The Family Letter

Okay, so upon reflection I know what bothered me so much about the Protestant worship service today. It was all about, "God loves us," and "praise God," but we didn't have even one scripture reading. He quoted the Bible in his sermon, Genesis, Numbers, and one of the Epistles. But we didn't have a straight reading. And nothing at all from the Gospels. Zip.

I think if he'd been anything less than a Captain (that's a Colonel in the Air Force, one notch below General) I might have had the nerve to ask him, politely, if that was the norm. I'd love to have a discussion, again not heated I hope, about not even reading from the gospel at a Christian service.

When one eliminates the service of table, and boils the service of the word down to just a sermon, is anything really left that's Christian?

Heather and Si: If you read this before you see the next Dead Zone, STOP READING. I'm about to give away the entire show. We can talk about it later.

So, a quick refresher for everyone else. The TV show Dead Zone is about a guy who is in a coma for six years. When he comes to, everything has changed… His fiancée married someone else, but still had their child. The child doesn't know him. And best of all, when he touches things and people he gets visions which encompass the past and future. The premise comes from a Stephen King novel. Originally I thought it wasn't a horror type concept, but I think I am beginning to understand.

In this episode, Johnny meets an old friend from high school, who is dying due to a heart problem. He's on the donor list for a transplant, but doesn't know if he'll get a new heart. He asks Johnny to touch him to find out if he gets the heart he needs. Johnny sees the heart come into the hospital and the operation, which ends successfully. He tells the friend this, and partying ensues.

At the party Johnny comes into contact with his friend's sister, who is taking new interest in Johnny. Johnny has another flash, and sees the sister in a horrible car accident… It turns out it is her heart that saves the brother.

With me so far? So he has a choice. He can tell the sister, or try to prevent the accident. But if that happens, the brother dies. He explores other options, first trying to get him higher on the donor list by pulling some strings. But then someone else, a 28 year old teacher, will not get a needed transplant.

He then tracks down the driver of the other car in the accident, a multiple-DUI person. He traces him to a bar, and interacts with him. After a bit of talking, he decides to punch him out, preventing him from being in the accident. As soon as he makes initial contact (grabbing his collar), he watches the accident not take place (in other words, punching him prevents it). Then he sees a few days pass, and watches the same guy plow into a school bus full of children. So he pulls the punch and goes back to the drawing board.

In the meantime, he's "seen" another cause of the accident that kills the sister: He and she have an argument, she storms out of his house, and drives recklessly. So in a way, Johnny's partially responsible.

So what do we have? Save the sister, kill the brother. Stop the drunk, kill school children. Find another donor, kill someone else who needs the transplant. Argue with the sister, she dies, but the brother gets the heart he needs.

There are other factors. The sister is discovering feelings for Johnny, and he feels they might be reciprocal. The brother leads a rather free and loose life, and there's no guarantee he'll clean up his act if he lives. The brother ends up in the hospital mid-show, and accuses Johnny of being a fake, and lying to him to keep his hopes up (Johnny didn't lie, he saw what he said he saw).

So, what would YOU do with that kind of, well, power? What would I do? It may not be your standard horror show, but that kind of ability is pretty horrible.

So what would you do?

[Major long blog. Heads up...]

Yeah, yeah, I know… It's been a while. Well over a week since I posted. Sorry, y'all.

A lot has happened since I last really blogged… I finished up my retreat at St. Gregory's Abbey by attending Matins on Friday morning (that'd be 14 March). Their Matins is at 0400, so I loaded the car almost completely the night before, went to bed early, and got up early. Right after Matins ended (perhaps 0445) I hit the road for Columbus, OH.

I spent the weekend with my brother, Tim, in his brand new apartment. It's older than his last one, but new to him. It's in a much nicer section of town (homes versus strip malls) and actually has a river in the backyard, trees, courtyards, and so on. It is also on the second floor, so he feels like he can leave the shades open and still have privacy. It has nice wood floors, a spacious living area, no termites, and water pressure. You begin to get the picture of what the old place was like yet? This is a major improvement. It is also about four or five blocks away from the house I stayed at when I was there for CPE. Cool!

The first night we basically bummed around the apartment, installed some mini-blinds (quite a challenge at first, but we got a pattern going… I'm really glad I helped dad make home improvements all those years ago!), tidied up a bit, and unpacked a bit (he hasn't been there that long). One of his goals was to get everything out of boxes in this new place (some stuff was still packed from his first move a couple of years ago). To that end I gave him (on permanent loan) a small IKEA bookshelf, which got loaded almost immediately.

Graduation and ordination gift ideas… Think IKEA gift certificates!

Saturday Tim, Tyler, and I went down to Germantown and hung out there. We contemplated checking out the Ohio Historical Center, but didn't like the looks of the facility, and Tyler said it wasn't great. When we found out how much it was just to park we really decided to skip that. Back at the apartment area Tim and I took a walk along the river (there's a bike path, tougher to get to than Tim would like), shopped for a hook to hang plants from (got a plant, too) and hung out at the apartment some more. Tim needs to get a "Studfinder" (TM) from someone before the hook goes in.

At the entrance to the apartment area (there are many buildings in the area, only one street in/out) there is a pizzeria, Mamma Mia's. They make the pizza and you cook it. We got one Saturday night and it was quite good.

Sunday I went to church at an Episcopal Church near the apartment (maybe 1.5 miles north). I met Tim at a pastry shop just a short way from Mama Mia's for breakfast. After that we went hiking (at one of the Columbus Metroparks), came home, and then went air conditioning shopping. Interestingly enough, despite the really warm weather that weekend, no one had any out yet. Dinner was back at the apartment (Chinese for me–get this, the vegetable fried rice has pork in it… sigh), and dessert was at the ice cream shop across from Mama Mia's. It's a good thing the workout center is right next to the ice cream shop!

That week was Spring Break at Seabury, so I went from Columbus to Erie via Sharon, PA. I met a realtor in the afternoon and discussed home ownership in that area, then met with my future boss and rector of St. John's. After that I had dinner and discussion with their vestry. They basically grilled me after I gave a short bio. It seemed to go well (and actually have since received a letter the rector sent to the Bishop saying that it went well). I finished the trip to Erie that night, while listening to the President issue his final ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. Sigh.

This blog will be really long if I do a blow by blow of the entire week, so here are the highlights: Tuesday I took the car to New Motors to get a new PA in