There and Back Again - Tales from across the pond

Victory in Iowa

2008-01-05T21:46:00.000Z

Rock on!

Short-term memory

2007-12-12T15:28:00.000Z

Occasionally when I read the news I come across something which reminds me that principles in politics are rarely to be taken seriously: governance is more often about accumulating power than ensuring the rule of law. Rarely is this more blatant than this story from the New York Times.

Normally I would shrug this kind of thing off as the usual partisan bickering and conservatives complaining that they haven't yet become Masters of the Universe. But is there no one who can remember as far back as 2004?! Because as usual, Republicans are either too stupid or simply don't care. Let's reminisce together...

It's post-election, 2004. The right wing is on a serious power trip after re-electing Bush, expanding their majority in the legislative branch, and seeming on the brink of swaying the judicial. All that remains is for the emboldened commander-in-chief to appoint lots of conservative justices, and the ever-present dream of a single-party country will finally become reality.

But wait! The democratic minority in the Senate just won't die! Instead, they begin blocking Bush's judicial appointments with the power of the filibuster, which requires a larger majority to override. A principled politician might concede that political opposition is healthy in the long run and that the use of the filibuster has been respected and valued for 200 years. On the other hand, what will the GOP's response be? Of course: just change the Constitution!

So out came all the headlines about forcing "up-or-down votes" and "the nuclear option," remember those? If you really weren't paying attention, here's an article to prove I'm not lying, and that Republicans really did try to force their agenda by taking the Constitution hostage, putting a gun to its head, and demanding the confirmation of justices as ransom. I honestly don't remember how many of the nominees eventually were confirmed, but at least we were spared a nuclear attack on the Constitution (does that count as negotiating with terrorists?).

And now, here we are in late 2007 and, well, things have changed. Actually, the only thing that has changed is that Republicans no longer control the Senate. One might hope that Republicans would allow Democrats the same leverage that they enforced when they were in the majority, or at least disguise their actions to avoid exposing their double-standard, but that would only be necessary in the rare case of voter intelligence. Where have the up-or-down votes gone? How did the filibuster magically rise from disgrace to be used a record levels? Frankly, if I was the filibuster, I'd be pretty pissed off.

In 2004, the Democrats used the filibuster to put the brakes on a radical agenda and were demonised for it. In 2007, because they have the backing of the President, Republicans are quite literally ruling from the minority. Whether voters will call them on this in 2008 is anyone's guess.

I am always on the lookout for real, substantial differences between political parties, beyond the caricatures (Republicans are cold-hearted bastards, Democrats are wimps). In this case I don't think the contrast could be more clear: both parties whine when they don't get their way, but only one is prepared to sacrifice the common good and the rule of law for the sake of eliminating opposition. I certainly hope that people of conscience in both parties recommit to abiding by the principles of the Constitution and moral behaviour in general; but until Republicans show some glimmer of revival, I can say with confidence where my votes are going...

Can you taste it?

2007-12-03T17:23:00.000Z

I mentioned that there were several reasons I've been blogging less frequently (excuses, really!) Here's another:

Mmm, home-brewed beer. I have to say, it's one of my more successful experiments, winning over even the harshest of critics (Melissa!). And there's plenty to go around...

Brewing is a lot of fun. Besides the satisfaction of drinking it, it's great to hear it blurbling in the fermenter, knowing that billions of yeast are at work... kind of like having an art farm, but tastier.

This one is a mild ale, crisp and clean but still flavourful, low-alcohol and medium hoppy-ness. Next up will hopefully be a honey ale and/or a Belgian-style trippel. It's safe to say I'm hooked...

Baby Attack!

2007-11-20T15:43:00.000Z

Several things have been going on which have kept me from blogging. This is only one of them!

Let the hair-pulling begin...

2007-10-08T15:10:00.000+01:00

Well, it's 97 days and counting until the good people of Iowa single-handedly decide which presidential candidates will get the chance to (mis)lead the US for the next few years. On the other side of the pond, Gordon Brown has officially wimped out of calling an election, so it will be a little while before we see his slug-fest with David Cameron.

But hey, everyone knows US politics are so much more exciting anyway ;)

This is the first time, by the way, that I've bothered to follow primary race campaigns. Even in '04 I was still recovering from Democratophobia (yes, it's a real condition) to pay attention until Kerry had already won... *sigh*

And now, though I attempt to discern the real differences between Obama and Hillary, and try to find any signs of intelligent life from the GOP (ok, I actually gave up on that months ago), what interests me most is not the minutiae, but the larger picture: the relationship between the US and Europe, between them and the Middle East, and again with Russia, India, and China.

I don't have anything worthwhile to say about these things, except this: the United States had better realize that it no longer owns the world; and it had better realize that fast, because everyone else already has. The government and its people need to understand that civil liberty and justice are not "Made in America," but a universal standard to which all people have an equal obligation to submit and enforce.

This means that US interests must take a back seat to human interests. If the government feels it necessary to take an active role in the welfare of other nations, then it must do so under the authority of the international community: to do otherwise is not just unwise, it's immoral.

It also means that whatever standards the government holds other nations to, it must also apply to itself. Forbidding Iran to build nuclear weapons, while sitting on your own stockpile of Hiroshima-dwarfing bombs, is morally unacceptable. So is justifying your own regime-changing in practice while condemning others in principle.

In summary, the rest of the world has already rejected the tired line that the US is authorized to dictate global politics. It's only a matter of time (and maybe not that much of it) that the US will no longer be able to reach its arms that long. What then? If America ignores that reality it could lead to destruction, and the rise of another superpower. But if it works now to establish the international authority that will outlast it, we could see the establishment of the rule of law and of justice, which allows for peace.

If time permitted I would write a (lengthy) post titled "Why I'm not a Republican." It's something I feel the need to justify, because the Democratic position on abortion grieves me, and is not something to be put aside lightly. However, to vote Republican because of that one issue would be to neglect the larger issues at that I mentioned above. Abortion represents one life destroying another for its own supposed benefit. What Bush and his potential sucessors describe as "security" is the equivalent on a global scale. And, like many women who have abortions testify, when immoral means are justified to acheive desired ends, much is lost, and very little is gained.

Bouncy swings

2007-09-25T15:06:00.001+01:00

Need I say more?

End of week 1

2007-09-21T14:09:00.000+01:00

Well, Melissa has almost finished her first week of work, and Livi and I our time at home together. Both have been pretty successful, I think! Being stuck in the house during the rain is no fun, though :-P

[15 min. delay]

Cool, rain seems to have stopped!

We'll keep you posted with pictures and videos! But right now we're all settling into thisnew schedule.

Chris

2007-09-11T20:58:00.000+01:00

It's important to me that this blog contains a little more than just pictures (especially of you-know-who!), though it's difficult to find time and thought energy. In this case, I just want to highlight something that I discovered today that immediately went into my "everybody should see/hear/read this!" file. But first, some personal background.

I think that my ongoing fascination with art, faith, and politics is that they help me to understand, or at least come to grips with, the world that I live in. For me, artistic endeavour and political arguments take a step back from the daily business of living to address the "whats" and "whys" of existence: I can place myself within a broader narrative, and begin to categorise, explain, and critique the things going on around me.

Faith provides a great precedent for this in the form of the prophets. Unlike fortune-tellers, the role of the prophet is to provide a narrative for her followers: One that tells the story of the past, the condition of the present (along with God's judgement of that condition), and the possible futures which will result from choices made now. In short, prophets give us a kind of divine social commentary that is at the same time political, historical, moral, and, well, prophetic. I don't believe I have an extraordinary gift in this regard, but I desperately search for these narratives, woven by others, that I can trust and live by, whether it comes from Isaiah, Jesus, or Tom Wright.

Politics are, for me, about providing the raw material with which to apply prophetic judgement. Whereas I will become 100% captivated by a prophetic narrative (say, about the relational community of Jesus growing into the Kingdom of God), I tend to stay detached from political parties, or even philosophies, sifting each alternative according my principles, and ending up with a continually morphing patchwork of ideas with inevitable contradictions and ambiguities. The real purpose I have with politics is to be aware of what's going on: of movements and philosophies, trends and taboos. In short, politics provide the questions, but not the answers.

I mentioned art as well, but it's not quite so relevant here and more difficult to nail down, so I'll leave it :)

All this has led to an interesting path for me over the last few years. Starting as a born-and-raised conservative Christian, in the build-up to the Iraq invasion I began to question the compatibility of a Biblical faith on the one hand, and a patriotic, good guy / bad guy, us vs. them attitude on the other. This led to a serious rethink of both my faith (is it really about religious affiliation leading to an all-important afterlife, or rather about the working of God within history towards the complete redemption of this life?) and politics (is the United States really a global force for peace, freedom, and human rights? or is it an empire securing it's own interests under a guise of self-deception?)

If you've stayed with me this far, we're almost there :) After coming to the UK I discovered a book called "No Logo" by Naomi Klein. A praise on the cover described here as a sexy Noam Chomsky, so I was intrigued. The subject of the book had to do with the history of product branding, leading to today's attempts by companies like Apple, Starbucks, and Nike to brand attitudes, ideas, lifestyles, and entire cultures.

What gripped me about that book wasn't that it was meticulously researched and argued (though it was and more); it was that it created a narrative that made sense of something. Now, when I walk through a shopping mall or watch the latest iPod commercial, I have a lens through which I can understand, explain, and critique what I'm seeing. Could a political writer transcend the category I outlined above? Is it possible for me to believe in a secular prophet, who, like the spiritual kind, weave authoritative narratives to explain life as I know it?

At this point, my answer is yes. Which is why I was excited today to hear about her new book, "The Shock Doctrine." I haven't read it yet, but my understanding of her basic premise is that the spread of free-market capitalism depends upon nations experiencing the same "shocks" that torturers (in this case, the CIA) have discovered are useful in breaking down a subject's defenses. As any good prophet would, she retells the past in order to throw light on the present; and whether or not she states it openly, there are always implications for the future.

I hope to find time to read the book, as well as follow the website. I hope I can pique some others' interest to do the same... I know at least a few libertarian-leaning friends with whom I might have some dialogue! In the meantime, below is a short film: please comment on it, her website, my summary of her work, or my personal thoughts and life-approach.

Always pondering,

Chris

whaddayaknow...

2007-08-30T21:04:00.000+01:00

... Facebook does know a thing or two!

Safely home...

2007-08-24T20:14:00.000+01:00

It's been a great holiday, but we're both glad to be back in York. However, jet lag sucks.

The fun hasn't stopped, and we just tried expanding Livi's diet with some baby cereal! Thanks to video blogging, you too can get a piece of the action! ;)

Tired...

Chris

more pictures

2007-08-15T15:48:00.000+01:00

Time is flying, only a week left in the States!

Rough 'n' tumble with the boys:

Acting cool:

Bath time!

Pinky the monkey, our new friend:

Blue eyes:

Also, my cactus, George, decided to bloom for us:

Signing off for now.

Chris

Back in the USA

2007-08-03T13:44:00.000+01:00

Home sweet home!

Meeting new people...

Swimming in the pool...

themed dinner...

and takin' a break...

Daughter

2007-07-19T21:42:00.000+01:00

This one is just too good to not post :)

We'll be home to visit in less than two weeks!

-Chris

Summer sojourn

2007-06-20T16:28:00.000+01:00

That's right! Most of you probably know already, but here it is anyway: mark your calendars, we'll be back in good ol' Chester County from the 30th of July to the 22nd of August. It's about time...

We are having a shindig at the home of Mike & Sandy Bryan, 8 Dogwood Dell Dr, Coatesville, PA 19320 on Saturday 4th August from 12pm until 9pm. It is an open-house style, so come whenever you want and say hello. It should be good fun and good food so stop by and join us.

