Dorie Morgan’s Rising Up
Navigating Twenty-Something Suburban Life
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Archive of "community" Category
We are not having a baby – It’s better than that.
I usually try to stop myself when I have a “brilliant idea” to blog about “my faith”. I have no problem writing about the church I attend or things that happened in my Sunday School class but I’m really afraid when we cross over into the heavy stuff.
Of course, they are several factors behind this.
1. The first is that I failed miserably in my one and only attempt to write about where I was with my walk with God and I cried every time someone new linked to me to mock me.
2. The second is that I am very fearful of being labeled a “Christian Blogger”. I think there are more than enough Christian bloggers out there and if I’m going to tell you what I believe, its probably going to happen in my kitchen over dinner and not on the internet.
3. But the biggest reason is that I am not always a very good Christian. I do dumb things and I sin and I don’t want to put anything out there that would reflect badly on other Christians who are very good at being Christians. I don’t have illusions of grandeur in that I would damage the whole Christian community by my failures but I do fear that I would damage one child who is not physically related to me by my failures.
(By the way, that last reason is the largest failing of Christianity in my opinion. We have no problem talking about the sins of those who are not saved but we are really afraid to talk about our own big sins. We confess our road rage and our stolen office supplies to accountability groups but very rarely do Christians come to the group as a whole and talk about their jealousy, their hate, their resentments which pepper their lives. There are church communities that are able to have real confession and accountability and I have so much respect for them but I also realize they are the exception and not the rule.)So I keep my mouth shut. Of course there is a problem with this: something big happens and you want to share it with the world but you still really haven’t made the sweeping declaration of faith that logically comes before the big announcement. Sure, the sweeping declaration of faith isn’t really necessary, you’ve been dropping hints the whole time, but you still recognize that it has to be done just in case people were not paying attention.
Here goes: My name is Dorie and I am Christian. I believe in strong faith-based communities rooted in geographical areas. I believe with a missionary spirit in your own home time. I believe God calls us to do his good works in Jesus’ name. I believe Jesus died for my sins and I am forgiven. (I also believe in predestination but I haven’t worked it all out in my head in a way that I can easily and lovingly explain – I am not a theologian).
Which leaves us with the heart of what needs to be said, the big announcement instead of stating the obvious.
We’re planting a church. We’re planting a church in Bristol. We’re planting a church because it turns out it was more than just me that felt called to Bristol. We’re planting a church because we are called to love this community as God loves us.
(For me, the above paragraph is the spiritual equivalent of “We’re having a baby” only Brian and I are not having a baby, we are having a church and other people are involved whereas baby making would be an act that would just be us.)
For the last three months on Sunday nights, a group has been meeting in our living room to share a meal and share worship together. I’ve loved every minute of it, even when I was too tired to get off of the couch. Some of the people I’ve known for a while, others were new faces that are quickly becoming dear friends.
I know it is going to take a lot of work in the months and years ahead but that’s just what happens when you build a community, whether it be online or in person. I am just blessed to say I am on the journey.
Really? You know a guy?
In the attempts of being neighborly, our next door neighbor asked us how our first night in our new home went. I start beaming. Brian scowls and starts muttering about not being able to sleep at all.
At the risk of being the “dirty” people, I decide that this is a great time to announce the bug incident. Complete with me leaping around the driveway to give our neighbor the full impact of my hysteria. Classy. But before I can finish telling him about the bug, he bursts out with “What? A Water Bug?”
Clearly, he doesn’t understand how traumatic this was so I break out the ridiculous hand gestures and failing limbs to add to the leaping in order to paint a truly vivid story about the horror that ensued. I’m about to tell him that the bug was larger than my cat, had a knife and seemed to be connected with the mob when Neighbor Friend interrupts.
“Yeah, we get water bugs all the time.”
“I thought it was a cockroach. I don’t want to be a dirty person.”
“Nah, a water bug. You know, we know a guy.” (I should add that most of the block appears to be Italian in a bad stereotype way so to hear “we know a guy” was bound to happen eventually.) “He’s my wife’s friend and he’s the exterminator.” (What? Are you trying to have us killed?) “Next time he comes over, we’ll have him get in touch with you.” (This can’t be good.) “He’ll give you a good price.” (Wait, who am I supposed to be killing? Oh yes, the giant “water bug”.)
To be fair, my neighbor and his family are perfectly normal. I don’t think they have any sort of affliations with any sort of mafia. Not even Mafia Wars on facebook.
