Something completely pointless

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless." --Calvin, from Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes

Yesterday a couple friends and I spent an hour or so playing a made-up a version of disc golf using a frisbee and a soccer ball simultaneously at a park near where I live. We basically took turns creating our own holes, which usually involved picking a tree to go around first before taking aim at another tree as a final target.

It took me most of the time that we were there before I was hit with flashbacks from similar games when I was a kid. I remember one game my best friend growing up and I made up, involving only a tennis ball and a tennis ball bottle. One person would be the "pitcher" and the other the "catcher." In this game the catcher would sport a baseball glove and stand near the bottle--the pitcher's target in which to knock over--and try and catch or at least deflect the ball before it hit said bottle. The quirk though, was the catcher could only use the glove to catch or deflect the ball, and had to rest the glove on his leg and then try to catch it at the very last minute before the ball would hit the bottle. It was a great test of reflexes, that's for sure.

It was quite an interesting game in how we scored it, too. Most games people score only when on offense. Our game had both "offensive points" and "defensive points." Clearly the offensive points would be based on how many times the pitcher would knock over the bottle before the catcher would have a chance to catch the ball. The defensive points would consequently be how many catches the catcher makes (deflections don't count). So there was some incentive to try and catch the ball at the very last minute.

The game was organized very similar to innings in baseball: the pitcher had a certain number of throws to knock the bottle over. I don't remember if we had anything equivalent of strikes or balls or not, but a "catch" correlated quite nicely to an "out" in baseball.

Another game I remember was much simpler and kinda lame, but we loved it anyway: the game's idea was similar to "pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey," except the blindfolded person was spun around and then had to guess and throw at a predetermined object before the blindfold had been put on.

I guess that's it as far as games that I've completely made up while hanging out with a friend or two over time. I've spent a fair share of time (esp. during the warm months) just going out and throwing a ball or frisbee, or playing some version of a real sport just for the fun of it. It's kind of funny, some of the things I've spent my "free time" doing came from Calvin and Hobbes, and the kinds of things they did while outside. I guess it's no surprise that I sometimes subscribe to the Calvin quote at the beginning of this post. It's amazing that it only came to me in the last couple days.

More Easter Weekend tidbits

I went to St. James Cathedral ["http://www.saintjamescathedral.org/"] for Easter morning Eucharist. The music was amazing, and it was kinda cool to experience something not too far off from St. Thomas ["http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/"] (yes, I'm only adding the link now to this place because I was lazy before). One thing that caught my curiosity though: in the opening and closing processions, they led off with this weird "flying" thing, basically a bunch of really long ribbon attached to a really long pole that the person just twirled around. I wish I had my camera for that. I still wonder what the heck that was.

Last night I went to a Krishna Das ["http://www.krishnadas.com/"] concert, sort of in place of Easter Vigil. The concert apparently was set up as a collaborative of several yoga groups in Chicago: Yoga Now ["http://www.yoganowchicago.com/"], Generations Yoga ["http://www.genyoga.com/"], North Shore Yoga ["http://www.nsyoga.com/"], and Heaven Meets Earth ["http://www.heavenmeetsearthyoga.com/index.html"]. Krishna Das is a five-person band that does westernized yoga chanting, accompanied by harmonium, violin, tabla, guitar and drum set. For each of the songs the lead singer would lead us in a chant in a call-and-response. It was kind of cool. It took me a while to settle in (I'd never really been to one of these things before), but towards the end of the evening I felt a sense of peace that I've gotten only at FCA/TNBS/prayer group meetings.

Man, I wish I'd brought my camera to Chicago now. I guess you'll just have to use your imaginations to conjure up what I witnessed the last couple days, and hope that next time I see some amazing stuff I'll be fortunate enough to capture it. Because these were some amazing sights.

So, Happy Easter! ... I guess. I'm gonna leave you with a thought as many of us now turn to the season of celebration. It's one that originated while I was composing one of my Lenten devo posts from the last couple weeks, so as a result it's kind of been on the back burner. Basically I used Lent to increase my time spent devoted to God and being spiritual and all that stuff, but what I've found is the problem of waxing on at Ash Wednesday, and then waxing off on Easter. So, here's what I want to know:

What does it mean when "Christ is risen" ? Does it mean we can celebrate by being selfish again like we were before Lent started? I certainly hope not. I hope that rather we can celebrate rightly by acknowledging the significance of Easter, but instead of using Lent to merely take a pause from our former habits, we turn whatever disciplines we built up into a life-long habit.

