Little Synchronicities

While in the midst of ripping all of my CDs into my nice new 120 Gb hard drive, I happen to have Bob Dylan's "Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue" disc 1 getting copied. On the random shuffle, "Gotta Serve Somebody" comes up, the only other Dylan track (from "The Sopranos" soundtrack, not from "Slow Train Coming," which I don't own) on disc at the moment, out of over 160 hours that's been catalogued up until now. What are the odds of that?

Now playing: Muddy Waters, "You Need Love" which is one of the songs that Led Zeppelin totally ripped off when they composed "Whole Lotta Love." Lyrics: "I ain't fooling, you need schooling, baby, you know, you need cooling, woman way down inside, you need love, you got to have some love, she got to have some love." What is that?! As I said, a total rip-off. But I still like Zep.

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

Coming down off the holiday whirlwind, now it's Saturday morning, more like a typical weekend.

As compared to many people, I suppose I have it easy for the holidays. All my family is in town (except for my dad who lives in the Caribbean) so there's no travel involved except local drives. The day got off to an early start with the delivery of the massive chock-fulla ads newspapers, the epistle to the consumers that instructed them on the extra special superdeals that the retailers had prepared for them the next morning. (Not that I'm above all that. I checked out the electronics and recorded media deals, since that's my particular craving as far as consumerism is concerned...)

We hosted the big meal this year, but my mother-in-law was our only guest. Everyone else did other things. Of course, we ate a nice big dinner, everything was tasty and very nicely done. My jobs were more based on cleaning up before and after rather than food prep. Julie got our kids somewhat involved in that, peeling potatoes and such, but as usual, she did the bulk of the work. She was raised to do this kind of thing, to make a great traditional holiday meal, with fresh baking, everything done pretty much from scratch using whole ingredients (no "warm and serve" shortcuts) but my daughter is on a whole different wavelength. Her idea of cooking is microwaving garden burgers or boiling water for ramen noodles.

In the evening we went over to my mom's place to get together with her, my grandma, sister and her husband. Our conversation began on the topic of "The DaVinci Code" which my sister is soon to start reading. I haven't looked at that book yet, but it's come up in other conversations as well as on the email lists so I wonder if I'm destined to read that book soon. The main reason for our get-together, besides Thanksgiving Day, was to celebrate my youngest son Derek's birthday. He turned 14 on Friday, but we had his party a day earlier. This year he got a lot of money rather than gifts. He couldn't think of anything he especially wanted. Julie and I bought him a new bed (mattress/box set) and a Nintendo game, Kirby Air Ride, which he did specifically mention looked good to him. He got these gifts from us on Friday, since that was his real birthday. We couldn't have given them to him Thursday since we didn't have them until late Friday afternoon.

The story with that is that we had been contemplating a new bed for him for awhile but we hadn't settled on where to buy it. There were two places we considered. One was the "Sleep Doctor" which is a franchise operation, and the other was "Dr. Zzzzzz's Mattresses" which is a single, local store. We got a chance to meet Norbert, the owner, and he seemed like a nice guy, so we decided to go with the entrepreneur in our neighborhood. We got a good deal on a floor model set of twin mattress and box spring. Julie and I picked it out on her lunch break from work on Friday. But since a bed isn't exactly a "fun gift" and can be considered part of parents normal obligation to their kids, we decided to get him something to play with as well. So I headed off to Circuit City after dropping off Julie to get Derek a video game of some sort. But I wanted to find something fairly inexpensive since we were dropping a couple hundred and more in buying the bed. Plus we have Christmas coming up...

When I got to Circuit City, the place was pretty busy, as one would expect on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Lines were long, aisles were crowded. The shoppers were on edge.

I went to the Nintendo aisle and found, to my delight, that a new game called "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Battle for Bikini Bottom" was on sale for $29.95! That's a substantial savings from the typical $50 price tag for GameCube titles. And who doesn't like SpongeBob? I knew at least that Derek did, and so I figured I had the perfect selection. So I went through the ten-minute wait in line and pulled out the plastic to pay for the disc.

