It is days like today that make me glad to still be in New York City. Over the last couple of months, what I wanted most of all is to be in a much less populated area – and to chop wood! I used to chop wood every now and then when I was a kid, and that is simply what I thought about doing. Good, physical work, good exercise, good time to think – yup, give me an axe, some wood, and let me go at it.
Today, however, the weather is beautiful and I walked over to Bryant Park in Times Square for lunch. I love being there in nice weather – so many different kinds of people, so many different things to observe, to see, to experience. While eating my salad and watching all the people go by, suddenly someone decided to practice his bagpipes during his lunch break – just for a while, but it was very nice. Today, I am glad to still be in New York!
I missed an episode of “Lost” two weeks ago. I’ve waited until iPods were able to show video before buying one, so now I did as part of my birthday and Christmas presents. I downloaded the episode from iTunes for $2.00 and watched it commercial free. (Okay, either pay or suffer through commercials, I know, but sometimes paying is worth it!) Oh, technology!
The SLVR is a mighty fine cell phone!
Sufjan Stevens is a mighty fine tunesmith!
N.T. Wright’s book, The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture is excellent.
Our Lenten project for St. Paul’s youth (and a couple adults) is going well. “ImageFaith” is the project I came up with – during Lent, we take foundational concepts of the Christian faith, like Grace, or Mercy, or Hope and we learn a little more about them, discuss them, and then for the coming week we take our little disposable cameras and by noticing the “noise” all around us (all the stuff we miss in our incredible busy lives – stop and smell the roses kind of thing) we find “images” that connote the concept.
This past week Grace was the concept. It dawned on me that a wonderful image of “Grace” is sunlight falling on leaves. I took pictures of sunlight streaming down on plants. Unmerited favor, freely given by the sun, is “received” by the plants and made into substance. We receive unmerited favor from God, engage with it, and we are changed.
There were some great photos! It is a fun and interesting, and very challenging, project.