Not a lot of people outside of New Jersey know that South Jersey and North Jersey are very distinctly different places. When people find out that I'm from Jersey they says things like, "Joisey", "Boids", and "Hoity-Toity". But that's North Jersey, people. We don't talk like that down here.
South Jersey means farms: sweet corn, tomatoes, peaches, and dairy. It means beach, but not fancy-shmancy New Yorkers on the weekend beach, it means boardwalks and carnival games, and water rides, and just good ole beach. It means Russian mafia, Italian mafia, Greek Mafia, and lots of other mafias. It means high teen pregnancy rates, lots of drugs, and halfway houses. It means Wawa coffee and hoagies. In Vineland, it means Arroz con Gandules and Pernil and the Puerto Rican festival, the Greek festival, the Russian festival. It's not all good stuff, that's true. But it's not North Jersey.
North Jersey is yuppies and pharmaceutical companies and towns that all have the same name.
Anyway, just wanted to vent a little. It's not "Joisey". We don't talk like that.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Why I believe in Jesus
I learned something really good from John Calvin as I was flying to America the other day. He says that no one can be convinced that the Bible is true unless the Holy Spirit convinces them. Sometimes I have thought, "what if someone asks me why do I believe in Jesus as opposed to believing in something/someone else or not believing in anything at all." This has given me a little trouble because I can't give any convincing arguments. I'm not an intellectual or an apologist. I'm basically one of those people who are described in I Corinthians 1:18-31. And as I look again at that passage, I see that Paul and Calvin are using the same argument: "those whom God has called". I believe because God has called me. Because God called me, He has convinced me through His spirit. That's basically it. If someone believes, they believe on account of God's Spirit convincing them. If someone does not believe, they haven't been taught by the Spirit to believe. It just comes down to that. In chapter seven of book one of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin says "the only true faith is that which the Spirit of God seals on our hearts. Nay, the modest and teachable reader will find a sufficient reason in the promise contained in Isaiah, that all the children of the renovated Church 'shall be taught of the Lord' (Isaiah liv. 13)." I love that!
Calvin closed this chapter with this: "If at any time, then, we are troubled at the small number of those who believe, let us, on the other hand, call to mind, that none comprehend the mysteries of God save those to whom it is given."
Calvin closed this chapter with this: "If at any time, then, we are troubled at the small number of those who believe, let us, on the other hand, call to mind, that none comprehend the mysteries of God save those to whom it is given."
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Michael's in the Air Right Now
Or taking off or landing. He's coming home, but it's a several plane-changes affair. By my calculations, he hasn't quite crossed the border yet. That boy is coming back to America and albeit we still won't be in the same time zone, at least he won't be waking up when I'm going to bed or vice-versa. I couldn't have done this for all of the last year. Transatlanticism (transpacificism?) sucks. Transprovincialism (transstatalism?) is hard enough.
Anyway, I'm like the Jack's Mannequin song, counting down the hours and the minutes that he is not here. So pilot keep it steady, because every inch of me is bruised.
Anyway, I'm like the Jack's Mannequin song, counting down the hours and the minutes that he is not here. So pilot keep it steady, because every inch of me is bruised.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Four-Way Stops
I am back in Vineland, New Jersey, home of Welch's Grape Juice, RC Cola, the Dandelion Wine Festival, and about a decade of my childhood.
It's not as weird being back as I thought it might be. I am, admittedly, a little disoriented but for the most part I'm finding my way about. There is however, a thing of wonder I want to share with all of you. This thing that amazes me the most, that for me has become the great symbol of American...American-ness is the four way stop.
My mom was driving my uncle to the church where he's getting married on Saturday to try to catch the pastor (which is another great story but for another post) and I was in the back seat zoning out the way jet-lagged people do. But then it happened. We came up to a four-way stop. We were the third car to arrive at the intersection. First the man to the left pulled through the intersection. Then the man opposite us, who had arrived seconds after the first man and seconds before us, pulled through. Then we did.
My jaw dropped. I was speechless. And I wondered that the American people allow themselves to be governed by a large, red, octagonal piece of metal.
You see, in the Great Country Across the Sea, the right of way belongs to the person who believes it's his right of way. I've sat in intersections for 20 minutes before because everyone, in all four directions, decided to move into the intersection despite the red light, and we are all inch by inch battling to move through. Once, stuck on a bus in such a predicament, I watched a police man watch the traffic. The look on his face said, "I'll just sit on the hood of my car and wait this one out, because there's no way I'm going to convince 6 bus drivers and 50 motorists that they don't have the right of way on this one."
