One of those days

*Sigh.......bliss.
Today was a day off. The weather was rather dreary but it was a perfect day for hot tea and soup and lots of homework! I went running this afternoon, following the curve of the ocean in the misty rain. I almost got blown off of the dock. I went into town with the intention of mailing a letter but was led astray and held captive by the newly decorated Christmas displays at Paper Products. Is it really that time of year? I bought a box of Christmas cards, because I know that I won't have time to make my own this year. I went to T&C and bought some of the most beautiful and fresh seasonal produce, went home and made the hugest and most amazing stew with chorizo. Hopefully it will last me all week.
I went back to my cabin, put away my laundry and tidied up a little bit, but with an extra spring in my step this time - I allowed myself to listen to some "pretend" Christmas music - as in not *entirely* Christmas music, but that which reminds me of the holidays. I'm going to resist the full-blown Christmas music as long as I can, because I am indeed fully aware that Christmas is still a month and a half away. My mind is racing with all the holiday possibilities - crafts, cookies, decorations - but I can't entertain those thoughts just yet. I don't have the time to have my thoughts dwell on such things!!

Connections

Here at IslandWood we teach (when I do indeed start teaching in a couple of weeks) about the interconnectedness of things. That glacier that came down a few thousand years ago that formed this landscape determined where we would live and who would live here; the trees that happened to grow here led the loggers to come here in the 19th century which eventually turned Bainbridge Island into what it is today. The glaciers, the trees, those early settlers and a myriad of other things are connected to us this day, on this Island and in this region.

On a little bit bigger of a scale is another example of connectedness. I just read an article from the bbc about the gas companies Total and Chevron being involved with the military junta in Burma.

The article can be read here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8249374.stm

Apparently Total and Chevron finance the Yadana gas pipeline project, which brings gas into Thailand. Watch groups state that the Burmese government has earned an estimated $5 billion dollars in illicit revenue from the project, discreetly hidden in Singapore banks. The Burmese army provides the security for the pipeline, which of course brings human rights abuses into the picture. The world feels like such a small place. It's hard to believe how the gas in my car could be helping support the Burmese junta, causing so much injustice happen and creating so many refugees. That the gas in my car could led those refugees to flee to Malaysia to hide in the jungles, whom I just so happened to have the opportunity and the honor to meet and to work with. And that those refugees who were oppressed by the Burmese military who were funded by my road-trip vacation happened to be resettled in Washington and happened to come to Yakima to pick fruit and happened to come to my church. Whew, that's a lot of connections.
The world's not such a simple and easy place anymore. Everything's connected, whether we realize it or not. Remember 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon?

In the Wilderness

I just finished 20 hours of wilderness first aid training. My brain is so fried. I just spent the last 48 hours what to do if someone gets struck by lightning or gets hypothermia. I learned how to irrigate a wound and put fractured bones back into place. If your eyeball gets impailed by a hummingbird, use your hand to squeeze the poor thing to death and leave it in there. If you lose a finger, I'll wrap it up nice and neat for you. I'll take care of your abrasions, lacerations, avulsions, punctures, and impaled objects. I will stabilize your C-spine whether you need it or not, and give you a full head to toe body check. I can do almost anything with ace bandages and a bandana. I had to roleplay a patient that had been in a terrible chain saw accident. I had fake blood splattered all over me yesterday.

So someday you might have your arm crushed by a fallen tree or perhaps a cougar chewed your arm off. You'll be glad to have me with you. "My name's Erin and I'm trained in Wilderness First Aid and I'm here to help you!" (p.s. all I could do for those two cases is stabilize you and wait for you to be evacuated)

Humanitarians

Happy world humanitarian day!! Although I have much to complain about the business of international aid, it has more to do with how the organizations are structured and how the money flows. There's nothing critical I can say, though, about the many people that sacrifice their comfortable lives to help others all over the world. Especially the volunteers and those living support, receiving nothing for themselves.
It's a tragedy to think of the 750 humanitarian workers that lost their lives in the last decade, but think of how many thousands or millions of people in the same time died as a result of hunger, poverty, and conflict. The lives that were worth just as much as those of the mostly Western humanitarians. I guess that's why we have world refugee day and world poverty day.


Oh happy day, humanitarians!

Humanity

They say that a society is judged by what it contributes to the welfare of the least advantaged. In the Israelites' early days, God established a social welfare system within Judaic law to take care of the 'least of these': the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger (sometimes called the foreigner or the alien). These divine laws were not just for the purpose of redistributing wealth, but to uphold the worth and dignity of every individual. To retain their humanity. I remember way back in my college days I did 'Urban Plunge' where I was dropped off on the streets of seattle with a bus ticket and a quarter for an emergency phone call, leaving me and 2 of my friends to fend for ourselves. After awhile we sorta got hungry so we sat in U-Village and pan-handled....begged. We had a little cardboard sign and everything..."Spare change?" It was so embarrassing. Even though I knew that I wasn't really homeless, I felt so judged and dis-respected. Maybe I judged myself as I unconsciously judged others so many times before. Poverty not only deprives - it humiliates and robs you of your humanity.

