Hong Kong Trip Part I

I made it. The 24 hour trip was rather uneventful, which is exactly what you want. I saw two sunrises (and would have seen two sunsets if I had the shade on my window pulled up at the right time). We actually took an eastbound flight path, over Greenland, the Artic, Russia, and China. The long leg of the flight was slightly delayed due to a software problem with the in-flight entertainment system. Heaven forbid we fly across the globe without being able to watch plenty of movies. Nobody else was sitting in my row of three seats, so I was able stretch out and lie down.

Matt and Monte met me at the airport. The trip on the train to the island and their apartment reminded me that as much as I like Kansas City, and I do, it is not even close to being a world-class city. The public transportation, the crowds, the immense size, the energy on the sidewalks. It reminded me of being in New York City. I love it. And I could smell the sea.

I think I will be able to sleep tonight on something like a Hong Kong schedule. We don't have much planned for tomorrow; lunch, exploring their North Point neighborhood, visiting a park. I think I will be doing a lot of walking (and climbing of stairs) this week, which is good because I plan to do a lot of eating.

The rest of the pictures from my trip can be found on my flickr site.

Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson's Prayer

Many have heard about the various "prayer controversies" surrounding the inauguration. In the midst of arguing about who signals what to whom, it might be easy to overlook the content of the various prayers. Bishop Robinson gave the invocation at Sunday's pre-inaugural concert "We Are One." (Transcript below.)




Here is what he said as reported at KC Star TV critic Aaron Barnhart's blog. (The stricken lines were in the original text but were not uttered by Robinson at the event.)

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears - tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger - anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years. Inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words. We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand - that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

Amen.

Sunday Dinners

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, since last October I have been making Sunday dinner each week at my church. We have a Taize-style service in the evening at 5:00, dinner at 6:00, and usually some kind of class at 7:00. Between now and Lent, the class is a book discussion.

I usually plan and shop for the meals, but I have a great team of other volunteers who help me cook each week. Janet calls herself my sous chef, even though she has more experience in a professional kitchen than I do. She makes the desserts each week, always has great suggestions, and when things do not go as expected she is the one with whom I brainstorm. As you will read below, I was very glad she was helping last night! Rick and Sally are one of those couples who kind of stay in the background at a church, but they make things happen. It's great to have them helping weekly. One of the things that Sally does is coordinate a rotating group of other volunteers so that we usually have about 6 people in the kitchen each week.

We make sure that these dinners are not standard church potluck meals. No tuna hotdish or jello with unidentified pieces of fruit when I'm cooking! Last night, our Spanish menu was suppose to be tapas, a mixed green and citrus salad, paella, a flourless orange/almond cake, and sangria.

On weeks when there is a class following the dinner, we have average a crowd of about 25. That's a great size to cook for. It is enough to get some savings from buying ingredients wholesale, it is not hard to adapt either catering or home recipes for that size, it is not too big to serve everything buffet style in one shot, and 2-3 hours is enough time for the prep work and cooking.

So last night we were expecting between 25-30 and 45 showed up. Some people come to the service and stay for dinner. Some come for dinner and stay for the class. A few just come for the dinner. We never know just how many we need to feed until about 5 minutes before it is time to serve. One of the ways that I know I am suppose to be feeding people at this point in my life is that I enjoy the adrenalin rush that comes when we realized the crowd was at least 50% larger than expected and we don't have enough food. Time to improvise!

The first thing we did was to serve the food in courses. When people slow down, they don't eat as much. That also gave us some extra time.

Course #1 was the tapas (Janet made almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and she marinated some olives), the salad, and the sangria. There was not anything we could about the tapas. I buy mesclun greens by the case, so we had enough greens to double up on the salad. We had also prepared a non-alcoholic version of sangria (a.k.a. fruit punch) but being an Episcopal church, nobody wanted that! The priests had several bottles of wine stashed somewhere in the building (I don't think we raided the communion wine) so we were able to turn the non-alcoholic sangria into the real thing. That's kind of like turning water into wine, right?

Course #2 was the paella. I made a large paella with shellfish and a second one with just chicken and chorizo for anyone with shellfish allergies. (OK, here's a confession. Part of the reason we served the meal in courses is that the shellfish paella was took too long to cook and was not quite ready at 6:00. It had to do with the size of the pan and the layout of the stove)

Everyone was able to get at least a small serving of paella (and they left much of the soccarat - the crusty brown rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan - so Janet and I was able to eat the best part of the paella while cleaning up!)

Course #3 was pasta. Janet had made a bolognese sauce last week to keep in reserve, so we defrosted it and served it with pasta. We don't always keep a backup in the freezer, but I think we will from now on!

The dessert course involved a series of improvisations from Janet. She took her two orange/almond cakes and stretched them by serving it in ice cream sundae glasses. She topped it with an orange sauce and some cream she whipped with cinnamon. As soon as we realized how large the crowd was, she hurried over to the grocery store to buy some ice cream. It was also served in sundae glasses topped with a chocolate espresso sauce she threw together like it was nothing. Between those two desserts, everyone who wanted to break their New Year's diet resolution was able to do so.

Man of Constant Sorrow

10 Most Recently Played in my iTunes

It's been a long time since I've done one of these posts. It used to be a staple of my Sunday night blogging. Here's what I've been listening to recently:

1. Through My Father's Eyes - Dusty Brown - Dusty Brown
2. She Towers Above - Alejandro Escovedo - More Miles Than Money - Live, 1994-1996
3. How My Heart Behaves - Feist - The Reminder
4. All My Love Is Gone - Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth
5. Jersey Girl - Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine
6. Always Now - Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever
7. West - Lucinda Williams - West
8. Over You Again - Willie Nelson - Moment Of Forever
9. Drunken Angel - Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
10. Arizona - Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror

The first song is by one of my college roommates. I've mentioned Dusty before, when I wrote about how I was first introduced to Tom Waits. We spent many evenings during our sophomore year hanging out with our other roommate Joe, our friend Vin, a couple of guitars and Dusty's harmonica. All three of those guys have more musical talent than I, so it was always great to listen and occasionally sing along.

I've recently joined Facebook, which is how I found out that Dusty released an album this past summer. (Go here to listen, and then to to buy!) I knew that he was a part of a comedy group, but this is a serious album. The song in my list above, Through My Father's Eyes, is great. Without falling into bitterness, it is about the loss of growing up without a father. I hear a sense of forgiveness that does not downplay the cost of the decisions that father made. There is a maturity to those lyrics that is surprising for a debut album. I'd definitely be a fan even if I didn't spend a year stepping over his dirty underwear every time I got out of bed.