Fibonaccis Number and the Lego Bible

This link goes to a really cool site that talks about Fibonacci's number sequence as evidence of a greater plan. It's got the whole intelligent design thing going for it, but it is also just a cool video representation of a natural phenomenon that I find to be cool.

This link goes to a website that represents all the Biblical stories, Old and New Testament, with legos. My two first thoughts were "How cool" and "Who has that much time on their hands?"- these were followed by "Okay, maybe some of these stories ought to be left for the over 10 year old crowd"- like the taking of Jericho, complete with the pillage and massacre of all the residents. Fake lego blood is interesting though! There is a little ratings guide with each section, though, with symbols beside each story indicating N(udity) V(iolence) C(ursing) or S(exual Content). Yeah.

washing dishes in a fractured world

So, I have these great ideas for blogs while I wash dishes. I really need to reconfigure the kitchen so I can look out the window while I wash...oh well. By the time I usually get to blogging, though, the ideas are either past, or have jammed themselves inside my head like too many staples in a malfunctioning electric stapler. We'll take a stab at sorting some out though.

I was wanting to reflect on the Virginia Tech shootings. I could rail about the media, and its treatment of the situation; about how the administration is getting unfair heat about the whole 2 hour lapse; I could go on ad naseum about the gun laws (bet that would up my comment count); or reflect on the different ways people respond to these horrible incidents. I am saddened to be sure. Virginia Tech is closely associated with George's family- his grandfather was the first dean of humanities and at different times chair of the English dept. He brought Shakespeare and co. to a Polytechnical school- his daughter became a college professor, as did his grandson. There is a building at Tech named for him. George's mom and his uncles/aunt graduated from Blacksburg High- at least one uncle got a degree there. Both his grandparents are buried in Blackburg, and I've often thought it was one of the neatest mountain college towns I'd ever seen. The idea of it now being associated in most people's minds with a bloodbath is as saddening to me as the events themselves.

One particular moment in the reporting of the incidents and aftermath stands out to me. A reporter was on the campus, reporting live about memorial services and makeshift shrines. In the background someone can be heard yelling on a loudspeaker. Thinking perhaps another incident was underway, the anchor in the studio asks the reporter what is happening- what announcements are being made or broadcast. The reporter quite deftly answers the question by saying that "an evangelist has set up across the quad from us here and is speaking into a megaphone, and that is the source of the noise." Bullhorn guy has shown up in Blacksburg. He probably would consider it a great success that he intruded on the major news carrier's live feed. This was the news outlet that was advertising Deepak Chopra's advice for the grieving, after all (or maybe it was that Deepak was going to be there?). Bullhorn guy has decided that with all this national attention, souls need saving in Blacksburg. Maybe this brush with mortality will scare more people into his brand of Jesus fearing religion. Maybe he thinks this shooter's manifesto is somewhat right in its denunciation of charlatans and rich kids- of hedonists and loose women- perhaps this is a tool of God to get everyone's attention- or better yet, a judgement on the lifestyles of those evil college students. For people who are so scared of going to hell and the being forever subject to the devil, I would think they would be better acquainted with said Evil One and the marks of his work in our world. (Please don't hear me say I think the Devil possessed this boy and made him shoot 60 people- he had some choices- but I do think he was imbued with all the characteristics of one who is tormented by mental illness and has given in to the evil impulses we all have felt as fallen creatures of an earthly existence). I do believe Evil exists, and its purpose is always counter to that of God's and that it was in full force on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday morning. The greater question now becomes how should we respond? Putting aside all the what-ifs and might have beens, where do we go now? I guess I shouldn't be so hard on bullhorn guy since he actually went to the campus to share what he thinks is God's message. But I just finished listening to a sermon about how we, as Christians, we are the message- Jesus was the Logos- the WORD of God- and as his body, his incarnation to the broken world- we are the message- how we love, care and respond- that is what will speak to this situation. If we ask "where is God?" He most often answers by asking "where are you?" (stolen from "New Exodus" sermon series- Rob Bell and Don Golden, June 11, 2006)

Where are we indeed.

I really like this quote

I am so excited because I believe that there is a bubbling up of new imagination in the church and in people that are rethinking the way we do our careers, rethinking the world together, rethinking what it means to be church and refusing to allow the distorted images of what it means to be church to define us and go, “we’re going to stop complaining about the church that we’ve experienced and become the church that we dream of- let’s figure out how to do it together.” Shane Claiborne, www.thesimpleway.org

For Amber Waves of Grain

Really- I mean seriously- how is it we are importing wheat gluten (tainted with pet-killing crap) from China while we pay MILLIONS to wheat farmers in North America to NOT, I repeat, to not grow any wheat? Why is noone asking this question in a big fat public scream in your face kind of way? Why are we far more concerned that the Bush administration fired 8 lawyers because of political bent, (which is perfectly acceptable thing to do as long as you TELL congress you are going to do it)? I mean, they aren't really in trouble for firing the lawyers, they are in trouble for not following the proper procedure in firing the lawyers and then lying about what they did.

Really- this is more important? This should captivate the national media? Or maybe finally finding out who the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is the most worthwhile pursuit these days.....Meanwhile, China owns us heart and soul? I mean- its cheaper to import wheat by-products from China while paying people here big money to not grow wheat than it is to just let American farmers grow wheat and sell it to ourselves???? And we are so enslaved to the bargain mentality that as the country of the free and the brave we will go out of our way to buy-one-get-one-free ice cream dishes while we will knowingly underwrite an empire built on the backs of its people who are starving, working with child labor, and throwing out beautiful baby girls to avoid government penalties? Cheap plastic crap at a low price makes this system justified? Sure, that purse looks great with those shoes, but can you really live with yourself knowing what the human cost of you saving a few bucks of your throw-away income is all about? I am mystified, mortified but most of all petrified- as I don't have the slightest idea, besides railing at the wind, of what to do about it, or how to extract myself from this system (as I type on my laptop which was assembled in China!) I know why they call social change campaigns "movements"- because I won't be able to live with myself for long if I just sit still in this place. And please don't tell me to run for office- I'd rather run for the hills.