I’m done with snow puns

On Friday/Saturday, DC received 25 inches of snow with open arms.  (Who doesn’t want a snow day?!)  But tomorrow, they’re calling for 10-20 more inches of snow, and Seaton Place hasn’t even really been plowed.  And honestly, the only thing worse than an overwhelming amount of snow is an overwhelming amount of snow puns.

Back in December, we received 16 inches of snow – enough to have a Monday off and label the whole event “Snowpocalpyse.”  And at the end of last week, as our most recent storm approached, there was almost just as much concern over what to call the storm as there was over buying milk and eggs and bread (just in case).  The winner seemed to be “Snomaggedon,” used by both The Washington Post, and our very own President Obama (or Snobama, if you prefer).  We suffered through many puns to finally settle on “Snowmageddon”; “It’s kind of a big deal,” says DC resident Allison Amphlett. 

While I typically love puns and stupid humor, these snow puns have really gone too far.  A few were clever.  Snow-my-god (abbrev. SnOMG), for example.  Now that’s good.  “Snow big deal.”  Not bad.  “Snow joke.”  Doable.  But as time went on, the puns stopped actually being a play on words, and the goal simply became to replace the first syllable of any word with “snow.”  “Snosanity.”  “Snogasm.”  “Snow gotta be kidding me!”  “Snowget about it!”  These are bad.  And just when I thought we were nearing the end, here comes another snow-pun storm!  Don’t worry – Capital Weather Gang is already taking a poll for what to call this next storm.  “Snowmageddon II?”  “Snoverkill?”  “Snowzilla?”  “Snowfecta?”  Snow thank you.  I mean, if we were just going to replace the first syllable of every word with one word…couldn’t we pick something funnier than snow?  Any ideas?

National The Saurus Day

On a lighter topic than my previous post, I’d like to wish you Happy National Thesaurus day!  It’s not every day we can praise, acclaim, commend, applaud, celebrate, and salute the English language for having so many words that mean the same thing.  So, I think you’ll forgive me for the abrupt, sudden change in emotion as we take a moment to remember why this day is important (that is…aside from the fact that it’s also MLK Jr. Day and National Winnie the Pooh Day).

My roommate Allison has been known over time by many different nicknames, including – but not limited to – Ally, Al, Addy, Nona, Nini, Pamphlet (to rhyme with last name Amphlett), Peanut, Tuna, and my favorite… Becky Home-Ecky.  While Tom and I tried many of these out for our first few weeks as housemates, none felt quite right until Allison enlightened and illuminated us: “Oh yeah…I forgot one other nickname.  Allisaurus Rex.”  Perhaps we were immediately drawn to this nickname because of Tom’s love for dinosaurs.  But after months of referring to Allison as “The Saurus,” I give thanks on this special day for how closely related “The Saurus” is to “thesaurus.”

And in all honesty, this couldn’t be more appropriate, suitable, befitting, felicitous, germane, and convenient.  The fact is… Allison “The Saurus” is basically a thesaurus herself!  While I pride myself in my ability to spell any word, I often look to The Saurus for definitions, explanations, and connections to similar, analogous, and comparable words.

Though Allisaurus Rex’s vast knowledge of cooking and other household duties is easily explained by her love for Home-Ec (I mean… Becky Home-Ecky is one of her nicknames…), it is unclear, elusive, nebulous, and uncertain as to how her expertise of words came to be.  Some have hypothesized that it may have to do with her undergraduate studies at the prestigious institution that overpopulates DC – Grinnell College in Iowa.  Others believe it is due to the fact that she read 52 books during her LVC year.  Still others speculate that her subscription and daily “skimming” of over 50 blogs may contribute to such a brain that thinks in terms of synonyms and pop culture trivia.  Still, the Allisaurus Rex is a mysterious creature whose intellectual origin remains largely unknown.

