On Fasting

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Isaiah 58:6

The boys recently asked me if we could do some sort of fast during Holy Week.  I was surprised.  We had been talking about Ramadan and I had mentioned that fasting (though few people actually do it these days) is also a part of the Christian tradition.  These days we like big meals on our holidays.  Displays of excess are meant to show our joy or, at least, our wealth. They thought it would be a nice lead-up to Easter if we took a little time to deprive ourselves.

This morning I read a column by Mark Bittman.  Turns out he is fasting this week as part of a Bread for the World campaign to draw attention to what proposed congressional budget cuts will do to the marginally-fed people both in this country and abroad.  It underscores, for me, an issue that I have found infuriating about the "national austerity" language politicians are throwing around these days.  The folks who talk about belt-tightening no doubt feel they are making some sort of sacrifice--maybe one fewer ski trips next year--but the kids still have their own cars to drive themselve to Yale, Harvard, and Sarah Lawrence (or whatever).  Meanwhile the ones who make the actual sacrifices are pretty much ignored.

I cannot take this fast this week because a) I just heard about it today and b) I just (like today) turned the big 4-0 and there are some culinary requirements to be made of me.  Besides, the donut I am eating right now is all that stands between me and the stereotypical existential crisis that strikes Americans during this sensitive time.  However, I am planning to honor my sons' request and Bittman has helped me to refine my thinking on the subject. 

So here are the (or my) reasons to fast this Good Friday...

1) It makes us think about God.  In particular, it makes us think about the Holy Week story.    Holy Week is a reflective time, meant to make us consider some big-picture questions about our lives and our relationships.  Good Friday may be a great day for picking up those Cadbury eggs but the party is on Easter.  The joy of Easter comes from surviving hard times--times of famine--before the happy times.  There is no resurrection without death.  While a brief fast is nothing like crucifixion, it does remind us of (and allows us to participate in) the actual "reason for the season".

2) It makes us think about the suffering of others.  Yeah, cheerful thought, I know.  However, the fact is that Bittman and his friends are right.  There is a great deal going on in the world that our Burbanian minds blithely skip over on our way to the kids' soccer practice.  What if, for just a short time, we stood in solidarity with them.  What if the fast we chose was their reality?  That word "their" encompasses a large portion of humanity, including many Americans who can expect life to become much more difficult in the near future.  The fact that they will also be blamed for their own difficulties by many powerful people is one more reason to stand with them.

3) It makes us reconsider how we live.  I am big into this "considering how we live" business.  It is a continuous theme in my sermons during Lent.  I am sure some church members would say it is a theme all the time.  It was the original purpose of this blog. 

The fast Isaiah chose at the beginning of my post was to "loose the chains of injustice".  There is quite a bit more to that than sincere thoughts when the subject comes up, sending money to faraway places, and voting.  Our cars, our homes and our diets (how, what and where we purchase) contribute to the national and international unequal distribution of food and wealth.  We have sinned, people.  We are guilty of other people's pain.  Fasting gives us time to meditate on that important and unavoidable (if unpleasant) fact.

4) It puts us in touch with God.  Yes, I know I already wrote this but it needs to be repeated.  When we are hungry we are in touch with the hungry people of the  world--God's people.  We are in touch with a suffering God in the midst of God's own creation.  We are reminded that there is something bigger and more important than the commute, or the meeting, or the contract, or the petty fights we have with both loved ones and  strangers.  Holy Week--including Palm Sunday and Easter--is the holiest time in the Christian faith (hence the name).  Fasting reminds us of this spiritual ground.

I looked online for some fasting plans.  The Catholic Good Friday fast (according to at least one sight) is one meal and two snacks.  The kids think this is cheating.  Like skipping lunch and calling it virtue.  I suspect we will come up with a compromise position.  Right now I am thinking of dragging them to Maundy Thursday Communion and fasting from that point until dinner on Friday.  They are kids, so they will get liquids and perhaps some sort of light breakfast...and a fruit-break.  I don't want them getting all grouchy, after all...

I would love to know what others do, if anything.  I would love it, too, if folks joined us.

Here is a link to Mark Bittman's article

Here is a link to Bread for the World

Here is a link to the farm where we get our CSA share.  Our buying group takes turns picking up in Framingham and then leaving the food on the parsonage porch.  If your fasting leads you to some sort of action and you are in the area, feel free to join our group.  It is open to anyone for whom it works.

The Magic Fluke (A Review?)

As most of you know, one of my more unusual projects this year has been learning how to play the ukulele.  It all began with a gaping hole in our summer service plan (no pianist) and has since morphed into both a music ministry and an irrational obsession.  In the picture above you can see two of my three ukes.  The third is exactly like the one on the left.  The barely seen instrument to the left of that is my son's old guitar. 

I purchased the two Johnson Soprano (UK-100) ukes some time ago to hack around with the kids.  That tale is well documented and can be found in the links at the bottom of this post.  They have served me well.  I have dragged them to nursing homes and to church services for the purpose of hymn-singing.  They have a charm that is hard to deny and add a great deal to services (particularly congregational singing) when played in the traditional (or stereotypical) strumming manner.  Soprano ukes are great "singer's instruments".  Their smallness means there is little or no real barrier between the player and the hearer.  Also, its...um...limitations are actually strengths, encouraging the singers to do more with their voices to compensate for the sparse instrumentation.  After fixing the action on the Johnsons with my trusty jacknife I found them to be servicable, loud, charismatic instruments and I love them.

