crack the plates

Snowed/iced in to my little Atlanta apartment for the past three days, I took the opportunity to look back over the past year and write a 2010 retrospective. I’m hoping that penning this now might help in future reflection, as I consider where I’ve been and where I might be headed. I could have easily kept this entry private, but 2010 couldn’t have happened without the aid & inspiration of others – from January’s free sale to November’s benefit dinner and beyond. Thank you, friends — I hope you find yourself here. Peace & love!

January

• Started my final semester of graduate school and thesis-writing!
• Considering how I might embody the counter-cultural, anti-materialistic message of Jesus in one of the most insanely commercial times of the year, I hosted a free sale at my house… and provided suggestions for yours!
• More community-building: hosted the Super Happy Dev Night with Nate!
• Moderated a discussion of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders on the topic “Sacred Sexuality: What do religious texts really say about sex & sexuality?” as part of the Religious Emphasis Week at Earlham College
• Did a lot of organizing, awareness- and fund-raising for Haiti relief, with an emphasis on groups that would be around for community-building after the dust settled (Life & Hope Haiti particularly)

February

• Hosted a free sale at Amigos, advocating giving directly for building community
• Fell in love with RuPaul’s Drag Race – hosted weekly viewing parties
• Began the Lenten journey with Global Women’s Project’s Calendar and Amy Ritchie’s “Thirsting for God”
• Celebrated one year with cat Unix
• Attended IFYC’s Stranger to Neighbor training at Earlham College
• Was inspired by Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s talk on astrophysics and poetry

March

• My birthday! Had a great dinner with Anna Lisa & Seth on the 10^th and a Wonka-themed party the weekend after
• Was super proud of my little brother for organizing protests around GA budget cuts targetting education
• Happy memory: One day, while working at the church, I noticed three young boys (mid-elementary) circling the Peace Pole outside of the entryway. I went out, explained the meaning, and pointed out how people of every language wish for peace. The best part was when I quizzed them on the languages (after explaining what they are & where they’re spoken, of course!) and one boy referred to Arabic as “Iraqic!” We straightened it out and he seemed very happy with his new knowledge of that gorgeous lettering. When the elderly crossing guard came over, she said “I’d always wondered about that thing! Tell me about it, too!” And, of course, I did. She patted the boy on the back and said “We learned something, didn’t we?!”
• Supported my mom as she started her new gig as accompanist at Aragon United Methodist Church!
• Attended my first Passover Seder at Earlham College, hosted by friend & Rabbinic intern Aaron! I didn’t find the afikomen but I did throw open the door for Elijah!

April

• I hosted two interfaith dinners to test instructions offered in my Master’s thesis. Building upon an understanding that interfaith dialogue is about relationship-building, I provided theoretical and practical reasons, as well as clear directions, for bringing young adults of differing faiths together around food. The dinners – on April 13 and 23 – offered an opportunity to test my guidelines! They were extraordinarily well-received by the Earlham community: the second event, a middle-eastern themed picnic, had over 75 attendees!
• Presented my thesis to the seminary community at Earlham School of Religion’s Common Meal
• Took a break from thesis-writing to go see xiu xiu at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit
• Made seitan (that vegan staple) for the first time with Seth
• Defended my thesis on the 26^th – small crowd, but it was a great success!

May

• Submitted my thesis for approval! By the numbers: 150 pages; 43,495 words; 36,414 words in the body text; 20 words in the title; 2 inches – thickness in 100% cotton paper; 265 footnotes; 70 entries in the works cited section; 67 respondents to interfaith dinner questionnaire, results displayed in the appendix…
• Graduated from Earlham School of Religion on an unseasonably cold day!
• Happily moved from NW I Street to the sunny, if dilapidated, College Ave apartment
• Dumpstered at Earlham post-graduation and student move-out: recovered two car-loads worth of stuff for Goodwill and local charity. Discovered that students put actual trash, recyclables, and perfectly good items in the same trash bags. Opened dozens, sorting out the recyclables, removing what could be donated, and re-tying the actual trash. Full bottles of cleaning products, shampoos and conditioner, unused notebooks, a $22 SIGG water bottle, skullcandy headphones, multiple rugs, lamps, a pair of unopened contacts, several comforters, shelf-stable canned goods, unworn pairs of $100+ shoes … just a few of the treasures found.
• Helped worship-lead an incredible service at Richmond Church of the Brethren with Bob Hunter and Matt McKimmy – “Celebrating the Music of the African-American church” – ALL God’s children got shoes!
• Said goodbye to lots of friends as they left for new adventures – Seth & Jenny in Chicago, Jenna & Peter in Scotland, Benji, back to California, and all the other grads…

