Advent 2014

Kicked-off Advent with a study series on 12th century monk Bernard of Clairvaux's famous idea of 'three advents'":

“We know His threefold coming: to mankind, into mankind, and against mankind. To all He comes without distinction, but not so into all or against all.  If you think that I am inventing what I am saying about the middle coming, listen to the Lord himself: 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him.'”

In a sense, given Christ's ascension, there is a pattern of coming and going, followed by returning.  If you're keeping count, several advents, and a departure. Bernard apparently had a profound, subjective experience of faith, which is reflected in his advent emphasis and many of his famous hymns, eg "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee."

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The general point is that Advent and Christmastide in church liturgical time is more about a season and direction than a specific day - ie a theology or world view, not a singular event - thus, the linear thrust of the advent calendar points to epiphany; a time when the Gentile magi disperse the good news to foreign lands.  

Parallel is the second great movement of time, in which a period of lenten testing leads to a season of Eastertide, culminating in Pentecost and the departure (ascension) of Christ and coming of the Holy Spirit.  In a word, the birth of the church; both Epiphany and Pentecost more universal in scope and meaning.

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Put differently, modernity is not only about competing institutions (State vs church) or iconography or language, moving from sacred to secular, but different conceptions of time:  2014. Heisei 26, and liturgical advent all have competing understandings of where we currently are and where we're headed temporally speaking.

Meet Me in St Louis

Trekking 4 to St Louis for Thanksgiving was a major outlay, but worth it to see old friends and Grandpa Soule, just hours away in Illinois.  I have to admit, having turned 56, more often I say, "It's only money" - a thought I first had when we first came home with Michael and shlepping everyone to another supermarket to find a better price on produce just wasn't worth it. 

We were greeted by snow the next day!  Michael approves.

  The old
 friend was Beth, who was Carolyn's college roommate, and has lived in St Louis for 3 years, just purchasing her first home in Kirkwood.  St Louis is a gateway Southern city - Beth's HOA still had segregation language on its books! - with colonial architecture.Carolyn's dad met us halfway in Springfield at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum just celebrating its 10th year.

A profoundly moving experience with a degree of dramatization just shy of a Disney-level of simulated fantasy, the museum delivered the narrative of slavery, highlighted (excaberated) by ongoing tensions in nearby Ferguson.Artifacts, such as this beautiful Union drum and the bed Lincoln died in, on special loan from another musuem.Former slaves enlisted in Union regiments, reminding of a civil war which launched the modern era in Japan where, in some ways, culturally speaking, the 'South' won. Former peasants, like these black slaves, became the new army, infuriating disenfranchised samurai, who were the professional military in feudal times.

Of course, having the tomb nearby lent solemnity to the entire visit.

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The Kirkwood Farmer's Market turns into a Christmas Tree Lot run by a family since the '70s, offering impressive homemade candies, jams, unusual ornaments and a great array of greens.

Michael wanted to bring home a reindeer.

Even cross-shaped wreathes.

The science museum had a special Sherlock Holmes exhibit, with a very hands-on series of stations, challenging one's detective skills.

The actual living room...

and violin!
The detective genre marks the rise of science in literary culture, forming a rich interpretive grid of modernity tracing (erasing) those areas of a lost premodern heritage:  Prose conquers poetry, science religion, the State the church. Disparate deaths across a broad range of social life that I have spent a great of mental energy tracing myself.  Big question: what do you do once you solve the mystery?!!!

Michael reads from Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, which established the day as an annual event, linking previous observances going all the way back to Washington, whose 1789 public thanksgiving was read in part by Pastor Ron Lutjens of Old Orchard, where we attended a simple service on Thanksgiving morning.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Michael 12

Last year of pre-teen?  Scary, but he's still kid-hearted, which we love.  As a special wish, Michael used his savings to host a Universal Studios trip - school day, no less - for 4 lucky friends + Jack.The boys love the physical comedy of Lucille Ball. BTW, vintage TV seems to be the way to go as a reprieve from the onslaught of kiddie humor and action hero entertainment these days. Chaplin, Marx Brothers, Three Stooges.  Or classics, such as Jacque Tati's Mon Uncle, which inspired Monty Python.

The tour was actually fascinating, though much more ramped up as a "ride," compared to decades ago when I went as a YMCA summer camp leader.

The Flintstone's cave-man mobile.

French philosopher, Baudrillard, noted that the border between Disneyland and the rest of Southern California was entirely arbitrary, as the line between fantasy and reality was blurred here.

No accident that the examples of postmodernism were, more often than not, from Los Angeles, a city whose major livelihood stems from making the real fake and vice versa.

The disaster scenario (plane crash) fabricated above reminded me anew of the power of image-based media, not only in reproducing catastrophes, but inspiring it. No accident that the 9/11 pilots' most treasured accomplishment was controlling the image of the planes crashing into the towers; Hollywood spilling, even tragically, into everyday life.

