Mr. Dyson was Right

Mr. Dyson was right. He's been predicting this all along. He even took out television ads to inform me and warn me before it was too late. But I was oblivious, happily ignoring his ads. Still, it cannot be denied. My vacuum cleaner has lost suction.
I was reminded, today, of a joke I read somewhere - it's not my joke but I can't remember the originator. About why is it that people pick up trash from the carpet while vacuuming, look at it, then put it back down and run the vacuum over it. Why not just throw it away while it's in your hand? Well, I felt like I might have to run my hands over my rugs today in order to clean up after the vacuum. No suction. Oh, and it's not that the bag is full - I checked that.
Obviously, we need a new vacuum cleaner, which raises a new set of questions. Because, realistically speaking, where are we going to get a vacuum cleaner not made in China?

Not on a Diet

I am not on a diet. That said, I am trying to focus on my health this summer, and I figure this is as good a time as any to cut out some of the extra sugar and fat in my life. So I'm working out each day, eating healthy food all day, eating yummy rich chocolate at dessert, and not eating within 2 hours of going to bed. During the day, I try to only eat good things - things like fruits, veggies, protein, and good carbs. This means that I am hungry most afternoons. It's funny what hunger will do to you. This afternoon, I was so hungry that I considered walking to the grocery store, buying chocolate chip cookie ingredients, then eating half a batch of raw dough. All pretty rational, right up to that last point! At a certain point, I can satisfy my hunger with a salad and some fruit. Or a hard boiled egg. But after a certain point, my appetite gains its own personality. I picture Cookie Monster, inside my gullet, hollering "I WANT COOKIES!" I find myself thinking of different ways to eat cookies without knowing it. My brain becomes a devious prankster looking for ways to get around my rational self. And of course, this is why I'm not on a diet. If I were on a diet, the first thing I would do is eat every single forbidden food. My covenant group was talking about food logs this week, and Erin suggested that a food log would make a person feel guilty and stop eating badly. Not so much for me. I just figure that eating 8 cookies a day is about 1 serving, and therefore quite reasonable.

Boston Photos

Yes, that's a statue of a donkey. We don't know why.


Dale and I at the Red Sox game. Which turned out to be a no-hitter.


Winding up for the historical final pitch.


Dale the proud graduate!

Boston Summary

So I kind of slacked off posting the last few days of our trip. It was too busy. :)
Wednesday we had a relaxed day of wrapping up our sightseeing. We saw a few things in more detail, and in the afternoon we ventured out to the Arnold Arboretum, where we narrowly missed being rained on!
Thursday we drove out to Amherst. We walked around UMass campus, and then spent the afternoon in the hot tub at the hotel! My parents and Dale's mom Shirley joined us for dinner that evening.
Friday was Dale's graduation! It was a good ceremony. Bill and Linda joined us there and all of us went to dinner at the Blue Heron, which was fabulously good! One thing for sure, Dale and I ate very well all week!
Saturday we visited Deerfield which was very interesting but also pretty tiring. Lots of walking and standing.
Sunday we came home!
All in all it was a wonderful vacation.

update

I've gotten a few responses regarding my post a few days ago about a depressed friend. So I want to post an update.
First: she is not in immediate danger. Fortunately, a mutual friend who lives within driving distance of her contacted me, and the two of us are working together to try and minister to her. She is still depressed but the suicide threat has receded.
Second, my post was born out of frustration with our attitudes towards mental health. It drives me nuts that a person having suicidal thoughts also thinks that drugs are bad or that talk therapy won't help, or that they don't need it. The stigma attached to mental health problems is stupid and ridiculous and it prevents people from seeking the help they need or taking their problems seriously. Also, I am frustrated by the church's attitude. I read on a pastor's blog recently a post which rejoiced that her denomination allowed her to refer people to professionals after only 3 meetings with them. Well, I know that some people need professional help. And I know that not all pastors are called to minister relationally - some are teachers, some are entrepreneuers, etc. But still, as someone called to pastor relationally, I think that the most important thing I can do with my pastoral time is to spend it with people. I don't have time to get into the discussion right now, but wouldn't a team of differently gifted pastors be the best bet? There should be a pastor or two, for every community, whose whole job is to sit with the wounded. At least, in my ideal world. But at my seminary, I have 2 required preaching classes and no required counseling. I think that's off.
I'll stop the rant now. I was hoping to clarify. I fear I complicated. But after all, I am on vacation. More to come later!

Boston, Day 3

Today we saw Harvard and the Fogg Museum at Harvard. It's a good thing, too, because the Fogg Museum is closing soon for five years for remodeling! After a huge lunch and dessert, we took the T back to our room for our siesta.
Refreshed, we went to Trinity Church and spent about an hour soaking in the beautiful murals and stained glass. Our next stop was to spend some time chatting in the Boston Public Library courtyard. Clearly, the Boston environment is affecting us because we came up with two brilliant million dollar ideas!
Dale's idea: The Steak & Potato Tini (copyright, 2008). This is a blend of potato-infused vodka and rendered beef fat. Frost the rim with butter and chives and garnish with a roast beef shaving. If roast beef is not available, use a stick of beef jerky. Yum!
Elaine's idea: The Bidet Zen Fountain Conversion Kit (copyright, 2008). Have a useless bidet in your home? Find the whole idea awkward, weird, or disgusting, but not sure how to get rid of it? Well, buy this brilliant conversion kit. A few simple steps and your bidet will become a Zen fountain of river stones and bubbling recycled water. Special lighting available in deluxe kit.