The price scanned through at $40 plus tax, so I told him about the sale price I saw. He told me that the regular price he charged me was correct and that the sale was on the GameBoy Advance version, the small hand-held game. I told him that since the price was clearly indicated for the GameCube edition in the rack, I thought I was entitled to the discount price. (This has worked to my advantage in the past.) The clerk stepped away from the register, walked back to the racks to check it out, and I could feel the seething pressure rise from the customers standing behind me in line.

He returned to tell me that he couldn't offer the discount and that in his opinion, some other customer had moved the tag, but the tag itself said GBA, not GCN which was sufficient (in his opinion) to hold the line at $40. I grudgingly agreed to pay full price so that I didn't have to go through the line and forestall my departure from the store. And on the way home, I justified and accepted the purchase as worthwhile and necessary.

But when Julie heard about my choice, she didn't seem too enthusiastic. I was surprised - I know she likes SpongeBob, as we all do, more or less, in our family. She was concerned that Derek might not like the game and that it would be too silly or childish. Oh brother, now I had to rethink the whole thing. I asked Brandon, Derek's 16 year old brother, what he knew about the game and he said basically he doesn't like any "TV spin-off" games as a general rule. We looked up some game reviews, which were fairly favorable but after some discussion, the consensus was that I should go exchange the game for something else. So I whipped back to Circuit City and as a self-gratifying reward for all my labors I bought a CD, the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" which was on sale, like all other discs normally priced $10.99 to $13.99 in the store, for a mere $9.99. I would have bought the newly remastered edition of Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" but that was priced $14.99, and I didn't feel like going through another check-out hassle, even though the lines weren't quite so long now that it was getting near 7:00 pm.

The other thing I did yesterday that bears mentioning here was going to Office Max when they opened at 7:00 am to get a new hard drive for my computer. I had pretty much filled my 80 gig, mostly with music, so I added another 120 gig, which I'm in the process of filling with just about every CD in my collection. I also picked up a few of the "freebie" deals (CD-R's, universal remote, new keyboard, PC toolkit, CD headset, etc.) that feature rebates equaling the cost of the initial purchase. So I have a bit of work to do organizing all my receipts and getting them mailed off in time. One problem I'm finding is that my hard-drive and a couple other items have two separate rebate coupons that need to be mailed in, and I have no idea how to provide a UPC code to each of the redemption centers. I think manufacturers do these rebate deals with the assumption that a significant number of people will forget to turn in the receipts or will do something to invalidate their claim. It's actually very insidious and manipulative!

That's my account of Thanksgiving in suburbia. In case you were wondering what all of this had to do with the "theme" of this blog.

Interfaith Worship Take 2

Here's what I imagine will be my final comment on the ecumenical Thanksgiving service that was held here in Grand Rapids this past Monday. I've already moved on, getting ready to celebrate the real Thanksgiving with my family tomorrow. But I promised it and I have to deliver...

The event drew around 500 people, which to me seems like a rather substantial crowd, especially considering the weather. We had a strong and heavy snowstorm throughout the day, which led to jam-packed traffic conditions. The first really cold night we've had this winter provided a great excuse and reason to just stay inside and drink one's hot beverage of choice. But a lot of people thought it important enough to go out into the cold night and be a part of this unique service.

Trinity United Methodist Church hosted the gathering. Trinity is one of the more left-of-center churches in town. In fact, they host the annual meeting of the Institute for Global Education - I was there exactly one week earlier, in the same room that was used for the reception following the worship service. A woman from the church greeted the audience, and then a woman sang a song titled "Swimming to the Other Side." It was one of those earnest folk tunes that avoids any gender-specific references to any particular deity and is perfectly inclusive in every respect. A noble attempt to express encouraging, uplifting thoughts, but to my slightly jaded, cynical ears, just too wordy and self-consciously metaphorical for me to get comfortable with.

A representative from a local "Free Thought" organization then led a responsive reading that again took pains to speak meaningfully to those belonging to "different Faiths or to no Faith." Happy thought, I suppose, that we could all reasonably agree on.

Next we had a Native American man lead us in prayer to the Four Directions (East, South, West, North) as well as to the Sky and Ground. His delivery was a bit faltering, but he seemed very sincere.

There was a bell-ringing choir from Trinity UMC that was very good - I was impressed with how they controlled the sounds of the bells. They performed Faure's "Pavane" and another selection toward the end of the service.

