15 of 30: patient delicious

Last night, Michaela and I stayed in. We spent over 2 hours cooking dinner. That's because we made our own pasta for ravioli, and then filled them with our (quite tweaked) version of this: sweet potato carrot ginger curry filling. Boiled them. Baked them. Ate them with steamed brussel sprouts and a salad. Ate them while sitting on the couch tucked into blankets, in an official condition called "ultimate comfort." My oh my. I always love a high-maintenance dinner, but I'm sometimes too lazy to put in the necessary work and patience. Fortunately, there are folks around me who won't let me get off so easily. A long slow dinner is always the right idea. Cheers.

14 of 30: Proud

Yesterday afternoon, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback visited my school, Donnelly College. He was there to hold a press conference about a nice chunk of change we have received ($223,000!) in a grant for our Lansing campus. We are one of only two schools in Kansas and just a handful nationwide who offer for-credit classes an a correctional institution. Turns out, getting some education while being in jail has a significant effect on recidivism rates. So in case you find yourself in Lansing, just know that it's not too late to earn your Associate's degree. (And if you're really lucky, maybe you'll have some Gitmo hand-me-downs for your neighbors. Imagine, my co-workers teaching "terrorists" some basic math or business skills...)

13 of 30: A Wrinkle in...

I just (finally) finished a book a college friend lent to me over New Years:


Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle.
This was a delicious book. Because it is about faith, freedom, and creativity -- and how maybe they are kinda sorta the same thing. Because it is about "art," but also making creative choices, the gumption to do the thing you know you need/want to do, regardless of what makes a whole lot of sense.

Blips:

Freedom is a terrible gift, and the theory behind all dictatorships is that “the people” do not want freedom. They want bread and circuses. They want workman’s compensation and fringe benefits and TV. Give up your free will, give up your freedom to make choices, listen to the expert, and you will have three cars in your garage, steak on the table, and you will no longer have to suffer the agony of choice.

Over and over again throughout the centuries we have made choices which were meant to free us, but which ultimately have limited and restricted us. But the artist has retained some of the freedom we have lost in the industrial dailiness of our living.

We live under the delusion that if we can acquire control, we can understand God, or we can write the great American novel. But the only way we can brush against the hem of the Lord, or hope to be part of the creative process, is to have the courage, the faith, to abandon control.

12 of 30: no-more-face

Saturday Night:
Went out.
Danced my face off.
Here's why:
Hearts of Darkness Afro-beat.
Plus it was a pre-Mardi Gras fest.
There are, I believe, 17 of them.
There were outfits, and horse heads, and sparkles.
The end.

11 of 30

James Homer Bridges, 1925-2009

You were loved.