if some nice old lady tells you that "You're real stout! I used to pack that much, too!" she is really saying "You're real strong! I used to be able to carry that much, too!"
Some other nice Kentuckyisms:
"Tomorrow it'll pour the rain for sure" = It'll pour
"Call me if you don't care" = Call me if you don't mind
"You'uns" = South: "Ya'll," New England: "Everyone"
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
's a small world after all
"Jim Scott is coming to do the plumbing inspection later this week,"
"Jim Scott, family runs that store on the edge of 89 and 2004? His brother-in-law was just by my place cleaning the gutters,"
"Yeah, his daddy and mine used to hunt together back in the day,"
"Mmmhmm, way-uhl, get that inspection done and I'll have Mac's dry-wallers come by later on then,"
"Mac's a great guy, married my wife's li'l sister back in '89,"
"Yup, that was a great wedding, over on the Grady farm, they'uns sold that years ago,"
"Yessir, think they sold it to Derek John's uncle if'un I recall,"
"Shady deal, that was a shady deal, I told Derek not to touch that place, but ever since he caught up with my niece he's been impossible to talk sense to,"
"Your niece and Derek? I thought your niece was still going with Jim Scott."
"Jim Scott, family runs that store on the edge of 89 and 2004? His brother-in-law was just by my place cleaning the gutters,"
"Yeah, his daddy and mine used to hunt together back in the day,"
"Mmmhmm, way-uhl, get that inspection done and I'll have Mac's dry-wallers come by later on then,"
"Mac's a great guy, married my wife's li'l sister back in '89,"
"Yup, that was a great wedding, over on the Grady farm, they'uns sold that years ago,"
"Yessir, think they sold it to Derek John's uncle if'un I recall,"
"Shady deal, that was a shady deal, I told Derek not to touch that place, but ever since he caught up with my niece he's been impossible to talk sense to,"
"Your niece and Derek? I thought your niece was still going with Jim Scott."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
quietness
"in repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and rest is your strength."
quietness is my word for 2012.
what is quietness? not silence because silence is a negative thing. you're silent when you have nothing to say or when there isn't any music on or when the lawnmower next door finally shuts off. silence is absence. quietness is presence. the presence of active waiting, active stillness, active peace. quietness is what is created after silence is carved out. sometimes quietness even has noise in it.
i think that quietness is Spiegel im Spiegel with a cup of tea and How Green Was My Valley.
quietness is walking with a friend and listening to spring with each other instead of talking.
quietness is turning off the television.
quietness is listening without judgment or fear when you're being criticized.
when you're rejected by people, and you take the time to breathe and understand that it's them, not you - you are quiet. when you have good news that other people don't have, and you keep it inside because that's OK, too, you're quiet.
quiet happens at night when you stop worrying and give your mind permission to fall asleep. quiet happens when you stop letting other people define and identify you, and sit at peace with the identity that Christ has stamped on your forehead. quiet happens when you know who you are.
in quietness and rest is your strength."
quietness is my word for 2012.
what is quietness? not silence because silence is a negative thing. you're silent when you have nothing to say or when there isn't any music on or when the lawnmower next door finally shuts off. silence is absence. quietness is presence. the presence of active waiting, active stillness, active peace. quietness is what is created after silence is carved out. sometimes quietness even has noise in it.
i think that quietness is Spiegel im Spiegel with a cup of tea and How Green Was My Valley.
quietness is walking with a friend and listening to spring with each other instead of talking.
quietness is turning off the television.
quietness is listening without judgment or fear when you're being criticized.
when you're rejected by people, and you take the time to breathe and understand that it's them, not you - you are quiet. when you have good news that other people don't have, and you keep it inside because that's OK, too, you're quiet.
quiet happens at night when you stop worrying and give your mind permission to fall asleep. quiet happens when you stop letting other people define and identify you, and sit at peace with the identity that Christ has stamped on your forehead. quiet happens when you know who you are.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
I Say Philosopher, You Say - Evangelical!
