She, shis, and shim

Totally stealing this off of someone else's blog because it's that good.

One of the side-effects of learning Spanish over the last 2 1/2 years, and spending a lot of time with folks who know little english, is that I've come to the full realization how ridiculous the english language actually is - especially when it comes to spelling. Now my wife will tell you I'm not much of an accomplished speller, but it took taking the effort to learn Spanish to realize why. Anyhow, whoever wrote this poem did a great job pointing out how impossible learning to spell english must feel like.

THE POEM
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Xacabeo 2010 and La Fuente en Ligonde

2010 is the next holy year for the Camino, which occurs when St. James' birthday falls on a Sunday. It is a special year with a special name, the Xacobeo. Among other things, there is a special door in the cathedral in Santiago that is only open during these holy years. All that to say, it's a unique time, and the numbers of pilgrims explode during these years.

In case you didn't know 2010 is right around the corner, and I was just notified of these two videos posted by the Xacabeo organization. The first is simply beautiful. It's like a moving-picture wordless photo essay that captures some of the magic and mystery that many pilgrims are searching for on the camino. It is cool to watch, but I must say that it feels way more relaxing than I remember my short camino.

The second video is of La Fuente del Peregrino in Ligonde - this is one of two evangelical/protestant hostels that we know of on the camino. It is owned and run by Agape - the Spanish branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. We had the pleasure of visiting the hostel with the kids in September to see the albergue and meet some of the staff that organize the ministry there. It is a very neat place that they have, and our vision for a hostel in Santiago is very similar to what they are already doing in Ligonde.

Would you hike this?

El Caminito del Rey. I believe that is translated as "The Crazy Way." Just kidding - it's actually translated "The King's little pathway." At any rate, this is a pretty amazing video. This has really nothing to do at all with the Camino that ends in Santiago. Except perhaps that they both are in Spain, and share the word 'Camino.'

If you want to learn more you can here at Wikipedia.

So it's been 4 months...

Ok - great way to keep readers coming right? Blog once every 4 months. We had a busy summer, highlighted by a successful 10 week visit to the states. It's not that I don't have stuff to blog about. It's just I havn't been taking the time to do so.

Like for instance, I could blog about how today is the 8 year anniversary of 9/11. I could review my memories of the day and try to come up with a serious, solemn, appropriate, and thoughtful comment about it. But I think that's both beyond me today, and being done in far better ways by people far more talented than I am.

I did drop the all-important recommendation below for Owl City today.

At any rate, it's my intention to be a more proactive blogger. I'm in a couple of good books that should give more fodder.

Stay tuned!

Buy this album

C'mon. You won't regret it!

Just go on out to iTunes and click buy. This is one of my favorite finds of the last several years. I havn't enjoyed a discovery like this since Hem, or maybe Sufjan.

Simply put, this is happy music. It's joyful. It's playful. It puts you in a good mood, and makes you want to dance like a 3 year old.

You can watch a video here (for some reason, Youtube removed the embed option).

I discovered Owl City (just one guy from MN, actually - some city) via iTunes song of the week - by far the best lead iTunes has ever given me.

Would Jesus make a good lifeguard?

About a month ago I was musing about things Jesus says that don't sound like he would say them.

In general, I've been rediscovering how hard, challenging, confusing, and seemingly random Jesus can be.  Because of this I've started to read Robert Farrar Capon's book Kingdom, Grace, Judgment:  Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus.  I'm only a few chapters in, but it is promising to be a really good and thought provoking book. 

He had this to say about the Jesus presented in the Bible: 

The New Testament proclaims an unlikely Savior.  The work of Jesus in his incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension makes no worldly sense at all.  The portrait the Gospels paint is that of a lifeguard who leaps into the surf, swims to the drowning girl, and then, instead of doing a cross-chest carry, drowns with her, revives three days later, and walks off the beach with assurances that everything including the apparently still-dead girl, is hunky-dory. 

What a great way to explain how upside-down God's plan seems to us.

Jon Troast redefines the "Intimate Show."

Our friend Jon Troast (he's almost family - I think we need to coin a term for 'my cousin's brother-in-law) is doing something that is adventurous, enterprising, and just plain cool.  

See, Jon is a musician who does most of his concerts in living rooms.  For $100 dollars you can have Jon give a one hour concert in your living room and invite some of your friends (or people you'd like to become your friends!).  That in and of itself is pretty cool.  But right now, he's doing 100 concerts in 100 days as he drives around the country.  You can get a sample of how it might look by watching this bit from youtube:

I've found 6 of these 8-or-so minute montages of his tour on youtube.  You can also check out his website here, or his myspace page...

My parents and sister hosted Jon for a concert last year, and they enjoyed it.  We couldn't make it for obvious reasons.  My personal two cents is that this is a really fantastic experience, and a great way for folks to come together and enjoy the magic of music and community together.  I wish him the best of luck.  If you are looking for something unique to do with your friends, check him out.  You can contact him through his site above.  I'm not aware that he has any plans for a European tour, but if he does, he'd have a stop in La Coruña.  

Oh yeah, his music's pretty good too :-)  You can sample it as he's giving away a free download every week on his site.  If you are interested you can find his 5 albums on iTunes, among other retailers.  

Pilgrim Life

A friend sent me a link to a blog that contained this video.  In addition to watching the video, read the blog for a different take (two friends hiked: one made the video, the other wrote the blog).  It's a nice concise description of the camino experience.

I have only walked 6 days myself - but watching and reading this certainly excites me to walk the whole thing someday (I just made the observation to Faith that it will likely not be until we're into our late 40's or 50's before we'll get to hike the whole thing together).  

While it is a nice window into the pilgrim experience, I hope that you find it a reminder that it is not necessary to walk the camino to live life as a pilgrim.  Life is a journey - slow down and enjoy it.

Inspired Biking

Color me impressed!

Magical Exhibition

Wednesday nite Faith and I had the privilege of attending the inaugural night of a friend's art exhibit. Our friend from church, Luis Guillermo Guerra Aguilera (Lucho for short), is a talented watercolor painter. Originally from Chile, he has been living in Galicia for a number of years, painting primarily in and around one of our favorite spots - Finisterre (Fisterra in Gallego - translated 'end of the earth'). The event was held in a very fancy social club in Coruña. We enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and go out without the kids. The night consisted of a short but mesmerizing concert by a accordion player. We then heard several people speak, including a friend who helped him coordinate the event, one of the club members who knows Lucho and helped organize the event with the club, a short blessing from the pastor of our church, Roberto, and then some words from the artist himself. After that we had about an hour to mix, nibble on some appetizers, drink a little champagne, and most rewardingly, take in some 40 or more of Lucho's paintings. We've known him for most of our time here, and seen just a few small samples of his work. It was a blessing to see his talent on display. I also really enjoyed hearing him as the artist give praise to the Lord. It was a fun and refreshing night.

If you read Spanish, you can read a short interview with him in a local paper.

We did take a handful of pictures as well. If you click on the slideshow below, you can view them in larger formats on the picasa website, as well as see my comments.