Save New Beginnings
Bensalem School District wants to cancel New Beginnings, a program geared towards helping teenage moms get their high school degrees and learn how to care for their children. I don’t live in Bensalem but this drives me nuts – the New Beginnings program is a great example of being proactive with a community problem. Run by Patti Pearson, New Beginnings has a 90% graduation rate for its program participants.
What I love most this program is that it breaks the cycle. By supporting these young women in difficult circumstances, New Beginnings give their children a better chance in life. Patti’s love for the young women she works with is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
The other thing I love about this program is that it is the community that solves the problem. Instead of waiting for the federal or state governement to step in and save the day, Bensalem School District took charge. These women were part of the community and were given resources to not onlyhelp themselves but ultimately contribute towards the community.
Please check out the following post by Kathrin Ivanovic at The Diversity Projekt. If you are able to help support this important program, it would be greatly appreciated.
Call for Help: Miss Pennsylvania
One of my favorite people in my offline life is Rachel Marlowe. I’ve had the pleasure of working with her through Phi Mu since I graduated and she always amazes me by how she as it all together. She is a phenomenal sister, a gifted actress and most recently, a stunning Miss Lehigh Area 2009.
In order for Rachel to continue on to the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant in June, Rachel has some fund raising to do. Rachel’s goal is to raise $550 for the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN). CMN is also the national philanthropy of Phi Mu – obviously an organization very close to my heart.
Please take a few moments and visit Rachel’s page and please help her to reach her goal. I would love to see Rachel go above and beyond her fund raising goals. If we each donate $5, I know Rachel will more than pass $550.
I’ve posted Rachel’s bio below. Thanks for helping me support her in her goals. I can’t wait to see her move on to Miss America.
Rachel Marlowe, a 21 year old double major in Theatre and Dance, was crowned Miss Lehigh Area 2009 on April 5, 2009 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Operating under the platform “Work Hard, Play Hard: Arts Education in Public School Systems”, Rachel is passionate about spreading her passion for the arts around Pennsylvania.
In the few short weeks of her reign, Rachel has volunteered at the 6th Street Shelter in Allentown, PA- teaching musical theatre dance to children, at Relay for Life (Muhlenberg College), and at Girls Night Out- benefitting victims of domestic abuse and children orphaned by domestic abuse. She intends to further her platform by visiting local public schools throughout the academic year, promoting arts education. Using the skills she has acquired at Muhlenberg College, located in Allentown, PA, Rachel’s public school program includes reading an inspirational story, learning a new and educational song, drawing pictures and getting physically active through dance! Rachel is preparing for the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant in June 2009. Visit MissPa.org and/or http://rachelmarlowe.webs.com for more details.
Outside of the pageant world, Rachel has been performing in regional theatres across the east coast. She has been seen in such roles as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and Phyllis in 42nd Street, both with the Ocean City Theatre Company, and has performed in various charity cabarets, including Muhlenberg Does the Tony’s, benefitting Camp Imagine, a performing arts camp in Allentown, PA. Rachel also enjoys knitting, taking walks through the Lehigh Valley, watching old movies, visiting county fairs and carnivals, and designing dresses.
In addition to promoting her personal platform, Rachel has set a personal goal of raising $550 for the Children’s Miracle Network, a charity that assists families in paying for the medical bills of their children. Rachel, having had chronic asthma as a child, holds CMN very close to heart, knowing full well how much her family had to sacrifice to pay her hospital and medical bills. Please donate to this worthy cause today!
Leave Your Politics Out Of Hunger
On Monday, I went to an event at the United Christian Church focusing on solving hunger. It sounded like a great idea. How can you go wrong with a title like “Beyond Charity: solving the problem of food insecurity and hunger in Bucks County”?
The answer is far more easily than I expected.
I’m not a liberal by any account. I hate the idea of a huge federal government. I voted for Bob Barr. But I do care about my community. Brian and I give to several non-profits every year, even if that means we go without when it comes time to buy new clothes for work or skip date night. We believe in community as a means to better the world we live in.
With that being said, I wasn’t surprised when I got to this event and it was filled with social workers and advocates. But I was surprised when the first person spoke, Robin Stelly of Penn Action, mentioned how difficult it was to find a location for the event. She talked about churches and community centers not wanting to host the event because of political concerns.
I was confused. How are there political concerns with solving hunger in Bucks County? Hunger seems like a pretty straight forward issue: we weren’t going to be discussing gay marriage or abortion or stem cell research.
