various disjointed observations from my week

my daughter has been in half day tennis camp this week. that means that i've been displaced for 4 hours a day- just waiting to pick her up and go back home. i've gotten caught up on my errands and i've also done some quiet, uninterrupted reading (which is so rare it took a while to remember how to do it.)

Yesterday I bought a new pair of much needed athletic shoes and at the same time a purse that was on sale for $7. But after leaving the store I realized that I didn't even bother to look for a label that said "made by a 7 year old boy in Indonesia who will go to bed hungry tonight," or something like that. I say I want to change my ways. I know they must change (see next point), but I wonder if it's even possible to re-wire my psyche enough to accomplish that much change. Besides, when I looked later, the purse didn't even say where it was made. My shoes were made in Vietnam but not suprisingly the tag did not elaborate on the working conditions in the factory or on the wages paid to its workers.

i finished Everything Must Change, by Brian Mclaren. Having run the gamut of emotions through the course of the book, i finally landed in agreement with McLaren, but with plenty of fear, frustration, and cynicism.

I began Tony Jones' The New Christians yesterday. Though i'm not far into it, I already recognize that Tony has done something here i haven't seen done by anyone else. His approach is thourough, linear (thank you!) and straight forward. He has found a way to describe the emerging church in terms that make sense, and which i think will even be clear to someone who hasn't a clue what it's all about. That is no small feat and I congratulate him for it.

I was struck today by a remarkable experience in polarities. The tennis camp is held at an exclusive private school. It's the kind of place that makes me wonder if my t-shirt is on backwards or if my socks match. Where the moms wear designer shorts and high heeled sandals (making me curious as to why they require such fashion to cart kids around on a 95 degree day in the middle of July). I have worried a lot this week that my daughter would feel out of place or be ostricized by elitist little kids in coordinated tennis outfits. (she has done great, btw- she has an inherent ability to find the genuine kids in a crowd of strangers. I should and will give her more credit!)
... immediately after leaving her at the school (and taking a deep breath of relief), i took some items to goodwill. The man who opened the door to receive my donation was the epitome of quiet humility. He spoke softly, was so appreciative of our cast off things that I felt ashamed, and sent me off with a blessing. As I drove away I couldn't help but consider how much more at ease I felt at Goodwill- a place of need- than at the school- a place of wealth. Peace was to be found in the place of need rather than the place of wealth. Given a choice of which place I'd rather spend a day- there would be no question.

Then a bird flew into the side of my car. There's nothing I could have done, but it broke my heart--as always. When these things happen I repent. I ask forgiveness for my own greed, the greed of humanity, and for turning the world into a place that hurls deadly projectiles in front of defenseless little birds that might just want to fly to the other side of the street to find a bug or worm for their babies.

If you've made it this far, I thank you for reading. I seldom read posts that are this long, so if you haven't made it this far, I totally understand. Not that you would know of course... And so ends my disjointed observations for today.