A female pastor from a Spiritualist congregation read a quote from Annie Dillard. A representative from the Baha'i group here in town read from their scriptures, which sounded something like a westernized version of the Quran, in King James (thee, thine) English. Brent Smith, pastor of the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church led a litany that spoke of the "expanding grandeur of Creation" in terms that would make Ralph Waldo Emerson proud.

We heard a reading of several passages from the Quran, in Arabic, which were translated in English so that we could understand what was being said. The text spoke of Allah's provision of abundant crops and admonished us to "waste not by excess: for Allah does not love the wasters." (6:141)

Several African-American women sang a spiritual called "Anyway You Bless Me" which got the crowd clapping and injected a warm emotional note into the proceedings. Then we participated in a unison reading, a statement of thanks to God, led by Rabbi Michael Shaddick from Temple Emanuel.

Following this was what I considered the highlight of the evening, a Sikh prayer sung by two young women that was really beautiful and moving. It had a chanty, trancy quality to it. One of the women played accompaniment on this little keyboard that she fingered with one hand while pumping accordion-like bellows with the other.

Then we had the homily, delivered by Fred Stella, leader of the local Self Realization Fellowship meeting, a meditation group with Hindu roots, who is also head of the Interfaith Dialogue Association that took over the organizational aspects of this meeting following the withdrawal of GRACE that I've described in earlier messages. His message made reference to the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. If I can find a copy of his comments on line, I'll post them here. He's quoted in the GR Press coverage of this article. Basically, my summary of his message is that he sees this coming together of people from different religious traditions as a new, radical and positive thing. I'm not sure I share his assessment. It's not that I see it as bad as much as I am not convinced that this is really a significant movement - it's more of a curiosity, as far as I can tell. Nice to see people living together in a neighborly style, but the event as a whole didn't seem coherent to me. I didn't observe dialogue in the service - it was more like a museum display, or an compilation of religious set-pieces placed side by side. I'd be surprised and kind of concerned to learn of anyone seriously "converted" as a result of the service. It was pleasant, and friendly, but as I listened to his comments and looked around the sanctuary, it seemed to me that the "true believers" from the various faith traditions were largely not in attendance - especially from faiths that are rooted in "ethnic minority" segments of our local population. Until we see some serious engagement happening across community lines, I'll continue to question the effectiveness and premises upon which services like this one are based.

Back to my account of the service and its participants:

A Jewish woman (also from Temple Emanuel) sang a song titled "Bless this House." Then we had a time of silence, introduced by a woman from the local Quaker meeting. Afterward, an offering was taken for the local food pantry, accompanied by three young people on conga drums. We had the bell ringers after that, a final benediction and a Bach "Fantasia" on the pipe organ wrapped things up before we went into the parlor for refreshments.

I noted a couple officials from GRACE who were in attendance. One guy even said to David Baak, one of GRACE's more prominent officials, "Do you have your fake nose and mustache disguise to wear tonight?" as if merely attending the service was enough to get him in trouble...

Overall, I didn't see anything terribly offensive or antithetical to Christianity about the meeting. Those who objected to GRACE's involvement probably took offense at the lack of opportunities to make rebuttal to the inclusive tone of most everything that was said, but I think it would have simply been rude to engage in that kind of debate or confrontation, when nothing of that sort was being directed at Christians or people of any other beliefs. But anyone who would find this meeting threatening or hostile to their faith is, in my opinion, being more reactive and uncharitable than the situation calls for.

Fantasy Sports Update (as if you actually care...)

My fantasy football team lost again this weekend, a squeaker that came down to the last play in last night's Buccaneers/Giants game. I sure do seem to have had some bad luck at these games this year. It looks doubtful that I'll make the playoffs, similar to how my baseball team wound up losing ina tie-breaker after being one of the best lineups all summer long...

