I had to share this...

I found this particulary ridiculous gem on a particularly ridiculous Christian website:

"There have been some questions as of late on why we moved our web-site. As stated, it was due to our previous host's lack of strong condemnation of triclavianism. I would like to clarify this situation as I think it illustrates an overlooked heresy in today's Church.

Triclavianists hold that three, and only three, nails were used to affix our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. While it might be true that three nails were used -- and, in fact, archeological evidences uncovered by Biblical researchers positively point to this conclusion -- it is erroneous, and theologically dangerous, to make this a doctrinal position. The Bible does not enumerate the Lord's nails and any extra-Biblical research on the subject -- while both interesting and useful for apologetic purposes when dealing with those afflicted with a Secular world view that denies even the historicity of our Lord's passion and crucifixion -- cannot be considered of any substantive import to the Faith.

The Bible is the infallible and inerrant word of God; everything that He wanted us to know about Faith can be found in its pages. If He remains silent on the issue of the number of nails used in the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, then it is not for us to presume to make it a point of contention. Those that do are like the Pharisees, hypocritical in their righteousness based on their own worldly learning, and they will lead people astray and away from the True teachings of God. Therefore, we must oppose their strident and irrelevant teachings on the triune nature of the implements of our Lord's impalement."

-from: http://objectiveministries.org/pastorscorner/#06-19-2003

I am amazed. I had no idea that this kind of fundamentalist nitpicking went on within radical christian groups. But I suppose as a religious reactionary, one might as well react to EVERYTHING. "The truine nature of our Lord's impalement". Priceless.

That's about it. Have a lovely sleep, my dearies.

-Råtta

"playing the wantons"

I found this hilarious bit in an article I was using for a paper I wrote recently. It made me laugh out loud for a good length of time:

"another account written by a sixteenth-century Venetian envoy indicates that in Ottoman harems, vegetables such as cucumbers were banned from use for erotic enjoyment:
[I]t is not lawful for any one to bring aught in unto them [the women of the harem] with which they may commit deeds of beastly uncleannesse; so that if they have a will to eate Cucumbers, they are sent in unto them sliced to deprive them of the meanes of playing the wantons (quoted from Murray and Roscoe 1997, 98)."

Home Haircut

Hello all- I bet you've all given up on my blog, which is entirely reasonable as I haven't updated in approximately forever. But if you do happen to look at this- Hello!!!

I am supposed to be writing a paper that is overdue- but instead I'm finding all the ways I can to procrastinate. One of the ways I employed last night was getting my hair cut by my roommate. I was getting the time-to-get-a-haircut-mullet, and complaining about it, so laura offered to cut my hair. And it was actually doing quite well, until I decided I was going to do something with my bangs. Now it is definitely a "home haircut". I'm telling myself it's an exercise in humility.

In other news, I painted my room. YAY! It is now a dark green, a hue that my roommate jacquie called "like a turtle". I like that description. Someday methinks I'll post before and after photos for all your enjoyment.

Last Saturday one of my roommates got married, so now this Saturday we're having an interview with laura's brother, chris. I'm excited about this- I think chris is a nifty sort, and someone good to have after the roommate fiasco of yore. Here's the brief description of said 'roommate fiasco':

We interviewed and accepted this fella into the coop- and basically things didn't work out well. He told a disturbing story, and used racist, sexist, heterosexist and ableist language within the first two days he lived with us. He also seemed to be pushing boundaries and attempting to gain control in the house right away. So we told him that we didn't want him to live here anymore, and the long and the short of it is that he felt wronged and mistreated, and there was a lot of discomfort and unease in the house all around for a about 3 weeks until he found a new place to live.

Uugghhh... just thinking about it makes me feel yuckie inside. It was not a fun time.

But things feel good and safe and normal again at home, which is a blessing. Hooray for my happy house!

That's all I'm going to write for now. I lurves you all, and I hope to see you at christmas time!

-Rattigan

Today, I shall blog.

The prof didn't show up for my religious studies class this morning, so instead of doing something academically productive with my extra time, I've decided to inform all y'all of my life. Which I think is an important and worthwhile endeavour, that I haven't been doing as of late (aka:as of ever). Soooo....My Life:

I am now living in E-town and going to the university (i've decided that i like the swedish word best- universitetet- said 'oohny-vehr (rolled r) shee-taytet'. i've also decided that i don't like capital letters). i'm taking english, feminist philosophy, religious studies and SWEDISH!, and i'm enjoying them all so far. however, i seem to have already messed up in my time usage somehow- i've already had to stay up late to get stuff done, which seems really odd because i also haven't been pursuing a social life at all, or wasting time on the internet or watching tv. hemmm... this is new for me. but i hope to get it worked out somehow, because i REALLY want this year to be different than my other academic years in terms of stress level. but anyway...

