I was really tired two nights ago and got into bed and still had my wedding ring on.
I can't sleep with it on and didn't want to get up so I put it in my sock and put that under my pillow.
My dog is a sock theif, so this was a recipe for disaster.
It took more than two days and I had to turn out something like 100 socks.
I finally found it, down by the dryer, this morning.
Yikes.
My best man, Jaesyn, is in town and stopped by last night.
- Steve
Monday, January 10, 2005
Sunday, January 09, 2005
A cupful of justice
By Steve Novotni 1/8/5
All I want is a cupful of justice.
That’s a mantra that’s been ringing (wringing?) through my skull for the past year. That’s what I told my wife, Becky, I wanted to find.
It’s something I think about when taking communion. If I have a choice between the Cup of Salvation and a cupful of justice, I’ll take the cupful of justice.
What sour wine that flows from God’s heart to my lips can be as important as a cup of justice in an unjust world. What would Jesus drink?
So, these house churches we have are as anti-ritual as it gets, right? They’re destructured, loose nets, community gardens we wander in and tend rather than an orchard we visit.
And eat from.
Yet, there is a ritual to these churches, too.
At their best they reinforce our walk in the world, give us resolve and warmth and peace. At worst they are circles of complacency, Christian support groups, obsessing over the food we share and inward focused in the extreme.
It’s the best I feel when I’m being held by this community’s arms
or when I see others supported by its strength.
When it’s real.
When it’s at its worst it is self-obsessed, trendy and worldly in the extreme, patting itself on the back and reassuring itself,
“It’s my relationship with God that’s important here and the other stuff – the poverty, the racism, sexism and classism – it’s all wrong, of course, but I can’t really do anything about that now. What’s important is my
personal
relationship
with Jesus”
Henry Miller’s mistress, Anias Nin said, “We see others not as they are, but as we are.”
So, keeping this in mind and trying to keep my self righteousness to a minimum, I’ll tell you that what I’m describing, most assuredly, is my struggle, not one I can rubber stamp on this community as a whole.
But maybe you’ll see yourself in this struggle too.
I feel too comfortable and it’s served me well to be suspicious of my patterns.
“(The job of the newspaper is to) Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”
Newspaperman Finley Peter Dunne said this about a hundred years ago. I have read that he believed that the media of the day too often comforted the comfortable and afflicted the afflicted through action and inaction. He considered this a breach of duty.
In media, Truth is god. In Christianity, God is truth. In either discipline, I have been told, I am only doing good works if I am in touch with God(or Truth. I agree, but think also that the pursuit of God or Truth can become an obsessive quest where one can live by the letter of the law, but not the (holy?) spirit.
In media it happens when the “Truth” becomes fetishized and an unrealistic standard of “Objectivity” becomes the goal. So called “Objectivity in Reporting” became standard only about 40 years ago when the ministers of the Truth at the New York Times and other institutions decided that the way a journalist could best serve Truth was by stripping away his beliefs, desires, opinions and humanity by becoming “Impartial.”
In Christianity it happens when we decide that “being saved” is enough. When that personal relationship with Jesus becomes a fetish and insulation against the outside world. I believe that our relationship with God comes through our relationships with
others, principally. That’s how I’ve experienced God’s love. I believe the Bible is a flawed, politically manipulated document that is less important to our relationship with the Divine than our intuitions – our psychic connections to God and others.
I believe God manifests himself in other religious disciplines and that we can find Him (or Her) as present in the good works of an atheist as in pages of the Word. Often more so.
I believe that Jesus is the Truth, but he isn’t the only one who’s spoken it. Buddha, Mohammed, Wiccans and Native American mystics have all known aspects of the Truth – this thing that I can’t really know as much as feel – and the names we call God and even the Resurrection itself are not as important as how we live, how we treat each other and our capacity for kindness and Mercy. (maybe mercy is a higher law than truth)
I told Becky this once and she asked me how it was that I could still consider myself a Christian with these beliefs. I said that Jesus was the person that I was trying to follow and that his teaching was the way I interfaced with the divine. It’s what has worked so far and I expect it will for the duration of my life.
