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Day 10-Saturday, July 4th-The Great Pacific Northwest Adventure
We originally planned to go to Portland's Blues Festival and see their big fireworks display at 10pm, with friends from Dugan's preschool days. But the weather was extremely hot, and the guys had to get up at 5am for their flight back home on Sunday, so we scaled back our ambitious plans and celebrated a low key 4th instead.
Sorry to our old school friend, Baxter, and his family. We would have loved to hang out and catch up. Hope to see ya next time, either out there or on the Chicago end of the magic, underground worm hole, between various cool cities. (He's our gymnastics friend from toddler days and our Montessori preschool and skate park buddy from half the kids' life times ago. Funny how 4 years isn't much when you're over 40, but it's interminably ancient history when you're 8.)
We also missed running into kids Gaia and Apollo, former Chicago Hip Family Friends of ours, who's family moved from Chicago to study micro brewing in Germany. We lost track of them, but they resurfaced living close to my sister in Hillsboro and frequenting the little park where she walks her dogs (pictured at the end of this post)! She just mentioned them by chance, never dreaming we'd actually KNOW them. They just moved again within the city, less than a month ago, so we couldn't track 'em down and didn't bump into them. We would have loved to catch up with them, too. (More worm hole theory.)
So, instead of seeking out relocated Chicagoans, we checked out small town 4th of July at it's best. The Hillsboro parade route goes right in front of my sister, Maia's, home. And people get crazy about staking out spots at the crack of dawn. The first year she lived there, she awoke early to find a family had set up a tent in her front yard, obscuring her view, and was busily frying bacon!
This year, John was proactive and put chairs out and roped off the front yard the night before. As the parade began, we hustled to erect a shade tent, which got a lotta thumbs up from marchers, drooling over our patch of cool shade. Small town parades have such a different vibe than the big city variety.
The kids caught bulging bags full of candy and enjoyed blowing bubbles at the passing floats.
We saw a unicorn, palm trees made from evergreen boughs for Robin Hood's forest (?), and various patriotic incarnations of Uncle Sam, including one with a big fake piece of cotton taped over his very real, Uncle Sam style white goatee. The gymnasts, dance troupes, marching bands, vacation bible schools, church barbecue promoters, politicians, vintage car enthusiasts, war veterans and civil servants were out en mass.
To some, patriotism means waving tiny American flags made in China or building a squadron of fighter jets from balloons. To others, it is the American right to drive Hummers and giant Hot Wheels toys for rich kids. To some, Patriotism is Homeland Security footing the bill for overkill riot gear vehicles, so the local, small town Sheriff can serve and protect in style.
To others, patriotism is pride in your job, keeping the streets free of garbage, or having the freedom to clear cut large swaths of old growth forests.
To some, it is the right to openly and peacefully protest, whether you're left wing, right wing or a wing nut. To others, it's having a president again who clearly believes in the separation of church and state, that our founding fathers declared necessary for good government.
To us, it is embracing America's diversity, and unique, far ranging mesh of lifestyles and religions, and realizing we have something to learn from everyone.
After the parade, we had a shade tent raising, and 4 of us picked it up and walked it to my sister's back yard. We celebrated with a small barbecue with family and friends, fresh berries from the farmer's market, and Tillamook chocolate ice cream.
The kids created a wacky play with costumes and a creative cast of characters. There was Knee Man, the mystic master who sent the kids on quests. The Moss Grouch, The Shoe of Unhappiness, The Purple Wave of Happiness and Unhappiness, The Unicorn and The Cat and The Masked Creature.
That evening, we donned glow bracelets and necklaces and walked to the local park to play with a balsa wood airplane that the kids caught at the parade. Then they took a last bunch of turns on the teeter totters and merry go round, both "dangerous" park gear, that no longer exist in any of the Chicago play lots I know of.
This may be the only time in their childhoods that they can spin around on a merry go round and watch fireworks fill the night sky.
They also loved the geodesic dome, based on the famous designs by Chicagoan, Buckminster Fuller. I don't think they've been declared dangerous, but I can't think of a Chicago play lot with one of these fun and functional pieces, either. Bucky's the one who described our planet as "Spaceship Earth", a contained system where we need to have clean and uncontaminated air, food and water to survive. He was a smart man with revolutionary designs, way ahead of his time.
