Ed Rowe Travel Biography

"I have done magic. I have controlled emotions with a wave of the hands. I have silenced with a look; caused enchantment in the eyes with the right words. Am I talking the occult? No; simply classroom teaching. A place where when thing go right, you can't walk any finer, but when things go wrong, you have no idea how long a second can be." Ed Rowe Travel Biography

So starts the writing of Ed Rowe. I just read about his death and thought he sounded familiar. I'd seen Ed on the downtown mall many times. I actually talked with him once outside Mudhouse. I was hooking up with our new intern to do a never done before and so far not repeated "man on the street" interview with folks on the downtown mall about their faith & doubts. I was hanging out on the bench at Mudhouse waiting for David and the "card reader" sat near me and spontaneously shared a bit of his story. Honestly, he kind of freaked me out, but in retrospect I wish I had had the guts to interview him. Now after reading his biography, I see it was a missed opportunity.

I'm glad he left his journal. His writing is a hodge-podge of ideas, experiences and thought experiments and I can't track it all, but he definitely gives a rare view into what our society looks like from the bottom. Here are a few of the gems I found:

"Existence is a classroom, God is the teacher and we be two year olds and he wants us to play nicely in the sandbox! What is the mantra of the two year old? "If it looks like mine it's mine, if it used to be mine it's mine, if you got it it's mine, etc. Look at any behavior you see on the street; it's more refined, it's more polished, but it's still a two year old, "I want!"."

"We all have a choice between freedom and safety. ... We all yield to our fears of the unknown and stay in a miserable situation rather than try something new. It's safe! It's tied to our memories of the past and how we perceive it. It is tied to our anticipations of our hopes and our fears. It is what you want, but more especially what you settle for. But there is no safety! The job can disappear, or the pantry closes. People who assume anything end up whining. It is the people who can face the unknown who do well. Because there is only freedom and it is our perceptions that make us slaves."

"You have everything you need to overcome every obstacle and achieve every goal, but you hesitate."

Ed Rowe Travel Biography

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Automotive 2007 famous

book writing & the dueling book covers

I'm hanging out at my favorite writing location - the Georgetown public library. It's got a cafe, comfy booths, wifi and quiet. Got 3 more responses written for the book my dad and I are writing. I finally committed to getting my part done by the end of the year, so I better get going - I think I've still got 5 chapters to respond to.

While taking a break from the words, I doodled around with a cover. The publisher has asked my dad for a pass at what he'd like to see on the cover and this is definitely an area where our modern and postmodern points of view collide. His pass is mostly words - I say we need more images. Here's my pass - what do you think?

everything's amazing, nobody's happy

I saw this via Todd Heistand.

heretic, phreak & sufferer?

heretic?
It all started on the way home from church this past Sunday. I was listening to This American Life. "Heretics: The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, a renowned evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who cast aside the idea of Hell, and with it everything he'd worked for over his entire life." Pearson was steeped in the Pentecostal tradition where it seems a great deal of emphasis is placed on saving souls. I've always had a problem with this, but it was interesting to hear how someone who bought into this worldview had his world turned upside down. It seemed to start out innocently enough. He's watching a TV program about starving refugees from Rwanda and thinking to himself that these folks haven't been "saved". What does hell mean to them, because aren't they are already in a living hell. And how can he or 100 pastors or 1000 pastors or all the pastors or all the Christians in the world really go about "saving" everyone in the world. He finally realized that he can't and they can't and that God's probably not looking for that kind of help. So he did lots of studying and praying and decided that God was not the inventor of hell, "we do that to each other and we do it to ourselves." This got Pearson labeled a heretic in his faith tradition and radically altered his life. He's now pastor of New Dimensions whose tag line is the friendliest, trendiest, most radically inclusive worship experience! Sounds like a place I'd like.

phreak?
Sunday afternoon the hubby and I went to a one-man play at The Gravity Lounge called Jesus Phreak: The Story of a Very Unlikley Disciple. This unlikely disciple turns out to be a "mixer", he wears mixed fabrics, which is prohibited somewhere in Leviticus. He grew up going to church, so he knows that "mixers" aren't welcome there. Even so, he seems to be relentlessly pursued by God. Every time he tries to move farther away, he gets nudged back. Reading the gospels, he discovers that Jesus has come for the outcasts and therefore for him.