Hallow's Eve

This marks a return to blogging, after an Instagram detour - our foray into social media had mixed results. Initially a concession to Michael's felt need to relate to peers, it quickly devolved, as the desire for attention moved center stage; felt contrived somehow.  Following entities  - Disney, websites, individuals 2x removed - showed how quickly the lives of children were integrated into imnpersonal social space and ad cycles.

Anyway, I give you our Minion!and Zorro!  Michael never saw the shows before; the cape and mask were key.

Carolyn dressed as a Ratatouille chef!

Our Halloween affairs have been low-key affairs: mummy dogs!

Graveyard dip. Father?son nerds.

The mathematician taking inventory.

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Reformation Day, All Saints' Day, and All Hallow's Eve fall on roughly the same day, though celebrated discretely.  Scaring spooks as a victory high-5 for believers 1000 years ago reclaims - in theory - the old practice, but its mostly just about candy and scary decor.  That case of Noh dolls in the above photo - a medieval form of theater with direct links to Japanese Buddhism - is curiously in the background, gjven that many Noh plays similarly invoke spirits as a rebuke, trying to rid the present of unwanted ghosts needing to continue their journey in the afterlife.

Still, the revolving door of pagan-Christian-pagan-Christian traditions each coopting each other's practices makes the mind spin.

And given the change in church practice this fall - we are now meeting at a sister congregation in Santa Clarita 40 minutes away - the rhythm of the church calendar is at once familiar, even as a particular church becomes distant and strange.  Congregations, seasons, cultural iconography - all seem to be in motion.

mid-summer

Carolyn 's dessert flag: yogurt raisins atop a field of blueberries, unfurling chocolate-dipped strawberries and marshmallow stripes - celebrating in a remarkably low-key, small town manner in Camarillo on a block where families played impromptu blue grass sessions, children paraded in the morning, and bbqs fired up in the evening; made time stand still, somehow. 

My own background long prejudiced me against 4ths as being an under-performing LA holiday, confirmed by more engaging examples I experienced as an adult in other states. 

 

Then the fireworks went off on our way home, as we turned onto the shoulder, watching the display on the 101, LA style.






Next stop:  Whidbey Island!The Coupeville Wharf and Penn Cove mussels, the oldest mussel farm in the country, still delivering!  Served with linguini rather than the traditional fries.

Greenbank Farms, supposed inventor of the loganberry, makes a mean pie.

The Coupeville farmer's market with logan-, rasp-, and marionberries.  A good year for these and rainier cherries, especially.

 We very much look forward to this simple treat of tasty dogs and sausages. She cuts off an extra portion, adding to your order to completely fill out the roll!

The boys join the Langley Children's Theater for a week, putting on a simple production at the end, dovetailing with the more elaborate plays, such as Treasure Island.

Just before the Bonds!

Flash forward to July and the Suzuki music camp in Langley BC, just before our annual Whidbey/Tacoma & visit with the Bonds.

 

This year's fort more designed, structurally - the familiar logging trucks as we came off the Coupeville ferry.

Carolyn's warm seafood at Christopher's, our favorite for shellfish and salmon.

 

Carolyn's cappucino art by the baristas at the Useless Bay Cafe, where we holed-up with wifi and delicious coffee & food, as the boys were in theater camp.

TThe British owner's wife is a potter whose mugs I treasure - rough, brown exterior with cream colored, smooth inside and lip, reminding me of some of English L'Abri's local ceramics.

Opening day of King Salmon fishing brought out hundreds of boats, although the mighty fish do not seem to appear according to calendar schedule!

The local bald eagle grew much bigger and, perhaps, due to age, seemed less skiddish, perching for hours to our delight.

Daily ice cream at Kepauw's, where the original Seattle's Best Coffee originated.

Finally off island, we hit the Snug Harbor Cafe in Squiem, site of the Lavender Festival and these tempura oysters and homemade chowder - oddly shaped clam meat throughout; even the fries end up with a panko breading.

Shakabrah Cafe has humungous pancakes completely covering the plate - light, nicely textured, and filled with a dozen choices of fruit and nuts.  Amid Tacoma's 6th avenue's constant turnover of shops and bohemian subculture (add legalized marijuana to the mix), SC has lasted as an institution for a reasonably priced breakfast.

This year two picnic gatherings to meet the ol gang, who brought peaches, apricots, figs, as we grilled.

  We hadn't seen Ian for 10 years, now an historian of 19th century, British history at Claremont for next year.These four are the Chinese adopted of our original church family, Jack coming into the picture after we'd already moved. Annie and Leah's mother, Michelle, inspired us to foreign adoption.

The Tacoma community has certainly shifted, as some have changed churches, theological leanings, worship formats, as their children grew into adults and the family accommodated, expanded, grew more complex. 

Almost entirely unchurched, all eventually became Reformed and, while maintaining the understanding, have rehabilitated, made peace (?) with evangelical yearnings for devotional and pragmatic reasons.