Dusty Reflections

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a couple days in Nürnberg. One of those days was Ash Wednesday, but here in Germany the Protestants don't hold Ash Wednesday services like Protestants do in the US. Ashes on the forehead are viewed as primarily Catholic here. Yet, I was privileged to join a group of people from around the world (gathered for the planning of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation celebration in 2017) for an organ concert in St. Sebald church. A Wartburg Seminary professor, who was part of the group, and I talked about how the organ concert was, for us, our Ash Wednesday worship.

It was a wonderful two days, even if St. Sebald was colder inside than outside during a February organ concert. Nürnberg's City Hostel was much nicer than the A&O Hostel I stayed in before. I spent several hours in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, followed by the Way of Human Rights, the Toy Museum (awesome toys from the early 1700s through the early 1900s), the Albrecht Dürer Haus museum, Hangman's Bridge, and lots of little shops, including the Trödelmarkt (junk market) that consists of shops on a little island in the river.

Hangman's Bridge

In an antique shop, I found a stein and two pewter shot glasses--all 3 with horses. The shot glasses have farrier scenes and the stein has horses pulling a wagon of barrels. I decided the barrels are the pickle barrels that Katharina von Bora (Luther's wife) escaped from her convent in.

I have given up on knitting a sock. Now I'm trying to crochet a sock. "Sock" shall remain in the singular for now because I may very well end up with a sock-yarn afghan. Granny squares, I can do. Oh, but my wool slippers are improving. I discovered the liquid-rubber-sole-stuff and now I don't wipe out on the linoleum at the bottom of the stairs. Slippery slippers are fun, but that's how I break my toes.

Pickle barrels...

Language continues to be a comical barrier that we all get good laughs from.  Slippers aren't slippers. Horses' boots aren't vegetables (oh, come on, Gemasche and Gemüse? They're kind of close!). I also can't hear the difference between German-accented "Paul" and "porn" which often doesn't end up quite right in the conversation. Yet, I got an email this morning, all in German, and as I usually do, I skimmed through it without the dictionary (or Google Translate) to see what I could get out of it. To my very big surprise, I understood the whole thing! All by myself! Whoohoo! Ok, back to reading Sebastian's children's book, "Gebete einer Maus" ("Prayers of a Mouse").

Out my window one morning before all the snow melted last week.

Pickle barrels. That's almost as bad as being puked up by a whale!

Pax.

Time flies...and so do horses!

I don't have a whole lot of new and exciting things to blog about at the moment.  Next week will bring the semester to a close and our 6-week holiday will begin.  This also means that I am at the half-way mark of my year in Germany.  I can't believe how fast the time is going, even the weeks that are not filled with crazy adventures fly by. 

Lately I've been spending a fair amount of time being frustrated by definite articles--there is no system to the gender of nouns, nothing to do but memorize...and without knowing the gender, it is impossible to say anything because everything else in the sentence revolves around the gender of the nouns.  Nouns are easy to learn...but to remember which one of the three definite articles is attached to the front is another story.  The point is, I haven't been taking a lot of time to reflect, at least not enough to write anything even semi-coherent. 

Linaro--gelding in rehab after having bone chips removed from a hind fetlock.

Today my abs are reminding me of my fabulous riding lesson yesterday.  It's been a while since I had an instructor holler in my direction, "Alyssa! You're not on cross country!"  How is it that instructors never seem to look when things are going really well...and the second things fall apart (like my canter transition yesterday) is when the instructor turns around?  Or is it that those are the moments that so quickly draw attention?  Chagallo and I weren't out of control in the least, only a bit strung out, flat, and maybe a little too fast.  But it was fun!  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  And, I definitely won't drink 4 cups of coffee and eat an entire box of Valentine's Day chocolate before I ride tomorrow.

Pax.

"One cat leads to another."

One link leads to another and soon I find myself distracted by this and that.  Today happens to be six-toed cats.  Not that I'm not ALWAYS distracted by a six-toed cat, whether she's begging me to play "Mousie" or dumping the bowl of cherry tomatoes on the floor or because I'm missing her terribly.  Oh, my dear Madelaine!  Sniff.

