear of a man that we have created in our minds’ eyes!

Alaska has been without a bishop for several years. Because of the remoteness of the communities in Alaska and the long, community-held traditions that vary from place to place, the monk described to us how difficult it is to have the clergy in that diocese meet together and share common church-related traditions. The new bishop, whomever that may turn out to be, will have a special challenge with that diverse and geographically as well as theologically expansive diocese.

This year was the second convention for our diocese’s new bishop. It warmed our hearts that he made a quick tour of the exhibitors at the convention. It is easy for the exhibitors to think of themselves as important to the convention but also an easily overlooked ministry whose participants are taken for granted. That the bishop made an appearance, even if cursory, was important to all of those who were working the booths in the exhibit hall. The bishop stopped by our booth and shook our hands. He spent perhaps one minute in our booth, but that is a longer visit than we can remember of former bishops in the twenty-six years that we have been exhibiting at diocesan convention.

Nancy and I ended our store's presence at the annual diocesan convention of the Episcopal Church in W. Washington yesterday. We had decided to include a bible give-away as part of our exhibit. There is a new edition, the Green Bible, with all of the passages that encourage care for the environment printed with green (soy-based, environmentally friendly) ink. It also has theological articles in it about the environment. Convention attendees could enter their name to win the bible. Near the end of the last plenary session we had a drawing for the winner. A convention page then delivered the bible to the winner during the meeting, a woman from Port Angeles. After the session ended the winner came to our booth to warmly thank us. She is one of those who "never win anything" and she was thrilled. And, that made the donation even more enjoyable for us.

Personalities: business and personal

2008-11-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

Book publishers have personalities. It is no doubt obvious, but it surprises me that publishers and other businesses have personalities. Some publishers have the personality of cooperation for the betterment of everyone. Other publishers have the personality of maximizing for themselves short-term gains with little regard for others, including those retail stores that are selling their products.

It is, in my humble view, through the difference in a business' purpose that the different personalities appear. Is the main purpose of the business to maximize short-term profits or to meet the needs of their niche market and ensure their long-term health?

Here is my view of business history since World War II. At the end of the war many returning GIs started their own businesses. There became Lapenski Fuel, Magdanz Hardware, Tuell Funeral Home, and Shorey’s Books to name a few. From what I recall and can determine, the purpose of each business was “to find a need in the community and meet it.” The local community was vital to each business. You can see that by the support that they gave to community organizations from supporting bowling teams and children’s sporting teams to Scouts and school projects. Ah, more community involvement: when the local drug store saw a student shopping in the middle of the day, the store owner would often phone the school to see if the kid had permission to be not-in-school.

Sometime later business thinking changed. Perhaps it was in the 1960s when the emphasis on the individual bloomed. Perhaps it was the same time that the view of sports changed to that famous statement “winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing.” The big business model expanded to state and to act as “the bottom line is all that matters” and “it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”

I think that the results from this thinking changed to optimization of short-term profits for the owners while short-changing the long-term reliability of the business. The other event that encouraged this movement was the retiring of the many small business owners who began their businesses at the end of the war. A small business owner has a few choices for leaving the business: passing it on to the offspring, selling it to the highest bidder, or the famous “going out of business sale.” The offspring typically grew up with the business in the family and they knew the amount of commitment and effort that the parents put into the business, likely at the expense of better parenting. The offspring chose to do something else. Selling to the highest bidder encouraged larger businesses to expand by purchasing others. Offering shares of stock in the larger businesses allowed the managers to raise enough money to purchase more smaller businesses, whether funeral homes, hardware stores, or fuel companies, or bookstores.

Today’s result is that we have a few corporations that are now so large that the people and the government cannot allow them to fail because too many individuals will lose their jobs and the economy will become even worse.

When there are fifty auto manufacturers in the U.S. and three of them fail due to poor business practices of maximizing short-term gains for the owners and neglecting the long-term health of the business you have “a market correction” or a result of “you reap what you sow.” A few manufactures fail. But when the nation has only three major auto manufacturers and the decisions that they have made will put large numbers of wage earners out of work, then we have a nation-wide economic crisis. It is likewise in the financial industry where a few very large corporations have swallowed hundreds of small financial institutions over the years.