If you think you are coming could you RSVP by email to sandybryan-at-gmail.com or ethanandgail-at-gmail.com. (The @s have been removed to prevent torrential floods of spam) My wonderful sister-in-law is organising it, so it would be great to know how many people will be around.

See you soon!

Apple bread

2007-06-15T15:24:00.000+01:00

I've come close to perfecting the art of apple bread (or cake, depending on your point of view).

mmm...

I'm waiting for Olivia to fall asleep so we can watch a dvd, so here's the recipe for a small loaf.

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
2 apples

Beat the oil and eggs. Stir in the sugar. Mix the remaining dry ingredients. Cut the apples into 1/4" pieces, and preheat the oven to 185c. Combine the wet mixture and the dry ingredients; the consistency should be like sticky play-doh. Fold in the apples. Scoop into a greased tin and bake until golden brown and firm.

To recapitulate:

mmm...

It's about time

2007-06-11T21:02:00.000+01:00

Less talk, more pictures! Click on them for larger versions.

Health care, continued

2007-05-27T15:49:00.001+01:00

I know you're all probably more interested in seeing how Olivia's doing more than anything I have to say. My teaching job has finished now, and I will find time to get some pictures up this week!

I just received a very interesting comment on my post regarding the possibility of a national health care system, an issue that has already been raised by the democratic presidential candidates. I don't think I know who the commenter is, so I'll assume it's a well-spoken Christian on the web who has time for these discussions with strangers :) I want to respond quickly, in case (s)he (but I'm guessing he) checks back.

I encourage you to read his response here, but I think I can summarise it by saying that he believes question is not about the desirability of a national health care system, or even whether or not it is possible in general (since it works in other places), but that it is not possible at this time in the US because of impending fiscal thunderclouds approaching. In his words, "we have some real economic problems coming at us." A partial list includes: the national deficit, already high taxes, the baby boomer retirement, increased cost-of-living, and general public apathy.

I find this quite interesting. My original post was aimed at conservative Christians who do not believe that social services should extend beyond private, charitable giving (while simultaneously believing that the US is somehow a "Christian nation.") The mystery commenter's thoughts, however, imply that, given a balanced budget, (remember those days??) universal health care could be both morally appropriate and financially feasible. As he says, "Providing quality health care at an affordable price can only benefit a government, a country and its people." Somehow I doubt that this point is as self-evident as we both would wish! I still believe that the main debate among Christians is about the moral value of such a system, rather than the specific applicability within the US in the next decade or so.

Nevertheless, his comments touch on a broad range of subjects that I think are interesting to pursue. Here we go...

Most working Americans are already paying a fortune in state, federal, local and property taxes, Unemployment tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, nuisance taxes, sewer taxes, school taxes, etc., etc., etc.

Add to this the burden of private insurance!

Now imagine that burden of insurance replaced by a system in public control, with those who are more able picking up the slack for those with less. There's no guarantee that it would be more financially efficient; but it couldn't do much worse! It's weighted to benefit those who need it most, and law-makers are held accountable by the taxpayer for every dollar spent.

The United States currently has a MASSIVE deficit and a negative balance of trade. The personal savings rate of the average American is also a negative number. In other words, not only are we not saving, we are going further and further into debt individually.

This is, of course, distressing. By the way, I wish there were references for these numbers, especially about personal savings. It's never good to throw unqualified numbers around.

One would think that this would cause those in government, especially in a "conservative" administration, to a) carefully prioritise national spending, and b) encourage self-restraint among the public. How strange then, that one of Bush's most consistent messages in the past 6 years is for people to spend more, shop more, buy more (one example here here). And national spending? The war in Iraq alone has cost $500 billion so far (reference here, and you can check their sources). Let me repeat that: 500. billion. That's not the "War on Terror," just Iraq. So frankly, I don't want to hear people whining that it's just not possible to give every American access to a doctor.

I told you it was a broad range of subjects :)

You might think that all of the above items would cause Americans to become more involved in "the system" to straighten things out. That's the way democracy works. But, just the reverse is currently the case. Less and less people vote in every election. Less and less people understand civics, history, or how the democratic system is supposed to work. They are apathetic, hopeless, or simply not interested. People are greatly distracted by their techno toys in the USA today. They care more about American Idol than about the American Future.

This is an interesting trend, and hard to deny. Perhaps we have progressed from the deification of the state to the deification of the self. If so, what are the possible future implications of that? How might those in power manipulate the worship of self to further a social agenda?

Is the Church providing an alternative to the idols of state and of self... or has it already capitulated to both? What might a truly Gospel alternative actually look like? Would it confront society head-on, or simply bear witness as an alternative community?

What does any of this have to do with health care?

These things will continue to turn over in my head in the coming year. I am torn between being a concerned (though absent) citizen and leaving the faith-informed politics scene altogether. When democrats say that their Lord "is very important" to them (Edwards), and republicans that faith informs some, but not all, of their decisions (so what, like 80%?) (I forget who said that), what's the use? How can I expect a secular nation to think humanely about health care or foreign policy, or be surprised at the current inhumanity of both?

Life goes on, and we wait (wisely or foolishly?) for Resurrection.

-Chris

Smiles all 'round

2007-05-10T09:56:00.000+01:00

Coming up on Olivia's 2-month birthday next week, and enjoying the company of Melissa's mum. Melissa's Aunt and Uncle also visited on Tuesday.

We're both a little crazy, but trying to have fun as well. I'm in between starting one job and finishing another, so I'm doing twice as much work as usual... not to mention composing and my other job... so there probably won't be any blog dissertations for a bit. Maybe that's a good thing?

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

6 week check

2007-05-03T19:55:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone

As promised there are more pictures to post. Olivia is now 6 weeks and 4 days old. I can't believe how much she has changed. She is holding her head up off the floor and smiling and we even heard a laugh once. There is always some new cry or gurgle. My mom is here to enjoy her and experience all those things with us.

I have been at my wit's end with feeding though. Olivia just feeds all day long and I felt like I couldn't get a break. The health visitor who comes to the house was worried about her weight gain as she was only gaining 2-3 ounces a week. We have been getting differing opinions from different health visitors and were very frustrated. Olivia was constantly fussy when not feeding and it was a struggle to get her to sleep. The health visitor suggested to "top her up" with formula and we all thought it was a good idea. We went to her 6 week check at the doctor's yesterday and Olivia had gained 1 whole pound in a week. She now weighs 9 pounds. She also gained an inch in height, I guess this was her 3 week growth spurt 3 weeks late. I was very shocked that just topping her up with formula would pack on that much weight. I have to say she looks healthier and is less fussy and has more happy alert times, so it was worth it. It also gives me a chance to have a break and have Chris feed her. Last night she slept from 9pm until 5am and then again until 8am!!! We all felt better this morning. Right now it is 8pm and my mom is feeding her and we are hoping for the same tonight. Below are some pictures.

p.s. Chris is making doughnuts from scratch and they are freakin' awesome! see you soon

Love Melissa

Universal Health Care

2007-05-01T21:58:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! Things are well in the Bryan family, especially as Melissa's Mom is here visiting. We'll have more pics online soon... promise!

Last week I managed to catch the first debate between democratic presidential candidates, and am looking forward to hearing from the other side in a month. I wanted to take a moment here to highlight what I predict (and hope) will be a central topic in the 2008 election: universal health care.

Specifically, I'd like to examine the debate on this issue from a Christian perspective. Hopefully my non-Christian readers may also be interested to catch a glimpse of political disagreement "on the inside." More than ever, we are not a monolithic voting bloc!

There are two blog posts, the second responding to the first, that I would like to point out, and I highly suggest you read both in their entirety:

"Universal health care -- Unbiblical socialism"

Christian Faith and Universal Health Care

If you simply stop here and read the articles, that's fine by me. Think about how your own view (and vote) on this issue is guided by your moral principles. For myself, I largely agree with the second article. I can't offer much more in the way of biblical argument; however, living in a country that does provide basic health care to all tax-paying residents, I found some of Creech's fears quite unfounded, which I will point out below for anyone interested. Of course, I can't resist some general commentary as well...

Most Americans are completely unfamiliar with what the Bible teaches about economics.

I think we can all agree on that...

But even if every person currently paying taxes were willing to pay an extra $500 a year, that wouldn't begin to cover the great costs involved in such a program.

Really? Without breaking down our paychecks, I can safely say that we pay equal or less taxes here than we did in the U.S.: which is quite nice when you know that basic health care is thrown in. I couldn't tell you why, but there it is. And I've never heard anyone wish for privitisation, but I can't tell you how many people have said the opposite.

It would outlaw private health insurance ...

This is also not the case here. The well-off are free to purchase health insurance from private companies, which is in addition to their coverage under the NHS.

... and give government bureaucrats the exclusive right to set reimbursement rates for physicians, clinics and hospitals. This would not only create supply shortages, but would also likely produce a black market health-care system.

I can't say either of these are a significant problem here.

It would destroy professional freedom for medical professionals. The government would be the sole determiner of the number of medical professionals that could work.

This does seem to be a problem here. However, the democratic process means that pressure is on policy makers to find a solution. Unlike a private system that exists solely for the "bottom line," the NHS is compelled to serve the best interest of the public. Isn't this how a health system should operate?

Children with gestational issues of retardation, spina bifida, etc. would likely require abortion.

This has never happened here. Conversely, the knowledge that your hospital will be open to you, that you will receive regular checkups, attend birthing classes, and have a health professional visit your home during early days of parenthood (without paying out of pocket) does give low-income and single moms the confidence they need to go through the process without aborting their child. Having just gone through "the system," I can say this with confidence: it means a great deal! As someone who is strongly pro-life, I support a national system in the U.S. as an effective way to reduce abortions.

Instead of providing good health coverage for all, it will ultimately lessen the quality of care for all.

Tell me, how do you get less than none??

On the flip side, for the well-off, anything can be purchased. I can't see the problem.

"There is simply no other choice than this: either abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government."

And yet, walking between these extremes is what the western world has been doing throughout modern economic history.

Whatever the solution, any plan fostering more dependence on the government is not only extremely dangerous, but immoral. Perhaps the country would do well to consider the warning of John Cotton, a founding father of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: "Let all the world learn to give mortal men no greater power than they are content that they shall use, for use it they will."

I get the feeling that the author thinks that the U.S. is some kind of totalitarian regime. A federal health care system puts power in the hands of elected officials who are answerable to voters, the very people who use the system. On the other hand, a private system gives that power to profit-makers who have no accountability to the general public.

Two questions:

1) Which would you prefer?
2) Which better serves the less fortunate?

I expect you'll hear more from me on this in the future.

-Chris

sleeping

2007-04-04T22:45:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this with one hand, while Olivia snores on my chest.

Thinking back over these past couple of weeks, I'm surprised more than anything by how natural it has felt to have Olivia with us. Not much shock or confusion; stressful at times, but always feeling somehow like this is how it is supposed to be. I don't believe in fate or divine will in these things, but it's a good feeling anyway. This is our child, a brand new person but already closer to us than most; this is our family.

And Olivia, despite having a very limited sense of her environment and means of expressing herself, nonetheless has a profound effect on us. Through our new roles as parents, we discover more of ourselves, and of each other; but even more than that, it is this new role that further molds and shapes who we actually are.

Recently I've been thinking about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We understand this as a "test" of his faith. Does God really need these experiments to see inside the human heart? Or is it instead that we need these experiences to become the people he is looking for? Strangely, it is the challenges that we find ourselves in that cause us to become people who are able to meet and succeed at them.

Or, to put it another way, the things I do are what determine who I become.

Having gone through many changes in the past couple of years, I think I have become more aware of how I define myself in relation to my world. The question who am I, really? is always floating somewhere in my subconscious. Maybe time will help answer that question; but for now I enjoy the uncertainty, even as I wonder the same about my daughter, who is (thankfully) still snoring soundly.

Goodnight.

