At Mass last week, the priest talked about how angry he is that the Catholic Church doesn't allow women to be priests. The entire church clapped - led by the women. How often do people clap during a homily?? It was a wonderful moment and reinforced why I drive 30 minutes and often pay to park in order to go to this church. How different my church experience is from some of the other parishes out there.
Granted, I am sure there is still that rule that you are supposed to attend the church geographically closest to you. A rule, like many others, that is not always followed by many Catholics. A recent article discussed this divide between the laity and the Church. My favorite quote is:
I think part of the problem is that the bishops stopped listening and teaching and started ordering and condemning. ... The bishops must persuade and convince with arguments not by turning up the volume. When they resort to commanding and threatening punishments, people are turned off. Banning speakers, denying Communion, silencing theologians is a sign of weakness not strength.
I am intrigued to see what happens in the next 10, 20, 50 years.
Since Sarah hasn't posted in awhile, I guess someone has to take up the slack.
Funny that my first post should be about art, but I recently went to LA for a vacation and while there visited 2 art museums. I have never had a strong interest in art, especially contemporary art. The "I can do that" kind of art. I would happily decorate my entire home in nature photos and paintings of sunsets and rolling hills.
But the first museum I visited was the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was fairly small and didn't take me long to walk through it. I found it challenging though because the signs next to each piece were very small, meaning I had to walk up to the sign, read it and learn the artist, title and year, then back up and look at the art. It was too much of a process for every piece in a room, so I would skip some only to realize later I had missed the entire Warhol section and I should go back and see it.
A few days after this experience, I went to the Getty Museum. The museum is built on the principle that art should be accessible to all. Which means that it is free, there are lots of neat maps and plenty of large signs that tell you what you are looking at and what the artist was trying to accomplish with the piece. I loved it. I thought I would be there for 2-3 hours but wound up staying 6.
I came home that night to, coincidentally, find an article on art in the Newsweek I had brought with me. It referenced some of the differences I noticed in the museums - how the contemporary art world considers itself the cool kids on the block and how pricey pieces have gotten, not necessarily because they are great quality but because it is a status symbol. With the current recession, this is changing again which might work out well for artists with a fresh vision and not just a name that sells.
"This fall at the Frieze Art Fair in London, gallerists were actually interested in discussions about the works they showed," says German critic Ute Thon. "In former years they'd just ignore you if you didn't wave your checkbook."
I left LA feeling better about my skepticism towards art. It isn't contemporary art I don't like. It is art I don't understand. Even if I don't agree with an artist's viewpoint, I can respect the message they are trying to convey. Most of us aren't going to walk into a museum with an in-depth knowledge of the artists we are about to view. But we'll learn it if you give it to us. Thank you, J. Paul Getty.
Let's cut to the chase: I am against the death penalty. I can rant about it for an extended period, but one reason that some people support it is supposedly because it deters crime. I don't buy that it deters violent crimes, but my friend Michael had an interesting point the other day. Wouldn't the death penalty be likely to deter white collar crimes? What if Bernie Madoff had the possibility of being on death row?
What the Washington Post had about the women's NCAA basketball tournament in today's Sports section:
An article about a player on the Maryland Terrapins
A television schedule for today's games (though only mentioning the one primary game to be shown in each hour)
Short blurbs (generally one or two sentences) for each of the games played yesterday. Mississippi State's upset of Texas warranted four sentences. Virginia (a local team) eked out a victory and got six sentences.
In the 'Scoreboard' corner, a summary of the tourney with one-line scores of times for the games this weekend, by region.
What the Washington Post had about the men's NCAA basketball tournament in today's Sports section:
A listing down the left-side of the front page of the Sports section with the results of all of yesterday's games and the times for all of today's games
A graphic of each of the four regions, with the winners listed for the games played so far, and the times for today's games
An article about the Memphis-Maryland game
A column about the Maryland team
An article about the North Carolina-LSU game
A commentary about "neutral" courts
An article about the Duke-Texas game
An article about the Villanova-Texas game
An article about the Oklahoma-Michigan game
An article about the Connecticut-Texas A&M game
A column about UConn and Calhoun
An article about VA Tech's loss to Baylor in the NIT
Box scores for all of yesterday's games
An article about the Purdue-Washington game
Various stats and quotes
If you are on the WaPo homepage, and click on the Sports heading on the top banner, it presents an option for the 'NCAA tournament' which takes you to a page discussing strictly the men's games, with no links even to the women's page.
