Once again, my blogging has moved

I tried to keep this blog up while keeping up other ones as well... but I've done a rather poor job of it. So, if you're really, really wanting to know what goes on in the wild, wild world of Jaded Mystic... please refer to my myspace blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/jadedmystic42

Big Bad Boy of Breakfast Gets Some Luvin

So, my friend Wade has this picture with Big Boy posted on myspace and I just KNEW that the vixenly trio had once posed with that Bad Boy of Breakfast... so, I perused a couple photo albums and VIOLA!

Somewhere in Michigan, I believe, when Ellie was working summer stock theater up there Summer of 2003. Chrystal and I camped out for several days and corrupted some small town with our crazy goodness. I also remember some Waffle Farm or Turkey Farm with an outdoor festival where I purchased jasmine oil from a wiccan chick who flirted with me... Good times... There was also a dinner theater, too, right? hmmm... Who knows? It was pre-seminary, therefore, I barely remember anymore... too many brain cells crammed with complicated useless schtuff.

Karen Armstrong on Speaking of Faith

Speaking of Faith Radio Show interviews Karen Armstrong:
The Freelance Monotheism of Karen Armstrong

For those of you not familiar with this radio program, it's one I highly recommend. It deals with questions about comparative religion, contemporary social and political issues, all in a compassionate, open-minded intellectual way.

I first read Karen Armstrong about 8 years ago in college... The History of God: The 4,000 year quest of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. It introduced me to the compelling world of comparative religious history... how much alike we are in the search for God and meaning in the world... and how much we can learn from each other. Here's some excerpts from the recent interview that I found to be wonderful (extracted from the weekly newsletter of the show):

On becoming a student and scholar of religions:
"Early on I had a great gift. I was reading a very scholarly and wonderful book about Islam in three volumes, and I lit upon a footnote that explained in very dry academic language what a religious historian was supposed to do. He — I think they assumed it would be a he rather than a she — was supposed to practice what was called 'the science of compassion.' Now science is used here in the sense of scientia, 'knowledge.' So it was a knowledge acquired by compassion. And compassion, of course, doesn't mean feeling sorry for people, pitying people. Compassion, com-pas-sion, means 'to feel with.'

"And in this little footnote, the author said that you must not lead the discussion of a religious idea or a theology or a personality such as Muhammad without being able to find out what lay at the root of this, not to dismiss these ideas out of hand from a superior viewpoint of post-enlightenment, Western rationalism, but to divest yourself of that rationalistic outlook and enter the minds of these mystics and sages and poets and keep on asking, 'But why? But why?' And filling up with scholarly knowledge the background until you come to the point where you can imagine yourself feeling the same, or believing the same as them until basically the intellectual idea learns to reverberate with you personally."

On the essence of religious experience and ideas:

Theology, I think, should be like poetry, a work like the Qur'an.

"Now a poet spends a great deal of time listening to his unconscious and slowly calling up a poem word by word, phrase by phrase, until something beautiful is brought forth, we hope, into the world, that changes people's perceptions. And we respond to a poem emotionally. And I think we should take as great a care when we write our theology as we would if we were writing such a poem, instead of just trotting out an orthodox formula, or an orthodox definition of God, or a catechism answer. So that when people listen to a theological idea, they [should] feel as touched as when they read a great poem by, say, Milton or Dante.

"And we should take as great care with our religious rituals as if we were putting on a great performance at a theater, because that ritual was originally designed to lead us to transcendence, instead of just sort of mechanically going through motions of our various rites and ceremonies. [We should be] trying to make them into something absolutely beautiful and inspiring, because I do see religion as a kind of art form."

The end of summer

Yesterday was my last day as a nanny for the Bakker girls. We celebrated the last day of summer for them by going to Chuck E Cheese's with neighbor kids. Talk about craziness! I remember going to one for a surprise 7th birthday party in Phoenix while we were on vacation. Actually I think the trip was for my Grandpa's funeral, or when he just got sick... so they tried to bring a little happiness to the grandkids that day. I have a pic of me with huge eyes and a hand over my mouth cuz I'm so surprised and delighted. Good times.