Each business has its own personality. We choose our friends in some respects by their personalities. Perhaps we choose the businesses we associate with in some respects by their personalities too. Can you name five businesses that you really enjoy working with and five that you work with but don’t enjoy? Does the personality of each business affect your feelings about those businesses?

The obvious next question is, “Why do you continue to work with those businesses that you don’t enjoy?”

The Election of a lifetime.

2008-11-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

I did not party in the street after the election. I did not write about my feelings about it. I am hugely relieved that we have a chance for a change in the country that better fits what I think we can become, but I'm not yelling-happy about it. Yet again, why do my eyes mist when I hear reports of all sorts of people who are so thrilled? And, it touches me deeply that so many people, in so many places, in so many ways, are ecstatic about the results of the presidential election. The "silent majority" has shown its relief and hope, in my humble opinion. Maybe we all actually can work together for the betterment of the common good.

The world says...The faithful say

2008-10-13T12:39:00.001-07:00

One thought that I received during yesterday’s sermon:

The world says:
Be fearful
Worry
Blame
They are wrong and we are right!
Be angry

The faithful say:
Rejoice
Be happy
Celebrate
Be at peace
The angels say, “Fear not”
Philippians 4: 1-9 reminds us to focus on what is true, what is honorable, what is just, excellence

The faithful remind us that when one thinks that there is not enough, that there is always enough to share.

My EV and politics

2008-10-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine…”
Courage came to me when a magazine publisher, Jack Love, in his trade magazine, Internet Retailer, October 4, 2008, wrote, “In 40 years of publishing, I have not supported a candidate in print.”
http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=27946
I have been driving electric vehicles (two) since the year 2000. After 25 years of talking about converting a car to run on electricity I finally did it in the millennial year. My ’81 VW rabbit pickup is my second conversion. It is my daily commuter vehicle that uses only battery power that I plug in to my home electrical power each evening much like you would plug in an outdoor barbeque or space heater.
A few weeks ago I made and attached to the rear bumper three bumper stickers. One states, “Driving better electrically.”
A major motivation for converting a gasoline-burning vehicle to electricity was my miniscule effort toward reducing our dependence on oil from other countries. It is somewhat like choosing to eat locally produced food. Seattle City Light, the source of my EV’s fuel states (2007) our electricity comes from: Hydro—90.6%, Nuclear—4.8%, Wind—3.3%, Coal—0.8%, and Other—0.5%.
We are on the brink of the release of several new electric vehicles. Within the next two or three years you will see several major automakers, and several relatively unknown startup car companies, offering reasonably priced electric vehicles (not hybrids) with the new lithium ion battery technologies.
Since my first EV conversion in 2000 I have learned the dire situation our planet is in due to global warming. Ninety percent of the world’s scientists who have studied global warming agree that human activities are the major cause, hence the reason for my first bumper sticker, “No more dependence on carbon-based fuels.” We must drastically reduce our use of carbon-based fuels in all its forms, for all of its uses in order to assure the continuation of life as we know it on this planet.
Politics: Senator McCain’s energy policy, from what I have learned, includes significant oil drilling, off shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, major research into creating “clean coal” and building many more nuclear power plants. The first three will do nothing to slow or reverse global warming. And, as for nuclear power, the half-life of uranium is about 4.5 billion years. In order for it to be safe we must absolutely guarantee that wherever we store the spent nuclear material it will be kept away from human beings of at least that long, and best, twice that long. Until we can insure that guarantee, in my humble opinion, we have no right to be using nuclear power.
Senator Obama’s stated energy policy includes a massive effort to increase solar, biomass, and geothermal energy to create electricity and stopping our dependence on foreign oil within ten years. He also has recently given in to accepting some limited national oil drilling as well as increasing the construction of nuclear power plants.
I have deep concerns for the healthy future of our country. I have deeper concerns for the health of life on our planet due to the effects of global warming. From this position you may see that my third bumper sticker on my electric vehicle, my daily commuter car, reads, “Obama, of course!”
Yes, both McCain and Obama tell lies in order to get elected. Who can know for sure what either one of them will do once they are the President. We certainly did not expect what we got from the current President. During his first campaign he was the one who was going to finally bring high morals to the White House.
Certainly the country’s and the world’s economy is the elephant in the living room that we all must deal with. There are many other issues to consider. For the topic of global warming and several others, but not all other issues, I am convinced that Obama might be better for the country and the world in the long run.