the pope in new york

this is the best i got. (that's Benedict in the popemobile.) as you can see, people were freaking out. it was kind of like mardi gras, only he was throwing rosaries instead of beads... (thanks for that one, becca.)

but seriously, it was kind of cool to see how much people were inspired to come out and see him, even if only for 6 seconds (like we did). there was a wide diversity of people around us (we were across from the apple store at 59th and 5th) - tourists and locals, nuns and lay people, young and old. people were holding up banners announcing their pilgrimmages from at least several states away. other people were holding up banners proclaiming that "jesus is the 1 true way" and that catholics were going to hell. enterprising old men were selling homemade buttons at $5 a pop. a short hispanic woman kept elbowing me in the back for a better view. there was an insane amount of police, and about 5 ambulances and several SUVs full of people with sniper rifles, i guess just in case anything happened. but the mood was like a big party, and everyone went straight for the grassy lawns in central park after he went by to enjoy the nice weather, satisfied by their experience.

i didn't really know what to make of it all for myself. Although my heart did beat a bit faster as he approached, I felt nothing of the intense personal connection that I felt at the easter sunday mass in Rome with John Paul seven years ago. (to be fair, you can hardly compare the two experiences). Maybe it's because I don't find this pope that particularly spiritually inspiring. It's kind of like going to the library with an old college professor. Maybe its because I was hoping for another John Paul (which I think is impossible), or a pope from Africa, or Latin America (the two fastest growing Catholic regions). But, this pope did make an address to the UN this week (1st time a pope has done this) on the need for an increased focus on human rights as the unifying force between cultures - just as he was denied a meeting earlier in the week with a muslim-american group. So it's not ideal. And there's so many issues that are being left unaddressed, like the role of women, birth control-AIDS, and the church's position on homosexuality. If those aren't human rights, I don't know what is. Maybe Benedict's speech at the UN was a start - only sometimes in the Catholic Church, "a start" could take 400 years. I want my faith to be more dynamic, more life-giving than that.

seriously.

Okay, a pity party is not what I'm looking for here. I've been trying to focus lately on all the things I'm thankful for...how so many things have just aligned in my world lately. Almost everything from the purse thing is taken care of: the internet works today, and I have a new checking account, a new phone #, new keys, new credit cards, a new elbow...wait a minute...

HOWEVER...I was before taking lightly the whole "there's a lesson in this" thing, but now, I really am starting to believe that Someone/Something is trying to send me a message, and I need to vent about that. Yesterday I had an interview for a job, and in order to move forward with it, I have to get 3 reference forms, of which I have hard copies. After trying to fax one of them yesterday for 10 minutes to no avail, I'm told that I have to dial a "1" first...common sense, yes, but I'm not used to having to do that on my phone or at the fax machine at GSV. So, finally, it goes through...YES! A couple hours later I get an email from my reference telling me the page was really unclear. Dang. "That's okay, I'll just scan it & send it as an email attachment," I tell myself. Because my flash drive was in my purse and is now in another person/dumpster/curbside/fill in the blank's possession, I went to the oh-so-low priced Tulane bookstore & paid about twice what I should've for a new one (one that you can't return unless it's disfunctional of course). I go to Kinko's, which luckily is located in the student center where I work, they upload the document to the drive, and botta-bing-botta-boom, I'm ready to send it.

Except for the fact that it's not working on my computer. You've got to be kidding me. I'm so over it, and they better give me a refund.

Grappling

I'm grappling with what lesson I'm supposed to be learning here. I feel like I keep getting pushed in the direction of NEEDING patience. I am SOOOO thankful for my wonderful, beautiful, life-giving friends that supported me over the weekend (my purse got stolen & it was really frustrating). I love you SO much, Chrissy, Amy, & Michelle. SO much. The fact that after 3 AM on Sunday I laughed about 6.57 million times says a lot, I think.

With why, in waiting for the locksmith to bring a key in the FREEZING, wind-penetrated parking garage, we were put off SEVERAL times, & ended up waiting in there for an approximate total of 5 1/2 hours...I was so over it. The past few days, without a debit card, house key (thank God for our alarm!), or cell phone, the most missed items, I've had several moments of almost losing it (i.e. crying really hard & feeling completely overwhelmed).

And with why, today, the day that I'm CRAVING connection & getting things done & talking back & forth with Eric all day, after having a month of clean-cut internet access at the store, I'm left without it as I'm asked for a username & password that doesn't exist.

I keep reminding myself that I am woman, that I am strong, that SO MANY people go through this, and that I am so lucky to have friends who will roll around on garbage cans to break into my house for me.