However...though I insist that I will always be a beginner, I did find that their small size made them difficult to play in the fingerpicking style that I was accustomed to with the much-less-fun guitar.  This meant eventually getting another uke.  This is where the Magic Fluke comes in.  It is the black ("Lava") oddly shaped instrument on the right.

First, a brief note about size.  There are four ukulele sizes.  They are (from small to large) the soprano, the concert, the tenor, and the baritone.  The first three are all tuned the same (gCEA, the "g" is to indicate that the string is higher than the C and E), though the largest of those (the tenor) sometimes is tuned with a low G instead of a high one.  Some sellers will tell you that the soprano is the traditional one, the concert is for kids and women, and the tenor is for men with "big hands".  Honestly I think that is just because they want folks to purchase the more expensive (and most popular) tenors.  What guy doesn't think his hands are big?  The Fluke is a concert-sized instrument and my hands are fine.  The baritone is tuned like the high strings on the guitar but sounds somewhat different.  I suspect it is the existence of the baritone that gives rise to the Burbanian "I want my child to play the guitar so I will buy them a uke" thoughtstream. 

I checked out a variety of concert ukes and this is the one I came up with.  The reasons are simple.  I wanted an intrument that was still fun and still sounded like a ukulele.  The longer strings on the bigger models give them more of a "guitary" (and, I think, less charismatic) sound.  They are mellow insturments--very pretty sounding actually--but don't quite fit my usage requirements.  The concert size does.  Perhaps it is a slightly sleepy sound, but it jumps around like it should.  The concert Fluke jumps around a bit more than most.

Here is the thing about the Fluke.  It is shaped funny (charming) and is half-plastic.  The neck and the front are wood.  The fretboard and the rest of the body are synthetic.  It has something of the feel and look of half-wooden toys I remember from the eighties...in a good way.  Yes, this makes it sound different.  I remember as a kid listening to one of my dad's favorite bands (Schooner Fare, they played sea-shanties about ships that sank and then were raised back up).  In concert, they used guitars with plastic bodies that (at least to my ear) generated a more penetrating note and gave their sound a slightly steelier backbone than many of their folk contemporaries (thank God).  On the Fluke--which has Aquila nylgut strings--what the body does is maintain some of that soprano joyfulness while also letting me pick, strum, and play individual notes with greater ease.  The fretboard is slick--literally--which is also interesting and fun (sometimes)!

Of course, it is also more expensive.  I got the standard garden-variety Fluke and all I can say is that it better last a looong time (and no jokes about the plastic back lasting 2,000 years, OK?).  The sopranos were something like $40 each.  Of course the Fluke soprano (called a "Flea") is quite a bit more than that.  In spite of the expense I am satisfied and--honestly--think I got a good deal.  Flukes are--thanks to the way they are built--less expensive to make than many comparable instruments.  I am philosophically opposed to spending too much on a folk instrument.  After all, folks should be able to afford them...right?

Anyway, I have already typed enough, considering that I said I was taking a blog-break.  Here are the links...

Here is the original uke post

Here is an Amazon link to reviews of a soprano similar to mine.  It should be noted that they don't seem to make the UK-100 anymore...

Here is the link to the folks who make the Fluke.  Incidentally, they are based in West Hartford CT and the fluke shipped from Sheffield MA.  Good, New England ukes....

Online Downtime

As you may have gathered, I am taking a break from blogging.  The reasons are varied, but here they are...

1) It is Lent.  This year for Lent I am trying to spend less time online.  The easiest way to do this is drop blogging and use the time in other ways.  Also, I am extremely busy at work as we get ready for Palm Sunday and Easter.  We are also making plans for church programming for next year.  I need to focus on these things.

2) I need some time to consider the direction of Burbania Posts.  This year I expanded its range to encompass my sabbatical year and--of course--homeschooling Norm.  I originally thought of it as a way to connect with family and church members during this year of study and transition.  However, my readership continues to tend toward the fellow bloggers, clergy, and friends who have always dropped by.  Good folks, too.  Family and church members do read it, but not, it appears, in any great numbers. 

No matter what group you might be in, I am glad to have you.  Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you do again!  The question for me, then, is what do I want to write about in the future if I expect people to be interested in reading what I write?  Do I go back to gardening (which right now sounds fantastic) and other Ecological concerns?  Do I blog about my career as a small church minister?  I don't know.  Perhaps the blog has even run its course and I need to find some other creative outlet.  If so...what?

3)  I am really grumpy in March.  Can't help it.  Those of you who know me know this already.  I need to reduce distractions so that I can be present as pastor, father, husband, etc. while also experiencing the beauty of spring and the wonder of my favorite liturgical season. 

Still, I don't like firm dates so you may hear from me (here, that is) before Palm Sunday, but probably not.  It is more likely I will be back during Holy Week.  Until then, fellow bloggers can expect me to lurk on their blogs and comment from time to time.  Others are welcome to email or call or whatever.  I will be working...and buying seeds...