Musings on an Assortment of Subjects

Today as I walked home I passed several establishments decked out with lights and greenery, as well as an ensemble singing “Christmastime in the City.” WHAT THE HECK?! We have all this technological gadgetry, and we can’t even celebrate our holidays in the right month???

Actually, I also notice that our primary election dates have been creeping forward as well. So maybe society knows something that our calendars don’t. Perhaps we should institute a leap month or two to put the calendar back in sync with what we’re actually doing. Forget the sun; it only shows its face while I’m at work anyway, these days.

jack-o-lanterns at the MVS house

getting in touch with my heritage

My parents finally got around to selling our trusty, rusty old 1988 Honda Accord. It was time–the bumper has been tied on for a couple years, we haven’t dared take it out of the county since we got our new car in 2003, and with Beth and I out of the house there is little need for two vehicles. Still, I can’t help feeling wistful. We owned the car beginning in 1993, and it served us well on many a cross-country roadtrip in its day.

Ah well…I’m sure the hundred bucks will be useful as well.

Today I traveled to eastern Washington for the Mennonite Country Auction and Relief Sale. For those of you who don’t know, a relief sale is a type of event held around the country to raise funds to support the relief and development work of Mennonite Central Committee around the world. Mennonites gather from all around to gorge themselves and spend lots of money on quilts and antiques, all in the name of giving in the name of Christ to those in need. (I’ve heard that part of being Mennonite is living simply and reducing consumption…except on relief sale day!) Definitely it is a must-see ritual of the Mennonite subculture, and perhaps the closest thing that there is to a real Mennonite sacrament.

The auction opened with a loaf of bread. (sold for $625)

happy consumers of kraut runzas, groundnut stew, and homemade pies

making apple butter (for sale in freshly sealed jars, still warm)

If you have been a Mennonite for any length of time, you are familiar with the “Mennonite game.” This is the strange (and unfortunately sometimes exclusive) ritual by which Mennonites interrogate new acquaintances to discover how they fit into the Mennonite web and (more importantly, if she is cute) check to see whether the two of you are cousins.

Some of the coincidental connections I discovered today:

• the fellow I talked to at the MCC booth is a third cousin of the parents of one of my MVS housemates (a fact ascertained because I noticed that he shares her last name and hometown, and inquired)
• a couple of decades ago, my MVS host parents helped start a church in Texas with the parents of a college friend who I attended a church small group with in Goshen

No need to freak out, says the Mennonite. It’s a small (Mennonite) world, and this is actually totally normal. So if I meet you and start asking strangely personal questions, don’t be taken aback. I’m just used to finding connections when I meet someone, and am trying to find a point of commonality.

It’s fall!

Thanks to all of you, my dear friends and family, who sent me greetings on Sunday, my 22nd birthday. I am blessed with extraordinary people to share this life with.

I had a lovely weekend, the highlight of which must certainly be on Saturday when I made my way to the book sale put on by the Friends of the Seattle Public Library. This biannual event is truly a sight to behold: an entire exhibition hall filled with row upon row of tables laden with folios waiting to be examined. And PACKED with people! You would have been hard-pressed to find a few feet of table not occupied, and the line waiting to pay stretched along the long side of the hall.

I walked home with the following:

• something on Antarctica from National Geographic press (already passed along to my fellow Antarctica conspirator)
• The Bantam New College French-English Dictionary (just $0.75 and some time and a new language can be yours…what fun!)
• Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon (featuring Frito Bugger and his efforts, with the assistance of Goodgulf, to destroy the Great Ring)
• Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick (a favorite from my parents shelves)
• Linux Device Drivers by Alessandro Rubini (just in case anyone tries to challenge my geekhood)
• “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (better catch up on that classic literature now that I actually have time to read)

And all this for only $5.75!

My actual birthday on Sunday was also quite nice. Following the service at Seattle Mennonite Church which included a commissioning of us VSers, I took off with friend Katie to the final Mariners game of the season, where we ate very garlicky garlic fries, were amused by multitudes of mascots present for Kid’s Appreciation Day, and tried to stay warm; and where the team, happily, won. Then back to the VS house for a little celebration with cake and ice cream (thanks guys; you rock!) and an outing to St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral for the Compline service before bed.

And how do I feel about starting my 23rd year? My Grandpa Hank wrote and reminisced about the months following his 22nd birthday, in which he “graduated from college, began graduate school, met the girl of my dreams, found my own housing and in general enjoyed life” (!) I guess we shall see if I can live up to that excitement. One thing I have been realizing is that, having just made it out of the clutches of my parents ventured into a new part of the country and started VS, it is already time to start thinking of some new long-term goals, so that I have a place to direct my energy. If you happen to be in possession of supernatural guidance regarding my future well-being, do let me know. In the meantime, however, with few exceptions, life is good.

Since arriving in Seattle my main modes of transportation have been walking and riding the bus. The latter is a fairly impersonal experience, although I am starting to recognize a few regulars who share my routes of choice. And occasionally the driver will make his or her personality known. Such as the one today, who lazily announced–if I heard him correctly–”15th and John…Group Health…and a bunch of other stuff.”

