View From The Bus
THOUGHTS AND EVENTS FROM MY FIRST AND NOW SECOND YEARS AS A JESUIT VOLUNTEER IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON…Pacific Northwest Delights
Yet again taking advantage of my co-worker Jeff’s photography skills. I wish I could say I had been on the outdoor adventures he has been on, but alas, they remain for the most part on my to-do list.
We DID go on an exploratory uphill climb to appreciate Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge – the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the nation- on our way to Gresham, OR for a party hosted by the JVs there on MLK weekend.
Here are few favorites of our pics:
What the photo DOESN'T convey is the range of conversation topics we come up with in the car on the way...
Doing my best John Smith...
What gents
Engagement photo?
Top of the Falls
Haiti, desperate poverty even before the earthquake
Last night, our community sat around the dinner table discussing – at times debating – how we want to respond to the Haitian earthquake and disaster relief. Brendan articulated a great point: Haiti needed massive help before the earthquake, and is hosts the most glaring examples of extreme poverty and social injustices in the Western Hemisphere.
This article serves as a backgrounder to the current disaster as noted by the editor and was written by Tom Roberts, National Catholic Reporter editor at large, who traveled to Haiti and the Dominican Republic in October with two other journalists with Catholic Relief Services.
Talk about perspective….again I am caught feeling disappointed in myself and my abundance of complaints. Abundance of gratitude is more appropriate and despite the fact that feeling overwhelmingly more aware of my luxuries doesn’t directly help anyone in Haiti, it serves well to wake me up to the examples of privilege in my daily life.
As a community, we decided we are willing to eat 3 meals a day of beans and rice for one week to increase our own mindfulness, and also send what money we would usually spend on weekly groceries to Haiti through Unicef, American Red Cross or Jesuit Relief Services. Additionally, our next monthly potluck for FJVs, co-workers and friends in Seattle, we are inviting everyone to donate the money they would have spent preparing something to share and joining us over rice, beans and conversation about Haiti’s past, present and future situation. We are going to try to organize the other JV communities in the Northern Cascades to do the same and together – empowerment in numbers. Some argued that our measly contribution won’t make any difference of substantiality but the grade-school girl in me thinks of the story of the starfish…
Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.
As he came up to the person he said, “You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, “It sure made a difference to that one.”
Words to Retire in 2010
I have to share this. From , “SPIN: What’s Happening in Seattle this Week“
Words To Retire
please just make it stop...
Tweet and Twitter: Hopefully, this flash-in-the-plan will mercifully wither away. Like most things, the spammers eventually ruined it.
Foodie: This is the pretentious twit that waiters laugh at behind their backs. Like most intellectuals, they’re incredibly stupid.
Fashionista: Fashion as personal art gone awry. That Target/Gucci combo is like so unprovoking.
Recessionista: The less glamorous cousin. Nowadays, people are just happy to have jobs.
Wazzup: If you have to ask, the answer is “nothing” – to you.
Beyotch: This bitch-lite term has lost its zing.
Sexting: Naughty notes and private pix go cell-to-cell, and then seem to have annoying habit of leaking out.
Date Night: Regimented romance – get kissy or else.
Cougar: People will eventually realize that these are actually just a bunch of pre-menopausal old ladies.
Bromance: Let’s just stick to getting drunk around the campfire and going, “I luv ya man!”
2.0: What’s new and improved, often isn’t.
Staycation: Hey, it’s like a B&B, except more mess, less charm, and no breakfast.
Metrosexual: Dudes past their prime, and now just past.
No Impact Project
The No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse. It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.
One of my 2010 resolutions is to be more intentional, which is a word used far too often in the JV world, but really encompasses what this ‘No Impact Project’ challenges participants to do: live less as a consumer, and more as a counterpart.
Tonight I am leading our community spirituality night and I am posing this one-week project as our community challenge. I think it suits perfectly our conversations to actually live what we so often discuss and as you can read from the intro below:
“Want to save money? Lose weight? Have more time? Live healthy and be happy? Perhaps, this manual will show you how. This guide is not riddled with facts and fgures about how you’re destroying the environment. Thousands of web sites already do that, and thousands more show you how to reduce your carbon footprint for the sake of the environment.This is different.The focus of our program is to help you live a happier life that will result in a happier earth. And so, this manual is about you.