For the record, the women played 16 games yesterday, and 16 today. The men played 8 yesterday (only the Gonzaga-Western KY game didn't warrant its own Post article) and 8 games today.
Meanwhile, ESPN the magazine has a cover and article on the pregnant Candace Parker, wondering if she can really break into mainstream celebrity (the cover also problematically asks "How big can she get?" and then discusses her bra size in the opening paragraph, as noted here).
Her agent is quoted as saying
Candace is in a sport people don't pay much attention to. How do I get them to pay attention?
Perhaps if ESPN.com encouraged their web traffic to check out the women's game. The espn.com homepage has a link on the top to 'College Basketball', which just as with the Post, only refers to the men's games. At least they also ignore the men's NIT. But don't go talking about how difficult it is for Candace Parker to become a marketable celebrity when you're helping to hold her and the rest of the women ballers down.
I bought a new laptop today! I've been laptop-less for the last 10 days...apparently making the Inauguration video was the last gasp out of my sometimes-trusty circa-2003 Gateway model. Plenty of emails to send, but I am sidetracked by the newfangled gadgets to putz with and installing Firefox and other important applications.... (For those who care, I went with the Dell Inspiron, which has to be the Toyota Corolla of computers...ubiquitous, effective, and reasonably priced.)
During the initial installation, the computer prompted me for my user name and then a name for the computer. Having just had reason to look it up, I opted for Sweetums, the oversized monster from the Muppet Movie that initially worked on the used car lot and then proceeded to chase after the Muppet gang, suitcase in hand. I hadn't named the previous computer, but I have taken to naming my cars after Muppets (first Grover, then Ernie, now Sam) so might as well expand that trend.
Side note: While surfing the Muppet wiki, I found info about the Elmo 'We Are One' appearance. And apparently the number one has its own wiki page, that literally says "1 is a number." Insightful. This is how I spend my time now that I'm back online...I think it's time to go pick up a book....
The following movie attempts to document what January 20th looked like from my vantage point. The audio track was sung on Oprah on Monday and is available on her website.
You probably saw the clear-cut, professionally-done, close-up, steady-handed ceremony on TV or on youtube or any number of sites now. For a different perspective, here are two on-the-ground home videos; the first is my neighborhood when they first introduced Obama, and the second is Obama's oath of office. I didn't zoom in to the Jumbotron and the sound isn't crystal clear for the oath, but you can follow along. The crowd makes it clear when the oath is finished....
History, music, and prayer. It seems those are the recurring threads that stand out to me after these last few days.
Sunday's 'We Are One' concert...interspersed American history with song...performers read words from inaugural speeches past or showed video of the speeches themselves, U2 sang 'In the Name of Love' about Dr. King, and Tom Hanks performed Copland's Lincoln Portrait. It also started with a beautiful prayer by Gene Robinson, that did not make it onto HBO's production, but is worth reading or listening to. My favorite words are at the end...
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
That brought tears to my eyes. I think it expresses so much of our hope and fear simultaneously, I love that it includes Michelle in the prayer, and that it asks for him to find joy amongst this challenge. Well done, Gene.
Before Sunday's concert began, there were various clips playing on the Jumbotron to help entertain us (including a really cute clip with Elmo and "the number one" that I sadly can't find anywhere online). The video right before the concert began though was a music video that has apparently been out for a few months now, but which I had never heard of, called My American Prayer. It was one of the songs I kept singing after the concert even (side note: I heart Joan Baez), even though it was apparently written by a Brit and a Irishman.