2-week Birthday

2007-04-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

So, of course we've fallen into the "new parent trap" of taking way too many pictures of Olivia. It will be nice to look back in a few months to see how she's grown. Here are the best ones.

One-week Birthday!

2007-03-26T17:30:00.000+01:00

Little Olivia has made it through her first week in this big, scary world. She has a regular schedule of sleeping, eating, crying, and staring in wide-eyed silence. The midwife says she looks very healthy, and we agree. We've been for a couple of nice walks, which puts her right to sleep. And we've been getting sleep too, which is absolutely wonderful. We're looking forward to the next weeks and months of her growth. The biggest question at the moment is, will her eyes stay blue, or will they turn brown??

Enjoy the pictures...

Arrival!

2007-03-20T10:32:00.000Z

Most everyone reading this will have received our e-mail announcement. This post is just to get some pictures online of our little Olivia Frances :)

Last night was her first night at home. Bringing her inside and welcoming her into her new home was one of the real highlights for me! There has been lots of cuddling from then until now, and thankfully a few hours of sleep as well.

I have this week off for paternity leave, which is good because Melissa is very sore and having trouble getting up and down. Nevertheless we are both very happy, and not too many frayed nerves yet.

Enjoy the pictures!

p.s. Below is the original announcement e-mail.

-----

Hello to everyone,

News travels fast, but I wanted to send out the official announcement
of the arrival of Olivia Frances Bryan into our family!

Melissa began feeling labour pains Saturday afternoon. After reaching
the hospital around 3.30pm on Sunday, she impressed the midwives with
her stoic attitude and speed of labour. She remarked afterwards, 'It
didn't hurt as much as I expected.'

Olivia made her appearance at 8.16pm on Mother's Day, weighing in at
7lbs. 9oz., or 3.43kg. My first reaction? Point and yell 'there's
your baby!!'

She looks very healthy, and has already developed a strong grip on my
finger. She has been alternating between sleeping, feeding and crying
for the past few hours. Melissa is also doing as well as could be
expected, and is as happy and excited as I. Olivia fell asleep with
me for a while when Melissa was in the bath, and I have a feeling
we'll get along just fine :)

I am home now because they wouldn't let me stay the night. I will be
back at the hospital at 9am. You are welcome to ring us then, I don't
know whether Melissa will want to come home tomorrow, or what the
hospital visiting hours are. In short, I don't know much. I am very
tired and very happy. Please give us a ring tomorrow, especially if
you would like to come see us.

-Chris

Hodge podge of stuff

2007-03-10T16:01:00.000Z

Hi all,

This is Melissa and now that I am on maternity leave I have a bit of time to post. We haven't really done a proper post for some time so this will be a hodge podge of everything that has been going on for the past few months.

First of all I have been at my quilting again and made a quilted table runner/wall hanging as a Christmas present for our friends. Chris actually designed it and did all the drawings and measurements and I just cut the fabric and sewed it. We are really happy with it and it was a fun project to work on together. Here are a few pics:

More recently Chris has switched jobs again. He has quit teaching guitar in the primary schools. His last day is 13 April. He will be teaching a few students privately on a Saturday morning from our house. It is worth the few extra pounds a month and is not too demanding. He has also been hired by our church as the new worship leader for their contemporary 11am service. He is excited about this opportunity and it is part time so it fits his schedule. He has a lot of work to do but he has a few core people in the existing group that are dedicated and on board with him. He also has the back up of the leadership to make changes and make the worship service more meaningful. The job is great because he can work from home except for practices. The church currently runs 4 services a Sunday, which is typical for churches here. The services range from Morning Prayer to Evening Prayer with traditional and contemporary services in the middle.

Chris has also started working on campus as a music archivist. He will be working with a specialist in the field to digitise old recordings. This is something that he is really interested in and it is a great skill to know and master. Again this job is flexible and he can work at anytime day or night.

Next autumn he will change to part-time for his PhD and hopefully we will be able to balance everything. The plan is that I will go back to work full time towards the end of September and Chris will balance all the above and take care of the baby. This will be a challenge but we don’t want to put the baby in daycare. If it becomes a problem then I will have to change to part-time. So please pray for all of that, it will be a struggle no matter what happens.

I am now just a week and a day away from my due date (and my birthday)! I think we pretty much have everything ready for the big day. My hospital bag is packed and ready to go. The nursery is set up, we are just waiting.

I finished work on 1 March and have just been relaxing and reading and sleeping. I haven’t been too bored yet. It is nice to be home and have lunch with Chris when he comes in between schools. We celebrated my birthday early and Chris got me lots of things to do while being home. My favourite thing is a book on quilt stars. It is a great handbook. I found one pattern that I really like and have started another quilt. It is a wall hanging. I am excited about it – I think each one I do is better than the last so it is nice to see improvement.

The British don’t normally have baby showers. When I explained it to them they were mystified. So the girls from my work decided to throw me an ‘American Baby Shower.’ With the help of Chris they threw it in my living room! They all had excuses why they were leaving early from work (which happens occasionally) and then I got home and they were all in my living room! It was a lot of fun and very sweet of them to do. They got us a Moses basket (or bassinet as you may call it) and it is just adorable. Here are a few pictures:

I think the last thing is Chris and I went to London the first weekend in March. One of his compositions was being performed at a weekend ‘Microtonal Festival.’ Microtonal music is a bit hard to explain so all I will say is that it is writing music with notes that are in between the notes on the piano. If you need further clarification then Chris will have to do that. Anyway the festival was good, a little long for me, but his piece went well and he made a lot of contacts.

I will leave you with a picture of me taken a few days ago and some pictures of York over the winter. A few of all the flooding we had in December and the one snowstorm we had (well not really a storm more of a flurry). The next time we post we will be three!!! Thanks for reading.

Melissa

Research summary

2007-02-01T10:08:00.000Z

I recently had to submit a 100-word summary of my doctoral work, I thought it might be nice to post it for anyone who is wondering what the heck I'm actually doing (and I wonder myself!)

"The electronic medium allows for the creation of music with pitch content that is both flexible and precise. This provides the opportunity for new approaches to scale construction that make effective use of this resource. The objective of my research is to implement innovative tuning systems through fixed media, live performance, and sound installations, in order to explore the effects upon aural perception, form, and the compositional process. This approach will demonstrate the aesthetical value of the theories involved and suggest potentially fruitful directions for further development concerning the role of pitch within the context of contemporary music."

Winter Blues

2007-01-17T15:36:00.000Z

Ok, so it's not really that bad, but I wanted an interesting title.

It has been a very mild winter so far, but with loads of wind and rain. The river has come close to causing a major flood, and the wind has blown over more than one lorry on the highway. I'm still fighting my way through it to teach guitar to children who I'm sure are not nearly appreciative enough of my struggles to reach them :)

Things feel very much in the balance at this point. I'm beginning another job which involves categorising and digitally archiving old recordings, and I'm applying for another job which will allow me to stop teaching; more on that to come if it materializes. In between that I'm desperately trying to stay on track with my own music-making and theorising, and of course waiting anxiously for the big arrival.

Melissa finishes work after the first week in March; she will officially be a housewife (temporarily) for the first time in our life!

We're planning on making our first visit back to the U.S. this summer, after being away for almost two years. That feels strange. So if you're planning on visiting us (you know who you are!) make sure you coordinate with our schedule.

Life is good, despite my previous complaining. We are both content and excited for the future. We'll keep you in the loop.

-Chris

Who stole Christmas?

2006-12-13T12:24:00.000Z

Every Christmas I seem to stumble across one article that forces me to grimace with disgust, yell at the author in my head, and then take a deep breath and try to formulate a logical, reasoned response. I hope you enjoy my take on the Christmas front of the so-called "culture war."

[link to the original article]

Whose Holiday?

While there are many positive suggestions for a meaningful Christmas later in the article, the first two paragraphs alone are enough to push all my buttons. It begins with a lovely image of the Christmas ideal: enjoyable time with friends and family, a time for good feelings, etc. However, we are informed that this holiday is in extreme danger! Why? Because according to Mackay, we just can't have these things without mangers and shepherds as well. According to her, gathering with family and friends without an explicitly religious theme is "dull, obscure" and "meaningless."

The mission of Christians, then, is to "restore Christmas to its rightful owner – Christ." Reading this, I began to wonder: would Christ really want us to fight for "his holiday"? How did it even become "his" in the first place?

The last time I checked, Christ was the subject of Christmas, not the owner. Christmas was not created by Jesus; it was made up by Christians. Therefore, Christmas is our holiday, not his! You may think I'm nitpicking - but by making this simple point, any defense of the Christmas Crusade crumbles away. Making up a divine mandate to protect a human interest is known in the Bible as taking the Lord's name in vain. Fighting for our "right" to mandate a religious holiday observance is cultural imperialism, not Gospel living.

A Different Gospel

Ironically enough, Jesus made a big deal out of a very similar issue, and it was part of what got him killed. Allow me to (over-)simplify and summarize:

The Pharisees were building a snazzy new temple. "This belongs to God!" they said. "Everyone has to worship here like we tell them to. Furthermore, anyone who opposes our agenda is really opposing God, and will be punished." Jesus, however, didn't agree. "That building has nothing to do with God and neither do your silly observances; and he's not very fond of you signing his name on to your pet projects and proceeding to beat other people down with them."

Isn't there just a bit of an echo through all the years? There's only one problem: Jesus is on the wrong side! Is it possible that Christ really has been removed from Christmas– not by the Secularists, but by the Christians who claim to love him?

A Really Christian Christmas

It should be clear to Christians that if Christ really were the centre of Christmas, it would not lead to the fuzzy-feeling, cozy holiday that Mackay describes and that we all enjoy. Jesus "did not come to bring peace, but the sword." In other words, Jesus does not intend to give us comfort and security, at least not before sacrifice, pain and trials. If our holiday merely reinforces a general sense of "good will to all" and warm fuzzy feelings, we can be assured that it is not Christian is any significant sense. Mackay unfortunately tries to have it both ways by fighting for a Christian holiday (supposedly for the good of Christians and non-Christians alike), when a truly Christian Christmas would by definition exclude those who are not part of that faith community... or at least seriously piss them off.

Of course there are many Christians, including me, for whom Christmas really is a Christian holiday, a time to reflect on the "image of God" as flesh and blood, beginning to the long road to the cross. For me it involves feelings of joy ("Can it really be true?"), doubt, ("Can I really believe it is true?"), and struggle ("How can I learn to follow him?") My question is this: how could we argue (or simply assume, as Mackay does) that this aspect of Christmas can have any relevance to the rest of the world? And without the core of obedient discipleship, what is the use of mangers and wise men?

Whether Christians choose to admit it or not, there has always been a "winterval Christmas": the family dinners, warm sweaters, trees and presents. There is also a "Christian Christmas," where those who want to follow Jesus take the oppourtunity to reflect on his arrival in our world. To force the rest of the world to take part in a religious Christmas is not only an affront to non-Christians, it is an injustice to those for whom Christmas does have spiritual value. It is one thing to use Christmas as a time to share with others the light of Christ: it is another to harass the Royal Mail for not putting Jesus on their stamps.

This Christmas, let's give up fighting to preserve a religious culture that is devoid of spiritual value, a culture that emphasizes form over substance, that misses the forest for the trees; the same religious culture that led Jesus to the cross. Let us embrace the "winterval" as a chance to live as Christians in fellowship with the unbelieving world on their terms, not ours, and let us also celebrate Christmas as the arrival of our Lord, as only humble Christians can.

Happy holidays,
and Merry Christmas,

Chris

Week 24 update

2006-12-02T16:24:00.000Z

Hello everyone

Sorry we have been lax about posting, but we always seem to be busy. This is Melissa, by the way, in case you can't tell from the writing style.

