Dive into a good book! (elementary teacher nerd:)

I have been back in the U.S. for about a month now and it really is great to be back home. I enjoyed time with my family and I've been busy. I'm really getting acclimated to this culture again. I have a new cell phone, a car and car insurance! The Lord provided a nice car in my price range and I'm glad to get some of those basic things taken care of.

I just spent a week with my family in sunny South Vero Beach, FL. We had a nice time playing on the beach, relaxing and eating. I love my family for many reasons, but one thing that makes me swell up inside is how we love to read and get into deep conversations. I am always intellectually and spiritually stimulated after spending time with them, especially concentrated time on vacation. We discussed politics and religion and history and social issues and I always learn so much just from listening to them. Which leads me to my topic...

Summer Reading
So, what was I reading as I sat between my mother, reading Jane Austen, and my brother, reading Tolstoy? Um, yeah, Shopaholic Ties the Knot! Which is so not intellectually stimulating, but so entertaining. On spring holiday I read Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and actually laughed out loud at some bits, so I grabbed another installment of everyone's favorite shopaholic to read at the beach. I really enjoy a light read on vacation.

I'm also reading God is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg. It was given to me years ago and I finally got to it recently. I'm finding it encouraging and challenging. I really enjoyed how the author discussed the story of Mary and Martha. I'm a bit of a Martha myself (always busy in the "kitchen") so I was encouraged as he explained that the story is not about changing activities or ceasing activity, although that may be needed at times. It's about being distracted. The author explains, "The 'one thing' Mary chose would not be taken from her. The one thing was not that she would spend the rest of her life sitting in contemplation letting Martha do all the work. The one thing was being with Jesus no matter what else was going on around her."
I'm only about half way through it, but it's basically about experiencing God's presence in our daily lives.

And my final book choice for the summer is The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Politcal Power is Destroying the Church by Gregory Boyd. After some thought-provoking political discussions with my brother, Michael, a recent college grad with a degree in History, I decided I wanted to read a poly-sci book this summer to learn a little more about what he was talking about. I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble and it is excellent! But, it's a tough read. Not because it's full of difficult words or sentences that are half a page long (thank you, Jane Austen), but because it challenges many of my preconceived notions on political activism as a Christian. It has caused me to rethink many things, which is something I think we need to do continually. I don't want to trivialize it by sharing a quote that may not make sense without reading the whole chapter, so I'll just encourage you to pick it up. I haven't finished it yet, so I'm not sure how he's going to wrap it up, but either way, whether I can go there with him or not, I appreciate the opportunity to think it through.

Next on my list, per recommendation by my brother, Robby, Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne. And a few more recommendations from me along this same vein:
1) Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne, if you want to be challenged to live more simply, among other things, and
2) Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I learned so much about 1st century Jewish culture from this book and it really enhanced my understanding of much of the New Testament. An EXCELLENT read!

I hope you'll pick up a book this summer! (I'm such a nerd...it makes me so happy to look down the row of chairs and towels at the beach and see everyone in my family with a book!)

Oh, and listen to some good music too! The song of the moment for me right now: The Story by Brandi Carlile.

Peggy's Big Adventure

I had been sitting there for about an hour when I was jerked from my reverie. I looked up from my seat in the waiting area at the airport to see my sweet little mother purposefully bang her cart into the glass in front of me to get my attention. I had watched everyone else from Malaysia Air flight 94 come out of the baggage claim area and finally decided to just sit and read and trust that she would eventually make it out and she did. "Hello, Mary Theresa!" She called. Wow. Someone was excited to start her big adventure! And she didn't wait long to start - she had already been lost in the airport by the time she found me. As we bought bus tickets and got settled for the ride back to the city she told me that besides getting confused trying to find baggage claim, she was also stopped at the temperature check point. Apparently, it showed up that she had a fever, but they let her through when she disclosed that she was, in fact, just having a hot flash. Whew.
We had 10 incredible days of delicious food from all over the world. She tried and loved everything...
She enjoyed meeting all my wonderful friends...
And it was just so much fun to be with my mom during my last 10 days in Taiwan...
It was such a blessing to be able to show her a little glimpse into my life there before I came back. Besides that, she has never traveled farther than Guatemala and I was so excited for her to be able to take a big trip like this. She was a huge help to me as I finished up at school and packed up my apartment.

The personal touch

I'm sure I'm not the first or only person to say this. Furthermore, I'm probably not the only person to say this TODAY. In fact, I've probably heard someone else say this and now I think it's my own original thought. So many people are talking about how we are communcating these days. I just want to get in on the conversation a little.