But on this day, National The Saurus Day, I give thanks.  I give thanks that when our internet is down, The Saurus can be my Google.  I give thanks that when I can spell a word but have no idea what it means, The Saurus serves as my Oxford Dictionary.  And I give thanks that when I am so overcome with emotions that I am left with no words, The Saurus will be there with countless, endless, incalculable, multitudinous words to use… free of charge, and faster than our wireless network.  Three cheers for Allisaurus Rex:

Hip hip… hooray!

Hip hip… hooray!

Hip hip… hooray!

We Remember You in Song

Sometimes large tragedies – even 100,000 dead in Haiti – don’t really strike home unless you personally know someone who has been killed.  This phenomenon has been on my mind all day.

We – the world – have received news today of the death of Ben Larson, a friend of mine from Luther, buried in the rubble of the devastation in Haiti.  Though I can imagine an easy-going Ben reassuring everyone that it was his time and we shouldn’t be too upset, this is clearly a huge loss to a wide-ranging community.  After a rough day at work, I came home hoping to scan through old Nordic photos and find some of Ben.  And while I did just that…

I came across an even greater treasure that I forgot I had!  When I was a sophomore at Luther, Ben was a senior, and the president of Nordic Choir.  Ben humbly (and hilariously) led his people by great example and a hearty presence.  Somehow, everything with Ben seemed fun, every concert worth giving, and every choir member worth loving.  It makes sense then, in retrospect, that I would have attended his senior chapel talk at Luther… and that I would have loved it.  And that I would have asked Ben to forward me a copy of it!  You’ll find below the inspiring words that Ben shared with us that day.  I hope this brings back as many good memories for you – whomever you are – as it did for me…

