On nothing that has to do with Valentine's Day

Apparently I am not a very active blogger...but here's what's new in Bethany's mile high life:

Coming Adventures

- I'm going to spend my Valentine's Day evening on a public bus (La Limosina, no less) traveling to El Paso, Texas with my housemates. Romantic, indeed, in the Chestertonian sense of this blog's title - none of us know exactly what to expect in our long weekend in the borderlands, a land fraught with the woes of migrants and toasted red-hot by political debates.

What I do know: we leave Denver at 7 PM and arrive in El Paso at 7 AM. We will spend Friday in El Paso, attending a seminar about the economics and politics of immigration policy. Later Friday evening, we'll cross the puenta into Juarez (my first journey onto Mexican soil) and will spend the night either at local families' homes. Saturday and Sunday will treat us to more seminars, mass at a local church, and (collectively the most anticipated event) a soccer game between 'Equipo CVV' and 'Equipo Brasil'! Like we stand a chance!


Several of my coworkers and virtually all of the kids I tutor are Mexican-American, a handful from Juarez itself, so I'm greatly anticipating the opportunity to see their homeland, to imbibe Mexico for a weekend. Questions on which I hope to gain some clarity: What compels rural Mexicans to leave the countryside for an urban desert? And what compels Mexicans of all stripes to come to the US, often illegally and through murderous terrain? What role does or should the US play vis a vis Mexican immigration? In an election year, all of these questions seem highly pertinent, and I hope to travel beyond the land of shock and rhetoric to more solid ground of conviction. Finally, I am first of all Catholic and only secondly American, so how does my faith shape my approach to immigration policy and immigrants themselves?



Work


I continue to work Mon-Thurs at Cross Community, and Fridays at a food bank. The nature of a non-profit geared toward community organizing often feels very indirect, and I still struggle to find enough profitable tasks to fill my time. But some opportunities have developed, and I enjoy the work that I am doing, especially with the schoolkids, very much. In the thick of helping a fifth grader with her equivalent fractions or reading Mercer Mayer to a first grader, I feel like I should pay my boss for the chance to see knowledge bubble up in young minds.

- The knitting club is well, still clicking away! Two kids have finished their squares, others are making progress, but one girl told me today that her mom is using her needles to knit a scarf for her grandma...not really what I had intended, but I'm glad grannie will be warm.


- I'm helping to teach a gardening/nutrition class to 5th graders with a woman from Denver Urban Gardens. It is ridiculously fun. So far we've planted a budding bumper crop of spring onions in little plastic containers, and the kids have learned such salient vocabulary as cotelydon and germination.


- On Fridays, I spend my mornings at the Broadway Assistance Center, which is also more fun than can be believed - normally I am engaged for an hour or so in sorting vegetables and fruits into their proper boxes, as well as transforming bags of cast-off clothing into a presentable clothing bank. Every last fiber of my OCD tendency comes out in full force.

Community


- Last Saturday we hosted a Euchre tournament at our house. For those of you uninitiated to Euchre (i.e. non-Midwesterners), it's a trump card game that has a lovely combination of skill and luck. We had a great turnout, five games going at once in a battle for the prize, a two-foot tall trophy made out of beer cans. The winners, who were not CVV members, graciously left the trophy at our house, where it now graces our mantle.

- What I have noticed as the single greatest challenge of community life: discerning when refraining from group activities is necessary to nourish one's soul, and when it is selfish. Do others struggle with this? It seems that even in the healthiest communities (ex: CVV), there still exists subtle pressure to fit within a certain...aura...of the group, expressed in ways of speaking, preferred activities, and dare I say worldview? Why is this? Perhaps the more well-formed we are ourselves, the more we are able to be free from the tendency toward conformity.

The sweetness of life

- Lent has begun! This year I'm participating in an 'Armchair Retreat,' meaning that I read Scripture prayerfully in my comfy orange chair, and then meet with a spiritual director once a week to talk about what God whispers to me, or not, during times of silence and meditation. My director is a mother of 10 named Donna who already has challenged me to grow more mature in my faith. Funny thing, I've been hoping for someone who could spur me on in my spiritual life, and now that I have someone who speaks truth to me without frills or gloss, it's a humbling and disconcerting experience to recognize how much further I have to go on this journey to Heaven!

- I am still teaching a confirmation class to 5 middle schoolers. They will be confirmed April 25. It has been a joy to share the faith with them, and I am so invigorated by the two hours of solid theology/spirituality I enjoy each week.

Peace to all of you, forgive me for not posting more often, but know that it is because my life is very full and not out of nothing to say!