Interfaith Worship (short fill-in)

This is just a quick fill-in about the ecumenical worship service, not my official write-up. I didn't have time to do the event justice last night, nor do I expect to do so tonight. I'll just say for now that it was a fairly interesting event, but not really all that compelling. The biggest problem I had with the service was that it was quite obvious to me that this was a synthetic exercise - an a la carte presentation rather than a genuine outgrowth of Spirit that emerged from a community that has been exploring and growing together for some time. The hodgepodge nature of such a gathering interrupts the flow of pneuma so that we wind up with a kind of spiritual "show and tell" presentation. Leading to an inconsistent level of effectiveness, based on how adept each presenter was at summing up his or her tradition quickly and concisely.

Well I will have more to say about this but for now I'll just use this blog to link you to the Grand Rapids Press article, written by Charles Honey who I have met and respect quite a bit. He is a good guy handling a rather sensitive journalistic beat in this town.

The snow came down surprisingly fast and thick today - I'm not ready for this! But it is here anyway. Should melt away soon though, but not tonight. In a short while, I'll be heading off to the ecumenical Thanksgiving service that has made headlines here in Grand Rapids ever since a leading Christian organization (GRACE, Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism) pulled out because some member churches were protesting the involvement on non-Christian groups (Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) in the event.

I've never been to one of these, so by protesting the event, the "conservatives" have at least increased my interest. Though I will go with a critical eye. I'm not at all convinced that this is a good or necessary thing for Christians to do, but I do wonder, since the event has been held for several years, why is GRACE just now pulling out? What has changed in the nature or relationship of religious movements in our community?

I'll be back on the blog later tonight, probably, with a report on what happened.

In this morning's G.R. Press editorial page, I read about a small flap that's developed regarding the B.C. comic strip. The artist, Johnny Hart, has gotten himself into trouble over the past several years as he's incorporated more explicitly religious (Christian fundamentalist) ideas into his panels. Here's a link to his strip from November 10, which some are saying takes a cheap shot at Islam. Notice the crescent moons (in the sky and on the out-house door), the SLAM in a column that could be seen as an "I" and the perplexing lack of anything clearly witty or humorous in what happens. Did Hart think his readers would just laugh at the idea of a person walking into a small building in the dark of night, not realizing he was in an outhouse?

The editorial says he's "shocked" to hear that some would interpret his strip as anti-Muslim, and that in his own words, he's "not that smart." Funny - I recently Bill Frist defend himself using the same exact words when he scheduled a vote for a time when he knew that several leading Democrats would be away from the Senate to attend a presidential debate. (Is this some kind of a "plausible denial" catch-phrase in right-wing circles?) Given his willingness to take jabs at others on the conservative Christian "out" list (liberals, feminists, secularists, environmentalists, etc.), I think he ought to realize that he does have something of a reputation. Plus antipathy toward Islam would fit with his generally conservative views on issues. I have a hard time maintaining a balanced perspective on Islamic culture myself, and I'm actually not very open to incorporating Quranic wisdom into my own life at all, to be honest.

Anyway, it's not all that big a deal, but still kind of intriguing to figure out what is really going on here.

In today's class at church, we wrapped up the N.T. Wright video series on Paul. According to Wright, Paul's "central message" was that up until his time, the whole creation had been groaning in travail, as in the pains of childbirth, and that through Christ, God was demonstrating that He was with us and that furthermore, He was doing something to ease that suffering through the church, which is the body of Christ.

This idea comes from Romans, chapter 8, of course, so there's no problem as far as I can see attributing these ideas to Paul. But to say they are the "central message" of Paul, well I have to think about that. I hesitate to just accept that because I see this idea as one of many that Paul proposed, not THE idea that summed up most everything that Paul was trying to say.

I'm still digesting this one. I will say for now that if this is what Paul was most eager to get across, the church has mostly seemed to have misread him or at least got the emphasis wrong. I don't really see the church as fully engaged with the "groaning" of the world as it could or should be. So does that mean that we're just not getting what Paul was saying? Or is it more the case that Paul said so much that it gives us room to take what we like from his works, make that selective interpretation of Paul a sufficient justification for our own agenda and leave it at that?

I won't even get into the controversies over the pseudo-Pauline writings, though this issue does cloud things a bit when it comes to determining "what Paul really said and meant." There's plenty enough for us to disagree on in our readings of Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Phillipians!