I am currently 24 weeks pregnant and doing very well. I saw the midwife on Monday and we heard the baby's heart beat again. I told her that I have been tired lately and she thinks my iron levels could be low. They don't officially check the levels until 28 weeks, so I am supposed to eat lots of leafy green veg and red meat and eggs and apricots and drink OJ because the Vitamin C helps your body process the iron. Hopefully I can get the levels up so I won't need to take tablets. Besides that I feel good, the baby is always kicking and Chris can feel it. He gets excited when he feels it. :) I am still walking about a mile a day to and from work which is keeping me healthy. I have attached a couple pictures so you can see how huge I am.

Chris' parents were here visiting for a week. They really tired us out, we are still recovering and both are fighting off colds. :( We are resting this weekend and hopefully next week we'll be back to normal again. We had a nice time and it was great to see them.

We showed them around York and did lots of shopping and eating traditional British foods e.g. fish n chips, Indian (seems weird but Brits love to eat it), mince pies and mulled wine, tea with milk, fruit cake with cheese(really yummy even though it sounds weird), tea room fayre, sausage and mash. We also did some pub hopping.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Chris and I got a fresh organic free range turkey from a farm just outside of York. You have to order it ahead of time so they can make sure they will have one big enough, but when we went to pick it up, someone had taken it the day before by accident! So they apologised and then told us they would kill one and deliver it our house. When it got here it was still warm......that is fresh for you! It was delicious. I have to give credit to my friend Sue who showed Chris how to cook a really nice turkey.

The weather has been pretty mild and I think the rainy season is almost over. We did a riverboat tour up the Ouse River which was nice and I learned some new facts about York.

On another note Chris got a new laptop for Christmas. Of course he had to open it early :) He is very excited about it and has been working more at the University which is good. This gives him more of an opportunity to liaise with other students and keeps him in-the-know about different things on campus. He is very happy with his laptop and so I have to attach a picture of it. I told him that people wouldn't care ;)

I think that is it. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Melissa

Ultrasound #2 - 20 Weeks

2006-11-12T13:43:00.002Z

Hello everyone!

First of all, I apologize for neglecting the blog these last few weeks. Our life right now is the busiest it's ever been, for better and for worse. : I'd also like to start a blog specifically to chronicle my musical thoughts and experiments, but we'll see if I get around to it...

Most importantly though, I need to keep you updated on Melissa and the baby!

Last week she had her 20-week ultrasound scan. As far as we can see, everything is looking great. Here are the pictures...

We're getting more excited about it every day. I know that after the arrival I will think back longingly to my last full night of sleep, but I can't help looking forward anyway.

Melissa's belly is getting bigger every day, and I was even able to feel the baby kick one time. Melissa feels movement every day.

We're at the half-way point, so there probably won't be much news on the baby front until it's almost time, and of course there will be lots to say then. In the meantime, I hope to keep you up-to-date on my music, and hopefully we'll take some nice pictures when my parents come to visit in a week. Stat tuned!

First Contact

2006-09-15T19:33:00.000+01:00

On Monday of this week, Melissa had an appointment with her midwife, and we were able to hear the baby's heart beating! Unfortunately, we couldn't record it to play for you.

Then on Thursday she had her first ultrasound, and we made visual contact! We were excited to see for the very first time...

The due date is set for March 21st, the same day as Melissa's birthday. But everyone knows that the Bryans have a tendency of being fashionably (cough) late, so we won't be surprised if it's an April event.

It's too early to know the gender or anything, all that they can tell is roughly how old it is, and that everything seems to be going okay.

We hope you enjoy these first snapshots. We'll keep you informed in the coming weeks!

Chris & Melissa

A short update (more to follow...)

2006-09-03T16:12:00.000+01:00

Hello, I am writing from the University because (for some reason) it takes 10 - 12 days to change the address of our account with our internet provider. After that I will post some pictures, and I'm also planning to include a video walk-through of our new home! Here is our new address:

1 Daysfoot Court
York
YO10 5BP
UK

In other news, I received more financial aid from the University! About 2/3 of my tuition is now covered, meaning less loans to pay back, which makes us very happy.

We're busy unpacking our few boxes and buying home stuff (I always get excited when I can get a new frying pan). We'll be having a house-warming party later this month and you're all invited, so buy your tickets now! :)

Pictures are forthcoming,

-Chris

And then there were three

2006-08-22T17:22:00.000+01:00

We know that most of you already know, but you can consider this the official announcement...

Melissa and I are expecting a child.

Yes, repeating it hasn't made it sound any less weird. Childbearing? Yes, maybe someday... but suddenly that someday has become this day. I remember having the same feeling about getting married, and I expect (without being morbid) to feel the same when I die. Each represents a massive shift in the experience which I call my life. Since the circumstances of my life define who we are, it is we who are changing, transforming in the same way that the joining of two strands of RNA is quickly becoming a full-fledged human being.

It is in these experiences that I come to understand what theologians mean by 'mystery'; the things that we experience without being able to understand or explain. The experience is both humbling and exciting, as our perspective is transformed in ways beyond our control.

Yet, the whole thing is still only a theoretical reality; our day-to-day life is not much changed. Sometimes we wonder whether it could really be happening at all. In three week's time we'll have an ultrasound scan, which will hopefully add some sensory evidence.

And there are all the tantalizing questions: Who will this person be? What will they be like? What will it be like to have her or him in our family? Will I be an okay parent, and will that be enough for them?

I set up this blog to keep record of our journey to England, and suddenly we find ourselves on the brink of a much longer journey. At the moment we both have a strange sense of calm; maybe because we're getting used to these expeditions into the unknown, or maybe because this one hasn't sunk into our psyche yet, who knows. Anyway, I will try to keep some record of the medical checkups and the state of our life for anyone who is interested, as well as our own posterity.

Melissa's first appointment was today, not much happened except answering the doctor-type questions ("are you the father of the baby?") and the upsetting questions ("is this a wanted pregnancy?"), and some blood tests to check for diabetes and stuff.

The whole birthing process is different here than in the US, something I will talk more about later. Melissa's main point of contact is a midwife. Also, she has the option of giving birth at the horspital or at home, as long as things look okay. There are also some pregnancy perks, including free prescriptions and dental care!

Her next appointment is in three weeks' time, when they will check the due date (tentatively March 17th, St. Patrick's Day!) and do an ultrasound scan. So, with any luck, the little one can make her/his online debut at that time.

If this news has renewed your interest in keeping up with the blog, make sure you've subsribed to the RSS feed, so you don't have to keep coming to the website! The address is http://bryanadventure.blogspot.com/rss.xml If you have no idea what I'm talking about, search the internet, or just ask me.

I think that's all for now. Send us all of your questions. I'll try to get Melissa posting at some point as well. As we begin down this long road, it is nice to have others to share the experience with...

-Chris

Anniversary celebration week

2006-07-27T22:17:00.000+01:00

Hello, and get ready for lots of pictures!

This week has seen the close of our third year of marriage. We keep saying it feels like so much longer... but in a good way. We both took some time off work and spent a couple of days exploring (in between the days of rest, of course...) I hope you enjoy the photos and brief synopsis of our expeditions. Remember that you can click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

On Tuesday we went to the town of Harrogate. One consequence of living without a car is that the world seems so much bigger than it used to! Even a 20-mile journey is a big to-do.

Harrogate was originally a Victorian town built largely around the sulfur springs.

Mostly we just spent the day exploring, so below are pictures of an interesting church building, the outside of the mall, and a park where we hung out (including when Melissa shrunk to a midget... or maybe it was just a big plant? and the shrubbery-person)

On Thursday we took a free ride to Scarborough on a 1930's steam train as "Friends of the National Railway Museum"! Basically what that means is, our friend, Ian Smith, receives commissions from the museum to write glossy picture books about the trains, and he's allowed to bring people along to sell them to people as they ride. Cool, eh?

Notice the "Hogwarts" sign; part of the train was used in the Harry Potter films!

Scarborough is slightly further away, a coastal town on the North Sea. Unlike York, it is very hilly. Like Harrogate, most of the history is Victorian, but up on a very high peninsula there are the remains of a castle which was built in the 12th century. They have also determined that the area has been inhabited for at least 3000 years.

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, it took me so long to organize and upload them that I don't have time to say much about them; you can e-mail or comment with questions and, well, comments. It's been a fun week, but now it's time to catch up on work. Later!

Chris

News and a personal reflection

2006-06-24T09:53:00.000+01:00

I think I've run out of interesting ways to say "Hello." Suggestions are welcome.

I got a letter in the mail yesterday telling me I have received a scholarship for one third of my tuition for all three years of my PhD research. This is very exciting because we're trying to pay for my education without selling our souls to the student loan sharks! I still have several other scholarships that I'm waiting to hear from as well.

I really feel at this moment that life is really good. All our needs are being met, my work is progressing, and I am aware of myself growing and changing in many different ways.

I'm reading a book at the moment that is causing me to do some serious reflection. It's called "The Inner Life" by Thomas a Kempis, a medieval writer. He says some things which are very hard. I was tempted at first to write it off as the kind of asceticism that is so prevalent in our stereotype of pre-Reformation Christianity, and while popular in many religions, has no basis in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, where God consistently affirms and celebrates the physical world in all of its pleasure and sensuality and power. However, I continued reading; and I'm beginning to wonder if I was misunderstanding his message. I'm just going to quote a few of the things that have made an impact on me and are causing me to reexamine my own "inner life":

"It is wise not to be over hasty in action, nor to cling stubbornly to our own opinions. ... Take counsel of a wise and conscientious man, and seek to be guided by one who is better than yourself, rather than to follow your own opinions."

"The eye is not filled with seeing, nor the ear with hearing."

"True peace of heart can only be found by resisting the passions, not by yielding to them."

"We could enjoy much peace if we did not busy ourselves with what other people say and do, for this is no concern of ours."

"Judge yourself, and beware of passing judgment on others."

"Keep yourself a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, to whom the affairs of the world are of no concern."

"Keep a clean conscience, and God will mightily defend you."

As I'm reading over it again to glean these quotes, I'm realizing that none of this is really earth-shattering advice; but for whatever reason his writing style is really grabbing me personally, maybe just because it's old and obscure, leaving it free from the misinterpretations of sentimental, entertainment-seeking church folk on the one hand and systematic theologians on the other that the Bible has undergone. (That's another topic though)

I've posted these quotes for the benefit of fellow Christians, but also for fellow, non-Christians, because much of the wisdom seems to be self-evident. Any reactions are welcome and appreciated, just post a comment.

I'll leave you with one last quote that has really affected me; my immediate thought upon reading it was "This is who I want to be!" My hope is that the person I am in the process of becoming will be of benefit to those around me, and ultimately be part of God's incarnational redemption of whatever corner of the universe I happen to inhabit...

"He who walks by an inner light, and is not unduly influenced by outward things, needs no special time or place for his prayers. For the man of inner life easily recollects himself, since he is never wholly immersed in outward affairs. Therefore his outward occupations and needful tasks do not distract him, and he adjusts himself to things as they come. The man whose inner life is well-ordered and disposed is not troubled by the strange and perverse ways of others; for a man is hindered and distracted by such things only so far as he allows himself to be concerned by them."

Until next time,

Chris

2006-06-01T22:30:00.000+01:00

Hello faithful readers,

Spring in Yorkshire is quickly passing; the snowdrops of March were followed by the daffodils of April, which recently gave way to buttercups and these little white flowers that look like baby's breath. I wish I had taken a whole day just to photograph each transition, it's so incredibly beautiful.

It's still light after 10pm, which is having the interesting psycho-physiological effect that I seem to be getting a lot more done in an average day. Nevertheless, teaching three days a week and working 8 hours at Miller's (Melissa lied about me quitting right away) on top of my music work is pushing me to my limit. The grade schools have off this week, which is why I have some time to post an update for you.

