Month: August 2008

RevGals Friday Five: Labor Day

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Singing Owl says, This is a Friday Five about LABOR. All can play. Put down that hammer, that spoon, that rolling pin, that rake, that pen, that commentary, that lexicon, and let’s have some fun.

1. Tell us about the worst job you ever had.

Working at the call center for The Disney Catalog. I have repressed most of the memories and refuse to dig them out of the dark hole they are in.

2. Tell us about the best job you ever had.

I’ve had two: writing and pastoring. Right now I’m just writing, but there are ample opportunities to serve at my church, and they do have lay pastors and preachers.

3. Tell us what you would do if you could do absolutely anything (employment related) with no financial or other restrictions.

I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to do what I want to do. I’ve always wanted to be a full-time writer, and I have been for the last two years. Woot!

4. Did you get a break from labor this summer? If so, what was it and if not, what are you gonna do about it?

Yes, I took mini-breaks here and there, exploring Chicago and getting together with friends. My mom was also up earlier this month, and we had a lot of fun.

5. What will change regarding your work as summer morphs into fall? Are you anticipating or dreading?

I’m anticipating it. Fall is my favorite time of year, and my creativity soars. I should get lots of writing done. Plus I will be working on my novel, and I know Fall will give me all sorts of wonderful creativity for that.

What I'm Reading

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I have a habit of reading seven or eight books at the same time. I really try to just read one fiction and one nonfiction at a time, but that never happens. It starts with two books, and before I know I’ve got a stack I’m reading. Here’s what I’m reading now.

Non-fiction

10 Lies the Church Tells Women J. Lee Grady

Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA) by Caroline Walker Bynum

Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life by John Assaraf and Murray Smith

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson

Fiction

The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel by Salman Rushdie

In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World’s Classics) by Sheridan Le Fanu

Quite the collection, huh? What are reading?

Photo by ijsendoorn.

The One who wears the pants here

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My husband does not wear the pants in this household. Neither do I. That honor goes to the Queen Diva: Victoria.

The Diva lounging on one of her royal subjects.

No, I am not moving. I don’t care how many times that thing flashes in my face.

Today I found out where The Diva gets her human-care training: Guidelines for Cats. I’m onto you now.

So what furry, feathered, or scaley creature rules your household?

You can work: As long as it's volunteer work

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I’m very disturbed by some of the things I’ve been reading lately. It’s nothing that is in the news. I’m researching the opposing side for my book proposal, the complementarian side (I am not putting in links because I refuse to refer traffic to their sites. If you Google “complementarian,” you will find plenty of sites). This is a group who thinks that men and women were created equal as humans but that they have different roles due to their genders. They believe that woman was created to be a helper to her husband and must always submit to a man’s authority. They believe men were created to be leaders, protectors, and guardians. Women are to be helpers, nurturers, and mothers. A women’s place should be in the home, and she shouldn’t aspire to work outside of the home to keep herself free for ministry. When she doesn’t work then after she takes care of the kids and the house, her free time will be left for building God’s kingdom. Some of the voluntary suggestions for “ministry” are:

  • prison chaplain
  • ministries to the handicapped
  • ministries to the sick, including nursing and hospice work
  • being a teacher, including K-12 teacher

These are all full-time jobs, which take education and training to perform. Now they also suggest the truly voluntary ministries of music in the church, Sunday School teacher, PTA, and volunteering for organizations that work with the poor, abused, and addicitons. But several of these “voluntary” ministries are full-time positions and careers. So it’s okay for a woman to technically work full-time as long as she doesn’t get paid?

In her book Equal to Serve: Women and Men Working Together Revealing the Gospel, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull points out that once something that women did becomes something men do, then it’s worth charging for. How much did midwives make? Really? When men took over medicine then money came into play. Things that women do are normally seen as less valuable economically than what men do. Women having been cooking and feeding their families for years. But a small percentage of women are chefs who bring down big money.