June

• Travelled to California for the first time – 2010 vacation!
• Ran into my interfaith hero Eboo Patel at Stanford!
• Served as a panelist at Richmond Church of the Brethren’s Faith and Food Panel Discussion

July

• Sustained my first accident as a bike commuter – a transfer truck ran me off the side of the road while on my way to work at the church! If I recall correctly, July was a month of bad/weird Thursday mornings…
• Went to see Jujubee in Columbus, Ohio with Nate and Michael!
• Visited Jina in Ann Arbor; went to see Lightning Bolt with Wolf Eyes at the MOCAD
• Served as a delegate to the South/Central Indiana District yearly meeting of the Church of the Brethren

August

• Moved into the most beautiful house in Richmond, 447 College (no offence, other Richmond houses :))
• Hosted a Perseid meteor shower party
• Briefly got really into making Perler crafts – hope to pick this up again soon!
• Focused on raising awareness and money for Pakistan flooding (at final count, a little over $200 one Sunday with a home-made bulletin board and short presentation before worship at RCoB) – the larger Church of the Brethren did well, too!
• Cooked a lot of yummy vegan food for Nate’s sister & brother-in-law, when they visited from New York
• Started volunteering at Earlham’s Office of Religious Life – first task, building Lady Gaga eyewear for the Director of Religious Life (a skit!)

September

• Successfully trained to drive a 12-passenger van at Earlham College!
• Inspired by my friend Tim Brauhn and his blog practicalraw.com, I bought a fancy-schmancy blender and an Ani Phyo cookbook and started doing more raw foods! (A little late in the season for Indiana, I know…)
• Participated in a moving interfaith vigil (in response to the Qu’ran burning controversy) – “Holding Our Holy Texts in the Light”
• Presented at Peace Forum, “From the Full Plate to the Wide World”
• Went to hear my dear friend Aaron give the Rosh Hashanah sermon at Temple Israel – Dayton !
• Attended Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre, and Yom Kippur services for the first time; drove Earlham students to these services
• Attended Eid services for the first time at the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield, Indiana – drove students to this service, too!
• Helped build a sukkah for sukkot, the happy Jewish harvest festival!
• Volunteered and attended services for the International Day of Prayer for Peace in Richmond
• Because I went to a school that officially issued credit/no credit instead of letter grades, I had to petition my professors to convert their narrative evaluations of my work into letter grades. This takes some time. I was thrilled to finally learn that I made a 3.92 GPA in graduate school overall, and a 4.00 in my concentration! The A’s in Greek surprised me more than anything else…
• My cat Unix escaped and returned hours later covered in poison ivy, which she bestowed upon me – thus commencing my second-worst poison ivy attack

October

• Went to hear xiu xiu and deerhoof in Bloomington
• Went to hear xiu xiu and deerhoof in Columbus
• Helped friends Aaron and Mel move to Ithaca! :-(
• Started the second season of “Spiritual Snapshots”, a story-telling class I started with the help of Matt McKimmy at Richmond Church of the Brethren! Inspired by an Sunday class gathering at Atlanta Friends Meeting, I proposed we gather as a community before worship to hear stories – “snapshots” – from our journeys of faith. From October – Dec 2009 AND 2010, it provided a way to get to know folks in the congregation better and make new friends.
• Gave a great big Mario-themed birthday blow-out for my sweetie Nate
• Travelled to Chicago for Nate’s MongoDB conference, hung out with Jenny and got thrift plague
• Attended the American Academy of Religion annual conference in Atlanta
• Visited the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan mandir outside of Atlanta!
• Supported Nate as he started the application process with Amazon (which would culminate with an offer in early December)
• Helped spread awareness of the pernicious “vampire power” – when plugged in electronics continue to leach power, even when not in use – with a silly presentation at Richmond Church of the Brethren