Ultimately, the 'We Are One' concert was a lot of fun to be at, singing along to songs you know with people you don't know. My favorite performances were probably Josh Groban and Heather Headley's gorgeous rendition of My Country Tis of Thee (with the DC Gay Men's Chorus!), Pete Seeger's incredible cuteness and spunk during all twenty-five verses of This Land is your Land, and Beyonce's finale with the entire set of performers. If they hadn't ended with the entire cast, I would have been sorely disappointed. But I think I'm more disappointed that HBO is being an annoying corporate entity and not allowing clips of the concert on youtube. Yea for the Germans! They don't have the complete set at that link (missing the Groban/Headley pairing, Jon Bon Jovi/Bettye Lavette singing Sam Cooke, James Taylor/Jennifer Nettles/ John Legend, Bruce Springsteen's opening performance of 'The Rising' (with a beautiful though sadly unnamed choir)...even the National Anthem at the beginning was sung beautifully by Master Sergeant Caleb Green.)
The logistics for getting this Inauguration together have got to be mind-boggling. I love hearing about the details that you wouldn't otherwise think about, like this piece about distributing newspapers to people. The Post is printing a special edition paper for Tuesday afternoon, but apparently doesn't have a printing facility in DC, so has to try and get the papers printed from the suburbs and brought in, thru the potentially crazy traffic and street closures to distribute them to a large number of 'hawkers' who will work the streets selling the papers, since there can be no standing newspaper boxes on the streets in the next week.
Or check out this web cam on Tuesday, in case you can't get enough coverage of what the Mall looks like from TV....
And you can bet on parts of the Inauguration, including what phrases will be included in his inaugural address. My favorite Obama-ism is "Let me be clear." Not that I expect that to be in the speech at all.
Just reading this article in the Post today gave me tingles. It's so exciting!
Officials staged a large-scale rehearsal of the upcoming presidential inauguration and parade this morning -- and even practiced the swearing-in at the Capitol with a stand-in for Barack Obama.
The stand-in, Army Staff Sgt. Derrick Brooks, delivered a six-word inaugural address that nonetheless drew a cheer: "My fellow Americans, God bless America!"
I can't wait to stand in the cold for hours and then fuzzily make out the words of his speech through the speakers amidst a few million others on the National Mall.
The weather this week in Boston is supposed to be Minnesota-style cold. Highs in teens and lows below zero. While this isn't exactly exciting, the positive spin is that maybe then 20-30 degree weather on Inauguration Day will feel warm. Right?
First, here's an adorable story that I'm picking to lead with.
On the political side, I saw that video while surfing around to learn more about the killing last week of Oscar Grant in Oakland. If you haven't heard about it, check out that article. There are plenty of voices out in the blogosphere commenting on it, though the mainstream media seems to have been slow to pick up the story.
Other recent pages that caught my eye include:
Apparently a woman who I studied abroad in Ireland with is now a freelance photographer who followed the Obama campaign and has a book out about it now.
More photos, these of people sleeping in various uncomfortable-looking positions across China.
One of these days I will post more about math (just you wait!) but for now here's one statistician's dismissal of the BCS, just as Florida wins and likely claims the title of 'national champion'.
...statisticians, quantitative analysts, and all related professionals should have the dignity, the self-respect, and the common sense to have nothing to do with the BCS. This isn't a national championship—it's a big-money waltz.... You guys want to make a mess of this, you can make a mess of it without our help.
I'll leave the political posts to Sarah. I have been sitting on my bed reflecting on the year and listening to a playlist of music that was important to me in 2008. I love to end the year with a time for reflection. Not necessarily to find what I can do better in 2009 and make resolutions, but to offer prayers of thanks for all that I have been given this year.
And, as always, what I am most thankful for is the love I have received from friends and family members. I often think of the people in my life and wish there were better ways to communicate genuine love and care. Quicker than writing individual emotional emails, cheaper than flying across the country to give out lots of hugs. The best option I have found is prayer. I can say prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of love, prayers of support. I believe it is a way to send love out into the universe - carried on the wings of angels and delivered individually.
We can all use more love. And we can all do better at giving love in 2009.
