Becky, Where are you?

I thought I would see something with Becky in Oregon. A picture with Emma & Sophie & Heather would be fun!!! Hope you are having fun!

See you.
Cheri

Oregon

hello hello. We are saddened as our week in oregon comes to a close but its been a lovely time. some highlights included (but certainly not limited to) seeeing where emma goes to school, walking around portland a couple of days (not in succession), going to the famed rolloff farms, which is a pumpkin farm from the TLC series "little people, big world" (it's run by dwarfs...todd and i are posed with amy the dwarf mom- probably the highlight of my life), and finally we spent the weekend at the coast. a busy week indeed. The weather has been perfect. can't wait to get back to the hot, stuffy, terrible amounts of terribleness that is our hometown. hope everyone is well.

Household Saints and other books

I finished a wonderful novel last night called Household Saints by Francine Prose. I think you all would like it. The first sentence is a zinger: "It happened by the grace of God that Josheph Santangelo won his wife in a game of cards." How could you not want to read the rest? Ms. Prose explores, in her own quiet way, themes as broad as God and love, and as unlikely as the possibility of modern sainthood. It's quite moving and very thought provoking.

I am also reading a book called Real Presences by George Steiner, a literary critic/philospher who argues in this book that perhaps art is not possible without the existence of "the Other." It's a dense book, but very good. He is inspiring, especially in my thinking about a Mennonite approach to the arts (which is abysmal, if it is anything at all—we could learn a few things from the Catholics here) in general, and painting and writing in particular. One of my goals this coming year is to work on an apologetic for a Mennonite approach to aesthetics. There isn't one, and we need one! I think it could revitalize the life of the church.

Another book I just started is called Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry, who is a philosopher of aesthetics at an Ivy League school. Not much to say about that except that I'm only a few pages into it, and that she ties beauty with social justice.

And finally, I'm reading a book about Modernism (1890s-1930s) in literature. Yawn.

I'm going nuts at Amazon. I haven't bought any books lately, but there is almost two hundred dollars worth of books in my shopping cart waiting for a nice warm home and a loving caretaker!

What are you guys reading?

Well, Lily wants toast, so I'll sign off now.

By the way, Radiohead has a new disc out, Gretchen. You have to order it from their website. It's called In Rainbows.

Chad

Hello,

I just finished grading my students' essays. Oh vey. Here is a sentence from one of my student's essay. They were asked to do a semiotic reading on an object that represents American culture, and this particular student chose to write about hamburgers. So that's a pretty good object to write about. His one sentence that almost made me pee my pants was, "Hamburgers are very vertical." Oh yea? Well how do you get the ketchup, mustard, and pickles to stay put if your burgers are vertical? (He meant "versatile.")

But, on the other hand, I have a student who wrote the most eloquent essay, why America is like a quilt. I gave her a 97. So, I gave 6 As, 2 Bs, 7 Cs, and 2 Ds, an interesting spread of grades.

I'm getting ready to start a painting on canvas. I'm going to print one of my stories onto it, then wash over it with several layers of thinned oil paint. I've been thinking a lot about icons and how they are painted, how when an artist makes an icon of a saint, Mary, or Jesus, he or she "writes" the icon and doesn't paint it. It's a lovely metaphor, particularly when you explore the etymology of the word, "write," which means to etch or scratch. So, in is a very real sense, my stories are icons or paintings, etchings in canvas.

Anyway, I hope you all are well. The kids are great. Lily is reading and writing. Aaron is reading a lot, and Cyndi has a show this weekend at EMU. She is debuting her birds, the dead ones.

Good times all around!

Chad

where is everybody???

Are we all not speaking these days? We had a great time at the Birky Family Dinner on Sunday. Missed Chad & Heather. Gretchen, Todd & Maddie were there. Maddie got to meet her cousins & was excited to interact with the little ones. Becky was there too. Sorry I don't have any pictures - even though lots of them were taken. Chad, tell Aaron & Lily I could use some of their artwork. Heather, Emma could send me some of hers too. Take care!

Love,

Mom & Aunt Cheri