Sticking it to the man

How I got on the Fair Trade bandwagon
I've been greatly influenced by a documentary called The Yes Men. It helped develop the conviction within me that we are called to holiness in all that we do including what businesses we frequent or support. Do you hear me Wal-Mart shoppers?!?!?! The documentary tracks some guys who make a mock WTO website but get contacted by someone who thinks they actually are the WTO and asks them to come speak at a legitimate conference. They prepare a completely ludicrous speech which pushes the possible tenets of the WTO to the greatest extreme. They expect they will be arrested...You should watch it. In fact, stop reading right now, seriously, stop. No, I don't think you're hearing me correctly, stop reading and go directly to your car, bus stop, moped, subway, or even use these weird things protruding from your ankle bones. Rent it and watch it. Try not to get wrapped up in the political messages (even I don't agree with them all). Appreciate the human psychology and drama!

My friend's scheme
You're still reading aren't you? Well, don't forget to rent the movie. A good friend of mine created her own "yes men" scheme by getting a job scoring tests for a prominent and well-known national standardized testing company. Becoming even more incensed at the the scoring procedures (eg. one particular test had an essay on which it would be impossible to get the highest score if the student did not use a semi-colon even though nothing indicated that a semi-colon should be used), she simply scored them exactly backward. If the scale was from 1 to 5 and according to the test rules the student was supposed to be getting a 1, she gave them a 5 etc. (some of you might be thinking you must be her victim--smile). She expected to be fired on her first day...but within the week she was promoted because she worked so quickly! Eventually she quit but not until she had the opportunity to affect some much needed funding! Do you have a "yes men" scheme from when you infiltrated the system?

To "koine" a phrase
Perhaps you are in customs and you decide to incorporate some "yes men" scheme to make a comment on immigration. Your plan goes tragically awry and you are hauled in for questioning. You give them the truth. They consult on the other side of the one way glass. They don't believe you! When they re-enter the room with you, you emphatically make your point with Galatians 5:12 (ophelon kie apokopsovtie oi anastatuntes humas). Loose translation: "I wish that those causing you to doubt would castrate themselves."

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Who am I?
I believe the oracle at Delphi identified this question as the central one for all of life. It puzzled Socrates and it surely puzzles me. The reknowned philosopher, L. Appleton, gave some terms I can agree with in that "I am a one God, Apostolic, tongue-talkin', holy roller, born again, heaven-bound believer in the liberating power of Jesus name. I have [as it turns out] been washed in the blood, sanctified by the Spirit, I do believe in holiness and I [probably] would suggest that you do the same. I was set free at a Pentecostal altar on my knees and you will pardon me if I'm not ashamed, etc. etc." (Just to save time let me be clear that I'm probably not endorsing all the ramifications and insinuations that come with this song, but removed from all connotations, the denotation of this quoted portion is something I can whole-heartedly endorse.) I suspect this is not the satisfactory answer most of you were looking for.

Problem with stats
I am aware of my age, gender, height, weight, ethnicity, educational background, cultural influences, socioeconomic status (all too poignantly at the moment), political persuasion (or lack thereof), philosophies, friends, loves, hates, pet peeves, grammatical mistakes, favorite songs, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite people, favorite food, favorite joke (It's a knock knock joke---you start), shoe size, etc. etc. The problem in simply listing all this data for you is two-fold. 1.) you can take all this information and box me into a nice little compartment and 2.) I can give you all the right data because I hope you'll box me into a nice little compartment. Problem is: I don't think that's living and I definitely don't think that's the foundation for a relationship we're all called to be in.

That said
My name is Marjorie. I have an older sister and a younger brother who are each married though I am not. My parents are both alive and so is my maternal grandmother. I also have a six (soon to be seven) year old niece to whom I live next door (she lives with her parents, I'm living with mine for the time being) and I think she's pretty much the coolest. I have the best friends in the world and they are located all over it which makes keeping tabs and keeping in touch more difficult than I'd like. I'm 30, female, and I check all the boxes for race.

