Dinner with the Tobins

Last evening Rob and Linda Tobin, their two children, Emil and Drew, and Rob's Mom, Lois came to visit. They are on a swing through the west and they came through Phoenix to visit me and it was such a delight to spend time with them. I fixed dinner, steaks, asparagus, salad and brownies for desert and that was the first time I have tried to entertain that way. It was a milestone for me.
All went quite well. The steaks were a little rare, but everyone was very polite and said that is how they like their steaks. The kids loved the pool and we had a great time sipping wine and snacking before dinner and relaxing after dinner.
I did learn somethings though by virtue of having the whole process of prepaing the house and he meal, etc. What I learned is that I could have been a lot more helpful to Scottie whenever she prepared to have people for dinner. I was always a little indifferent about how the house looked or whether the front walk was swept off, etc. Now I realize how much it meant to her to have the house looking nice for company and how much work it is to get it ready and to prepare and serve and clean up a meal for 7 people. I could have helped a lot more than I did and been more sensitive to how much it meant to her to have everything as nice as possible. I am not beating myself up iover it, it is just one of those things you learn and wixh you had learned it sooner. Mike helped a great deal and Linda helped a lot also. But still and all it was a humbling lesson for me in some ways. On the other hand, I also felt some real pride that I did it all and that it all went so smoothly and I really enjoyed doing it. So it was a great experience for me and one I will look forward to repeating again.
The flagstone patio is still in process. Diego comes and works a few hours each afternoon and he thinks he will get it all finished tomorrow. It will really be fantastic to have it done and I know it will be beautiful.
Tomorrow evening Tom and Carol Goretzki are coming over to see the house and then we are going out for dinner. Keeping in contact with them is really important to me, and I am anxious to show them the new? house.
Earlier today I worked on one of the photos I took at Bosque del Apache the last time I ws there in 2007. It is a rich image of blue sky and blue water shot at dawn with just a hint of first light in the sky. The image is really about the various textures and tomes of blue in the water and in. the sky. I enlarged it to 36"x24" and took it to be printed earlier this afternoon. They should have the print ready to review on Tuesday and assuming it comes out OK I will have it mounted on a museum mount and I plan to hang it in the master bedroom on the wall over the bed. I think it will be beautifl there. I still have to get a queen size bed ( I just have my twin size bed in there now, and frankly it looks a little funny). I will get a new bed after Mike moves out. After he leaves I plan to take my twin size bed and make it inot a day bed in what is now Mike's room and then get a queen size bed for the master bedroom. Slowly things will all come together I am sure.
Well that is it for today. this evening I hope to get some more reading done. I am reading Scott McClellan's book on the lies about the war and other deceipts perptrated by theBush White House and it is fascinating.
Adios for now.
Glenn+

Back at the blog again

For some time I have been thinking of getting back ito keeping up my blog. I don't have a set urpose in doing so, like I did on my trip to Ecuador. but maybe I'll just start jotting down what I am doing and reading and learning and thinking. This could be dangerous. Opening up your mind to others can be a very scary thing, but I think I'll give it a try and se what happens.

This is what is on my mind today; ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
To begin with, I just finished the most recent book by Bishop John Shelby Spong, the retired Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Newark and probably the most controversial theologian, author and lecturer I know of. I have read several of his book. His most recent and the one I just finised is titled: Jesus for the Non-religious. If you are not familial with Bishop Spong I can briefly tell you that he is a biblical scholar and theologian and what makes him so controversial is that he declares that though Jesus was a real person of history who was killed by the Romans, and through who God was present is a most intense manner, all of the proclamations about him in the new testament, virgin birth, the miracles, even the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension are not historical events, rather they are pre-modern, pre-scientific stories rooted in the Jewish liturgical trqdition told to try to explain the un-explainable, to express the un-expressable and communicate that which is beyond the frame of human thought, which is the experience of the unique presence of God in the humanity of Jesus. He is passionate in his devotion to and proclamation of the reality of God, not as a personified character who intervenes in our lives. but who is our very lives themselves. He is in the line of thinking of Paul Tillich who declared God not to be "a being" but rather to be "the ground of all being".

One may or may not agree with Bishop Spong on many of his ideas, but it is a great experience to hear him out and wrestle with his perspectives. As I read the book I was moved by his description of how to live passionately in the mystery of God. He expresses it this way:
Live fully, Love wastefully and Be all you can be.

The book concludes with a poem written by a lady named, Lucy Negus, after she had heard one of his sermons and I find the poem worthy of pondering:

Christpower

Look at him!

Look not at his divinity,

but look, rather, at his freedom.

Look not at the exaggerated tales of his power,

but, look, rather, at his infinite capacity to give himself away.

Look not at the first-century mythology that surrounds him,

but look rather at his courage to be,

his ability to live and

the contageous quality of his love.

Stop your frantic serach!

Be still and know that this is God:

this love

this freedom,

this being;

And,

when are accepted, accept yourself;

when you are forgiven, forgive yourself;

when you are loved, love yourself.

Grasp that Christpower

and dare to be

yourself!

Ya' know, after all, our life is in Christ, not the stories about Him. I came to know him first, not through the stories about him, but through the love of certain people who entered my life. I discovered a divine presence in them that they imparted to me. Having encounterd that divine presence on some people, I found that it was present in all people, and not just in people, but in everything that surrounded me. I discovered I live on God as a fish lives in the sea. God is all that I am, all that I came from, all that fills me and surrounds me, and at death into him I shall desolve and become one. The stories in the Bible are a guide as to how to intensify my awaremenss of him within myself and how to enhance my expression of that presence in what I do and say.

In this regard I agree completely with Bishop Spong, God cannot be captured in any story or doctrine or theology. All expressions of and about God are flawed and finite. God is perfect and infinite beyond infinite. My awareness of God is always present, it is beyond faith or believing, it is the way I experience life, and all the other stuff about God is subject to change.