Then there's the question of what to make of the idea that the church is God's way of responding to the collective groaning of not just humanity but the whole creation itself. It's a striking metaphor, and an image that carries some power, but how does it match up to our experience? My impression of the church is that in many cases, it's not merely oblivious to the groaning, it's also giving us even more to groan about! Whether its in the realm of endorsing unjust socio-economic orders, breeding contempt for those who are concerned about the natural environment, sponsoring attitudes that lead to discrimination, oppression or bigotry in the hearts of its members, or lending moral authority and legitimacy to war and violence... How is God's Spirit moving through the world, setting those in bondage free, when so many who claim to be acting in His name seem so intent on refastening those bonds?

I'll leave you with that question, one that I am presently wrestling with.

I've added a new sidebar to this site. It shows my most recent movie (attended in the theater), most recent DVD purchase (not rental), most recent book purchase (not "currently reading") and most recent CD purchase (not counting library loans or oddball acquisitions from dollar stores or other clearance tables that I occasionally patronize.) This is intended to give an idea of my media consumption habits, which reflects fairly accurately what's on my mind these days...

Sunday morning. Got up early, as I always do, to go out and pick up our bundles of the Grand Rapids Press. Two routes worth, adjoining each other, thankfully, one for each of our twins. The routine is that Dad goes out to retrieve the bundles and notifies the boys that it's time to start waking up, Mom gets up as soon as she hears the van pull away, and puts a blanket over our Pakistani rug to prevent ink and other messes from getting into the fabric. Then Dad returns with the bundles and unloads them into the living room. The twins usually stay in bed until either Mom or Dad go into the room to insist that they get up and help unpack the bundles. Then they get up, get dressed, and join us. Mom sits in the midst of the rows of piles of newspaper (which consist either of double or triple bundles for each individual copy, depending on the amount of advertising - today was just a double, but it'll be triples for the rest of the year with the holiday advertising that will hit after this weekend.) She takes one paper from each stack to assemble one full copy and stacks the papers in front of the boys, who then bag 'em up in plastic and toss them to the doorway, where Dad picks them up several at a time and walks them back to the minivan. Once that process runs its course, Dad gathers the leftover papers which would be used if we run short and need to pick up extra supplies, the boys retrieve their delivery bags and Mom picks up all the trash (paper and plastic wrap.) Then it's off to deliver the papers, a few blocks over from where we live. We have been doing this for I think four years now? Something like that... Anyway, we have it down to such a routine that sometimes I'll have little "snap out of it" moments when I'll realize that I don't have any tangible memory of having done a certain section of the route - mainly, I drive the van around, but there are a few homes I deliver to as little time savers, when they are located just off the main course that the boys walk. Most of their customers are elderly, it seems. Brandon's route consists almost entirely of condos in a retirement community, but even the private homes on Curt's route are mostly inhabited by folks in the latter half of their lives. They can be generous with the tips around Christmas time, but also quick to complain or get nit-picky if certain conditions aren't met. The boys have to remember where to deliver papers - some want it on a particular porch, or placed so that the homeowner can open the door and grab the paper without having to step outside, etc. And some will call us at 10 minutes after whatever time the paper is due if they haven't received it yet.

That is probably more than you need to know about our paper route, but it's what I have to say this morning.

I'm on-call supervisor this weekend, so as compensation for carrying the pager, I get an extra day off. I took it yesterday, spending the morning messing about the house, watching the Animatrix on my computer, out to lunch with my pals, then shopping with Julie for my youngest son's birthday present (he turns 14 next Friday.) Went to go pick up my daughter after that. It was a pretty easy, pleasant day. Listened to William Orbit's "Pieces in a Modern Style" later at night, when Julie and I spent time reading our books after the kids were in bed. Also watched a TV show, "Joan of Arcadia," based on the recommendations of others. That's unusual for me these days - I don't watch much "episode TV" at all. Mostly just sports, news, the occasional documentary, sometimes music or comedy shows. DVDs are a different story altogether. I like watching programs of my own selection on the tube. Anyway...

Did a little updating to my website earlier this morning, and a bit of correspondence to my lists as well. Julie was away most of the day, putting up a Christmas tree for a woman who's hired her to do this for several years now. She got paid $260 for her labors today! Of course, it's a big tree with lots of lights. The woman is affluent and does a lot of entertaining. Julie says she keeps her tree up until February, to get the maximum benefit from it.