Favorites
My favorite books are pretty much all of them with these lists (representative of the Great Books of Western Civilization) ranking at the top (the Bible is on them and I would put it at the tippy-top). If I'm reading solely for pleasure, I'll take a young adult fiction writer, Gordon Korman, any day of the week (I just got two books for the plane and it's killing me waiting to read them). His older books are harder to find but totally worth it. Don't start on the newer series-es until you're hooked. If you want to know what he's about, No More Dead Dogs is in all the bookstores. Laugh out loud funny.

Favorite music: yikes! pretty diverse. I like everything from soup to nuts. CD's in my car right now are Keith Green, Nina Simone, Loretta Lynn (album with Jack White--a must have!), Ingrid & the Swingkatz, Desmond Dekker, and my friend Brian Brock.

Favorite movies: This post is getting way too long and I love movies. Here are the top 10 (off the top of my head and in no particular order since mood largely dictates that anyway):
Moulin Rouge, Happy Gilmore, Lord of the Rings, The Philadelphia Story, The Happiest Millionaire, It's A Wonderful Life, The Talented Mr. Ripley, American Psycho (be ready to fast forward sections of it), Spellbound, AND Napoleon Dynamite (Gosh! Whadya think? It's frickin' awesome!). Later I'll probably think of 100 more.

Finally!
I inspired myself yesterday and so with the thought of using the Bible as a travel guide for Greece (with emphasis on the letters of Paul), I introduce to you the following feature...

To "Koine" A Phrase: Perhaps as preamble to all future attempts to use ancient Greek in conversation use 2 Cor. 11:1 (ophelon aneixesthe mou miekron ti aphrosunais alla kie anexesthe mou). Loose translation: "I wish you would endure a little foolishness from me, but, indeed, you endure me."

P.S. The Coffehouse in the photo is "Fair Trade," a cause I support!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Longing for the pre-Babel babble

Language Lessons
So, I've never gone traveling with a tour and I'm not sure what to expect in terms of being able to navigate or converse by myself. I suffer from flashbacks of getting lost on a trip to France when I was in seventh grade and had a semester of middle school French under my belt. This, of course, immediately nominated me for solving our middle of the night, middle of nowhere dilemma. Conversing (I use the word with the highest amount of irony) with a gas station attendant, the words "a cote de" clicked and I knew our hotel was across from something we had just passed. No one knew how little I understood of the words surrounding that phrase and an unlikely heroine was born. Hmmmmm, how can I save the day in Turkey?

Breakfast with a side of Turk
Yesterday my mom and I went to a my favorite breakfast establishment (a little storefront in old town Florissant where you can get awesome creations for 3-4 bucks!). Duh! The cook there is from Turkey! He proved more than helpful in providing what he said would be essential phrases ("how much?" and "too much!") as well as the slang and absolute form of the word "no!" (something like "yoke"). There is a more common form of no but he assured us that this was used more as a preamble to bargaining rather than actually meaning "no." "Hello" is easy because it's similar to Arabic which I already knew. However, "thank you" was so impossible I began to develop fears once again. These were compounded when the reality that while I could ask "how much?" the Turkish words that would likely come in response to this question would go completely uncomprehended. My personal plan is to just keep replying with the "too much" phrase until they look like they're getting mad; then it's probably okay to relent. Of course, I'll still have no idea how much to pay!

When in Greece
I do have some facility in reading and translating Greek, albeit the ancient form. I'm begininng to realize that "How do I get to the Parthenon?" or "Where is the nearest public restroom?" is a far cry from any of the phrases that may be derived from scripture (although “Thou hast said it” could work for about any situation), Plato, Aristotle (who really just made up a lot of his own words), or Sophocles (I just kinda sorta think “You killed your father and married your mother” isn’t really the best way to start to bridge the cultural gap). This compounded by the fact that ancient Greek is to modern Greek even more extremely than middle English (think Chaucer or King James times fifty) is to modern English. In the end, my knowledge probably prepares me to make the sounds of the words printed various places with almost no comprehension of what those sounds mean. Hmmmm, I think it's time for a picture book (which I found and bought today). My plan now is just to point and look quizzical!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Anticipation is killing me

Paths of Paul
In less than two weeks I am going on the coolest trip ever!!! Or so I think. On June 15 I fly to New York and the following day we leave for Turkey! A week into the trip we'll go on a short Aegean cruise through and into Greece! If the exclamation points tell you nothing else...I'm stoked!!! We're tracing Paul's missionary steps and visiting many archaeological sites. I looked for a public domain that listed the itinerary but couldn't find one so I'll have to keep you informed as we go. The problem is right now...

