NAVIGATING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

I have had quite a busy summer!!! Most likely when we launch the Manhattan Beach Community (CREW) Youth and Families webpage I will need to move my blog to another host... so I just haven't blogged in a while.


This Summer has been AMAZING. I took a cool class associated with UCC General Synod in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I haven't posted in a while. But I thought a current update was in order... because so far 2009 is going really well. Which is a departure from 2008 and 2007, truthfully. At least for job stuff.





2008 was pivotal, though, for a number of reasons not the least of which was spending time having my western world rocked in Cambodia over the summer. I will never be the same after that transformative experience. Still can't put it all into words. Maybe in a book someday...





But 2009 is going well.

I have a NEW apartment. In February I moved into a fun apartment. I live alone for the first time in years which is GREAT (particularly considering I spent the last year living in a variety of spaces that gave me very little privacy or personal space at all). I live in the urban sprawl of El Segundo. I see and hear planes land. I have fun neighbors. I love it.

I have a NEW job. I also started my new job in February. I work as an Associate Pastor for Youth and Families at a church in Manhattan Beach, CA. I LOVE IT. I mean I am still easing into it. Coming to a new job and community where EVERYTHING is new is always a bit of a struggle. I am observing. I am hanging out. I am trying to figure out how to "lead" in this position. In some ways I am starting from scratch, which is a bit overwhelming. But God will show me, I have no doubt. And it will be shown to me in unexpected ways. And it will make me gloriously uncomforable, I am sure!!






Here is a picture of only some of the youth I work with at the Annual Dinner last night:

It is time once again for me to list my Christmas story pet peeves. These are traditions that have been handed down through the years that do not portray a correct understanding of the Biblical narrative of the birth of Jesus. Here they are in no particular order:

1. The LOCATION of Jesus' birth.
There was no hotel. Seriously. Mary and Joseph did not get turned away from an "inn" like as in a hotel or Holiday Inn. There was no room for them in the "upper room" (the word is "kataluma" same Greek word used later by Mark & Luke describe the place where Jesus invites his disciples to partake of the last supper and it is also the place Luke describes Jesus' followers meet after Jesus' ascension when the Holy Spirit falls upon them - not the "same" upper room - but it indicates a place within a family dwelling - like a living room)... so because of their lower status (their age and family status) they were in the "lower room" of his family home. If you know anything at all about middle-eastern hospitality you would not think that Mary & Joseph had to find a hotel room in a city where he was from (there were there for the census - his whole family was from Bethlehem) nor would you think they were forced to have the baby in a stable in the middle of some field somewhere. There were no barns. Not one. During this time large families lived together in multi-level houses and the "upper room(s)" were always given to the more senior (older) members of the family and the lower rooms often housed the animals that where brought INSIDE for the night to be kept safe. THIS is the sitiuation Mary found herself in when Jesus was born. She was in the "garage" (for lack of a better image) but still a part of the family home of Joseph's family.

2. The Magi numbered more than three and did not arrive AT Jesus' birth.
There were not three wiseman (find that in scripture, ya can't! - read Matthew 2:1) and they were not there WHEN Jesus was born (but came later - read Matthew 2:11). Jesus was a "teknia" (the Greek word for child) when the wiseman (many of them in a caravan) came to visit Joseph & Maryin a HOUSE. They probably didn't follow a star but an astrological sign of something big happening (you don't think God can move the stars into any formation he wants?).

3. Jesus' Birth Date
Jesus was not born on December 25 (or probably even in winter). This is the date the Roman Emporer Constantine I decreed it to be on, and before that Jesus's birth was not celebrated on that date.

but it is not a fan of ME (well, the city where I live: Los Angeles).


This week I sat down to watch the latest in the Cities of the Underworld TV series on the History Channel with a few good friends who also happen to be fellow longtime "Angelinos"... and aside from the fact that I liked the other host better (Eric something) and that this season is not as well done (written or produced)... I have tried to stick with it... because if there is one thing I love it is CREEPY history shows. Love em. Not gonna lie! Can't get enough!


But this week's episode was on the city of LOS ANGELES.

I have several initial problems with this... not the least of which that there is no true "underground" in the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles... I will detail the rest of my complaints below...


