Exports/ imports and life

"America: remember Sodom and Gomorrah."

What???

Bumper Stickers are one of the banes of existence [I think] – on occasion they are really funny, which makes them quite dangerous [when driving]. Sometimes they are really obscure, or just wrong. And often they are, well, tired. Darwin as a fish with legs; Jesus as a fish ? And?? It is interesting though how easy it is to ‘box’ people according to their cars/ bumper stickers. Yesterday, I was next to a red convertible which was plastered in things like: “I prefer organised crime to organised religion,” and had a US flag with the stars in the corner saying: “It’s American to think.” Another one was, “How can you impeach someone who’s never been elected.” What I find very interesting is the way I lean when I am reading them (mentally, not physically). I feel sympathy/empathy/care/ concern for the most militant on the left. The most militant on the right make me feel a little ill. I’ve been trying to suss out why, and I think that it is perhaps that I am - loosely speaking – one of ‘them’ [the Christians I mean, not the right]– and yet, my views could generally not be more radically different… But somehow I know that were I to meet normal people [quite difficult at the mintue in a rarefied life of scholar/preacher/church attendee] I would have to unpack all these layers of judgement before I could even be a listener, let alone heard. I think that to a much smaller degree this exists at home, but… It is interesting how ‘christian’ so much is here. [Not everywhere, I know, I’m not daft, but here, here].

Anyway, there are a lot of things that I think the UK would benefit from:
· Turning left on a red light (well, right here of course, in case you were thinking I was a truly dangerous driver!)
· School buses (I say that because there is such a huge difference on the roads on school days/non-school days.) Imagine all those little people on ONE bus instead? Genius.
· Proper Mexican food.
· People in shops being nice to you (I don’t want too nice, just nice)
· The little clicky thing that you can push down when you fill up your car/tank that stops when it is full [I love that!]
· The wide expanse of sky and unbroken land
· Salad bars & Ranch dressing

Things I think should be imported this direction:
· Round-abouts
· Stronger coffee-drinking tendency
· Things being closer together – i.e. one area where you can get everything you need for life, and not having to travel hours between places [Walmart makes sense in that scenario – you don’t want to travel for AGES between everything…]
· European holidays – as in, statutory four weeks, plus bank holidays, maternity and paternity leave.
· Some form of better health care for the poor

Umm. Apart from all of that, I’ve been re-reading The Finovar Tapestry. It is one of the most wonderful trilogies I’ve ever read, and Andrew gave it to my parents to bring to me. It is stirring, and passionate, and delightful – and good/compulsive bed-time reading.

Found this quote:
"Christians are like manure in several ways:
- If they stay together too long, they generate heat and fumes that smell up the whole neighbourhood.
- Also manure piles develop a hard crust making them almost impenetrable.
- A long term pile that is never moved creates ground so acidic only weeds can grow there.
But if you spread manure around, it enriches everything it touches."
By: Pete Hammond

Made me laugh.

My mum leaves tomorrow. I expect that will be difficult. While we will be apart she will have fairly major surgery, begin healing, and probably begin radiation therapy. It is all quite a lot to take in. I’ve noticed though how many people don’t mention either ‘cancer’… or ‘breast cancer’ - and I don’t know if everyone is like this, but I’d always much rather not have elephants in the room. I also don’t want to only talk about it, but it is going to be very much a part of our lives for a while I think. I’ve felt very isolated from home, and very strangely cut off from all the emotion/thought and life that goes on 'there' while you travel away. It’s odd – but on occasions, so many little things happen when you are away that when you return, you seem to be some distant being that arrives from a different place/planet with a wholly other way of thinking and being. That always is hard to negotiate. On the other hand, there is a concomitant danger that while being away I change so much no one recognises the internal me any longer. We’ll see, perhaps the old adage will prove to be true: PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS ÇA RESTE LA MÊME

I went to a great cafe today with mum, and we just blethered, which was good. After she leaves I will have one month before I'm home to try and work solidly in. It's going really quickly.