It's all about perspective...

We returned to Europe for vacation before we move to the West Coast this summer.  We had a wonderful time.  We visited with life-long friends (American and German), ate wonderful food, saw things we had never seen before, and were reminded of how much our family lives on autopilot.  Thank goodness for the opportunity to just get away. We were also reminded of wonderful memories of our recent past and learned  of history made long before the Americas were colonized and brought into the "civilized" world.

Here's a truth that I am reminded of once again...

For Americans, 100 miles is short and 100 years is long.  For Europeans, 100 years is short and 100 miles is long.

Speyer Dom, 

Standing in the middle of the Cathedral (Dom) in Speyer, Germany, this never seemed more true.  A fortress church built between 1025 and 1061, it's walls are between 10 and 21 foot thick, so as to be able to hold off invading armies.  And it was the last big cathedral built before the Eastern and Western Churches split in 1054. Think about that... this church building is over 1000 years old and still sits majestically on the banks of the Rhine river.  It is the largest Romanesque-style cathedral still in existence today, and its architecture influenced all of the large churches built in the 11th and 12th centuries.  And it's not just a building... it's a vital Roman Catholic congregation, worshiping and working in the community and sharing their love for Christ with all who enter their doors.

Or how about this cool motorcycle guy?  He is a replica of one the characters in Easy Rider... but he's not just a motorcycle rider... he was created out of parts from old motorcycles.... from far away he's nostalgic... but up close he's amazing!

Visiting Germany is a little like going back in time.  Some things seem not to change.  And yet, there are the modern conveniences that we love... like internet and GPS and Coke Light.  We went into a small German restaurant one evening - the frescoes on the outside of the building indicated that it had been open since 1756.  We were very proud that we could still order from a German menu and as we waited for our wonderful food, we realized that playing in the background was a soundtrack of easy listening music, including Elton John, Prince and Adele...musical trends must be universal.

Living in Europe and visiting again has really helped me to get things into perspective.  It reminds me that my view of the world is not the only view of the world.  Others have different perspectives that are informed by their own experiences.  And some of my best experiences, and my most meaningful times of personal growth, have come from seeing and experiencing the world through someone else's eyes.  Not judging it by the standards of my life, but seeing the world in a new way, and always coming away richer in the process.  This is really hard sometimes because our own experiences give us a sense of boundary and expectation.  We become accustomed to ourselves in the reflection of our little, mirrored world.  But who wants to be like a koi, a small type of goldfish that will only grow to the size of its pond and no larger.  Amazing things can happen, lives can be changed, and the world made a better place if we can only be brave enough to examine the world through someone else's life.

In truth, we all have so much in common.  We want the same things... a good life, friendship, love, respect. My life is so much fuller, so much sweeter, so much more complete because I have learned that "new" isn't better or worse - just different.  Thanks to all of those who have shared their lives - to all who have challenged me - to all who have coaxed me out of my shell and welcomed me into a brave, new world.

I think our biggest challenge in life is to be open to all the new people and places and foods and experiences we can, to learn the lessons that they teach, and to end each day a little different than we started.

Peace, Deb

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” –Walt Disney

Habit Forming...

I heard a radio interview on NPR a couple of months ago.  Terry Gross was interviewing Charles Duhigg about his new book, The Power of Habit.  You can listen to the interview here.

I was quite intrigued with his description of how habits are formed.  In the beginning, there is a conscious choice to participate in a certain behavior.  But as the behavior is repeated over and over, it moves from the part of the brain that is responsible for decision making into another part of the brain – the part that is responsible for things like breathing and walking and putting on your shoes…. Even driving a certain route over and over can become a habit – ever driven to work and not remember how many lights you stopped at?   These habits are usually done exactly the same way every time, like brushing your teeth or getting dressed.  They are woven into the fabric of our days, often so much that we don’t even think or talk about them when looking back at our days.

