The great love poets are made, not born

Never again... again

The Constant Gardener

This looks like it will be good, it was done by the same person who did City of God!
Peace,
Chris

And then there is Wyoming

You Know You're From Wyoming When...
"Vacation" means going to Cheyenne for the weekend.
You have ever uttered the term " Greenie!"
It's "BIG NEWS" if a non-Wyoming friend saw a celebrity once.
Down south to you means Colorado.
All the festivals across the state are named after terrain features or Indian tribes.
You know what a Jackalope is.
You know that Devils Tower is in Wyoming and that it is not where the devil lives.
You know that Yellowstone is in Wyoming, not Montana.
You know that Wyoming is in the United States, not Canada. (Or a suburb of Denver)
You drink pop; not soda.
You never knew there was a taxi service in your town.
Down south to you means Colorado.
You only paid $5.00 to cut your own Douglas Fir Christmas tree.
You pawned a snow blower instead of a set of golf clubs.
The elevation is five times higher than the population on the city welcome sign.
There are more oil pumping units than trees.
Antelope outnumber the sheep.
Wide open spaces mean 120 miles to the next rest stop.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Wyoming.

I'm going to miss Eugene

You Know You're From Eugene When...


You inadvertently own one or more pieces of tie-dye clothing
You have ever owned or traveled cross-country in a VW van
You used to play hacky-sack but had to give it up because you developed an allergy to the bag material
You understand the difference between cafe au lait and a latte
You know how to pronounce "Allan Brothers" but you don't care
You had to quit coffee
You find yourself humming along with the Grateful Dead, whether you like them or not
You can't always remember who among your friends is lesbigay and who is straight
You know what lesbigay means and how to use it in a sentence
You have friends who really are bisexual
You own a hand drum or know a friend who owns one
Men with short hair look kind of odd to you, but you're not sure why
You have potlucks down to a fine art
You think channeling was responsible for getting the cross removed from Skinner's Butte AND opening up Willamette Street
You understand how a reggae concert turned into a riot with the police
You don't run if it rains suddenly and you have no umbrella
You look up at the sky every morning and say "It'll burn off!"
A day without sunshine is a month
You have taught workshops and all your friends came
You know the difference between 1st and 2d degree Reiki
You and/or most of your friends are 1st or 2d degree Reiki
You dig your weekly Rolfing sessions.
You tone (with your voice, not at Gold's Gym)
You know what LMT stands for
You are an LMT
You know how to whip out a good-looking flier in Pagemaker
The people at Kinko's know you by name
You know what days they clear the bulletin boards at Fifth St. Market
You know that Fifth Street is actually Fifth Avenue
You have ever worn Birkenstocks, even without meaning to
Some of your best friends wear Birkenstocks, on purpose
You buy "distressed" produce
You get free produce from friends who work at any natural foods store
You don't know anybody who works 9-5, Monday - Friday and/or wears a suit
You call Eugene Weekly "What's Happening"
When a friend gets something she wants, you say "Way to manifest!"
You routinely use the female pronoun as generic in writing and speaking...
You think the Jerry Garcia mural on High St. is the coolest piece of art you ever saw.
You have ever attended a Grateful Dead concert at Autzen more than once.
You consider the Oregon Country Fair the highlight of the year.
You know the methods of growing marijuana without being caught.
You claim that the marijuana is "industrial hemp" if you are caught.
You understand the term "kind buds".
You actually buy Frog's joke books.
You know why Frog isn't supposed to sell the books directly to you.
You frequent at least five clothing resale shop for the clothes, not the bargains.
You miss Icky's Tea House.
You are offended by one or more of the above sentences
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Eugene.

The Christian Paradox

Hat tip to PP.

Iraq war casualties

I was looking at the casualties for the Iraq war this morning and noticed a few interesting things.
1. The number three killer of US soldiers, accounting for 8% of the casualties (166 deaths) is vehicle accidents.
2. Casualties are cyclical, March to June (conincides with the march 19th invasion) is when we take the most casualties. The good news is compared with the 2004 March-June cycle the 2005 March-June cycle has fewer casualties (304 in '04, 246 in '05). If this trend continues by 2010 there will be no American casualties.
3. There have been 254 Contractors killed in Iraq.
Peace,
Chris

Coffee as Sacrament

So after church I hung out and shmoozed with my fellow Centralites. I had a cup of coffee (I’m not a coffee drinker) and felt quite awake. It got me thinking about the sacraments. I think it was Voltaire who tried to explain them away as a sort of post-Bacchus religious institution; the Holy Spirit and getting drunk off spirits were one in the same. They both effect perception of reality etc.
My thought is if we REALLY wanted to mess with people’s heads and make them "feel the Holy Spirit" we would give ‘em coffee (or Wisky or Ecstasy or LSD for that matter, but Coffee is potent enough for me). That’s my whole thought, if the Sacrement of Holy Communion was nothing more than messing with parishioner’s minds the Church would use stronger stuff.
Peace,
Chris

Wonderful, yet painful, day

I went tubing with Kevin, some housemates, and some other folk. It was CRAZY. 3 minutes in my tube poppeed so I shared a tube with Kelly, one of the other tubers. It was crazy, at one point I got my leg caught between some rocks, which really hurt. My knees will be black and blue for a long time. (morning prayer tomorrow will be a little painful mayhap). After one extremely wild rapid I was described to look like "a drowned kitten." Kevin lost his glasses on this adventure (I lost mine as well, but they were sunglasses) so he was unable to drive Kyla to Portland to catch a plane tonight, so I drove them both to Portland and Kevin came back keeping me awake.
All in all a rather full day!
Peace,
Chris

Characters contemplate mysticism

So one of my goals this summer is to write daily. Here is some sillyness.

"How high do you suppose he is?"
"The Author only knows. He’s never done this much Ganja before."
The holy man writhed on the ground, neck twitching, muscles bulging.
"I see it!"
"What?"
"The Author… He’s… He’s a young man, trying to figure it out. We are an experiment to him. The Author lives out his selfhood in us!"
"Say more teacher"
"The Suffis are right. The Author looks at us, and we look at Him, and he fills us with Himself. We are little beaded pieces of glass, refined, reflecting the Author!"
And with that he fell to the ground, silent.

Famous Lutherans

CAFTA

CAFTA
Once upon a time I would travel to the United States. I would work hard there, sweeping Wal-Mart, or doing landscaping, or working at McDonalds. The Americans would give me sneering looks, spit on me occasionally, and the hicks with flag T-shirts would wave guns. Then things changed, I found work in Mexico at an American Auto factory. It was good you know, I was with my people, and I was paid well.
I hear there is another side of this story though, the Americans lost jobs, and they became more like us. It is the equalizing of all things. It is like the end of time. The valleys come up, the hills come down!

Weather where I'll be living

Get rich quick in Iraq

So, you can buy Iraqi currency which is at an all time low, and assume it will become more valuable... Interesting.

Stuff about England

I got an email today about packing for england, and I found out some interesting stuff. The British don't wear white socks or tennis shoes.
That's my fact for the day.
Peace,
Chris