Friday 5 Tourist Edition

Over on the RevGals, Reverendmother blogged,

I am downtown on retreat this week. Most of the retreatants are from out of town, so I get to experience this place through the eyes of visitors,

and asked these extremely appealing five:

In the spirit of tourism:

1. What is one place you make sure to take out-of-town guests when they visit? (you can be vague to preserve your anonymity if you like)

If they're willing, Tijuana—I love visiting TJ! Then, the obligatory trinity: SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

2. When visiting another city or town, do you try to cram as much in as possible, or take it slow and easy?

In an actual city, it's crammin' time, but if I've been there before I'll revisit my favorites besides taking in a few unfamiliar ones. When I'm visiting a more rural or bucolic area such as beach, desert or mountains, I *try hard* to relax and be relatively slow and easy.

3. When traveling, where are we most likely to find you: strolling through a museum, checking out the local shopping, or _________________?

Always the museums, places where history happened and characteristic food; when I'll be there on a Sunday deciding where I'll worship is an important challenge, and given a choice, I try to find a church that has an outstanding organ and music program. I guess that means I stay stuck in the Protestant and Roman Catholic mainline?!!

4. Do you like organized tours and/or carefully planned itineraries, or would you rather strike out and just see what happens?

I enjoy planning my own semi-random, partly-intentional itinerary, though admittedly there have many a few times I've returned home and discovered that way I've omitted a few choice spots.

5. After an extended trip, what do you find yourself craving most about home?

Compulsively clean clothes, and an extensive choice thereof.

What Element Moves my Spirit?

Once again I'm doing something other than what I need to be doing! This one really was hard--I went back and took it again, changing the answers I'd had trouble choosing, but the results were similar both times:

What Element Moves Your Spirit? Your Result: Spirit Your Spirit is moved by the Element of Spirit. You feel a stronger connection to a Greater Spirit than to any particular aspect of it. Your head is often in the clouds, but you usually get a good view from up there.
Fire
Earth
Air
Water
What Element Moves Your Spirit?

take 2:

What Element Moves Your Spirit? Your Result: Spirit Your Spirit is moved by the Element of Spirit. You feel a stronger connection to a Greater Spirit than to any particular aspect of it. Your head is often in the clouds, but you usually get a good view from up there.
Earth
Air
Fire
Water
What Element Moves Your Spirit?

Changes Friday 5

From the RevGals, here's February's First Friday Five.

Many of the RevGals using Blogger are experiencing some chaos this week as they move from Old Blogger to New Blogger. (Is that anything like New Coke?) Change is a given in life, yet it's not easy for any of us. So strap on your seat belts and let's talk about it:

1. Share, if you wish, the biggest change you experienced this past year.

A change I haven't done and won't do until Blogger forces me, is moving to Notorious New, out-of-Beta Blogger.

I don't know about the biggest change from this past year, but amid continuing crazinesses, some happy changes to my immediate ambient environment include finally getting the guest bedroom painted by a friend and getting the rest of the painted furniture repainted by me. Some of the furniture is from my grandparents' house and some is from yard sales; the colors are many and altogether very pleasing to the the artist/designer in me.

2. Talk about a time you changed your mind about something, important or not.

Briefly, after a too-long string of times life happened, twice I asked myself if I wanted to finish the last MDiv year and both times decided not to. Right now I don't want to say more in this public setting, but despite everything, I'm convinced I made the correct decision.

3. Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a controversial book called "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Setting aside his ideas—what kind of changes would you like to see in the Church?

Almost four years ago when I was participating in an online book discussion of Kosuke Koyama's Water Buffalo Theology, I listed some challenges that might lead to changes in the church with Ten Theological Issues; without rethinking or even rereading that list, I'll say the increasing clericalization and professionalization of the Protestant Mainline dismays me, as does the way people let doctrinal differences and distinctions distract them from the Way of Jesus Christ. The church needs to learn different styles of being Christian and doing Church doing without conceding to entertainment worship or new-age preaching, to live in the Freedom of Resurrection rather than the chains of death.

4. Have you changed your hairstyle/hair color in the last five years? If so, how many times?

Slightly—trying to decide how to approach that natural change-of-color thing, I've tried highlights and all-over color and combinations of both. About style, I've always been happy my hair is naturally straight and I've again realized it needs to stay long enough to tie or clip up off my neck, esp during warm weather, so I generally get it trimmed no more than an inch each time.