Now I’m sure that your life is like mine.  It is filled with good habits and bad habits.  And all of us have changes that we would like to make in our lives, but when we try to establish these new habits in the midst of our routines, we find it very difficult to get the hang of the new thing.  But a very funny thing happens when we go on vacation.  We change everything up.  It’s not that we forget how to drive or make our way to work, it’s that we don’t have to implement those behaviors in the same way we do in our everyday environment.  His research has shown that going on or returning from vacation is a great time to kick habits to the curb, or to begin new habits that you want to become a part of your life.

So why I am I talking about this, you might wonder?  Well, I just went on vacation.  It was a wonderful, beautiful trip to The Netherlands and Germany, to see the tulips in Amsterdam and visit our friends from our previous assignment there.  Yes, it rained most days, and in our five days in Amsterdam I wore my lined raincoat from morning until night, but we ate great food, saw amazing sights, and share many laughs with both German and American friends.  We wondered before we left whether we would remember what all the road signs meant, or how to get from place, or how to order in a restaurant.  And it was amazing.  Within a few hours, all of the information that had been locked away for over four years was almost immediately accessible.  In fact, we found ourselves using our Germany dictionary a lot less than we had before.  It just all made sense.

For Christmas I got a new pedometer – a Fitbit Ultra – that not only tracks my steps, but also the flights of stairs that I climb each day.  And while we were in Amsterdam there were a couple of days that I walked over 9 miles (for me over 20,000 steps) … and survived!  Sure, I was tired at the end of the day, but a couple of Advil and I was ready to tackle it all again the next day.  So as we started the process of returning home, I started thinking that if I could walk that many miles on vacation, there wasn’t any reason not to use my return from vacation as a motivator for forming a new positive habit.

Our trip home day started early – a 3:30am wakeup to be at the airport at 5:00am .  Several delays ensued, but we took off at 2:00pm (Central European Time) and arrived in Baltimore at 4:00pm (Eastern Daylight Time).  A two hour journey to retrieve luggage and travel home… we walked into our house at 6:00pm.  Unpacking suitcases and sorting laundry helped us make it to 9:30pm – and the magic of being up for 24 hours.  We snuggled into our wonderful bed with its amazing pillows and fell asleep almost instantly. 

My husband woke up at 3:30am – I made it to 4:45am.  And as he headed off to work about 5:30, I watched the sky start to get light and remembered that conversation about making new habits.  So I got up, put on my walking clothes and started trekking around my neighborhood.  Thirty minutes later I returned home and felt good about my day.  And every day since, instead of sleeping in to 7:21 (don’t ask me why that was my body’s programmed wake up time, it just was), I wake up 6:00am, and I get up and go out for a walk.  On Wednesday when it was raining, I considered taking the day off, but I was afraid that if I stopped for even one day, I might not go back out. Yesterday I walked 2.5 miles in 40 minutes and it just felt good.  (Just so you know, my friends Jenn, Katie, Bobbie & Catherine are jumping up and down for joy because they think I’m only one step away from running!)

So here I am, 10 days into new habit formation... and breaking bad habits: I didn't drink but one Diet Coke while I was gone, so I decided that it would have to go… and I’m good.  I am thanking God for a wonderful trip with new sights and sounds, and a time to renew old friendships.  But I'm also thankful for this time of resetting my body and my priorities.  And now that I have publicly committed to this new endeavor, I hope you'll all keep me honest and encouraged in my journey.  And I encourage you to use your time of vacation to think about new habits to form or old habits to break.  It's really been a time of revelation.

My new motto:  "I am a new creation… God is doing a good work in me."

Peace, Deb

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  Romans 12:1 (The Message)

Response to a Facebook posting...

