Hobbits, patriarchs, and carpenters...

My friend, CJ, told me one time that if she could have any super ability, it would be the ability to hear the most appropriate song for the given circumstances of each moment.  I suppose you could turn off the songs altogether too.  I like this idea... kinda like having a soundtrack for your life.

The track right now is The Five Stairsteps song "Ooh Child."  There's something about that sort of Motown voice telling me "ooh, child, things are gonna get easier... ooh, child, things are gonna get brighter."  It's soothing.  Until I think, "Wait a minute... things may not get easier... I mean, that's just reality."

I come "home" and Skip looks at me with those forlorn, mournful eyes of his as if to say, "Ruth, this is really hard living in this little room.  I'm cold and bored and lonely.  I miss home.  I want to run through your house and eat your furniture like old times.  Is this worth it?  Is the story unfolding here significant or is this just a major one year detour?  These sacrifices are heavy... any sign that the 'Boston adventure' will really matter in the long run?"

I resonate with Skip.  I feel it too.  What exactly is the point to this whole "Boston adventure?"  Will this story matter, in the long haul? 

Take Frodo's situation.  He was on an adventure, unsure of where he was going, unsure of how it would all turn out, and missing the Shire.  And that's just the trouble with adventures, you never know how it's gonna end so you can't sit back like the reader and enjoy it in 3rd person... you have to really walk with the risk, the suffering, and the non-glitziness of it all.  It's all very grand or very foolish, depending on the way you look at it (and your current mood about the weather).

It's very likely that I will return home this summer to a city that doesn't know and maybe doesn't care that I went away for a year to learn how to serve it.  It's also very likely that I will be called to love it anyway because all true love is sacrificial.  It's very likely that I will be called to serve it without the glitziness and with more personal risk.  And it's there... in the hidden upside down-ness of God's kingdom... in His humorous and oh so beautiful ways... that He will be made known to the city I so clumsily love despite my deep selfishness.  Maybe then, in that place, I'll understand the "Boston adventure."

And, maybe not.  But, my not understanding of the significance of the "Boston adventure" does not negate the truth that God will use it, despite my "seeing in a mirror dimly."  He uses everything.  My story is unclear to me but I know the Great Story and in that, Motown signers (and all the rastafarians, for that matter), are right.  "Someday, we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun.  Someday, when the world is much brighter." 

So, like Abraham and Frodo, let's move forward as the scared, confused, and finite creatures we are and say "I don't know where I'm going, but I'll go."  It appears foolish, but oh, is there beautiful truth in it.  God loves hobbits.  And he uses these little creatures to infuse his glory in a broken world.  Redemption is both here and on the way... and it is hidden in the most ordinary, unlikely story of a carpenter from Nazareth.

"Yes, Skip.  All of this is worth it.  Someday we'll walk with a carpenter in a better Shire, a better Cannan, a better Asheville."

The Sun.

I might cry.

According to my research, the sun is setting about 1 hour earlier here in comparison to the North Carolina sunset time.

By winter solstice, the sun will be setting in Boston at about 4:15pm.

Dear Sun,
I think you're great.  In fact, I get all blue and sad inside when you're gone.  One time when I was little, I named a black cat after you... so, I mean, I'm a real fan.  Thanks for all that vitamin D you provide.  Though I am a human, I have an internal photosynthesis system.  Would you consider that this winter as you shine across the Northeast United States?  Would you please be on intense cloud-bullying duty?  I will never take you for granted, I promise.  I need you.

Your admirer,
Ruth

ps- Please?  Pretty please???  

A New England "Fahe"... that's "Fair"

Saturday, I attended the Topsfield Fair.  This fair has been going on since 1818.  I really enjoyed the abundant livestock they had at this fair.  It felt more agricultural than the ones I've been to in NC.  And, I might have enjoyed it more because... there was an entire BUNNY BARN!  And even a baby bunny nursery.  Rad.

 I felt proud of myself for all my Rabbit breed knowledge.  All those hours on the internet reading rabbit articles has really paid off... or something...

 This is a Lion Head rabbit... like Mumu at my friends' Young and Sage's house.

