I'm glad to hear you're moved in okay. If it makes you feel any better, we STILL have unpacked boxes. We're counting on Christmas break for some time for those. Our priest and his wife just moved here and they're going through the same thing. Glad to hear Celie's taken it well.
I really relate and empathize with a lot of your post (starting with "Part of it," I think).
I've never had the sort of ascetic discipline you've had, unfortunately, but I know how it is...you go to bed and suddenly realize another day has gone by and you've spent zero or hardly any time in prayer, contemplation, etc. I always intend to and just...forget.
I suppose what I'm learning is to be understanding and work with the balance. Everything really is different and we have to learn how to be what we know we are to be...relearn it, really, and not expect ourselves to quickly be exactly what we think we'll be. It's starting over, a new life, and so on. One thing I do -- and this is far from ideal -- is sometimes get to work early and spend a few minutes there alone. I have a copy of the psalter on my computer and will read/pray/silent-chant the office psalms. i want to make that more of a regular occurrence (both morning and night) and move from that on to the daily office. baby steps.
As far as the church thing goes...I really really wish there were a Western Rite Orthodox church in Plymouth or something. I think that would be absolutely perfect for you. I mean, yeah, I'm projecting a little...but the combination of theology (I mean, very few are afraid of being orthodox, hehe) and liturgy is really great. Yes, we do have a few difficult folks in our parish but...I think that's really to be expected anywhere, it's part of the experience, part of life.
RE: the "unbelief" thread on the board...
Yeah...it's a tough one. Several of those making pretty aggressive nonbelief (or close to it) statements are good friends of mine. The hardest part about all of it is that I see the major flaws in these folks' thinking. I mean, for one, there's been very little effort to really explore the roots of Christianity, plug in with a local church/parish outside of what was already familiar and really seek wisdom from anyone who would actually have it. I've been through a lot of what they have and I look back on that as very beneficial. The thing is, I can't really respect and view as legitimate an opinion or whatever that is based on individualistic reactions and misconceptions and hasn't really even sought any kind of true perspective on things. I want to tell these people, people I genuinely care for as friends, that their reasonings and logic are transparently self-serving and shallow. But...it's a time for tact, really, and not for that. Thanks for listening to me vent.
RE: Fr. Walker, et al. Don't worry about being the bearer of bad news...I'd rather know what's going on than find myself in an unfortunate situation. I'm sure the whole thing is very complex and hopefully good things will happen wherever he is.
RE: EWTN Yes, the cartoon we saw was very Disneyesque. I was surprised and impressed at its quality.
RE: Schooling That opportunity you mentioned does sound pretty good. I never want to be the sort of person who compromises ideals for the pragmatic, but there are times we have to find a solution that fits all parties as well as possible. I mean, we all have people to feed, bills to pay, all that. It's a tiny bit possible I may have to make a decision along those lines one of these days. In my current position, I get enough pay that we can pay our bills, sometimes have a little extra here and there (though that gets gobbled up pretty quickly, obviously) and the health insurance plan is good enough that if I really needed care, I wouldn't be totally up a creek. I'd still have deductables to pay but it's workable. Stacey has health insurance through her job, too, and while it's a good opportunity for her field and has hours where she can make it to some afternoon classes plus has summers off (or can make extra $$ with summer school), the pay is terrible. Our bills get paid even if it does get very tight once in a while and is only a little bit flexible most of the time. However, also with my job is the fact that 6 hours of tuition a semester is taken care of, which is great. As you know, I'm looking for another job that will make all of this still work. However, today I was talking with the chair of the English Dept. here and we were talking about me doing the grad program starting in the spring. He asked me if there were a chance I could get a grad assistantship position doing tutoring, would I be interested...he said it's only a hypothetical question right now because the dept has financial things to work with that will determine how viable that is (and to what extent) but that it's something he wanted to ask me. Obviously we don't know what all that would involved financially, how feasible any of it is with how things are now...but it's something that may end up being an issue to ponder. Ideally I'd be able to put in hours AFTER work, tutoring people at night & weekends but who knows. That's what I'm praying for, anyway...we'll see.
RE: Your job situation I agree that perhaps you may be better off focusing your creativity and huge efforts elsewhere if that's the direction you want to go with it. Sometimes there's a point at which I guess you do have to look long-term, and even if something is great in the short-term in certain ways, it ends up really holding you back.
That new house sounds pretty interesting and good. I'm sure the kids would love it!
The DVD burner thing is definitely a great thing for you, too. I just got one and need to use it...it's 16x and I bought DVD-R's that only go up to 8x so I returned them, need to find some the right speed. A friend of ours (Walker, it's Aaron) did a film and we're going to make copies for him once I have the right kind. We'll also make copies of our wedding DVD eventually. Whoever is supposed to be doing the original one for us still hasn't, which is getting annoying. I doubt I'll really ever use the burner for too much in the way of commercial releases, either, really...I want to get a video capture card eventually and maybe make DVDs of some unreleased or obscure stuff as well. I know my folks have some old videos that were made from old reel films shot in the 50s or 60s of their family, some shot of me when I was a wee lad too.
Thanks for the other stuff you posted, too...no real intelligent comments on those right now but it's good to read them.