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect.     (I Peter 3:15) NIV

My friend Jill (yes, that is her real name) posted a link to the cover article from this week’s Newsweek magazine, “Christianity in Crisis” by Andrew Sullivan.  Here is the quote she posted:

"I have no concrete idea how Christianity will wrestle free of its current crisis, of its distractions and temptations, and above all its enmeshment with the things of this world. But I do know it won't happen by even more furious denunciations of others, by focusing on politics rather than prayer, by concerning ourselves with the sex lives and heretical thoughts of others rather than with the constant struggle to liberate ourselves from what keeps us from God." -Andrew Sullivan (in the cover story of Newsweek: Forget the church. Follow Jesus.)

In a comment she asked several friends to reply, me among them.  I posted a small comment quickly:  “When I was in trouble as a child, I would always want to point out how my brother was an even worse offender than I was. My mom always replied, ‘You better get your own house in order before you start tending to someone else's house.’ At first glance, I think he is on to something. I will ponder this article for the next few days and get back to you and your loyal following.”

A day later a favorite author, Diana Butler Bass, posted a response to Sullivan’s article: “A Resurrected Christianity?”  Here is the most helpful paragraph from her article for me.

Three deceptively simple questions are at the heart of a spiritually vibrant Christianity--questions of believing, behaving, and belonging.

Religion always entails the "3B's" of believing, behaving, and belonging. Over the centuries, Christianity has engaged the 3B's in different ways, with different interrogators and emphases. For the last 300 years or so, the questions were asked as follows:

1) What do I believe? (What does my church say I should think about God?)
2) How should I behave? (What are the rules my church asks me to follow?)
3) Who am I? (What does it mean to be a faithful church member?)

But the questions have changed. Contemporary people care less about what to believe than howthey might believe; less about rules for behavior than in what they should do with their lives; and less about church membership than in whose company they find themselves. The questions have become:

1) How do I believe? (How do I understand faith that seems to conflict with science and pluralism?)
2) What should I do? (How do my actions make a difference in the world?)
3) Whose am I? (How do my relationships shape my self-understanding?)

The foci of religion have not changed--believing, behaving, and belonging still matter. But the ways in which people engage each area have undergone a revolution. (www.huffingtonpost.com)

After reading both articles, I thought about how their questions intersect my own life.  My experience of community has been greatly shaped by the frequency of our moves and the variety of communities where we have lived.  Sure, I expected to move a lot, but we are rapidly approaching our 11th move in our 22nd year since my husband joined the Air Force and I graduated from seminary.  In the last 20 years I have been a part of 15 congregations, most of them United Methodist, but also base chapels and wonderful Presbyterian, Episcopal, United Church of Christ and American Baptist congregations from my campus ministry work in North Dakota.  I think by now I have had hundreds, maybe thousands, of conversations about the intersection of Christianity, faith and life.  These are some of the lessons I have learned about diversity of thought and practice.

I am confused and saddened when Christians seek to have "the Christian walk" conform to a specific path, and that "Christian thought" should conform to particular  beliefs which define who is in and who is out of the Kingdom.  Yes, there are boundaries, but unkind rigidity can certainly be the death of community, which forms the canvas on which we live out our faith.  I need a group of people that helps me stay within the bounds of faith, not so much  in adherence to doctrine as helping me to conform to the commandments that Christ left us as a pattern for living.  “Love God”, “Love Self” and “Love Others” – well, that’s a lifetime of work right there. 

How do I live those commandments out?  How do I know when I have gone off the track?  Who will keep me pointed in the right direction?  Those are the reasons that I need a community of faith… those are the reasons I need Church.  This often comes in the form of congregations and denominations, which through their structure and connectedness help me to do more with my resources than I could by myself.  Also in worship, singing praises and praying with others, or even having them sing or pray for me when I cannot myself.  But sometimes “Church” comes in quiet conversations as two or three gather for support or friendship or questions.  Or in classes that gather where people can share a real part of themselves without the fear being shunned or turned away because their experience of God or Jesus is something that no one else has ever had.

