Jesus Loves the Little Dinosaurs

I went to church today. 10 points for me! Right? Isn't that how this works?

A friend texted me and let me know it was communion. Usually that's enough encouragement for me to find something else to do, but I was already on my way. Soooooo...

The Pastor spoke about Matthew and the Kingdom of God. He talked about the last supper and the fact that Jesus invited Judas and Peter - even though he already knew they were going to blow it - big time.  He also told the story of when Mary used expensive perfume to wash the feet of Jesus. He made the point that when the men started talking about what a poor choice it was to spend money on "wasted" perfume, Jesus says,  "Why are you guys bugging her? Calm down."* And then, when the men self-righteously point out that the money could have gone to help the poor, Jesus says, "The poor are still there. You're free to go help them whenever you'd like..."*

BOOM! Total Jesus smack down! His overall point was that the kingdom of God is an inclusive place. Everyone is welcome.

I left church pretty pumped. Maybe even "stoked." It was the same kind of feeling I had when I finished Shane Claiborne's book. It also made me wonder why churches don't preach on how inclusive and service oriented the kingdom of God is more often.

Jesus being inclusive

*New Living David Translation - for ages 18 and up.

Wasted Hours

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. Last week was eventful.

I graduated from law school, got a girlfriend, and Vampire Weekend released a new album. I guess you could say a couple different projects culminated all at once. (Also, for anyone tempted to ask me to rank the aforementioned events... no.)

I'm currently living in a small gap in the time space continuum that exists between the end of law school and the beginning of bar prep. Yesterday I dropped my bike off at a shop near the waterfront to have some cosmetic work done and then walked home. I wandered into a store dedicated to "The Sea Sheperd," which is a ship/organization that goes around the world fighting against whaling, inhumane fishing, and such. The lady working there asked me to sign up to set sail for Antarctica to save whales. I once saw a documentary about penguins on Antarctica. They all died. So I didn't sign up.

Later in the day I played ultimate frisbee with some UW dental students and then helped Lindsay study for a quiz. "Helped" is probably a little generous. Mostly I laid in the grass and identified things that flew over my head.

David: Bird.
Lindsay:...
D: Plane.
L:...
D: Cloud.
L: Very good David.

Today I played soccer and made gnocchi with a tomato broth. Yes, you read that correctly.  I've been reduced to perusing food blogs*. I also realized I have no idea what to do with free time.

I think it's easy to start feeling like every second of life needs to be epically adventurous or productive. I need to work on being content with just being. It's a problem I won't have to deal with for long...

"If I could have it back,
All the time that we wasted,
I'd only waste it again...
You know I'd love to waste it again,
Waste it again, and again, and again..."
- The Suburbs (continued), Arcade Fire




*Actually, now that I think about it, a majority of the readership of The Tickle Closet probably enjoys perusing food blogs. So, let me apologize for besmirching the practice. I appreciate the food you occasionally share with me.

Avocados and Water-Boarding

I just ate an avocado and hummus sandwich. Delicious. Why are the pits in avocados so large? There could be so much more avocado in there if the pit would stop hogging all that space. Are you listening science? This is a job for you! 

On a related note, I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop and R&B lately - well, mostly just Frank Ocean and Justin Timberlake. I can't always relate to what they are singing about, drug use and spaceship sex, but I like to move my shoulders and tap my foot to the beat. One lyrical theme I can relate to is frustration with the police. (This isn't really true at all, I just needed a transition)

Last weekend I took a group out to my grandparents' property in Sequim, Washington. There are perfectly good cabins to sleep in, but I spearheaded an effort to sleep outside on the perfectly good ground. It was cold. Like, "only poke your nose out of the sleeping bag to breath" cold. A couple of us tried to sleep on the ground, a couple more in the trees. Just as we were starting to freeze to death, drift off to sleep, people started yelling at us and pointing lights in our faces. Like a terrible 'Hunger Games' nightmare come true.

At first we thought it was some kind of joke, but then one of the helpful officers yelled, "This is not a joke!" Thanks for clearing that up new friend! They loudly insisted that we take our hands out of our sleeping bags, which we all did, except Tristinn, who was trying to fulfill her dream of being water-boarded. 

As it turns out, someone in the area had mistaken us for burglars and called the local sheriff. An honest mistake I guess.

My hip-hop album drops next month.

