Thoughts on Hospitality

Hospitality is so close to my heart that I hesitate to write about it publicly. I don't know when exactly I started thinking about it. But I have a feeling that it has been growing inside me ever since I was a child, always a guest in the home of a babysitter while mom was at work; always in someone else's house in the very midst of their lives.

I want to be as hospitable as possible. But, honestly, I have no idea what it means to be so. Todd says it's a matter of attitude--he feels comfortable when the host is happy. Lachelle says it's allowing people freedom--free cupboard access, freedom to go to sleep or wake up as they please. Bill says it's a matter of "food and drink, and plenty of it!"

I am beginning to believe that hospitality requires some self-discipline. It seems to be saying, 'I am giving what I have for your benefit, even that which is as close as the same food I eat and the same floor I walk on.' Welcoming someone into one's home is humbling: one does not keep one's guests company, they keep the host company--the guests are bestowing the honor upon the host. Pastor Josef did not know he was teaching me hospitality when he said that as a young man he made up his mind that no one should be lonely if he could help it. So long as he was in the room, he would find the lonely people. As he seeks them out, the once lonely person finds that he or she is received as an honored guest in his presence. What a gift to love people that much! It must be a discipline.

What's more, it is a sacred charge. A person is trusting a host with his or her own well-being for some duration of time. Naturally, when we take up such a responsibility, many blessings follow, regardless of the guest's state of gratitude.

This is a study which I am gladly undertaking. Though hospitality may not be in my nature, I hope to practice all my life, and to pray for it long enough that God must give ear.

Hello 2010.

God is just as good as ever.

I know that with Him, it's always better and better.

The Bare Minimum

On the bus a few weeks ago, I sat with some friends and we talked about the bare minimum requirements for living. Melody and I came to the conclusion that we could survive on coffee and sunlight. I think I can safely add that we were taking the Lord's grace for granted as we made our lists.

I'm in Waynesboro and have just enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee. It's time to show my face to the sun. And it is a-shinin'!

Christmas Break

Hustle and Bustle
and
breathe.
Hustle and Bustle
and
breathe.


Finals claimed my last three weeks of this semester. I am so grateful to the Lord that I had the chance to focus completely on my schoolwork. I was only distracted by meandering thoughts and the insatiable desire to make things rhyme, or put words to cadence. My winter break will include: another go at the Lord of the Rings, a visit to the Fulton Theater, a visit to the Vietnamese restaurant down the street, dusting, some working, talking on the phone, and some quiet contemplation.

Teaching vs. Apprenticeship

I have not even finished reading this article, but I have to stop and wonder at these bits. It is taken from an article on Wishtank.com, "From Schools to Learning Communities: A Historic Shift" by Dr. Ron Miller.

"During the past 25 years, education has become ever more standardized, ever more mechanical, as it serves a political and economic agenda of competition, production and corporate profit. Young people in the present system are not perceived as growing, active human beings who seek meaning and connection to the world, but as units of production whose academic achievements contain primarily economic value. The age of modernity has reached its zenith, so that now even first graders — six year old children — are rigorously tested to ensure that they fit into the system, while those who resist mechanistic discipline are sedated with powerful drugs."

http://www.wishtank.org/magazine/commons/from_schools_to_learning_communities_a_historic_shift/

A Deli Christmas

First things first: this is finals week, and the week before Christmas, and there is a lot to do. But at work, there is not a lot to do. By what evidence, you ask? Wayne was inspired by the muses this afternoon and rewrote the Twelve Days of Christmas for me, complete with props, it was beautiful.

an old moldy wedge of brie cheese
two chicken breasts
three french fries
four thawing burgers
five onion rings!
six geese have laid these [eggs]
seven olives swimming
eight pints of milk [that's one gallon, to the layman]
nine honey mustards
ten leaves of lettuce
eleven peppers pepping
twelve hashbrowns browning

Also today, Bill got locked inside the ladies' room for over ten minutes. He always uses the ladies' room, see. And the lock had been finicky for months. But, o fates!, the door has always managed to open in the past, despite great difficulties that the poor customers suffer. He called Leonardo, the prep guy, from his cell phone. Leonardo, doubtless, recognized on the caller ID that it was Bill calling. But he is kind of vindictive. So he let it ring. Finally Gary came to the rescue and opened the door. Bill then posted a sign that read something like: You may enter, but good luck getting out, the lock is broken.

Something to Begin

Please write a poem ending with these words:



those indifferent stars.