my contribution to the "exposure" party

i'd be glad to bring miles davis (well his music) and the best telescope i can get my hands on.
miles and soy milk....hmmmmmmmm.

anyone else?

good times

i'm with lachelle. i loved the 20 minutes of writer's circle that i actually made. there is something inspiring and awakening about hearing different voices. since she spoke well of everyone else (and even if she hadn't) lachelle's autobiographical sketch was incredible as well.
the next time around is april 1. if you haven't come, do. if you have, come back.

btw -- finally reading anne lamott's travelling mercies. corey's right -- she's amazing.

love

i have never understood why this was such a hard thing for us to say to each other or to the world. those words, cliche or not, carry some power behind them when they are said by a life that backs them up. i have always tried to remember to end services since way back in the mart, texas days with those words and many times i had kids tell me it was the only time they heard them from an adult. sigh.

does it say something that i reference "those words" several times in the preceding paragraph, but never say them. I LOVE YOU! ok, now i said it.

i think maybe there are two issues that hold us back. one, in our culture, there is no allowance for a middle ground of "i love you" that speaks to a healthy, loving relationship between any two people. love is either a very cheap word (my dog, ice cream, your car, you man to sell beer) or it is an extremely intense word that means "let's get married" or at least "let's sleep together". we don't necessarily mean it in either of those ways when we say it to each other, but since we are formed by this culture, it feels wierd when we do. (probably moreso for guys and than girls)
which leads me to issue two
in our wierdly homoaware and phobic culture, it just feels and sounds odd for guys to say that to each other in a "you're my brother and i love you" way. it's not right, it just is and again we are conditioned not to do it. it's like the touching thing.
so maybe we should just say "to heck with the culture" and start saying it among ourselves and out into the world. "they will know us by our love" right?

by the way lachelle -- i don't know that we can say it too much as long as we mean it.

i love you guys.
j