5. What WERE they thinking with that New Coke thing?

Maybe the same thing some of us think when something we do or an aspect of our style has been working well, but we imagine we're stuck in a rut and will get more attention and better response if we change it to something else, maybe just to be different and more noticeable? I don't know, really I do not know about that old New Coke thing. I didn't affect me because I've always preferred diet drinks and probably couldn't have discerned any difference.

only 40% strange

Here are the results from another one of the quizzes I took a few days ago and finally decided to blog; for some reason, the line on the chart that indicates the degree of whatever isn't showing on the last few.

You Are 40% Strange!

You are a bit strange, though still more normal than strange. You definitely have some quirks, don't get me wrong. But you aren't exactly freaking out old ladies on the street. It's okay though, you've got a healthy mixture of strangeness and normality.

How Strange Are You?
Quizzes for your blog

Theological Worldview

Mother Laura over on Junia's Daughter led me to this quiz, which was fun, but I needed to discuss most of my resposnes! Of course, at this very moment I'm *supposed* to be developing my Theology of the Cross course...these results are amazingly accurate, though of course not quite perfect.

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

I do not care for the way the results posted on my original blog, so here are my results without the graphs:

Emergent/Postmodern 75%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71%

Roman Catholic 61%

Neo orthodox 61%

Charismatic/Pentecostal 57%

Classical Liberal 50%

Modern Liberal 46%

Reformed Evangelical 32%

Fundamentalist 0%

What's your theological worldview?

weeds.

"Weeds have a high tolerance for environmental conditions and the rare ability to exploit recently disturbed territory."

"What does this mean?" (Hey, does that sound Luther to any of you?) In the cartoon or book, or whatever, the Peanuts character replies,

"You can roll with the punches!"

I've written this into at least one of my old Commonplace Books and wish I had the original Peanuts cartoon or Charlie Brown book I found it in. Yep, this is me and has been forever, greatly to my advantage and much to my disadvantage!

PS Did anyone notice I've been indicating Georgia as the font in most of my recent blogs? When I showed it to Judy and told her how much I liked it, she told me it was "friendly!" and I agree completely.

Colossians 1:17

Friday Five: Renewal

For today’s Renewal Friday Five, logically I’m back on my testimony blog.

List four ways you like to relax or give yourself a break. Then name a fifth, something you've never been able to do, a self-care dream.

I am very tired, depleted, needing renewal and needing resurrection, but feeling very enthusiastic about playing today! This is the Short List, since I easily could extend it to a couple dozen items.

1. Visiting the Arizona side of the Sonoran desert. As much as I love the seashore, ocean and beach and as passionate as I am about the city - almost any city - just like the cross of Jesus Christ, there is something about the desert that strips me bare, revives and renews me like nothing else!
2. Talking and sharing a meal with friends or a friend; church or (other) community dinners and potlucks are a close second.
3. Walking along the beach, in almost any weather, barefoot whenever possible. In cooler weather I especially enjoy the process of dressing warmly in anticipation of my beach trek.
4. Reading theology and writing theology—really! I think theologically close to 24/7, and why wouldn’t I do that if it weren’t energizing and fun?!
5. My self-care dream: Learning to be alone with myself to dream, imagine and to revel in solitude. Maybe some day that’ll happen?!

99% Lutheran!

Oh, I am so happy and this is most certainly true!!! Post State of the Union speech, I just took a bunch of goto quizzes, including this one, "How Lutheran are you?" What questions did I miss? Most likely one of the worship book questions since I don't fellowship with ELS or WELS folk (ummm, I just don't know any WELS or ELS people), or possibly my answer to the names of ML's parents wasn't correct. This works, though!

You are 99% Lutheran! This is most certainly true.

Nicely done! Martin would be proud of you! You may or may not have room for growth in understanding Lutheran terminology and culture. Good thing Salvation is by Grace and not by merit. We can add nothing to what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. But it never hurts to learn a little more about the church on earth. Thanks for taking the quiz!

How Lutheran Are You?
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I'd rather be

I got this great blog idea from another RevGal, Deb, on
Another unfinished symphony.

I'd rather be...but first, at the moment I'm in the Mac lab where I've been since 7:00 trying to work on some design stuff and realizing I need to leave at break time, 9:30, because at least two of my other lives are beckoning me big-time.