 This is a Netherland Dwarf like Skip.  This one is really young, though.

 There were bunnies everywhere!  It was bunny heaven for humans... but not bunny heaven for bunnies... they were all cooped up in these cages and freaked out by the noise.  It felt a little exploitative. 

 These are a bunch of baby lops with their mom.  One fell into the food dish after this photo was taken.

 And, check this out... anyone notice a familiar bunny?  The pictures above and below are of Skip's breed (Netherland Dwarf) AND his official breed color, Blue Otter.  This little guy is much younger than Skip but isn't the resemblance crazy?!  Especially note the similar bully demeanor from the above picture.  I stared at this bunny for a while before I started noticing little distinctions between him and Skip.  I could still pick Skip out of a bunny line up.  Breed and coloring aren't everything.

 I like this photo for a number of reasons.  My new friend, Catherine, is the lower bunny and I'm the cartoon one up top.  They have bunny facts listed on the side.  Notice the snugly couple to the left and the sign by the bunny barn saying, "No pets allowed."  I wonder if that includes other rabbits.

 This is the largest pumpkin in New England.  There's a guy's head beside it for reference. 

 This fair also had a huge sand castle.  These are my seminary and church friends, Curt and Catherine.

Later on, we caught a pig race (4 races actually and 2 of those were swimming pig races.)  And we also saw a duck race, which is what is going on behind me, Catherine, Lauren, and Rachel.  Yee Haw!

ssllloooowwwww...

This picture is the best visual out there to communicate the state of my brain.  Old.  Rusted.  Out-modeled.  Questionable usage.  Questionable relevance.  And... a quality I am too familiar with in almost every dimension of my life... very slow... just say the word like you mean it... sssllllooooowwwwww.

I sit in classes with these whipper-snappers who ask questions that I need 5 minutes to unravel.  Profs talk really fast and I'm relying on long-term memory storage to retrieve appropriate information. 

... errr... 2002, Dr. M's class on systematics... maybe halfway through course... that page with the doodle of a cow.... yes... something about Schleiermacher... Romanticism?... emotions?... maybe radical... yes.... definitely unorthodox... like a 19th century guy or something?... what's the word for (garbled mess of an idea with no word)?... wrote some book that said... something...

So, basically, by the time this whole process is done, I have scant information on the topic, I've missed the last 5 minutes of the lecture (which has moved on considerably), I'm now behind on the notes, and my brain is tired.  So, multiply that at a steady pace through 3 hours of Modern Theology, another 3 for Confucianism and Taoism, and yet 6 more hours on Monday.  Hence the above visual to indicate my acknowledgement of what age, inherent deficits on processing speed, and woeful disuse does to this brain. 

Rust.  A whole lotta rust.

Public Service Announcement.

Always tip your local bakery gal... or guy.  I'm speaking generally, of course.

New friends for Ruth AND Skip!

It was like the beginning of a movie.  I rang the doorbell of a house I'd never seen to attend a bible study with folks I'd never met.  Young, the homeowner, answers the door.  "Hi.  My name is Ruth and I am new.  I'm here for a bible study I found on the church website."

I'm welcomed into the house and then meet Sage, his wife.  There are a number of people already there.  I answer a billion questions.  Then, I grab a fistful of goldfish crackers and wander into the living room and ... wait for it... wait for it... I find 2 BUNNIES!!!

Sage and Young are just as obsessed with bunnies as I am!  We're well versed on the articles found on the House Rabbit Society website.  They are the real deal.  Here are some pictures.

This is Mumu.  He's a lion head breed rabbit.  Of course.

 Blog reader, meet Eva, Eva, meet blog reader.  You have to say Eva like you are watching Wall-E.  EEEVAA!

What's clear is that Young and Sage are hard core.  Seriously.  They even built this bunny jungle gym!  I'm gonna make one for Skip when I move back home.

While in a perfect world, Skip and Eva and Mumu could be great friends, in the fallen bunny world, Skip would pounce on them and rip out their fur... it's just reality.  But, I'm very very delighted to have some kindred spirited bunny friends!

First day of school!

