Where is your Thanksgiving Favorite grown?

My adviser asked our research group what our favorite traditional thanksgiving dishes were. I said mashed potatoes and gravy. Something about that dish is very comforting-- piled high, thick potatoes, whipped to perfection, layered with tasty gravy. It reminds me of family, Auntie Linda and Uncle Brad's house, and other fond memories.

Others loved stuffing (2), squash/sweet potatoes (1), and their mom's wild rice dish (1). Our research group member from Nepal preferred wine :) Another group member proudly explained that everything except the SALT on their table was grown in MN!

Linda Zellmer, Librarian at Western Illinois University, has done research on this exact point. Where is food coming from to get to your table? She has pulled together the birth places of Thanksgiving dinner items.

Looking at the location and concentration of growth are interesting! The darker the color, the more are grown there. If we couldn't ship food by truck, what would you eat in your home state?
What surprised you?

Take a look! Talk about it at your table! And let's be thankful this Thanksgiving!!

Great Conversations

Our God is great. He brings people and relationships into your life during different seasons…with different joys and different challenges.

I’m sharing some notes I took from a conversation with a man who directs a transitional prison ministry. I can’t commend him enough. Sharing a meal with him and his wife was …comparable, in my limited experience…to eating with Jesus. His Love for the Lord, practical experience, and wisdom blew me away. I hope can find some helpful gems in these notes, too, for your relationships.

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Boundaries.
Establish boundaries from the get go. Lay out boundaries for each relationship. This is where we are going: tell him* tough things. What desires do you have for the relationship? What expectations do you have for the relationship: what do you want? Be on the same page. It’s important to define the relationship for what it is. Don’t compromise on anything on your end, period. Know where you at. Attitude: this is going to be messy- God help us! God help us to be wise.

Accountability.
You are not doing people any good if you don’t call them out on issues. Be it pride or anything, help and sharpen your brother/sister who calls on the name of Christ! Being held accountable in every where: financially, with work, with relationships… PLOMS Disease: Poor Little Ol’ Me Syndrome. The cure is confronting it!

Discipleship.
If you have any amount of Christian life experience, you are mentoring. Don’t let the “buddy effect” diminish your relationship. Go the word: what does God’s word tell us? This is your backup; this is your foundation in speaking into someone’s life.

Addiction.
Cigarettes: not as much about health as about self-discipline. Think of how a $25 dollar a week habit ends up as a $1200 dollar a year expense.

Dependency.
Getting rides: health, family, job interview. Otherwise: self sufficiency through bussing or biking. It is an issue of self-sufficiency vs. dependence. (He was willing to take 9 buses across town to get dope, nothing would stand in his way. Is it the same now, for church and work and other things?) Don’t give gifts. Individuals can be a crutch. It is easy to give people things. It is not about your giving heart, but about getting things without earning them.

Transition.
Coming out of prison, where you make 300 decisions a day, to life, where we make 3000 decisions a day. It’s a big difference. Structure is really important for this transition process, and those without structure often flounder and go back to prison (recidivism).

Opportunities.
There is the MN Workforce Center (on Chicago and other locations) where you can look for a job for free and get resources. There are also life skills classes, about budgeting. Providing a financial mentor.

Warning.
With a violent background, be careful. Things can happen. Also, no alone time with opposite sexes. Limit time to mixed company, in groups.

Prayer.
Pray for guys in prison! For example, spend one night in prayer for him. Week after week it can be “needs, needs, needs.” And one of the unseen needs is prayer.

Get in the Word.
Take time, right away, to study the Bible. At least 15 minutes of hard-core study. That is going to do more good than chatting for an hour.

*Him here is used generically—it is the him or her you are relating to, they may be transitioning from prison, or they may just be a person with overwhelming needs that you are seeking to support and love.

Lyrical Visions Continued: Too much

The artistic process continues. Click on the title for a Youtube audio, and here for live video.
This song inspired me to think about themes of this work as enforcing repetition, bold lines, mono-chromatic + red color scheme, and a chaotic/over-whelming feel.

I wish I could do this full-time! But apparently if you are a graphic-designer, your work is client driven, and bottom-line limited. I think doing it for fun keeps that magic- but maybe I should take a class to learn more about possibilities I'm not even aware of yet!

Hey Genius, on second thought...

I was reading a University update and found out that a professor had just won the MacArthur genius grant. I watched a video about her. (I had actually done a paper about her work for a writing class, once, and interviewed her lab manager. It was really cool).

So I perused the genius page. Then, wasting my Friday afternoon away (I should be grading tests right now, actually!) I posted the link on facebook, cause I thought it was cool. I wanted to share it with others. Cause then they would think I was cool. Cause I care about geniuses. (And apparently bad grammar, too, but it's my blog, and I can write how I wanna, just cause.)

Anyway. Then, continuing the facebook face melt, I watched a video a friend had posted by a Pastor in Seattle-- this little known dude named Marc Driscoll. And his video was about the gospel, basically how "we don't do things to get right with God. We don't need religion, and works, and good deeds, or GENIUS. What we need is Jesus. Jesus makes us right with God. HE forgives us, HE makes us acceptable, and HE is our hope.")

That made me feel pretty lame caring so much about geniuses. And about what people on facebook think of me. So I thought I'd blog about it. Which is lame, too. However, moving my focus from worshiping at the feet of geniuses and the world of academia (another form of religious works) is something worth sharing. It's worth praising God.

So I thought, rather than erasing my now regretted facebook newsfeed post, that I would repent and share. All glory to him, whenever I stop looking at my own pile, and looking to Him.

What more can you ask for?

Being rather unmarried myself doesn't mean I don't enjoy God's design in marriage, and hope I will enjoy it someday. I just enjoyed a brief article by Justin Taylor about 4 Lessons from Luther on Married Life. Luther was single most of his life, but when it came time to be married, he enjoyed it. How great is that.

"Luther’s faith was simple enough to trust that after a conscientious day’s labor, a Christian father could come home and eat his sausage, drink his beer, play his flute, sing with his children, and make love to his wife—all to the glory of God!" -William Lazareth

Lyrical Visions

The 'Age of Adz' has been on repeat since encountering Sufjan Steven's wonderful performance in Minneapolis last week. I just keep sinking into the world that the songs creates. I wanted express the beauty and power of the lyrics and enjoyed playing around in Adobe InDesign. There are really endless possibilites. In my dream world I would turn these lyrics into a music video featuring only the words. I'm hoping to creatively assemble all of the lyrics for this album as a little fall project. Here is the first song, Futile Devices.

Love is the Consuming Fire that Burns Away Anxiety and Fear

"We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved. Love does not measure. It just gives.” Mother Teresa.

And thank you, Kela, for encouragement at the right moment.
Now, to continue.
One day at a time.