Mindy's turn, moon view, and another dream

The Princess of Everything (and then some) has requested an interview. So here we go:

Why has pantie-palooza become so important to you?

Sometimes a sensory perception will set off a nostalgic moment. When is the last time that happened to you?

You have many blog buddies. If you had a party where you could meet them all face-to-face, where would it be held?

In your experience, where has the church most succeeded?

Did you do arts and crafts as a little girl or did you start that later?

Just in case you do not remember the rules, here they are:
1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

This is the best shot that I could get of the lunar eclipse the other night. I tried holding one binocular eyepiece (what would you call it? a leg? an "ocular"?) up to the camera lens, but of course it was impossible to hold it steady enough for a good photo. So I hope you have seen better snaps than this, because they certainly exist.

Last night I had a dream in which I came up with a word game. Here is how it went. The game creator writes a series of sentences with a blank space for one word in each of the sentences. The word that should fill the blank can be deduced by rearranging the letters in another word in that same sentence while either adding or subtracting a letter. Here's an example (from the dream):
The first pig to the trough ______ to be the fattest. (ought) [R]
The person playing the game would have to figure out the missing words and write the extra letter in a box at the end of the sentence. Then the player would try to rearrange the extra letters into a word that completes the last sentence. What do you think?

And now more interview questions

Cat and I had a great time at the concert (Three Redneck Tenors) on Friday. It turns out that one of them is married to a lady who went to school in Big Flat City. The guys gave us a show that included some impromptu clowning around and a couple more encores than one might have expected. As a bonus, the couple that sat next to us included a woman whom Cat and I had known in our college days. She had lived in Georgia until recently.

When we exited the theater, a thunderstorm was just beginning to get worked up. We got pretty spattered on the way to the car. (Yes, I offered to go get the car and bring it around, but Cat insisted on going with me. "It's only water.") Well, it was pouring down by the time we got to the car. Fortunately, we already had a hotel room there in town to which to return. And we spent most of the next day shopping in stores more diverse than those in Fake Cow Town. Little did we know that our fair town was hit overnight by lightning and windstorms that wreaked havoc. Tree branches were scattered all over the place when we returned home. That's what it is like to live in West Texas.

Enough delay--let's get on with the interview questions. These are for Patti and Christopher.

Patti--
Was there a "precipitating event" that sparked your desire to conserve and re-use?

If you could exchange one aspect of living in NY state with something characteristic of another state, what would you choose and why?

Was meeting Songbird face-to-face pretty much what you expected or were there surprises?

Out of all the American presidents past and current, with which one would you most like to sit down for conversation?

What do you think is the oddest item that you have saved although it no longer has a use?

Christopher--
How did you get from being an associate of San Antonio Baptist pastor Buckner Fannin to pastoring a UCC church in Indiana? Just the short version, please. (BTW, Cat and I belonged to Buckner's church for about 10 months in 1977-78.)

What prompted you to try your hand at writing poetry?

Is there a style of hair (facial or cranial) or of clothing you have wanted to try out, but didn't quite have the nerve?

What do you remember about a teacher during your elementary school days who most influenced your view of life at the time?

What experiences have you had with Iranians?

I look forward to your responses, really I do.

The Interviews

What I am supposed to be doing right now is getting ready for an overnight trip to Big Flat City. Cat and I are going to a show featuring the Three Redneck Tenors (did you see them on TV trying out for that reality show?) and we decided to have a nice dinner first and spend the night in a hotel afterwards. But it doesn't take me long to pack, and besides I promised Rachel and Phyllis I would post their interview questions by today. So here goes:

Rachel--
1. Let's say that you have 24 hours to absolutely do whatever you want: family and friends, co-workers and telephone solicitors have all agreed to leave you alone for the day. What are some of the activities you would do?

2. Sometimes after leaving a movie you are still "in the movie" for a while. What is the most memorable such instance?

3. Your blog persona of SpookyRach gleefully incorporates dark and weird elements. To what extent do you think this is a reaction to being a pastor's daughter?