As a foreigner in a land far away from many loved ones, I am enamored with all the brilliant ways to stay in contact with friends. I squeal with delight at my computer screen when I see that someone has written on my facebook wall and in contrast I pout and declare that no one likes me if I have no new email in a whole day. Okay, so I'm a bit of a drama queen at times, but I'm sure many of you share similar emotions. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and chat are all at our finger tips. These forms of communication are fast and fun and useful for communicating to masses. (I still think it's funny that we have a way to update "everyone" on our every move via twitter. Do we really need to know when our friends are at the grocery store? But, I'll save that for another post.) Old fashion email has taken a back seat to these fast and efficient means. It's almost a thing of the past. (That's why I do a lot of pouting when I open my email. Or maybe I'm just a friendless loser. Totally kidding. I'm wicked popular. Just for you, Mary:) Just a few years ago I was listening to people my parents age complaining that hand-written letters were becoming obsolete. Now no one sends emails anymore.

All these things are meant to connect us, but I would argue that they can be used to separate us. We don't need to talk on the phone anymore. We don't need to meet in person. And now we don't even need to send individual emails. We twitter and blog and facebook and are left with the illusion that we are staying connected but the personal touch is lost. When I post on this blog or upload pictures on facebook and write captions to go with the pictures and tell my story, I feel like I've communicated with all of my friends. But, do you feel like I've communicated with you? Most likely not.

I'm not one to try to go backwards. I understand that our world is changing and I'm ready to move forward with it. (Does that mean I have to twitter though? I have no idea how to do that.) But, I don't want to live with the illusion of connectedness instead of the real thing. I'd still take face to face over facebook any day.

Now, time to check status updates.

Final Countdown

I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left here in Taiwan to enjoy so many wonderful things that I have come to love in the last 3 years....

The river park by my apartment where I have spent countless hours walking and talking with Amanda...

The view from the roof of our apartment where we have lounge chairs set up for sunny days...

The steps of the CKS memorial which are are the perfect place to exercise...

Cheap, good lattes from eCoffee, which is only a short walk from work...

My fun, adorable students who make work a joy...

And my beautiful friends who make me laugh and are my loyal companions...

Five more weeks. That's it.

As much as I'm going to mourn the absence of these people and places in my life, there are just as many amazing friends, beautiful places and good lattes waiting for me on the other side.

And I look forward with a happy heart.

A weekend with the folks

I'm a little late posting this, but 2 weekends ago Amanda and I took the high speed train down to a city in the southern part of the island to see some friends, Carl and Kathy Collins. I met Carl and Kathy in the airport in Buffalo, NY in July '06. There were a bunch of us waiting to get picked up at the airport to go to our pre-field orientation before heading to Taiwan. I was so excited to find out that they were going to be in Taiwan also because we clicked right away and I could tell I was going to like them! They have become my "Taiwan parents" and I have enjoyed countless visits to their home over the years.
On our recent visit, we spent time shopping for souvenirs, visiting a cultural village, eating, talking, and sight seeing. My favorite spot was the Lotus Pond which is where all these pictures where taken. Everything was so beautifully manicured and so Asian! These pictures don't do it justice.

Get back in your cage!

I like the angle Carl got with this shot!

Peace! (We are so Asian)

Amanda and I with Kathy

Carl and Kathy are planning a trip to Taipei in April for some fun on this end of the island. We are looking forward to it!

Happy Monday

For all of you who are still fuming and suicidal from the last article I linked to this blog, I thought I would draw your attention to another article about singleness from the same website that is MUCH better.

Girls, I need you to weigh in here...

I'm all in a tizzy right now over this article I read today on Focus on the Family's webzine, "Boundless" entitled The Cost of Delaying Marriage. In it, the author, Danielle Crittenden, explains the disadvantage and cost of women waiting until they are older (late 20's and 30's) to marry. The whole article is based on the assumption that all women that delay marriage do so on purpose by rejecting an endless line of potential suitors, and that they do so to pursue their own selfish desires for career and fun and freedom. But, in the end these poor, pitiful 30-somethings end up lonely, with dried-up wombs, desiring the very thing they pushed away during their 20's. Crittenden describes their lonely existence, "Think of an endless wintry Sunday afternoon unbroken by the sound of another voice." (Hmmm...I think somebody wishes they had a quiet Sunday afternoon every once in awhile!)

While the author makes many good points that I agree with, I don't think she paints a complete picture nor does she know her audience. I encourage you to read the whole article, but I have pasted some particularly interesting excerpts below:
By spending years and years living entirely for yourself, thinking only about yourself, and having responsibility to no one but yourself, you end up inadvertently extending the introverted existence of a teenager deep into middle age. The woman who avoids permanent commitment because she fears it will stunt her development as an individual may be surprised to realize in her 30s that having essentially the same life as she did at 18 – the same dating problems, the same solitary habits, the same anxieties about her future, and the same sense that her life has not yet fully begun – is stunting too.

