A bigger stage

OK, I'm a publicity hound.

I really like it when readers write to me, taking my columns seriously enough to respond, even when they disagree. But I have to say that I got a start when I realized my musings at GetReligion ( http://getreligion.org) are being linked to other 'blogs on science, religious orthodoxy, and to that of a writer in Lancaster, where I have a monthly column.

The idea that others are reading carefully enough to want to comment on their sites makes me wonder if I'm really polished enough for that mass audience. Surely they can discern all of the cracks, glossed over with a few trendy terms and a critical eye?

Actually, folks seem remarkably charitable. Hopefully they will hold me accountable when I display my ignorance -- and I wont have too many dreams where I show up for work dressed only in my underwear!

Great article from Krugman in the NY Times

Congrats, Paul Krugman on winning the Nobel Prize for your work on global financial markets.

Check out this link for today's column on how the British government moved quickly and craftily to help reassure consumers - and take a beachhead in the almost unregulated private sector. In comparison, we seemed to be drifting. Ok, so Great Britain is a "junior partner" -- but junior partners have good ideas sometimes.

I sense the pendulum swinging, you de-regulators. Let's just see if establishing some standards brings a little stability - if it doesn't, feel free to call for deregulation again. But if it does...

Hungry

I'm done with Bill Ayers, for the moment - a guy who probably made some great contributions to education, but can't seem to get over himself.

Back to the dating world, with a bit of religion thrown in (well, a lot, but take only as much as you can stand).

So often, I have been thrown back into that strange phantasmagorical land in which I am never quite sure what is true and what is fiction -- mine, or someone elses.

Everyone is seeking, and many of the guys have ventured far afield, into places I would never dream of going.

I still don't dream of these places, and I've certainly heard more than enough to construct a decent fantasy. I think that tells me something.

My fantasies seem so daytime by contrast.

I would like a sometime companion, a fellow voyager, a guy with a wacky sense of humor and a love of fitness, someone humane and loving towards kids -- but I've been solicited for other kinds of relationships so often that I am often quilled, like a porcupine facing a predator.

At church today, I was taking communion when the praise band started playing one of my very favorite songs, "Hungry," by Jeremy Camp.


hungry I come to You for I know You satisfy
I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry
so I wait for You
so I wait for You
I'm falling on my knees offering all of me Jesus,
You're all this heart is living for
broken I run to You for Your arms are open wide
I am weary but I know Your touch restores my life
so I'll wait for You
so I'll wait for You

If I hadn't been in the room where we pray for folks, waiting for some victim of the financial crisis to come for spiritual solace, I would have sat in my pew with tears streaming down my face. The past month has been so tough (for reasons that have nothing to do with dating) that I am drained, running on fumes, and hungry...so I'll wait for You when I crave truth.

And hope, in the meantime, that Mr. Relatively Normal (but not boring) comes into my life.

I wonder what these guys, with their law degrees and good salaries and many gifts and hunger ---I wonder what they are waiting for. Whatever it is, I hope they find something worth having.

Ayers, too

If you look at the sidebar, you will see that Slate has two articles on Ayers -- one is about McCain's efforts to try to tie Obama to Ayers and why that might not work, and the other is about Ayers himself. From the little I've read about him (and some of it is old) he sounds like a quintessential 60's radical. From 1970 to 1974, the Weather Underground carried out around 12 bombings. If I were a former bomber, now the father of twenty somethings, I can't imagine being proud of that. But Ayers seems remarkably unrepentant. Does that make Obama a potential bomber? Nonsense. Does it make him unwise for having associated with Ayers, even if that association was relatively distant? Possibly -- but if we are judged by our associates, many of us would be up to our neck in crocodiles.