When you consider the careers that women had in the Bible, I do not understand this “you can work as long as you volunteer” mentality. Deborah was a prophet and judge. The Proverbs 31 woman made and sold textiles and materials plus bought and sold land. She was a merchant. In the New Testament Lydia was also a merchant, and Priscilla worked with her husband Aquila to make tents. None of them volunteered their services. They worked, made money, and helped support their families economically.

I think Christians need to reclaim the word “vocation.” At one time Christians believed that you brought God with you on any job you had, whether you were a priest or a blacksmith. You did your work as unto God because God governed all of life. You built God’s kingdom in whatever career you had. It did not have to be a church position. We need to reclaim vocation, especially women. God calls women, as well as men, to work in the secular world in business, schools, government, and a myriad of other careers. We are called to bring God with us, and build God’s kingdom where we’re at. Just as the women in the Bible worked outside of the home, so can women today.

Related Posts:

Why Career Women of the Bible?
Does It Really Mean “Helpmate”?
The 12th Century B. C. E. Career Woman
Made in the Image of God: Female

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Does she ever get out of the burbs?

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In an op-ed in last week’s New York Times, Paul Krugman describes the “Me Caveman, you be scared” tactics of the Republican party, and how the GOP wants to make anyone who doesn’t agree with them look weak and not able to lead the country. He quoted Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann saying that Democrats

want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.

Dear Rep. Bachmann,

First I’m an Independent and not a Democrat. Second I’m a middle class white woman who lives in the urban core of Chicago. I do not live in a tenement, but in a condo with a great lake view. I do not have a government job. I am self-employed, and I take Chicago’s L and busses all over the city to research and work. I don’t have a car. I don’t need a car. And I don’t want a car.

I think you need to get out of your cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood (and off Capitol Hill) and take a look at what urban cores actually look like.

Sincerely,
Shawna R. B. Atteberry

P. S. Since you haven’t seem to notice: D. C.’s public transit rocks. I loved taking it when I visited earlier this year.

Hattip to Rachel Frey.

We're all in this boat together

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This week’s Gospel reading was Matthew 14:22-33, which is Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus, who was already walking on the water. My priest had a different take on this passage than one I have heard before. His take is that Peter wasn’t supposed to be out of the boat in the first place. He interpreted the boat as the world and the water as some kind of ecstatic, guru bliss that we want to stay in instead of the world. That’s not where Peter is supposed to be. We’re not supposed to be there either. We aren’t saved by ourselves out in the eternal beyond. Jesus put Peter back in the boat with the other eleven disciples. Then Jesus got into the boat, and the storm that had been tossing the boat around stopped. We are to be in this world. We are to work out our salvation together in this world. We are to build the kingdom of God in the here and now.

This reflects Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus came to this world; he came to us. He walked and ministered in this world, and then he told us to continue his ministry of love and compassion to the world around us. I like this new way to look at this story. What do you think?

Dancing in the Park

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One of the wonderful things about living in Chicago is all the cool, free activities there are in the summer. One of these is Chicago Summer Dance three blocks from where I live. I have lived here for over two years, and last night was the first time I actually went. I was walking back from yoga and saw the crowd at the Spirit of Music Park in Grant Park, and I decided to cross the street and take part. It was incredible.

The band was Fandanguero, and they play San Jaroco music which orginated from Mexico and is a fusion of Samba, Cuban Son, Afro-Peruvian, and Flamenco. They were great. If you have a chance to go see them go. The music was great, and great music normally leads to lots of dancing.

The dance for the night was Zapateado, and it was a Latin dance you didn’t need to have a partner for (my hubby was in a condo board meeting, poor man). Once the dancing got going there were people like me on their own, couples, and groups of five or six or more dancing. I almost didn’t do it. I love to dance, but I haven’t really danced that much in the last few years. And the Zapateado was a new dance for me, although a very easy one to learn. I almost–almost–let me fear kick in and rob me of one of my favorite things to do since I was kid. But I finally told myself to suck it up. Who was going to notice one person on the dance floor? No one was going to tell me I was doing it wrong (as one other lady told me later on the floor). I was a little stiff the first dance, but into the second dance, I was shaking it. Okay I was doing more stamping than shaking. The dance is basically stamp, stamp, stamp, kick and repeat. My hips loosened up and my arms, my whole body started dancing as I payed less attention to my feet.

