MIA

I graduated almost a week ago. Since then I toured the Winchester Mystery house, ate at In n Out several times, went to Indian Rock, packed, ate at Fisherman's Wharf, drove up the coast, walked through a Redwood Grove, went wine tasting, hit the beach, toured Alcatraz, went to the horse races, hugged a lot of friends and moved to Texas. Tomorrow I have a job interview in Dallas and if that goes well will begin looking for a new place to live. Thus, I have been MIA online.

the mark of a friend

I now bear a mark of my dear friend, Abigail King Kaiser, for the rest of my life. She designed and gifted it to me today. She stood by me today, through a lot over the last two years and I have no doubt more than we can imagine in the future. This process has started me thinking a lot about commitment and about friendship. I'm not a big one for commitment, as the post office if no one else can tell you w/my fifteen+ addresses in the course of my 27 years. I don't always move far, sometimes within a mile. But, change is something I'm pretty good at. But, alas I've reached a point in life when commitments no longer come in 1, 2 or 4 year blocks. In many ways I couldn't be more excited. I have found some truly amazing forms to work within and develop a career. So, today I made a permanent commitment. An amazing work of art to mark a special friend, a special time of life and 2 images that are sacred to me-the dancer and the seahorse. I have been blessed with some really amazing people in my life and a lot of them in the years here in Berkeley. People that are heading down a similar road as me, personally and professionally. People that will understand when I'm not all about a mushy good-bye, but enjoying our time together now and looking forward to when our journeys join up again. Thanks for being on my journey.

Church Bans...

These are another two words that I do not understand their ability to be linked together. In a news report today,
Priest Bans Autistic Boy From Church
Mom Told She'd Be Sent to Jail if She Brought Autistic Son to Church
I do understand concerns of safety, I want to recognize that the truth probably lies somewhere between the comments of the church and those of the family. But, mostly this in one incident within a line of the church bans...you fill in the blank. The church banned colored people, gays...
But these two just don't fit together to me. The people 'the church' tends to ban are exactly the people that Jesus himself worshipped with and taught. He didn't sit up in his suburban pulpit, surrounded by posh facilities and protected by security guards. He hung out on the beach, in the garden and his disciples slept when they were suppose to be keeping watch. I'd love for someone to take up, Jesus wouldn't have had to die if the security had been better in Gethsemane.
As someone who is a part of the protestant church but does not always agree with it, I do appreciate the last line of the article, a quote from the mother. "The church isn't bad," she said. "But it's what some individuals do within the church."

Miss Sparkle Sprinkles the Magic

For those that were wondering, this is a great illustration of how my brain often works. Yeondoo Jung took children's drawings and made real life photos from them.

The recorded history of the planet Earth!

"It was a full nine degrees hotter in Oakland than it has ever been on any May 15 in the recorded history of planet Earth, the weather service said." says the SFChronicle. I have been critiqued for writing papers that read like I cut and paste, but this article is a beauty in the area of lack of transitions. Its like it gets a little hot and we are only able to report in one-liners.

A Good Hot Day in California

State Supreme Court says same-sex couples have right to marry
In light of this news being all over town today and the celebration both across the bay and in our own hearts, I want with all my own heart to see the light at the end of this struggle. But what do we see? "Opponents Plot Their Strategy:Critics are confident that California voters will OK a constitutional amendment banning gays and lesbians from marrying." Though our mayor claims that what California does, the nation will follow, all I can do is hope and pray. Mostly I wonder about the infinite number of other issues that the government and tax dollars should be spent on then deciding whether or not people who love each other should be legally recognized as such. (That is not a statement to make light of the importance of equal rights for same-sex couples in any way, I do believe there are wrongs that must now be 'righted') I simply don't understand why the government (or the church for that matter) should have any say in who I am allowed to be in love with in the first place. As a dear friend would say, if we'd all just worry about taking care of ourselves and not so much about other's people's business we'd all be a lot better off. As the newscast I just watched reported, there are $21million of needed sidewalk repair in Oakland b/c people are tripping and falling but only $1million dollar budget to work on the problem. I will claim that it hurts a lot more to trip and fall on the concrete then to live, work and play next to a happily married same-sex couple.