2009 Holy Week Devotion

A few tidbits from this week:

I saw both The Passion of the Christ ["http://www.thepassionofthechrist.com/splash.htm"] and The Passion of Joshua the Jew ["http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809423854/info"] this week. I'd been meaning to see ["http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/another-year-of-good-friday-ponderings.html"] the former for a few years now, and my expectations were well-met. I'd heard that the movie was extremely graphic from several of my friends who saw it when it came out, and found a need for the immense gore and pain during my few years' separation from the drama that my churches provided while I was growing up. What's more, the film helped fill in quite a few logistic blanks that the Passions as outlined in the Gospels couldn't quite cover.

Speaking of Good Friday, I finally went to a service for the first time ["http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-good-friday-ponderings.html"] in three years. Even more so, I hadn't been to an Episcopal church since last summer, so I knew my reactions to my first return since then would be interesting. I elected to go to Ascension ["http://www.ascensionchicago.org/"], one of my favorite churches I've been to since the beginning of my first exile a little over five years ago. The music met my expectations, as I was sure it would, but what caught me by surprise was the reflections that came to me during the plentiful kneeling sessions before, during, and after the service.

In a word, said reflections had me realize a particular action that was taken on me back when I was six years old and how it would thereby affect my spiritual existence as of now. Given two things, 1.) I repeated kindergarten, and 2.) the stuff ["http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/finally-truth-or-part-of-it-as-to-how-i.html"] that happened at the church in which I grew up took place during my final year of high school; the following question came to mind: had I graduated from high school one year earlier, where would my journey have taken me? Would I have stayed within the denomination, within the religion itself in which I grew up? In the short term, I'm sure I would have said that this option would have done me much better (because I would have gone to St. Olaf, found an Episcopal church, and called it good). But in the longer term, it seems the path I am currently on is the only option.

It's kind of funny; yesterday marked the most holy day in the Christian calendar, and yet I am still surrounded by some doubts about who Jesus really was (or even, if he was). Some say he was a prophet, some say he was the Son of God, and some say he was God himself but also in human flesh (the whole "fully God and fully human" thing). I don't know how worthwhile it is to argue over these things, because it would seem much more efficient to just have God remind us again.

2009 Lenten Devo 3

I got off track for about a week... but I'm back. Here's my next quote:

___________________________________________

Troubled?

Then stay with me, for I'm not.

Lonely?

A thousand naked amorous ones dwell in ancient caves

Beneath my eyelids.

Riches?

Here's a pick,

My whole body is an emerald that begs,

"Take me."

Write all that worries you on a piece of parchment;

Offer it to God.

Even from the distance of a millennium

I can lean the flame in my heart

Into your life

And turn

All that frightens you

Into holy

Incense

Ash.

--Hafiz, "Troubled"

___________________________________________

Translation: Trust in God.

That was easy.

Until last week, when I somehow got away from it, I had been reading the Scriptures more, this time in the position of a sponge, getting more information and seeing what they say about things. A friend of mine had told me to read Proverbs 26 (I originally was guessing Isaiah or Jeremiah... I went and checked) a couple weeks ago. Basically this chapter talked about how not to waste one's energy on fools, people that will not get the message no matter how hard you try. It didn't exactly apply to me so much, as I don't really have to worry about "fools" so much right now, but more to this friend who teaches Latin and has had to deal with an insanely rough class all year. I've reread bits and pieces from the Gospels, taking particular note of the passage where Jesus offers his suggestion about telling other people when they're wrong ("take out the log in your eye first before taking out the speck in the other person's eye"). So true, and it's amazing how many people can't seem to figure this one out (they must be fools). There was one chapter in Sirach (chapter 30) that I had problems with, though. It talks about how a parent must discipline his children, and verse 12 exemplifies of what this chapter talks about ("bow down his neck in his youth, and beat his sides while he is young, or else he will become stubborn and disobey you, and you will have sorrow of soul from him"). The issue I have is that it directly contradicts research that has been made (and facts that have come out of it) concerning this very same thing. Sirach 30 assumes that children are mini-adults, and that children must be beaten. In fact, the contrary is true. It is actually better to nurture (could be translated as "spoil" in Biblical terms) a child than abuse [him], because of the psychological effects that would remain with this individual for the rest of [his] life. But then I skimmed through the rest of Sirach and realized that God doesn't have a quotation here. Hmm...

Some people say John (the Gospel of) is crazy. I say that's a possibility, but without him we don't get as blatantly the most important aspect of God's message (love). See John 3:16 for details.

Anyway, Lent is getting close to over. I don't know how well I've done during (I'll let God tell me whenever he feels like it). But it's kind of funny how, even though I've called myself a follower of God and a searcher of the Truth instead of a Christian, I still observe the 40-day ritual. Not that there's anything wrong with it.