Madelaine Hemingway-Augustson, named after Ernest's sister, resting her 21 toes. (6+6+5+4)

So after chasing a few links in the direction of six-toed cats, I came upon this clip on YouTube. Being it's February, this has many levels of appropriateness. More Februaries than not my family has spent in Key West, Florida where my grandparents would rent a condo at Key West By the Sea, a complex of former Naval base housing. It was in Key West that I inherited my soft spot for "Hemingway cats". 


Of course it won't let you watch it here, but if you click the link you can see it on YouTube. Snow White or Snowball...depends on who you ask.



And one cat leads to another. I'm not sure it can be said cats aren't disruptive when one is trying to write, however they certainly can inspire good stories and occasionally academic papers.

Another great Hemingway House website:
http://www.hemingwayhome.com/cats/

It must be time to pick up "Old Man and the Sea" again.
Pax.

The Bowl: Is there Supe in it?

Yes, it's time again for me to go on my yearly rant. I'm not going to quit. What is approaching on Sunday?  This comes as a challenge to us Americans as the American national religion reaches it's peak.  On Sunday, millions will gather together around a talking box to watch people pummel each other for millions and millions of dollars and eat lots of junk food. Then let's mention the amount of money that goes into the advertising.  Though I refuse to watch any part of the game, or even pay attention to who is playing, I'll admit that I get the urge to YouTube the Budweiser commercial to see what the Clydesdales are doing each year.  Oh, the Super Bowl.  What are we doing?  Why is it that we so willingly support the frivolity of such an event and lifestyle?  One that steals resources that might better be used to feed those who are hungry?

The quote I post on Facebook every year at this time comes from Fr. Mike. 
"Jesus would stand in the [Superbowl] stadium and say, 'How do you justify this?' and the people would kill him."
Every year I receive defensive and angered comments.  How true is this quote?  How do we justify anything about the Superbowl?  The use of money?  The use of time?  The violence that erupts on the field, in the stands, and in the home? (Statistics show that the rate of domestic violence reports skyrockets on Super Bowl Sunday.)

Yet there is a glimmer of hope contradicting the many forms of violence involved in the Super Bowl.  Souper Bowl of Caring Sunday.  This is an ecumenical movement which calls our attention to the needs of the world, calls our attention to the reality that we attempt to escape from by worshipping such gods as American football.  Souper Bowl of Caring is a movement that calls us to actively fight hunger and poverty:

"While Americans turn their attention to the biggest sports event of the year, Super Bowl XLVI, more than a quarter of a million young people are working to transform Super Bowl weekend into the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving through Souper Bowl of Caring.

During the weeks leading up to the big game, Souper Bowl of Caring youth...collect donations through congregations and schools and donate 100% of their collection to a local charity of their choice. Many will also volunteer at their selected charity the day before the big game."  (Souper Bowl of Caring press release)

As we partake in the festivities of Sunday, February 5, 2012, may we be uncomfortably aware of the injustices, poverty, and hunger in our own communities and around the world and so moved into action of enthusiastic giving and serving.

A Hymn for Souper Bowl Sunday

God, You Give Us Recreation
8.7.8.7 D IN BABILONE (“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”)

God, you give us recreation, rest and play when work is through,
Game and sport and celebration, times that challenge and renew.
In the days we spend together, in the feasts that we prepare,
In the times of joy and laughter, may we know your loving care.

Yet, O Lord, we see you crying for the ones who know no rest,
For your children, hungry, dying, for the homeless and oppressed.
May we, as your sons and daughters, share with open heart and hand,
Till your justice flows like waters to the poor throughout the land.

Bless, O Christ, our gifts of caring, for we know without a doubt:
Soup and bread are made for sharing, hands are made for reaching out.
Even in our times of playing, may we keep the vision clear:
Keep us serving, loving, praying, welcoming your kingdom here.

Tune: Dutch Melody arr. by Julius Rontgen (1855-1933)Text: Copyright © 2000 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.  All rights reserved. 
Email:  bcgillette@comcast.net   
Copied from Songs of Grace:  New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, Upper Room Books, 2009. 
Permission is given for free use of this hymn to churches that support Souper Bowl Sunday. http://www.carolynshymns.com/

Pax.