I've been doing some self-reflection recently, about where we are and where we've come in this past year. In one sense, little has changed; but in another sense, everything has changed. I am still very much the same person I was before I left; but at the same time, this radically different place has left an indelible mark on my person, even if I were to leave today. I can't describe it in any other way except that one's environment is an integral part of oneself. The feeling of "I have seen" and "I have been" is very profound, and it forms the foundation of understanding. I know very little about what goes on inside of me, but I think it is making me a better person.

On a more practical subject, I am finding that I may have something to offer to the worship team at our local church congregation. There seems to be an opportunity for me to exercise my limited gifts of vision and discernment, and some very interesting things could happen in the future...

This summer should be very interesting in general, as I finish this year's work and gear up for the long road towards a PhD. Also, we should be making at least one more exciting excursion (location TBA, probably somewhere between here and Scotland) before Melissa heads back to the States in the fall. Besides that, I should have plenty to blog about as I will be launching my first professionally-developed website, and pondering the vocational aspect of my work. Stay tuned...

-Chris

p.s. If you enjoy our blog and haven't done so already, drop us a line with the comment function. It's nice to know who's reading...

Great Britain Powerlifting...

2006-05-22T20:18:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, it is Melissa again. I just got back from a weekend holiday and wanted to tell you all about it. I spent the weekend in Leamington Spa (pronounced like the fruit), which is in the middle of the country, near Birmingham. My Aunt and Uncle live there. My Uncle is a powerlifter and was competing in Milton Keynes on Saturday. I have never seen him lift but I have seen his many trophies and plaques and thought I should go and check it out.

I took the train from York on Friday and it took about 3 1/2 hours to get there. Luckily it was a direct train and so the weren't any connections. When I got on the train there were computer screens above each seat that said they were reserved! There were people sitting on the floor and standing in between the cars, it was terrible. Apparently, people book their tickets in advance and get reserved seats. And they will still sell tickets even if there are no seats availible. Craziness! My ticket was an "open return" ticket and you don't get a reserved seat with these. But luckily, I was able to find a seat that was reserved from Edinburgh to Coventry and nobody was sitting there, so I stole it.

On Saturday we had to be in Milton Keynes for 8:00am so Uncle Dennis could weigh in. That means we had to leave by 7:00am on the dot, as a carload of people were coming to the house to follow us down. Milton Keynes is a suburb of London and all the roads look the same so directions can be confusing. So we left on the dot at 7:00am and made it for the weigh in at 8:00am. The actual powerlifting didn't start until 11:00am so we were just sitting and waiting. The whole thing is pretty cool I think. Chris thinks I am insane, but oh well. Power lifting consists of 3 events: squat, bench press, and dead lift. For each event you get three attempts; if you make the first attempt then you normally go to a higher weight. If you don't make it, then you repeat the same weight. You must have at least one good lift in each event in order to continue to the next. There are three referees and they give you a white light for a good lift and a red light for a bad lift. You need a majority of white lights in order to have a good lift. The weights are measured in kilograms. Uncled Dennis is in the "Masters Four" division because he is over 70 years old. In each division there are classes which are determined by body weight. Uncle Dennis was in the 90Kilo class.

I had a job to do, of course, because Uncle Dennis can't stand for me and Aunt Helen to sit around all day. She was in charge of taking pictures of all the lifters for Uncle Dennis' "International Powerlifter" magazine, and I was the runner. What exactly is a runner, you ask? Well, the weights for the first attempts are given at weigh-in, but you have to hand in the 2nd and 3rd attempts after the previous attempt. My job was to hand in the next attempts for Uncle Dennis and his friend Brian within 1 minute after the referees marks were given after conferring with Dennis and Brian about what they wanted to lift on the next attempt. I was very nervous, but it went fine.

Are you bored yet? It is ok if you are, but here are some pictures of the three events. Note the three "costume" changes.

Uncle Dennis starting his squat

Uncle Dennis down in the squat

Uncle Dennis doing the bench press

Uncle Dennis doing the dead lift

This is Brian, Uncle Dennis' friend who is doing 197.5 kilos (435 pounds), a world record for his age and body weight!!!

Uncle Dennis did very well; all nine of his attempts were good lifts. He said that was the first time he ever did that, and I think he was the only one to do it in the whole competition. He got 26 out of a possible 27 white lights! He received a gold medal for his weight class. Go Uncle Dennis, another one to add to the collection.

On Sunday, we had my cousins over for dinner, and it is always nice to have them all over at the same time! I didn't get many pictures, just one of my cousin John's daughters, Elisabeth and Francesca, with their Mum, Helen. Francesca is the same age as my nephew Seth. They have sooo much energy. My cousin Peter and his wife Georgina are expecting a baby in August, and we are all excited for that.

Anyway, I had a nice weekend, I just got home today (Monday). I hope you are all well. Until next time,

Lots of love

Melissa

Yea DSL!

2006-04-27T16:52:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone

This is Melissa writing. Yes we finally got DSL at our new flat and we are up and running again. Life has been busy for the last couple of weeks and it has been harder to post. Chris is near to a deadline and has been working crazy hours in order to finish it. Hopefully he is almost done.

I can't remember if we told everyone that he is going to be quiting his fish and chips job because he will be teaching guitar to primary school kids during 3 days a week. I hope he likes it, he will be teaching kids in groups of 2-4 kids at a time. He will have to travel around to different schools in York and then pull the kids out of class for a half an hour once a week. He will be starting on Tuesday with 3 schools and then by the next few weeks he will have 7 schools a week. He is employed by the council same as me and his admin team is downstairs from my office. :) We are excited by this opportunity for him as it will immensely help us in paying for his PhD tuition. Please continue to pray that he will get scholarships to help as well. Of course this means that Chris will need a new guitar. He picked one out that he really likes for £189.00 and we are picking it up tomorrow. It will be funny to see him cycling around the city with a guitar strapped to his back...

Not much news from me except that my job has now been made permanent, Yipee! Originally I was only on a 6 month contract that was due to end on 26 May. This is a great relief for us too. I will still be working only three days a week but this combined with Chris' three days will be plenty for us to live off of.

There really isn't much else going on at this time. We went to Leeds at Easter and spent the day with my cousin Mark and my my Aunt Helen and Uncle Dennis. That was a nice relaxing day. We are beginning to get more involved in our church. Chris is starting to play on the worship team. Mostly just his guitar and I will be running sound for the service. I may also be helping out with admin stuff one or two days a week. I am excited about that.

Here are a few pictures. Hope you all are having a great day and check in soon for more pictures.

Chris at Miller's Fish and Chips

Chris and Abhay in the City

Me and Abhay in the city

Some cool pictures of York

Nederland!

2006-04-03T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hello! I Finally have the chance to catch you up with the past few weeks! If you remember, we moved to our very own flat in the beginning of March; but I'll save those pictured for next time, in favour of the more exciting pictures of our first excursion to the continent. We did have to postpone the trip until a week after our original plan, after overlooking some particulars regarding international travel (ok, so we forgot our passports. Are you finished laughing yet?!)

We took an overnight ferry across the North Sea, arriving in Holland the following morning. Above is the sunset over Hull, the port we left from in England.

It was a really big boat! Besides the duty-free and restaurants, there were no less than two cinemas, a childrens' area, and large stage for a band. Unfortunately, the prospect of playing Roulette and listening to bad cover bands while drinking copious amounts of over-priced alcohol doesn't really appeal to us that much; but it was still an experience.

Sunrise over the North Sea!

Holland is a quite unique place. We decided for some reason to go to Rotterdam instead of Amsterdam (the more obvious choice), but there was still plenty for us to see, and we had great weather! The first highlight for us was Delfshaven, a stretch along the river which is the only place not destroyed during the second World War. The historic buildings were nice.

The strangest bit of our sight-seeing (and definitely the most memorable) were the Cube Houses. Built in the 1980's, these residential complexes consist of "trees" with concrete trunks leading to flats which resemble a cube standing on one end, overshadowing areas of shops and businesses. Sound weird? Wait until you see the pictures...

The inside photos were taken from one of the cubes which was turned into a museum.

Last, but not least, we visited the Boijmans van Beuningen museum, which houses a selection of classic and contemporary art, sometimes in strange juxtaposition. These are just a few random selections from the things I found interesting...

I hope the pictures were worth the wait! Stay tuned, there's more to come, and it should come with less delay if-and-when we get internet access at home. The funding for that will be facilitated by the part-time job I've recently acquired, dishing out fish and chips! But that's another story all together...

coming soon...

2006-03-27T09:57:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the comments on the last post, especially the more recent ones; it's nice to know that you're still checking, even when I haven't been posting!

The reason why I haven't kept up with the weekly posting routine is that our new place doesn't have internet yet. I have lots of pictures to share with you, but taking the camera to Uni. is difficult since the last few weeks have been nothing but rain, and I've also been very busy.

Nevertheless, there's much to say! I want to introduce you to our new flat, and tell you about our adventure in Holland, and my solo trip to London. So...

Stay tuned!

------------------

03 April: The post is almost complete, but the blogger picture upload stopped working! Al...most... there.....

Breaking news!

2006-03-08T11:32:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

Melissa and I have settled into our new place and it's very nice, but I can't give you any pictures yet because we have no internet... this is a bad thing. I can bring the camera with me to school, but it's been raining the past few days, and I've been pretty busy.

But I couldn't wait that long to let you know that I've been given a place in the PhD program at York! So it seems pretty settled that Melissa and I will be here for a while. We're very excited.

By the way, if you want to look at the department where I'm studying, there are pictures and info here.

The other result of this news is that Melissa will be looking to upgrade to full-time work in a few months, and I'm looking for a part-time job.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I'm able...

Quilting, plus a p.s.

2006-02-26T20:25:00.000Z

Hello faithful reader,

I have an announcement from Melissa, but she doesn't feel like typing.

She wanted to let you know that she's finished her very first quilt! Well, it's not her first quilt, but it's the first quilt that's finished, if you know what I mean. It is a baby quilt for my sister Gail McAdams' upcoming arrival.

Some pictures...

And on a completely different thread (ha, ha), we thought you would be interested to know that the day before yesterday is the commemoration of the independence of Estonia. We had lunch yesterday with a friend of a friend who grew up in the twilight of the Soviet Union.

That's an illustration of one of my favorite (or favourite?) things about living in the U.K.: there's an amazing connection with the rest of the world. They, in turn, are amazed by the isolation of the U.S.; they don't blame us for our isolation, they understand that it's part of our geography. But it's something that I'm not proud of. I'm convinced that 'Americans,* by and large, have absolutely no clue about what the rest of the world is really like. And yet, we consider ourselves the Rome of the new global empire. For the record, I really disagreed with the political philosophy of this Estonian who grew up in the U.S.S.R. But without that manner of conversation, how can I hope to have an educated perspective?

I'll stop before I begin a proper rant, but maybe that's provided some food for thought.

This is moving week for us; we'll have some pictures next week of our new, 2-bedroom flat! We're very excited. Stay tuned...

* Read the following comments for an explanation of this term.

Fun in the Minster

2006-02-19T18:46:00.000Z

As promised, here's a bit on a really nice concert that took place in the Minster the Saturday before last.

The program was very eclectic, ranging from medieval church music to classical, a tuvan throat-singing group, electronic music... and of course, the indonesian gamelan, which I play in!

The aesthetic of the concert was unique and pleasing. The chairs had been removed from the space, and the audience was encouraged to move around throughout the performance. When one group finished, the next began from a different, unexpected part of the room. The evening culminated with a vocal ensemble that performed a canon whilst meandering around and through the audience! I can't explain the effect of the evening in words, except to say that everything felt... really big. It was really nice. I took a lot of pictures of the gamelan because it was really striking to see an entire small orchestra of instruments from the East juxtaposed against the cathedral background of the West.