So, if I’ve a choice between meditating on Christ’s suffering, death and Resurrection (in a comfortable church or in an air conditioned theater playing Gibson’s Passion) versus trying to help a friend, or a stranger or any other service, I’ll take the latter.
I’ll take a cupful of justice.
All I want is a cupful of justice.
That’s a mantra that’s been ringing (wringing?) through my skull for the past year. That’s what I told my wife, Becky, I wanted to find.
It’s something I think about when taking communion. If I have a choice between the Cup of Salvation and a cupful of justice, I’ll take the cupful of justice.
What sour wine that flows from God’s heart to my lips can be as important as a cup of justice in an unjust world. What would Jesus drink?
So, these house churches we have are as anti-ritual as it gets, right? They’re destructured, loose nets, community gardens we wander in and tend rather than an orchard we visit.
And eat from.
Yet, there is a ritual to these churches, too.
At their best they reinforce our walk in the world, give us resolve and warmth and peace. At worst they are circles of complacency, Christian support groups, obsessing over the food we share and inward focused in the extreme.
It’s the best I feel when I’m being held by this community’s arms
or when I see others supported by its strength.
When it’s real.
When it’s at its worst it is self-obsessed, trendy and worldly in the extreme, patting itself on the back and reassuring itself,
“It’s my relationship with God that’s important here and the other stuff – the poverty, the racism, sexism and classism – it’s all wrong, of course, but I can’t really do anything about that now. What’s important is my
personal
relationship
with Jesus”
Henry Miller’s mistress, Anias Nin said, “We see others not as they are, but as we are.”
So, keeping this in mind and trying to keep my self righteousness to a minimum, I’ll tell you that what I’m describing, most assuredly, is my struggle, not one I can rubber stamp on this community as a whole.
But maybe you’ll see yourself in this struggle too.
I feel too comfortable and it’s served me well to be suspicious of my patterns.
“(The job of the newspaper is to) Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”
Newspaperman Finley Peter Dunne said this about a hundred years ago. I have read that he believed that the media of the day too often comforted the comfortable and afflicted the afflicted through action and inaction. He considered this a breach of duty.
In media, Truth is god. In Christianity, God is truth. In either discipline, I have been told, I am only doing good works if I am in touch with God(or Truth. I agree, but think also that the pursuit of God or Truth can become an obsessive quest where one can live by the letter of the law, but not the (holy?) spirit.
In media it happens when the “Truth” becomes fetishized and an unrealistic standard of “Objectivity” becomes the goal. So called “Objectivity in Reporting” became standard only about 40 years ago when the ministers of the Truth at the New York Times and other institutions decided that the way a journalist could best serve Truth was by stripping away his beliefs, desires, opinions and humanity by becoming “Impartial.”
In Christianity it happens when we decide that “being saved” is enough. When that personal relationship with Jesus becomes a fetish and insulation against the outside world. I believe that our relationship with God comes through our relationships with
others, principally. That’s how I’ve experienced God’s love. I believe the Bible is a flawed, politically manipulated document that is less important to our relationship with the Divine than our intuitions – our psychic connections to God and others.
I believe God manifests himself in other religious disciplines and that we can find Him (or Her) as present in the good works of an atheist as in pages of the Word. Often more so.
I believe that Jesus is the Truth, but he isn’t the only one who’s spoken it. Buddha, Mohammed, Wiccans and Native American mystics have all known aspects of the Truth – this thing that I can’t really know as much as feel – and the names we call God and even the Resurrection itself are not as important as how we live, how we treat each other and our capacity for kindness and Mercy. (maybe mercy is a higher law than truth)
I told Becky this once and she asked me how it was that I could still consider myself a Christian with these beliefs. I said that Jesus was the person that I was trying to follow and that his teaching was the way I interfaced with the divine. It’s what has worked so far and I expect it will for the duration of my life.
So, if I’ve a choice between meditating on Christ’s suffering, death and Resurrection (in a comfortable church or in an air conditioned theater playing Gibson’s Passion) versus trying to help a friend, or a stranger or any other service, I’ll take the latter.
I’ll take a cupful of justice.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Red River Trip - 1/15 to 1/17
The trip to the Red River Gorge is a go! - $35 per person for two days at a beautiful cabin in the hills of KY!!