Luke 1:46
First of all I would like to thank the pastors for giving me the opportunity to speak here today- it is the perfect cap to a wonderful four years at this college.
Today I would like to share with all of you one of my deepest passions, and I’m sure it is no secret to most of you.  “Global Music.”  I have spent the last four years being very involved with leading music at this institution, and much of my involvement has been leading and performing Global music.  Now my goal here with this meditation today is to convince all of you that you too love global music, not only that you love it, but you can never again live without it.
My personal passion stems back to my childhood.  My mom was a music leader at the first global mission event in the ELCA.  The first song I really have a memory of singing in church is “We are marching in the light of God.”  Shaking pop cans filled with rice and clapping along with our small church in the middle of Iowan countryside.  And yes, Norwegians can dance and sing.
The second major impact from my childhood was the “Freedom is Coming” album, which is an album made by a small group of Swedish missionary types who recorded a bunch of South African songs that were sung in freedom marches during apartheid.
My third global music impact from my childhood was Paul Simon’s Graceland Album that he made in South Africa during apartheid.
Because of these influences, African music has always been a part of my musical world, and I feel it has done nothing but completely enrich my faith and my worship experiences.
Now just like my call to spread the Gospel I have always felt a call to spread this music because I believe it does have so much to offer.
The diversity in songs when the entire body of Christ is represented can bring a forgotten presence to worship.  That presence is solidarity.  I cannot think of anytime when I was severely oppressed, but singing the South African song Bambelayla, meaning “never give up,” which we have sung many times in chapel, reminds me that part of the body of Christ is living in a life style where the gospel gives them the hope and inspiration to never give up.  These words “Never give up” are the only text in the whole song, but given the context and the story behind the music, there is a powerful idea of God presented.  It is the idea that God is present in struggle.  Global music like this reminds me of the suffering in the body along with the power of the gospel amidst suffering.  Singing Global music provides the congregation with more diverse ideas of God than any single culture can provide.  Using the music of the world to sing to God creates a healthier and more powerful vision of the Body of Christ.  When Jesus comes again it will not be a uni-lingual event.
My next point for why we are in need of singing a global song in our worship can best be expressed by a story from choir tour.
Once upon a J-break, I was touring with the Nordic Choir.  It was Sunday morning and there was no service.  I was feeling a little empty because I had not missed a Sunday morning worship service since Nordic Tour the year before.  So I took a page out of my parent’s book to hold a fun little worship service on the bus.
I was putting together this worship service when I ran into a serious problem.  What are we going sing?  After all, music is second only to the word according to Luther and this bus is filled with musicians- we couldn’t worship without song.  So I tried to think of songs everyone could sing together.  Wrong context for the Doxology.  Amazing grace? Overdone.  Jesus loves me? Too childish.  How about simple camp songs?  Hey, these are good musicians with standards.  I wasn’t going to get this bus excited about singing camp songs written for kids.  What was I going to do?  I realized at this moment that our church has a problem, a huge void in our worship music.  Without an LBW, WOV or PowerPoint technology we are at a loss for songs.  And this is not acceptable.
In our gospel text, when Mary found out that God was to become human and squeeze out of her and become a powerless infant that can’t even lift its own head, in a family at the bottom of the power chain she was ready to burst, in two different ways.  She did not have time to find the organist and track down an LBW- she was going to sing right now, full throat, because she could do no other.  That is when she sang the Magnificat.
My situation on the bus may have been a little less dramatic, but the idea is the same.  We needed spontaneous song.  However, unlike Mary, our song was to be communal.  This is where these African songs that I have loved my whole life come into play.  Many of them are written spontaneously with intentions of being communal.
Now it is dangerous and wrong to say that Christians or even Lutherans lack this spontaneous music because it is just not true.  We just lack them in our context right here right now.  What I have just recently come to realize is that when we are singing global songs, we are not singing “their” songs, we are singing “our” songs.  They are coming from different geographical areas, but they come out of the body that we all belong to.  They are our songs because there is no longer Jew nor Greek, servant or free, woman or man – we are all one in Christ Jesus.  And this is how I know.
When I taught the first global song to Bus 1 on Nordic Tour, it captivated all of us.  What happened after that is exactly what this meditation is all about.  We took ownership of it.  It was not “their” song, it became “our” song.  Not stealing it from those who wrote it but joining in community with those who wrote it.  It became a bridge across the body of Christ.  It became the song that we sang every time we felt the need as a choir to burst into song.  We used it after devos, before concerts, after concerts, during devos.  It fulfilled our place for spontaneous song.
I truly, with every bone in my body, believe that if we allow it to, global music can bring to life spontaneous singing in our church here in America, Iowa, and here at Luther College.  If we are going to be overcome with sudden joy as Mary was and need to burst out into song, and if we are going to do this as an entire cloud of witnesses, then it is time that we learned this music from part of the cloud that will help us all celebrate the good news in all situations, spontaneously.
So now I want to invite some of my Nordic friends as well as some of my norsemen friends to come up here because we are feeling the need for spontaneous song right now, and we would like you all to join us in this song:

Many of us remember the “Hallelujahs” we sang to support the good word that Rev Larson shared.  Let us continue to remember Ben in song, spreading the love of music – spontaneously inspired music – to everyone.  Here’s to Nordic Choir – past, present, and future, and to all the emotions music has allowed me to feel and share.

The (Not) Fun of Snow

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I’ve been feeling quite lethargic as of late, which I suppose explains my brief hiatus from blogging.  I think my body is wired all wrong.  When I’m really busy, I have the desire to do more and be more productive.  But when it’s cold and snowy outside and I have nothing to do, I roll around the living room complaining that I’m bored and have nothing to do… seriously – ask my housemates.

It has been a relatively chill (pun intended) past month here in DC.  On December 19th, the district was hit with about 16 inches of snow.  The photo below (not mine, unfortunately) gives a good example of how covered we really were.  Now, just to get this straight, DC is not used to this kind of weather.  I learned quickly that DC’s inexperience with snow has both fun and not fun results.

The fun of snow:

• everything gets shut down!
• the Federal government closes = my office closes
• people go crazy creating snow figures
• thanks to Twitter, the people of DC organize a 200-person snowball fight at 14th and U Sts.