But the American people, being deeply ingrained with the weight of the law from birth, have all agreed that if there is a large, red, octagonal piece of metal, that they should and will abide by it's command.
And I think that's awesome.
It's not as weird being back as I thought it might be. I am, admittedly, a little disoriented but for the most part I'm finding my way about. There is however, a thing of wonder I want to share with all of you. This thing that amazes me the most, that for me has become the great symbol of American...American-ness is the four way stop.
My mom was driving my uncle to the church where he's getting married on Saturday to try to catch the pastor (which is another great story but for another post) and I was in the back seat zoning out the way jet-lagged people do. But then it happened. We came up to a four-way stop. We were the third car to arrive at the intersection. First the man to the left pulled through the intersection. Then the man opposite us, who had arrived seconds after the first man and seconds before us, pulled through. Then we did.
My jaw dropped. I was speechless. And I wondered that the American people allow themselves to be governed by a large, red, octagonal piece of metal.
You see, in the Great Country Across the Sea, the right of way belongs to the person who believes it's his right of way. I've sat in intersections for 20 minutes before because everyone, in all four directions, decided to move into the intersection despite the red light, and we are all inch by inch battling to move through. Once, stuck on a bus in such a predicament, I watched a police man watch the traffic. The look on his face said, "I'll just sit on the hood of my car and wait this one out, because there's no way I'm going to convince 6 bus drivers and 50 motorists that they don't have the right of way on this one."
But the American people, being deeply ingrained with the weight of the law from birth, have all agreed that if there is a large, red, octagonal piece of metal, that they should and will abide by it's command.
And I think that's awesome.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
I think I forgot to mention...
That I'm on my way home. On the train.
It's going to go like this: WH to BJ to Ulan Batar (Mongolia) to Irkutsk (Russia) to Moscow (Russia) to Warsaw (Poland) to Berlin (Germany) to Paris (France) to London (England) all by train. We took the Chinese train to Beijing, then the Trans-Mongolian and are now on the Trans-Siberian. Then we'll get on the Eurorail system. Then fly home.
We left WH June 28th, and we'll leave London July 17. I'll land in Philly at about 4pm on the 17th.
Yesterday, we went to the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal. It's about an hour and a half east of Irkutsk. The thing that I found myself most affected by during my time in Big Red was the lack of open spaces and the lack of places to go to be alone. That lake was like a release for me for me after all that time. (I remember once in Thailand I got up in the middle of the night to go to the roof of our hotel to sit and be alone. But I was still in the middle of a great big city, the view of the mountains in the distance blocked by smog.)
The sky was a clear blue and the ridge of the mountain was a sharp outline against the sky. Where the mountains ended there was a "range" of big, billowy clouds white like fresh milk or clean teeth or bleached sheets... The water was a deep blue, except where it lapped up on the rocky beach where it was clear as glass.
We sat on the rocks for a good hour, playing with the rocks and talking, enjoying the sun. It was nice to not be serious, to laugh and play like children completely worry free. It was safe and happy and uninterrupted in a way that I haven't experienced in a long time. If ever.
When we were in Beijing, we stopped in a small park outside the Forbidden City. We laid in the grass a while, but then a guard came and clapped at us and very sternly said, "No."
There were no such incidents at Lake Baikal.
It's going to go like this: WH to BJ to Ulan Batar (Mongolia) to Irkutsk (Russia) to Moscow (Russia) to Warsaw (Poland) to Berlin (Germany) to Paris (France) to London (England) all by train. We took the Chinese train to Beijing, then the Trans-Mongolian and are now on the Trans-Siberian. Then we'll get on the Eurorail system. Then fly home.
We left WH June 28th, and we'll leave London July 17. I'll land in Philly at about 4pm on the 17th.
Yesterday, we went to the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal. It's about an hour and a half east of Irkutsk. The thing that I found myself most affected by during my time in Big Red was the lack of open spaces and the lack of places to go to be alone. That lake was like a release for me for me after all that time. (I remember once in Thailand I got up in the middle of the night to go to the roof of our hotel to sit and be alone. But I was still in the middle of a great big city, the view of the mountains in the distance blocked by smog.)
