Visitors

Every once in awhile I really get to wondering about who stops by this blog.  I look at the couple of tools I have for recording visits and I think:  Hmmmm.  

Some people, I know exactly who they are. We've become blogging friends and/or they've sent the occasional email.

Others are from places where I know lots of people IRL and I wonder who is quietly lurking ~ from nearby Cleveland suburbs, from my seminary town of Pittsburgh, from Boston and its environs, from Chicago and its.

Still others are from links from links from parents whose children have died.  THAT I get.  We all want to know how others are making it. 

And others are from places that just sound cool:  Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand, for instance.  I think that most of the overseas visitors come by accidentally in the course of a word or picture search , but still:  What's it like to live in Lower Hutt in New Zealand?

Oh, my.  Apparently it's something like this: 

(And I live where? In a midwestern American city?  I love where we live, but let's get real.)

I've become incredibly lazy about making myself known when I visit others, so I can hardly complain.  But I am curious.

I've added a link in the sidebar to Loyola Press's 31 Days with Ignatius. Unless I double up, I'll miss seven or eight of them while I'm on retreat, where technology is highly discouraged. But you might want to pay them a visit, as long as you're here anyway.

Josh: Michigan, Massachusetts, Prague

I had some photos scanned to a CD today, so some of them may show up here and on FB:

(1) Family trip to Lake Michigan at the end of summer, 2001. 

(2) Josh as a soccer player his senior year of high school, 2002.

(3) Josh mimicking the famous Prague clock on a trip he and his brother made in 2004, right before their sophomore year of college.

I Now Have All the Answers

I just got home to discover two arrivals:

My long awaited copy of A Sunlit Absence (neither Amazon nor UPS came off well in this transaction, but I trust that Marty Laird will) and

a postcard inviting me to an event in the theater down the block sponsored by a heretofore unknown local church that promises CHRISTIANITY EXPLAINED.  Apparently with respect to politics sin heaven bible religion morals salvation the crusades evolution God sex Jesus gospel faith resurrection rules church hell cross right wing baptism.

Looks like I'm good to go.

More Places I'm Not - PEI

Places I'm Not

Just posting old pics, here and on FB, because other people are where I might like to be.  These are all from the Guelph (Ontario) Jesuit Center:  Bell Tower, Barn, Labyrinth, Speed (?) River, Path to River, Ignatius the Pilgrim.

Off to Russia!

I already posted this on FB, but that's Gregarious Son, headed for Novgorod for a week, via Newark, Frankfurt, and St. Petersburg, to which he'll return for another three weeks of his program in international law. And then he's going to visit a young lady in Edinburgh.   And that's me, who was headed home from the airport.  No overseas journeys for me this year.

The Lovely Daughter called from Asheville to report that the glory of being a camp  activities cluster leader instead of a cabin counselor is: Sundays off!  She called first from brunch, somewhere, and then later from the Chocolate Bar.  Apparently a day off means a progressive group feast on non-camp food.  I reminded her: No flip-flops on the Parkway!*

I don't know what warnings I should be issuing for Russia.

*The counselors like to drive up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway on their nights off to look at the stars strung out above the mountains.  Copperheads like to slither onto the Parkway on their nights off to warm up on the pavement, still hot from the sun.  Last summer there was an encounter that landed a counselor in the hospital for several days.

Friday Five Faith and Culture Edition

 A terrific Friday Five from Terri today! She writes as follows:

This week the church I serve is a host site for the University of Michigan, Dearborn, Worldviews Seminar. It's a week long summer education course open to anyone, with continuing ed hours to be earned. It's a survey of the world religions with a morning lecture at the university, led by Lucinda Mosher. Then the group drives over to the church for lunch, a short lecture, and then they board a bus for a tour of local religious buildings. They tour Buddhist temples, an Antiochean Orthodox church, a synagogue, a mosque, and many other area houses of worship.This year is the tenth anniversary of the seminar.

In addition to the Worldviews Seminar the congregation I serve is planning to participate in Episcopal Faith Shared and Faith Shared. I am working to have members of local Jewish and Muslim congregations present and participating in our Sunday morning service.

So, in honor of a week of interfaith study and celebration:

1. Have you ever had an experience of a religion other than your own? And, if so, what was it like for you to experience something different? If you haven't, what religion might you like to study, experience, and learn more about?

I spent six years teaching in an Orthodox Jewish day school, which was like entering another culture each morning.  Since I taught literature and world history to intensely curious students who seldom encountered anyone outside their own community of faith, we had some wonderful conversations about belief, practice, and culture.  Typical ninth grade questions:  Why are Christians polytheistic?  Why does Mel Gibson hate us?  Do you really believe that Jesus rose from the dead?  And what's with those pumpkins on Halloween?  The whole experience was challenging, often disconcerting, and led to wonderful friendships with students and teachers.  As usual in such situations, I learned far more than I taught.  Probably the most important thing I learned is how much respect is generated when people adhere faithfully to their own beliefs while maintaining a stance of openness and generosity to others of different traditions

2. Have you ever studied, traveled, or explored other cultures? What and where, and when?

Most of my travel has been either in the United States or Europe, so I can't say that I've been far afield, culture-wise.  However, when our son Josh spent his 11th grade year in France, we  got a tiny taste of French life and culture through the time we spent with his family there.  I have maintained a warm relationship with his French mother and brother for the past almost-ten years, despite our infrequent communications and the tragedy we have all shared.  Gregarious Son leaves for a law student program in Novgorod and St. Petersburg day after tomorrow, so we're about to learn something about Russian culture ~ I hope!

3. Any stories you wish to share about a person (author, teacher, etc), or a friend or colleague, from another culture or religion, who has impacted you in some capacity?

The rabbi who was the principal of the aforementioned school had a big impact on me.  His own pre-college education had taken place entirely in the black hat yeshiva world; his high school friends considered him in danger of worldly influence when he decided to attend Yeshiva University in New York City -- a bastion of Orthodox Judaism from most points of view, but in theirs, a hazardous place in which people study law and medicine and secular  literature as well as Torah.  He explained once that his parents, while deeply religious, were also brilliant, alert, and attentive to the world around them.  The mix of worlds produced a quietly compassionate and effective man, one who could talk with authority on almost any subject, was genuinely curious about everything, and was universally respected by those he encountered across a wide spectrum, from teenagers in trouble to adults who had far-ranging educations and life experiences of their own.  He and I had a number of fascinating conversations over the years.

*****

I started this entry early this mornng but ran out of time before I had to leave for a meeting.  One of the pastors from my field ed church of year before last recently invited me to join the board of a nonprofit that promotes interfaith dialogue.  That organization is one of a number co-operating on an interfaith commemoration on 9/11, which is how I found myself hosting a meeting of the publicity committee this morning at my home Presby church, a committee whose membership is Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian!