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Friday, July 30, 2004

more on the rich fool

Here's the thing that finally struck me this morning while wrestling yet again with the lectionary--

Go through the readings from Ecclesiastes (1:12-14m 2:1-7, 11, 18-23) and Luke (12:13-21) and count how many times the word, "I, me, mine, myself" etc. are used.

It's not just about our attachment to material goods. That is just a symptom of the underlying problem--our attachment to self. You can be a "good religious person" and not own much and still be attached to self.

That's a much more satisfying sermon than "we're Americans and we're bad because we have so much stuff."

just how rich am I?

I don't know where the statistics are from that generate this, but it is thought-provoking.

I'm the 190,434,783 richest person on earth!


Discover how rich you are! >>

Thursday, July 29, 2004

yarn addiction and the rich fool

I've been thinking about yarn addiction this week as I prepare my sermon for this Sunday. The lesson is the parable of the rich fool in Luke's Gospel. In this parable, Jesus tells us about a man who has been very successful in his farming--so successful that he has built up a store of more and more crops. Now he has to build bigger McMansions--oops, I mean, storehouses, to store all of his worldly goods. And as he rests he thinks to himself, "Soul, you have stored up many goods for many years." Of course he hasn't done anything of value for his soul at all, but confused his life with his possessions with his life with God.

Many of us crocheters/knitters online talk jokingly about our yarn addictions, and our stashes. I love being creative, and I love the energy I get from combining colors and textues and learning a new skill. But I wonder if we're not in danger of confusing our life with our yarn with the life of our souls?

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

back to "square" one

Spent some time crocheting a hat, which was not successful. I was following the pattern from the Easy Tunisian book, and playing with my new Easy Tunisian hooks. The seam I made was too obvious. So, toss that out (a skein of Baby Clouds Aquamarine not going to break the bank) and am currently working on a baby/pet blanket out of some leftover Baby Clouds Creamsicle with an Aquamarine stripe every six rows. It's a good color experiment and I'm pretty proud of it, as it is entirely my own design.

I think I'm just going to stick to squares and rectangles again for awhile.