In The Town Where I was Born....

I keep thinking about all the places I have lived, the place I live now, and the places I may someday live. Each has its good points and not so good points. A quick run down and 1 up and 1 down.

Born: Pekin, IL.
1+ It has a really great park with a nice lagoon.
1- Rampant Racism

most of my life: Springfield, IL
1+ Lincoln tourist sites
1- typical suberb mentality without much personality

1 summer of my life: Santa Cruz, CA
1+ I had a lot of fun here ;) the board walk is fun.
1- um, I don't remember- there were some definately skanky parts of town but that is where I mostly was at the time.

Seattle, WA
1+ Many different parts of town/districts with distinct personalities
1- cloudy rainy weather

Carbondale, IL
1+ small, but many of the progressive/liberal perks fo a university town, close to beautiful forest
1- ticks, so many ticks

Indianapolis, IN
1+ surprisingly cool, I love the canal that takes you through town and the bridge that goes over the main river there but I have taken loss to which river that is.
1- the INDY 500

Mt. Vernon, IL
1+ We've built a home here that I love.
1- umm...well you can exhaust your outing options pretty quickly.

On My Way Towards Being the Geography Champion of the World

Did I post this link before? I am in love with it.

This has the best geography quizzes I have yet to see online. I love it and my kid loves it.

What shocks me is how bad I remembering geography, and how much I have to practice to do well.

I am reading the book Disposable People in preparation for my Church Service and I keep going back to each of the regions covered in this book for practice and lets just say, I need it!

Our Trip to Music City

We just got back from our trip to Nashville. I had not been there in a couple of years, but it was great to go back. I was very much in the mood to take pictures, so I have too many to post. The weather was pleasantly overcast and cloudy, without too much humidity. It made for a very nice weekend to walk all over town.
We got into town Friday afternoon. The baby slept almost the whole drive so it was fantastic. Adam and I were able to actually talk the whole way down there and we did so with zest! He helped me with my sermon on slavery too.

We went straight to the hotel (Hampton Inn on the West End) to let the babe play and chill for a few. We called Ice to see if he wanted to meet up with us, but he and his Dad were down in the Opry Mills area and said they would see us later. Only a few minutes into our hotel chill time I was anxious to beat it on down the road. I had already spied a few interesting looking restaurants and was ready to go. We slung the baby up and hit the streets. Good thing we brought the unbrella becuase less than a mile down the road were being rained upon-
not fun with a baby in arms. But, we ducked into a Borders to wait out the rainwhich is and had a good time. We looked at some cool kids books and sampled some music, had some coffee and waited it out the rain.

On the way back, we ate some Thai food at a place called Salathai. It was very good, though they never asked how hot we wanted it and just brought us the mild versions. This is okay though becuase apparently our litte dragon baby loves thai food. We couldn't get it to him fast enough.
The restaurant experience was great. Good fine, good wine and beer, although it was a little pricey. Not terribly so I guess since we did get wine and beer. It is nice to know though that Thai food is so exciting for little ones.

Saturday morning we went down to our favorite Nashville Park and hang out area at Hillsboro Village. There is the coolest little park down there with a giant Mosaic Dragon and a pretty cool play structure too. It is a large play structure and accessible to all different body sizes, types and abilities. Great picture taking opportunities there too because the colors in the mosaic dragon are so vivid. After our Dragon Park adventure we went to Fido's for drinks and then did a little shopping, stopping in at the bookman for a cool little book about eggs. It was nice relaxing on the streets and people watching while down there. Unfortunately, little dragon was ready to head back for a nap before we were.

I think Saturday night was the highlight of the trip for me. It was the Shakespeare in the Park Festival at Centennial Park. It was free event which was even nicer. Ice has always wanted to see a Shakespeare performance and this was the perfect event for baby too. In fact, this is where baby earned his new nickname of baby dragon. Both kids loved it and so did we. The play was Macbeth and the acting was good, the venue great. They wore Asian costumes though, which was an interesting twist on things.

Saturday night, baby dragon earned his new name by staying up very late imitating a dragon.

Sunday, we went downtown to the entertainment district. We walked on the Cumberland River Front, meandered down a few side streets (quaint but stinky), and finally ate at the Hard Rock Cafe when it occured to us Ice had never been in a Hard Rock cafe. It was fun and the food was really good.

For our last harrah, we went back to Centennial Park and took a tour of The Parthenon, the only full scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece in the world, complete with Athena Statue on the inside. There was also a small art museum on the lower level. the Paintings were okay, but a temporary exhibit of Doctors without Borders photos from Afganistan was very appealing. I have to say- the whole thing was very cool and I am glad we went.

So much still to see in that city, I hope we make it back soon!

Church Sermon and Slavery

Well, I spoke before about wanting to create a program at uor church on slavery, past and present. I am finally getting the chance to get it started. I have been doing research all morning and thinking about what I can include in a Labor Day weekend sermon.

I have most recently not enjoyed it when it was my turn to lead at church. I get nervous and procrastinate- thus making my sermons rather rambly and incoherent (kind of like my blog). I also HATE standing at a podium, but I am going to give it a try.

I have a lot of the facts and many, many resources to build the sermon on- but the question lies in how to make it inspirational. How can we discuss slavery and leave feeling good? What can we really take from this topic that leaves us empowered with some sense of control over the world? I feel rather inspired right now- like I am really doing something important by getting these facts out there in the first place...but then- what really can a group of 15-20 Unitarians in Southern Illinois really do with this information other than feel badly about it?

I guess I could sum it up in a few steps:

1) Knowledge is power. Spread the word. Don't turn a blind eye on it.
2) Find out what people are already doing to help- and help them. Join their letter writing campaigns, give them money, and buy their products. Again- spread the word.
3) Analyze your purchasing habits. Sometimes boycott is easier tna you think. If you know one company imports their cacao from the ivory coast for example- use another brand. Look for items that are labeled "Fair Trade". If its too expensive to do this all time- just do it some of the time or use that product less (Couldn't we all drink a little less coffee anyway?)
4) Contact your congress people and Senators, write the president and heads of companies. Sometimes these small efforts make a big impact.
5) What did I forget? What are your ideas?
6) and last- as a religious person, can you pray? Meditate/ send positive enrgy inot the world? How could it hurt?

Then, the other things I have to gather when planning a service include short opening and closing readings, a responsive reading, a hymn possibly, and a musical piece for listening.

I think maybe I'll treat the congregation to fairly traded coffee and chocolate after the service.

THEN, I think I will invite them to join in on some of the other activities I talked about before, like watching Sankofa or reading Disposable People. I know in October Adam is doing a sermon on Human Rights Education. That will be good.

I wonder if anyone would sign up for a series of classes on the modern slave trade? I found some great educational materials at Free the Slaves.

You know, it is planning things like this that make me the most frustrated about living here and also feel good about it. I haven't seen anyone else talking about these issues in this town and they are really very important. So, I am here in Mt. Vernon doing good work for our community in building a UU church and for the world in what we do with this church.