Travelin' Light

So I’m back in America, after a rather annoying trip. I’ll keep what could be a long story short. My Sunday flight from Frankfurt to Washington, DC was fine. I was enjoying my 3 hour layover at Dulles airport when they announced that my flight to Raleigh was cancelled. I had them put me on a flight to Charlotte (where I could have also been picked up). That flight was also cancelled. So they put me on a flight to Raleigh leaving the next morning, rather than that night, because the flight leaving that night was completely booked and had a long standby list. It was about 10PM when I saw the night flight to Raleigh was delayed, and I, not particularly looking forward to spending the night in the airport, decided I would try my luck with the standby list. I was the next to last person let on the plane, which left around 11PM. Through all of this I spent some of my time praying (that I would work out some form of travel plan that was safe and efficient, that I would have food and money enough, that no one would try to steal my stuff, that I would be patient and peaceful as I waited for this thing to work itself out, that my checked bags which were in some sort of airport baggage limbo would make it to Raleigh when I did, and most of all that I would avoid acting like that crazy lady flipping out at customer service because the airline wouldn’t pay for her hotel. Seriously, she needed to chill.), some of my time laughing (because seriously, what else could I do? I think it was after my second flight cancellation that the ordeal stopped being serious and started being just plain comical to me.), some of my time taking pictures and strolling the concourse, and some of my time playing rummy with this girl Emily who was in Intervarsity at the college in Michigan from which she just graduated. All in all, it was more exciting than bothersome because solving problems and working out bad situations is kind of fun for me. Weird, I know, but I can’t help it. I’ve always loved being wrong, loved making mistakes, loved being put in positions where a solution is needed and needed quickly because those are the time when I get to face challenges and grow and learn. It’s cool for me.

My sincerest thanks go out to Seth who picked me up in Raleigh and gave me a place to stay that night, and had to suffer through the many changes to the plan, never knowing just what it was he would be called upon to do until the final phone call which went something like this: "Hey Seth, I’m getting on an airplane right now. Can you pick me up in about and hour and a half? Great, thanks!" He’s a good friend and brother.

Anyway, after an incredibly deep sleep I got to have lunch with Seth and some other close friends of mine (Daniel, Joel, and Wyatt, in alphabetical order), before getting on a train to my grandma’s house. Then today I went to the mall to grab lunch and catch up with yet another great friend, Rachel White, who is amazing. It’s all been so wonderfully overwhelming to get to be back with my friends again, and it’s not even everyone yet!

As I surf the television channels at my grandma’s house, though, I am recalling a few things I didn’t particularly miss about America. There was a commercial that would allow me to have a baby’s voice singing Daniel Powter’s "Bad Day" as my cell phone ringtone, for instance, which seems to me quite simply masochistic. I also saw one of Ben Stein’s Clear Eyes commercials and I thought to myself, "This man had an Emmy award winning game show on Comedy Central. He was a speech-writer for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1976 Time magazine speculated that he was Deep Throat, the confidential informant in the Watergate scandal. But boy, my eyes sure are itchy, so thank you Ben Stein for offering me this product."

Not to mention Maury. Today’s show was about married men who pay for sex. There was guest on the show who would take his video camera out into his community and catch men with prostitutes and put the videos on the web so that everyone could know what they had done. Part of me says, "Way to help clean up the streets of your community. You obviously care a great deal about the environment in which your children grow up and you’re doing something pro-active about it." Part of me says, "Seriously? You couldn't find a real job? Or, you know, a life?" And another part of me says, "What about forgiveness? What about privacy? What about loving sinners? Does this actually contribute to solving the systemic problems of men unhappy in their marriages, women unable (or unwilling) to obtain legitimate professions, and the decreasing levels of morality in society today? Or is it just a way to embarrass those men and ruin their marital relationships, put these women in jail where they probably receive no counseling or sincere examples of how to better themselves, and eliminate our cultural immorality on a strictly cosmetic, outward level without addressing the true underlying problems in the lives of these people that lead to their poor choices?"

Unfortunately, I don’t have very good answers to any of these questions, but I’m almost finished reading a book that offers the beginnings of answers. It’s called Kingdom Come, by Allen Wakabayashi. It’s basically about Christ’s more socially based goals such as missional outreach, the appropriate image/behavior of the community of Christ, etc. etc., rather than the individually based goals of living without sin, accepting Jesus into your heart, etc. etc. It’s about how we The Church need to be making a greater effort to present God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Once I finish reading it, I’ll be back with some of the things I like and dislike about it, which will hopefully help explain it’s premise and goals a little better than I just did.

Until then, as-salamu alaykum, and rock on in the Olympics, America!