What's going on?

Last week I got busy with a funeral on Monday for Jessie B, and with a wedding on the weekend so it felt like I was trying to press everything else in to the middle of the week. Brainerd had a community homecoming celebration on Saturday and Nick and his tuba got to march in the parade wearing the parade uniforms for the first time.
Sunday was a nice CROP walk in spite of some light rain. Now I am thinking this could be more of a normal week, but what is that?

I sometimes think the image of the plate spinners describes parish ministry.Gotta keep the preaching plates going, plus a few people looking for a home visit. Today it was two hospital visits in Brainerd plus one in Crosby, (none of which I knew would be on my schedule today) And I needed to get some preparation done for the confirmation class orientation tomorrow. Then a few other emails, phone calls and visits arrived in the office. But I got a start (maybe) on the Sunday service planning! Actually it felt like a rather slow and easy day. So maybe I should worry ahead to next week because its is looking busier.


Tonight I plan to watch the debates and the "spin" that follows and check in on the latest Wall Street juggling. I have thought about trying to do some thoughtful, informed blogging on the banking crisis and the ethical issues but since I have never done anything of that much depth in my "ramble' it might be easier to go read the thoughts of others.
Or maybe that's just more of the cultural plate spinning!
Have we become a nation of plate spinners? When does being amazing and talented become trapped and ridiculous? *(see PS) Why did this get started and how do you stop and catch the plates without the breakage? Seems to me you can't stop unless there is someone next to you , who is not spinning the plates, so you can toss them to that person. How many non-plate spinners do you know?
Maybe some of it needs to just stop?
Ok, I'm off for a walk. The maple leaves are gorgeous. Didn't Jesus say "Consider the lilies how they grow: they neither toil nor 'spin'...

Rambling on, ending this entry before it spins out of control?
*PS now read this: posted on inward/outward

By Jim Wallis
Most Americans feel that they are “just getting by.” No matter how much they have, they continue to protest, “We’re barely keeping up with the bills.” Most are up to their necks in credit card debt. Even if they wanted to get out, it would take years. They are, indeed, trapped. Or, in more biblical language, they are in bondage.
The people who have more money and goods than any people in the history of the world spend most of their time worrying about not having enough. We have come to hold all the values of the consumer system without recognizing our subservience to it—the most perfect form of slavery.
Source: The Call to Conversion