Joe n I are no more. That's okay. We had a great time this summer and we still care about each other. Just time to move on.

My first day of freedom has been filled with doing dishes and catching up with new and old friends. Keela is coming up this weekend. Mom is coming down to help me clean up a bit and to have some fun on Tuesday. I return to KS with her on Friday and spend the week there at prego Chrystal's. Then on Labor Day weekend I have 3 families from back home visiting me for the Japanese Festival at the MO botanical gardens. It's an awesome time. Then school starts... craziness!!!

Summer Summary

Tonight was the last night of VBS for UMCGT Church. 3 of us wrote a curriculum for the Heifer Project. The kids were amazing and I enjoyed the chaos and insanity, but am glad at least that part is over. Here's some of the kids at the May musical... another insane endeavor.


I'm still nannying for the summer for the Bakkers in Chesterfield. Kayla (10) and Robin (7) are absolute cuties. We went to Queenie Park last week. Here's a photo from that on the right.

On the 4th of July Holiday I went and visited the Doyle clan in NE Oklahoma. It was great to see all of them again. My dad wasn't there, still too new at his new job to get time off. Neither was Aunt Susan, but I'm sure she'll visit OK soon and i hope to see her then.

Joe n I are going to the lake this weekend, just the 2 of us... I'm sooo looking forward to getting away. Last weekend we had my friend Steph and her beau out for the wineries and picnicing/BBQ and that was awesome. But I need some time with my honey that doesn't involve sleeping... or prepping to meet people.

The Greatest Living Prophet Dies

From the civil rights movement to nuclear disarmament, WS Coffin' s voice encouraged active Christians everywhere.

Not that I'm biased or anything, since he's ordained in the UCC. :) Here's the article http://news.ucc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=526&Itemid=54

St. Louis Author Featured

Laurell K. Hamilton is by far my favorite fiction author... a blend of urban fantasy and horror with kick ass, no apologizing lead heroines (or anti-heroines). And from what glimpses of her (public) personality, she's got some of the same practicality and dry wit that drives her characters. She's featured this month in St. Louis Magazine. I'm so addicted to her books... the characters, plots, sub-plots, differences and similarities with our world... from emotional crap of relationships to socio-cultural structures we all participate in.

The school displays creative art talent during convocation next week, so I submitted some poems. Here they be. Following is the reflection I submitted for each piece.

Who sees that I AM?
Eyes watching, hearts loving
seeing only fragments of my whole being,
occasionally glimpsing the light of I AM,
the glue between the bits, like a glowing,
living and viscous medium holding me together.
Yet who or what can see through the web of talents,
strands of traits, and jagged pieces of flaws
to the single thread that is who I AM?


Psalm 94:16-19
Your love for us overwhelms me at times, O God.
Steadfast and enduring,
as enduring as a river through a canyon.
You slowly chip away the hardness in our hearts,
sanding down the hard edges of our personalities,
until only your love remains—
a flowing light, bursting out of our souls
and radiating off our skin.
And all this begins with a reminder
of your steadfast love.


Mother Earth
I knew I loved her at a young age.
She held me as a baby swimming under water,
reveling in the womblike comfort I had almost forgotten.
She caught me as a child when I fell from the sky,
learning the hard way that even I had limits.
She led me to fantastical worlds and places of peaceful solitude,
away from a reality of chaos and discord.
She sat with me in the
sunsets of sorrows
and sunrises of serenity.
Her caresses dried my tears
and held me through despair.
The very sight of her brings me joy beyond measure.
Returning to her is coming home.

Who sees that I AM?--September 2004--Responding not only to the description of God as pure being, I’m also reflecting on what is inside me that is the incarnation of the transcendent and immanent. Transcendent because it is eternal, invisible, and easy to forget that it exists. Immanent because we are always surrounded by that which we cannot see, can barely imagine. It is what sustains life, sustains the very fabric of the universe.