We enjoy the extra Christmas spending money.

Speaking of money, we have a lot of spending to do. Alyssa's winter tuition bill came in yesterday, our car insurance is due next week (having the twins on our policy adds about $500 to the bill!), and both our vehicles have some maintenance needs that should be tended to before the cold weather sets in. It's been pretty nice around here lately - fairly warm and even sunny, which is nothing to take for granted as far as November in Michigan is concerned.

The "holiday atmosphere" is starting to take hold around here. Christmas music is playing in the retail outlets, advertising is definitely pointing us down the path of gift purchases, the big movie blockbusters are either out or soon to be released, my staff schedule at work is sketched in through the beginning of January and so on. We're about to enter that phase of the loop again.

Not only have I been busy, but I've also not been able to enter anything into my blog because of a problem with my computer not remembering my password. As if I'm supposed to remember it myself!

Anyway, here's real quickly what I've been up to.

Monday night was the annual meeting for the Institute of Global Education, of which I am a board member. The highlight for me is that Mark Mattison is joining the board, which I hope will give us more energy and focus since he's good at facilitating discussion and keeping folks from too much story-telling and meandering. Which is a problem with our board at times.

Tuesday I went out with friends from work to Ucello's Sports Lounge, just to hang out, talk, unwind and socialize. Lots of fun!

Last night, our family watched Finding Nemo, which I saw for the first time (Julie and two of my sons had seen it at least once already.) Cute and funny, I can see why it made so much money this summer.

I also got my copy of the Beatles "Let It Be Naked" CD that just came out. It's great, a real joy to listen to, quite an improvement over the earlier version of that album. The new mix cuts out the banter that might have been funny the first couple times we heard it, but is just distracting now. It also cut out "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" which I never enjoyed listening to and really have no business on an official Beatles album (they would have been fine in the Anthology series.)

That's about it. Nothing all that profound, really, but it's been a good week.

Matrix Revolutions Take 2

I went out with my friend Mark Mattison last night to see the third Matrix film for the second time. It was a 10:30 pm show, so I spent an hour or so resting my eyes listening to the Orb's Orbus Terrarum CD. Then I popped in my DVD of Matrix Reloaded to watch the "Neo meets the Architect" scene one more time before heading off to the theater. Julie was hosting her monthly Creative Memories gathering downstairs and the boys were playing a new Nintendo game, Viewtiful Joe, on their GameCube (until I took over the TV to watch the DVD.)

My experience watching Matrix Revolutions again was overall quite enjoyable, a lot more fun than the first time I saw it in terms of simply appreciating the film for what it is. I've gotten over the apprehensions, curiosities and other expectations that had accumulated over the past several months (the interval between Reloaded and Revolutions.) I'd read other peoples' reviews, blogs and scattered thoughts, talked about it with a few people who've seen it, and thought through what I saw the first time. Now I could just sit back and let it sink in more gradually, taking the finished work in on its own terms.

The final verdict in my book is that this was a very good, satisfying and worthy successor to the first movie, which is still more or less perfectly complete in itself. The trilogy as a whole didn't "need" to be made as far as the original Matrix film was concerned, but it happened and we have us a large-scale epic that tosses out a lot of big questions, aggressively pushes special effects forward, makes several fashion statements along the way and will soon take its place (once the DVD of the last movie is released) as a pop-culture relic to be studied, examined and debated for years to come.

As far as the story itself, it made more sense to me this time. I could reflect on the course of the dialogue more patiently, get a clearer read on what the foreshadowing was pointing the audience toward, and just smile at the visual grandeur of so many scenes. I won't get into a fine-detail analysis of the various symbols, myths and metaphors of the film. I have other things to do this morning. But given my previously expressed ambivalence after seeing it for the first time, I want to come out and give Matrix Revolutions a heartier endorsement this time around. Assuming that you basically liked the concepts and presentation of this movie series in the first place, I would encourage any viewer who seemed disappointed with the first viewing to give the film another shot to see if anything improves after checking out the rerun.