One thing that really spoke to me personally in this show was the portrayal of a disciple being relentlessly pursued by God, even in the face of the disciple's doubt and skepticism and derision. That so feels like my journey, as I kick and scream all along the way.

There was also a discussion panel after the show and the topics that came up and the people who spoke gave me a sobering reminder about how the Church and my church have been so careless toward the well-being of LGBT people. I think our fear is really just masquerading as a cautious approach toward welcoming and inclusivity, as if addressing this issue would open pandora's box and all hell would break loose (see heretic). The closing words of this discussion were - what are you willing to suffer for the gospel?

sufferer?
On the way home from our date, we listened to a program called etown. A singer/songwriter named Steve Earle was one of the guests (hubby is quite distressed that I don't seem to know this guy). Anyway, something he said on the show stuck with me and luckily, it was reproduced on the website.

"I've been pretty heartbroken about the way things have gone politically in this country the last few years and I seriously considered moving someplace else…then I figured out that I didn't have to leave the country. All I had to do was come to New York. I needed really badly at this point in my life to see a mixed-race, same sex couple holding hands in my own neighborhood. It makes me feel safer."

I get that I'd be considered a heretic in some Christian settings. I'm cool with that. I reluctantly agree that I've become a Jesus phreak. Left to my own devices, I do not think it is the path I would choose to follow, but it's the path I find myself on. I'm not so sure about this suffering thing, but I guess whether I choose act or not, there will be suffering. If I don't act, I will suffer heartbreak at the way things are going for many churches and the people that get or feel excluded. If I act, I will probably suffer obstacles, injustices, frustration and humiliation.

So, what am I willing to suffer? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

public vs. private

One of the sessions from my time at the community organizing workshop that really got me thinking was on public & private relationships. The idea that they were trying to communicate is being able to recognize the difference between the two and act appropriately in the public arena especially as it relates to your community organizing activities. Here's how they laid things out:

Personal
How do we act? cordial, relaxed, open
What do we expect? give & take, honesty, laughter
What holds the relationship together? common interests, trust, love
How long does relationship last? extended period of time

Public
How do we act? formal, guarded, agenda-driven
What do we expect? results, respect
What holds the relationship together? agreement, mutual interest
How long does relationship last? as long as needed

That does seem pretty straightforward until I think about it relative to online activities where these lines seem to get blurred. It's one of the things I struggle with - to be part of a public online community yet maintain some privacy. Part of it is my personality. I've always been a modest person - not in a humble way, but more in a prudish way. I think I've certainly relaxed as I've aged, but I'm still not comfortable sharing intimate details, especially about my family. If you've read my blog, you probably know I'm married and you might have picked up that I have a son. I have so much I could share about these amazing people in my life, but I've decided to draw a line - that sharing their details online is for them to decide.

I recently joined Facebook and I admit that I'm a little bit addicted, but there too I struggle with personal vs. public relationships. I've got a backlog of friend requests from strangers - what am I supposed to do with them? On the one hand, I'd love to add them and increase my friend count. On the other hand, if I add them, will I have to more careful about what I share? I've also accepted friend requests from people that I would consider more as acquaintances. In some cases my online intereraction has actually strengthened those relationships and in other cases I wonder what was I thinking (or what they are thinking about me).

As social networking sites like Facebook redefine the term friend while they add yet another path to friendship, I also struggle with how to communicate cautious enthusiasm for these new relationship building tools with my students. How will they determine the difference between personal vs. public relationships online? How do you?