Whoah

Oh My Goodness...

Don't Give Up

This article is a must-read:

Grandmothers Go to Jail for Peace

I love it! Its so encouraging to see that passion isn't necessarily something that fades with maturity.

Starring Me In the Face

“Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, ‘Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole art and joy of words.’ A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” - C.S. Lewis in Til We Have Faces

A perennial, burning question on my heart has been for quite some time now, "What is the difference between someone who is actively choosing the redemptive process and someone who is actively rejecting it?" Most of the time, I truly feel as though there is none.

But last night, my Mennonite History class went on a field trip to visit an Old Order Mennonite couple in an Old Order Mennonite school house. And it was inspiring.

Old Order Mennonites are people who felt the Mennonite Church was becoming too liberal and individualistic during the Great Awakening that swept North America by storm. Thus, they formed their own little communities, reverting back in time a bit, and they are now known in this area as the "horse and buggy Mennonites."

I like the way they live. Its more eco-friendly. However, they don't seem to realize this, rejecting cars because "it could cause people to want to get involved in impure things - like going to the movie theatre". Personally, I'm not ready to give up my reliance on motorized transportation. But it gnaws on me that there are people who have given it up and are quite content with that.

Its far more community oriented. If someone gets sick, the congregation pays their medical bills. If someone sins and confesses it, an announcement in church is made that yes, brother so-and-so sinned, but he has confessed it and it is in the past now. Decisions about how to live in the world but not of it are discussed at congregational councils. If a tragedy happens, the individuals know their congregation will be there to support them.

It puts a high emphasis on pacifism.
It puts a high emphasis on discipline.
Its obsessed with following the teachings of Jesus.

Part of me desperately wants to join, or at least try it out. Outsiders are welcome to their Sunday services and if someone wants to join, they are encouraged to live with a family for awhile to see if this is something they are willing to do.

Part of me laughs at how entrenched in legalism they are. Or are they? I HAVE seen many things which have affected my purity in movie theatres, and in the media in general. I don't believe a movie theatre is an evil in and of itself though. I have also seen movies with a powerful Christ-like message in movie theatres, like Water, Amazing Grace and obviously The Passion of the Christ.

Sometimes being a Christian is like doing a little dance on a very thin rope, trying not to fall into the crowd below, or falling in, but justifying it by saying redemption can be found in many secular things and backing that argument up by Scripture.

I feel like Old Order Mennonites try not to even climb onto the rope, preferring to occupy their time with other things that have nothing to do with trying to sort through the evils or redemptive qualities of mass culture.

And they stick out so much that they do get questioned a lot about their faith. The couple re-iterated that a few times last night.

I LONG to stick out so much that I get questioned.

But perhaps the bonnets and flowered dresses are simply their own versions of Christian T-Shirts - something unimportant to identify the in-crowd from the out-crowd.

I used to find Christian t-shirts quite attractive before I learned to scoff at them. They WERE handy. In my mind I would think, "Oh, isn't that great! He's not ashamed of his faith! I should marry him."

*Smiles* if you have made it this far in my post I congratulate you. This is more of a discussion topic than a blog topic. I have far too many loosely related ideas bouncing around in my head. Turrah.

This month I have intensely missed Guelph but I know that this time last year I intensely missed CBC. And when at CBC I intensely missed high school. I think it gets easier every year though.

However, being in class makes me happy I came. Living and being with my friends in Waterloo makes me happy too. The only thing which really annoys me is the cold, isolationist mood of this campus and city.

It bothers me most that people, especially on campus, don't acknowledge strangers' existence when they walk by. I mean, when presented with a picture of a person, and a picture of say, a waterfall or a flower, which are you most likely to stare at? I'm most likely to stare at the person, because people are beautiful and terribly interesting to look at, even if they aren't "hott". Facebook wouldn't be Crackbook if the only pictures people put up were those of flowers and waterfalls, don't you think?

Yet we pass people, these incredibly examples of Divine Beauty every day without even making eye contact. Its weird and I don't like it. Perhaps I should chase people through the buildings and force them to look into my eyes and acknowledge my existence, or at least chase them so that they know that I acknowledge their existence. Somehow I feel like that, indeed, would be more natural than this current system.

Anyway, I'm whining and I know it. And there are worst things. I'm lucky to have the community in Waterloo that I do have, even if it is among a sea of blank eyes.

Sharangeloria!

This is the night Sharon, Angela and Gloria got gussied up and went out for dinner in Toronto. We were celebrating Angela, who wanted to do this instead of going to her prom. Everyone had a busy summer, so last weekend was the earliest we could finally do this.

Frustrated with Fair Trade

I am desperate for a new pair of shoes.

At the beginning of the summer, I needed a pair of black shoes for working in a kitchen. It was also my first time buying new shoes in a very long time, and I wanted to make sure they were sweatshop free. So from store to store we went, looking for the label "Made in Canada" or "Made in the USA." We found a pair eventually, after exausting three malls and several other shoe stores. My shoes are ugly as sin, a men's pair of runners that I actually had to go over in permanent marker to make entirely black, but at least they are functional and (I assume?) exploitation-free!

Now I'm looking for nice shoes to wear out and about, especially for the Fall. I've been bumming off my Mom and sister for months now, and that's not fair to them nor is it good for my feet.

Knowing what I was up against, I was in an apathetic mood the other day and my Mom and I went shopping for just any pair of shoes I would like, sweatshops involved or no sweatshops involved. We went to our local outlet mall.

I am actually desperate for a lot of different articles of clothing, especially clothes I don't feel comfortable buying second-hand, like socks and pajama shorts. So, the first store we went into, I got some socks and pajama shorts there.

After that, we had ZERO luck finding anything. I would find shoes that I loved, but they wouldn't be in my size. I don't have overly large or small feet so that doesn't usually happen to me, but it happened over and over again that day.

I was in such an apathetic mood that I even began trying on new clothes from various stores, regardless of where they were made. *ITS JUST TOO DAMN HARD TO FIND ANYTHING ETHICAL!* I justified. Also, my Mom was paying, and its a lot easier to buy new when someone who can afford it is paying for it. Even still, I never found anything that fit properly or that I liked.

Frustrated and tired in one of the last shoe stores in the mall, one of us realized I was no longer carrying the bag of pajamas and socks. Apparently I had set it down somewhere. My Mom went off to find it while I tried on more shoes, but came back empty handed about 25 minutes later. It seems my socks and pjs had been stolen. (Seriously, who steals something like that?)

So, the day was actually counter-productive. And I still have nothing.

There is a fair trade clothing store in town, but the quality of clothes that it sells is low. I've had several articles of clothing fall apart on me now.

Later that night, still apathetic and also annoyed now, I was listening to the song, "Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry. And, as odd as this sounds, I feel like God used that song to speak to me about my apathy. Words like, "Shut up and put your money where your mouth is / That's what you get for waking up in Vegas" totally spoke to my heart.

And so, I still need new shoes, but I'm learning that I need to not give up on the pursuit of justice, even in decisions as small as my choice of shoes for the Fall. Because God's heart is with the oppressed, and even though I live in the privileged part of the world, a part of the world that partially got so rich by exploiting the other majority of the world, that doesn't mean I need to be a part of that!