I'm grappling with the fact that keys disappear more quickly than they reappear, and for them we can only wait.

Frontier, Africa, and the Mets

In the great whirlwind that is our lives lately, a few stars aligned yesterday. I'm back in New York (until the 26th)... these 3-weeks-in-one-place-then-3-weeks-in-another things are really starting to get to me. Please think twice if you're ever offered a job that involves "frequent travel". Especially if you're engaged and just bought a new home. On the up side though, I've managed to avoid a lot of airport headaches (and carbon emissions too!) lately by taking Amtrak (this next time will be my 3rd time so far) between NOLA-NYC. Working here is fine, but still, most of the time I'm wishing I could be in New Orleans.

So, to buy my time this weekend, I went to the Mets game (it was a great pitching matchup - Santana vs. Sheets). As I walked into the stadium, I was reminded of the excitement I always felt as a kid going to Kauffman Stadium in KC - the first glimpse of the freshly mowed green grass spreading out before you like in a dream, seeing the players (in real life!!) that you imitated at school and heard about on the radio everynight... it's easy to get caught up in it all. I had a great time, and I already have plans to go again. But about the 2nd or 3rd inning though, I caught myself thinking - "wow, this is the first time I've been to a game since coming back from Africa." Suddenly I felt very dirty. Suddenly everything seemed so wasteful - wasn't everyone here just ignoring the 'real world' for a few hours while watching over paid, over grown boys playing a game? (with a new $600M stadium being built beyond the outfield wall, for next season). What was it all for - and why has my country come to this, where new stadiums are given the fast track priority while funding for kids with malaria in africa is being cut??

Now I fully recognize, like Megan says, "sometimes you just want the damn donut!" - a little indulgence now and then is fine and we can't all live these super-idealistic lives where we all become organic farmers knitting our own socks from goat wool in the hills somewhere, but there has to be a balance. As a generally wealthy society, we should be able to come to a compromise with ourselves that allows us to assist some of the world's most vulnerable populations, and also keep a good standard of living at home. I know Megan and I have struggled lately with similar thoughts - do we buy the sustainably made bamboo blanket for $50, or the cheap one made in China? And how can we make extra mortgage payments when there are literally miles of homeless in tents down on Claiborne?

For the train ride in to the game, I brought along Barack Obama's 1st book "Dreams from my Father". Earlier in the day, I had been reading the part where he finally gets a chance to visit his family in Kenya for the first time in his 20s. He becomes overwhelmed witnessing the extreme poverty in the slums of Nairobi on his way to a safari with his sister. Together, they realize the dilemma that exists between preserving good farmland for environmental protection in the national park and letting the Kenyan government allow some of these people to move to the lands occupied by the national park, so that they might be able to farm and bring themselves out of poverty... and the agonizing need for balance. When it comes down to it, we have (HAVE) to do both. When presented with such stark choices it may seem impossible. But I really believe there is enough in the world to go around for all of us - that we will be better as a society and as individuals the more we keep each other in mind.

Which brings me back to my opening thought - travelling. On Friday, my favorite airline, Frontier Airlines, declared bankruptcy. They're still flying, but they may not last much longer - which is a shame, because they have the best, friendliest employees of probably any airline I've ever experienced. It seems pretty inevitable right now that the future of flying in America will return to super-expensive seats, and limited options that only businesses can afford. For the average person, flying will become a luxury again (arguably, rightly so - we need, NEED! a better rail system). But the next couple of years will involve a lot of sacrifice, I think, until things sort themselves out (both in the airlines and the economy in general). It won't be as easy as a presidential election, or a new agreement for aid to Africa, or a renewed commitment to preserve the environment - but those things may be steps toward the realization that we're all in this together.

367 pictures from Africa and India

Somehow along the way, I think I forgot to post these.

Here they are. Our best pictures from Africa and India. A little out of order, but they're there.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!

Wooo Woooooo!!! Congrats KU!!

Eric's new weedeater

'nuff said.

Virtual house tour

To satisfy my nagging sister (I love you!) and others who have been asking for more pictures of our new house... I'll do you one better. I did a quick walk-through of our street and our house, and took a video.

Here's our street:


And here's our house.


Come visit!

Next video: My new weed-eater. (Yeah, I own a weed-eater... how cool is that!!)

Happy Opening Day!

Today is Opening Day... the most anticipated day of the year! (though I think Meg might argue with me on that...)

