summer in the Ville

con: My skin is dry almost all the time. It's a desert. My lips are chapped. I have had a dry throat for a week.

pro: It's not humid and I don't sweat just because I'm breathing.

pro: People are fit and proud of it. It's the norm instead of something the majority sort of despise.
 
pro: mountains

pro: education level

pro: freecycle

pro: roommates and amount of people I know who volunteer

con: i'm still adjusting to the altitude and it feels like i'm dying every time i run. still.

pro: Boettcher

So I'm in this program called the Boettcher Teachers Program. It's sorta hard to explain.
But it's amazing.
I just got back from a 3-day retreat in Estes Park at the Aspen Lodge. 20 fellows, aspiring teachers dedicated to urban and social justice education, 3 professors, and so many insights, excitments, shared interests, past volunteering experiences, and blessed communion of souls.

It was a spiritual experience. I am thrilled to be part of this talented, compassionate, dedicated group. I don't have the energy to write about everything now, but as the year continues I'm sure Boettcher will be a recurring theme in my posts.

Friday  night Theresa and I went to a free movie in the park.

It was called Where God Left His Shoes and showed a very realistic portrayal of a family that sinks into situational homelessness, perhaps leading to chronic homelessness because of problems in the system. I highly recommend the movie as a way to see another side of homelessness.

Theresa and I also had the pleasure of playing with an 8 week old terrier before the movie started.

And oh yeah, the sun set, and it was gorgeous, with downtown in the distance, the clouds aflame, and trees and people sitting on blankets united to support housing the homelessness.

Wednesday I awoke at 6am (I planned on waking up at 5) and headed to the bus stop by 6:20 or so. I hopped on the bus at about 6:25am and arrived at the stop right before Thornton High at 7:00am.

Then I crossed the street and headed back south, arriving back at 7:30am. There were no mishaps, I didn’t get on the wrong bus like last time, and I met many kind people. On the way back a small family got on the bus and kind of cornered me, because of their stroller. The little girl was beautiful, but very worried about her flip flop. Her older brother and I laughed about it and wished each other a good day. I’m excited to continue meeting new people on public transportation. Something about getting the small chance to either brighten or cloud someone’s day gives me a rush. Often I’m sure I’m a neutral or cloudy presence, but I hope that more often than not my smile and willingness to share are well received.

After working out at DU, I took the train back north. I met some friendly students from Hong Kong on the way.

They were about my age, and were visiting for the week because of an international horn festival. One played tuba, one alto sax, and one oboe. We traded names and laughed at our pronunciation, how long they’d been playing, and they asked about what there was to see in Denver. I’ve just moved here, but I was proud I could already tell them a little bit. We took a picture together and then parted ways.

The Central Public Library was the last place I wanted to explore. It is enormous and amazing. I was in heaven. There were CDs galore to check out, plentiful study areas, and the kids section was gorgeous. I took photos to show.

Thursday I biked all day long and have a lovely little sunburn to show for it. I biked past two Episcopal churches in the area-both beautiful, and read at the Tattered Cover all morning. I spent the time reading the last Harry Potter book. So dark! It put me in a blue mood all day long.

I came home for lunch and then Theresa and I went to Whole Foods for sun block. Too bad I didn’t put any on! We grabbed a couple smoothies at a coffee shop and then biked downtown. The 16th Street Mall is so crowded! It’s cool to live in a place that tourists come to see, but I left shortly for someplace with a few less bodies. I ended back in my neighborhood at Blackberries and read more depressing Harry Potter.

By the end of the night, at 1am, the book was over, and all was well with the world again.

Today I woke up at 8:30am, after listening to NPR on my clock radio for an hour. Luxurious. But I really need to start kicking myself into gear.

I ran to City Park, the biggest, most beautiful park in the city, just a 10 min run/20 min walk from Casa Cristina. I ran. After 10 min, I was ready for a break, so I walked a bit in the park, and then it was back another 10 min in the mile high altitude. I was tired, but confident I would adjust quickly. I’ll let you know how my Thursday run goes.

After the run, I picked weeds out front. I’m determined to turn our stretch of derelict landscaping into an oasis of self sustaining plant life. More work now, hopefully less work and more aesthetically pleasing in the long run.

At high noon, Mother T and I went to the Catholic Worker. We prayer silently for peace with Sister Ana and Darlene and Jennifer until 12:30 and then it was lunch! I’m loving being a vegetarian so far. Meals are so easy now, because there’s so much fresh fruit and vegetables in season. I can just slap a whole wheat sandwich together and drink some milk, and I’m good to go. Last night Nina told me about how environmentally destructive cattle farming is. We put so many resources into cattle, just so we can have steak. This is coming from the granddaughter of a rancher. Hope he doesn’t disown me. Fingers crossed. But really, eating smaller game, fowl, and more grains would be better for me health wise and the environment, too. I’m doin it!

