On Moving to Two Places-and Why

I decided to take a short break from packing stuff to move, preparing a sermon, grading papers, and writing books (not all at once-I’m not that good at multitasking!) to catch up the blog.

For those who haven’t heard: I have returned to the denominational church of my youth: The United Methodist Church. After joining Ebbert Memorial UMC in Springfield, OR and completing my dissertation, I found I had too much spare time on my hands-and a need to do something with my calling. After a chat with my DS, I was sent as a lay person assigned (even though I hold ordination credentials) to Hope UMC in Drain/Yoncalla, OR as their pastor. Long story short, this past July first I have been sent instead to Pioneer UMC in Coquille, OR. This is a 1/2 time slot; I’m hoping to remain there while I undertake the things I need to do to become a full elder. That's a three year process, so I have some time.

The good news is, there’s a parsonage to live in. This means for the first time in over eight years, most of my books are on shelves-and have been thatched and duplicates pulled and donated to the church for their rummage sale next month. I have an actual office as well, and I have a church with good people who want to see things happen. (Not that the folks at Hope didn’t-they also want to see things grow and get bigger as well. Join me in praying for them and their new pastor, Jerry Steele.) The downside is that we’re in the middle of a move that is having to happen much faster than we’d planned...they want to rent the apartment we’ve been living for five years by the first of August. Geez, I hate moving. Nerves are frayed, money’s tighter as a result for a few weeks-but God is good. (There’s also the part about commuting 2 1/2 hours one way to get there, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.) 

Add to that I’m now the interim director for the Cascade Chorus, the Barbershop chorus I have been the assistant director of the last five or six years or so. Toss in doing things like attending Annual Conference and a Pastoral Transition conference...and you find that ol’ Doc Crandall’s been a busy cuss.

Little things one takes for granted-like working internet-are coming together. I spent most of my Monday getting that back up and running; my wireless HP printer was balky and the Airport Express needed to be "persuaded" to play nicely with the new wifi router. I can find things in the kitchen now, and many of the boxes and tubs we’ve hauled down there have either been sorted and their contents found homes...or will be in short order. (Have I mentioned how much I hate moving?) And the fun part is that it’s only half the stuff. 

See, Deena-who lost her full-time job the end of June-now has a part time job doing the same stuff with a different department, and some per diem hours as well. If she makes the CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) course she’s trying to get into, she’ll be busier than I am. As a result, she has to stay in the area to work. So we’re moving half our stuff into her folks place and will pay them some rent, and I get to commute that 2.5 hours one way I mentioned earlier. 

I want to make one thing profoundly clear: this commute is not a sign of trouble in our marriage. Just the opposite: we are having to work harder on our relationship as we won’t have the time together we’re used to spending. On the other hand, because we are both so busy, the time we do have together is made more special. 

So...to my students, I ask your indulgence for about another seven to ten working days; I’m starting to have enough time to grade like I’m used to-which means back papers will get caught up fairly quickly. To my parishioners, I ask your continued grace as I get settled into being your new pastor and find a routine that works. To my chorus, I ask you hang with me a little longer-and keep working on your music at home. And to everyone else...when you think about us, keep us in prayer. Now, more than ever, we need God’s grásta agus síocháin-His grace and peace-to help us through a tough period of time. 

On Facebook, Twitter, and Seppuku

It’s funny, in a bizarre sort of way. Given how much I like working with technology, one would think I keep up with all the latest trends.

Except that I don’t.

I don’t have (at the time I write this) a Facebook or MySpace page, mainly because I don’t feel I’m all that important or interesting. I see no reason to put a bunch of stuff that will bore people to tears out on the web. You don’t really want to know that the one thing I am consuming right now is a box of Sugar Frosted Flakes. I don’t want to tell you all about my friends; I want them to remain my friends. You certainly don’t want to know what I’m listening to on the radio because I don’t listen much to radio anymore. I use my iPod in place thereof...less commercials that way. I don’t need a bunch of “friends” I’ve never met but expect me to list as my friends so we can move up the food chain or however they rank these things. I certainly don’t want people writing all over my walls as I have enough stuff to clean, thank you.

If you’re looking for me on Twitter you might as well stop because I don’t tweet, either. If I want to reach out and touch someone, I can call or e-mail them. You don’t want a pithy message from me telling you I’ve eaten Corn Pops for breakfast, or that I’m standing in the deodorant aisle at Wal-Mart trying to decide what Fresh, Pure Sport, Game Day, Swagger or Smooth Blast smell like. (Those are all scents from Old Spice, by the way, lest you think I’m making them up.) You sure don’t want to know that I’m balancing my checkbook or going flat at quartet rehearsal.

Now, I know there’s folks out there that love and use these things, and I’m happy you do. As far as I’m concerned, however, once the corporations started asking me to “follow” them, or become their “friend”, I got the rather crazy idea that this was nothing more than an advertising gimmick anymore. I certainly do not want to be friends with corporations that have never met me, and I do not need ads being tweeted to me.

What prompted to me write about this was a mildly disturbing story of a new service that allows you to commit “virtual suicide.” Read part of Frank Carnevale’s article:

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Feeling overwhelmed by your Facebook profile? Having trouble dealing with social anxiety? A new Web site will help you kill your virtual self.

Seppukoo.com offers to help you disconnect yourself from Facebook and "have a really cool, radical, chic experience."

The site is named after "Seppuku," the ritual suicide that samurai practiced. The site explains that rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, ancient Japanese samurai preferred to die with honor, voluntarily plunging a sword into the abdomen moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion.

Today the enemy, according to the site, is not another warrior but corporate media who use viral marketing to make huge profits by connecting people across the globe.

Is this what we have come to? Committing virtual suicide? The really dumb thing is that people can then write you virtual memorials!

But some life is everlasting. Even after committing seppuku, users can read all the comments left by your friends on the memorial page.

And your Facebook profile is not actually deleted - you can easily reactivate your account. Just log into your Facebook profile and your account is reactivated.

Whatever happened to simply deleting things? Granted, once on the web it’s always there...but this is ridiculous. Getting rid of your online profile by creating another online profile is just silly, and a waste of time and bandwidth.

So, don’t look for me using this stuff any too soon. I have better things to do with my time, like playing Nine on the iPod, organizing all my cereal prizes by company then cereal, or dusting the man-cat because he’s been sleeping all day in the same spot.

Enough for now.