Now vs. Not Yet
So how does one live in the space between? I am at a transition in life having just graduated and I have no idea what I'm "doing with my life" when we return from this trip. Weirdly, I don't feel unsettled about this big unknown--I just want to be on this trip! Lest you be fooled, I have about a bazillion (this is a big number) things to do--I could be getting extra work hours, working on the paper for this class we just took, sorting/organizing all the stuff that got put on the backburner during school, etc. etc.--BUT I am spending most of my time packing and looking up travel tips for Turkey and Greece! I even got the specs for all the planes we'll be taking--I'm starting to run out of things I can look up on-line!!

The Paper
I'm actually pretty excited about the paper I need to write. I got special permission to write it in a(n?--h's are the weirdest letter) historical fiction format (although I was made firmly aware that it should be heavily footnoted). I'm going to write around the pre-Christian Paul. This way I get lots of creative license for decisions about Paul's life (when did he go to Jerusalem, why did his Pharisee dad leave Jerusalem, was Paul married, did he see or know of Jesus in Jerusalem, why did he persecute Christians, etc.). The tricky part is making sure it's all thoroughly researched...

Countdown to June 15 (including today): 9 days
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Why am I doing this?

Pre-face

Or hesitations related to this enterprise. I've never ever blogged before and it might even be more accurate to say I've held an aversion to blogging. Why? Could be an overabundance of conspiracy theories. I'm more the kind who googles myself to make sure nothing comes up that links back to me (so far I've gotten rid of everything save one). When the trumpet sounds I need to be sure I can run to the hills (also why I will never only own cars with GPS--one needs to be ready to flee). It's a nice answer and its slight tinge of potential insanity usually prevents people from asking any more. Unfortunately for myself, I'm not most people. Is this aversion to blogging rooted in something deeper?

Exploring the depths

Okay. So this is supposed to be short and not an exposition of my entire life, but here are just a few possible anomalies. I believe in education. I went to a phenomenal undergraduate school which I definitely don't have time or place to go into today but no doubt will at some point! I have two masters degrees: one in education and one in divinity from UGST (I just graduated in May--whoo-hoo!) At the same time, I've taught public school in the poorest congressional district in the United States and suffer from no delusions about the lie perpetuated in this country of equal education for all. When I say I believe in education--I do, but my understanding of what education consists of is considerably nuanced by the fact that I don't believe it simply equates with going to school.
I believe in equality within the church (like Paul which means if they're equal in the church then they're equal within the community at large) and in using people according to their gifts while not simply limiting according to race, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or education level even though I do believe that people are a composite of all these things (plus more) and gifts can be shaped, molded, and enhanced according to one's sociological background. Unpack that however you want (smile)!
I believe in social action and in Christians advocating for change within society. I believe the "whole gospel" is a partnership of evangelism with discipleship and action with compassion. Neither should be sacrificed for the sake of the other. In fact, I don't even think they can really be separated because as soon as you part them, you've lost the gospel message.

In sum

The true roots of an aversion to blogging came from my fear of being judged. When in conservative circles I was considered a liberal of radical proportions, but in liberal circles I was considered a hopelessly naive and out of date conservative. So where do I fit? I fit in God's kingdom. I'm at home with His people. I think we only get to the real truths of scripture by asking the hard questions and navigating the messy waters between words and action. This last statement is my real reason for blogging. Mid-month I'm going on an awesome trip to Turkey and Greece (more on that later), but the reason I agreed to blog is not simply to give you a travelogue. I want us to find these hard questions and navigate these waters between theory and practice together. God bless you all and I look forward to interacting with you in the coming month! Oh, yeah! My name is Marjorie.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!