After the Catholic Worker, I headed to DU again today.
Round 1.
Yesterday I walked to the parking garage I was directed to in order to get my free public transit sticker. I walked by a clear glass door with a sign clearly stating “Please walk to the door around the corner. This is NOT an entrance.” So I dutifully walk to the other entrance, and when I get there, the girl behind the desk informs me I need to go back, to the door I’d just passed, and that they just closed 5 minutes ago.
DU-1 Gwen-still paying for the train
Round 2.
I head directly to the glass door, after paying another $2 for the train south. I remember it closed at 3 yesterday, so I arrive at 2pm, promptly. Much to my chagrin, it is closed on Tuesdays. Today is Tuesday.
DU-2 Gwen-still paying for the train, but has memorized the schedule for the rest of the week, and will be there promptly at noon tomorrow, when it SAYS it’s open, and it had better be open or…

I took the train back north to the Osage and 10th St. station and rode my bike to what I hoped would be an organic store to get a toothbrush and toothpaste. After a few detours, and asking some people who didn’t know where it was, chatting with Michael on the phone for a bit and taking the opportunity to sit down (I was dripping at this point), I found it. It was beautiful. I emerged from the store, triumphant with my tooth supplies, and still sopping wet from the bike ride.

Ace Hardware was next and I quickly conquered it as well, emerging victorious with 2 copies of my car key, one for the house and one for Michael. I love Ace Hardware. They are so friendly. In Grand Island the store is sounded by spacious parking and a large empty lot where the farmer’s market happens regularly. This location in Denver was smooshed on to a street corner, aisles cozy and cluttered. The employees were just as friendly as in Nebraska, and my keys were equally cheap. Yay Denver!

On the ride back to the house, I took some photos along Clarkson.

I smiled at everyone I met and received many smiles and Hellos in return. When I got back to the house, there were 3 adolescent boys leaning over along the side of the house. I was curious, suspicious, but tried to stay my wariness.

“Hi. What’re you guys doing?”
“We’re just filling some water balloons.”
“Oh.”
“Is it OK if we use the faucet?”
“Sure. I’m new and didn’t even know we had a faucet there.”
“Do you guys live in the neighborhood?”
“Yeah, I live across the street.” [He pointed.]
“What’s your name?”
“Milton.”
“I’m Gwen.”
“This is Henry and Ryan.”
“You guys in middle school?”
“Naw, we’re going to be in high school.”
“OK. Who’re you going to throw the waterballoons at?”
“Those kids over there…”
“Ok. Have fun.”

They were all Latinos and very polite. Milton was their spokesman. I hope I get to see them again soon.

Now I’m at the coffee shop down the street and reading Harry Potter, the 5th one.

Life is beautiful.

90 degree weather
no air conditioning in the car or the house
4-5 fabulous roommates
Denver
2 parents and their pick up truck

mix these things together and get a day full of sweat, short tempers, silly games of rummikub, and a half unpacked room.

i'm sure more fun will follow tomorrow.

appendix 2 from Jesus for President

Web Appendix 2
Appendix 2:
Mohammed for President?: Pluralism and Uniqueness
A disastrous by-product of the US led wars since 9/11 has been the increasing
fear, antagonism, and violence between Christians and Muslims. A cartoon in some
small European newspaper caused riots and killing all over the world. A comment by the
Pope incited mass protest and anger from Muslims around the world. An Israeli bomb
dropped in Lebanon has “Made in the USA” stamped on its shrapnel, connecting in their
minds the bomb back to a “Christian nation.” The “war on terror,” now dubbed “the long
war” to prepare you for its longevity1, led largely by Christians, has resulted in the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
The Muslim world, in feeling this rising tension, may conclude what many
Christians think of Muslim terrorists: “those religious fanatics think that violence will
solve their problems.” Some people in Iraq refer to many in the U.S. as “Christian
extremists.” The relationship between Christians and Muslims is at a pinnacle of
fragility, as volatile as a powder keg in a room of flying sparks. One must wonder if, at a
time like this, anybody should be writing a book with such a totalizing and unpluralistic
title as “Jesus for President.” Doesn’t this worsen the harsh and violent outcomes of
mixing faith and politics? How would we feel about a book titled “Muhammad for Prime
Minister”?
Peacemaking between Christians and Muslims will not happen through either
party denying the political and public expressions of their faith (nor would that likely
happen), but through continually seeking the true depths, meaning, and practice of their
own faith. It is easy to forget where most problems stem from in religious conflict: it is
not when each side too greatly believes their faith, but it is when people forget and
confuse their faith, zealously combining it with another faith (patriotism, nationalism,
global-capitalism) and violence. The befuddling mystery of our day is not the presence
of sincere Muslims but violent Christians.
Conflict arises between faiths when people think their faith is not faith, but a
weapon, knowledge of scientific certitude. Faith is hoping and living for what you
cannot see and know for sure. In faith we confess the truth; we don’t have the truth.
Philosophically we might call that an epistemological gap; the Bible simply calls it
“seeing through a glass dimly.” Faith is truly faith when you live that unlikely hope now.
If you don’t live faith, it is demoted to the status of a dream. But when you think you
have your faith set in stone as a fact, it is mutated to the status of a crusade or a jihad.
Certainly the scriptures speak of living your faith with steadfast assurance, but
those exhortations are so that people live in a certain way. And yet, ever since the
“scientific revolution” it seems that the church has become afraid of the supposed claims
of science, thinking that science provides unquestionable facts for knowledge. In
response the Church has attempted to counter “science” with its own “assurance of
salvation.” This is a misunderstanding of scientific knowledge. Any 6th grade science
class will teach you that science never assuredly arrives at “facts”; the best information
science provides is a theory, supported by some experiments, as yet to be disproved.

