So though I'm a bit behind the curve, here I go anyway. (Thanks Rick for the questions!) Time for a little levity.
Interviewing Julie:
1) Homeschooling is one of your passions. What advice would you have to someone considering it as an alternative to public or private school?
Get to know a homeschooling family. Even though books can be persuasive and helpful (read, read, read), knowing a family who homeschools will give you a better feel for what the lifestyle is all about. And of course, there are a gazillion websites and forums.
I like unschooling and Charlotte Mason sites best. Google those names and see what happens!
2) What is your favorite flavor M&M and why?
Favorite flavor? Um, chocolate. :) I think you might have meant color so my answer is... I don't have a favorite. I was pretty jolly when they came out with blue, though. It seemed like such a missing M&M. I DON'T like peanut M&Ms.
3) What is your favorite food that no one else you know likes?
Plain yogurt with mini chocolate chips. I love plain yogurt and the chocolate chips give it just the right amount of sweetness.
4) Who has been the biggest influence on your life as a Christian?
Without a doubt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His Letters and Papers from Prison kept me from abandoning the faith all together.
Here's a quote of his that changed my life:
“And we cannot be honest unless we recognize that we have to live in this world “even if there were no God.” And this is just what we do recognize—before God! God himself compels us to recognize it. So our coming of age leads us to a true recognition of our situation before God. God would have us know that we must live as men who manage their lives without him. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us. (Mark 15:34). The God who lets us live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we continually stand. Before God and with God we live without God. God lets himself be pushed out of the world to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us. Matt 8:17 makes it quite clear that Christ helps us, not by virtue of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering.
“Here is the decisive difference between Christianity and all religions. Man’s religiosity makes him look in his distress to the power of God in the world: God is deus ex machina. The Bible directs man to God’s powerlessness and suffering; only the suffering God can help. To that extent we may say that the development towards the world’s coming of age outlined above, which has done away with a false conception of God, opens up a way of seeing the God of the Bible, who wins power and space in the world by his weakness.”
Wow. Can you imagine what it means to win space through powerlessness? My last several blogs are trying to think about how that would work in white churches. I am trying to think of how that works as a mother, too.
5) What's in your CD player right now? Are you playing it, and if not, why not?
Bruce Springsteen's "Greatest Hits" (only because my husband is borrowing U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.") Bruce Springsteen is still one of my heroes. He writes such powerful stories in so few words. Love his passionate voice. And his concerts are on par with U2's spiritual, powerful, deeply personal performances.
Got to see him in Cincinnati two years ago during "The Rising" tour.
Who can get over the lyrics in "Thunder Road"? My favorite section follows:
You can hide `neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Thanks Rick! That was fun.
Anyone else want to play? Read the following and I'll ask you a few questions.
Julie
The Official Rules of the Interview-Game
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions
6. I will answer reasonable follow up questions if you leave a comment.
10 comments:
Hi Julie,
I'm up for a little light hearted game playing. Been trying to lighten up myself over the past week. I'm ready when you are ready.....
Cool! Here are your five questions:
1. What is your favorite (sacred) natural (as in mountains, oceans, meadows) spot in California and when did you first discover it?
2. What is the silliest moment you can recall in your classroom this year?
3. Which Bruce Cochburn lyric speaks to your life right now?
4. Do you cook? What do you love to cook and why? (If you don't love to cook, where do you eat out and what do you love to order?)
5. What word of advice would you give your kids, if they asked you to direct their futures?
Hey, Jules
I'm up for an interview!
-------Beth
Hi Beth. I'm glad you want to play. :)
Here are your questions.
1. What themed party would you love to create and host some day (forget about the cost-sky's the limit)?
2. Which book is on your nightside table? Why did you put it there—why are you reading it?
3. What prayer (or call-response or creed) in the weekly mass is the most meaningful to you and why?
4. How can someone make you weak in the knees?
5. What is the first movie line that pops into your head? What does it mean to you?
Hi Julie,
Here's my answers to your interview questions....by the way....great idea....Thanks for asking....
You asked,
1. What is your favorite (sacred) natural (as in mountains, oceans, meadows) spot in California and when did you first discover it?
Bilbo: This is a really tough one Julie because over the years I have really learned to love all natural settings and since California has everything from the biggest trees in the world to deserts to snow covered peaks this one is really hard....but....I will have to say my favorite place over the past 15 years has to be Redwood National Park which is located in the Northwest corner of the state just south of the Oregon border between Eureka and Cresent City. I like this place the best because it is so peaceful walking through the ancient forests. You also don't have the hoards of people in Redwood National Park that you do have in most other National Parks....and.... the coastline in the area is rugged, pristine, and has the feel of real wilderness, particularly the Lost Coast area which is located south of Redwood National Park.
Question 2: What is the silliest moment you can recall in your classroom this year?
Bilbo: Hmmmmm?....Probably the day I brought in my collection of action figures and encouraged my students to sing along to the Spongbob Squarepants theme song which is played when I push the button on my Spongbob action figure.....
