Elizabeth March 19th, 2007

If you’re not reading Real Live Preacher, you should be. It doesn’t matter what your personal spirituality or ideology might be – Gordon Atkinson is saying things that everybody should listen to. I find myself back at his blog every few months, and then get stuck there for an hour reading the stuff I’ve missed. Seriously good, left-leaning, open-minded stuff.

I remember the first time I read his blog, after following a link to an article in which he discusses the Bible’s position on homosexuality. It begins with this:

Sit down Christian. You cannot wave your unread Bible and scare me because I know the larger story that runs through it beginning to end. I’m trying to resist the temptation to snatch it from your hands and beat you with it. I am your worst nightmare, a Texas preacher who knows the good book better than you do. Show me your scriptures. Show me how you justify condemning homosexual people.

Show me what you got, Christian. The Sodom story? That story is about people who wanted to commit a brutal rape. Let’s all say it together, “God doesn’t like rape”. You could have listened to your heart and learned that, Christian. Move on. What else you got?

Read on…

Passionate words from a frustrated man, one who has taken the time to think critically about what he believes and why (and wishes the rest of us would do the same). I remember writing pages in my paper journal when I discovered that post, because for the first time it allowed me to put into words the way I’ve felt throughout my adult life as a Christian. It helped me to clarify the discomfort I’ve always felt about the institution, and blind faith based on Chinese whispers. RLP’s take on the world was very liberating for somebody like me.

He recently wrote an article called It’s just like Nuke-You-Lur in which he discusses Bush’s unwillingness to change direction, even if he’s walking towards failure. He links to another article at Prodigal Aspersions, in which the author explains why Bush will never leave Iraq, and never pronounce “nuclear” correctly. Both articles are great reading.

But the article that really prompted me to write this post was the follow-up to that one, in which RLP re-posts his reply to a commenter. I wanted to share it here, because I identify with this strongly myself:

I believe you are exactly right about the people in Iraq. I watched a documentary made up of films taken by average Iraqi citizens. Many said they love Americans and appreciate our freedom and what our country has made possible and allows to be possible. But many have a problem with this administration and this war. Others may even support it.

But here’s the bad news about which I wrote. If 200 people out of a million are furious and determined to cause revolutionary problems, they can. I mean, how many people does it take to strap on dynamite before it becomes a problem? So peace in Iraq will not be dependant on the average citizens. There will be no peace because there are thousands of angry militant Iraqis and insurgents from a variety of countries with a stunningly complex variety of issues who are working against peace.

And they will not allow peace as long as we are there. And sadly, if their only goal is destroying peace so that we will finally give up and leave, they have the power to do this, right in the face of the mightiest military power the world has ever known.

Now please hear me. Nowhere in this piece did I suggest that we should pull out now. Hell, how would I know what we should do? But I do believe that the situation will never be stabilized while we are there. Mostly because there are so many who are determined that it will not be stable. So I think the day will have to come when we just leave because we can’t fix things and our presence might even be making things worse. I don’t know when that day comes, but how can it not come? Unless we stay forever.

Time will show if I am right or wrong. On that day I have no desire to say “I told you so” if I am right. But I will be SO HAPPY to be proved wrong and I will shout it. “I was wrong!

Because I would love for Iraq to have a peaceful, free country.

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Elizabeth March 18th, 2007

Yesterday was my birthday, and millions celebrated it with beer and green hair. The problem with being born on St Patrick’s Day is that I never actually feel like going out on the day, it’s just too much hassle. I hate not being able to get to the bar – the free birthday drinks lose their appeal if you sober up in between each one.

Yes, I am aware that I am starting to sound my age.

Up in the Northern hemisphere they’re still celebrating my birthday. The one nice thing about having my boyfriend in another timezone is that my birthday is now 38 hours long. He’s just about to leave the house and have a drink for me

Anyway, to be honest my birthday itself was pretty depressing overall but I did get a nice haul of presents. I got a signed cookbook from Spirit House, plus a CD and apron to match, some jewellery, some house stuff for my move, and money to put towards the printing of my holiday photos and the framing of some prints I bought overseas. Plus, I had wanted to hire a treadmill for a few months but my parents found a great one second-hand and bought it for me. It looks like it’s never been used, so I guess I should be careful to not fall into that same trap. It’s sort of enormous, but I now have the beginnings of a home gym. Time to cancel the real gym membership that’s been collecting dust recently.

So today I’m beginning something new, tentatively entitled my New Age Resolutions. When I woke up I drank a big bottle of water, took my vitamins and asthma medication and had a good breakfast. I’m going to start my day this way as regularly as possible, and fit in heaps of exercise (despite the high 30C/100F temperatures – that’s why God invented air conditioning). I’m going to use that time to watch a bunch of movies that I’m yet to see, and listen to a bunch of albums that I haven’t gotten around to listening to.

Less coffee, even less alcohol than I currently drink, less sugar and less meals based on carbs. Lots more fruit, and continue to keep up my vegetables. In short, I think what I need to do is turn my food pyramid upside down and go from there.

It’s time to start walking the talk and get back to being healthy again.

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Elizabeth March 14th, 2007

Yesterday I crossed something off my list of goals for 2007 – I did a cooking class with Mum. We went to Spirit House up at Yandina, which is a beautiful restaurant and cooking school in a rainforest setting. The restaurant wraps around a pond, and there are lots of paths and boardwalks through the gardens dotted with Thai statues. It’s such a pretty place.

The class was great, and we made some terrific food. There were 17 of us in the class and we were divided into smaller groups to work on individual dishes.

Here are some photos from the day. Is it just me, or could our chef double for Jennifer Aniston from some angles?

Spicy Mussel Soup

Whole Snapper

Prawn & Coconut Fritters

The class was held in a big open-windowed kitchen, with lots of breeze and atmosphere. Afterwards we sat at a long table and washed down our food with a glass of wine. It was a great day, and I really recommend these classes to anybody who can get there. It can be really hard to get a place, so don’t make it a last-minute thing!

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Elizabeth March 1st, 2007

I have been slack with my blog, and I’m sorry to the three of you who read it.

In my defense I have spent the past week coughing up mucus in every colour of the rainbow, while holding my frontal lobe in place so it doesn’t explode through my forehead. My disease is yet to be diagnosed, but compares most closely to SARS. Only much, much worse.

Contracting SARS(om,mw) in this part of the world has been interesting because it has allowed me to experience Nyquil’s effects for the first time. Waking each morning feels like coming out of a 6-week coma, and falling asleep is like walking through a tunnel towards a bright light to the sound of 30 harps. Then there’s the dreams – the dreams that blur the line between fantasy and reality and make you believe upon waking that you really did just quit your job at KFC and are now running through a city in the middle of the night holding a joystick that summons the appropriate emergency vehicles for the fires, muggings and shootings you encounter.

Yes, I am following the recommended dosage. Don’t judge me.

Another new experience for me this week was pressurized “cheese” in a can. “No need to refrigerate!” it told me happily on the side. Tim refused to pay the extra dollar or two for the can labelled “Made with real cheese!” so I commemorated the occasion by designing him a skull-n-crossbones Triscuit when we got home. It seemed appropriate.

More updates when I am less medicated.

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