This gave me the idea for an exciting new online service; namely, Google Indirection. Supplied with information about your starting point and intended destination, this innovative tool will display a detailed step-by-step route and then cheerfully proclaim, “Whatever you do, don’t go THAT way!”

This weekend was spent at Camp Camrec, the Mennonite camp to the east across Stevens Pass. It was a chance to get to know the Seattle MVS support committee, interact more with housemates, and see some of rural Washington state.

housemates

Deception Falls

Treebeard?

new life

Life is good. At work, I feel like I am starting to get a leg up on the learning curve, and I’ve already written a bit of code that is running on a live site. At home, we drafted a house covenant and have just figured out the room situation — my real room (commonly known as “the womb”) has just been emptied out and I can move in tomorrow. Tonight I just cooked my first house meal (groundnut stew), which was a success. It really is amazing how quickly one can settle down in a new place and start to feel the rhythms of a routine…I guess that is something we can’t live without, even as we need new and exciting things alongside.

Whew, the past few days have been a whirlwind. I got here around 9 p.m. Saturday evening, was picked up and brought to the MVS house on Capitol Hill, where I met lots of people and moved into my temporary abode in the TV room (until the end of this week when some of the old VSers move to their new residence). On Sunday I spent the morning unpacking, then wandered around the neighborhood for a bit before getting picked up for the Grand Tour of Seattle.

Jill, the local MVS coordinator, ended up taking us on a 5-hour tour of many parts of Seattle. We started by heading a ways south down Rainier Ave. to visit a couple peoples’ assignments (including a quick detour to see Lake Washington),

then swung past the stadiums,

stopped at the Uwajimaya market,

headed on through downtown,

past the Space Needle,

and up to Queen Anne hill which offers a gorgeous panoramic view.

Then on up across the canals, past the Fremont troll,

to the Ten Thousand Villages in Roosevelt. And then west to Ballard and the Chittenden locks

before swinging back past the University and home again.

On Sunday evening I walked to Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral for its well-known Compline service, where I met a friend from Goshen who I brought back to see the MVS house. And then today was my first day at ONE/Northwest–a day of meeting neat people who are passionate about technology and about helping environmental agencies engage their constituents, of setting up a new computer and learning about how this organization does things, and of actually diving into a bit of programming alongside my illustrious colleague Andrew. Oh, and I can’t forget this evening…one of my housemates managed to get some free tickets to the Mariners game from her work, so we headed down to Soldier field to see the game. Sadly, the results were not as desired (Oakland had two grand slams…TWO!), but it was still a fun end to some exciting first days in the Emerald City.

Greetings from Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas. I just finished my week at Camp Mennoscah, just outside of the bustling metropolis of Murdock, KS (population 378), where I was oriented for the Mennonite Voluntary Service program I am beginning. The orientation sessions themselves were fairly good, although a fair amount of review for this Goshen College graduate who’s been muttering core values like “servant leaders,” “global citizens,” and “compassionate peacemakers” for the past 4 years. The really wonderful parts of the week were the surroundings (contrary to expectations, the Kansas prairie has so much LIFE), the food (our meals were home-cooked by former VSers), the people (what can I say…people who decide to give up a year of income in order to help change the world are pretty sweet).

Now I’m sitting here waiting for my flight back to Chicago, where I will spend the night at the Last Homely Home of the East (many thanks to Abby, Becca, Steph, and Jess, who are my gracious hosts and guardians of two of my bags for this week). Tomorrow afternoon I’ll catch another flight from Chicago on to Seattle, where I’ll be reunited with the one housemate I know from college, the three housemates I met this week, 5 or so continuing housemates whose terms are ending in a month who I met briefly in February but haven’t really gotten to know, and 1 other new housemate. (Did I mention the living situation for the next month looks a tad crowded? Ah well, here’s to intentional community.)

By the way, welcome to those of you from ONE/Northwest who found this blog. Thanks for the words of encouragement, and I’m looking forward to meeting all of you first thing on Monday morning!

Today I had a really wonderful experience. I biked 4 miles with Matt and Sol out to the New Testament Baptist Church, for the annual Sacred Harp singing that takes place there. I knew that it would be a good day when I biked the last yards toward the small white church building listening to the powerful chords emanating from it.

Sacred harp singing is a tradition of communal singing that originated in the South of the US in the mid-1800s. It is shape-note singing tradition–each shape on the staff represents a particular note of the scale, and each song is first sung through once naming the notes instead of using the words. There is a also a big emphasis on community and participation–the people present take turns leading each song, and go to lengths to help new people get up to speed. The typical seating arrangement is in a hollow square with one part on each side, all facing the leader in the middle, so this adds to the atmosphere of community. Sacred harp singers can tend to be a little obsessive about this pasttime: they will travel across multiple states for the well-known singings, and note the following picture as well.

One thing that was cool about the singing is that there were people from many different backgrounds present–not just Mennonites–all united by their love for the music. Most of the songs were new to me, although I knew a few, felt at home, and did fine sight-reading (thank you J.D. Smucker, Deb Brubaker, and Assembly Mennonite Church).

I’d definitely recommend this tradition to anyone who loves singing in harmony. If you want to know more or find a singing near you (they go on year round), see fasola.org