Perhaps this is the greatest gift that my “other” identity gives me… the privilege of making a life with people who are not carbon copies of me, but who bring to the table different experiences of life and faith and sometimes even non-faith.  I have found that I can't afford to write off, revile or ridicule people just because they think differently than I do.  In fact, I love what they bring to the party. All I ask is that we come ready to learn from one another and not judge based on our differences.  Wherever I go, I want to be associated with people who are willing to grow and change in unexpected ways.

I love what I have learned from people with different perspectives.  And I pray that God will continue to bless me with new lessons to learn and to share.  “Love God” – “Love Self” – “Love Others” – that’s where I’m putting my efforts today.

I love this article from Murray Richmond on Salon.com:  "Reformation of An Evangelical".  His experience speaks to my heart and helps me remember to live out my faith in kindness and love.

Peace, Deb

What do I do...?

It feels like it's not really possible to be anonymous any more, not that I'm famous or anything.  But most of the places I go, people know two things about me - that I am a military spouse and a United Methodist minister.  So one of the questions that I get asked a lot is, "If you're not serving a church, then what do you do?"  Now I'll admit that this question often gives me pause.  I am still a little sensitive whenever I hear that, because I grew up thinking that being productive was a good thing.

I started working at the local burger restaurant when I was in high school.  In college, I continued to work at Hardee's during the summer, in addition to being a Resident Assistant in the dorms.  After college, I worked in a hospital blood bank for six years, and even kept doing the same work 20 hours a week the whole time I was in seminary.  After graduation, I went to my first appointment, where my productivity was measured in people visited, youth trips taken and miles put on my spiffy little Mazda pickup truck.  It wasn't until 10 years later that I became a stay-at-home spouse for the first time.

It think it's safe to say that in the beginning, it wasn't pretty.  My wonderful husband would come home from a day at the office and ask, "What did you do today?"  And no matter what tasks I had accomplished, I felt like it was never enough... no, maybe "enough" isn't the right word... maybe "fulfilling" would be a better way to think about it.  How was laundry, cooking and cleaning serving the Kingdom of God?  It didn't take long for me to realize that my calling to ministry was being fulfilled, even though I wasn't in an official appointment setting.  The attacks on September 11, 2001 were a defining moment as friends and family looked for a calm voice and spirit to remind them that God was still with us, even in the midst of the tragedy and turmoil of those days.

That was a period of great change in our lives as my Air Force husband's career moved us four summers in a row, once with only three weeks notice.  And as I moved from place to place, and met more and more people, my gifts for ministry always found just the perfect outlet.  I was on leave of absence for six years before I had the opportunity to service a new appointment, this time in southwest Oklahoma.  Three years at Altus FUMC was measured in classes taught and planned, baptisms and Eucharists celebrated, and wonderful worship and fellowship.  But during that time, I also realized that ministry was much more than that.  It extended to all of the families on the base and in the community.  That wasn't a ministry of invitation to others to be a Methodist, but was instead a ministry of care and presence.  I got a sweet note from someone saying, "I didn't ever need to call, but I knew that if I did, you would be there."

Everyday I pray that I can be available in the places where I am needed.  Sometimes that is about listening.  When someone calls and says, "Can you do lunch?" it may just be about enjoying a meal together.  Or it may be about something more.  How can we know?  Sometimes it's about asking questions or brainstorming new ways to think about a problem or a point of view.  Sometimes it's about hearing a tone of voice, or what is not being said, and figuring out a way to be a help.  I still need to work on listening twice as much as I speak, but I am so happy to have the time to be available to people.  And to learn the lesson that being the hands of Christ to those around the work God has given me at time, and more importantly, that it is enough.

It's easy to keep a list of all of the tasks that we accomplish in the name of the gospel, but the intangibles are just as important, maybe even more so.  What would our faith journeys look like if we scheduled less and were available more for the little things that we could do to be appropriately present with people, whatever their needs?  I'm thinking it would look less like reoccurring appointments on our calendars and more like just hanging out with people... more about going places we've never been before...more about stepping out in faith... more about being the Church and not just going to church.