The not fun of snow:

• everything gets shut down.  AND people stock up on things like milk and eggs from the grocery store – just in case.  So not only can you not trek to McDonald’s for dinner, you can’t even pick up some milk from the store.
• if the Fed’s not closed, we’re not closed… And unfortunately, it takes the city days to really clear the roads, and weeks to let the snow/ice on the sidewalks melt, which makes trekking to work a miserable experience.
• people go crazy in general.  My housemates and I listened to the sounds of spinning tires as people attempted to drive in this weather.  DC drivers are already dangerous…the added weather conditions multiply this x1,000.
• Unfortunately, the snowball fight was interrupted when a car was hit by a snowball, halting to a stop, and the driver emerged with a GUN.  Turns out it was an undercover cop.  GREAT.  The police ruin all the fun, once again.

In all seriousness, I did learn a few things about the effects of snow on that wintry weekend.  Amidst my enjoying a day off of work and rolling around my house bored, I attended church with a small (but mighty!) crowd.  During a time of prayer, some of the prayers that were offered by the community really got me thinking beyond myself: we pray for all those travelling in this weather, we pray for those who did work today in social service agencies that must remain open, we pray for those who didn’t have to work but really needed the day’s pay, we pray for all those sleeping outside in this weather, we pray for those who were unable to meet their daily needs because of closings.

Turns out that a snow day is not always a welcome guest.  Here I was, thrilled with a day off of work… but also comforted by a roof over my head, food in my fridge (barely), and enough money in my bank account to not think once about lost pay due to snow.

There’s a wintry weather advisory out for DC for tomorrow.  My first reaction is that I don’t believe anything will actually happen… at least not enough to matter.  But my second reaction has changed from “I hope something DOES happen so I can have a fun snow day!” to the hope that the community can have a safe and warm New Years Eve, in spite of the weather.  After all, wild New Years Eve parties and freezing rain don’t mix well…

Vocation Is

Vocation is a scary word.  I don’t think I ever heard it until orientation during my freshman year of college, and then suddenly, we were bombarded with questions such as, “Who am I?”  “Where am I going?”  “Why am I here?”  I mostly shrugged them off.  It was clear to me that I was Amanda Weber, going to classes to learn about stuff.

Since that day, now 5 years ago, I have heard “vocation” defined and redefined, torn apart and jumbled back together in more ways than I knew were possible.  One such voice said that vocation is where your greatest gifts meet the world’s greatest needs.  She said that rather than being selfish or completely selfless, vocation was finding self among others.  Perhaps my favorite explanation of vocation comes from Jerry Johnson – one of my college supervisors – who said that vocation is “finding a better job.”  You get a job, he said, you figure out what you like and don’t like about it, and then you find a better job.  The process never stops – vocation is perhaps just as essential to your every day as brushing your teeth.

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to attend a retreat in Minneapolis through the Volunteers Exploring Vocation (VEV) program of the Fund for Theological Education (FTE).  Not only did this present me with a lot of intimidating acronyms, but the retreat also provided the time and space for reflection on the word I’ve felt myself running from for the last several years.  30 former volunteers were gathered for four days to process our volunteer year together – some from Lutheran Volunteer Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Mennonite Volunteer Services, and plenty of others.  What has happened to us in the last year, and perhaps more importantly, what does it mean for us now as we go forward?  And lest we forget – where is God in all of this??

I wish I could say that I left the retreat with a clear idea of what my vocation is.  One of the wonderful opportunities I had during my time in Minneapolis was to participate in a Quaker Clearness Committee.  This was a new concept to me, and one that I was quickly excited about!  Clearness committees are a discernment approach in the Quaker tradition where a focus person presents a problem/conflict/question to a supportive group of about 5 people.  Generally, this is quite a formal process.  The focus person would write a statement of concern and send it to selected mentors/friends along with an invitation to join the clearness committee.  Whoever accepts becomes a part of a process that may take days, weeks, or even months as the group helps the focus person with their issue.  The interesting thing, however, is that the clearness committee is not allowed to give any advice, but only to ask questions.  These sessions are designed to help the focus person find his or her own inner guidance on the question at hand.  I was asked what I would like my role to be in a Quaker Clearness Committee session at our retreat, and I offered to be a focus person.  I figured I had plenty of problems that I needed help solving.  My problem/conflict/question that I presented to my small group was:  Should I go to graduate school for conducting next fall?  Now, what I’d really like is just for someone to tell me yes or no.  But the beauty (and challenge) of this exercise is that I still have to answer my own question – alone.  My group did a wonderful job at presenting me (and sometimes bombarding me) with prodding questions for an hour.  What are your fears if you DO go to grad school in the fall?  What are your fears if you DON’T?  Why do you want to go to grad school at all?  Are there other places you can find what you’re looking for at grad school?  Do you feel like your current job and community are challenging you intellectually?

