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I just finished watching an episode of “Dancing With The Stars” that I had taped. And, man! Watching Heather Mills (an amputee!) mambo makes me want to (re)learn some ballroom dancing! Whew. I’m going to a wedding this weekend (my good friend, Jane Koehler, is tying the knot), and I’m dusting off my dancing shoes for the reception. I haven’t been to a wedding dance in four years. My fabulous friend, Ranae, emailed some of us instructions for the Hustle. Rhys and I tried it yesterday in the living room – the girl even mastered the Grapevine and the Eggbeater! I hope they play “Mambo Italiano” – hey, a girl can dream, right?
It’s a rainy day – a perfect day to listen to some Hem. But I don’t own any Hem albums. What a downer. But then remembered that I saw the Pandora player this past weekend at the Perry’s and thought I’d give it a whirl. The result: perfect mood music! It’s free, and all you have to do is type in a band or song you like, and it creates a radio station based on similar bands and genre. It’s great! Give it a try by click on the title of this post.
Excuse me while I pour some more coffee and listen to my newest creation: “Shins Radio”.
photo courtesty Robin’s Photoblog: http://riviera.org.uk
Let the Madness begin! Today is the first day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Which becomes Young Madness around here. For the next three weeks, Michael will analyze stats, players, coaches, and plays; and I’ll be analyzing the uniforms, hairstyles and Wikipeding the mascots (what is a Terrapin or a Hoya, anyway?) I’m tracking scores for Michael, who calls once in awhile to see how his bracket is doing. Last night we set the DVR to tape certain games, and pondered the Tar Heels’ chances of going all the way. Brackets were filled, checked and double-checked, and so for the next three weeks, we root, cheer, boo and wait. We think Dickie V’s ‘diaper dandies’ are going to make it this year.
Who’s in your Final Four?
Last night, Michael & I were discussing Bryan Adams. Gotta love the guy. Michael loves power ballads (a result of his summers spent working construction, listening to Omaha’s Z-92FM – radio for the working man!), and we realized: there is no bad Bryan Adams song. I dare you to defy me! If you love those late 80s-early 90s rock ballads, Bryan is your man. Unpretentious and unashamed. Who doesn’t have a memory to go along with “Summer of ‘69″, “Please Forgive Me”, “When You Love Someone”, et al? I do.
Or should I say, “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.” My parents enrolled me in cotillion when I was in 6th grade, circa 1991. Which, in Omaha, is kind of a finishing school sponsored by Opera Omaha, where pre-adolescent youths learn table manners and a few basic ballroom dances in an effort to foster a taste for finer cultural experiences. I think cotillion was by invitation, and I don’t know how I got invited, save for my good grades. It certainly wasn’t for my natural charisma. I was no debutante. But I digress. Most of the cotillion experience consisted of Saturday afternoons spend learning the box-step, fox trot, waltz, etc. Save for the waltz, the song our intstructor played for every dance was “Everything I Do”. I can hear the piano intro now. Haunting. And, obedient students, we lined up – the girls facing the guys – chose our partner and stared at the floor, feigning concentration. While dancing, the boy’s palms sweating onto my shoulder and opposite palm, we had to ask at least three questions about our partner, which were usually, “What’s your name? Where do you go to school? What do you do for fun?” All of this was done with minimal eye contact, of course. It was two hours of hell every weekend for me….I was shy and short, which meant I could comfortably stare into my partner’s chest, and he, over my head. So now when I hear that song, that nervous flutter starts up again in my stomach, and I instinctively feel like I should be swaying back and forth – back straight, hand raised above the shoulder, chin up, staring into a plaid, button-down shirt.
Another thing I remember about cotillion: at the formal dinner & dance, the culmination of our weeks of hard work, I remember sitting at my dinner table watching the less inhibited girls bump-and-grind to “I’m Too Sexy” on the dance floor. So much for gentility.
new gutters: $385
new garage door opener, installed: $300
michael’s fix-the-front-door-attempt-gone-awry repair: $350
touching up the interior paint & walls: $150
adding a shower head and fixing up the bathtub: way more than that
using your tax return wisely to wrap up the honey-do list: priceless!*
*although not as fun as blowing it on a new spring wardrobe, an entirely organic grocery list, or a scooter.
…is an annoying month for me. Not quite spring, not quite winter: nothing quite green, no more snow. Ugh.