This Friday night we're having a "Sunday School Party" at our house. We're watching The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe...since it's good for all ages. With the older kids we're going to talk (either after or on Sunday) about representation, symbolism, that sort of thing. Should be fun. What's funny is that throughout this semester of Sunday School, doing what we're doing, sometimes the kids will ask, "What's this got to do with church and Christianity?" My answer, of course, is that EVERYTHING has to do with who we are as Orthodox Christians, that's the point of talking about these ideas. When I told them what we'd be doing Friday night, Ana, who actually has read the book, asked that same question...so we previewed a little bit and talked about the more direct links. She got a bit excited about it and I think her brother did too. Anyway, hopefully it'll be a good time. A couple other kids who don't make it to Sunday School are going to be there, as well, and hopefully it'll be a nice hook.
One thing I've been considering is switching terminology on the whole thing. Instead of referring to it all as "Sunday School," at least refer to OUR class as a teen group or something. I think that sometimes terminology makes a big difference in regards to perception, especially with kids that age. That way it'll start avoiding some of the "Sunday School" trappings they have mentally and give it a more mature tone in their minds. Not that I'm going to start calling it something disgustingly clever or somehow find a way to insert the word "XTREME" into whatever we refer to it as, but just a thought. Fr. Theodore mentioned that the archdiocese was asking about our SOYO (youth group acronym) and director or something...and I guess we are essentially the youth group...so this might be a way to change things in a positive direction. My only concern is whether much more time commitment is involved or not. I'm stretched a bit thin as it is and with next semester promising two grad level classes, obviously I'll be a good bit busier. I'm at the point right now where I can't commit to much of anything else and hopefully won't need to scale back at all.
As far as Fr. Walker's church goes...yeah, that's an interesting situation for sure. I decided to do a little research. His parish is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate. That particular patriarchate is separate from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in that they split over (from what I gather) wanting to be autocephalous...the UOC is still technically under Moscow's patriarchate, something that causes political difficulties for some, apparently. It's become much more of an issue since the fall of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, obviously. As far as canonicity goes, I don't really have anything definitive on that one.
That last link especially looked very informative (you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the Ukrainian info) -- not sure on the sources for that but the explanation goes into pretty good depth. According to that source, that church wouldn't particularly be canonical with the rest of Orthodoxy, though I bet it's still a wonderful liturgy. I'm wondering and speculating if perhaps because of some outfall Fr. Walker went a different direction with whose jurisdiction he took the parish under and ended up going this route. This is actually kind of common...people end up as a part of this group or that group for reasons ranging from preference to political, without knowing who they're really associating with. Then again, perhaps he is in full knowledge and in full support of where he's at. One has to wonder. What's not questionable, at least, is that God can do some wonderful things with this parish despite these various issues. I have to say, however, that I'm more than a little disappointed to learn what I've learned about it.
Okay, onto other subjects...
I'll definitely tape EWTN cartoons and quality kids programming when I can remember.
As far as the Vagrant Cafe goes...I definitely dig what you're saying. We've had the discussion a few times and I love your presence there but think you're doing the right thing. God knows that if I weren't in charge, I'd not be there as much. It helps that I work somewhere where I can hop on there frequently...these days I only visit occasionally while I'm at home...rarely getting involved in discussions during that time. Part of that is because Stacey uses that new computer a lot for one of her games, hehehe, but also because I just have so many other better things to do. As the zine part starts going once again I may talk to you about some writing, but no need for posting just because of that.
Your All Saints' Day festivities sound really great! I went to mass on the evenings of All Saints and All Souls. Fr. Stephen was actually there and the first night joined us chanters, I think just for something to do, hehehe. Oh, about your questions...trick-or-treating was actually one of those things my parents never had a problem with us kids doing. There were a couple places where they had no problem diverging from our church/school thought. I know that the pastor who was there in the late 70s had huge issues with t-o-t and Halloween but it wasn't really a huge deal that I remember being really spoken out against. We always went, every year, and had a really good time.
As far as that Van Ronk release goes...yeah, the quality is good, what you'd expect from a proper release. The stories he tells definitely feel a thousand times told, so I'm sure you'd be able to add to them if you heard.
The Therese movie does sound really worthwhile. I'll keep an eye out for it to come around here, definitely. Maybe SB got it because of ND? I've not seen anything about it hear but haven't looked through movie listings for a couple weeks, either. Car insurance on both cars has been due in the past couple weeks so our other spending is pretty much at a standstill. We go out to the movies once in a while but I'm pretty picky so it's not all *that* often.
Here's some interesting financial news you may not know. Teachers of a certain sort can take out a Perkins Loan for schooling and then the debt gets canceled by the Gov. as they actually get out and teach. It's only for particular areas...but special ed. is one of them so Stacey's hoping to take advantange of that. After 5 years of teaching, your debt is all gone...so if that's what a person wants to do anyway, that's a pretty good deal. We'd really like to get to the place where she doesn't have to work, or just can part-time, and go to school full-time, even just a semester or two. We'll see, probably depends on me finding a better job, etc.
Well, anyway, it's the end of the work day so I better end.