On a different subject, I have a new website! www.cmbryan.com There are a few recordings to download, including the first project for my Master's degree. If you want to listen, let me know what you think.

These next few weeks will be all about buckling down and (hopefully) getting a lot of music written. I'll let you know as soon as I hear about my PhD application. Thanks for reading!

Touristing continued...

2006-02-12T11:39:00.000Z

Is "touristing" a word? Anyway...

Life has been really busy of late, and we have some announcements!

My mother and brother were here visiting last week, which is my excuse for not posting before now. We had a great time showing them around. Andrew bought a sword and took it back with him! I'll just pretend I don't see the bloke with his arm around my wife.

It also gave us a great excuse to hit some pubs...

and even spy on a devil!

Also, we're very excited that Melissa has a new bike!

It's a combined birthday present from both of our parents and myself. Her old one was pretty beat, and this one is shiny new! Hopefully we can keep it that way for a while...

We have some nice pictures of York that haven't found their way into a post yet...

And last (but certainly not least)... we're moving! The place where we're living now has been great, especially because our landlord, Ann, has been more than willing to help us in many ways. However, it's about 5 miles to York and the University, which is a lot on a bicycle every day. Our new place will be a lot closer, but also significantly more expensive. You can pray for us that our finances will work out ok.

Next week I'll share a bit about a concert I just played in with the York gamelan ensemble (the gamelan is a collection of instruments from Indonesia). And in a few weeks I should be able to announce our future plans with regard to my continuing studies.

Until then, take care,

-Chris

The Life of a Tourist

2006-01-29T20:52:00.000Z

Hello everyone! I know some of you were wondering about the delay in posting; life has been generally busy, but more importantly, our friend Terri was staying with us all week! The upshot is, we spent the week doing lots of really touristy things, getting some neat pictures, and occasionally acting against our better judgement by dressing up as vikings...

(I'm keeping the pictures small, but remember that you can click on any of them for a closer look.)

My favourite tourist trap was the Jorvik Viking museum. "Jorvik" is the Viking name for York. The museum is actually a guided tour through an underground recreation of sections of the city as they appeared a millenium ago. Not only are the recreated streets directly underneath the real ones, but the most nature of the soil has allowed archeologists to reconstruct the exact placement of every building on the street, as well as make an intelligent guess as to their functions! The reconstruction is populated by wax figures engaged in various tasks... including one who's job is to take an everlasting, groaning crap.

We also spent time in more conventional museums, the first of which is called the Yorkshire Museum, and it chronicles the history of the region. I was really amazed at the relics, which date all the way back to the Romans! I'm also fascinated by the transition from pagan religions to Christianity that happened towards the end of the Roman occupation. Here are some pictures in some kind of chronological order, starting with the Romans...

Notice in this last picture that Moses has a horn... apparently that's because of a mistranslation of a passage from the Bible! Oops...

We also spent time at the Castle Museum, which offers more general English history. There was lots of really cool stuff there, but for some reason I was especially in the mood for morbid pictures, so here are some skeletons and really scary clowns. (Erin Wheeler, if you're reading this, you may not want to scroll down...)

Watch out!

Ha ha.

One thing I've taken away from this past week is the awareness of my complete lack of knowledge with regard to European history, an ignorance which I regret. In the future I hope to have time to do some reading and increase my understanding of this fascinating subject, which is also part of my cultural heritage.

A final, unrelated note: Melissa and I are discussing and praying about our future. We're pretty much open to anything at this point. If anything develops, we'll let you know...

I'll do my best to keep posting, but I really have to keep my nose to the grindstone now, and next week my mother and brother are staying with us... so I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best! As always, thanks for reading, and leave a comment!

Until next time,

-Chris

Milestone #1

2006-01-16T22:57:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

This is just an informal post to let you know how things are going...

I officially submitted my first assignment at 2:45 this afternoon. It's the first thing that I'll be officially graded on! So I'm holding my breath a little bit, but I think it'll be alright. It's a 30-minute piece of purely electronic music, suitable for quiet enjoyment in a dark room, or something of that nature. One of my undergrad professors said that my music is too gentle and controlled, that I need to get angry and have a temper tantrum every once in a while. That might be a good idea, but if you know me at all, you know that it's not in my nature... it's not that I don't get angry, but I don't really exhibit my anger as a mode of communication.

Strange as it seems, we've already been forced to look ahead and give some thought to the future after I finish my degree. Originally, we had assumed that the cost of study would prohibit me from continuing my education until I had spent some time in more profitable enterprises, but my advisor pointed out that there are avenues of funding specifically for international students! So with that in mind, I'm submitting a proposal to begin work towards a PhD. If the school accepts me, and if I get some funding, that would keep us here for another few years. The prospect of further study, and further time spent in this wonderful place is scary as well as exciting, but we would both be very happy were it to become a reality.

Along those lines, Melissa made the wonderful discovery that, because of her father, she is entitled to Irish citizenship! Not only does that make traveling Europe a whole lot easier, but it entitles her (and myself, through marriage) to remain in the U.K. for extended periods without a costly and annoying visa. How cool is that?

Finally, a word of advice: if you lock up your cycle, don't try to open the lock with the wrong key. Wrong keys have a tendency to snap off and become permanently lodged in the lock, thereby rendering your bike permanently attached to the pole. Also, if it were to ever happen to you whilst out with your wife on a cold and rainy night and you're a good hour's walk from home, I would further advise you to apologize very profusely.

Luckily for us, our landlord is very understanding, and doesn't at all mind making late-night emergency pickups. Hooray for Providence in the form of kind people! We have had so many wonderful experiences of kindness and hospitality, it's quite overwhelming. So, I'll end with one last piece of advice: you probably won't ever meet a more grateful person than a foreigner (or just an out-of-towner) who ends up on the receiving end of your grace.

-Chris

Holiday recap

2006-01-07T10:25:00.000Z

Hello! I know you've been losing sleep, tortured and obsessed by the single question, "Why haven't they posted to the blog?!" Ok, maybe not, but just flatter me, alright?

I decided to wait until after the holidays died down to give you a recap. Here it is!

Melissa's Aunt and Uncle generously invited us to their place for Christmas. Unfortunately, they live almost 3 hours south of York, which is a problem when you don't have a car! Thankfully, their son Mark lives close by in Leeds, and he was nice enough to pick us up.

We didn't leave until Christmas morning, and we stayed until Tuesday. As you can imagine, driving down the Motorway on Christmas morning was a breeze... no traffic!

Melissa's other cousin, John, is married to Helen and has two children, Elizabeth and Francesca.

And their dog, Toby!

The kids enjoyed opening their presents ...

... and some of the bigger kids did as well.

We enjoyed spending time in their new posh conservatory.

On Boxing Day (otherwise known as the day after Christmas) we were joined by Melissa's other cousin, Peter, and his wife Georgina

... and their dog, Chester.

We even got some snow!

It was really nice being with family for Christmas. Thanks for reading!

The Holiday Scandal

2005-12-19T12:08:00.000Z

Ok, so how many people were surprised by me saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Christmas" as they say over here)? This simple change of phrase has caused such an amazing amout of controversy, it would be unbelieveable if it weren't for the fact that it's the same old ideological camps in the same old turf war that's been going on for almost a half-century now. Let me highlight some recent incidents:

- The city of Boston decided to change the name of its "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree." The man who cut down the tree said he would have thrown it into the chipper if he knew about the change before. Jerry Falwell has called it part of "a concerted effort to steal Christmas."

- Target decided to wish its customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

- A city in Florida denied a request by Mr. Koenig to display a private nativity scene in a public park.

Literally thousands more could be mentioned, but these represent three fundamental areas of the Christmas battle: government, business, and private. What do all three have in common? Every decision mentioned above has been reversed by the tactics of the Christian Right, who feel that, in the words of John Gibson, "The war on Christmas really is a war on Christians."

Instead of rushing to join the infantry on either side, I've taken the chance to back up a few paces from the nativities and the trees and reflect on what we Christians are really fighting about...

Otherworldy beings in the sky. Philosophers basing their decisions about the future of global politics on astrology. People basing their hope on a line of kings. Messages coming in dreams and visions. Promises of a reversal of the political order, where poor people take over the world.

If this were a TV show, we might be entertained. More amusingly, many Christians would boycott it for having occult influences.

But this is no TV show. It's one more symbol that conservatives are trying to make sure remains permanently attached to "American culture." Are we for real?

Let's pretend this story is new, without the 2,000 years of cultural baggage attached. Pretend you're walking down the street, trying to convince people that this story is true. How many people would believe you? More to the point, would you walk into someone else's business and demand that it recognize your story?

During a carol service last night, in spite of the cultural security that comes with a traditional holiday, beyond the traditional language and comfy sweaters and warm conversation, it really hit me: we're completely crazy! This story makes the "X-Files" look unimaginative, and yet we insist that it's true! I wanted to laugh out loud and pretend I was Jack Nicholson in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Let's just face it, we Christians are nuts. Really. At the very least, we're strikingly un-democratic and un-patriotic, since we belive in a king who's not American, and we'll be leaving this citizenship entirely when he comes.

I, as an orthodox Christian, recognize that I am over the edge. I am not normal. No normal person would believe a story like that.

Furthermore, I'm convinced that if Christians recognized how absurd their story really is, they would stop going around demanding that the rest of the world recognize it. Our real joy would come from revelling together in our crazy story, enjoying it as only a crazy story can be enjoyed. Our Christmas services would stop pretending to be a safe cultural haven, and begin to reflect the wonderment of the insane. And strangely enough, our story might become a little more appealing when we've given up shoving it down the nation's throat and started figuring what it means to live it for ourselves. Many people who thought they believed in Christmas might realize they really don't, and many who don't might realize that they really want to.

The stated goal of cultural conservatives is to "keep the Christ in Christmas," and yet the effect of their legislative and boycotting actions is quite the opposite. An authentic Christian Christmas consists of people who believe the Christmas story getting together because of that common faith. In fact, we need to get together in order to keep the normal people's sanity from rubbing off on us. We need to keep repeating the story. But when we begin enforcing Christmas on the rest of the world (the vast majority of whom are much too rational for this sort of thing), it neccessarily becomes divorced from Christ and attached to such things as trees, presents, and other, less offensive stories. Sound familiar?

To my fellow Christians: Wake up! You're kicking the football into your own goal!

To my also-fellow non-Christians: Please excuse us Christians. I know we're crazy, but we're often quite dull as well. I sincerely hope you have a Happy (and rational) Holiday.

And lastly, to all the believers in our loony Story, and sharers in the common Faith: Merry Christmas!

coming soon...

2005-12-18T20:38:00.000Z

Hey everyone, due to a busy Sunday, including singing at a carol service and picking up a borrowed cello, I don't have time to organize my thoughts completely. But I will be posting an official "Christmas post" shortly.

Until then, I just wanted to say that our Christmas in York has been delightful, and filled with mince pies and mulled wine... at a church event, too!

Thank you to everyone who sent us a card, it's nice to have a connection with people at home.

As a sneak peak to my "real" post, I'll just say...

Happy Holidays!

Random Thoughts...

2005-12-11T18:14:00.000Z

Hi everyone, it is Melissa again. I feel like I have so much to say, but have no idea where to begin. So I guess I will begin with my job. I started with the York City Council 2 weeks ago and I am really liking it. The Coucil is basically the local government, made up of many different agencies. I am an administrative assistant for Family Learning, a subset of Adult Education. We provide free education and free childcare for adults that do not have the basics. We provide english, math, and parenting classes and also fun classes that help you spend more constructive time with your children. We also teach computing skills and language to English Speakers of Foreign Languages. I am learning so much about their programmes and about the Council as a whole. My main duties are just keeping the office running and providing the tutors with supplies and course forms. Because we are funded by the government we have a lot of record keeping to do and I am involved with most of that.