It just occured to me that it’s been about a year that I’ve been blogging. I remember sitting in this same brown chair, staring out the same window at the same leafless trees, Rhys napping (as she is now), and thinking, “Man, I’m bored. Think I’ll start a blog.” Thank God for boredom….it’s this loss of motivation, this cabin fever that gets me to start reading again, contemplating my life, where it’s going, where it’s been, plan, etc. It’s a necessary pause, but one I don’t really like. I hate being bored….I am learning to enjoy silence, to enjoy being by myself, to enjoy smaller, simpler things. But I also have a difficult time motivating myself. Too often these grey days become lazy days. Perserverance and patience are two things I’ve been needing to learn, and I’ve been forced into learning it for the past three weeks while potty-training Rhys. Talk about a test of patience, a clashing of wills! I’ve been learning to go with the flow, realizing again that while I can guide and direct my daughter, I can’t control everything. Funny how a little plastic toilet has taught me loads about myself.
On another note, blogging has been GREAT fun for me. Part journal, part confessional, part photo album and never-ending holiday letter. Nearly effortless networking, too. I have met genuinely intriguing people, even made friends through the blogosphere in the past year. After lurking on a friend-of-a-friend’s blog, I was invited to read a book with the other girls (girls/ladies/women/whatever) and then to meet some of them in Iowa City last summer. After having a hard time making and keeping friends here (largely my own fault), it was refreshing (even if it was the most humid weekend of the year) to talk/listen to these intelligent, confident, lovely and varied new friends…..mothers, sisters, writers, musicians, artists, advocates.
I love to read blogs as much as I like to keep one. Reading some of them is like reading someone else’s diary…those are my favorite….let me see what’s going on inside your heart, inside your four walls. In short, blogging has been responsible for keeping some of my sanity. So, on my first blog anniversary, I thank YOU, readers and bloggers, for peeking in at my world and letting me lurk around in yours!
Being home these past few snowy days has given me lots of time to think, and one of the things I’ve been pondering are the lyrics to a Derek Webb song. Here are the lyrics…
My Enemies Are Men Like Me
I have come to give you life
and to show you how to live it
I have come to make things right
to heal their ears and show you how to forgive them
Because I would rather die
I would rather die
I would rather die
than to take your life
How can I kill the ones I’m supposed to love
my enemies are men like me
I will protest the sword if it’s not wielded well
my enemies are men like me
Peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication
it’s like telling someone murder is wrong
and then showing them by way of execution
When justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war
the ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor
How can I kill the ones I’m supposed to love
my enemies are men like me
I will protest the sword if it’s not wielded well
my enemies are men like me
SO. I know, from what I’ve read about Derek, that this song is a comment about war and nonviolence. During the song, he plays part of a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. From what I can hear, he says, “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” Interesting. I’ve been wrestling with this “turn the other cheek” concept: namely, how far does it extend? How far should nonviolence go? Just take one look at how Ghandi convinced Indians to use nonviolence to win their independence from Britain, and you have one blazing example of how far it can go.
Is war ever appropriate? “…Wars and rumors of wars…” but does that mean we instigate them? The paragraph in bold above is are the lines I’m wrestling most with: is that true? If so, is capital punishment the answer for crimes committed? Let me ask it: what would Jesus do? He’s described in the Bible as a powerful sword-brandishing warrior (the book of Revelation) and yet he let himself be tortured and nailed to some wood and left to die. “If you’re really the Son of God, save yourself!”
“He uses the weak things of this world to confound the wise.”
How do you reconcile the God who told the Israelites to make war on the other nations in the way on their quest for the Promised Land, and the God who allowed Romans to whip the flesh off of his back, in sacrifice for us? How much should we let our enemies do the same? Does that prevail in interpersonal relationships only, or does it extend into the political arena? Are people who claim to be Christ-followers called to be nonviolent? “Love your enemies.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
These are the things I’ve been wrestling with lately. Sticky stuff. Polarizing too. I am finding that a committment to nonviolence–for Christ-followers, anyway–is a committment to wholeheartedly trusting a just and loving God with your very life; and that your life cannot be more important than that trust – it seems to me that you have to be willing to lose your life (potentially) in order to remain nonviolent – the ultimate expression of “turning the other cheek”. I’m not sure what the answer is here, especially as it relates to war, and the support or protest of war. Join me in reexamining our politics as it relates to nonviolence – no matter where we land, I’m sure we’re better for it.