In most Quaker Clearness Committees, you meet as many times as needed until the focus person feels their issue has been addressed.  We limited ours to an hour, just to give us a taste of what was a new activity to almost all of us.  That’s probably a good thing, because frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever have this vocation thing figured out, and my poor Quaker Clearness Committee would accompany me to my grave.  I left that session feeling both refreshed and overloaded.  So I’m sure you’re wondering…how did I resolve this conflict?  Well, I didn’t apply to grad school.  And that’s basically it.  It’s not that I didn’t want to, I just wasn’t spending my free time on applications, and I wasn’t too bothered by it either.  I suppose that says something, though I’m not entirely sure what.  And I still don’t know what that means for me once this year is up… I’ll have to organize another Quaker Clearness Committee and get back to you…

Some Good Comes Out of Hickory

In spite of the many southerners in Hickory, NC that are “hard up” for employment and other good fortune, Hickory-ite Jeffrey Weber stands alongside such successful citizens as Katie Holmes.

 

No really, he’s standing beside her.

While the rest of Hickory wasted their time getting into the furniture and textile businesses, Weber had enough sense to know that the future of this world lies in the movie industry and other pop culture.  Just a few movies away from being in the Director’s Guild, Weber’s jobs on 14 productions are just the start of what proves to be a successful career.  His 14th movie – “The Romantics” – features Katie Holmes and Elijah Wood, holding just enough fame to ensure that Weber will have the most exciting stories to share of anyone at his 10-year high school reunion.  Take that, St. Stephens.

The H-k-y Featured in the Washington Post

Well shoot.  My small-ish hometown of Hickory, NC is finally featured in the Washington Post…but this, my friends, is NOT good news.  No, similar to a good 80% of all stories in big papers around the US at this point in time, Hickory shows up in yet another article about unemployment in the economic crisis.

Just as musical wonder Wesley Willis ends each song with a motto (“Wheaties – breakfast of champions”), I have spent the last 12 years of my life marketing Hickory as the “furniture capital of the world.”  Well, the Post – in too many words, I might add – basically conveys to the reader in this article that China has taken all of the worth out of Hickory and the surrounding area.  What’s left is an unemployment rate of 15%, vacant textile mills and furniture factories, and still far too many restaurants and steakhouses per capita.

And that’s it.  My tagline for Hickory is irrelevant.  Perhaps I could say something like: “Hickory – WAS the freakin furniture capital of the world until China thought they could do it better.”  Just doesn’t have quite the same ring…  The tagline is gone, the jobs are gone, and the people are CONFUSED.  The Post’s article is sprinkled with what must be the best quotes they could muster up from Hickory’s finest:

“Now what is everyone supposed to do?”

“The people in the think tanks keep saying we are going to become — what’s the term? — an ‘information and services’ economy… That doesn’t seem to be working out too good.”

“At my age, I didn’t want to go back to school… But I looked around and everything was $8, $9, $10 an hour. I said, ‘Hell, I’m worth more than that.’ “

“I wish they’d just flush the whole NAFTA idea and tell all the other countries the heck with you.”

And of course, my favorite…

“We don’t want to lose our home… I’m just not seeing where the jobs are.”

