Aj Schwanz

My mom loves murder mysteries: not the nasty, gorey kind, but the classy kind (heh heh: that seemed funny to type), like the kind they show on Mystery. As a kid I learned *not* to watch them with her: she always knew what was going on, and I felt like I was fumbling around in the dark. At the end, I would turn to her shocked at the outcome while she would calmly say, “Oh, I figured that out twenty minutes ago when this happened . . .” and would explain how it was so obvious. Let’s just say I tended to stick to Matlock - it was more at my level of perceptiveness.

Perhaps it’s just that I’m not a very perceptive person. I used to think I was good at reading people and situations, but now, not so much. Case in point: my son has been going to bed later and rising earlier. But in the afternoon he’s been getting crabby and not-so-enjoyable: throwing things, sitting on the dog, picking at my legs. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until his dad threw out the threat, “Do you want to take a nap?” It was two hours before naptime, mind you. I scoffed. But then the child blew kisses to us, waved, walked upstairs, and tried to climb into his crib. Huh?!! We’ve tried that trick at night when the pillishness comes out: he’s going to bed an hour or two earlier and sleeping later. The signs were all there, but I just didn’t get it.

So now I see some things going on in life, but I’m scared to draw any conclusions because it seems my perceiver is out of whack. Things I’ve noticed:

Justice.

• The same day I write a post about justice, we have a time of prayer for justice in our worship gathering - naming specific countries we feel concern for in the realm of needing God’s glowing healing touch of justice.

Sustainable Living.

• Strange how books with similar themes that I’ve placed on hold at different times arrive almost at the same time. I just finished reading Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping.

From BookList
Other than phenomenal willpower and maxed-out credit cards, what does it take to simply stop purchasing for 12 months? Levine took the plunge–and found it irritating, exhilarating, thought provoking, and humiliating–among many other conflicting emotions. What’s an inexpensive substitute for Q-tips? How to best gift a soon-to-be college graduate without spending any money? How to avoid the consumption seduction that lurks in every corner? Levine chronicles her feelings in this almost-weekly diary of the year of nonpurchasing. Many of her points are intentionally provocative; for instance, not buying makes her feel vulnerable and having to ask for help. Plus, her secondary sources, from the recently issued Trading Up (2003) to federal deficit projections and Socratic pronouncements, add a great deal of depth to a topic that could be perceived as frivolous. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

• And now I’m reading Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. For their enormously successful Material World, photojournalist Menzel and writer D’Aluisio traveled the world photographing average people’s worldly possessions. In 2000, they began research for this book on the world’s eating habits, visiting some 30 families in 24 countries. Each family was asked to purchase‚Äîat the authors’ expense‚Äîa typical week’s groceries, which were artfully arrayed‚Äîwhether sacks of grain and potatoes and overripe bananas, or rows of packaged cereals, sodas and take-out pizzas‚Äîfor a full-page family portrait. This is followed by a detailed listing of the goods, broken down by food groups and expenditures, then a more general discussion of how the food is raised and used, illustrated with a variety of photos and a family recipe. A sidebar of facts relevant to each country’s eating habits (e.g., the cost of Big Macs, average cigarette use, obesity rates) invites armchair theorizing. While the photos are extraordinary‚Äîfine enough for a stand-alone volume‚Äîit’s the questions these photos ask that make this volume so gripping. After considering the Darfur mother with five children living on $1.44 a week in a refugee camp in Chad, then the German family of four spending $494.19, and a host of families in between, we may think about food in a whole new light. This is a beautiful, quietly provocative volume. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

• I read a blog entry pointing to a post that haunted me and then received a comment from the post’s author the next day: “Hungry for a Better World (or Starving for Sustenance)“.

Craftiness.

I’ve been reading a lot of craft blogs as of late. These folks are amazing: they make the most creative things out of scraps of fabric and bits of yarn. Some even make their own fabric and yarn!! I’ve read comments about how they avoid shopping at places like Target because even though it’d be so easy to buy the pair of three dollar shorts for their kid, it’s so much more fun and economical to make them themselves. And they do all sorts of fun package exchanges: fabric, patterns. One had folks exchanging their favorite music for kids as well as sending fun little things that they made like kid aprons and pencil pouches and stuff.

Frustration.

For myself, it’s hard to be crafty or get into sustainable living in suburbia. I need mentors, and I don’t know where to look in my isolated community. I was chatting with Jason about it: if I lived in Idaho where I grew up, I would have lots of folks to look to for ideas on how to can, garden, be thrifty; if I lived in a big city, I would have pockets of creativity to tap into - cultural events, specialty stores for crafts or ethnic foods. But suburbia is not the easiest of places for me to live intentionally and peacefully.
I see all these things that seem to be signs or signals, but I don’t know what of. I have a sense God’s going to have to get this blunt with me before I get it:

“Ma: I NEED A NAP!” Yes, he walked upstairs into his room, pulled the quilt off of his crib, put it on him just like we do during naptime, and fell asleep on the floor cause I just wasn’t catching on. But now: signal received loud and clear.