i'm living at a housing coop called the golden lentils lodge, which consists of a lovely old house that smells like activists, lots of plants, cozy couches, bulk organic foods, lots of composting and recycling, and 5 friendly roomates. it's pretty much ideal- the only problem is my room. i haven't been able to determine what it is about it, but i just get an evil feeling whenever i enter it, which is so inconsistent with the way i feel about the rest of the house. i think the problem stems mainly from one of three things: 1. the paint is horrendous. i think i'll have to take pictures and upload them. Dark green on two walls, deep orange on two walls. as an overlay on each, vertical streaks of blue, yellow, red and other colours i can't discern. i find them quite disturbing. 2. the only furniture in it at the moment is a bed, which belongs to the house. i have yet to get my own things from my room in calgary, and i think that contributes to a feeling of it just not being quite comfortable or friendly. 3. perhaps the room just had a bad experience. it will sound new age of me, but i've had experiences of physical places that seem to have a positive energy about them, and others where i perceive negative energy, and i think it has a lot to do with who lives, or has lived, there. so i want to find out who was in the room last, and maybe if something happened that could have affected the energy.

so anyway, i mostly want to know what's wrong so i can fix it. if it's the paint or the lack of furnishings, i can probably fix that. but if it's the room itself, i'll want to see if i can move rooms. anyway, i need to go and get to my next class. i love you all, and hope you are doing well!

-Ratty

Oh my goodness, what is this!!!

Yes, it is an actual post! On this very blog! it must be a miracle!

Right now it is 12:42 am, I am sitting on the living room floor in my apartment in Edmonton, having just researched peahens and discovered that the mysterious little red pills with the markings IP 140 are actually 200 mg of ibuprofen, and I just looked at all y'alls blogs for the first time in far, far too long. And I have discovered that I am a person who does terrible things by accident. Or more accurately, by inaction.

For example, I didn't make any effort to keep in any contact with some of the people who are most important to me- namely you folks- for an entire month and a half, and even longer than that for many of you. I don't think I've seen Tyger since before winter session. It's been HALF A YEAR!!! I am completely baffled by the enormity of this problem.

What I mean to say is, I care SO MUCH about all of you, and I value our friendship and connection very deeply. And so I am taken aback when my actions (or inactions, as it were) are so entirely incongruous with the way that I feel. I love you all, and I want to know about your lives and continue to be connected to your experiences in the world. That is what is most true, and I hope that one day my actions will also speak this truth.

Tomorrow (actually, today...) I am going to Calgary again, and I shall be there until I depart for Naramata on June 27th. I REALLY want to make an effort to see all of you at some point within that time period, because otherwise there is the Naramata-bubble to deal with (which happens to be the arch nemesis of my already infamously feeble "communication skill". I think I should make a comic strip...)

Bed times are important. Apparently. To some people. Goodnight, dearest friends of mine...

LOVE!

-Rattigan

Winter Session, Week 3

So, I didn't fulfill my deadline of Sunday evening for this post. So to make up for it, I have pictures!

On Sunday afternoon, Mitch and I jumped in the lake. Because we decided, for the sake of a good story for all our winter session compatriots, there needed to be a January swim. This was the lake we jumped into:

Note the thin layer of ice on the surface. And here we are, getting ready for the plunge:

Unfortunatley, I don't have any pictures of me actually in the water as of yet (these 3 were stolen from Kelley's facebook album), so you'll just have to trust that I did actually make it into the water. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was incredibly cold, but I warmed up quite quickly, all things considered, and there was no hypothermia or frostbite. I do, however, have all these mysterious cuts and bruises on my legs, which I'm pretty sure are from the ice- Mitch has them too. The experience overall was actually incredibly refreshing- it made me feel alive. We're now starting the conversation around a February swim :).

There is a lot more to say, to be sure, but I was up talking last night until 4 in the morning and desire SLEEP, so I'll give you the actual Hannah and community update tomorrow.

Sleep well, my wonderful comrades...

-Rat

Winter Session, Week 2

Alright, so I haven't exactly stuck to the plan of blogging 'once per week', as it were. But Tuesday isn't too late, I hope, to report on last weeks happenings. And I'm choosing to forgive myself for this wee transgresion, because it really doesn't amount to anything anyway, and I plan on getting better, so that's that.

First of all, I can't believe that the heading for this entry is 'winter session, week 2'. Honestly, it feels like I've been here, at the VERY least, 4 weeks. It's hard to get over this fact. I feel like I've been here forever.

This past week was intense. Wow. I'm kind of really glad it's over, to tell you the truth. It's hard for me to explain the intensity, because it really had nothing to do with the interactions between people and had everything to do with how each person was internally processing being here, and being together, and doing the work that we're doing- but that internal anxiety was totally palpable within the group.