Bikes, Ice Cream, and Anime

Let's play doctor. I'll tell you what my symptoms are and you tell me what the affliction is. 

1. The amount of soccer I played last week doubled. 

2. My coffee/espresso consumption tripled, at least. 

3. The amount of cute girls I got phone numbers from stayed the same (zero). 

4. The amount of thai food and ice cream I consumed increased by an amount that cannot be measured without using unreliable, cutting edge metric techniques. 

If you guessed that Alban came to visit, you're pretty smart. Or you read my previous post. I won't make a big deal about "who used which method." You're all winners. Right? 

Saturday we decided to take bikes and ride Bainbridge Island. Like bosses. Horrible bosses. 

After riding the ferry (one of my favorite things) and enjoying a delicious meal of bread and cheese, Alban rented a bike and we left. Bainbridge Island is a little more curvy than we had anticipated. But as Tommy always says, "Ain't nothin' wrong with a little extra curve." A few miles into our tour we ran into a hill that got the better of us. We dismounted and sheepishly pushed our bikes the rest of the way. When we reached the top, we saw her. The most beautiful road-biker-babe either of us had ever seen. On a scale of 1-10, she was forget your name cute. She added to our misery as she rode past by giving us a semi-flirty - "good try boys..." 

Later, we caught the ferry back to Seattle and started the walk back to my apartment. I wasn't really paying attention... and what should have been an easy walk back to Capitol Hill turned into an experience. We ended up in a weird concrete park surrounded by hundreds of what we later learned were attendees of Sakura-Con. Wikipedia describes Sakura-Con as an "annual three-day anime convention." These people were dressed head to toe in costumes that go way beyond anything most people can imagine. They spoke alien languages and placed spells on one another. It was amazing. The irony is that Alban and I were the misfits in our jeans, t-shirts, and matching shoes. 

Our accidental visit to Sakura-Con reaffirmed the idea that people need community. I'm sure the anime enthusiasts were experiencing the same warm feelings I had when my brother and I attended an Arsenal game in London. It's a good feeling to be in the company of like-minded people. 

SPRING BREAK

I'm on spring break.

I've spent the week working on a personal statement for a post-law school tax program. I assume at some point they just give you a piece of paper that says, "You win at school." I've also been studying for the ethics portion of the bar exam. However, I've been wearing a bikini top most of the time - So I can't say the week has been a total waste.

I've got friends and family texting me pictures from places like SF, Rome, and Paris. I'm not bummed about it though. Also, Oxford commas are the best!

Sonya (If you don't know Sonya, you're doing it wrong) sent me a package that arrived today. It contained a little wooden dinosaur lawyer dressed in lady lawyer's clothes, holding a book that says, "law." She hoped it would, "inspire me in my studies." It has. It also reminded me that of all the career options I could have chosen based on Jurassic Park characters, including: Paleontologist, Eccentric Billionaire, Sexy Mathematician, or Big Game Warden, I chose the one who gets eaten while sitting on a toilet. Thanks!

Alban flies in tomorrow. He chose the correct career. Nice.

Church Cookies

A month ago a couple friends mentioned they had stopped eating "sweets" as a new years resolution. I silently and impulsively decided that it sounded like a good idea. On Wednesday an irresponsibly large box of cookies from my home church arrived at my apartment. I got sick the next day. My church cares for my soul, but not so much my body.

Yesterday I attended a screening of "Seventh-Gay Adventists" in Auburn. I liked it a lot. I don't have much personal experience with the subject (except maybe for this), but it's still something I've wrestled with to some extent. The intersection of arguably unclear theology and personal convictions can be an uneasy place to live when the two don't see eye-to-eye, irrespective of what the subject is.

My first reaction is to start lawyering. I wiggle and twist, searching for new angles and interpretations that bring everything back into balance. I don't usually get there, but that's okay. Typically, I end up returning to two familiar quotes:

"Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.

'Who is this that obscures my plans without words and without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you, and you will answer me.

Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundations?'"

Job 38:1-4

"You are not here to verify, 

instruct yourself,

or inform curiosity...

You are here to kneel."

TS Eliot - Four Quartets

These passages don't give much in the way of answers to my questions. Instead, they remind me not to rely on my own understanding. They remind me that having every one of my questions answered maybe isn't the most important objective. They remind me not to allow the things I'm unsure about to obscure the things I am sure about.