England is more of a socialist country than America. When I first got here I didn't know exactly what that meant, but it means that the government provides many public services. Many people reading this blog probably dislike the idea of "big government," but I am here to try to rock the boat a bit. America has so many poor and uneducated people and the Republicans don't really care about that. They are more interested in the rich staying rich, and on cutting what little social programmes America has left. Granted, England also has many that are poor and uneducated, but the government is trying to raise the nation's education level and they are planning on doing this no matter what it takes. Unfortunately, the government has cut the amount of funding to each county this year, and in response the county might have to raise their own taxes, but they are trying to cut the more frivilous things in the budget so that they won't have to.

In the three months I have been here I have experienced that a more socialist government isn't necessarily bad. The 17% tax that comes out of my paycheck pays for healthcare for both of us, and pays for free courses and childcare if I meet certain qualifications; it also pays for everything else that the city provides: fire, police, trash, waste. In America 17% only paid my standard taxes, I also had to pay extra money on top of that for healthcare which took another big chunk from my pay. I think we can learn that welfare is good as long as we are providing a service that allows the poor to get a job and to continue to learn. That is what happens here: we provide education that will help these people be better parents, workers and people and that is what matters.

On a lighter note Chris and I saw the Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Which and the Wardrobe a whole day earlier than it came out there. HA HA have to brag!! I think we both agreed that it was worth seeing and being able to experience Narnia on film was really amazing!

I have experienced this really weird phenomemon here that maybe you can relate to. Chris and I have met many people in these last three months, and some of them are like clones of people we were friends with at home. The first person is this really sweet lady from church, she has us over for lunch and tea and has really welcomed us into York. She reminds us of Chris' aunt Sally. She looks like her and has the same sort of soft sweet way about her. I thought it was weird and then it started happening all the time. My boss at work reminds me of Michele DeHaas. They don't look the same per se, but they both have blond hair and have similar complexions and the personality and the way we exist as friends/collegues is just like Michele. It is really weird. The weirdest of them all is this guy from the university who is Drew DeHaas all over. Except for one thing: he is French-Canadian-Japanese and speaks all three languages. He is Japanese by birth and culture but has lived in Canada his whole life. Now he is getting his doctorate in York. He is the same height has Drew, same voice timbre, and same body movements. When I closed my eyes it was Drew!!! It was really starting to creep me out. It is kind of cool though, people we are close to and care about can be experienced by us through these other people.

Finally the last of my ramblings - church! We have settled in at St. Oswald's in Fulford and we are really enjoying the Chirch of England Liturgy more than we expected to. We are involved in an advent house group called Promises, focusing on the promises of God in the Old Testament. We are really enjoying that as well. In January we will be doing a 9 week study on Prayer based on the teachings of Ignatious of Loyola. You can read more about that here.

That's all for now!

[Postscript from Chris]

Yeah, you knew I couldn't go a whole week without saying anything.

Melissa might have stolen my thunder a little with the Socialism bit; I'd like to return to that at some point. But if you're interested, you can start the ball rolling now by contributing your thoughts or asking questions about American-style government vs. European, or Capitalism vs. Socialism in the more general sense. What I'd like to know is, 1) How capitalist is America, and how socialist is the U.K.? 2) Is hard-core socialism really dead? and the all-important question, 3) How do the respective economic systems relate to your moral/spiritual/religious sense? i.e. is one or the other more or less "Christian" or "moral."

Whether you know everything or nothing, post your thesis or your bewilderment as a comment and I'll try to incorporate it into a later post. C'mon, you Libertarians, I know who you are!

Bye for now...

The lesson of the Messiah

2005-12-04T16:10:00.000Z

Hi everyone! Last night Melissa and I had an experience that I will cherish for a long time; hearing Handel's Messiah performed in its entirety... in the York Minster!

Now if you know me, you know that I often criticize "classical" enthusiasts for living in the past. ("Find out what good art is being made today! There's more to life than Mozart, people!") But this wasn't just a concert of classical music. As I looked at the tree-trunk sized pillars rising high above my head, and as I closed my eyes and heard the music existing and continuing through the cathedral, I came to the revelation that the building was an active participant in the experience. It was sound-in-space, it was architectural sound, a collaboration between the living performers and the long-dead builders and the inanimate rock. It was magic.

Besides the aesthetic experience, which I can only describe, there was an underlying tension that I picked up on that I wanted to share. To understand the tension, you have to be aware that the text of the Messiah is essentially a manifesto, a creed of Christian faith, from the incarnation, through death and resurrection, and into the commission of disciples. It is, in a sense, "The Bible for Dummies," firmly entrenched in a reformation mindset.

Before the concert began, a minister related this to the audience, and explained that "for some of the performers," the concert would be an offering of worship to God. With the understanding that this was an overtly Christian work, performed in a cathedral, and that the message of the music resonanted with some of the performers' own convictions, it would seem reasonable to classify it as a "Christian event," or at least I thought so.

You can imagine my surprise and intrigue, then, when I read the program notes, which informed me that, in order to understand the piece, one had to realize that there was a time in history when people actually considered the Bible to carry divine authority (imagine that!), or that the Gospels were accurate records of historical events. Apparently I needed that historical brief, because our current understanding of evolution and Newtonian physics (both of which were explicitly mentioned) have certainly made Handel's viewpoint look pretty silly by now.

Now, the program note in itself didn't bother me, or interest me; I'm used to people arguing that the law of gravity and Scriptural authority are somehow mutually exclusive. What piqued my interest was the coexistence of these two perspectives: classical faith on the one hand, scientific agnosticism on the other. Not only did they coexist, but they seemed completely unaware of the other's presence! I was left confused: is the Messiah an interesting historical artifact of an irrational religion, or is it a living confession of faith?

Maybe it's an embodiment of the current situation, that religion is allowed to exist as long as it promises not to challenge reason, and reason is allowed to remain an atheist as long is it doesn't challenge the faithful. Both camps have their proverbial heads in the sand, afraid of what might happen in the event of a confrontation.

If that's the case, I don't know what to say except that it's pretty funny. But what I really like is that both of these camps were forced to coexist for a few hours, and what brought them together was nothing other than a piece of music. What does that mean? It means that art can be a context for meaningful discussion. I've read many books, and heard many sermons and discussions about faith and religion, but hearing it in music is another thing altogether. And it's a necessary thing. It's more than "music with a message" that the modern music industry would sell to Christian youths; the music is the message. We tend to draw a sharp line between thought and feeling, art and philosophy. But the Messiah stands in the middle of the divide, reaffirming that our deepest understanding of life can't be confined to arguments or sermons, or even logic. It needs to be felt, seen and heard; and then, lived.

Scattered thoughts...

2005-11-27T18:37:00.000Z

Hey everyone! The post is a little late today, because the movie "Kundun" was playing on the "tele." It's a Scorcese film, one of my favorites... yes Filo, even with the Phillip Glass soundtrack ;) The story of the Dalai Lama is very interesting. If anyone's seen it, feel free to leave your reaction.

So, I have lots of things I could talk about and I plan to talk about, but it seemed like people liked the pictures last week, and I got some more cool ones when we had a lot of fog, so I'll stick with that for now. I hope you enjoy them.

The weather here is so crazy, I think because of high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere. The other morning it was sunny and we had the window open, when all of a sudden we heard a strange noise; looking outside, we saw it was hailing! Ten minutes later it was back to sunny again. We're still waiting for snow...

Ann heard that Thanksgiving was this week, and suggested we have a big turkey dinner together. Unfortunately, she didn't come home as early as she expected, and so it was too late to cook a whole bird. But she did have some turkey pieces, and we made mashed potatoes and stuffing and squash, so it was a good meal. Ann insulted my "mass catering" skills, but I'm over that now... besides my hurt ego, it was nice.

Melissa starts her job tomorrow! She's very nervous. Maybe she'll give you an update after the first few days.

I have to go for now, we're making an apple crumble! Yum. Enjoy the pictures, keep commenting (there's been some good discussion, so keep reading the comments too). It's good to know I have an audience to write home to at the end of every week. So, Thanks!

Changing Seasons...

2005-11-20T16:14:00.000Z

Well, it's the end of November, and we're finally starting to feel the chill. The locals say that it doesn't usually get this cold this fast, but it doesn't feel too different from Pennsylvania.

The strangest thing is the path of the sun. Today it rose 20 minutes before eight, thanks to daylight savings, but it set one minute after 4! Having only 8 hours of daylight is kind of a shock, and we're not at the bottom yet. The sun stays so low that I'm surprised it's not colder than it is. We're reading Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," and we can appreciate the setting. :)

On the positive side, it's been sunny for over a week, and might stay that way for a few days more.

For your enjoyment, I took a few pictures outside our place. I hope you enjoy them.

The Big M

2005-11-13T14:30:00.000Z

No, it's not MacDonald's, although there are plenty of them here as well. It's the Minster!

We got a good look at it from the outside when we first got here, but we finally shelled out the pounds to see the inside of this amazing building.

There's so much history in this place that it's hard to know where to begin! But I'll try to summarize the main idea, interspersed wih pictures that may or may not have any relevance...

It all started out with a Roman structure that dates back to who-knows-when. Like most Roman buildings, it was square and practical. Parts of a wall from that building still exist, and it shows paintings of a mediterranian scene, perhaps to make them feel better in the cold north. Unfortunately, it's in the basement/crypt where pictures aren't allowed.

After the Romans, York was Christianized and populated by the Normans and the Saxons and whoever else, during which the Minster was built. One interesting bit: while the Roman structure was built according to the lay of the land, the custom of Cathedrals is to go long-ways from East to West. So the Roman ruins intersect the Minster, but they're oriented 45 degrees apart.

Every couple hundred years, the people decided that their cathedral wasn't as good as the Jones's next door, and so over the centuries, it kept getting bigger and bigger! In a pre-modern mindset, this was tangible evidence of God's providence in the city... amazingly similar to the ancient Jewish connection to the glory of the Temple. In the absence of any tangible relation between Biblical Jews and European Christians, it seems that mentality must be a basic part of human nature. I wonder what today's post-christian, post-modern counterparts would be? Hm...

They still hold services in the Minster; Anglican, of course. Another interesting bit, the church next door (which is like an extension of the Minster) hosts an Alpha program. If you're not familiar, it's an informal social get-together/Bible study that tries to introduce people to the ideas of the Bible without the cultural trappings of "church." The contrast between the deep, rich cultural tradition of the Anglican church and their apparent willingness to step outside that tradition in order to relate to a post-christian world is very striking.

Honey Lou, if you're reading, this last picture is for you!

I've only said a little bit, but hopefully enough for you to see how amazing the Minster is. Leave a post if you feel so inclined (and sign it if you want us to know who you are!) And, as always... thanks for reading!

November 5th and the Problem of Religion

2005-11-06T12:06:00.000Z

There exists a very interesting holiday here in England on the 5th of November called Guy Fawkes Night that commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

If you want more information you can read this, but here's a short summary. King James I was the Protestant King of England, and Catholics felt that they were being treated unfairly. A group of extremists planned to rectify the situation by exploding 2.5 tons of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, killing everyone in the immediate vicinity. This was intended to ignite (no pun intended) a revolt in the Midlands.

No one knows exactly how the Protestants discovered the plot, but they arrested Guy Fawkes, who was acting as the suicide bomber, in the early morning of the fateful day. After lengthy torture he revealed the names of his co-conspirators, all of whom were hanged, drawn and quartered; a process which is so gruesome I'm not going to describe it here.

There's a strong push here to undergo willful amnesia about the origin of this "celebration," to rename it as "Fireworks Night" and reduce it to an excuse to satiate our collective pyromania. But I want to go the other direction: not to reduce it, but to enlarge it, and to reflect on it as an example of a more general phenomenon.