"Switching denominations is anti-ecumenical" - Utopian Dreams
If you really believe that denominations all point to Christ, and you switch denominations, then you are searching for something besides Christ.
I flirted with a lot of different denominations last year, and fell in love, particularly, with the concepts behind Catholicism and Anglicanism. I spent a month in an Anglican monastery and ooooh my goodness, it was beautiful.
So I went to an Episcolean church here for a month, but -
Kathleen says regularly that we need to listen to God's voice wherever God speaks to us. So I waited patiently for God to speak to me in a brilliant, historical Episcopalian service - I waited for God's spirit to move in me in during the liturgical worship - I waited for the theologically intricate message to reveal deep, unspoken truths to my soul.
I spent a lot of time waiting.
Then I visited a Pentecostal Evangelical church. And damnit, if God didn't speak to me during some silly, dancing in the aisle, anti-intellectual song that repeated the chorus 14 times and said "I FEEL! I FEEL!" again and again, and was everything that I have trained my philosophical brain to hate.
So God speaks to me through Evanglicalism. So what?
Maybe we are called to grow where God places us. I want to go to a "cool" church that I can murmer "mmm! mmm! Yes! We can't discard the historicity of the Trinitarian belief any more than we can move on from our pseudo-Germanic roots as a nation!"
Called to Evangelical.
I disagree with so much of the Evangelical church. I feel antsy when they talk about church history, evolution, politics, Biblical interpretation and literalism, women, and homosexuality.
But the truth is, I've found that the Evangelical church is full of love, grace, and compassion. I believe that the tenants of Evangelicalism - rooted in absolute personal devotion to the person of Jesus Christ, absolute belief in the reality and importance of the Bible, and the centrality of being involved in the world socially and politically - are beautiful and true. Sure, I disagree with how many Evangelicals believe "absolute authority" translates, and I disagree with how many Evangelicals have chosen to become involved in politics. But the spirit, intention, enthusiasm, and purpose is there. And I'm a Christian because of Jesus, and Jesus finds me in the stadium seating of a carpeted mega-church.
Maybe those of us that are raised in denominations that we come to hate and reject need to think about what "ecumenical" means to us. Maybe we are called to where we are placed, and maybe we are called to transform it. I read The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, and when I finished it, I felt confirmed that I'd never go back to the Evangelical church.
But what happens to the church if all the philosophy majors leave Evangelicalism for Catholicism and Lutheranism and Episcopalianism? For that matter, what if the charismatic worshipers leave Anglicanism for Pentacostalism, and what if all the anarchists and revolutionaries leave Catholicism for Unitarianism, and what if the feminists leave the Baptist churches and join the UCC?
I guess that sometimes people have to get out of an oppressive place (I'm not exactly sure what a feminist would do in a Baptist church, quite frankly), but I think that it should be the last case scenario. Instead of going where we're most comfortable, maybe (maybe) we should try and bring our perceptions and ideas into the church that God placed us in. I think of my activist anarchist friend who is steadily fighting for justice in the Catholic church, and I praise God for him. And I think of my gay friend who is quietly fighting for equality in the Evangelical church, and I praise God for her. Would it be easier for both of them to boot it over to a denomination that already accepts their POV and identity? Sure. But I think that both of them bring grace and truth into the denominations that God has placed them in, and that that grace and truth can only be brought by them.
So I guess that I'll keep being a philosophy major noisily fighting for intellectual discourse in the Evangelical church. Can you be a non-Biblical-literalist feminist philosopher and survive in a Kentucky Pentecostal Evangelical church? I dunno. The Evangelical tradition has a lot to teach me still about grace, humility, patience, and Jesus Christ, and I would hate to leave it now. Even as a philosopher feminist.
If you really believe that denominations all point to Christ, and you switch denominations, then you are searching for something besides Christ.
I flirted with a lot of different denominations last year, and fell in love, particularly, with the concepts behind Catholicism and Anglicanism. I spent a month in an Anglican monastery and ooooh my goodness, it was beautiful.
