I’m really looking forward to the trip. I’m thinking of it as part retreat, part vision quest, part liminal experience. It’s a good thing I love to drive (Ruth doesn’t). I love the idea that I’ll get to really see and experience the country between where I live now, and where I’ll be living. Flying always makes the place I arrive in surreal - I never really quite feel like I’ve arrived. But traveling by surface - car, train, etc., makes me really know I have arrived.

I’m going the northern route - from New York, Ohio, Indiana, through Chicago, up through Wisconsin and a corner of Minnesota. I’ll be going to South Dakota, and go through the Badlands. I’m going to drive through Wyoming, and visit Yellowstone. Then through Idaho. It’s not clear whether I’ll head straight down from Idaho to Nevada, then CA, or go through Oregon to Portland, then down the coast. The latter sounds much more fun, but I don’t know how tired I’ll be, and what I’ll want to do. But in any event, I expect the trip to take me close to a week.

I’ll be blogging and tweeting along the way, of course (I’m going to put my tweets in the sidebar here.) And I hope to take pictures, and take in the full experience.

Anyway, so RLP (or Gordon Atkinson, his real name) is very brave, and quite interesting, too. He has taken on issues of gay marriage, his battle with depression, and a broad range of issues. He has now decided to take on the question of whether or not the Bible really says that non-Christians are going to hell.

THE CHALLENGE:

Okay, so here’s the deal: if you believe in hell, I want you to help us understand why. I invite anyone who believes that non-Christians are going to an eternal hell to make your case. We’re going to play by your rules too. Bible arguments only. Don’t explain why you think there should be a hell. Don’t tell us that your preacher told you there is a hell. Show us in the scriptures you say you love so dearly.

Because if you’re talking about hell, you better damn well be able to open your holy book and show us why. And if you can’t…well, maybe you shouldn’t be talking so much.

You really should go read the whole post. It’s great.

What I think is great about this is unlike the general progressive/liberal Christian strategy, which basically (for good reason) questions the whole premise of the Bible being the literal truth, thus allowing us to basically throw out things we don’t like, RLP is asking people who believe in hell to play by their own rules - that is, prove it using scripture. I can’t wait to hear the results.

I’m in my standard “moving is chaos” challenging place. I get restless, have insomnia, and indigestion, among other things. It’s stressful to move, and it’s hard for me to feel grounded and at peace with all of it going on, even though it’s all really under control.

For me, this emotional state is familiar, having moved so much in the last few years. This time, I’m just trying to be present with it, and accept it, instead of wishing it would go away (because, of course, it won’t.) It will be likely more than a month before I have a place to live, and can begin to unpack, so I will have this internally (as well as externally) chaotic place to live with for a while yet.

All of that said, I’m excited about the move. I’m starting to already make plans to do things when I arrive, and I’m excited about all of the possibilities. So, just to live through the chaos…

So … I’ll be hitting the highway again, this time back to California, a little earlier than I expected.  I’m excited to be moving back to the Bay Area - interested in finding out more about all of the varied things I might get connected to, or involved with.

And there is also sadness - I’m leaving (again) a group of great friends that I’ll miss getting to see often. I’m sad to be leaving New England, the part of the country that seems to me to be as much like home as any I’ve so far found.

So I’ll be packing, having last lunches and coffees and teas with people for a while, downloading audio books, making playlists, arranging moving logistics, scanning SF Bay Area Craigslist for places to possibly look at when I arrive, and hopefully still manage to work, write and stay sane. Wish me luck.

It’s an interesting, liminal time.

I’m sitting at a cafe, namely Arabica’s cafe, in University Circle. This Arabic was not here when I lived here 20 years ago. There was a single Arabica that had just opened up in Coventry - a fun place to hang out, with people playing chess and go in the back. I was there for countless afternoons and evenings reading and writing, as I was finishing my dissertation.

It’s fun to be in Cleveland, and interesting. I am remembering all of the things I liked about it when I lived here.

Next, back home, time to start thinking about packing, moving, and all of the next steps.

The brou-ha-ha around Jesse Jackson’s comments about Obama, and how he would like to excise a part of Obama’s anatomy has been, for me, a very interesting study in the politics race. (When you watch the video, have a look at Jesse Jackson’s right hand, and his face, as he makes his comments.)

Of course, there is no substantive coverage of what the issues exactly are that Jesse Jackson has with Obama’s ideas about reforming Bush’s faith-based initiatives. The most substantial coverage is about the drama, the apologies, the repudiation …

Jim Wallis has a view of the new ideas:

Obama affirmed the idea of a faith-based initiative on the solid foundations of both real partnership and the necessary commitment of government to sound public policy to reduce poverty. Prior to today, the danger was that Democrats might revert to old secular biases and end the faith-based program altogether, preferring only public sector approaches as the remedy to poverty instead of also forging vital partnerships with civil society that include the faith community. It was good to see that the failures of the Bush faith-based initiative have not deterred Obama from proposing a robust vision of his own.

From my perspective, I don’t know that I would necessarily say that it would have been a bad thing to end the faith-based program altogether - I don’t know that it would be from secular bias, but more likely from a healthy appreciation of the separation of church and state, and how difficult it is to have a governmental faith-based initiative, and not run afoul of that in one way or another. On the other hand, it might well be interesting to see what Obama does with this, and whether it really has the kinds of effects he hopes it will.