1 See Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2006. “Rumsfeld Offers Strategies for Current War.”

Science should not be feared, but understood as a method for understanding how reality
and matter work. Faith, on the other hand, serves to see through and beyond matter, to
see into the heart of things, to offer a vision for life and meaning.
The Church need not transform faith into stone-cold facts. The glass we dimly
see through will not be shattered so we can see clearly. What the Church is supposed to
do with Jesus is not to convince everybody that he is an irrefutable fact (lest they burn!),
but to act like him. This is also to say that a Christian’s goal is to believe in the way of
the cross and resurrection enough to actually follow suit. This is largely more difficult
(and rewarding) than convincing one’s self or others to abstractly “believe” in it. Belief
begins when you take the steps of obedience.
In reaction to the vigorous awkwardness of fundamentalists, some may want to
avoid identification with a set of beliefs by formulating the fashionable dichotomies:
“I’m not religious, I’m spiritual.”
“I’m not a Christian, I’m a follower of Jesus.”
“I like Jesus, but not the Church.”
There seems to be little hope in the project of Christians to pretend to have a
different name than they have had since the Church’s inception. It is worth noting that
“Christian” was a derogatory name given to Christians because they acted like Jesus the
Christ. If anything, this should remind us that we would do better to have others define
for us whether we are faithful Christians (likely with their verbal abuse, not praise).2 It is
also worth reframing our imaginations to think of ourselves as a part of the Body of
Christ—a more communal, less individualistic identity than “Christian.” Or perhaps we
should see “Christian” as a title for which we are aspiring, not that we have attained. But
none of these seem like good enough reasons to assume we are doing Jesus a favor by
losing the common name and calling ourselves “followers of Jesus.”
Or one might want to go further and opt out of the entire drama, saying, “religion
is too controversial. I don’t want to believe anything.” But, the idea of a reverting to a
neutral culture is an illusion from pluralism. Even if someone has “no religion” she still
chooses to order her life in particular ways, eat in certain ways with certain types or
numbers of people, keep to certain rhythms of life, obtain life-supplies from the earth in a
certain way (tan a hide or go to Wal-Mart), attend meaningful ceremonies (be it the pub’s
conversation or a football game’s pomp), etc. These are all elements that comprise one’s
“religion” and “culture” (notice how cult, group worship, is at the root of culture). It is
not as if we are born into a default, flat setting, and then we may or may not choose to
add some accessories (some religious actions here, some cultural motifs there). If we do
not recognize and choose to cultivate our religion, the most powerful nearby religion will
do it for us: the powers, the state, the culture at large, or those who make money by
drawing us into their fabricated TV culture. The State has (or is) faith system of its own3,

2 Gandhi’s response to the question, “Are you a Christian,” came the response, “ask the
poor.”
3 William Cavanaugh, in Torture and Eucharist (Blackwell Publishing, 1998, p.136),
cites the following, “The modern State aspires to be Weltanschauung, a conception of the
world and of life, in substance, a religion. Christianity too is a Weltanschauung, besides
being a supernatural religion. Between Christianity and the modern State conceived as a
Weltanschauung conflict is inherent and inevitable” (Luigi Sturzo, Church and State,)