So I went to an Episcolean church here for a month, but -
Kathleen says regularly that we need to listen to God's voice wherever God speaks to us. So I waited patiently for God to speak to me in a brilliant, historical Episcopalian service - I waited for God's spirit to move in me in during the liturgical worship - I waited for the theologically intricate message to reveal deep, unspoken truths to my soul.
I spent a lot of time waiting.
Then I visited a Pentecostal Evangelical church. And damnit, if God didn't speak to me during some silly, dancing in the aisle, anti-intellectual song that repeated the chorus 14 times and said "I FEEL! I FEEL!" again and again, and was everything that I have trained my philosophical brain to hate.
So God speaks to me through Evanglicalism. So what?
Maybe we are called to grow where God places us. I want to go to a "cool" church that I can murmer "mmm! mmm! Yes! We can't discard the historicity of the Trinitarian belief any more than we can move on from our pseudo-Germanic roots as a nation!"
Called to Evangelical.
I disagree with so much of the Evangelical church. I feel antsy when they talk about church history, evolution, politics, Biblical interpretation and literalism, women, and homosexuality.
But the truth is, I've found that the Evangelical church is full of love, grace, and compassion. I believe that the tenants of Evangelicalism - rooted in absolute personal devotion to the person of Jesus Christ, absolute belief in the reality and importance of the Bible, and the centrality of being involved in the world socially and politically - are beautiful and true. Sure, I disagree with how many Evangelicals believe "absolute authority" translates, and I disagree with how many Evangelicals have chosen to become involved in politics. But the spirit, intention, enthusiasm, and purpose is there. And I'm a Christian because of Jesus, and Jesus finds me in the stadium seating of a carpeted mega-church.
Maybe those of us that are raised in denominations that we come to hate and reject need to think about what "ecumenical" means to us. Maybe we are called to where we are placed, and maybe we are called to transform it. I read The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, and when I finished it, I felt confirmed that I'd never go back to the Evangelical church.
But what happens to the church if all the philosophy majors leave Evangelicalism for Catholicism and Lutheranism and Episcopalianism? For that matter, what if the charismatic worshipers leave Anglicanism for Pentacostalism, and what if all the anarchists and revolutionaries leave Catholicism for Unitarianism, and what if the feminists leave the Baptist churches and join the UCC?
I guess that sometimes people have to get out of an oppressive place (I'm not exactly sure what a feminist would do in a Baptist church, quite frankly), but I think that it should be the last case scenario. Instead of going where we're most comfortable, maybe (maybe) we should try and bring our perceptions and ideas into the church that God placed us in. I think of my activist anarchist friend who is steadily fighting for justice in the Catholic church, and I praise God for him. And I think of my gay friend who is quietly fighting for equality in the Evangelical church, and I praise God for her. Would it be easier for both of them to boot it over to a denomination that already accepts their POV and identity? Sure. But I think that both of them bring grace and truth into the denominations that God has placed them in, and that that grace and truth can only be brought by them.
So I guess that I'll keep being a philosophy major noisily fighting for intellectual discourse in the Evangelical church. Can you be a non-Biblical-literalist feminist philosopher and survive in a Kentucky Pentecostal Evangelical church? I dunno. The Evangelical tradition has a lot to teach me still about grace, humility, patience, and Jesus Christ, and I would hate to leave it now. Even as a philosopher feminist.
Back
My New Years resolution was to blog three times a week. I've started late, but I want to keep it up this time. I've disconnected my blog from Facebook, so this is the last time I'll link from the FB. I'm changing my blog again - it was too stressful pulling work anecdotes out of thin air, and storytelling isn't really my favorite thing, either. So I'm just going to ramble, for my own sake, to keep my writing veins from freezing. I want to keep it up until May, when I leave Kentucky. It's my thirty minutes of exercise, except it's for the words in my word cupboard. If I keep them in the cupboard all winter, they won't be very good for hiking in the summer - totally out of shape, flabby thighs and all.
Hope some of you are still around! Love hearing from you when you are.
Hope some of you are still around! Love hearing from you when you are.
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