The road to fame

Oh the places a degree from TCU will take a person!

The Art of Finals

I went to get a newspaper this morning because I received an email that I was on the second page today. Weird. I feel divided about this article, because the event was to be about the high school youth and I really would prefer that they have gotten the recognition and their pictures in the paper. We've been going to Berkeley Tech High School once a week for about two months. Talking to students and creating a project to do together. It was decided to have a memorial for their friends/family that have died by acts of violence. We decided that for our portion (as grad students) to paint five chairs each to commemorate contemporary Saints and Prophets. My dear friend and classmate, Abby, blogged about the event with images of her chairs too. Go to Facebook for more pictures.

The full article in the Oakland Tribune can be found here.

The other chairs I created are:

Frida Kahlo:

Cesar Chavez:

Oscar Romero:

Youth Violence:

and as seen in the newspaper, Matthew Shepard:

bad news for sale

Ummm...I'm not really sure what to do with this one. Apparently CNN gets a bad rap for bad headline's so they decided to flaunt it and make it into a Tshirt. The shirt to the left says, "Man dials 911 with his toes." Then has the time stamp on the bottom right. This ties directly in with my class discussion in Theologies of the Body on how a cultural practice is thrown back in the face of one group or another (or both). Like the evolution of tattooing. So, will they now write headlines that make good tshirts, either defeating the purpose of exploiting their bad headlines by a blossoming of catchy phrases or are we in for another bad fashion trend of really dumb shirts?

Plenary Witness

The 2oo8 General Conference Proclamation

(click to video link)

We have heard Jesus say – to all persons without exception – “follow me.”

We are part of God’s living body in today’s world, but our United Methodist Church

refuses to accept what God has done,

refuses to keep covenant with its own words in the baptismal promise,
refuses to honor God’s call to professional ministry,
refuses to do no harm,
refuses to open its hearts, minds, and doors.
The unchurched notice. They notice the church
cruelly scapegoating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
on the altar of so-called unity The young notice. They notice the church,
refusing, threatening, removing, closeting
the lgbt people who faithfully serve the church. The world notices.We notice.God notices.
The United Methodist baptismal liturgy calls all of us to
accept the freedom and power God gives us
to resist evil, injustice, and oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves.
It is our duty – our baptismal covenant – to stand against the sin of the church,
to stand for God’s freedom and power,
to affirm God’s entire body of Christ that is the church.
We are God's children,
here … now.
Today we boldly declare by standing here
that our church’s doors and our ministries will radically obey the Gospel
that we defy bigotry and ignorance,
that the anti-gay policies and practices of The United Methodist Church are wrong.
By human means we cannot stand
but by the grace of God we can.
By standing
we reject the idea that homosexuality is a sinBy standing
we affirm that sexuality is a good gift of GodBy standing
we affirm our intent to spread God’s love and graceBy standing
we bless and celebrate families, all families.
We do not stand alone.We stand in solidarity with all those
who are not here,
who are not in our congregations.We stand with those who’ve been forced out and who’ve never come in,
who already affirm one another as beloved children of God,
regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
We stand with holy boldness
to welcome LGBT laity and clergy into our churches and pulpits, NOW;
to keep baptismal promises for all, NOW;
to affirm calls to ministries for all people, NOW;
to bless covenant relationships in our churches by our clergy, NOW;
to assure membership for all, NOW;
to provide hospitality for all, NOW.
Join us. Stand now. Build our future with hope and trust in God.



Proclamation – Witness – General Conference 2008 – Ft. Worth, TX – Drafted by the Witness Team of Reconciling Ministries Network, Rev. David W. Meredith, Convener