So, life begins when you get married? I disagree. I think a wonderful and fun season of your life begins when you get married (from what I've heard and believe) but, some of us have nice seasons of life before we are married too. And not because we've chosen that, but because that's what the Lord has given us to enjoy for a season. I think it would be wrong to be single and overly obsessed with finding a mate instead of doing what the Lord has put in your hands to do.

For when a woman postpones marriage and motherhood, she does not end up thinking about love less as she gets older but more and more, sometimes to the point of obsession. Why am I still alone? she wonders. Why can’t I find someone? What is wrong with me? Her friends who have married are getting on with their lives – they are putting down payments on cars and homes; babies are arriving.

Again, owning a home and having babies is "getting on with life?" Single women can get on with life too by stepping into all that God has for them in each season without fear.

She goes on to put down the pointless existence of singleness:

For the truth is, once you have ceased being single, you suddenly discover that all that energy you spent propelling yourself toward an independent existence was only going to be useful if you were planning to spend the rest of your life as a nun or a philosopher on a mountaintop or maybe a Hollywood-style adventuress who winds up staring into her empty bourbon glass four years later wondering if it was all d--- worth it. In preparation for a life spent with someone else, it wasn’t going to be helpful.

It seems that when Focus on the Family ran this article on their blog they saw fit to edit the word "damn" out of the article. Thank you! Now this asinine article is not offensive at all!

The 33-year-old single woman who decides she wants more from life than her career cannot so readily walk into marriage and children; by postponing them, all she has done is to push them ahead to a point in her life when she has less sexual power to attain them.

(read: The older you get the uglier and less sexy you are. And without sex appeal, what chance do you have?)

By waiting and waiting and waiting to commit to someone, our capacity for love shrinks and withers. This doesn’t mean that women or men should marry the first reasonable person to come along, or someone with whom they are not in love. But we should, at a much earlier age than we do now, take a serious attitude toward dating and begin preparing ourselves to settle down. For it’s in the act of taking up the roles we’ve been taught to avoid or postpone – wife, husband, mother, father – that we build our identities, expand our lives, and achieve the fullness of character we desire.

I don't think I can go along with the idea that we build our identities on being a wife and mother rather than on Jesus Christ. Yes, being a wife and mother is part of who many of us are or will be. And yes, that is a wonderful purpose in life and it's a wonderful thing to identify yourself as part of a family. And yes, I want that and always have. But, I am not married and my life has already begun...shocking! And I have not spent my years in a selfish pursuit of freedom and fun. Although singleness does afford a good bit of that, my goal in life has not been to avoid marriage in order to maintain my personal freedom.

After Focus on the Family ran this article on their blog there was such an uproarous response from readers (thank you girls!) that they ran a defense of the article. (Focus on the Family's defense of the article)
They quoted many of the upset readers and then offered these thoughts:

To the women, I say stop glorifying the single years as a super-holy season of just you and Jesus. Yes, being single does provide the chance to be uniquely intimate with Jesus. Enjoy that. But don't advertise it. Why? Because it gives guys permission to kick back and let you. If they think you're perfectly happy as a single, why wouldn't they let you stay that way?

Now to you women, that's not an excuse to bash men. You have an important ability to help them move toward marriage. How? By esteeming it. By not being embarrassed about wanting it. By going after it -- to a point. You can nurture men toward marriage by helping them see that it contains a lot of what they're looking for, even if they don't yet know it. Think of Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life. He's depressed that once again, his plans to get out of small town America and see the world have been thwarted and he's left tending the family business with just his mom and alcoholic uncle for companionship. He's questioning his very existence; longing to know his destiny. What's his mom's suggestion? "Why don't you go talk to Mary," she says. "I'll bet she could help you find the answers you're looking for."

I was not encouraged by the response from Focus on the Family. I think it is appalling to assume that if a women is single and in her late 20's or 30's is must be because she has turned an endless line of eligible men away because of her fiercely independent spirit and great contentment with her life. It is quite possible that there are women who are open about the fact that they want to be married, are open to godly pursuers, are enjoying their life and are still single! I know quite a few of them personally.

On a personal note, I have an amazing, Godly boyfriend. God brought him into my life, not as a result of my own orchestrating, but just because he saw it in His timing to do so. I can't explain it and I don't know why this time is better than a few years ago or a few years from now. But, having a boyfriend or getting married is not going to make me any less concerned about societal views and a Christian perspective on marriage, singleness and God's timing.

I don't know why this article has me so up in arms!? Is it really absurd or am I way off base here? Please feel free to comment and give your opinion and I promise I won't call you asinine if you disagree with me!