Saturday, July 6, 2019

Cultural Contours

Portland, Oregon
Obedience to a calling is more than pursuit of a passion, it is a legacy and lineage governed by a higher power and guided by those whose shoulders we stand on.
Tawanna Petty, Detroit-based poet and community organizer

One of the things we are committing to in this new vocational season is taking a few temp jobs a month to (A) supplement our fundraising and (B) get out into the community and see what's going on. This month we worked at a grocery store and at the front gate of the rodeo in the little town of Sisters (a half hour from Bend).

We faced product at the store for back-to-back 8-hour shifts. We felt it in body and soul. We reached, flexed, squatted, lunged and pulled. The number of brands and types of mayonnaise alone is cause for serious concern on many fronts. The immense waste (of wrapping, shipping and unsold food) coming from this little store in this little town is mind-blowing. To be immersed in this world is lamentation in itself. The playlist was entirely country music, twangin' about places where there's "biscuits and gravy and the pretty waitress calls you 'baby'."


Sisters, Oregon
The rodeo was straight up culture shock. We were tasked with checking bags and purses for alcoholic beverages and weapons. Folks poured in with "Make America Great Again" hats, liberty bibs and t-shirts that read "America Forever: Or Until Texas Secedes," "Vegetarian: Indian Name for Bad Hunter," "You Need Jesus, Y'all" and several with an American flag made of bullets. We even witnessed a young man rockin' a Reagan-Bush 1984 hat.

The little faith community that we are connected to in Bend is called Story Dwelling, a group that gathers "to create spaces of collective joy, doubt, wonder and lament." The pastor is Erika Spaet, an ordained Lutheran pastor from New Jersey who has been leading a small group of folks for the past year-and-a-half. Most who attend are recovering from the fundamentalist brands of Christianity that trained them up in adolescence. This summer, we are gathering on Sunday mornings at a local park. We name grief and gratitude. We acknowledge the original caretakers of the land (thriving for thousands of years before white settlers stole it). We read the Gospel story and make connections to our life and context. We share some next steps.

We have enjoyed getting to know Erika and her husband Tom, a native of Portland. We feel a kinship and a partnership. Lindsay has thrown in with the Story Dwelling facilitation team, leading the once-a-month "Sinners, Saints and Snifters" gathering at a local brewery. These events spur conversations about faith and conscience and spiritual practice. This month, Lindsay shared about her journey from belief in a monotheistic masculine god to a more Indigenous understanding of Spirit as a force that intimately connects everyone and everything--past, present and future.

One of our challenges in this context is balancing our work and relationships both near and far. We are trying to be patient as we learn the cultural contours of Central Oregon. We are observing and participating. With everything, there's hope, warning and demand. We are also mindful that a key aspect of our vocation is creating space, time and energy to be present to folks in our network all over North America. Mostly, opportunities to pivot in pastoral roles has been pure gift.

Here are some highlights of the past month:

Lindsay hopped over to Portland to attend the baptism of friend 
Shelby Smith with the Wilderness Way community... 

...and she got a dose of belly laughs and empowering solidarity with the Nilsen-Goodin family!
This no-longer-so-long-distance clan has been an extended family support system over 
the years and we are now just a short hop over the Cascades from them!

We ran in the first annual Bend Pride 5K.
It was a jubilant and life-affirming celebration, and we were so grateful to get to draft off
such deep love, joy and freedom!


We met up with Rev. Sue Park-Hur and Rev. Jerrell Williams in Albany,
Oregon at a Pacific Northwest gathering of Mennonite pastors.
The legendary Weldon Nisly. A "retired" pastor who spends half the year in
Kurdistan with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Before babysiting our nephew Milo Brooks in Portland, we got to stay a couple nights outside Seattle 
with dear friends and former Manna & Mercy House community mates: the Rutenbars, 
also treasured kin within our extended family support system.
Above: Lindsay enjoys some post-swim meet snacks with Ivy while cheering on her siblings!
At the temp job: Lindsay brought her mittens to
organize the freezer. Not warm enough!

A serendipitous surprise on the 4th, amidst a day of ruckus fun
brunching and floating the Deschutes with friends new & old:
this open and affirming slip 'n slide to celebrate the free gift economy!

On Father's Day, we commemorated our dads by tossing rocks into the
Deschutes and sharing some of our favorite memories.

Indeed, Spirit works creatively and unexpectedly, subverting and community-weaving all the time and everywhere... our only job is to have the eyes to see, and then throw in with all the grief and gratitude, joy and lament, wisdom, peril, beauty & brilliance! 






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