In terms of community cycles, we were definitely having a 'control' week (backstory: there's this one model of community life in which there are three stages- inclusion, control and openness. The short description of these three, as aptly described by my mom, are 'pseudo-community', 'community chaos', and 'real community'. So last week was a 'community chaos' week for sure.) This is when people begin to really question their roles within community, and wonder about the boundaries of the community. This is when all the intense questions come up, like 'what am I doing here?', 'who do I want to be here?', 'what's my role? Is that the role I want to have?', 'who do I want to be interacting with?', 'what do I need?', and other such things. So I know I was certainly asking those questions, and feeling really disjointed and not sure what was happening, or where I stood- but not in the sense of concrete things that we were doing, the confusion was deeper than that. And talking to other people, it seemed they were experiencing the same sort of feeling- this undifferentiated nervousness and anxiety and confusion that went to very, very deep places.

Within all this, one of my biggest confusions is that I haven't really seen community happening yet- that sense of having a group of people that is more than just 13 individuals interacting with one another. A group that is cohesive, that is bound together by a shared culture of care and openness that fills the spaces between bodies. It still really feels like our group is just 13 individuals, and any expression of any individual is just the expression of that individual, there's not that sense of being held by a community. I have had the experience of being held by certain individuals- I have been supported and cared for by specific people, and for that I am deeply grateful. I have also had the experience of finding beautiful things in each person here. But there has been that continuing oddness of not feeling like we are connected in a Naramata-way, which is something I have found really unnerving, given that that was something I had assumed was just a part of the landscape.

Also, I came out, which was really weird. I don't think I was ready for it, but I did it because one of our assignments was to "tell our lives in 3 parts" (ie: share 3 stories which demonstrate our lives)- and I knew that if I were to be honest, I would need to include a coming out story. So I had to choose between comfort and integrity, and I chose integrity. I mean, everything was fine, and I'm okay, and everyone has acted with either support or neutrality, but still it was kind of a jarring and uncomfortable feeling to share before really being ready within myself to do so. However, I know that if I didn't I would be dealing with other issues far worse than feeling a little bit weird, so overall, I'll say that it was better that I did than that I didn't.

I feel like this is a very negative post. Things have been better so far this week, just to let y'all know, but you'll have to wait till the weekend to hear about what's happening now :)

I love you all so, so much, and I hope that each of you are well :)
-Rat

Winter Session, Week 1

Hello all!
So, the first week of Winter session has happened- only technically it has yet to reach 7 days. But the first 5 days of programming have come and gone, and now I'm going to give an abbreviated account of how things are going for me. *

Since being driven to Naramata from the Penticton bus depot, I've felt as though I am home. Just being in the physical surroundings of this place have immediately transported me back to where I was at the end of the summer, so everything from the smell of Alberta Hall, to seeing the office staff, to walking down Ellis Road again have been very grounding for me. However, given this context of feeling like I'm 'back here', it's been incredibly odd to have the community in which I am living and the things I'm doing and the role I'm filling be so different from what they were in the summer- odd and rather disconcerting. So it feels like there's been this grand period of adjustment this week to try and figure out what is the same and what is different, and separate those things in my mind in a way that is healthy (it's a process that has made me very aware of the way that my reptilian brain immediately associates 'same physical place' with 'same emotional, social, and spiritual place'). As for the technicalities of the community, there are 13 winter session participants here, most from Alberta, and I think I'm the most well-connected participant here given that I knew 5 of them before arriving. There are also 2 leader/ facilitator people, who are both awesome and incredibly good at what they do. There seems to be a good age spread within the prescribed 18-25 age limitation (Vanessa claims to be 87, and I have yet to find out what this translates in to. Actually, for Hermit and Nomad, this Vanessa is the same Vanessa that was one of our CITs during our first year at camp. Cool, eh?), which I am glad for as it adds a good diversity to the group.

I'm getting sick with cold, but at the moment it's a muted, Cold FX cold so it's not too bad, but I'm wary of what it might turn in to once I finish the 3-day run. Bleurgh, it's 2 minutes to midnight, which isn't very cool. So I'm going to say toodle-oo for now. I hope that all of you are feeling well and enjoying life (if you're not, that's okay too. But one way or another, I want to hear about it :)). LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
Bon Nuit,
- Rat

*FOOTNOTE-ED! So, my plan is to be disciplined and write an entry each week, on the weekend (there are no sessions on the weekend, see, so I've designated saturday and sunday to be my 'outside of Naramata connection days'). I'm also going to try being pithy, so that the thought of 'my weekend blog entry' dosn't seem so daunting, thus making it more likely to be completed.