The sky was a clear blue and the ridge of the mountain was a sharp outline against the sky. Where the mountains ended there was a "range" of big, billowy clouds white like fresh milk or clean teeth or bleached sheets... The water was a deep blue, except where it lapped up on the rocky beach where it was clear as glass.
We sat on the rocks for a good hour, playing with the rocks and talking, enjoying the sun. It was nice to not be serious, to laugh and play like children completely worry free. It was safe and happy and uninterrupted in a way that I haven't experienced in a long time. If ever.
When we were in Beijing, we stopped in a small park outside the Forbidden City. We laid in the grass a while, but then a guard came and clapped at us and very sternly said, "No."
There were no such incidents at Lake Baikal.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Insight from the fathers
"Although our mind cannot conceive of God, without rendering some worship to him, it will not, however, be sufficient simply to hold that he is the only being whom all ought to worship and adore, unless we are also persuaded that he is the fountain of all goodness, and that we must seek everything in him, and none but him. My meaning is: we must be persuaded not only that as he once formed the world, so he sustains it by his boundless power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, in particular, rules the human race with justice and judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by his protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause; in this way we must learn to expect and ask all things from him, and thankfully ascribe to him whatever we receive."
-John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
chapter II, section I
-John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
chapter II, section I
Things I will miss about this place (or at least think they were interesting enough to blog about)
Poor farmers with nice cell phones
Many people here don't have a landline but they have a cell phone. I'll see peasants doing dirty manual labor either here in town or out in the countryside and the minute I start to think they must not have any worldly possessions, they reach in their pocket to answer their cell phone. One thing about the idea of cell phones in this country is that it works very well with Chinese people's lifestyles. People here do not plan very far in advance for anything and most events are planned and happen at the last minute. As a groom and bride are standing outside a restaurant greeting their wedding guests, they'll also be on the phone inviting and reminding people to come to their wedding. No matter what the occasion is and no matter how many times I invite others to come, I still need to call up my friends on the day of. People here change their plans all the time and are constantly moving. There's not much of a concept of hanging out with friends in one place. After 30 minutes, everyone migrates to another's house or club or whatever. After 30 minutes of that, more migration. Shops and restaurants and businesses open and close and change location all the time. There's no such thing as an answering machine here. Maybe they exist in other parts of this country but they are nowhere to be found here. Locals think I'm weird because I didn't have a cell phone until I was 24 and that was in this country. They ask, "how are people supposed to get a hold of you when you don't have a cell phone?" I say, "that's the beauty of it. Everyday when I came home I got to check my answering machine. It was like Christmas." I'm not against cell phones. In fact, my cell phone has made my life here so much easier and its actually been life saving on several occasions. One thing I have been wondering for the last few years is this: What came first.....the cell phone or the lifestyle?
Many people here don't have a landline but they have a cell phone. I'll see peasants doing dirty manual labor either here in town or out in the countryside and the minute I start to think they must not have any worldly possessions, they reach in their pocket to answer their cell phone. One thing about the idea of cell phones in this country is that it works very well with Chinese people's lifestyles. People here do not plan very far in advance for anything and most events are planned and happen at the last minute. As a groom and bride are standing outside a restaurant greeting their wedding guests, they'll also be on the phone inviting and reminding people to come to their wedding. No matter what the occasion is and no matter how many times I invite others to come, I still need to call up my friends on the day of. People here change their plans all the time and are constantly moving. There's not much of a concept of hanging out with friends in one place. After 30 minutes, everyone migrates to another's house or club or whatever. After 30 minutes of that, more migration. Shops and restaurants and businesses open and close and change location all the time. There's no such thing as an answering machine here. Maybe they exist in other parts of this country but they are nowhere to be found here. Locals think I'm weird because I didn't have a cell phone until I was 24 and that was in this country. They ask, "how are people supposed to get a hold of you when you don't have a cell phone?" I say, "that's the beauty of it. Everyday when I came home I got to check my answering machine. It was like Christmas." I'm not against cell phones. In fact, my cell phone has made my life here so much easier and its actually been life saving on several occasions. One thing I have been wondering for the last few years is this: What came first.....the cell phone or the lifestyle?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
"Have it your way" doesn't exist over here
Service in this country works just like this and I certainly feel Jerry's frustration. In fact, I've had confrontations that played out just like this one from Seinfeld.
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