Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Potpourri

In addition to whatever spiritual implications Lent might hold for you, it is also a useful way to countdown the days until the Merrie Monarch Festival. The Festival is the equivalent of the Olympics for hula dancing. The headline event is the Miss Aloha Hula competition (there is no Mr. Hula), but the week following Easter each year is also filled with the men's and women's group competitions, parades, and exhibitions. Last year, a local television station in Hawai'i started streaming the competition live on the internet. Because of the time change, I stayed up until 4 a.m. three nights in a row so that I could watch the entire thing. I plan to be prepared this year and record the stream for viewing at a more reasonable hour.

As a Southern Baptist, I grew up not knowing anything about Lent. In fact, I was in college before I had any idea what the fuss was all about. While I still don't celebrate it fully (is celebrating Lent oxymoronic?) I have decided to take these next 40 days (really 47) to dedicate to praying for several big decisions that I need to make in the not-so-distant future. This is not the most appropriate place to go into all of those things, but if you can just pray that I would have some clarity at the end of that time, I'd appreciate it. Is anyone else doing anything for Lent?

Some books to check out:

The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People
by Cathleen Falsani, Wheaton grad and Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist
release date 3/7/2006

Walk With Me: Two Friends On A Spiritual Journey Together
by Sally Miller and Cheri Mueller, two 1990 Wheaton grads

Faith and the City: A Girl's Search For Post-College Meaning
by Jennifer Ruisch, it's a memoir set in Chicago
release date 3/7/2006

I don't remember how we got on the subject, but it seems that at some point during BFWWC we were discussing things that shouldn't be knitted or crocheted. Is it my imagination, or did Chrissy also model some examples? There appears to be a whole book advocating these items:
Sexy Little Knits.

1 comment:

Jennifer Ruisch said...

did you read faith and the city? I'm jennifer ruisch, the author of the book. if you read it, let me know what you thought.
www.jenniferruisch.com :)