November

• Celebrated two years with my darling Nate
• Celebrated a year with baby cat Perl
• Made enough home-made barbeque sauce to feed well over 100 people for Peace Forum’s Thanksgiving meal!
• Went to hear dear friend Aaron’s senior sermon at Hebrew Union in Cincinnati!
• Did all of the cooking for and helped host (with Charlotte-Anne M.) my third interfaith dinner, a benefit for Genesis of the YWCA and the kick-off to Earlham’s IFYC Better Together campaign. We fed over seventy people and raised $401 (not including material donations of food and household items) for Richmond’s only domestic violence outreach resource! Official video here.
• Flew back to Georgia for my brother’s beautiful wedding to Sarah
• Enjoyed a ridiculously delicious vegan Thanksgiving meal with Donnie and other Earlham vegan friends at Teetor House
• Travelled to Chicago to see Jenny and celebrate vegan ThanksLIVING at Chicago Diner

December

• Celebrated Hanukkah with my first kugel, latkes, applesauce, and home-made vegan dill sour crème!
• Trained my replacement at the church
• Enjoyed a great going-away at Richmond Church of the Brethren – so many sweet messages!
• Stayed with Elizabeth and Dustin Hartman and all their animals (cats and raccoons) while we searched for a new home in Atlanta. Super-awesome Elizabeth runs Tails from the Hart, a wildlife rescue outside of Atlanta.
• Squeezed in a trip to New York for Christmas between packing up in Richmond and moving to Atlanta with the gracious help of Nate’s parents!
• Applied for the Faiths Act Fellowship, an extraordinary opportunity funded by Interfaith Youth Core and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation that brings young adult bridge-builders together from all over the world to work on furthering the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Year-long

• Served as a study buddy mentor in Richmond Community Schools
• Involvement with Earlham Animal Advocates United, from hosting and cooking lots of dinners, co-op meals, Nathan Runkle presentation, helping prepare the debaters, promoting VegPledge, and much more!
• Served as Office Manager at Richmond Church of the Brethren, which included making weekly bulletins, monthly newsletters, the yearly directory, as well as serving as a central point of contact in the church and between the church and Richmond-area aid/outreach organizations.
• Continued to be involved in the campaign to save Richmond’s Human Rights Commission and, once it was cruelly defunded by the Common Council, supported the burgeoning Equality Richmond Group

What a wonderful year! Here’s to 2011!

As you probably already know, I hosted a successful free sale about a month ago. (For more details and DIY suggestions, check out my earlier write-up). Over thirty “shopped” and about half of the attendees also brought items for sharing. While this was a wonderful surprise, it also meant that at the end of the day, we had much, much more than what we’d started with. Oh, what to do?

The natural response was to take everything to a local thrift store (or two, to spread the love). But as I sorted through the items to be donated, I noticed that many of them could–should–be put to use immediately. Like the 20 or so jackets that didn’t get taken, or the half-dozen good-quality men’s sweaters. I didn’t feel comfortable taking these kinds of items to the thrift stores where employees & volunteers readily share the fact that it often takes months for clothes to get on the racks. (I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen the gigantic intake rooms of the local Goodwill and Salvation Army–not pretty.) What good does it do to donate high-demand, seasonal warm clothes in January if they may not make it out til June?

Also: the focus was on free. Goodwill & Salvation Army are certainly cheap–but they’re not free. I hosted a free “sale” to move myself & others towards an anti-consumer vision of simple abundance & sharing. How to continue in that spirit?

