I'm in love with the ordinary

Each year, i put one of my fav. Death Cab songs up for New Years Eve, my least fav. holiday (even Boxing Day ranks higher IMO)



But i found that this year, i DO feel different.

actually, everything feels different. 2008 brought some massive changes. Kate and I were politically active, but never before at this level nor this loud and sure about our candidate. The First Black President. awesome!

This year we saw our closest friends give birth to a wonderful baby boy. i entered into the parish setting and felt that this is ABSOLUTELY what i'm supposed to do. i've found some great blogging friends and we're the "Canon" which is just been great to have regular comments to challenge and support.

And the biggest change, Kate and I are expecting. i can't wait to meet this kid! at first we thought it was a boy, but now we're thinking Tom-Boy! Given Kate and the women on my side of the family, this also feels right. What we're hoping for is a BABY!!! All we ask for is a healthy baby and a short labor for Mama, the gender is irrelevant.

I'm gearing up for a trip to Egypt and possibly Thailand in the summer. I've traveled before to Germany, but Egypt will be a whole 'nother ball game. Despite most assumptions, this is NOT a mission trip. we’ll be learning about the culture and history. it’s a two week stay where we learn about the Coptic Christians and Islam, largely, but we do have one synagoge visit scheduled.

the seminary is set on getting us out of our western mindset and show how globalization is a double-edged sword and not everyone thinks and acts like Americans or even Christians for that matter! and Christians don't even act like how we would define "Christian" here.

you can't see the water in which you swim until you're out of it. Germany changed my life and i can't wait to see who i am after Egypt (AE?) i’m excited! i mean, when is the next time i can travel abroad with my best friends? I just hope that Jim, Steve, and I are still friends after this ;-)

Back to Boogie, Kate and I always say we should relish this time, as it's the last "us" time we'll have for awhile. last time we can go out without a baby-sitter. last time we can pull up and go to a movie at the drop of a hat. as this song states, "The world we love forever gone".


sorry for the anime video, just focus on the song ;-)

but we can't wait to be parents. after 9 years of being together, Kate and I are finding a whole new level of our relationship. it's been wonderful.

to quote the song again:

It might seem like a dream, but it's real to me.
Don't it feel like sunshine after all.

May your 2009 be blessed! Happy New Year!

Process continued: Wiki!

Lots of reading to do this week, so here's a cop out.. i mean more about Process Theology!!!

Here's what Wiki has as the tenents of Process Theology:

God is not omnipotent in the sense of being coercive. The divine has a power of persuasion rather than coercion. Process theologians interpret the classical doctrine of omnipotence as involving force, and suggest instead a forbearance in divine power. "Persuasion" in the causal sense means that God does not exert unilateral control.

Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. These events have both a physical and mental aspect. All experience (male, female, atomic, and botanical) is important and contributes to the ongoing and interrelated process of reality.

The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will. Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just human beings. God cannot totally control any series of events or any individual, but God influences the creaturely exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. To say it another way, God has a will in everything, but not everything that occurs is God's will.

God contains the universe but is not identical with it (panentheism, not pantheism or pandeism). Some also call this "theocosmocentrism" to emphasize that God has always been related to some world or another.

Because God interacts with the changing universe, God is changeable (that is to say, God is affected by the actions that take place in the universe) over the course of time. However, the abstract elements of God (goodness, wisdom, etc.) remain eternally solid.

Charles Hartshorne believes that people do not experience subjective (or personal) immortality, but they do have objective immortality because their experiences live on forever in God, who contains all that was. Others believe that people do have subjective experience after bodily death.

Dipolar theism, is the idea that God has both a changing aspect (God's existence as a Living God) and an unchanging aspect (God's eternal essence).

The rest can be found here.

The big name in Process is Rabbi Harold Kushner and his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Also John Cobb, William Sloane Coffin, and Rabbi William E. Kaufman are worth checking out.

and homestarrunner's halloween toon is up! it's a 1,000 times better than last years. and katie burke is still a floozie.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! eat your fluffy-puff marshmallows!

Pearl's Back!

Katie Burke sent me THE LANDLORD and i laughed until milk came out my nose. then i realized i don't drink milk. when something is so funny it makes my nose lactate, it's worth doing a sequel.



plus brandon and alley were married at the beginning of june!!! i don't think i've mentioned that on here. great wedding!a big post is upcoming! until then bloggateers!