And then Joel Berg got up. Berg is a national leader in the field hunger and food security and recently published a book “All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?” He started his talk/book reading with a rehashing of his recent visit to Alaska and how he “battled” Sarah Palin. Then he started referring to Palin as the “Alaskan Bear” and how he made her back down.
This struck me as odd. And inappropriate. While I may not agree with Sarah Palin’s political beliefs, I do believe that we have the right to free speech and she has the right to run for office. We do not need to compare our fellow man to an animal when our fellow man has a different opinion. We also do not need to “battle” over ideas – this is not Gladiators. Whatever happened to having a calm, rational discussion of ideas?
Next Berg moved onto slurs against Libertarians. Later he told us that even if the conservatives are lying, liberals do not need to stoop to their levels. He ranted against individuals who disagreed with or had concerns over the Obama budget.
The message I got from Berg was that if you did not agree with his extreme liberal ideology, you were heartless.
It was hard to pick out solutions for hunger from Berg’s talk that were separate from his pro-government perspective.
The last straw for me was when Berg made fun of bloggers for asking questions about bailout money and the use of welfare and food programs. While only a passing snarky moment for him, it stuck with me. Here was a man in front of us who was not interested in having a discussion about solutions. He was only interested in being right. He was not interested in real questions.But I do need to mention how impressed I was with Joseph Quattrocchi of Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center and Jonathan Na of the Bucks County Opportunity Council. These men were able to provide a realistic and startling look at what hunger means in Pennsylvania as well as discuss what is being done already and how we, as a community, can contribute to solve the hunger problem.
“Food Insecurity” does not mean much to a woman who doesn’t know how she will feed her kids today. To her, she is starving. Not in the trite way we lament an hour before dinner but actually starving. She will choose to continue her hunger to feed her children. She might not be aware of food programs that are available at her children’s school or she may be too embarrassed to ask for help. She may not have transportation to get to a food bank.
“Food Insecurity” is just one of those terms we slap on a problem to make it sound nicer, maybe not so bad. For 12% of the US in 2007, it meant something very different.
Jumping in without Swimmies
I think I was possessed on Sunday morning. I was chatting with Kathrin Ivanovic at The Well and for some reason, I burst out with “I think I’m ready to come back from my blogging break”.
Really? Really, Dorie? After two and a half weeks of a break, you’re ready to come back?
I must be possessed. Because I’m really not sure that I am ready. But I’m also not sure I’ll ever be completely ready. I still don’t know what the changes in my life mean for me or for my family.
Now the question has become “Is not blogging still helping me figure things out and process this change?” Not so much.
If anything it is just throwing me off.
After my declaration to Kathrin, I panicked. Performance anxiety? Maybe. Maybe I had been secretly hoping for some big, profound return where I would write something that was earth shatteringly brilliant and then I could pat myself on the back for returning. But earth shatteringly brilliant ideas don’t come to me while I am on staycation and watching way too much DIY network.
Earth shatteringly brilliant ideas come when I’m interacting, when I’m communicating, when I live somewhere outside of my own head. Those ideas happen in the midst of community.
I spent a week on staycation and now I’m starting to get back into the swing of things. I’m trying to be a person again. My staycation didn’t quite go as planned. When I scheduled it, my plan was to have a one woman writing boot camp – I was going to flesh out the ideas on my personal post to do list and see where it takes me. I was going to be totally blissed out and learning and growing as a writer.
Instead, I grieved. The extent of my writing was a much needed gratitude list. I took long baths. I listened to Patsy Cline. I baked favorite treats. I hid. I turned off the outside world (okay, I was still on twitter but the burst of 140 characters was not taxing). And while it was very good and very needed to do those things, I missed community by the end of it. I felt disconnected.
It turned into a battle to not blog but when I verbally announced my return, I freaked out. Was I even ready for this? If someone left a negative comment for me, would I be able to take it in stride or would I turn to the comfort of homemade baked goods? If no one left a comment for me, would I take it as a personal rejection? Was I even in a place where I could be vulnerable and open again?
So on Monday, I started looking at all of the blogging I missed. I caught up on a few favorites like a little kid sticking one big toe in the deep end of the pool, fearful but knowing I really wanted to be in the water. On Tuesday, I let my feet dangle in the water by responding to a few emails. On Wednesday and Thursday, I started commenting again, holding on to brief interaction with others like an inner tube. And today, I’m in the water. I’m kicking. I’m keeping my head up. I am not drowning.
It’s a little scary coming back but soon my hair will be green like an over chlorinated kid on the last day of summer.
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