Because what we did conclude is that the History Channel does not like Los Angeles very much. Or at least the producers/writers/creators of this show. They spoke of Los Angeles in an almost entirely negative tone. We have the worst air quality, traffic, history, etc. We have the worst past of corruption... we are the worst environmentally, etc. I didn't hear ONE nice thing come out of his mouth about "Angelinos"

Now... don't get me wrong: I am far from a Pollyanna. I will admit some of what he said was TRUE... L.A. does have a rather poor record of PAST police corruption (read any of James Ellroy's novels, which are set in the seedy underbelly of LA power, politics and police - Or see the movie, "The Changeling" -true story!). And I also don't dispute that Los Angeles was STUPID when it went to CARS (thereby kicking the public transportations feet out from under it - see the documentary 'The End of Suburbia" as a vastly better explanation of how this all came about HISTORICALLY, and honestly where I think he ripped off some of his ideas) and NOW we are paying a high price to get some semblance of public transportation back, again. And while LA has many notorious murders... I am still not certain I would term the outlying "desert" area where the Manson Family farm still resides is as "the underground of LA" (literally digging up graves). And so the fact that he titled this episode "the Land of Manson" seemed well, quite honestly, a little outlandish. I also don't think Manson lived "underground" and besides for many of us the Tate murders, while undeniably tragic, happened before we were born... so we don't experience Los Angeles through some warped Manson murder lens (the way Wildman suggests)... Furthermore... I don't think LA is a haven for UFO sightings (isn't that distinction given to less populous areas in say rural Colorado?)... and so that whole "battle of LA" sequence was just oddly out of left field. The host (Don Wildman) went around making mountains of out mole hills... and "ooh-ing and ahh-ing" over NOTHING... and so it made the premise of the show seem silly and strange to anyone who has EVER lived for even a week in Los Angeles. I didn't recognize Don Wildman's Los Angeles Underworld... and I have lived in Los Angeles nearly all of my life (almost 40 years). I don't think I recognized it because this version of Los Angeles lives only in the fertile imagination of the producers/writers/host of this show. I think this episode should have been on the Sci Fi Channel, not the History Channel. What I mean is that in past shows (on Budapest or Berlin or London or New York) it always made me want to VISIT those places and envy the host for getting to go to some really cool underground locations (particularly in Rome) but for this LA focused episode the opposite seemed true for the host. I realize Los Angeles is not for everyone. But it is for some. And it is a pretty cool place to live, actually. And while as with most larger cities we have a dubious past and a complex narrative - it doesn't qualify Los Angeles as the pit of despair. OK?

So I have a link from my Facebook page to this blog. And that message came up when I tried to use the link. Is THIS blog "malicious"? That is so weird. I wonder why it says that...

I was reading facebook again... needing to go home from a long day of work... and found this cool quote on the facebook page of my teaching partner, Amber, in Cambodia. I don't know who this person is... I don't know if this quote is legit. I don't have time to google. But I wanted to put it somewhere. 'Cause it is timely. I am not a pacifist. But I do think we need to pause and question violence as a means to an end much more than we seem to do now, as a society. I don't have time to process it. I just wanted to document it.

Here is the quote:

"... peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication... it's like telling someone murder is wrong and then showing them by way of execution... when justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war the ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor..."

-Derek Webb

I haven't been blogging in a while... I guess it is because I am in one of those "wait and see" moments in my life... between what is now and what could be. Those of you who are job searching can relate, I am sure. It has been several years now for me. But I am hopeful that I may be at the end of my current journey and onto another one. But nothing is certain. So I wait and see...

but while I am waiting... I asked for a television from my folks for Christmas. The best price we found was at Target one of those "come early" and get it sales. I honestly have NEVER woken up early to go shopping before on black Friday. I never thought I would. But this deal was honestly too good to pass up. So we took a chance. My dad and I (my mom wisely stayed home) got up and were at the Target before 6am. And I have to say I was SUPER IMPRESSED. I don't know who runs Target's Black Friday sales day... but I want to shake their hand! While we waited in a long line some Target team members circulated flyers with maps of the store and the location of each of the "hot button" items. Wisely they dispersed them throughout the store so that people wouldn't be pushing and shoving at the electronics section over multiple items. When we arrived at the location where the tv's were they were ALREADY loaded into carts for us. We just took a cart and kept going. It was almost easy. Then we looked for the two other items on our list (sheets on sale for my parents - I am introducing them to "nice" sheets AND a stainless steel toaster for me). We went to the register (all of the registers were open) and waited behind ONE person... and then we were out the door. We were at the car WITH the TV at 6:20 (I seriously thought we would be there for hours trying to deal with the craziness). We saved so much money on the TV that my parents got me the other item I wanted for Christmas: the Italian stove-top cappuccino maker from Williams-Sonoma.

So... now all I need is a full time job... so I can afford the apartment where I will watch shows on my new TV while drinking yummy cappuccino's. So... buy it and it will come? I hope so!