4. When do you think that you felt most failed by the church?

5. Besides the physical exercise, what have been some of the benefits of riding your bike to and from work?

Phyllis--
1. You are proud of being a redhead, but if you had to change your hair color for a week, what would you choose and why?

2. If there is one habit of your local church that you could change, what is it and how would you change it?

3. Have you always been artistic or did this develop gradually?

4. What spiritual discipline do you find most difficult to practice consistently? Why do you think this is so?

5. What do you remember about the first time you realized that there was a bigger world than West Texas?

Patti and Christopher, I am working on your questions. No lifelines and no German (OK, eine kleine deutsche).

Long time no post

Wow, has it been ten days since the last post? Thanks for not bailing on me.* I cut out the article about SWBTS and put it on my office door. There have been a few comments, most sardonic.

Remember the neighbor across the street? The one that got me to thinking about hosting a neighborhood barbecue just to look for an opportunity to witness? Well, the other evening, he brought over a sack of veggies (his wife has a garden that is starting to overproduce) and we got to talking. Turns out that both he and his wife were raised going to church. He claimed to love the Lord and agreed that he should be going to church again. But he is working about 80-90 hours a week, so that leaves little time for anything else. He said that the barbecue was a good idea--maybe in October. Well, it would be cooler then and maybe most of the mosquitoes would have departed.

Over on Paul's site But a Poor Reflection, he has posted interview questions for me (and several other folks). Here are the questions with responses.
1. Why do you call yourself ‘Little’ David? Are you really a small guy or just very humble? Well, I am relatively short: 5'7" and shrinking as I age! My parents named me after Israel's second king, the one who evidently went up against a giant. Turns out he was short too. It would be disingenuous of me to claim that I am humble.
2. What is the biggest challenge for the church today and what can individual Christians do about that? And now for an easy question, eh, Paul? Churches in this century have a huge variety of contexts, particularly when compared to the first-century church. In some ways, the (biblical) advice given to them just does not connect today. But in a meaningful way, what the gospel writers have relayed to us about Jesus' words and actions, as well as St. Paul's advice to the beleaguered church, still speak to us now. The age-old challenge that I observe in churches I have called home is that of dying to self. We (and I am really a part of this crowd) still want God to sanctify us according to our ideas rather than submitting to what God has in mind for us. We want to be served rather than to serve. We want to be fed rather than to feed. In short, we continue to be babies. The most that an individual Christian can do about that is to constantly submit oneself to the Lordship of Christ: hear the Word, obey the Word.
3. You visited all the continents, except South America. What’s wrong with South America? ;-) And: if you had to move to South America, please tell us the preferred country and explain your choice. Nothing personal, really. I would have to polish up my Spanish or learn Portuguese in order to fully appreciate the experience. Curiously enough, since participating in an online conference several months ago, I have started a correspondence with a fellow from Guyana who is studying in England. I used Google Earth to locate his hometown in Guyana and to look at photos of the area. The photos revealed poverty and natural beauty, not unlike most parts of Africa. I think that I would like to visit this student. Who knows? Maybe I COULD live there.
4. The North Pole is melting. Do you care about this and do you think Canada, Denmark or Russia are entitled to claim the melted ice / the part of the globe where the ice used to be? Yes, I do care about global climate change and the consequent melting of the poles. I am ashamed of the inadequate response my country has made to this issue. As far as the northern countries claiming more land, though I have not pondered this before, my initial reaction is, sure, go ahead. If you can do something useful with it before the next ice age, be my guest.
5. You have rescued a highly talented artist out of a life-threatening situation. As a reward he offers to make something for you – for free! Please dream with me – what kind of artist would you like this to be and what would you like him / her to make for you? Hmm. Seeing as I have several artists in my family who have already produced some wonderful watercolors, oil paintings, pastels, and sculptures, I think that I would ask for music. Truly great music transcends the ages and touches the subconscious over and over. Purely instrumental would be fine and if there were lyrics, they could be in another language, I wouldn't mind (OK, well, I am not all that wild about German).

Those are my answers and here are the rules I agreed to:
1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

*Note to Carolanne and Paul--"bailing" = "bailing out, leaving unceremoniously"