I decided to contact local community centers & direct aid organizations. I first called GENESIS of the YWCA, our overburdened & perennially underfunded domestic violence, sexual assault, & homeless agency serving women in Wayne & four other area counties. I was sadly informed that they could not accept further material donations because they’ve dwindled down to one volunteer who, alone, is slowly chipping away at the mountain of donations from times past. In short, the receptionist explained, GENESIS is not able to reach women in need with some of these items because they simply don’t have the people-power to organize & distribute what is already there. Because this need made my own desire to donate impossible, I placed an announcement soliciting volunteers in our church bulletin &  received a great response. (If you’re in the 47374-area and want to volunteer, just let me know–I’m coordinating volunteer orientation in early March. And if you can’t donate you’re time, they’re still accepting donations of money, food, and cleaning products. More info here.)

Rebuffed by GENESIS, I next tried AMIGOS, Richmond’s Latino/a Center. I explained my situation; amazingly, the person who answered had tried a kind of free sale of her own at AMIGOS just a month prior! She breezily recounted how she had to strongly encourage the suspicious young moms & other community members to take advantage of the items that had been laid out for free. “Our friends are not used to getting things for free. Here, they work hard for what little they have and don’t expect anything else. They have a hard time accepting these valuable items as no-strings-attached gifts.” She also provided some insight into the cultural differences of the US and Mexico (where she lived for a while & where many of AMIGOS’ clients call home): in the US, she explained, you can be wealthy, your brother dirt-poor, & nobody questions your character. The poor brother is blamed for his personal moral/etc failings. In Mexico, that isn’t okay. If your sister or brother is hungry or homeless, you do whatever you can to help.” After a great in-person conversation we set a date for the big AMIGOS free sale!

I admit, the desire to reach out in this particular way didn’t just pop into my mind–my mom inspired it. For most of my childhood she worked in the grounds (landscaping) department of an elite private Atlanta country club (golf course); she was the only Bobcat-driving woman in that hardscrabble department & most of her colleagues were undocumented immigrants, many doing unskilled manual labor. Every year or so she’d round up our family’s ill-fitting clothes & take them to Atlanta for distribution among the friends with whom she regularly shared lunch, cracked jokes, & picked up new delightfully dirty words. It was a profoundly meaningful act of giving, even at a young age.

I support donating to thrift stores; after all, that’s where I get the majority of my clothes and household items! But I don’t think any of us ought to underestimate the impact of giving directly in our communities. We can seek out opportunities to improve the quality of life for others by giving our time & material resources to organizations doing local good. Next time you have a pile of clothes, useful household items, or the like, check locally for women’s shelters/centers, substance-abuse recovery homes, tutoring programs–whichever you think might be in a good position to receive whatever you have to give.

I learned that people are ready to respond with generous hearts–they just might need the opportunity! In the days leading up to the AMIGOS event I solicited donations at church & encouraged my friends to ask their friends for donations. In addition to offering some of her own daughter’s former items, one friend connected me with a mom who literally filled our car with boxes and bags of toys, baby clothes, children’s books, and similar in-demand items. jackpot, I thought, as I made a housecall to pick up the abundance. Other friends donated a dresser that was quickly scooped up by a local family at the event.

The most memorable moment of the event was, for me, when I noticed a young boy, about seven, flipping through some of the donated books. He’d taken a fancy to a few but wasn’t quite sold on James and the Giant Peach, one of my childhood favorites, til I started excitedly telling him the story of the little boy with the horrible aunts who climbs up into a magic giant peach, meets some crazy new friends, and travels all the way to New York City! He hung on to my every word, eyes widening, mouth slowly gaping, til finally I finished & he asked softly–”Do you mind if I take that one home?”

Open yourself to such moments! Host, or facilitate, a free sale today! Some inspirational photos from the event:

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, my friend Matt encouraged our congregation to consider the ways we can embody the counter-cultural, anti-materialistic message of Jesus in one of the most insanely commercial times of the year. (You know, that time when Christians are supposed to be so joyously anticipating the advent of his radical life & message?) On several Sundays, folks shared their plans: donate an equal amount spent on gifts to a charitable organization, write a few meaningful cards instead of sending a slew of autographed pages, making presents instead of buying, hosting parties instead of giving individual gifts. All great ideas.