Eight of us (so far) have made reservations to rent a Cabin at the Red River Gorge (about 2.5 hours south of Cincinnati in the hills of KY) for the weekend of Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Day Weekend
WHO
So far Becky, Steve, Adam, Laura, Kajy, Quintina, Alanna and Gideon are committed to staying two days
DETAILS on CROWS NEST CABIN - PICTURES!
http://sceniccabin.com/crows-nest.phtml
ACCOMODATIONS AND COST
Basically, there's six bedrooms and sleeping for a dozen and, at a rate of about $300 for the weekend, it works out to be about $35 per person (though this will go lower if we get more people)plus gas, food and drinks.
WHEN
January 15-17
We're talking about heading down on Saturday 1/15 and coming back
Monday 1/17 (MLK day many folks have this off work) We could carpool or drive seperately. CARPOOLS WILL BE AVAILABLE! Some folks could come down later. Whatever.
If you want to come, let us know soon! We have space for only 4 or 5 more folks.
Steve and Becky Novotni
Steve and Becky Novotni
1746 Mills Ave. | Norwood, OH 45212
Tel/Fax: 513.841.9729 | Yahoo IM: xraymagazine
http://www.goxray.com | steve@goxray.com
Blog: http://www.beckyandsteve.com
Get Out of Jail Free Party - Jan. 8
Whitney Smith's Get Out of Jail Free Party - Saturday, Jan. 8 at Steve and
Becky's
WHAT: Our friend and Independent Eye staff writer Whit Smith will be released
from jail Jan.7 2005 after serving three and one half years for armed robbery.
(he used a bb gun and was 17 - more of a foolish youth thing than a hardened
criminal thing.) Read his account of his crime and efforts to reform at
http://www.goxray.com/index.php?id=195&cat=14 or look up his offender page at
the ODRC site http://www.drc.state.oh.us/search2.htm
JOIN THE EYE STAFF (FORMERLY XRAY MAGAZINE) SATURDAY 8pm-3am JANUARY 8 at STEVE
AND BECKY NOVOTNI'S HOME IN NORWOOD for Whit's Get Out of Jail Free Party.
Prison theme. Stripes and orange clothes preferred. Potluck - please bring a
dish or drink to share (a bag of chips or a nice plate of food would rock)
ALSO: you'll be pinned with an inmate ID (your phone number and email addy)
which you'll turn over to (now) Warden Whit Smith when you leave (to widen his
field of contacts on the outside)
There'll be prison themed decor, a cake with a file in it, prison music and much
more! BRING A FRIEND IF YOU LIKE or Let Others know about it. It's not quite an
open party, but friends of friends are welcome! Kids or alcohol is ok. Shoes
come off before walking on our hardwood floors. Smoking is outside only.
WHERE: 1746 Mills Ave in Norwood. 5 minutes from Jo Beth Books at Rookwood, five
blocks West of Surrey Square - Mapquest it at
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=1746%20Mills%20Ave&city=Norwood&state=OH&zipcode=45212%2d2826&searchtab=home
Our house is a white two story. There's a flying pig (one of THE pigs) with
broken wings on the porch.
CONTACT Steve Novotni Tel/Fax: 513.841.9729 | Yahoo IM: xraymagazine |
steve@goxray.com
RSVP if you can, show up anyway if you can't.
CAN'T MAKE IT? Wish Whit well by writing to him at whit@goxray.com
Happy New Year's!
Ghost was the hit of the party last night at the Mockbee! There were hundreds of people there and everybody wanted to say hello. It was like hangin with a rockstar!
Beck and I also bought a new car - a Purple 1999 Dodge Neon 2 door 50,000 miles - $1500! We have a friend at the dealership who got it for us wholesale. Thanks Scott.
You may or may not have heard that our old car, a 1995 Corolla had an electrical fire in our driveway on Christmas Eve. That kinda bit, but we've got it under control now. The hassle also broght us closer to friends and family. Tracy Rains, Charlie Levine and Jeremy Eyre helped us shove the heap through the snow into our garage.
We woke at noon today. Music today is Velvet Underground and the (very nice) Blondie tribute album.
Steve
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