Tending to Your Spirituality

The spiritual direction group at BMPC has been practicing the discipline of paying attention and let's just say, the Spirit has been very busy with this bunch! The Spirit has done some amazing things both individually and collectively within this group. Rarely do we leave our time together without being touched or changed in some way. This is a committed, respectful group of individuals who are ready and willing to pay attention to what God is already doing in their lives and integrating what they learn into their everyday lives.
We meet once per month, in the evening, for two hours. We begin with prayer and a “check-in” followed by a guided meditation. We then share what we notice during the meditation and respond to God's invitation. Each one of us usually leaves with a next step to try before the next session. Right now, we are being guided to seek more deeply the meaning of having a human body. One of the questions we have been discerning together as a group entails the image of a house. What kind of house are you?, we ask each other. Are you a big, fancy, shiny new construction on the outside but lacking a solid foundation? Or perhaps, you describe yourself as a house in desperate need of a Spring cleaning or some shiny new windows to invite new insights and perspectives?

Whatever the case, God continues to shape and mold each one of us in this group in a way we could never have imagined on our own. And hopefully, our pilgrimage is bringing us closer and closer to the cross, working with God in tandem rather than isolated and alone.

So why all this naval gazing when there are so many fires in the world to put out? Because we are human, that's why! Just like person(ality) and sexu(ality) make us unique, so does our spiritu(ality). How God connects to one person may be very different from how God connects to another person, making it quite personal. Therefore, one kind of spirituality fits all does not an effective individual or firefighter, for that matter, make. If putting out fires is important to you (and boy are there a lot of fires in our world today), how do you know where to start? Perhaps, you don't start at all because it's too overwhelming or you're immobilized with anxiety or guilt for not trying? Or maybe, you start doing something about a particular fire but lose steam because you aren’t making any measurable progress?

This is where spirituality may be of help because it's about paying attention to your personal road map instead of the panic that surrounds you. So much to do, so little time, not the most affective way to live! It's about listening to your unique experience of life and noticing God’s presence within that context. Besides, what do you have to lose? Those fires aren't going anywhere! There's a saying, "too many cooks in the kitchen", so what if you allowed God to be the master chef and yourself the sous-chef? Perhaps, life would flow more smoothly that way? Plus with all those fires out there, wouldn't it be nice to take some time to discern what your actual role may be instead of anxiously grabbing for the nearest fire extinguisher? Anyway, something to ponder.

Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup
by Greg Snow

2 lbs split green peas

4 ham shanks (make certain they are smoked)

1 huge onion

2 cups celery with leaves

1 cup carrots

6 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt to taste

Shank vs. Hock

I love soup and soup loves me right back, but there's a schism out in the culinary world that we must address before we continue. That of course is the use of smoked pork joints. If you're making baked beans, ham hocks are the best thing since the first shabbos goy tackled a pig, and ate it. But if you need porky, hammy, meaty, yummy-ness to float in your soup, then it's the ham shank you've been searching for all your life.

The night before:

If the bag of split peas that you bought reads, "soak and rinse," then do it for crying out loud. Cover with about 20 cups of water in a big pot or slow cooker. Chuck in the shanks. Simmer for hours and hours, overnight even, but at least 3 hours. The house will smell amazing. Remove from heat and let cool. The peas will be green goo and the shanks will fall apart.

Some people out there instruct us, at this stage, to chill the soup so that the fat will rise to the top and congeal into a white disk which can be removed. Those people are Philestines, but hey, Viva la différence.

Remove the shanks. On a big plate, pull the bones, fat and connective tissue from the purplish, wonder meat. Bare hands are best.

Reheat the pot. Add the meat, vegetables, sugar, cayenne pepper and simmer for 45ish minutes.

I was 30 years old before I heard the term, Roux. However I've been thickening sauces and binding soups forever. Just melt a glob of butter in a sauté pan, sprinkle in a handful of flour, heat and stir until it's smooth and gooey. Then add a ladle of your soup broth and stir some more. Get your soup on a boil and stir in your roux. Thicken to your preference.

Taste often as you season. You're looking for a mixture of salty meat/sweet veggies/spicy broth that I would gauge at 60/30/10 respectively. If you're not tasting, then you're not cooking; you're just irritating your family.

Serve with a crusty sourdough bread and stay hungry, my friends.

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire | MichaelMoore.com

The American Dream that isn't so becoming to anyone anymore...

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire | MichaelMoore.com

Recommended Books for Adult Children of Immigrants

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
My Antonia by Willa Cather
American Chica by Marie Arena
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

Rolling the Dice on Superman

Last night, I saw Davis Guggenheim's, "Waiting for Superman" in a packed house at the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis. Going into it, I was already warned of it's slant against teacher unions but even so, I was determined to keep an open mind. Working in the urban school system and having middle school children myself, I have to say, I was surprised at what I came away with. I think the director made some valid points but was definitely short-sighted when stressing that bad teachers and teacher unions were the entire problem. Besides, he kept referring to Finland as the the leader in education, yet they are all unionized as well.
The underlying point I came away with from this movie was something I never expected. Whether the director was conscious of it or not, I suddenly realized that our culture is completely and utterly addicted to the rush or high that comes from gambling with each others futures. Let me explain:
The American Dream is based on "making it". Whatever this means, doesn't really matter, what matters is how our culture seems to have internalized this message. In this movie, we have parents literally "rolling the dice" to get into the best charter schools. We have parents gambling with tuitions, not knowing if they can actually make the next payment, just hoping against the odds that things will work out. We have parents taking their vulnerable children to lottery drawings for charter schools, only to have their little faces fill up with tears when the lottery ball (much like the one used in Bingo parlors) doesn't roll in their favor. Distressed and upset, the children that didn't win this particular crap shoot have no idea what just happened, just that they lost to the big roulette wheel in the sky and are now forever cast as losers. Probably a feeling that will continue to motivate them further and further into the dismal world of a betting culture. This "black and white" thinking is actually extremely prevalent in our culture that continues to dangle the carrot of "what could be" if only the decks were stacked in our favor. Just look at Wall Street these days! This "black and white" thinking is also prevalent in the culture of addiction which breeds no responsibility or accountability. Of course, the biggest piece that a culture based on addiction breeds is the absolute commitment to fear. During the movie, they show the teacher's union sitting in silence when asked to vote on a resolution that might mess with the one solid thing in their lives, a steady paycheck. The one thing every human being strives for, yet in our culture, is somehow supposed to be ashamed of. The teachers were literally stuck to their seats, immobilized with fear. Wondering why anyone would ask them to give up on a steady, realistic future. A paycheck that isn't tied to rolling the dice on their futures or their children's future. A paycheck that is more than just an income but a state of mind. Now, I ask you, why would anyone want to give that up? Perhaps, this is the underlying point of our education system. Perhaps, this culture that is addicted to gambling and fear could take a closer look at the first step of the Twelve Step program: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable and start from there.
What if the education system and it's tangled web is simply a system that is holding on for dear life in a culture that asks you to dream big, grow and prosper yet so willing to rip the carpet from under you in lieu of a "winning hand" or a lucky roll of the dice. I believe you can't have both. You can't expect a culture to flourish and prosper if their is no safety net or solid foundation to land upon. In fact, a culture that asks you to bet it all, all the time, is asking you to do something that goes against human nature. So maybe it's time to look at our education system as a reflection of a much bigger problem and finally admit to ourselves that rolling the dice on dreams should no longer replace the basic human need for safety and security.