Psalm 94:16-19--August 2003--Just before I entered seminary, I attended one last monastic retreat at the Mount St. Scholastica Benedictine monastery in Kansas, where I had been receiving spiritual direction for 2 years. Lectio divina, in private and in groups, is one of the practices I learned there. Upon reflecting on these 3 verses in such a manner, this prayer of thanksgiving emerged. As seen in this poem, even before taking Professor McCann’s classes, the Hebrew word hesed (steadfast love) was at the core of my experience of God.

Mother Earth--September 2004--Most people who have been around me long enough begin to realize how deeply rooted my faith is to my relationship with nature. To me, nature is not just a gift from God, it is part of God’s manifestation, incarnational presence, here on earth. The companionship, nurturing, and solace I find surrounded by the very essence of the Creator is breath-taking, intense, and everlasting. For me, Mother imagery of God resonates better with this experience and I express that here.

(please ask me first before using any of my poems... or any other writing, for that matter.)

UCC Ad Campaign and Media Challenge

Mainline churches should be silent while Religious Right political leaders get to speak their mind? Do you care?

Bahamian Beach Babe Returns to St. Louis

Well, we're back from FUN IN THE SUN. More info on the mayhem ensued to follow. Right now I must cram for the mid-term exams I ignored while working on my sunburn... I mean, my tan.

Birthday Party at the DMV

So, I just spent the morning of my 28th birthday at the DMV getting a new driver's license... I would have rather spent it in the hands of a torture specialist driving bamboo shoots under my fingernails (I know, Regan needs to stay away from those scary movies).

First off it is RAINING on MY BIRTHDAY!!!! I'm MISS SUNSHINE!!! Rain depresses me and makes my hair turn into a kinky curly frizz ball and my mood turn a little grumpy.... ok, a lot grumpy.

Then, the poor people who have to work at the Social Security office (did I mention that I had to replace my SS Card to get a new DL?) and the DMV have had all the smiles and good cheer stomped right out of them by annoyed pissed off patrons... and while I am an expert, in fact THE EXPERT, in making grumpy people smile and like me, it's hard to give a flying fig when they're asking you to put your face on an eye exam thingy that has touched millions of dirty faces, asking your WEIGHT and then taking a picture of a grumpy lumpy frizz ball who is A LOT heavier than the last DL picture taken years ago that will be shown to HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of people for the next 6 years... AND they took my old license. :(.... I actually looked good in that picture.

This has not been the best birthday ever... and it's not even noon yet.

Mother Wisdom Speaks

Here's a poem that has meant a lot to me over the past few years. I've been thinking about it and my sense of the feminine aspects of the divine, nature, and reality quite a bit lately. Maybe it's the coming of spring.

I first encountered this poem on a monastic retreat while I was uncertain of my future and health. The possibility of life-risking surgery, not knowing if I could keel over and die at any moment, whether I was going blind, or might have irreversible brain damage.... All scary things. The high level of risk is over, but the knowledge of how fragile a balance life is has remained with me.

The line that helps me the most is: Nothing you need will be lost. This poem and that retreat reminded me that all I have now and will have in the future will be sufficient for my life. Faith, family, friends... and most importantly, God... my mother, father, mentor, healer, sustainer, friend, and guide.

Mother Wisdom Speaks
by Christine Lore Webber

Some of you I will hollow out.
I will make you a cave.
I will make you so deep the stars will shine in your darkness.
You will be a bowl.
You will be the cup in the rock collecting rain.

I will hollow you out with knives.
I will not do this to make you clean.
I will not do this to make you pure.
You are clean already.
You are pure already.

I will do this because the world needs the hollowness of you.
I will do this for the space that you will be.
I will do this because you must be large.
A bowl.
People will eat from you and their hunger will not weaken them unto death.
A cup to catch the sacred rain.