I have a few spare minutes tonight. Julie is out with some friends at the Frederick Meijer Gardens, listening to a talk by Rick Bragg, who is the co-author of the new Jessica Lynch biography. The boys are done playing Ragnarok Online so I got the computer to myself for a little while.

I watched the movie Solaris tonight. A good flick. I like it. It's slow and thoughtful, deliberate, brainy. About a planet that is more like a living organism that responds to the memories of humans in its orbital vicinity by creating replicants of dearly departed loved ones. The story revolves around George Clooney as a psychologist who goes to investigate the strange happenings at an space station. After he arrives, he finds himself visited by his dead wife, who we find out later committed suicide, for which he feels partly responsible. But it's not really his wife, it's an alien that emanated from Solaris, which in a sense is trying to seduce him, a seduction he willingly falls for, since he sees in it a chance to redeem the horrible mistake he made earlier in his life. Any more than that and I've spoiled it more than I already have. But there are some interesting theological elements that weave into the story, plus it's a well-made movie, aimed at adults but also kind of a unique entry as far as dramas intended for more mature audiences are concerned.

The week at work has been pretty good overall. Actually, the past few weeks have been alright. I'm glad of that. It's nice to feel fairly unstressed about my job.

I'm still reading that Dudley Young book, Origins of the Sacred: The Ecstasies of Love and War. What a fascinating book! I would love to share its insights with more people, but as it is, I'm barely able to keep up with the email discussions that are already going in the various groups to which I subscribe. And when I do find the time to sit down and go through my messages, I tend to draw a blank as to what I would like to say in response. I'm kind of overloaded with the ideas contained in all these messages. When I give them at least a portion of the consideration they deserve, I can get frozen trying to figure out what I would say in response. So I wind up just passing them by.

Still, I think I do an okay job of contributing my share to the different groups. But it's hard to keep up the kind of response rate that I used to. And having done that now for a few years, I wonder if the use of my time is justified. I got a lot of that stuff out of my system. I'm not as eager to engage as I used to be. The critical stages have passed, I'm more at ease with just thinking and believing and living as I do without wondering just how my perspectives on various issues fit into the gridwork of competing worldviews and whether or not I am sufficiently "in line" with the authorities who speak officially for the traditions that I claim as my own.

I got to see the lunar eclipse tonight while sitting on my living room sofa. It was a rare clear night in Michigan! If you missed it, you can see the eclipse for yourself right here.

The moon turned to blood!

This morning, in the Adult Education class at Park Church, we watched part of a video series that N.T. Wright made about the apostle Paul. This particular installment (the fourth) covered Paul's understanding of resurrection. What I found most remarkable about the video was that nowhere in it did he directly address the question about what is supposed to happen in the "end of time" event known as the "general resurrection of the dead." Even though he alluded to this happening at some point in the future, nothing was said about how this might transpire. Given the fact that billions of humans have now lived and died, I can't help but wonder about how all of these people are going to be reconstituted in a physical way. What will be the material composition of our bodies? Will the resurrection happen along some kind of naturalistic lines, the result of some kind of process by which we are all "reborn?" The scriptures indicate something different - a kind of miraculous re-awakening, bodies being called forth from the tombs, rising to meet the Lord in the air and so on. But what about all the bodies that have decomposed, whose elements have been dispersed throughout the earth? It is a wierd question, I know, but it seems to me that people who propose that this event will *really happen* at some point in the future of our universe have an obligation to explain at least their best guess as to how it will occur.

Overall, it seemed to me that Wright was trying to adhere to a certain line of orthodox thinking, affirming the classical Christian teaching, while also applying it primarily to the lives we are living here and now, which is fine. But it bothers me that he avoided the most obvious questions that came to my mind. I can recognize why he would - these are tough questions to address, because the minute he says something too vague, rationalistic, uncertain or definitive, there is almost certain to be a highly critical, attacking response from some of his Christian brothers or sisters who don't like his answer. So we are stuck with this evasive tap-dance, answering questions that are a bit further down on our list but are more conventionally comfortable and manageable in the high stakes game of theological propositionalizing.