But in Israel, God's laws were put in place to avoid this kind of humiliation. Money was given in secret, and it was taken in secret. The Temple itself had a 'hall of secrecy' where the rich could give without knowing who took it, and the poor could help themselves know knowing who gave it. The story is told of a rabbi who would leave his wood shed unlocked so that the poor could take it without the embarrassment of having to ask (when his church complained that this was getting expensive, he responded by saying that he was saving them medical expenses, since otherwise he would be forced to sit in the cold and become ill. It was impossible, he said, for him to light a fire in his own home if he knew that the poor, in other homes, were freezing.)

A question that we have to re-ask ourselves is, Who are the 'least of these'? In Biblical times is was the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigner. Israel was a society who lived off the land: if you don't own land, you have nothing. Since the foreigner could not own property, he was unable to keep up with the way in which society worked...thus doomed to the the lower rungs of society. And because it was a patriarchal society, if you lost your father or husband, you were also nothing. Women didn't own anything. Must have sucked to be a widow or an orphan. But what does this mean for us today? Who, in modern America, are the 'least of these'? Which groups of people would find it difficult to function in our economic systems and society? I would say a few of the following: Refugees and immigrants (it's difficult to find work if you understand little English, and ever more difficult to rise to anything above minimum wage these days), single mothers, the elderly, the disabled, children who are abandoned, orphaned, or victims of abuse, and anyone else who is, for one reason or another, incapable of supporting themselves and becoming productive members of society. If God were to make a new law and a new system of social justice for the modern world, I wonder what that would look like. I'm guessing that it wouldn't look very much like our current immigration and welfare systems.

All I know is that the best way to restore dignity to a person is to empower them. "...You shall strengthen him, be he a stranger or a settler, he shall live with you...." (Lev. 25:35) Lift them up and equip them so that they can stand on their own. Relief (as opposed to Development) and hand-outs aren't bad; sometimes they're even necessary - but tomorrow they will be coming back for more. But I look forward to the day when they can stand on their own two feet, stop receiving, and start giving.

Baptism

On July 12 my little niece Aubrey was baptized. It was a joyous celebration of new life, of God's grace, and gratefulness for being part of God's family. She wore the dress that my sister wore for her baptism, over 30 years ago.

Whirlwind

Over the summer I have spent more than a month in Phoenix. In that space of time, many things have happened:

A new baby has been born (an aunt for the 8th time!) and baptized.







I started training for a half marathon...September 13!

I saw some rather wonderful kid's movies: Nim's Island (satiated my childhood passion to be a marine biologist) and Kit Kitridge (I loved American Girl dolls!) Aubrey went to her first movie, at the tender age of 6 weeks.



I got a new camera.



I went to the wedding of my very first friend in Cincinnatti.

I road-tripped it to Tennessee, to visit my aunt and uncle, in their new house:




I ate fried chicken at the very first KFC...Colonel Sanders Cafe. In Kentucky, of course.




I got a new driver's license...finally, it's horizontal!

I started watching the Bachelorette. It was an attempt at sisterly-bonding, but I totally got sucked in. I'm so excited for the finale on Monday (Reid comes back ---with a ring!!) I have to admit that I'm a sucker for Ed, and believe along with all of America that Wes is a jerk and Tanner is just...wierd,

I saw the amazing musical 'Wicked'. Glenda the Good Witch's dress looked EXACTLY like the dress that came with my Barbie Ice Princess in 2nd grade.



I went camping, in a trailer.




I started teaching ESL to a group of amazing Karen refugees in Yakima.



I got my first materials and textbook list for school, which starts in ONE month. A terrifying thought.

Speaking of books, my summer book-list: 'The Middle of Everywhere: Helping refugees enter the American community', the always-interesting travel writings of Paul Theroux, 'Freedom of Simplicity' by Richard J. Foster, and I'm just finishing up 'To Heal a Fractured World' by a Jewish rabbi. There's probably a few that I've read and already forgotten.

I ate at the always delicious Cracker Barrel and the delectable Skyline Chili...mmmmm. Just look at that mound of cheese!




I suffered through 117 degree heat....and I spent a great deal of time lounging in pools and/or swimming laps.



All of that, and lots of Skype.

That is a snapshot of the last month and a half of my life. I'm tired just reading it.