The DIY firecrackers and fireworks were fewer and farther between than the urban barrage we're used to. But, we took a night walk and found a good curb perch where we saw quite a few. We sang and laughed while the kids butchered old Queen lyrics..."Recommend an octopus? Insatiable in appetite." And laughed some more. We drank mugs of red wine and enjoyed the pyrotechnics and scent of burning powder. At one point the smoke trails from some larger blooms trailed across the nearly full moon, and star spangled sky. And it was beautiful.
Patriotic Stories Edition of I Faces
Reference: http://lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com
Some of you may wonder if I have forgotten about the people who want to roam Romeward via some sort of ordinariate with all that Anglicanorum Coetibus jazz. The truth is, giving a great deal of thought and effort to the whole subject has been necessary only to accomplish two things. First, for the benefit of people who do not want to be dragged, pressured or pushed into the Roman Catholic Church, it has been necessary to supply a defense for their point of view. The other thing we have needed to accomplish is to correct the false statements, mostly by TAC spokesmen, that have misrepresented the whole so-called "generous offer" from Rome.
This we have done. So, if ever an ordinariate gets up and running, those who think that the Roman Catholic Church will protect "Anglican patrimony" may try to live with their delusion. It is a pathetic sight to behold them, at present, like a bunch of self-defeated refugees from a land of freedom and plenty (having no idea what they leave behind) standing on a dock, waiting for a magic ship to carry them to Shangri-La. Will the ship arrive? Does Shangri-La exist?
As time has gone by, less and less of the TAC people have proved willing to abandon the truth of Anglican theology, the power of genuine (as opposed to "A.U.") Anglican liturgy, and the principles of the Affirmation of St. Louis. We hope, therefore, to see complete unity between them and the Continuing Anglicans of the Concordat churches (all the chatter about the Anglican Province in America notwithstanding). This we want for them, including unity with their old allies and brethren of the ACC, without recriminations by anybody, and without old war stories about a distant past and big personalities absent these several years. None of that should matter for the future, if we want to be one Continuing Anglican Church as envisioned in the beginning.
The sight of the people on the dock, however, is most tragic. We must wonder, very simply, why. Why, when the moral reputation of the Roman Catholic Church is at an all time low, due entirely to self-inflicted damage, are these folks on the dock expecting "the Holy Father" and "the Holy See" to create for them an infallible solution to whatever problems they imagine?
They report that traditionalist Roman Catholics are saying, "we need you." How so? If the roamers on the dock consider Anglicanism so weak a thing that they keep only its thinnest outer shell (daring to call their perception of that shell "Anglican patrimony" - the real substance of which they cannot discern from their own posteriors), what are they going to offer by lending the tiny drop of their presence to so vast an ocean? But, if "the Holy Father" and his "Holy See" are not sure of their own health, what are a few thousand (if that many) former Anglicans presuming to accomplish?
The problems of the Roman Communion are obvious. Their legal liabilities, and bad reputation, are entirely the fault of their gigantic bureaucratic system. At a time when it has proved to be broken and corrupt through and through, why are some former Anglicans so taken with its arrogant claims? At a time when the shepherds have failed to protect their weakest members from the wolves, and when many of the shepherds have proved to be the wolves, why are the roamers so impressed by the theories of the papacy, by what it claims to be rather than what it has shown itself to be? Why are they impressed by symbolic gestures and promises of reform, when even the chief spokesman of the new constitution, Cardinal Levada, is himself a shepherd who, as everybody knows, clothed the wolves? The system protected the predators, and gave their children to be the prey.
Why, then, is anyone enamored with Rome at the present time?
Anyway, I have not forgotten. But, I prefer to work with Fr. Wells on our Layman's Guide to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and to spend most of my energy teaching the wonderful and positive things we have in our meritorious treasury of Biblical truth.
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EAGLE's medicine includes courage, spirit.
"EAGLE, CARRY ME INTO THE SKY,
TO RISE ABOUT MY DOUBTS.
SET ME FREE TO REACH MY SOUL'S DESIRE."
Eagle rises above everything, he is ambitious and reaches for the stars. Eagle is thought of as being the closest to the Creator. He flies above the material things to see the spiritual. This gives Eagle a great amount of insight and Spiritual Wisdom.
An Eagle person is tenacious, in control, and very brave. They often "rise above" the chaos below them to reach spiritual solace. As long as Eagle follows his intuition, he will be heading in the right direction.