My daughter, do not cry.
Do not be afraid.
Nothing you need will be lost.
I am shaping you.
I am making you ready.

Light will glow in your hollowing.
You will be filled with light.
Your bones will shine.
The round, open center of you will be radiant.

I will call you Brilliant One.
I will call you Daughter Who Is Wide.
I will call you Transformed.

STOP THE QUIZZES

Hello, my name is Jaded Mystic... and I'm a Quizaholic. I won't even tell you how many quizzes I took today. But I learned so much about myself. That I'm most like Carrie on Sex and the City, that my bra color personality is red, that... well, you get the picture.

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What Superheroine Are You?

maybe i should retake it.

So, I took a religion test at quiz farm... it says i should check out buddhism. hmmmm.... I have and do and still I choose (progressive) Christianity... Beliefnet.com says I should be liberal Quaker. That I could live with.

Buddhism 83% Paganism 75% Islam 63% Hinduism 58% Christianity 50% agnosticism 50% Satanism 50% atheism 42% Judaism 33% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Now, another quiz I took is looking at different models of the church that Dulles suggests. it's rather interesting, and I think a little more productive for a seminarian, at least.

You scored as Servant Model. Your model of the church is Servant. The mission of the church is to serve others, to challenge unjust structures, and to live the preferential option for the poor. This model could be complemented by other models that focus more on the unique person of Jesus Christ. Servant Model 89% Mystical Communion Model 61% Sacrament model 61% Herald Model 11% Institutional Model 0% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com

Awkward Aarvarks Ate Apples in Atlanta

Wow. It's been a while since I've blogged... almost to the point of being awkward, kind of like the friend you haven't seen in a long time and things have changed so much you have nothing to say... AND everything that has changed doesn't seem so spectacular, so why mention it?

But then, I'm not known for letting a little awkward shyness stop me from opening my mouth. :)
I'm looking at the word awkward and thinking how appropriate it is for its meaning... what a cumbersome and odd looking little word. You'd think it'd be describing some exotic animal like an aardvark or a platypus. If awkward were an animal, I think it would look kinda like a cross between an oppossum and a three-toed sloth... probably living in the wilds of city dumps, eating only food with lots of hydrogenated oils. It's mating call would be similar to the vibrating whine sound my car makes when a belt is loose. *See, why be awkward over not knowing what to say when Regan is around? She'll find some BS to talk about. ;)

Hard to believe, but there are times when I just don't have much to say. I'd rather just do my sudoku in peace and let all the drama of politics, family crises, career making decisions, etc. fly right over my head. Escapist... me? NEVER! So, I'm going to go and finish my sudoku, maybe a crossword or two, and just pretend like this never happened, k?

Hallmark cards, Theism, and Atheism

So, my friends and I have been doing some major research into alternative forms of church and ministry... looking at ways that we may put into action a concept for a church start/mission church idea outside of the box of traditional ministry.

In order to see what it is that people may really want, I've been asking many of the discussion boards I belong to this question.

If you were to start your own church, what would it be like?

I've really enjoyed hearing people's responses, so let me know what you think, as well.

Another interesting discussion I'm having is in my process theism class. GASP! What's that, you say? Well, I'm too tired to explain it in detail at the moment, but it takes the philosophy developed by Whitehead (mentioned before) and applies it to understanding of God and reality.

Anyway, in this class, we listened/read the credo "I believe there is no God" by Penn Jillette, the tall guy of Penn and Teller. It's very compelling and something to chew on. Here's a quote:

“I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies,
rainbows, and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough…
It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. ”

from dodo's to dadaism

My hometown newspaper has done a pretty good job at exploiting... oops, I mean informing the public about issues over the evo/ID debacle. Here's their list of articles...



Then there's the whole International Dadaism Month declared by our mayor recently... and the editorial responses to that are entertaining... a proposed Day of Reason based on Ayn Rand's philosophy. (rolls eyes) Sigh. This is what happens when too many academics congregate and start to breed. But I love it.