This is a new day for Air Canada.

thurs continued

but, the foot washing is so extraordinary. (and that's not extra ordinary, that is extraordinary in the good british accent). there is something so humbling in washing someone else's feet. I don't even intentionally wash my own feet - they don't get that dirty, and I trust showering removes most of the toejam.

So, but it's so humbling, and it's service. It's the premise of Christianity, it's the tangible part of communion. Remember how Christ served us. now serve!

And part of me thinks it's good we don't do it too often, cause routine can't be good for it's significance. I don't like to put down the bread and grape juice - maybe I'm jaded after taking communion every month playing for sunday churches, cycling the same hymns, fountain filled with blood, etc, and thinking how we just did this 4 weeks ago.

thursday ramblings

dowagiac is such an interesting name.

I have just heard the voice of one of marge simpson's sisters. lady tenor in my church choir. unbelievable.

I'm thinking the bread and the wine are overdone. call me blasphemous. but the real kicker, and I'm so glad we do it in the adventist church, is the foot washing. without transubstantiation, the bread and wine can be so ordinary. we eat everyday. who hasn't munched on the bread and thought of salt. or taken the grape juice...and thought of wine. or maybe that's just me, cause we always say the bread and the wine. not the bread and the grape juice. but then, I really don't like wine. maybe to cook with, but not to drink a bottle of. of course, I've probably only had the cheap stuff. more later.

20070301_015.jpg

20070301_015.jpg, originally uploaded by justinjeffery.

snow and fog is so interesting.
so are camera raw options.
so not exactly this red or white - but it was really surreal.

Vatel

DSC_0065_bw.jpg, originally uploaded by justinjeffery.

The adventist network is so huge and bizarre. I did this photo shoot yesterday evening and the people connections that we discovered were endless. The most bizarre was that I took Fabiola's sister's pic back at CUC, probably in the spring of 2000. Still remember the colors and everything.

childhood

I was just thinking how nutritious my childhood was on the way home today. With the exception of brussel sprouts and swiss cheese (and goat cheese, because of my semi lactose-intolerance), I pretty much ate anything. And we had a diverse menu too. Soupy cauliflower and egg curry over basmati rice, chimichangas (which probably expedited my father's diabetes - but so good), mushroom/tofu/bean sprout egg rolls, huge, gigantic, and I mean gigantic, we're talking potato-sack size bags of cheese puffs (or at least that's what I remember - I was young and impressionable), and fruit salad, popcorn, english muffin pizzas for saturday supper (who said adventist).

So, I ate healthy.
except for one thing.

melted cheese.
slab of cheese on a plate, microwave 15seconds for gooey, 25seconds if you want it crispy.
enjoy.

classic.

from the church bulletin of the hill people in Mount Vernon:
and I quote:

"SINGLES - pursue your passion from July 5-7 in Florida"

corpse flight

subject sounds like tim burton.
but, hey, could you imagine this?
at least it wasn't Changi to JFK.
who speaks airline?
props to the first to comment with the appropriate cities.

am I humanist?

My intellectual life is so dry right now that it seems like the most profound things I encounter are at my sunday church jobs - of which I've spoken often on this blog.

so, thursday, during choir rehearsal, the director is casually talking about his father during a break. Probably over 80 years old, the father is in a nursing home and, like all old people, has good days and bad days. Some evenings he can sit and eat his food by himself, knife and fork included. Other evenings he needs everything through a straw. And then there's the whole sit up, wipe your face, blow your nose, use the bathroom kind of things that are the last straws of independence. It must be hard to remain positive during old age.

I guess I'd like to be a little loopy by that time. Bring on the ferrets.*

So after talking about his father, the director is obviously choked up. We all kind of wait, not sure how to deal with the situation. And for me, the atmosphere is so other-worldly. I'm the youngest in the room by at least 25 years, with most of the choir members not far away from being in a nursing home themselves (just from the standpoint of age - not craziness). And in that moment, there was this communal sense of pain, empathy, experience, compassion, regret, sympathy, reverence. all somehow bound up together. I was touched.

And then back to our Cantata - one based on the familiar "Calvary's Love." The director asks, "Does everyone have 'Calvary's Love?'" The pastor points to his heart, "Yes I have it here," smiling, pleased with the word connection, his spiritual pun, a religious warm fuzzy after such a poignant moment.

And this pastor always talks with the happy jesus, father God, oratory, soliloquy, glad to hear your own profound words, kind of voice. (I'm trusting it's all real.)

Maybe we needed a light comment to change the mood, but I know wasn't ready to let go of the depth in that moment. I felt like I needed to slowly work my way out of it - not straight to the surface.

So, but in that moment I felt like the human element was so much more divine than the 'religious'.

So much.

*a story from my grandmother - ask me about it - she has some crazy stories.

spring hair

time for a spring hair cut.
had some time out in Ohio, so I decided to get sheared. I said bring out the shaver, leave a little on top, and sure a little gel on top. I think I look like military.

now about the beard...

rice, thrice, and rolling dice

I am on a mission to master the preparation of rice.

I'll be on my third batch here soon. The first is kicking in the garage - I'm not sure how to make it palatable. The second is soaking, and I'll save the liquid in hopes of saving the nutrients - thank you google. basmati, basmati, jasmine.

Who wants to go to Vegas?

canadian influence

I like this article. another reason why I need to move back to Canada soon.

precious sleep.

this past week has been a good kicker week. I just finished this really cool side project (thanks melayne), and am now schooled in motion design. It's a cool genre - and I'll be looking at TV in a whole new light. But work has also been kicking my butt. Some late nights working on projects. I'll be honest, though - middle of the night isn't that bad. I have quite positive memories of all-nighters at CUC and AU. Anyways. sleep is precious, and I'm in a deficit.