12April2009
Posted by nate under: bread.
I often make the communion bread for our church and I really enjoy doing this. Usually I make small round wheat loaf. I think this reflects my view of Jesus for the most part – simple and good for you. But since today is the first Sunday of Easter I thought I’d make a more celebratory loaf so I searched for Easter breads and sweet breads and found this recipe: http://bread.betterrecipes.com/easter-braid.html. I left out the raisans and mace and didn’t glaze it. As tasty as that sounded I thought it was probably enough of a theological leap to through in the lemon zest. So tonight as we gathered around the table we broke the bread. Our’s is a chuch with an open table – meaning all are welcome to take part in the bread and wine/body and blood. And generally if there is bread left over after church it is consumed at the weekly pot luck. So the kids that come up to the table, like my 2 year old daughter Elsa, apparently don’t realize the difference in the meal as part of the service and the potluck after the meal. I say apparently because Elsa kept sneaking back up to the table and grabbing more bread. And more bread. And more bread. My wife Jodi was busy with serving communion, and I was playing guitar and I don’t think we realized it right away. (As I’m writing this I realize I haven’t really ever blogged about the church we go to – it’s called Humble Walk, Jodi is the pastor and I often help lead singing – there’s your context for this story – if you want to know more about the church you should come and see - sunday nights at 4:30, potluck at 5:30ish – randolph and w. 7th in the Pilney building in St. Paul MN. There, I’ve blogged about our church. Done.) Anyway, this story just got long and boring, sooorrrrrry. So we sang accapella, I picked up Elsa, she put up a fight, but it all worked out.
Point of the story? Passive reader: huh. long boring story. Practical reader: Don’t make the bread too good, or people will get all 1 Cor. 11 on you. Emergent Theologian Reader: What is the difference between the meal during the service and the meal after the service? Should the two become one? Let’s deconstruct it! Better yet, Betray It! And rather than ‘Emergent Theologian Reader’, could you please refer to us as “an (un)named group struggling to understand this god thing in a time of highly valued skepticism and doubt using literary means in the context of a pre/post variant model of (on)going antiquity?”
Justin, why’d you have to turn me on to Rollins? That dude’s too smart for his own (brit)ches. And I thank you.
8April2009
Posted by nate under: diy.
Okay, I’m a little preachy. So let me say a few kind words for the conglomerates.
One thing I love about the big boxes is the free rental plan. Examples:
Somebody I knew was doing a little bathroom remodeling with PEX. PEX is cheap and easy to work with if you have the 95 dollar crimping tool. But what this person found out was if you held on to the reciept Menards would view it as less of a purchase and more as a borrowing and when I was done… I mean when that somebody was done they were able to return the tool and get their money back. Not unlike borrowing my neighbor’s edger. It only makes me like them more.
Another somebody I traveled with once got tired of lugging 6 saw horses in the back of his truck from AZ to CA and back. So, since we were done with them in CA we stopped by Home Depot and returned them. He returned them without a reciept. You tend to lose reciepts after 8 months of use. No questions asked. Thank you Home Depot!
And my favorite are the two folks I know who have purchased thousands of dollars of gear at Guitar Center for gigs and returned it the next day. One was a huge amp, the other was huge drum set. Way to support starving artists.
So thank you corporations, we’ll remain anonymous if you do!
7April2009
Posted by nate under: diy.
The thing is, I may be in the camp that says, €œLet the economy burn.€ I think that the macro-economics that this glutenous country of ours are obsessed with are antithetical to a healthy community.
Here’s what got the finite hamsters in my head running. (In the interest of full disclosure I should point out it was more of a jog.)
I heard a guy on the radio (Wow Nate, way to kick things off with a credible source!) saying that a consequence of shopping locally is that you will drive the prices up. He was a professor of economics and so I’m guessing on paper he’s right. And I’ve seen this to be true. I can buy a drill bit at Menards for a buck or I can go to my old employer at S & S hardware and get the same drill bit for $1.69. S & S isn’t buying them by the gross, maybe not even by the dozen. They don’t get the discounts. And so because we hold the success of our economy over the success of our community we go to Menards. We drive further, we walk around forever, we ask where the drill bits have been moved to since our last visit, and we save our .69 cents. It only took an extra 45 minutes of our time and an extra four miles of driving. We didn’t see anybody we knew, though after 10 years of home ownership I admit I do recognize a couple faces back in the lumber department. But you get where I’m going with this. When I walk into S & S chances are Mark will be working there. He’ll talk about the glorious Republican party to which his allegiance is sworn and then talk religion. I mean football. He’s a Packers fan so you understand it’s a blurry line. Once when I was working there on a slow winter night a guy came in with some gas line questions. My coworker went to his house and helped him connect his new stove. Nobody at Menards is going to do that. That .69 cents is worth it to me.
Although I will admit, I’m more likely to go to Mitch’s Hardware Hank. It’s a few blocks closer and I can pick up a two pack of 3/32€ bits for $1.59.