Homecoming 2013 = adorable dresses, good friends, awkward photos with friends and a lot of fun.
Think Christian's editor invited me to weigh in on the wildly popular animated short for Chipotle, called The Scarecrow. So many of my friends had shared the link, blurbing it with high praise. To be honest, it took me a long time to watch it because the thumbnail was always a giant cow sitting on top of a building, cartoon udders pointing like a weather vane. I didn't quite trust the "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" blurbs attached to that image.
After finally watching it, though, I got it. For starters, we're so used to crappy ads trying to sell us (relatively) crappy food that I think we're all just really grateful to food franchise for treating our aesthetic values with dignity.
Also, the Scarecrow is sweet and likeable and we're rooting for him to save the world with his pickup truck full of fresh veggies.
As I got into it, though, I realized that not everyone loved the ad and I felt like we should probably talk about that, too. There's so much I do not understand about our nation's farming standards and I found the little bit more I learned for this article only added another layer of complexity.
Since I live in Austin -- surrounded by the best the local, natural, organic food movement(s) have to offer -- I felt a bit nervous sharing my thoughts. So far (I don't think) anyone has de-friended me.
For what it's worth -- and with warm regards for Think Christian's editor Josh Larson -- I cringed a bit at the title he chose. I want to be a gracious voice in the world of online chatter. I also know it's a really crowded world and editors need to write titles that get noticed. The title I chose was hardly that: Cultivate a better (complicated) world. Josh chose: Why we shouldn't feel too smug about Chipotle's Scarecrow ad at Think Christian
The same week our church's stellar and witty gardener added a post to Christ Church Garden that reminded me the beauty of cultivating food and cultivating community. Matt Evans (and Christ Church) we're so grateful for you!
The Main Mobile Loaves and Fishes' Garden Experience at Christ Church Garden
The last couple of weeks have been filled with things I love. So many things I love, I came from work Monday night and fell asleep for two hours before dinner!
Here's a happy little recap:
A generous gift of a get-away with Brian two weekends ago:
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| LBJ Lake, Horseshoe Bay, TX |
One whole afternoon consisted of this:
Thursday night exhibit opening, This Ability, at the Imagine Art gallery:
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| Our friend Eric Kaufman made these sculptures from found objects during hikes in Texas and New Mexico. |
Kendra's training to become a balloon artist for pay which means we find this sort of thing greeting us in the morning:
This photo diary doesn't even include the lovely book club discussion about The River Why or the iced coffee date at Once Over Coffee Bar with some lovely women or the chatty Sunday lunch at Chuy's trying to recruit some Dallas dwellers to migrate to Austin.
A full and fun couple of weeks, indeed. (+ all that homecoming hoopla!)
Another highlight this week and next are speaking engagements at a couple of groups for moms of young children (God bless them one and all) and for a group of dear people seeking wholeness and healing in the relationships with God, others and their very own selves.
On Sunday I'll be talking about the difficulty knowing our truest selves -- the one God imagined when He formed us in our mother's wombs. One of my favorite reminders during this particular topic comes from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:
"It will come when you are looking for Him...Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."Good reading from the internet this week:
Louis C.K.'s daughters can't have smart phones because of sadness at Gizmodo: Insightful, emotionally intelligent and funny.
The Necessity for Irony by Eeavan Boland at The Writer's Almanac: Thank you to my friend Shannon for pointing it out and for recommending I listen through once before reading.
The Eucharist with Children by Carolyn Thomas on The Two Cities: In the past two years I've become spoiled worshiping with children all around me during most of the service. The post reminds me of the time we were sitting behind our 3 year old friend Annie who didn't seem to be paying too much attention to anything until our priest said the words "These are the gifts of God for you the people of God." Annie's head snapped she was so eager to see where the gifts for all of us might be hiding.
"Perhaps it’s the boy kneeling next to you, who takes a big gulp of wine, swallows, and then grabs his throat in pain. Maybe you lean over and whisper, “Are you okay?” and he whispers back, “That drink always hurts the inside of my neck!” And suddenly you remember the first time you ever took the Eucharist with real wine, on your knees, in a stone church on a cold, grey morning, and the wine stung your mouth, burned down your throat, warmed your body–and made you think of blood: hot and red and alive."
My son's girlfriend, Amber, made this adorable/hilarious video with her sweet daughter to promote a stand-up comedy show. She makes us laugh -- and that's a really good thing:
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A beauty and grace-filled weekend for us all, dear ones.
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