Stone Houses

"Some people live without anything and have everything. The example that always comes to mind for me is in Africa, where I preached. This little old black African man and I prayed together after a long session. He prayed with such tenderness, saying, "O Lord, help us never to move into stone houses." And everybody echoed, "Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord." Afterward I asked the missionaries what he had meant. "Well," a priest said, "look at the villages. They're all door-less thatch huts. And so as long as you live a simple life in a thatch hut with no doors, you don't know where your family ends and where the next family begins. You move in and out of one another's lives, and it's all really one family. And there's no possessing, there's no mine and thine; it's ours. It's a world of community."

"Once the first stone hut is built in a village," the missionary continued, "very quickly a door and locks are put on it. Immediately the world of mine and thine is created. The entire social worldview, the entire understanding of self, changes."

We've got to realize the world of stone huts is the only world you and I have ever known. We've paid a price for that inheritance. We can't reverse it. We're not going to live in thatch huts, and I'm not here to say we should. But we've got to know what we've given up by the so-called technological advances of this very sophisticated society. It's one reason why we are producing neurotic and psychotic people at such an unbelievable rate. Teen suicides, for example, doubled in the 1980s. Crime in general has increased 500 percent since 1960! We've chosen security over solidarity in First World countries, in Western Europe and North America. Jesus said, "You can't serve God and mammon." I'd say you can't see God very well if you spend too much time inside your stone house."
- Richard Rohr, from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction

Having grown up in Africa, this devotion really made a lot of sense to me. It reminded me where I came from, and how I have deviated from it. I have always physically lived in a stone house, and for most of my life, I have also metaphorically lived in a stone house, too. I think that I have strived for much of my life to live in community, and not in isolation, but these thoughts from Richard Rohr put words and a picture to that desire. I choose now to intentionally live in community. I think that, often, when we are in intentional isolation, we can become so introspective and reflective that we then find it difficult to reach out beyond ourselves. This is a lesson I need to be reminded of frequently.

My Baby Puppy, Lucky Hickenlooper

How's that for a sappy title for a blog post? I am going away for the weekend, and that means that Lucky is happily barking away at Jon's house while I am gone. I am sure he is quite happy with his big yard and doesn't miss his mom at all, but I miss my baby already. To make myself better (and to unabashedly show him off), I am posting some cute pics from a recent Lucky photo session. His comments are featured below:

"Oh, aren't I cute?"

"How do you like me from this angle?"

"Walkie?"

"I reign over the doorway. Ha - Why not tell it like it is - I reign over the entire house!"

Humble little guy, isn't he?

Gift Projects

I have two gift projects on the needles right now, and several on a list to start as soon as these are done. The first is a pair of socks in OnLine Holiday Color. They are a cool heather grey with tiny stripes of some other very random colors that all come together surprisingly well. I took the plunge and bought size zeros for these socks - the smallest needles I have ever worked with. The fabric looks terrific and there are no holes, but they do go slowly. It doesn't help that they are 9.5 inches in diameter and 9.75 inches long in the foot!!! The pattern, once again, is just a basic stockinette toe-up a la Ann Budd in the summer Interweave Knits. I might be addicted - hee hee. (I am actually a lot further along than the pictures show!)

I like the way the colors look close up.

This is a scarf I am making for another friend. It is a variegated handspun yarn. The yarn was spun by another friend! I am using a very simple V lace pattern. I like it, except that the size of the yarn varies GREATLY in the different parts of the scarf. Some parts look like spiderweb, while others look like lace done in barely-spun roving. I am going to go ahead and just call it a "Rustic Lace Scarf". The color is beautiful.

In much more sad knitting news, my good friend Rebecca is moving away. We had a final knitting party at Ecco, the awesome new gelato place in Nob Hill. I will miss her greatly, but we are all going to keep in touch by knitting each other socks for birthdays. They encouraged me to sign up for Ravelry, which I did. I hope my invitation comes soon. Here are Pam, Georgiana and Rebecca.

We'll miss you, Rebecca!!!