I guess the first day of school holds little weight when you have 14 years of secondary education (yep, I repeated kindergarten) "first days," then 4 years of college "first days," and 2 years of graduate school "first days."  (Not to mention the completion-challenged 2nd graduate program multiple "first days.")  Then, there are first days of school as a teacher and there are 9 of those.  Actually, I've had a first day of school every year since 1984.  Whoa.

Anyway...

Classes today... Tolkien's Apocalyptic Imagination and Th.M. Research Seminar in Christian Thought.  Already, I have to read and finish the Silmarillion by next week for the Tolkien class and give a presentation on some Calvin sermons on Ephesians.  Plus, a load of Barth reading.  The other two classes start Thursday and Friday.

It's kindergarten all over again.  "Hey, ummm, my name is Ruth and I'm from North Carolina."  "Hey y'all, can I sit at this table?"  "Excuse me, do you know how to work the library printer?"  "Does anyone know where AC 240 is?"  I've also done my fair share of that super awkward wandering around the buildings on campus because I got somewhere too early or I just don't really know what I'm doing.  You put your hands in your pockets and then realize you don't have pockets.  Then I look down and "Drat!  I dressed like a teacher... I look all out of place... everyone else is way casual."  Then you pull out the cell phone to look like you are the kind of person who folks like to call or send a text message to.  You scan the phone but, as usual, no messages.  So, then, you just look up the weather and stare at that for a good 10-15 minutes.  Then, you put the phone away and look for a stick of gum in your purse.  As soon as your start chewing... "Drat!  I'm about to go to lecture and it is so rude to chew gum in front of your professor (or at least I hated it as a teacher.)"  Now you have to spit out your gum but you can't find a trash can so now you are the girl who is overdressed, holding chewed gum between your thumb and forefinger, incredibly disheveled, and dropping things because your phone didn't quite make it back into the pouch in your bag.

It was Ruth, in all her glory.  : )

But, truly, being in class was like taking in a higher level of oxygen.  It was so refreshing to be a student yet simultaneously, I was ACHING to teach.  OH, how I wanted a chalkboard and a podium!  Instead, I reminded myself that I am spending loads of money to have them teach me.  I did, however, laugh at all the profs jokes because I know what it feels like to make jokes that your students either don't get or don't think are funny.  Ah, but it was so sweet to be in that hallowed ground called... deep breath... a classroom.  The place where ideas are in the air you breathe and you can almost hear minds do what they were created to do.  It's so wonderfully freeing and right and wholesome that you just want to hug someone, or do a little jig, or something...

I just love school... even though I have to study Calvin this week.  At least I get some Tolkien thrown in there somewhere.

And you should never say never to first days of school... let's hope I get to be in all kinds of contexts where that happens in the future. 

And, next time, I'll remember not to overdress or chew gum or be awkward...Yeah right... who am I kidding?

Feelin' Groovy.

I was walking around downtown Boston today on my way to church and THREE different people stopped to ask me for directions.  Either I appear to know what I'm doing or I seem more approachable than an intense urbanite.  Probably the latter.  I like approaching wide-eyed, slow, hiking shoe wearing people too, when I have a question.

Homesickness.

One of the lunch discussion topics I brought up at the English L'abri this summer was homesickness.  Why do we feel sick at heart about not being at a particular geographical location we call, "home?"

I've been reading through Lord of the Rings in preparation for a Tolkien class I'm taking and I find myself identifying with Frodo and Sam regarding their almost mythic loyalty, longing, and passion about "the shire."  Not everyone has a "shire."  I think the idea and attachment to "home" can be potent for some and not for others.  Being one who resonates with this attachment, I believe those who do not have this potent sense of belonging to a real land are missing out on a powerful theological/emotional dynamic.  Dorothy was right.  "There's no place like home."  Without home, we are truly islands.

