Growing minds, Changing Hearts: A pilgrimage to Cambodia

Link to  Nicole's Blog: 'Iolani School, iBlog: STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES: A Blessing for Our Pilgrimage to Cambodia

My friend and colleague, the Rev. Nicole Simopoulos is a gifted priest (no she's not paying me to say that).  

A techie discovers a Plan B and likes it.

Act I: It Happens.

To quote Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, "  DON'T PANIC.  The laptop was in the shop with our wonderful @ITS folks for some diagnostics and system cleanup.  We decided on the more radical procedure that would mean that I would be without my regular computer for at least 1/2 a day or more.  "No problem", I said to @ITS.  After all, I had my school issued iPad and I could roll.  I wouldn't have the muscle of the laptop, but I certainly had sufficient computing power for most needs.  In fact, I'm typing this blog entry on my iPad now. I can't format the pictures at the moment, and the spell check is rough so I still need a full computer for somethings.

Sticks, stones, and broken bones. The power of words and the power to change them.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="252"] Author: zalouk webdesign used under creative commons license[/caption]

Words and language are very much a part of our lives.  If we learn nothing else from our English Teachers, we should learn that words have power.  Whether our language is English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, Norse, or even Sign Language.  The words we use are powerful.  Words can inspire us,  they can make us cry, make us laugh, they can be prophetic and passionate.  AND they can defeat us; they can be used to enslave ourselves and others leaving scars on our souls.

Gifts of Light and Life

The Year is 243 BCE .. King Seleucus II Callinicus  has gathered with the high priest in the Temple of Apollo with him are offerings to the gods:  Gold, Frankencense, Myrrh.  The Book of Isaiah, when describing Jerusalem’s glorious restoration, tells of nations and kings who will come and “bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6). Although Matthew’s gospel does not include the names or number of the Magi, many believe that the number of the gifts is what led to the tradition of the Three Wise Men.

January 6th, mark the feast of the Epiphany, a word that Webster defines as “to show forth, manifest” and “the revealing of Jesus as Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi”.  But when we more commonly hear that word, we hear "I just had an epiphany, or  “a moment of sudden intuitive understanding; flash of insight.”

Spiral Dynamics with Shane Hipps

Spiral Dynamics_Shane Hipps from Daniel Leatherman on Vimeo.

While at a chaplains conference in Northern California,  we were treated to a lecture by Shane Hipps, a teaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI.  He speaks about Spiral Dynamics a social development theory introduced in the mid- 1990s by Don Beck and Chris Cowan.  For books on Spiral Dynamics see this link to Amazon.

How much of an issue do you make an "issue"?

On December 2, 2013, the Hawaii  Marriage Equality Act went into effect. Licenses were issued, and same-sex couples lined up at the courthouse and in some houses of worship to become legally married.  On our school campus, this event came and went with little fanfare.  There are no couples (as of yet) lining up to be married in our school's chapel.  Still, there is a strong conservative evangelical current within our community whose fear is that students at school will be "exposed" to gay marriage.

To quote, M*A*S*H's Col. Sherman T. Potter, "Horse hockey!"

Mālama- living sustainably.

[caption id="attachment_99" align="alignright" width="300"] A wee little friend at San Damiano, Danville, CA[/caption]

Mālama is a word we hear often in our island culture: Mālama I ke Kai (Protect the Sea), Mālama ʻAina (Protect the Land), Mālamalama (light of knowledge lit. protected light). Mālama is often translated as "to protect or care for" ; it implies maintaining a sense of sustainability when it comes to this protection or care.

Sustainability has become a key word in our cultural vocabulary and certainly a commercial buzz word. Often linked to words such as "green" or "renewable", "sustainability" has long been associated with a kind of "granola" movement- associated with a variety of efforts such as recycling and composting. Once the niche market of a few home gardens and local farmers, organic farming is now big business. As individuals and families, more and more look for organically grown fruits and vegetables, drink milk from organically fed (and purportedly happier) cows, buy eggs from cage-free, free range chickens, bake with organic flour and whole grains, get fish from sustainable hatcheries or fisheries.

Sustainability in these product areas implies a connection between the farmer and the field, the rancher and the herd, the fisherman and the sea. We have done much in the history of the human race to subdue the earth- we carved out of the earth fields with irrigation; that makes the dessert produce richly; cast nets large and small to reap the harvest of the sea; tamed beasts of the field and used them to tow the plow, hunted others and later raised them for food.

The Book of Genesis says that in the beginning that after God created the heavens and the earth and populated it with the creatures of the land, the sky and the sea, God created humankind “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ “ (Gen 1:28) When it comes to the key words of “subdue” and “dominion” itʻs important to understand the context in which these two words exist. In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, “kevash” means to subdue as in to literally place the foot not neck of your conquered enemy signifying the submission of the conquered enemy. “Radah” the Hebrew verb to “have dominion” or “rule” is a little different than the common understanding of ruling over a people. “Radah” is related to other words which have meanings to descend or to wander. The implication of this verb is to literally rule by wandering among the subjects as an equal.

What God commends to us then in “kavash” and “radah” is to rule over the earth and its creation not as a dictator, but as a benevolent leader- a steward and a caretaker leader who is in relationship with all of creation. Mālama.

We need to return to the heart of Mālama-to protect and to care for the relationships that allow us live and grow. It is a grave sin to continue to consume and consume with abandon simply thinking there will always be. We need to reduce, reuse, and recycle not because its a trendy slogan, but because it is the right thing But itʻs more than simply buying organic, or belonging to co-op, or joining a CSA. Mālama pono means to take care or be right. Most important is to protect and care for spiritual and the human connections in our lives. These last relationships are the ones that enable us to be resilient in the wake of loss, rejection, or hardship.

We are called to be sustainable people, to live not only with aloha, but also pono (moral right-ness). With Godʻs help, we will live in right relationships with the ʻaina, the land, with moana, the ocean, and kekahi i kekahi, with one another. Mālama pono.

Splashtop remote desktop

Here are two videos that show the chapel configuration for using an Ipad and a laptop to show presentations. A key component is having a separate WiFi since there is both a Desktop application and a iPad application. Here is a link to the Splashtop Website with more information.

http://youtu.be/h1-rD0Y75J0

http://youtu.be/Y7zvBUhlMaM