I went to see Matrix Revolutions on Wednesday (opening night) with my sons. I haven't written any other reviews and even as I sit here typing, I'm not really sure what I'm going to say about it. I will probably need to see it one more time before I can arrive at a final verdict. I left the theater feeling underwhelmed at the resolution of the story, but I also felt pretty engaged in the film while it was in progress, so I won't say that the movie failed to move me.

Probably my biggest disappointment of the film is that I thought some of the more interesting characters were under-utilized. The Merovingian, his wife Persephone and the Architect made what were in effect cameo appearances that didn't balance their more significant contributions to the advancement of the plot in Matrix Reloaded. The machine vs. humans battle during the invasion of Zion was noisy and visually spectacular but really not much more than a high-tech war movie sequence, with lots of shouting and blasting for those who like that sort of thing. The kung-fu and other fighting scenes were somewhat imitative of what we saw in the first two films. Which is hard to avoid, kind of like Star Wars and the light saber duels.

But what is of most relevance here is all the philosophical stuff. The Neo/Jesus parallels are more blatant than ever in this final chapter of the story, even to the point of the crucifixion for the sake of the world's salvation (but there's no apparent resurrection afterward, even though we could say that Neo died and resurrected in the first movie.) Because the nature of a third installment of the trilogy mandates the filmmakers to commit themselves to only one conclusion, there's bound to be disappointment from many of us who had our own imagined endings in mind. And Reloaded definitely laid out a number of options that could have been pursued.

As for the conclusion that the Wachowski Brothers selected, it's not one that seemed especially bold, brilliant or satisfying to me and many others on first viewing. But it may be one that grows on us with repeated exposure and some more time to think about it. Honestly, I think it would be a much harder thing to wrap up the story than it is to set it up and ask provocative questions. Still, I would have liked to see more development of the concepts behind the Matrix itself. What I loved the most about the original movie wasn't the special effects or action sequences, but rather that unsettling sense of not knowing exactly what "reality" we are in. Back when Neo was just another guy like the rest of us, trying to figure out just what's happening around him, and why it seems to be a bit "off" from how it ought to be, he was a character that we could connect with, whose experience in the film mirrored our own. A Matrix trilogy that emphasized the journey of others who were caught in the Matrix but were in the process of extricating themselves from its clutches would have been a lot more satisfying and compelling to me, even though I have to admit that I've been interested in how these movies have developed as well. In that sense, the filmmakers have succeeded in taking me and millions of others along for a ride. But I still can't get away from the feeling that it could have been a lot better than it turned out to be.

Well, that could be said about so many things in this world!

Even though I didn't say a whole lot about my wife's recent surgery, it is and has been a big deal for all of us. Her recovery continues to proceed fairly well but it will be awhile before she's really back to normal. She will get up and do a few things around the house but then she gets tired and/or nauseated and has to sit back down again.

As if this wasn't disruption enough for us, we came back from our Sunday morning paper route to discover that our basement had flooded! Aaaagghhh!!! What a disaster! The cause was a whole lotta rain that fell during the night (and while we were out delivering the Grand Rapids Press) and a sump pump that had been unplugged sometime over the course of the summer when somebody used the outlet and didn't realize what was being unplugged. It didn't get plugged back in until it was too late...

So rather than the laid back, calming and peaceful Sunday afternoon that I had planned and so earnestly desired, I've been involved in a two day process of cleaning up a huge ol' mess, moving everything we have in our basement (our computers, a sofa, a TV stand, two bookcases, a china cabinet, a filing cabinet, several chairs, three tables with all sorts of stuff piled on top of them, a CD rack and I think that about covers it) back and forth several times as we lifted the carpet and tried to dry things out as best we could.

So now it's Tuesday morning, everything is pretty much back in place (though we did take the opportunity to change the layout of our furnishings) but a musty funky smell permeates the area and has seeped into the upstairs as well. Ecch. Unfortunately, we just don't have the room or the time to do the clean-up perfectly "right" which would have consisted of lifting the carpet off the floor entirely, stretching it out on a flat surface, letting it dry out completely on both sides, and laying it back down only after the concrete floor had aired out for a day or two. I do hope that we will be able to either get the smell out ourselves or that it will die down "naturally." Otherwise, our incense, potpourri and candle budget will have to dramatically increase. And it's too cold and dreary in Michigan in November to just open the windows and air the place out!