Home, of course, conjures up a lot of sentiments.  Like the theme song to "Cheers" (here in Boston... it's on my 'must visit' list...) ..."Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came."  Home is belonging.  It's the place we decided, intentionally or not, to dig our heels in and say, "I'm going to spend my life loving, investing, and knowing intimately this place.  So, the place is a piece of us and we are a piece of that place.  We can even start articulating it as loving a town or city, almost like it's a person.  I've wanted to try to hug Asheville from time to time, or the mountains.  Mountains make me feel snug... maybe they're trying to hug me. 

With all this personification of nature, you may think I'm reading too much Tolkien.  Perhaps.  But, I do believe there are spiritual dimensions to geographical places and communities.  And, I might add, I think we often overlook them... to our loss.  If we forget this, we inhibit our capacity to see that when God is our home, it is not simply in some ethereal, vague sense of "being with God."  No.  It is far more.  God is our home and we can be anywhere in the world and be at home, in a way.  But, when home is "the shire," God being home takes on a whole new meaning. What if God moved into "the shire?"  What if the Spirit of God transformed and redeemed the spirit of a place in such as way as to make it more "the shire" than it ever was before?  That is precisely what I think is happening and will happen. And... that is a glory to behold. 

And, that glory is one worth feeling homesick for. 

Day 15 Observations...

1.  New Englanders do not sell, make, or know about pimento cheese.  Such a shame.
2.  Boston does have Chick Fil A's but you have to purchase your meal to go and hide it until you get home and eat it in secret.  Otherwise, folks think you are making a political statement.
3.  The roads are really bad... like, wow, I think I'm driving on the surface of the moon bad.
4.  North Shore drivers are super nice!  Shocking!  When I need to turn left onto a busy road, it's not uncommon for people with the right of way to stop until I can make my turn.  Everyone stops for pedestrians... even when you aren't at a cross walk.  Even in really busy streets, folks in all lanes of traffic will stop during my run to let me get across.  ... and they do the Southern hand wave thing...
5.  Boston is beautiful.  It is such a walkable city.  Such a pity the accent is so hideous.
6.  Folks don't really wear bright colors or prints... but, that might be just because I'm not in Asheville anymore.
7.  I haven't seen one pair of Chocos here.  I've heard that 4 hours north in Burlington, Vermont, I'd find a ton.  Need to do a road trip up there this winter... they have SNOW SHOEING!!!
8.  A ton of people have swimming pools in their backyard, which is funny because they can't really use them very often.  My best guess for the large pool in yard-per capita is that air conditioning is not a given up here so the only relief is water???
9.  They have these high wand-like things that stick up from all fire hydrants and I couldn't figure out their purpose until it dawned on me that this is the only way for the fire department to know where they are in the winter when the snow gets really high.   ugh... I'm kinda scared of winter here, but the alternative is no snowshoeing so...
10. Boston lingo... Peabody (a town nearby) is Pee-bity, Target (the store) is Taaa-git, yesterday is yestadey, Labor day is labah day, and parking your car is paahking yah caaah.  God, help me preserve my y'alls and all those other lovely southern tones... I'll never be ashamed again of those great sounds.
11.  Not much diesel fuel.  And, most pumps are full service, so you have to sit there while someone pumps your gas, feeling like a silly, stupid princess.  : (
12.  There are a TON of signs all around that just say "children."  I guess that is communicating that children live nearby or that some might be playing nearby.  Oh, and horses are not allowed on the interstate, or so the signs say.  Good to know.
13.  Dunkin' Donuts is like some kind of kudzo weed that is seeping onto every turn and street corner around here.  It's actually a little creepy.
14.  I will never complain about traffic in Asheville again.  Asheville doesn't have traffic, just "more cars than usual and things are moving slower."
15.  You can actually feel the faster pace of living and intensity here.  It hovers and hangs "out there."
16.  The ocean is beautiful.  I understand why the pilgrims wanted to stay here, despite the whole starvation thing.
17.  The oldness of everything is really wonderful.  Nothing is contrived to look old.  It just is.  Each town I pass in and out of boasts a founding in the 1600s.  Pretty cool.
18.  There is a pretty decent folk music community here.  There is an entire radio station that only features folk artists.  Yay!
19.  Another shocker... yankees listen to country music.  I'm not kidding.  I hear it blaring from people's cars.
20.  One word.  Wicked.