3. Which Bruce Cochburn lyric speaks to your life right now?
Bilbo:
"Today" it would have to be
Somebody Touched Me
Somebody touched me
Making everything new
Somebody touched me
I didn't know what to do
Burned through my life
Like a bolt from the blue
Somebody touched me
I know it was you
Somebody touched me
Deep in my bones
Turned a key in the hole
There was somebody home
Some would say that I'm dreaming
But I swear that it's true
Somebody touched me
I know it was you
Somebody touched me
Like the rain on the wind
Left me alone
Feeling like I'd been skinned
But I know you're with me
Whatever I go through
Somebody touched me
I know it was you
Question 4: Do you cook? What do you love to cook and why? (If you don't love to cook, where do you eat out and what do you love to order?)
Bilbo: My two sons claim I don't know how to cook but I love to barbecue and my various barbecue meals is about the only thing they don't complain about.
Question 5: What word of advice would you give your kids, if they asked you to direct their futures?
Bilbo: This is actually the easiest question of all. I would tell them to pursue what they love and enjoy doing. I feel so fortunate to be doing something for a living that I really enjoy. Most people don't have this priveledge or luxury in life and it is a blessing and just hope my two sons pursue their passions and end up doing what they love to do rather than get caught up in pursuing money or prestige.....
Bill, you character! You need to post the answers on your blog with the directions so that others will then play along (you can interview them). So post this on your blog too (along with the directions in my post). Then I'll comment on your wonderful answers.
I really enjoyed reading your Bruce Cochburn song. It hurts my heart. There must be a human behind all this pain in your heart. Hugs to you.
Julie
Woo-hoo!
1. What's your favorite band? (Oh, scrap that. I do know that....) Um, thinking, thinking... :)
How about....
1. What kind of dessert best describes your personality?
2. Whose artistic style (painting) do you most wish to emulate?
3. If you could choose your success, what big success would you like to achieve (not related to family, like raising children)?
4. What happy memory pops into your mind when you think of happy memories?
5. Ha! Here's something I really don't know about you... What's your routine order at Starbucks? :) Now that's something a cyber friend just doesn't get to find out too often. [g]
Julie
Okay...rock 'n' roll...I'm good to go...
Hey Russ!
I was thinking about your questions while I had insomnia last night. :) Here they are!
1. What energizes you and why?
2. If you could say what you really were thinking on Sunday morning, what might you say?
3. Which Mexican food do you crave and where can you get it?
4. Pick a passage from a book or song lyric that means a lot to you right now and tell us why.
5. What's the best thing about being a pastor?
There you go! I look forward to reading your answers on your blog.
--J
1. What energizes you and why?
Being around energetic people. I draw a lot of energy from being around passionate people. This is one reason why I tend to go to a lot of conferences - 3 or 4 a year. I was at Windsor Village UMC in Houston this past week and just felt so amazed by the energy around that place. It's a far cry from what I deal with on a regular basis.
All of this, of course, means the opposite is true. Being around people who are NOT energetic can sometimes just suck the life out of me!
2. If you could say what you really were thinking on Sunday morning, what might you say?
Well...there are so many things I'd LIKE to say (not all of which are printable)...but I think first and foremost would just have to be, "It is NOT all about you and it is NOT all about us."
3. Which Mexican food do you crave and where can you get it?
Gee...I love all kinds of Mexican food, but normally when I get a craving, it's for chicken fajitas from Don Pablos. I love the way they marinate that chicken!
4. Pick a passage from a book or song lyric that means a lot to you right now and tell us why.
This one's relatively easy, because it's been the same song lyric for the past 20 years...it's from Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues":
They've got a name for the winners in the world;
I want a name when I lose."
Those two lines have, for me, been a sort of template through which I've latched onto something in the gospel that I've never been able to let go of. Through all the crises of deconstruction and doubt, my overall sense is that God is on the side of the losers.
5. What's the best thing about being a pastor?
Lots of pastors seem to really enjoy the whole "being with people" thing. They love the fact that they "get to be there" when people die, when they're sick, etc. That's never been the thing that's drawn my best energies.
For me, the coolest part of being a pastor is being able to create a culture where people who are on the margins feel like they have a home.
When I first went to Casa Linda, there was this woman who would visit. She'd sit in the balcony (she was sitting up there by herself; nobody sits up there) and would hardly ever talk to anyone. She'd been burned by churches and really had a bad taste in her mouth from her experiences of the church. I'm not even sure why she came, but she would show up every now and then and just sit in the balcony.
Over time, she started to come out of her shell and interact with others...mostly newer folks. It's been really sweet to watch her become a part of this church. She's very active in the church, but more importantly, I've really seen her grow spiritually and that's something I'm not sure she'd have gotten anywhere else.
Over the past few years, our church has gone from being largely white and grey to a mosaic of individuals who continue to be amazed by the fact that there's this funky little church in Dallas where anyone is pretty much welcome with no questions asked about where you've been or what you've done.
That's the coolest thing...
And preaching...I have a love/hate relationship with the whole idea of preaching. I think there's too much pressure on a pastor to be "the preacher" but that's what I do best, no doubt.
The thing I hate about it is that people still don't know how to interact with you when you talk to them and not at them. I sometimes will pose questions, expecting an answer and, particularly among our more traditional folks, I'm often met with blank looks.
I'd like to somehow redefine preaching, but haven't really come to the place yet where I've found an angle through which to do that.
Maybe someday...hopefully soon.
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