More and more people were coming and dancing, and I decided I needed to get pictures. So then the dance went stamp, stamp, stamp, kick, click. And it didn’t really matter if you weren’t partners. We looked at each other and smiled and laughed and even chatted here and there. I felt so free, and oh my how I love to dance and feel the music. It’s been over a year since I last did that. I wasn’t the only having a lot of fun and unwinding after a long day. Here are some of the pictures I took:

This is the dance teacher, Anabel Tapia.

Fandanguero

Don’t let the clothes fool you: this guy could dance!

If you’re in downtown Chicago on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, go dance. It’s good for the soul. And free. Click here for the schedule (PDF format).

How much money do your representatives get from big oil?

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At True Majority you can type in your zip code, and see how much your state senators and representative have received from the big 3 oil companies, and how much of the time they have voted for big oil interest instead of their own constituency. Here are how the Illinois senators and one representative are doing:

 

 

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)

Accepted $40,850 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 44% of selected votes.

 

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)

Accepted $70,000 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 33% of selected votes.

 

Representative Danny Davis (D-IL07)

Accepted $13,000 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 18% of selected votes.

Way to go Rep. Davis! Now Senators Biden and Obama: follow suit. Although, I have to say that I am glad Sen. Obama changed his mind on offshore oil drilling (what a joke that is. Even if we were pumping more oil, it would have to be sold to the rest of the world because our refineries are working at capacity, so we wouldn’t get it.). We need other alternative energy sources–not more oil dependence.

Speaking of off-shore drilling, do you know why on June 20, Sen. McCain decided that offshore drilling was okay after being against it? It could have something to do with the $875,000 donation from Chevron. In June the big 3 oil companies contributed over $2 million towards his campaign using loopholes in the “public” election funding.

Here is the letter that you can sign that True Majority is sending out to the Senators and Representatives:

I know the facts about how much you take from oil and gas companies.

It’s time for you to show whose side you’re on: create the energy rebate for American families by making big oil pay it is fair share.

It’s time for big business to stop buying our ELECTED officials. This also includes the big business of health care, but that’s another post.

Prayer Book Irony

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The Chicagoland area had a freaking big thunderstorm go through last night (go to ChiTownDaily News for a great picture). Winds were whipping around and gusting up to 70-80 miles per hour, and the lightning was incredible. We had heard that a tornado had set down in Elmhurst (this morning officials say it was just high winds), but that part of the storm was heading for us. Tracy (my husband) and I packed up and went down to the basement to be safe. We weren’t the only ones. We hung out with other residents in the exercise room watching the news. The storm went over us moving around 50 mph, and out over Lake Michigan. We’re fine, and it looks like the South Loop made it through just fine.

Around Chicagoland tree limbs and powerlines are down, and there were several fires from the lightning strikes. Both airports shut down for awhile, and the Cubs game was finally called off after two rain delays. Over 200,000 lost power as of this morning.

When I opened up Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayer to chant compline (last office of prayer at night), this is the prayer for Monday night:

In the infinity of night skies
in the free flashing of lightning
in whirling elemental winds
you are God.
In the impenetrable mists of dark clouds
in the wild gusts of lashing rain
in the ageless rocks of the sea
you are God and I bless you.
You are in all things
and contained by no thing.
You are the Life of all life
and beyond every name.
You are God and in the eternal mystery I praise you.

When I got to whirling elemental winds, Tracy, said, “You’re kidding right?”

I said, “NO! This is the prayer for Monday Night!”

And people think written prayers are never true-to-life or where you’re at now. I beg to differ.

The photo was posted by Doug Siefken.