Friday morning rant :)

I'm really struck lately by the number of people in the church-at-large, who find complete satisfaction in an individualistic faith that focuses on sin and personal development. Now, don't get me wrong, I am the queen of personal development. Personal development is great! Go get yourself a therapist! But please don't let that be the end. Personal development is for the world, for the needy and the broken. We work towards healing for ourselves so we can pass it on to others.

I'm so tired, just bone-drained tired, of this endless religious craziness in the US. I'm tired of people yelling about "traditional values". The Western church is now completely about my personal relationship with Jesus - my best friend, and how my life was changed, and how great I feel about myself. It's all about what my neighbor is doing wrong, how my neighbor is sinning, or causing me to sin, all about how frightened I am of where my country is going. I just want to scream, "Get a freakin' grip, people!"

I might be single forever (lest you forget that this blog is all about me finding a man), because I'm not willing to put "Jesus is my homeboy" on my eHarmony page. I might be single forever, but I'm not willing to live a life of family devotions and being a submissive invisible wife. I may be single forever, but I'm not going to buy into the idea that women should cover themselves up to keep men from sinning. It's 110 degrees out? Yup, I'm gonna wear shorts. Deal with it. You had a sexual thought about a person other than your spouse? Deal with it, and move on. I want everyone to collectively throw in the "personal sin elimination" card and just accept the fact that they're flawed and are going to do and say and think stupid things. Yup, you are. You're human. Deal with it. You think God agonizes about forgiving you? It's doubtful. There are, after all, seven billion people in the world, and they all need four hugs a day, so...you do the math.

Now go out there and do something that helps people, that doesn't involve a sign. Peace out.

"Here we come rejoicing"

There's a small out-of-the-way thrift store downtown that I go to pretty often. I don't know if I've talked about it before. The thrift store supports a deep-seated ministry in the city. I don't quite understand what the ministry itself does, though I've been shopping there for years. There have been signs on the wall saying that some money helps kids go to camp, but I don't think I've seen those signs lately.

It's my secret spot. I always find good stuff. Oftentimes, I have to spend a lot of time cleaning my purchase(s), but it's usually worth it.

Anyhoo, there's a lovely woman who works there, and she enjoys listening to children's bible tapes. A couple months ago, children were singing Old Testament passages from the Torah. Today, they were singing songs about Jesus. I told her how much I enjoyed the music. I bitch and moan about Christian music overkill in thrift stores, but I'm beginning to appreciate the nostagia of it. Today, as those children were singing, I was thinking about my childhood, and this album. I've been trying to find some audio, but have been unsuccessful.

"...I know no other way..." *

Ten Eleven things I love:

1. Songs about Mary the mother of God

2. Rhodesian memoirs

3. Anything about the Chilean coup of 1973

4. Pablo Neruda/Juan Ramon Jimenez/Rainer Maria Rilke

5. Missionary stories and missionary kids

6. Realistic and romantic science fiction

7. The Romantic Era

8. Modern folk music

9. Pictures of beautiful tattoos

10. Chocolate soy ice cream, chopped new banana, and natural creamy peanut butter

11. Thrift blogs

Perhaps I should have a series of posts where I outline my love of these things.

*Note: The title of this post is from Neruda's 17^th Sonnet. The whole section goes like this:

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,

te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo: 

así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

You know you want it.

Excellent things to thrift for:

1. Shoes. I always find great shoes (as you may have seen from my photos). A good pair of shoes lasts, and many quality shoes, even if they are damaged in some way, can be repaired. Also, this allows you to have a larger shoe collection without the guilt (or if you're like me, you'll still have guilt over the accumulation of earthly treasures because you were raised to be a biblical literalist and sometimes you can't quite shake it).

2. Books. Unless you're looking for something specific, one can find all of one's mindless beach reads (and a ton of Harlequins) at your nearest thrift store. When I go on vacation, I usually just pick up a few and then drop them off one by one as I go home. I don't know how this is working, but I imagine that the books are getting picked up and read by other people. I did leave them on the subway, after all.

3. Furniture. I have slowly been accumulating furniture for my new place, mostly small organizational pieces. I of course have my usual few pieces that I've had forever that always move with me, but when I move, it's not uncommon for me to donate a lot of what I own. I hate moving with a fiery passion, and the less I have to deal with the better. Also, I have the same stuff to put in/on the furniture, so my place usually looks the same anyway. When I have energy like a normal person, I'll even paint the furniture, which is super fun. My old house was so cute when I did this. But that was before graduate school. My life has only gone downhill from my early twenties. Don't let my ridiculously good looks fool you.

4. Linens. Hang with me for a minute, those of you who are easily grossed out. There's nothing a good heavy wash followed by a nice dry in the sunshine that can't renew that beautiful quilt. I have yet to purchase used towels, but I've definitely thought about it. I did find some lovely handmade washcloths the other day, and I did buy them, but they looked new, so that doesn't quite count. If you can't think sheets quite yet, start small: napkins, tablecloths, maybe even a nice afghan?

5. Kid stuff. Oh my goodness. The last thrift store I was at had toys all over the floor. There were too many to fit in their bins! And you could find yourself in a dump of a thrift store, but they'd have nice children's clothing. It doesn't get worn as long, plus children are typically very neat and tidy because they take all of their clothes off whenever they feel like it; you get my drift.

Hopefully soon, this post will be followed by a post on things not to thrift for. You can of course send suggestions at any time.