In terms of the politics of race - Jackson says of Obama “he’s talking down to Black people on this faith based …” What did he mean by that? Obviously, I don’t know, although I could guess. Others have guessed, too. Here’s a comment from Sylvester Brown:

When there are discussions about crime, drug abuse, teen-age sex, divorce or violence, they are presented as “societal problems” in the white community, even though such things permeate all parts of society. Whereas in the black community, these issues are discussed as “black problems.”

We know that Obama isn’t talking down to us. He’s talking around us.

He’s trying to woo white voters who want a president with the juice to tell blacks to clean up their own club.

And there was this comment from David Knowles:

Like Bill Cosby, Obama insists that not all of black America’s modern-day problems can be blamed on the legacy of slavery. The “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” approach is not oblivious to historical factors, but it seeks to shift the emphasis for solving problems away from government and toward the individual and the community itself. And now, thanks to Jackson, Obama gets to highlight this message to white America all the more.

Just as significant, in case there was still any doubt about it, is the re-confirmation that Jesse Jackson is no longer the de facto figure-head of black America. Neither is Al Sharpton. In fact, Obama’s rise may signal an end to the cult-of-personality, hierarchical pecking-order within the African American community that began (quite understandably) with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Both are really interesting, and, I think, pretty right on. Jesse Jackson (and others) have lived their lives, and built their careers around a very specific kind of construction of race - one that is very much, and literally, black and white (and, to some extent, descendants of slaves and descendants of slave-owners), with few shades of grey. Obama lives in the shades of grey. And because of the changes in demographics, economics and culture of the last 30 years, that’s really where we all live, too.

In any event, unlike the Reverend Wright brou-ha-ha, this one can only help Obama.

It’s kinda cool. Check out the tool.

Short story: I’m moving back to the West Coast, specifically back to the Bay Area, sometime between early October and early November. This time, I expect it will be pretty much for good. One never knows, of course, but that’s how it feels at the moment. Feel free to say something snide if it doesn’t turn out that way.

Longer story: It is partially, of course, to be closer to Ruth, who lives in Oakland now. But in this 5 or so month process that I have been through since Ruth decided to go back to California, I have come to realize that there is a lot for me in the Bay Area, and there seems to be a way that I need to grow that will be facilitated by being there.

What do I mean? New England has been a wonderful place to live. It still does (and I imagine will always) feel a lot like home. It is cozy and comfortable (except in winter!) A lot of dear friends live here. It’s small and handle-able. But in many ways, it’s isolated. It’s far away from my work contacts, far away from potential clients, and there aren’t the kinds of dynamic communities that I got to be a little bit a part of when I lived in Berkeley in 2005-6.

My field of work, nonprofit technology, which feels much more chosen rather than accidental now that I got to take a break to go to seminary, could almost be said to be centered in the Bay Area. There are communities of faith that I can be a part of that only exist there (like City of Refuge, Choctmat Halev, and New Spirit Community Church to name just a few.) I mean, where else can you find meditation groups with queer people of color? Or how about butch yoga?

I also came to an interesting realization. Having spent most of my life living in settings that are largely white, I feel like I haven’t really gotten to fully live out the complexity of my identity. With my move to Oakland, I get to live and move among a lot of other African Americans, who have chosen all sorts of life paths, many as complex and combined as my own (African-American/Lesbian/Geek/Buddhist/Christian/Science Fiction Writer - there may even be more of those than just me!) I got to experience a taste of that when I lived there, but I feel like it will be great to really get to immerse myself in that experience.

What’s great is that I have a network there already, between work and my old seminary friends, as well as a few other folks I’ve known who’ve moved there over the years. I’m excited about the move. And, of course, there is a lot to do (oh, like hopefully sell a house) and such before hand, which is not fun. But I’m just taking it one step at a time.

In some ways, I still am pretty much a Unitarian Christian, even though I now attend a church that is part of a trinitarian denomination (UCC). And because of that, the Trinity is in my consciousness quite often. During service, we always sing that Doxology (thankfully, using inclusive language) “Glory be to the Creator, and to the Christ and to the Holy Ghost …”

Today, the pastor of my lovely church, Rev. Andrea Ayvazian, preached a great sermon (as usual) and in it was this nugget: The qualities of water at what is called the “triple point” of water (which is 0.01 degrees C) is where the three phases can coexist in an equilibrium.

I love the metaphor - the idea of God, and the qualities of God, being in equilibrium - present all at once - it’s all the same substance, like water, but it has three different qualities.

I once wrote a paper in seminary about the concept of the Trinity by Julian of Norwich. About one of Julian’s metaphors of the Trinity, I wrote:

The triad nature, mercy and grace is very much how I experience God, and God’s love. I see God everyday in the natural world. I see the love of God in every leaf, in every rock, in the moo of a cow, the babble of a brook, the flame of a candle. God’s nature is what is so close to my eyes and ears, on a daily basis. God’s grace I experience in my life. When I find myself in the right place at the right time, I see that as grace. When it’s winter (in New England), and I hate the cold, and I look up in the sky, and see the constellation Orion, I feel God’s grace.

It seems like this is a theological concept that I’ll be chewing on for a while.

I imagine a rant or two about the election season will end up here, or some exploration of a theological or religious conundrum. But I think most of the action is on the Zen tech blog, and LJ.