In appreciation of the new baseball season, here is my Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball roster (as of today):

C Geovany Soto (CHC)
1B Derrek Lee (CHC)
2B BJ Upton (TB)
3B Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
SS Jose Reyes (NYM)
OF Magglio Ordonez (DET)
OF Ken Griffey Jr. (CIN)
OF Billy Butler (KC)
Util Todd Helton (COL)
BN Aaron Rowand (SF)
BN Alex Gordon (KC)
BN Juan Pierre (LAD)

SP Daisuke Matsuzaka (BOS)
SP Oliver Perez (NYM)
RP Jonathan Papelbon (BOS)
RP Francisco Rodriguez (LAA)
P Kevin Gregg (FLA)
P Heath Bell (SD)
P Peter Moylan (ATL)
BN Ben Sheets (MIL)
BN Rich Hill (CHC)
DL Josh Beckett (BOS)

Cadiz Street, here we come!

So tomorrow is closing day for our new home on Cadiz Street in New Orleans. We're so excited to move in! As you can imagine, we're already picking out what we want to plant our (very small, yet to be established) garden, choosing paint colors for the kitchen, and mapping out our bike routes to and from work. I'm a little nervous, since I've never written this big of a check before (and we for sure are taking on a lot of debt) but the realization that we will soon OWN our OWN place is all worth it.

Everyone is welcome to come visit... the sooner the better! (We will even have a guest blow-up mattress to accompany our master blow-up mattress to help accomodate you!)

Also, you can read our previous post, which includes a picture of our new home.

Watch Jeff Sachs on the Daily Show

Jeff Sachs will appear on the Daily Show with John Stewart this Tuesday March 18th at 11pm.

His new book, "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet" will also come out in stores the same day.

Here are a couple of reviews:

Al Gore, Winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and Former Vice President of the United States:

"Common Wealth explains the most basic economic reckoning that the world faces. We can address poverty, climate change, and environmental destruction at a very modest cost today with huge benefits for shared and sustainable prosperity and peace in the future, or we can duck the issues today and risk a potentially costly reckoning in later years. Despite the rearguard opposition of some vested interests, policies to help the world's poor and the global environment are in fact the very best economic bargains on the planet."


Kofi Annan, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize and former secretary-general of the United Nations:

"Jeffrey Sachs never disappoints. With powerful illustrations and moving words, he describes what humanity must do if we are to share a common future on this planet. By making sense of economics as it affects the lives of people, this book is an excellent resource for all those who want to understand what changes the 21st century may bring."

"The Social Justice Lectionary"

While searching for the latent blog of our favorite priest on the upper-west-side (if you've been reading these posts any time over the last year, you'll know who we are talking about), I came across this website, which gives reflections and links for action relating to the current week's readings.

http://www.socialjusticelectionary.com/

It's awesome. Give it a shot. This week, among other things, it talks about eco-friendly palms for palm sunday. Nice.

Save poverty-fighting funding

Apparently, the Senate has decided to cut a significant portion from the international affairs budget for 2009. This is the program that funds all the international initiatives on AIDS, malaria, hunger, and poverty. This action will literally affect the lives of millions of people around the world who rely on US help to jumpstart their own efforts to pull themselves out of poverty.

Please sign the ONE.org petition below to send a message to your Senators to tell them to reinstate the funding.

In the great American tradition of helping others help themselves, we, the undersigned, ask that the U.S. Senate pass the Durbin-Smith amendment to restore $2.6 billion to the international affairs budget.

Sign the petition here:
http://www.one.org/2009budget/

Climate Change positions of the 3 major presidential candidates

Now that we're down to the final 3 contenders for President, here's a look at each of their policies relating to climate change - specifically on the proposed "cap and trade" mechanism to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2050.

It's very detailed, complete with references to major speeches on the topic. While it seems that not everyone has their favorite methods worked out yet - all 3 have made climate change a major priority for their administrations.

And we can all look forward to that.

A step forward in Kenya

Kenya rivals sign power-sharing deal

Kenya moved one step closer to peace today as the weeks of talks brokered by Kofi Annan have resulted in a power-sharing agreement in Kenya, with Raila Odinga (the opposition leader) taking the newly created post of prime minister. Mwai Kibaki will remain as president, but with reduced authority. Parliament will also be divided according to party - with Odinga's party in the majority. Even more importantly, both sides agreed to a full review of the constitution - which many people believe encourages the type of tribal politics that got us into this mess.

Perhaps this is a testimony to the power of discussion and diplomacy. Towns, neighborhoods, and countless lives were destroyed over the last 2 months - with a lifetime of pain for survivors. Nothing good can come from tribalism - it is a hold out from colonialism and a seed of genocide. It is good that the leaders of Kenya have agreed that unity is greater than division. We'll see how it plays out over the coming months - and if a new peace can be a fitting tribute to the trials of the recent past.