Thank you for the amazing gifts on Sunday celebrating ten years.  I was quite unsuspecting.  The cards were greatly appreciated and that artwork…Beautiful.  For those of you who weren’t present or didn’t get a close look, here’s a picture of the 12 canvases from eight CMC artists, stories pieced together like a comforter. As a sequel to the blog two weeks ago, here are some more observations on pastorhood:  When one goes to seminary one is told, correctly, that being a pastor is like many things.  It’s like a poet, a social worker, a CEO, a scholar, a community activist, a public speaker, a chaplain, an entrepreneur, a teacher, an administrator.  It includes improvising like a jazz musician.  Within the span of one day you could be a grief counselor, a janitor, a writer, an event planner, and a volunteer coordinator.  And some days you could be nothing but an emailer.

As far as I can tell, the origins of the rainbow pride flag have no connection to the biblical Noah story.  Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office, felt the gay community needed a symbol to rally around and asked his friend Gilbert Baker to design it.  Baker chose a flag because of its connection to pride, and the rainbow because it was naturally occurring and highly visible in the sky.  The rainbow flag was originally eight colors with each stripe assigned a meaning: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.  Hot pink and turquoise proved difficult to produce in the manufacturing process so the flag was soon reduced to six colors.  References HERE and HERE. In the Bible, the rainbow shows up in Genesis chapter 9

This month marks ten years I’ve been at Columbus Mennonite.  In a word, it’s been good, and I’m grateful to be thinking about more goodness ahead rather than looking for an exit ramp.  Pastoring is many things, and I may take some liberties this month or even summer to reflect on pastorhood in the blog.  Here’s one story: The summer after my first year of seminary I attended a conference that included a panel of seasoned pastors.  One of the questions posed by the moderator went something like “When did you first realize you had become a pastor?”  One pastor’s response stood out.  He told a story from early in his ministry when he was called to the house of a family in which someone had recently died by suicide.  He was asked to carry out the mattress on which the person died because the family couldn’t bear to do

A friend recently recommended the book Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price. This friend found the book to be helpful in understanding his own experiences as a “masked” Autistic person, so I decided to read it to help myself better understand and relate to him as well as other neurodiverse people.  The opening lines of the inside cover give a nice summary of what the book is about: “For every visibly Autistic person you meet, there are countless ‘masked’ Autistic people who pass as neurotypical. Masking is a common coping mechanism in which Autistic people hide their identifiably Autistic traits in order to fit in with societal norms, adopting a superficial personality at the expense of their mental health.” I found the book to be a great resource for understanding the diversity of Autistic experiences, for learning about the history of Autism, for appreciating the

CMC is having a good book writing year.  This past Sunday Katie Mast shared that she and Ivan have co-authored a book with their daughter Krista about the family’s journey with Krista’s schizophrenia.  It’s rare enough for someone with this illness to be willing and able to write openly about it.  It’s another thing when it’s a family you know.  Orange Roses: A Memoir on Mental Health from One Family’s Perspective is now available for order. Sarah Werner has written Rooted Faith: Practices for Living Well on a Fragile Planet which is available for pre-order, released September 19.  It integrates Sarah’s work as a scholar and practitioner.  The title speaks for itself! And Elisa Leahy has written Tethered to Other Stars, also available for pre-order, released October 3.  The fictional story is partly inspired by CMC’s relationship with Edith Espinal. There may be other books in the works or already