Think of this guide as your personal trainer for a week. It’s organized by day. You will stop consuming new goods on a Sunday, then on Monday you will stop making trash, and on Tuesday you will switch to non-carbon producing trans-port, etc. Each day builds on the day before, so by Friday you are not shopping for new goods, not making trash, only traveling by sustainable transportation, eating locally, using less energy, and wasting less water. We recommend reading through this guide and preparing for the experiment one week before you begin. We’ve offered some general ideas and resources to help guide you through each day, but don’t limit yourself to what we’ve written. If you have great ideas about how to live lower impact, click here and share them with your fellow No Impact men and women.”
Interested in joining us?
Grace – you are a rockstar for sending me this… gold medal for FJV
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body” ~ Joseph Addison
Person of the Year 2009 issue - a great read
I’ve been getting Time Magazine for a few months now and not only realize what a luxury it is to receive a beautiful, glossy, well-written, globally aware, thought-provoking publication, but also how crucial it is to living intentionally as we JVs are challenged to do. The same concept was originally proposed in Social Justice class a few years ago…and I realized I needed to amp up my exposure to current events and perspectives. Asked, “Would you agree that 24-hour breaking news has diminished the value of in-depth journalism?”, Ted Turner, who Time Magazine best describes as a “maverick ex-media mogul” responded:
No. I think it has made people more interested in news in general. And breaking news doesn’t give you depth or perspective. You need magazines and newspapers because regular television news doesn’t do it either, usually. People, if they’re interested in news, they’ll get the headlines on television and then go to print for depth and perspective.
I whole heartedly agree and am resolved to make reading more (especially about current events) one of my 2010 commitments. That article was from November 2008, but just yesterday, David Brooks wrote an article about the best magazine essays of 2009 and it just served as another kick in the butt to expand my browsing beyond my favorites (Time and NYTimes). Some sites he recommends I know I will be checking out:
Arts and Letters Daily (“the center of high-toned linkage on the Web”)
The Browser (“a trans-Atlantic site with a superb eye for the interesting and the profound”)
Book Forum (“has a more academic feel, but it is also worth a daily read”)
I may also be caught indulging in Daily Candy “How To Do A Twist Chignon” or what to do on the weekend in Seattle and admiring the watercolor illustrations or oogling the pretty things…
“Brother James in Iraq and random acts of kindness”
The Café Christmas Eve before we open
If not for Sweeney, the package would not have caught the attention of Air Force Maj. James King Jr. If not for Sweeney’s son-in-law in Florida, the story of the package wouldn’t have been brought to my attention. And if not for a number of people, all making small contributions of their own, the package would not have landed in Iraq.
“Instead of buying each other gifts, we decided we’d adopt a platoon,” she said. Coworker Tara Ubbens of Framingham went to the adoptaplatoon.org Web site and got the ball rolling, Porcella said.
“The best Framingham memories were of playing in my grandmother’s house, where my mom grew up, and then comparing those to how my kids played in her new (home) in Ashland.
As for the items inside the package, “the variety of goodies beyond food made this ‘care package’ impressive. The goodies ranged from air fresheners to toothbrushes to PJs.”
And it’s a good feeling for the rest of us, as we enjoy holiday festivities with friends and family, to know there are those like King serving our country throughout the world. And people like his 89-year-old grandmother, still the active volunteer, in places close to home. And neighbors like the TJX colleagues and Girl Scouts who understand how far a small amount of generosity can travel.
This year more than ever, I am touched by the gestures, the gifts of kindness and thoughtfulness so many people extend to me:
This keychain was a gift from a Member
A gift from one of my favorite volunteers - Eggnog Sugar Cookies!
A letter, a gift. Check out this envelope! Handmade!
Playlists lead to sculptures
So access to stable internet is non-existent while at home, but this week, staying at a co-worker’s with her beautiful, well-behaved dogs (lab + golden retriever = dream), my housemates came over to enjoy the hot tub and we created this playlist that I’ve been playing on repeat ever since:
Scenic World - Beirut
TiK ToK – KeSha
Sexy Chick – David Guetta featuring Akon
Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show
Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear
A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left – Andrew Bird
This Tornado Loves You – Neko Case
My Girls – Animal Collective
Blood Bank - Bon Iver
Somebody to Love – GLEE Cast
Another other amenity worth noting : the Tempur-Pedic mattress and pillows. Oh, and the proximity to the Olympic Sculpture Park – my hands down favorite site in Seattle. The past few mornings walking Goldie and Max through the 9- acre green space along the waterfront has stopped me in my tracks with a 360-degree panorama of Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier and the surrounding city. And incredible art.
Look through the slide show and read about them, then come visit me to see them…that’s the only way to do this place justice.
That's Eagle. "How does art come into being? Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe." Alexander Calder
Oh, and listen to this playlist. Art of different volumes. Aren’t the five senses a treat?