Someone needs to tell this poor lady that there are no jobs.  Anywhere.  (Except, maybe, North Dakota…)  Poor Hickory.  Poor, poor Hickory.  People are feeling good about the supposed “end” of this economic crisis, but as the resident pessimist, I feel as though it is my job to let you know that we are nowhere near the end.  N Street Village is seeing an increase in numbers of homeless women almost daily, and pretty soon, it sounds like there will be a great job market for me to work with the homeless back in Hickory.  <sigh>

To read the article for yourself, click here.

Vaseline for Halloween

This Halloween, if you want to please everyone, you should probably just hand out little tubs of Vaseline.  Why, you might ask?  Well, after consulting with the Emmaus House (one of the LVC houses) this evening, I learned that Vaseline – or petroleum jelly – has an incredible number of uses.  I’ve included a list below of some of my favorites:

• skin cream to keep away those wrinkles – petroleum jelly is approved by the FDA as an over-the-counter skin protectant
• chapstick – a constant necessity
• makeup remover – doesn’t sting the eyes, which is a big plus!
• speaking of remover…can remove stains from furniture
• may as well be sunscreen
• good for bike chains or other WD-40-type needs
• and of course, let’s not forget Vaseline as a “personal lubricant,” though it is not to be used with condoms, as it negatively reacts to latex

And of course, if the above suggestions weren’t useful enough, here are a few more of the oh-so-strange ways that Vaseline can be incredibly useful:

• according to Wikipedia, “when used in a 50/50 mixture with pure beeswax, it makes an effective moustache wax”
• useful for a smoother experience of completing the Rubik’s Cube, greasing up the joints
• for use by long distance (typically male) runners to prevent their nipples from chapping/bleeding from their shirt rubbing their chest over time
• used to spread on teeth in order to force someone to smile (common in beauty pageants and gymnastics)
• as a pumpkin sealer after a freshly carved Halloween pumpkin – the petroleum jelly will keep the pumpkin edges from shriveling so quickly

Despite all of these incredibly versatile uses of our favorite kind of jelly, Wikipedia (a highly regarded source!) warns that “its folkloric medicinal value as a ‘cure-all’ has since been limited by better scientific understanding of appropriate and inappropriate uses.”  Believe it or not, there are inappropriate ways to use Vaseline:

• a common mistake, Vaseline should not be used for burns of any kind, not even sunburn, as it traps heat
• inhaling Vaseline as an attempt to cure nasal congestion will only give you more problems, like lipid pneumonia
• again, petroleum jelly + latex = a ruptured condom = not what you want

The other downfall that we must remember is that petroleum jelly is made from a non-renewable resource, which in and of itself is a problem.  Lucky for us, the Green Movement is (once again) one step ahead, creating hybrid petroleums that mix a low percentage of petroleum with a high percentage of renewable oils such as vegetable oils and waxes.  Check out igicares.com for your more environmentally friendly personal care items.

What more can I say about Vaseline??  Nothing, really.  So I’ll leave you with a joke:

A man doing market research knocked on a door and was greeted by a young woman with three small children running around at her feet. He said, “I’m doing some research for Vaseline. Have you ever used the product?”

She said, “Yes. My husband and I use it all the time.”

“And if you don’t mind me asking, what do you use it for?”

“We use it for sex.” The researcher was a little taken aback. He said, “Usually people lie to me and say that they use it on a child’s bicycle chain or to help with a gate hinge. But, in fact, I know that most people do use it for sex. I admire you for your honesty. Since you’ve been frank so far, can you tell me exactly how you use it for sex?”

The woman said, “I don’t mind telling you at all. My husband and I put it on the door knob and it keeps the kids out.”

Happy Halloween…

Rock n Mole

Contrary to what my housemate Allison thinks, you can only blog about Mole Day once a year, and today’s the day!  Happy Mole Day, everyone.  Now if anything from my highschool education stuck with me, it was that the unit of measurement called a “mole” is 6.02 x 10^23.  It sure wasn’t my chemistry teacher that taught me this… no, I only remember her for being one of the worst teachers of my life.  Rather, it was the Mole Day celebrations we had that won me about 40 points of extra credit starting at 6:02 in the morning on 10/23 my junior year of high school that really impacted my learning.