I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time studying 60′s counter-culture while in seminary, particularly that of the diggers & yippies, and so I naturally wanted to try to organize a “free sale” for my community. Free stores/sales still pop up every once in a while, but they’re by no means as common or popular as they once were. The diggers who opened the first stores claimed that Americans (Amerikans?) had entered a post-scarcity world where new items no longer needed to be produced or purchased. Instead, whatever you needed was likely sitting unused (or underused) at your buddy’s house, and too much was being thrown needlessly in the trash. Beloved communities didn’t need superstores to buy more; instead, they yearned for a centrally-located space where people could share what they no longer needed and the needy could take home whatever might improve their lot.

Fast-forward about 40 years. Nate & I realized that much of what we own we don’t need for a variety of reasons–don’t use/don’t like/have duplicates, etc. The clutter was getting to us; our possessions had become a part of us, and they wore like wet clothes. How wistful I got over the days when I could pack everything I owned into my compact car! Of course, I didn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself too long–I got to work organizing the free sale! And on Sunday, January 10, from 12pm-10pm, we invited friends & neighbors into our home to take what they needed. Over 30 “shopped”, most brought items for sharing, and no one left unhappy. It was exhausting, to be sure, but truly a success.

For those who might like to try one of their own (& I highly encourage it!) here’s a little run-down of what we did:

1) Went through our stuff: clothes, toiletries, housewares, media, kitchen items, even some food. On & off, this took a few days. It was difficult in all the usual ways that going through and getting rid of stuff can be for packrats, so don’t expect it won’t be if you’re that type. We found it helped to amass everything in one obvious, centralized location such that we could observe our progress.

2) I made facebook & e-mail event invitations; I announced the event at church and in safe public spaces. I emphasized the following: “Feel free to take whatever you need/find interesting/would like to give away to someone else in need.” I also noted that it would be a community event open to those who didn’t need or want to give away stuff, but simply wanted the company of like-minded folks: “this will also be a time for visit & brainstorm the ways that we can continue to live into a countercultural, anti-corporate vision of peace, sharing, and simple abundance. So come for conversation, tea, dreaming…”

3) I quickly addressed guests’ burgeoning desire to bring stuff to the free sale. Two possible reasons for this: we grow up hearing, skeptically, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, so folks have a hard time with the “truly free”, instead preferring to bargain/barter/trade. Second reason: people got really excited about the idea & opportunity to clean out closets and help others! If you host a free sale, anticipate that friends will want to bring items for giving away–and how. By the end of our sale, we had replenished stock at least fourfold.

It may also be wise to advertise, when possible, your availability to pick items up. Folks may not take you up on the offer, but it’ll be encouraging & hospitable to those who need it.

4) We allowed folks to come just a couple hours early that day to drop items off.

5) We arranged items by room, clearly marking what was available for taking and what wasn’t. For instance,

• a huge table in the kitchen had all the kitchen stuff
• the bedroom hosted all the clothes (on the bed, in neat piles), shoes, and purses/bags
• an even bigger table in the office held the housewares and etcetera
• the living room was the common area, where lounging, talking, and cupcake-consumption happened

6) We opened our home from 2-10pm (officially). We gave everyone who came in a brief “tour”, explaining how the rooms were arranged

7) We stood by, making new batches of cupcakes, cups of tea, grinding coffee beans, and answering questions as folks browsed, dreamed, and enjoyed the simple abundance of togetherness.

8. We connected items with folks looking for particular things, sometimes giving beyond what we had planned: in one case, a student & friend from Nigeria had recently moved and needed kitchen wares. After rounding up items from the common table, I searched our pantries for extras to make his transition a little easier. A pot I hadn’t planned to part with, but that I didn’t need too terribly (just liked a lot), went his way when I learned of the need. Don’t be afraid to open yourselves to this kind of exchange! It might feel uncomfortable at first (we like things, we really like them!) but eventually the pain of the trivial loss is replaced by the soothing understanding that you have provided for another in need.

9) We closed up shop a little late, crashed, and went easy on ourselves the next day. It was great fun, totally worth it, but as I mentioned, exhausting. Plan for it. But, of course, don’t let it discourage you… instead…

…Build beloved community! De-clutter your life! Loosen the stranglehold of consumerism! Host a free sale today!

Much peace,

Adrienne