Musings on an Assortment of Subjects

Oh yes, I almost forgot to brag about the view from my 10th-story downtown office window:

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!

The fact that I name each one of these ‘on ______’ tends to encourage thoughtful introspection, which in turn makes me never get around to blogging. But it’s about time that I make sure you all know about my summer.

I’ve been working since I got back from Europe a couple weeks ago, and am thoroughly enjoying both of my two jobs. I’m continuing about two-thirds time at Mennonite.net where I have been working for a few years; there I work on software development for the Caravel content management system, an open-source project. My second job is for The Red Post, a digital signage company recently started by Eric Kanagy. There I make Linux do its thing on the computerized screens we sell, and I’ll also be helping get a web-based application for managing said screens off the ground. I’ve been reminded of how much I like programming when it’s a project that involves experimentation to find the best (most efficient, elegant, and user-friendly) way of doing things. Of course, when your boss buys a MacBook Pro for you to use for the summer, it doesn’t hurt. (!)

I didn’t show up for the summer to work though. There are a great many awesome people in Goshen for this summer, and I’ve also been enjoying lazy evenings playing cards or just sitting and chatting. Hopefully I will get in some camping and/or biking trips as well. Come September I’m (now for sure–I have the plane ticket) heading to Seattle to begin a year-long position with ONE/Northwest through Mennonite Voluntary Service. (Excitement! But, it does provide an extra incentive to get the most out of Goshen this summer.)

This past weekend was full of excitement. Aside from the requisite playing with the Macbook (and forcing myself to learn to type Dvorak), two of my best friends from high school got married yesterday (shout out to Becca and Aaron!). I was one of the groomsmen, and it was a really wonderful service with both happy and poignant moments–more traditional than mine* will be, but it suited them well. There is one element that I highly recommend to anybody: the Chief makes a particularly good spot for the wedding party to kill time in between leaving the ceremony and arriving at the reception. Then today was spent helping Uncle Rich and Aunt Judy move into their new house on the millrace. (It’s the one with the gazebo on the water!)

*hypothetical at this point, I hope you realize