I have been reading up on the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson for the last couple of weeks and it has been really extremely fascinating to me! I definitely think her story could be a major motion picture as there is so much to learn...I cannot really blog her life but let me touch on issues that surrounded her.

Personal Tragedy - Lost the love of her life Robert Semple after being married only two years which I think radically altered her life and left a lonliness that was never overcome.

Healing/Calling - Aimee was suffering from depression and sickness and the Lord called her to preach so she took the road with her kids and left the suzie-q-homemaker life and took her 2nd husband I am going you can follow if you like.

Racial Issues - Aimee early on preached to integrated crowds however she also courted the support of the KKK and she gave aid to illegal aliens during the Depression in CA which went against popular opinion.

Gender Issues - How many women much less men had a mega-church in the 20s.

Scandal - At the height of her ministry Aimee disappeared for 32 days and was thought to be dead when she reappeared and claimed a couple kidnapped her and held her hostage during that time...However the story does not really add up and a man she worked with at her radio station also went missing during that time so there is no conclusive proof but it is believed she was having an affair with a married man.

Body Image - After the scandal Aimee dropped thirty pounds and started wearing the latest fashions and makeup. See before and after photos above.

I really think she creates such a storyline for the shift and modern Christianity will mass media and megachurches...Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Semple-McPherson-Resurrection-Christian-America/dp/0674025318/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734264&sr=8-2

1. What was I doing ten years ago?Playing sports and loving every minute dating a boy my class labeled "Doogie Howser" it was because of the curly hair and not the brilliance. Liking school and life in general.

2. 5 things on my "to do" list:
1. Don't make to do lists
2. Don't make to do lists
3. Don't make to do lists
4. Don't make to do lists
5. Don't make to do lists

3. Snacks I enjoy: Banana Chips Yogurt String Cheese Anything sweet

4. Five things I'd do if I were a billionaire:
1. Give it all to the government (not)
2. Take my family on a world tour.
3. Buy a llama
4. Give money to South Africa township of Jericho
5. Buy frozen sperm from Leonardo Da Vinci and impregnate myself so my spawn can write the sequel to the Da Vinci Code because we all know that is the best thing ever (Sarcasm).

5. My 5 bad habits:
1. Pick my nose (If you were honest with yourself you do it too)
2. Laziness
3. Passive Agressive
4. Dont express my emotions when they need to be.
5. Abide by the 5 second rule. Food needs a little earth flavor

6. Places I've lived: Verona, PA Penn Hills, PA Plum, PA Wheaton, IL Oakmont, PA

7. Five jobs I've had:
1. Whitaker House
2. Whitaker House
3. Whitaker House
4. Whitaker House
5. Then I branched out and worked at Whitaker House

Tag if you want.

Something about the form of this leaf mesmerizes me. It is like a wave that always creasts and never crashes...A bird with wings outstreached by never quite leaving the ground.

It is that moment when you are driving and stopped at a light and all of a sudden a building or a bird on a wire becames something so stunning that you are almost locked in a staring coma. I love the work "transfixed" It originates as "to pierce through" I think of the word transition where there is change but transfixed to be is a profound change that takes place in stillness and observing. When you see something common and somehow it piercing through it you are not the same. The downside to these moment is the light turns green and you move on singing a song and forgetting...

Intricacy is that which is given from the beginning, the birthright, an in intricacy is the hardiness of complexity that ensures againsts the failure of all life. This is our heritage, the piebald landscape of time. We walk around, we see a shred of the infinate possible combinations of an infinate variety of forms. Anything can happen. -Annie Dillard A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

This is a piece of phenominal driftwood on the coast of Portland, OR. Even in something entitled debris there is a beauty that is haunting. I recommend this book by Annie Dillard to anyone that longs to see the world and awe in the intricacys of all that is around us and a Creator that somehow links all these billions and trillions of elements together to live.

Caption under picture two

"Partially Under Cover"

Post Card:

"I used to like you but I don't now. Don't hurry I might come back soon.

Yours Truly, Alice

Gone but not forgotten"

This is dated 1909

I found these postcards at an antique store and I could not pass up this one from 1909. Closure is a funny thing and I don't really think Alice got any. The first one is an Amish wax museum which is priceless.

Verona Hates Those Catching up on Current Events

Last weekend my sister and I walked to Verona and this is what we came across...It was priceless. I mean I want to pretend I am a man just so I can get my haircut by this barber. I do not know who he hates so much, but hopefully he won't have a trap door and be singing about his unjust imprisonment with razors gleaming.

I had to post this because it was halarious.

Thoughts on Consumption

CONSUME

1. to destroy or expend by use; use up.
2. to eat or drink up; devour.
3. to destroy, as by decomposition or burning: Fire consumed the forest.
4. to spend (money, time, etc.) wastefully.
5. to absorb; engross: consumed with curiosity.
6. to undergo destruction; waste away.
7. to use or use up consumer goods.

So I have been thinking that the work Consume is pretty intense. God is a consuming fire and our sin can consume us. The main way I think of consume is in the food sense. You rip open a plastic wrapper in minutes you consume whatever processed food is inside. Consume is all about taking and using without giving anything back except maybe waste. If life is only about consuming is it worth living because honestly if I think about only exsisting to consume it makes me want to cry. So much of what is good in life and worth energy is the things that are not about our needs and fit the economic label of consumerist society. Aren't you glad that we do not consume communion but we partake it. Partake at least connotates that there is an act of sharing and participating. God can definately consume us in that we are at His totally and absolute mercy. There is no way we can consume God because ultimately it is not about swallowing something whole and then forgetting about it. It is about partaking.


CONSUMER

1. One that consumes, especially one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and manufacturing.
2. A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain.

As far as I am concerned right now I feel defination 1 & 2 are one in the same. I want to be more then a consumer and learn how create not destroy, provide sustinance and not just eat, to save and not just spend, to emit and not just absorb, to give and not just get.