Nouwen reframes hospitality...

"Once we have become poor, we can be a good host. It is indeed the paradox of hospitality that poverty makes a good host. Poverty is the inner disposition that allows us to take away our defenses and convert our enemies into friends... since we have nothing to lose but all to give."

-reading from the first Monday of Lent

Congrats, Marty!

Regarding Lent (in direct opposition and no correlation to Regarding Henry)

Though it snuck up on me, I'm excited about Lent this year. Lent requires taken stock in oneself, realizing some bad habits, and making a change. Seems simple enough.

Mel and I have decided to give "up" eating out for Lent. We'll be cooking at home or dining with others at their residences. Since everything it seems has a caveat, this restriction excludes (this is how lawyers talk - I'm feeling the Pharisaic double speak already) coffee and beer at the local shop or pub, but includes a bagel or pastry. Watch out!

So in addition to giving something up, I'm giving something "down." Whatever the term is, I'll be attempting to read for one hour a day, everyday of Lent. This may be easy for some of you, but this will be a great discipline for me since I have the tendency to read only on certain days of the week (like my days off). The picture is some of the books I'm hoping to knock out.

As a house we'll be reading a walk through Lent with Henri Nouwen book together in the evenings. Now that I'm finally geared up, the challenges and freshness of this communal Christian season excite me greatly.

Transfiguration Sunday!

Transfiguration, by Sufjan Stevens - well worth the download.

not sure what this really means

taken yesterday. the school across from my house.

Rent: Lost Boys of Sudan

An entire generation left motherless and sisterless. Displaced by war and twelve years later, the 20,000 Dinka’s who’ve been living in refugee camps are “officially” known as the Lost Boys.

Watch the documentary about how they are once again displaced in the strange, “government assisted” culture of America. The film surveys the Lost Boys’ plight and the cost of “freedom” while remaining objective and endearing.

To the documentarian’s credit, succinct storytelling and editing only give the narrative more power. Strongly recommended.

(no, I haven't seen this movie revisited in its new derivation, God Grew Tired of Us - in theaters now)