Article from last week

Giving, even in tough times, is a sound spiritual investment
Lancaster
By Elizabeth FOCUS ON FAITH
You know the pain is there, even if you can't see it.The "auction" sign tacked up at a house we drive by on our way to church.The newspaper reports of sharp drops in production in the auto industry and slowdowns in manufacturing.And let's not even talk about the stock market.Behind all of these industries are people — parents who wonder how they are going to feed their children and pay the rent; teenagers worrying they won't be able to go to college; senior citizens seeing their retirement money diminish.
How should people of faith respond?Tempting as it might be, we cannot afford to wall ourselves off from others in this time of crisis, whether we have enough or are struggling.Our major faith traditions call us to help brothers and sisters in need. As we do so, we recognize how connected we are to them — how their well-being really is ours, too.Volunteering at food kitchens, adding another $10 or $20 to the check when we donate to local charities, checking on a neighbor who might need something done around his or her house can deepen our own sense of faith — and of gratitude.
Pondering the message of St. Paul's letter to the congregation in Philippi, Pastor Chad, the head of my church, nailed it when he wrote in a recent newsletter:"If the popular 'prosperity gospel' is wrong in promising that greater giving automatically leads to wealth and good fortune, another problem may be a 'scarcity gospel' that ignores what blessings we do receive when we give, such as a fuller experience of God and one another, a chance to connect with something larger and more important than ourselves, and the discovery that Jesus is right. In giving, even when it's hard, we receive — more than we thought possible."I asked a friend, the pastor of a rural Methodist church, whether the economic crisis was affecting his congregation. While there hasn't been a lot of talk about it in congregational meetings, he said that his church would probably donate part of the proceeds of a recent fair to a couple. The man was ill and his wife had recently been laid off from work.When ties of neighborly love link a community, then giving and receiving can become profound blessings.Whether we are hurting financially or in decent shape, citizens of faith are facing another, more subtle challenge in this time of trial.Judging by what we hear from our elected representatives, many of us feel betrayed — by the bankers who bet our money on bad debt, by the mortgage broker who trusted we wouldn't read the fine print, by the boss who decided he or she couldn't make payroll anymore.Righteous anger is natural, and often justified. Jesus, for one, didn't ask us to maintain zombie-like calm in the face of injustice. Nor do the Hebrew prophets, for that matter. But Jesus does call on us to try to sit down with those who have wronged us, if possible. And if we cannot do that, he commands us to forgive them.That doesn't mean we have to like them. But it does mean that our actions in these difficult times should not be motivated by a desire for revenge.In an e-mail, Pastor Chad recalled some verses from Philippians that he has found particularly helpful as he, and we, walk in the valley of uncertainty."…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11b-13)."Let us pray for the spiritual strength that draws us closer to our neighbors and renews the bonds of trust that we need as individuals and as a nation.Let us also beseech God for the contentment that does not deny fear, or anxiety, but knows that He is at our side — and on it.

The Focus on Faith column appears on the first Saturday of each month.

Pardons

I don't think folks are bringing up Charles Keating anymore -- after all, last week is so yesterday. But the McCain camp is running ads linking Obama to Bill Ayers. In case you've been in a country where there are no newspapers, Ayers is the former head of the Weather Undergound. Apparently, he's now teaching English at the University of Chicago in Illinois. A Distinguished Professor, Ayers has got to be a little bemused at all the publicity.

Somehow I sincerely doubt that his neighbors shun Ayers. I don't think that students refuse to take his courses. I'm guessing Ayers is a family guy (not like the TV show) and an excellent neighbor.

What's peculiar is that Obama and McCain are being blamed for hanging out with shady characters more than 10, and in McCain's case, 20 years ago! Obama committed no ethical infraction. McCain did some things that displayed poor judgement.

Can't we pardon them and get on with the business of electing the one who is now most able to help us back on the right track?

Bill Ayers isn't going to be a Cabinet Secretary and McCain isn't intervening in failing banks. Well, not yet, anyway. Who knows what kind of skills our next President will need? Maybe that Keating experience will come in handy!

Where's the "boy" next door?

Those of you who like to see me pontificate (Pope Benedict is under no threat) on the debates, world finance, and the Episcopal Church may want to skip this post. It's more of a mini-lament than anything profound. The topic? Why I'm so fussy about dating -- and whether there is anything I can do about it.

Let me say, first off, that I am well aware that I come with cracks and chips and lost bits, too. I'm not standing on a mountaintop looking down -- not at all.

Over the past month, I've been contacted by some really nice guys, and a couple of people I suspect are jerks. Unfortunately, sometimes you can't tell they are jerks until you talk to them a few times -- because even a cad can be good looking, intelligent, and interesting (recall high school?)

But the nice guys also come with liabilities. A few live far enough away to make a relatiosnhip impractical. Finding time to go out with friends is hard enough -- stealing the time to get to Staten Island overnight almost beyond possible. A few didn't have my jones for politics, or novels, or the arts --- that doesn't make them stupid, just in a different place. And a couple of guys have tense relationships with their exes -- and need some help to get healed.

In and of themselves, none of these are deal-breakers (except, maybe the distance). If a guy lived close enough to meet, and I grew fond of him, a lot of this might not matter. The problem is that I really, really really need to want to be in a relationship to accept these boundaries.

I haven't, so far. Perhaps I'll get to the place where I am not so fussy. Or perhaps I'm not fussy, just realistic about what I can and can't accept.

I suspect the latter. Which, of course, makes the search even harder.