a way to view and act in the world. The Church must not hand its politics over to the
State while keeping its “spiritual” convictions to oneself—as if true spiritual convictions
have no real world implications. The question is not if you are religious or not, political
or not. We all undoubtedly embody some kind of religion and politics—it’s how that
matters.
It is in living one’s faith, instead of attempting to convince or kill others to believe
it, where different faiths might have legitimate interchange. Scholars and theologians of
differing faiths will have deeply meaningful discussion to the extent that they are also
practitioners, not just indifferent knowledge-brokers. For example, we have been
impressed to remember that many Muslims and Jews do not charge financial interest
because of their faith. They do this because, stemming from the tradition of the Torah, it
takes advantage of their neighbor. It is an act of healing the world, though it undoubtedly
requires a sacrifice from them. Wouldn’t Christians do well, instead of aggressively
partaking in market capitalism, if they did something (every day, systematically,
economically) for the sake of others because of their faith? With practical examples, we
learn greatly from other faiths (even though this practice comes from the same Bible).
Some might consider our call to seek out and live the radical depths of faith as
insulting the debonair demands of pluralism, as a retreat into tribal barbarism. Duke
Professor Hauerwas and Willimon offer a counter point:
We reject the charge of tribalism, particularly from those whose theologies serve
to buttress the most nefarious brand of tribalism of all—the omnipotent state. The
church is the one political entity in our culture that is global, transnational,
transcultural. Tribalism is not the church determined to serve God rather than
Caesar. Tribalism is the United States of America, which sets up artificial
boundaries and defends them with murderous intensity. And the tribalism of
nations occurs most viciously in the absence of a church able to say and to show,
in its life together, that God, not nations, rules the world.4
Lastly, Christians would do well to sympathetically learn about other faiths—for a
deeper reason than learning how to convert them. How can a Christian, who so fervently
believes that they have chosen “the best religion,” also know nothing about what a Taoist
means when they refer to “the Tao” or the “Four Greatnesses”? Or how could one
genuinely say, “I don’t believe in Islam” when he or she has never spent time studying
the Koran? You cannot reject something you do not understand.
Certainly pluralism has thrown Christians into a frenzy of confusion, resulting
often in either aggressive fundamentalism (an epistemology of dogmatic “knowledge”
over faith) or in giving up on faith. But Christianity has a way to interact with other
religions. But is neither condescension nor compromise for the least common
denominator. It is an acknowledgement that our main task is to live our own faith with
integrity while exuding a deep respect for other faiths when they live theirs well—or even
better than we do, as Gandhi should make Christians blush.
trans. Barbara Barclay Carter (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962
[1939]), 535).

4 Resident Aliens (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), 42

David and Mollie came to visit us in St. Libory and Grand Island.

I took them to Coney Island and the older gentleman serving us was very talkative. We chatted about the picturesque drive from Seward to Grand Island via. Hwy 34. The Coneys and strawberry malt were delicious.

At Michael's house, David thought the rope swing was the coolest thing ever. He vowed to return someday.

At my house, we ate supper and messed around on the piano.

And kittens.

I've never seen a guy so excited about kittens, but I guess Dave is a cat guy.

Mollie contemplated taking a kitten back to her apartment with her...

With gas prices this high, you'd think I'd spend as little time on the road as possible.

But when there's slam poetry involved, I'm willing to go the distance.

Thursday night, like every 2nd Thursday of the month, the Lincoln Slam is at Meadowlark Coffee House in Lincoln, NE. Michael and I drove up. We took Amanda with us. Jeff met us there.

From Jesus for President
Mixing the church and state is kind of like mixing ice cream and manure. The manure doesn't change much, but the ice cream gets real messed up.
Guess which one is which.

And....photos from the weekend!

First was my extended family's fourth of July. My Grandpa and all his siblings and all their kids and grandkids and cousins and associated persons get together every year. The 4th is a popular holiday, so not everyone comes, but this year was a good turnout. We played "name that distant relative."

Michael hasn't had much experience with little babies. I thought it was time he learn the ropes of soft spots, bouncing, and burping. Sadly, there was no diaper changing involved.
My cousin Alisha hands off our cousin's 6 week old Ariel to Michael. Both look thrilled. After a few minutes, MIchael looks a bit more relaxed. But Ariel is still unsure.

After cozying up with Ariel, Michael apparently needed more manly pursuits. A game of football was in order: adults vs. kids. The kids were squirrelly, but even though the the adults couldn't climb under the picnic tables to retrieve stray balls, I think the adults triumped in the end.

  Sunday we went up to Columbus to see Michael's Grandma Betsy and Aunt Lori. We played a bitterly fought game of pitch. I biffed it big a couple of times for the team, so that even though we were ahead most of the game, Michael, Ted and Sonia won in the end.

I was sad, but it didn't last long. Because soon we took Jessie, Lori's dog, on a walk in the beautiful Columbus park. Who knew a relatively small Nebraska town had such a huge, gorgeous park? Paths led right down to the river, and besides a bit of excitement when two other dogs decided to say hello to

Jessie (and by "Hello" I mean bolting over across the sandy river), it was a relaxing walk.

It was a long weekend, full of family and friends, laughing, eating too much, enjoying fireworks, singing corny songs off tune, and enjoying Nebraska.

T-minus 2 weeks until I move to Denver.