Hard work, indeed, but Paul reminds us that this is what a life of faith is really all about:

Romans 12:1-2  So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)

Journey on, my friends, journey on, and may we give encouragement and support to one another along the way.

Peace, Deb

Multitasking is good for some things.... but not all

Do you know why there are no cup holders in most German-made cars?  Because the Germans believe that cars were meant for driving, not for eating and drinking.  Oh, so you know of a German-made car that has cup holders? That's because it was made for the American market and they know that Americans won't usually buy cars that don't have a place to but their Route 44 soda or big travel mug of coffee.  But that doesn't mean that they are not shaking their heads on the assembly line in Sindelfingen, Germany whenever they put one of these cars together.  No multitasking allowed.

We live in a world where multi-tasking is the norm.   We eat and drive - we talk and text - we watch TV and surf the internet... I've even been trying all winter to figure out how to crochet and exercise at the same time.  And while we may think we're pretty good at doing many things at the same time, the reality is that each activity suffers in some way by not getting our full attention.  That's why my seat belts and my clothes often have stains when I eat while driving.  The other night I heated up a pan to toast some pine nuts ... I felt sure I could go upstairs, move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and put in another load before they burned... I could not...  and I ended up throwing a very delicious garnish into the trash.

I'm reading the book, Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom with a group of women from my church.  Mitch started out as a sports writer in Detroit, but in 1989 started writing additional column each week about American life and values.  It is from these columns that his most recognized works come (Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven).  In Have a Little Faith, he is asked by his childhood rabbi to write his eulogy.  Not sure what he expected, Mitch traveled to New Jersey to meet with him in person, and this one meeting started a habit of meetings that led Mitch toreclaim his own faith, but also to explore and support the faith journeys of others.  In their first interview, Mitch asked an important question.  The question and the Reb's answer have made a lasting impression on me.

Mitch wrote: "I wondered, now that his days were dwindling, how important ritual still was."  "Vital," he said.  "But why, deep inside, you know your convictions."  "Mitch," he said, "faith is about doing.  You are how you act, not just how you believe" (page 44).

This is the problem, isn't it ... that more often than not, we act as if our faith is held in a sacred, separate compartment in our lives.  And if we're very "spiritual," we might try to do faith at the same time as we are going about the business of everyday living.  But if Mitch's rabbi is right, we have to understand that our faith is not in competition with our "real" lives.  Our faith should be THE real part, lived out every hour of every day.  It sounds impossible, I know, or at least really hard.  And yet, it's really what Jesus encourages us to at least attempt every day

Maybe you've heard the parable of the houses built on the rock and the sand.  The house built on the rock stands up to the stresses of life - the one on the sand is washed away when trouble comes knocking.  Eugene Peterson puts this passage into contemporary language in this way in his translation, The Message.

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.  But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."

When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.  (Matthew 7:24-29)

This is the challenge of the Christian life today... how do we live our faith without multitasking it into an insignificant place in our lives?  I suspect that these questions take a lifetime to examine, but I am also reminded of this condensation of John Wesley's General Rules.  If I can follow these directions, then maybe I can come close to living a faithful, blessed life.

Do no harm.

Do good.

Practice the spiritual disciplines.

Watch over one another in love - John Wesley (1703-1791)

Peace, Deb

Goings and Comings

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17

Seventeen years ago I left behind my predictably unpredictable life as a United Methodist minister and took on an additional identity.  And if you had asked me if I would take such a leap of faith even four years earlier, I would have denied even the remote possibility that such a thing could happen.  But it did, and in March of 1995, I became a military spouse.