day two

A good day, overall. Dale and I started out at the Boston public library, which is amazing. Then we headed out to complete the Freedom Trail. We went up the 294 steps of the bunker hill monument, thus discovering how out of shape we truly are. Once we finished the trail, we walked down to the water in hopes of catching a water taxi. We failed. Although there are stops on the map, none of them seemed to exist in real life. Thoroughly exhausted, we walked another 10 minutes to the nearest T station.
After lunch and a nap, we were ready for the sox game. And what a game it was! The Sox won, 7 - 0, but more than that, it was a no-hitter. This was only the 18th no-hitter game in Sox history! It's always fun to witness these things.

Boston, Day 1 Highlights

After a relatively painless flight, we arrived at our hotel in Boston at 8:30 am today. We had a delicious big breakfast at the Pour House and immediately set out to the Freedom Trail. We did about half of the Trail, then checked into our room and took a nice long nap. For dinner we ventured out to the Waterfront and had seafood.

Dale's highlights of the day: Granary Burying Ground had lots of interesting grave sites. The city is a great mix of old and new architecture. And while sitting in the sun outside the Old State House, we saw a male pigeon strutting his stuff for some rather unimpressed female pigeons.

Elaine's highlights of the day: Sitting in the Public Gardens watching people walk around was wonderful. In the Old South Meeting house we learned that a KKK speaker and a birth control advocate speaker were equally offensive and censored in the 1920's. And the great thing about the city is that the skyscrapers are all different and unique.

Moving from rules to ...

I like this post by Heather Zempel, a pastor friend of mine in DC. http://discipleshipgroups.blogspot.com/2008/05/color-outside-lines.html
What I like is that she expresses something that I've known but never really been able to express. For example, I chose to attend seminary at Regent, a pretty conservative institution. If you know me, you know I'm not really very conservative. Although I'm not liberal either... I couldn't express why I chose Regent, I just knew that I wanted my education to be very conservative, very literal, very "inside the coloring book lines," to reference Heather's post. But now I'm starting to see. I grew up believing that the Bible was true and accurate, 100%. All the miracles happened, exactly as written, etc. Now I start to see discrepancies and stories that make no sense. I have to wrestle with the Bible now in order to believe it. Coming from inside the lines forces me to wrestle with the Bible in a very deep and meaningful way. Reconciling my conservative beliefs about the Bible with my intellectual honesty has forced me to go deeper into the Bible. I've read through the Bible twice in the last 2 years, and plan to continue that pattern, because I believe I must read the WHOLE Bible in order to understand its parts. The legalism and conservatism of my background requires this of me.
So maybe you can get to this place from a liberal background - I wouldn't know. But I think there's something very powerful in realizing that we start from rules, regulations, and legalism, but then growth necessitates leaving those behind. What are we moving to? Ultimately, I hope God. And fortunately, the Holy Spirit is with me, giving me the guidance I need. I don't think She'll let me go too far wrong. :)

Weeping with others

Tonight I sat in a circle of women praying and weeping together. We were praying specifically for a woman whose daughter is suffering from cancer. Nine months of chemotherapy have been ineffective. The cancer has spread throughout the girl's body.
Words cannot capture what happened in our circle tonight. Sometimes the only power we have is in weeping together. And while I am deeply angry that the enemy has the power to inflict death and suffering, on the other hand I hold fast to the truth that the enemy only has death, and Jesus has already overturned death.
Sometimes I think that my primary ministry is to share in the sufferings of others. My ministry will not be a laughing one, but a crying one. Naturally my favorite prophet is Jeremiah. I'm ok with this. I don't like it - it's not fun to sit with someone and weep with them. But it's what I can do - what I can offer. I feel like someone needs to weep for this world.

long-distance hugs

I have a friend, not a reader of this blog, who is going through a horrific time in her life. She's struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. And I'm hundreds of miles away from her. And I just wish that I could be there for her in a concrete way - more concrete, that is, than email and phone calls. I want to call her church pastor and say, "what are you all doing? What are you offering? You have someone suffering from a potentially fatal emotional heart attack - how are you trying to save her?" But, of course, I won't. They don't need my judgmental accusations. And I know the situation better than that. But in my own frustration, I want to find someone to TAKE ACTION.
Sometimes the best you can do is a long-distance hug and a prayer. I know this. I know it can be effective. But it doesn't change my desire to do MORE.

Taking risks

I took a risk last night. A good friend of mine recently challenged me regarding my writing: asking me what she could count on me for. And I told her she could count on me to start sharing my writing with others. Which is really what it's all about - I've just been too full of excuses to do it. And so last night, at journey group, I shared a poem I had written - the one I posted on this blog a few weeks ago. It was pretty scary. It felt awkward and weird to say, now I'm going to read you a poem I've composed. It was equivalent to saying, now I'm going to take off all my clothes in front of you all. But I survived. And people liked it - they really liked it! And now I'm very glad I took the risk and shared. And I'm going to continue the process. Because art needs exposure to live - it can't survive locked up in my head or computer hard drive.