I'd Rather Be:

1. At home painting or refinishing another piece of furniture. I am so proud of myself, because late yesterday afternoon - the MLK holiday - I spontaneously decided to paint the old 3-shelf, probably handmade bookcase that had been in my grandparents' house. It was the only thing remaining that really needed painting, and I used the lavender paint left over from the guest bedroom accessories. (Guest BR now has 2 pale blue walls and 2 pale green.) This bookcase is in the LR, which I've designated as my desert-garden-beach/seashore room, and the lavender picks up on one of the colors in the picture handing above it. About refinishing, I need to do the dresser in my bedroom and the low, long coffee table in the living room; both of those are from my grandparents' house, too. They contracted with someone to make the table from the rosewood top of the old square piano that was in the house when they bought it.

2. Working out more style on "Hymn to Freedom," which I'll be playing on the piano during Sunday worship during February for Black History month.

3. Having a tasty, savory lunch or breakfast or dinner with a friend while yackin' away about my life and listening about theirs.

3. Cuddling with a Cat.

That has to be my list for now; maybe I'll make another one later.

PS in the evening: this isn't another list, but an addition: the all-lavender bookcase turned out to be all-too-lavender, so I'm color blocking it with light green left over from the guest BR.

PPS The text colors I used don't match the paint colors, but I wanted something approximate that would show up on the blog page.

What's My Accent?

Several RGBPs have posted this on their blogs, so I decided to take the test. Did the results surprise me? Yes, a little, though I'd sort of agree with "no accent." But the "Southern Ohio" suggestion does not ring true, since my once Cincinnati-based cousins had a distinctive what they called Ohio Valley Twang. I've heard myself on TV, tape and DVD and I do not sound like they do! Really! Believe me!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. [My addition: maybe for preaching and teaching, too?]
The West
The South
Boston
The Northeast
The Inland North
Philadelphia
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Friday 5: birthdays

Today I’m playing on my testimony blog again—yep, birthdays are about God’s gracious action in my life! Again, too, I’m kinda swamped by the demands of my other lives, so my answers aren’t especially innovative though I like this topic a lot.

Yours truly had a birthday this week, and while we've done the birthday thing before, I'm going to do my best to come up with new questions...

1. "It's my party and I'll [blank] if I want to..."
Favorite way to celebrate your birthday (dinner with family? party with friends? a day in solitude?)

Food!! FOOD!!!!! Food...anything but solitude! Dinner at someone’s home or in a restaurant is my favorite; a medium-sized party is my second choice.

2. "You say it's your birthday... it's my birthday too, yeah..."
Do you share your birthday with someone famous? (Click here to find out!)

The utterly obnoxious site, which took forever to load with a very fast connection, listed a dozen, all guys with one exception, but Federico Fellini, Buzz Aldrin and George Burns were the only ones I’d ever hear of—both different years from mine, though.

3. "Lordy Lordy look who's forty..."
Milestone birthdays:
a) just like any other birthday—they're just numbers, people.
b) a good opportunity to look back/take stock
c) enjoy the black balloons—I'll be hiding under a pile of coats until the day is over
d) some combination of the above, or something else entirely.

My usual choice is a strong a.

4. "Happy birthday, dear... Customer..."
Have you ever been sung to in a restaurant? Fun or cringe-worthy?

Yes, at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor, a local San Diego ice cream shop chain that totally closed a few months ago. It was totally fun! A group from the Monday evening women’s bible study group I hosted at my home and sometimes facilitated sort of kidnapped me. The parallel guy’s study group joined us at the restaurant. For my friends the kicker had to be the fact my sundae was free!!!!!

On that typically always there other hand, though, shortly after I’d gone on staff of a church I served, a woman in the congregation I considered a friend invited me to dinner at her house and when I got there it was a surprise party, to which I did not take graciously. I’ve always tried my best to not participate in any surprise party plans, but occasionally I’ve had little choice.

5. "Take my birthday—please"
Tell me one advantage and one disadvantage about your particular birthday (e.g. birthday in the summer—never had to go to school; birthday near Christmas—the dreaded joint presents)

EDITED TO ADD: This could also simply be something you like/dislike about your birthday (e.g. I like sharing a birthday with my best friend, etc.).

A winter birthday is cool, and end of January works pretty well since in general I’ve had to attend school on my birthday and can tell people about it, and when I’m working in a reasonably structured environment rather than my current basic free-lancing, I’ve never been taking my winter vacation time at that time. BTW, I’m delighted when people remember my birthday and don’t especially care when they don’t, but I always do something for myself to celebrate the Great Day! PS Ideally my birthday would be in July or early August, since I adore summer.