Until I went to my first church, I really didn't know anything about the lives that military families live.  But our congregation was filled with military families, mostly Air Force and Navy, and I began to meet the spouses and children of these military member within the first few days.  There are two families that take credit for introducing me to a young Air Force pilot.  Our church organist first introduced me to the handsome new baritone in the church choir and local scoutmaster... and our Evangelism chair, whose husband was also a flyer and whose children were in my youth group, took it a step further and took advantage of opportunities for us to be in the same space.

Our engagement came after almost two years of dating and our marriage fourteen months after that.  Moving in together after the wedding presented a special challenge since we were both used to having our own space and our own way of doing things.  At first, being a military spouse didn't really change my life very much.  There was the opportunity to shop on base, and a spouses' meeting once a month.  And the calls from the squadron: "Mrs. Teagan, your husband has just landed and will be leaving the base in approximately one hour" or "Mrs. Teagan, your husband's plane is broken and they are waiting for parts... we'll let you know when he's on the way back. [I got this one a lot!].  But this was just the calm before the storm.... our first PCS (permanent change of station).

The details are still bonded in my memory... driving away to a new life, a new house, and new jobs for both of us.  I was very fortunate to be given a church appointment in southern Illinois... and fortunate again to receive one in North Dakota three years later.  But in 2001, the appointment well dried up.  We began a series of one year moves... one year in New Jersey, one year in Georgia, one year in Alabama.  For the first time since high school, I was not working outside the home.  In my head, I was just somebody's wife, and a big accomplishment for the day might be laundry, or finding a good deal on chicken breasts at the local store.  We couldn't find a church that felt like home.... I felt cut off from friends and family.... I really didn't know where to turn.

But on September 11, 2001, all of that changed.

My phone started ringing soon after 10:00am.  And as the day went on, a small community formed to ask the questions that everyone asked.  "How could this happen?"  "Where is God in the midst of this tragedy?"  "How do I explain it to my children?"  And it was as if God said, "Just because you're not serving a church doesn't mean that there isn't work for you to do."  From that week's conversations, a bible study was started, true friendships were forged, and I found my way back to my call.

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we hear a story of a young woman who left  behind all that she knew to follow someone she loved and respected.  But those heartfelt words from the wedding liturgy are not the words of a woman to her beloved husband... they are the words of a young widow to her mother-in-law as they seek to find a better life.  Ruth says, "Where you go, I will go..." but she also says, "Your God will be my God," signifying a trust in a higher power to make sense out of a senseless situation.

We live in a society where "control" is a big issue.  We don't like the feeling of not having control - of not making our lives work the way we want them to work.  But there is something to be said for trusting that our control is not always the best way forward.... of trusting in a higher power - in God - to make something good come from something for which we had no backup plan.

I am blessed with many wonderful spouse friends - professional women and men who have changed tracks or made different plans in order to support being a part of a military family.  Some of my friends are teachers, nurses, and accountants.  Others are administrative assistants and physical therapists.  One friend is a rheumatologist and another just got her cosmetology license.  Each of them, women and men alike, uses their gifts and graces to support their spouses and the military communities in which they live.  They pick up their lives regularly and follow on to places at every corner of the world.  They do it for love of family and love of country.  And each of them has realized something important throughout their military spouse journeys... that marriage is not just about being in love... it's about trusting that God can use us wherever we go in ways that we could not have imagined.

I visited a dear seminary friend last weekend and got to attend her church for the first time.  And in a moment of vulnerability  I wondered what it would have been like if I had a different life... If I had stayed in South Carolina and pastored churches close to home.  I saw the love that her congregation had for her, and the relationship that she had experienced in her twelve years with that congregation.  I looked that the road not taken and thought, "What if?"

But it didn't take long to think about all of the experiences that I would have missed out on or all of the people that I would probably never have met.  And I knew that my comings and goings are a part of the road that I committed to when I said, "I do."  And that has made all the difference....

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,    

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood              

And looked down one as far as I could     

To where it bent in the undergrowth;               

Then took the other, as just as fair,          

And having perhaps the better claim,       

Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 

Though as for that the passing there        

Had worn them really about the same,            

And both that morning equally lay             

In leaves no step had trodden black.         

