Friday, March 30, 2007

Maybe I'm just feeling a bit punchy... but does this seem sort-of morbid to anyone else?

Irish Blessing (as found on a random website):
"May the light of heaven shine upon your grave."

I imagine the first portion (May through heaven) being said with a kind Irish accent, then switching to devil speak for the last portion, which is really just telling someone they're about to die. Is it funny if I have to explain it?

~K

PS: My version of our wedding website, and Mike's version. :) We'll consolidate later.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

I found this on a Facebook message board, and wanted to have some fun with it.

"You know you're a music major if..."

My answers:

... you phonetically analyze all foreign words
... you always drink tea
... you never drink milk
... you experiment with speaking without using glottal stops to see if it helps your voice last longer
... you have ever gone on vocal rest
... you call your doctor every time you almost feel like you could possibly be coming down with something that could eventually grow into a cold
... you laugh musically
... you never sing "Happy Birthday" without breaking into at least 3 part harmony
... you have ever sung "Happy Birthday" in minor, just for fun
... you have a LOT of black in your closet, but you're not goth
... "spin the sound" makes perfect sense to you
... you can name and sing along with the orchestral excerpts in techno songs
... you groan at the mention of John Williams
... you try to isolate the pitches emitted by your dishwasher
... you have ever used a piano to determine the note the elevator makes when it dings
... Pachelbel's Cannon in D makes you scream (and you find this absolutely hilarious)
... you always hear elevator music, and usually hate it
... you think that Mozart was dirty
... you are intimately familiar with the healing properties of eccenacia, throat coat tea, sinus rinsing, vitamin C drops, and breathing steamy air.

I'll probably think of more and post them for the rest of the day. This is fun!
~Kristen

Thursday, March 08, 2007

meh

I think I'll sleep.

Friday, March 02, 2007

The Bible

I was talking with some friends the other day about religion, the bible and our relationship with God. It seems to happen anytime we get together and drink, which is a little strange I suppose. You may or may not know that I consider myself spiritual but not religious because of a very dark time during which I was very angry at the church and its patriarchy because of what some "Christians" did to me. I am worlds away from these particular friends, who struggle with living normal lives and not taking the bible literally, or at least figuring out which portions of the bible to take literally and which were just the result of the complex societal changes and pressures of each specific author as he was sitting wherever he was sitting while he was writing what he wrote. Yeah.

In any case, one friend was struggling because her church said that she should only hang out with people who believed just like she did, and used a bunch of quotes from the bible to prove it. To me, it sounds ridiculous. Apparently interpreting this particular biblical text is a source of stress for some people. In fact, trying to discern how Christians should live their lives according to the bible in general can be quite stressful.

This got me thinking. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean when you go to church and they say homosexuals are going to hell, when you clearly know that they are loved by God just like everyone else? How much can you trust the bible, a book that has been used to justify nearly every system of repression, ethnic cleansing and other very un-Christian things? Do you really have to love the bible to be a Christian?

I think the answer is no. Well, of course I would, because I still loosely identify myself as Christian without loving the bible. However, I found a really good justification and explanation for my lack of biblical enthusiasm. Here it is: Christians follow Jesus. The things Jesus said and did are recorded in some portions of the bible. The rest is largely a collections of the opinions of some man who people agreed with when they sat around and decided what to include in their religious dogma. Therefore, you can love Jesus, learn about his life, and still not have to like the rest of what amounts to a giant Christian editorial.

Don't get me wrong, I think there are a lot of really great things in the bible. My fiance, who has read the bible at least 3 times cover to cover, says that the overall message is one of love and forgiveness (and since I haven't read it completely I will take his word on that). There are amazing songs and prose that capture many of the religious feelings Christians have had through the years. There are also stories and teachings of Jesus, which I think are absolutely relevant and important. That's all great.

What isn't great is that some people use the bible as THE ONLY WAY to be a Christian. They say that not only are their interpretations of the bible the only ones that are correct, but also that only the opinions of the men included in the bible are correct interpretations of Jesus' life and our intended relationship with God. To me, that's a lot like reading, for example, The Awakening, then reading a literary interpretation of The Awakening, and concluding that that interpretation is the ONLY way you can interpret the book itself.

If I read The Awakening, or any other book, I try to find my own meaning. Sometimes it's interesting to see what other people thought the birds represented, or the ocean, but sometimes a theme is apparent to me because of my views on life, my life experiences, or just my mood when I read it. Just because I find meaning on my own, and maybe no one ever though about it that way before (or at least didn't write it down) doesn't mean it is any less important, or a less valid reading the book.

Why can't the same apply to the bible? Why is some long-dead-man's opinion of what Jesus was all about more valid than mine? If Jesus told us that we can all have our own personal relationships with God, that we would have the power to perform miracles and move mountains if only we had enough faith, why can't we figure out what he and is teachings mean to us, and what makes sense to us? I'm not talking about moral relativism. Knowing that we don't know everything about God's plan is not the same as saying that clubbing babies could be ok in the right circumstances. I just don't think any one person, any one church, or even any one religion has a monopoly on the business of understanding God, and understanding what a Christian way of life looks like.

I believe that Jesus was a great man and a great teacher, and that if all who call themselves Christians tried to live more like him the world would be a better place. It's when we get wrapped up in dogma that directly conflicts with Jesus' life and teachings that things go wrong. Jesus' teaching was to love one another. No exceptions. If any church rule, or sermon, or letter from the pope conflicts with that teaching, then it's not Christian.

And that opinion is just as valid as any of those other biblical editorials. So there.

~kristen

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Tentative Date: September 7, 2007
Tentative Location: Overture Center

Very tentative. We'll take a tour of the Overture Center on Tuesday next week and look at the space. We both would love to have the reception there, and maybe even the ceremony, who knows!

Meanwhile, I'm working on class work and getting a client out of jail. And it's raining. All I really want to do is sleep. Sleeping sounds better than doing work.

And my sweet Lola's back legs are barely working anymore, poor dear.

It's a busy time, that much is for certain!
~Kristen