Cheery Christmas Abbey
Christmas Invite Front
Christmas Invite Back
Theme selected (monochrome) – check.
Invites sent to other Northern Cascades JV houses (Seattle Mercy, Portland Mac and Portland Morris, Yakima, Tacoma..and somehow Boise showed up, too) – check.
Cookies up to the ceiling (and treasured Paul Grubb, SJ poster. Literally. Still stolen within 20 minutes…) – check.
Furniture arranged to maximize dance floor space – check.
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” arranged to play every hour (denoting time for our community to stand on the table and dance) – check.
Random tacky sweaters and decorations excavated from basement – check.
Cherry Abbey minus Erin...
Oh what a night. Brendan’s adamance upon 5pm kick off really set the night up for the chaos it was. But it was beautiful. And beyond words really…basically our invite’s poem played out 100%, with some emphasis on dance party, streaking, and Paul Grubb… :
YOU’RE INVITED. CHERRY ABBEY CHRISTMAS 2009.
If you think we did it right in the fall,
Check out Christmas, come one, come all.
We’ll provide dance party playlists and high fives galore,
Just make sure you’re MONOCHROME and bring something to pour.
So wear all red, all green, all gold, perhaps all snow…
There may just be awards for “Best in Show.”
Cheers to simple living, streaking and desserts,
With Paul Grubb “chaperoning,” it’s bound to be berserk.
Berserk it was. Cheers + cheery + Cherry.
Brotherly Love and 26.2 Miles
I'm disappointed that the camera got the half marathon clock in my picture versus the full marathon clock showing my time (4:33) - I'm kind of proud
Our time: 4:33:36
SOLE TRAIN
Top: About .1 mile away from the finish (inside Memorial Stadium) Lower: I wanted to wear the medal for two days straight so as to rationalize my walking like an 80 year old.
Woohoo it’s done! My brother Joe flew out Thanksgiving day and we ran the Seattle Marathon that Sunday. Finishing in 4:33 was shocking. I essentially stopped training 8 weeks ago – between my achilles tendonitis, bronchitis, and then just general lack of motivation coming back from those ‘injuries’, not to mention the Seattle winter setting in – so to have beat my first marathon time by half an hour just baffles me.
I credit the ability to finish to my amazing housemates who were the most attention-grabbing, jealousy-inducing cheering section of all, most likely because of : Maria’s Shakira SheWolf dance moves (yes. She semi-humped the concrete for me.), promise of Brendan’s chocolate chip banana peanut butter pancakes waiting for me when I got home, holding Elizabeth’s hand for 3 minutes through the arboretum, and Laura’s flawless handing off of shot blocks. See photos below. To be received by and supported through this Cherry Abbey fan club miles 22-23 pulled me up the Galer hill. I’m sure yoga and riding my bike assisted as far as physical endurance goes, but really, when it comes to mile 23, MENTAL endurance is what counts and the signs, screams and smiles my community shared were truly GEMS.
Yes. These are MY friends...
This is the sidelines. Imagine our dance parties...
Hand holding is for lovas
"Let it out so it can breathe"
No $ = get resourceful. Sticks from our yard, ribbons from rat-packing leftovers, and pretty paper, reused.
pen jar + more sticks + brown rice
Alternate prayer idea: holding hands around the table, throw your fists in the air and together repeat loudly, "FAMILY! FAMILY! FAMILY!"
Our mom sent out the turkey headdress and it got passed around the table, each person wearing it and saying what they were grateful for. I’m grateful for community, my health, my homes, my family, and my brother Joe; I couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect weekend – more fun or better company. Here’s to sub 4 hours next time…
Spontaneous Expression Poetry
Sunday Brunch
abundant loaves, solitary consumption? sometimes
enjoyed in company; crowding…conversation
blueberry warmth-scented setting,
running like salmon my mind floats.
sugared complement to bitter coffee,
caffeine, plus…
al denté perhaps?
My ‘cobalt vision’ disrupted by perfection
woven, weaving, passions basket release
on the floor before the couch among friends
Gift to others, intentional & emotional
high. Sparks
within.
On Sunday, I attended a mini-art retreat focusing on gratitude. Among some Ignatian contemplation exercises (specifically with Mark 6:31-46 – the five loaves, two fish story), poetry by Denise Levertov (Seattlite and [fellow] St. Joe’s parishioner before she died), a walking meditation, and mandala collage making, we wrote our own poetry. We were given a different word to incorporate into our next line every minute – the lack of time intentional so as to encourage expression of whatever came to mind. This is what I ended with when all was said and done. Surprising how much I like it. Reminds me of the Syntax chapter of Writing Down the Bones.