Oh, I kept the first for another day!          

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,   

I doubted if I should ever come back.               

I shall be telling this with a sigh   

Somewhere ages and ages hence:            

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—    

I took the one less traveled by,   

And that has made all the difference.

 --- Robert Frost (1920)    

Sometimes books are hard to read...

Reading occupies two places in my life.  Professionally, I read to enlarge my world... to get new ideas... to be challenged... to gain information to pass on to others.  But I also read for fun - an escape or vacation of sorts.  Some of my favorite books are novels.  The Mitford series by Jan Karon, anything by Debbie Macomber and even Les Miserables by Victor Hugo have transported me into another world, another time, or another reality (think Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle).

But this week's book did not transport me to a time or place where I wanted to be.  This week's novel, One Second After by William R Forstchen, took me to a time and events that I hope I never have to experience.  Perhaps it was so chilling because the story takes place just an hour from where I grew up.  Perhaps it is because in the beginning, the characters are so much like me, and end up in a place so very different.  Perhaps it is because it's a disaster novel with no real happy ending, although it probably plays out in a realistic way.

Did you ever see the cancelled television series, "Jericho" on CBS?  It ran several years ago for one season and seven episodes.  It actually got cancelled at the end of the first season, but the public outcry for the story lines to come to some conclusion was so great CBS approved a short season to take the viewers to a place where they could say goodbye.  "Jericho" was about multiple nuclear attacks on the United States and how a small farm community in rural Kansas sought to survive in the aftermath of the unthinkable.  One Second After tells the story of a retired Army colonel teaching in a small North Carolina college near Asheville. NC and what happened after all of their access to electricity and technology was cut off.  I don't want to share any more of the plot because some surprising things happen, but I do want to share some of the questions that I was asking after I finished the book.  Just as an aside... I started at 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon and finished before I went to bed at midnight, taking only about 40 minutes out of that time to prepare dinner.  I could not put it down without knowing what happened to the characters... it was that compelling.

So here are my questions:

How dependent am I on technology?  Could I cook, clean and get the things I need to survive for a long period of time?  This question has sort of been answered a couple of times, through a June "almost tornado" and January ice storm in Oklahoma.  Ironically, both times my spouse was away, and so while I wanted to be self sufficient and able to get along on my own, I really had to depend on my friends to help me get through 5 and 8 days respectively without power.  As much as anything, I needed to know that I was not alone.  Isolation was my biggest hurdle.

How dependent is our society on technology?  While I am happy to turn off the television to keep from hearing repetitive or irrelevant news, what would I do if I couldn't know what was going on?  How would our community or society function if we were cut off from all information (and direction) for even a little while?  Would we really revert back to the society of the Middle Ages, or have we come farther than that?

What does it mean to be a moral person?  This was the question that I most struggled with in this book, as I read about the choices people made as they felt their circumstances dictated.  There are many things that I have said I would never do, but if push comes to shove, can I keep those promises?  And along those same lines, what does it mean to be a moral community if we live in a society where it sometimes seems that anything goes?

These are hard questions which often generate other hard questions.  But that's how a society grows stronger... when we think and talk about the hard questions, not always having to agree, but laying out cards on the table and figuring out how to go from where we are to a better place.  That is how we grow... isn't it?

I had a hard time picking a quote, but here's just a paragraph from the first chapter:

But there was "something else" now.  A gut instinct that ran deeper.  Something had gone wrong, what, he still wasn't sure, but there were too many anomalies, with the power off, the cars stalled, except for the Edsel, no planes... Something was wrong.  And at this moment, for the first time in a long while, his "city survival senses" were kicking in.  One Second After, page 42.

Peace, Deb

I'm starting Book #3 today - something much lighter - Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert.  This continues her story after Eat, Pray, Love.