Credit: http://magick-keys.blogspot.com
Hey there, Dorothy - are you a Good Witch or a Bad Witch? Is your friend acting like a bitch? Answer these five questions from Samantha's Twisted Book of Shadows and find out which witch is which?
1. These days I ride:
a) side-saddle
b) a broom
c) a vibrator
d) a vacuum cleaner
e) the bus home alone
2. My familiar is:
a) a dog named Toto
b) a flying monkey I conjured up the other day in my cauldron
c) Sailor Moon
d) several black cats
e) a gay friend
3. My idea of a good time is:
a) baking cupcakes for the poor
b) stealing food and reselling it outside the food bank
c) dressing up like Vampira and going to fetish night
d) doing impressions of Margaret Hamilton to amuse my friends
e) being alone so nobody hurts my feelings.
4. My favorite television witch is:
a) Martha Stewart
b) Endora from Bewitched
c) Sabrina the Teenage Witch
d) Heather Locklear
e) Kathie Lee Gifford.
5. My favorite witch movie is:
a) Practical Magic
b) The Craft
c) Rosemary's Baby
d) Mommie Dearest
e) The Wizard of Oz.
Now analyze your answers below to find out what kind of witch you are!
A) GLINDA THE GOOD WITCH
If your answers were all "a", you are a modern Glinda the Good Witch. You visualize all your troubles surrounded in a bubble and floating away from you, and it works. Congratulations.
1. You're probably a real tree-hugger and into horses and nature and all that.
2. You're just like Dorothy, who, if you'll recall, was Glinda the Good Witch's prot'eg'ee in The Wizard of Oz.
3. You know that all the goodness that you do comes back to you three by three by three.
4. You love the way Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing" at the end of every segment.
5. You love the idea of a bunch of modern witches mixing up potions from their kitchen cupboards, wearing headscarves and dancing to music by Stevie Nicks.
B) A WICKED WITCH
If your answers were all "b", you are just plain eeevil.
1. If you get on a broom and your feet actually lift off the ground, that is truly creepy.
2. A monkey with wings is a dead giveaway.
3. To steal from the poor is pretty unspeakably evil.
4. Endora's a wicked old crone just like you - only a little prettier.
5. You kind of like that Fairuza kid... you wish you had a daughter just like her.
C) YOU'RE A WITCH WANNABE
If your answers are all "c", you're just a wannabe. You've bought one of those do-it-yourself witchcraft
4. Statistics in The Toronto Sun recently cited that witchcraft is the No. 1 interest of teenage girls, so if you're a wannabe, chances are that this is your favorite show.
5. So far you've been practicing witchcraft all by yourself. Wouldn't it be nice to belong to a real coven like Rosemary's friends?
D) SURPRISE... YOU'RE NOT A WITCH BUT A GAY MAN!
If your answers are all "d", you're gay! I know it's confusing, but it's true. Gay males love a good wicked female archetype more than life itself.
1. You like to clean; that means you're gay!
2. Cats are considered to be "gay children".
3. You also like to do the occasional impression of Joan Crawford.
4. She's a Goddess in the Office! You wanna be Evil Scheming Manipulative Heather Locklear!
5. You love the scene where Joan beats little Christina with the hanger.
E) YOU'RE A WITCH'S VICTIM
If your answers are all "e", the only kind of spell you know is a fainting spell. You're more the kind of person prone to be the victim of witches because you refuse to acknowledge that magic exists. You wouldn't know what an athame was if you were lying on a slab and it was plunged into your heart (not that there's anything wrong with that).
1. Witches have cast spells so they get all the men and all the rides home.
2. All the straight males have been bewitched by real witches, so you're stuck with this gay friend.
3. You are the victim of the many psychic attacks practiced by amateur witchlets out there.
4. You don't really like Kathie Lee Gifford but for some reason every time she's on the TV you just can't stop watching her... it's like you're under her spell or something.
6. The Wizard of Oz is the only movie you've seen with a real witch in it.
* Editorial Note: This is our beloved Samantha exercising her funny bone; athames are never meant to touch blood and are not used in any form of sacrifice. No Victims were harmed or sacrificed in the writing of this article. J (David)
Samantha Steven's articles have been published in many high-standing newspapers and she has published several
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