In order to gain extra credit, my friends Jesse and Katie and I made Mole Day shirts (Moles with Soul…Rock n Mole!) and wrote “The Mole Song.”  The song was debuted in our Chemistry class, but shortly thereafter was performed in many classes including Mr. Stuckey’s biology class and Mrs. Haunton’s English class.  2004 graduates from St. Stephen’s High School in Hickory, NC may remember this song as one of the finest, most fly songs they have ever heard.  The witty lyrics and catchy tune are not to be forgotten.

While I wish I could perform it for you right NOW, the lyrics will have to do:

Well I’m not some government agent spy
Not CIA or FBI
And I’m not a gopher living in hole!
Well Groundhog Day just ain’t my place
And I’m not a spot upon your face…
Yes you know that I’m not that kind of mole!!

Six point oh two times ten to the twenty-third
Is all I’m worth or so I’ve heard…
At least the scientists believe it’s true!
Well you know Avogadro’s Constant
Is the particles in the mole of a substance-

Tell me please how many moles are you?!

The amount of atoms in 12 grams
Of carbon 12 is what I am.
That is what the chemists all decided.
An element’s mass in amu
Is the number of grams in a mole of that too-
Raise your hands and yell if you’re excited!

We are all just particles
We are all just lonely souls
We are all just particles
We are all a bunch of moles…

May your Mole Day be merry and bright!  Peace to all…

a new hobby

Mural painting.  I was an art major in college, but I have NO experience painting murals.  Until now.  Unfortunately, it’s not really the kind of hobby you can practice!  When Pastor Karen came to me with the idea of painting St. Francis on the door of Luther Place Church, I must be honest and say that I freaked out.  It seemed all too risky for my first ever mural to be on the old front door of a center-city church that’s on the National Register of Historic Places!  But PK pushed me and said it was a risk that she would like me to take, so I did.  A few weeks later, my first mural is complete, with all of the good and all of the bad, and I’ve learned many things.  I learned artistic techniques and logistics, sure, and I developed a newfound love and respect for murals around the city, but perhaps most importantly, I developed some sort of reverence for St. Francis, as he gradually came to life on what was originally a piece of plywood.

Before I began, I asked PK what she was envisioning.  Was there anything specific she had in mind, or was I on my own to interpret said mural as I pleased?  Pastor Karen’s response seemed feasible…at first.  “You can do whatever you’d like.”  Sigh of relief.  “But it must be whimsical, memorable, and distinctive.”  Ahh!  No pressure!  A sketch finally resulted after days of reading stories about St. Francis and praying his many prayers each morning.  I’m generally inspired by words, and I got stuck on a few that quickly became my favorite.  St. Francis, while walking with a few of his compatriots, said: “Wait here while I go preach to my sisters, the birds.”  I couldn’t help but smile while picturing this scene and remembering several distinct moments during my LVC year when a fellow LVCer would essentially say to me, “Wait here while I greet every dog that walks by.”  At the time, I thought he was ridiculous…an embarrassment to say the least!  But the more I thought about St. Francis loving each and every creature – even the smallest of birds, the more I realized how much beauty the rest of us are missing.  In an urban setting like Washington, DC, it is easy to take one glance at the pigeons, the rats, the dogs, and curse them for making a mess of our home, our creation.  But as Christa, one of my LVC housemates, challenged us last year during a spirituality night, why should we value ourselves as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?

It’s been over a week now since the St. Francis mural was “unveiled,” and I’ve already painted on one wall in my office and am making plans for the others!  The peace that St. Francis brings even to every pigeon reminds me to look more deeply and listen more carefully to all that is happening around me, and to take every chance I get to help a blank wall or canvas mature into color and shape, sound and feeling.  (see www.lutherplace.org for another article on the mural)