"By this sign, conquer." And ever since, people have been using the power of the cross to establish the power of Rome. Not that the problem is unique to Christianity of course. Islam has proven a fertile ground, and Judaism has been on both sides of the phenomenon more times than anyone can count. Hopefully the critique of my own tradition is enough to acquit me of insensitivity towards any other in this area.

Secularists have picked up on this phenomenon, of course, and they like to call it The Problem of Religion. The Problem, they say, is that when people become really convinced of spiritual principles, they can be motivated to commit acts that the rest of the non-fanatical world can easily recognize as immoral and unjust. The Solution, then, is straightforward: if you have religious beliefs, keep them to yourself. You can think whatever you want, as long as you promise not to let your thoughts influence your actions. The intended result of this Solution is that society will be guided by Reason instead of Religion, or more precisely, Human Thought instead of Divine Revelation. Surely, they say, it is religion which convinces people to commit these acts, and if they were left to their own devices, they would recognize how wrong they were! Interestingly enough, this attitude is also adopted by Christians in light of modern terrorism. Surely, they say, Islam is the problem.

Are they right? Is religion the culprit that turns ordinary people into perpetrators of heinous acts? I'm not so sure.

First, Secularism itself is not exempt from the Problem. If the French Revolution teaches us anything, it's that Reason produces its own fanaticism. Consider also the Nazi Regime. It would appear that a Darwinian philosophy is as dangerous as any religion.

It seems then that religion is not the source of the problem.

This is a very freeing realization: Muslims do not have to be condemned for belonging to a "violent religion," because adherents of all religions are violent. Christians do not have to be ashamed of their faith in secular societies, because Secularism is no more likely to lead to a less fanatical society. And atheists and agnostics can stop being afraid of their religious neighbors, because it is not religion that makes people violent.

It is also an extremely disconcerting realization: If not religion, then what? Religion, like any institution, is easy to blame, because it is easy to label. It seems that any system of thought or philosophy one could choose to subscribe to has been used to justify evil. Is there any escape? Wherever we go, we will find ourselves sharing our bed with a villain.

If we can't find the solution in external factors, we must conclude that evil comes from within.

There is substantial evidence to support this claim. In the right context, most "normal" people will participate in persecution and genocide - without religion, without any philosophical manifesto. Nothing but the right opportunity.

What lessons can we take from this example of 400-year old "Christian" terrorism? Only that evil doesn't operate according to our labels and generalizations. Evil does not reside in the Middle East, and so it can't be conquered by Western democracy. It doesn't reside in Hollywood, and so it can't be conquered by the Bible Belt. It doesn't reside in Religion, and so it can't be overcome by Secularism. It resides in the individual, and therefore it can only be conquered by the individual. Let's stop rooting out extremism in other people, and start rooting it out of ourselves.

Comments? Extensions? Contradictions? Post it as a comment...

Good News!!!

2005-11-02T20:30:00.000Z

Hi everyone it's Melissa, a few people said that I should make a post to the blog, so I decided I would. Life has been pretty good, but I have been very bored without a job. I turned in many applications but alas no interviews. So this one job I applied for was a part-time temporary job for 6 months. I said well its better than nothing. I applied and they sent me the normal "sorry you suck" letter. But on Monday night I got a phone call from this lady saying they had to redo the application process and even though we sent you the "you suck" letter we changed our mind and we want you in for an interview. I said what the heck, I have nothing else. My interview was today and I thought it went well. They gave me a computer test which was pretty easy. They said they would contact me by the end of the day. Soooooooooo at 5:30pm I got a phone call saying "Mrs. Bryan I am calling to offer you the job." Hallelujah I got the job!! Of course I took it. I am not sure when I start, they have to do all the paperwork junk, but I am very pleased.

The job is with the York City Council Family Learning Center. Basically I will be an admin support type role and help keep the office organized and running. I think it is right up my alley. Thanks for all your prayers. God really answers prayers in mysterious ways sometime huh? Anyway I was feeling kind of depressed earlier in the week so Chris bought me a new suit for my interview. Don't I look cute?

So the weather here is so weird. I think it is warmer here than in PA. We have had nothing but sunny warm days for the past week and a half. Of course after I told Michele that it is never sunny here we get like 4 days in a row :) Oh well, I think it is getting a bit colder now. On Sunday it started raining halfway to church (we were cycling of course) and we were soaked by the time we got there. After church this really nice lady invited us to her house to wait out the rain. We had nice conversation and she told us to "come round" for tea whenever we wanted. We have been blessed by nice people. So by the time we left her house it was sunny and beautiful and you would have never known it rained.

Ever since we got here, I have been looking for iced tea. I really miss my mother-in-law's home made tea :) Apparently England doesn't have Iced Tea. No restaurants have it on the menu, I can't find it at grocery stores or in gas stations. It is so bizarre. Last week Chris and I were having lunch in a cute tea room and they had iced tea on the menu. So I ordered it. I took a picture of it because I was totaly baffled at what I got......

I don't know if you can tell what it is, but it is a cardboard container of tea. They didn't serve it with ice and the container wasn't even that cold! It was really weird. Have any of you seen anything like this before?

I don't think I have anything else to say right now, so thanks for reading and talk to you soon

Melissa

Better Late than Never...

2005-10-31T23:46:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

I apologize to anyone who was expecting the usual Sunday afternoon post. The reason for the delay was a coincidence of several different events, which I will detail for you. (Is "detail" a verb??)

One was my computer dieing. Again. It might have been a result of my previous experience with 240v sockets, I don't know. But the good news is, I'm up-and-running again.

The second event/excuse was that Melissa thought she might be posting to say that she had a job. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. We do still have a couple leads, which I won't say anything more about, for fear of making too much of something that hasn't materialized yet. She'll be posting if something does work out, so be listening!

I have more interesting topics for posts, but it's coming up on midnight here, so I'll save them for a better time. Stay tuned for more info on the wacky weather, a praise of my theological hero, Bishop Tom Wright, some audio samples of what I've been up to, and of course, updates of Melissa's job. But for now, Goodnight.

p.s. Regarding Erin's question, the box in the shower controls water temperature. British bathrooms are weird. For instance, they insist on having pull-cords instead of light switches. Switches are fine everywhere else, why not in the bathroom?? Anyway, there is a switch on the box that says "power," but it doesn't seem to do anything.

More Pictures, and a Mobile...

2005-10-23T12:59:00.000+01:00

Hello and welcome to the third weekly weekend post! There are several topics to mention...

First, Melissa thought you might be interested in the interior of our humble abode. If you're interested in our bathroom and living space, here they are...

Next up, we went yesterday to a place called "Nunnington Hall," which is just an old estate. There are hundreds of historical sites like this all over the place, and with a £17.50 membership, you can see them all for free. Anyway, some pictures of the outside... as always, you can double-click for a larger image.

A family tree...when it says "No cameras," it really means "No flash," right? The lack of pictures from the inside can be attributed to Melissa's incessant repetition, "You're gonna get in trouble!"

In these old buildings, "square" isn't a term with much meaning...

Some pictures of the outside, which was beautiful.

And some trees I really liked.

The obligatory group photo, and a sneak shot of Melissa. In the group shot, the older couple is Melissa's Aunt Helen and Uncle Dennis, who took us out. The other person is their son and Melissa's cousin, Mark. Mark lives in Leeds, about 30 minutes from York, but Dennis and Helen live in Leamington Spa, which is roughly 3 hours south, so it's nice when they visit. We invited ourselves over for Christmas!

We discovered a museum in York, but we didn't have time to visit it yesterday. There's an interesting half-head outside, which could just as easily be an ancient ruin as a postmodern sculpture if you didn't know.

Finally, a strange sight in the city. I wasn't dropping acid, really. It's on film.

We have a mobile phone now, so if you have an urge to call us in the UK, go for it! To dial from the US, it's:

01144 79 474 38114

Thanks to everyone for wishing me a happy birthday. And, as always, thanks for reading. Until next time...

Weekend 2 update

2005-10-16T16:52:00.001+01:00

This weekend's update is dedicated to my new Favorite Thing About England: the wonderful game of snooker. If you're not familiar, it's like pool on a huge 6x12' table with a bazillion balls and a lot more strategy than 8 or 9 ball. It rocks. The final championship game is going on today.

Anyway.

The good news is that the power surge didn't break anything else on my computer. There's a friendly local repairman who's pricing another power supply, and he'll let me know tomorrow. He gave me a temporary one, so as of yesterday afternoon I've been back in buisness.

The totality of the first week of the term has consisted of a general introductory gathering of the department, and a meeting with one of my two advisors about the specifics of my degree requirements. In the next 12 months I'll be completing a total of three compositions. As my advisor said, "Not bad, eh?" It's not bad at all. I'll have time to really invest myself in each one, and hopefully end up with something substantial.

Melissa has a couple possible leads for work, but nothing's materialized yet. We're holding out breath...

This morning we went to another Anglican church, but with more of an eye on dynamism and growth. Consequently they have more opportunities for us to be involved beyond Sunday morning, including an "18-30" social group. I'm impressed by their two-fold commitment to remain true to Scripture while staying relevant to their current context. They even have a female pastor, which is probably my biggest point of angst with many otherwise healthy churches. I'm sure they have their weaknesses too, but I think Melissa and I both feel that it might be a good place to settle for a bit. We'll try to attend some of the "18-30" events and see what happens. Also, my favorite theologian, N.T. Wright, is coming to speak at the end of the month. I'll definitely be there for that.

Sorry, no pictures this week, we've been lazy. I think that's all for now. This weekend update has been working out well, I might try to keep to that schedule. Thanks for reading, I appreciate it. Send us an e-mail, it'll make our day.

Aargh...

2005-10-15T12:49:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone,

I'm posting this from the local pc repair shop. Last night I found out what happens when you plug a computer into a 240v outlet but forget to switch the power supply from 110. :( It goes something like... "POW!"

I'm finding out now if I can just replace the power supply or if I killed anything else.

Sometimes I'm amazed by my own stupidity.

I'll give a more general update later. It's not all bad. :)

Weekend Update

2005-10-09T18:52:00.000+01:00

Hello! As promised, here is a short photo journal of our first week in York.

Before I start, I'd also like to suggest that you download a short video slideshow of even more pictures by going here and clicking on the "Week 1 Movie" link. The file size isn't that big, it won't take long. Here's the shorter version with comments from yours truly. Click on any picture for a larger version

Walking. Ugh. We estimate that we walked close to 10 miles (yes, they still use miles here, but everything is in metric. Go figure.) this week. Buses are good but dang expensive. There are wonderful walking and biking trails that go all over England that were made from old rail lines. They're pretty sweet. Notice the car on the wrong side of the road. Getting used to that is much more difficult than you would think.

Yay! The local pub! They have good food, but they're not a microbrew, unfortunately. Guinness on tap though, which is the next best thing.

Hm, that's good to know...

The river is pretty big here, big enough for about a 20 ft. boat. It runs straight to (or from? Not sure, it's so sluggish) the centre of York. There's a marina next door, and lots of the locals go fishing.

There are plenty of fields around, which is nice. They're not all being developed, which is even better.

York Minster! I think I heard it's the only remaining gothic cathedral in England. I don't know exactly when it was built, but the movie slideshow (are you downloading it yet?) has graves from the 13th century. We haven't taken the tour yet because it costs £6 and I'm stingy, but sitting outside is awesome enough.

If you know any history or interesting tid-bits about the Minster or about York, leave a comment!

This is a statue of Constantine. Underneath is inscribed "By this sign conquer." This picture is significant to me because it summarizes most everything I think has been wrong with Christianity for the past 1700 years or so.

The walls of York. They extend most of the way around the city, except where it used to be an impassable swamp. Very impressive. I can imagine the feeling of safety for a peasant to be inside.

Finally, efficient (both physically and economically) transportation! English lanes are scary: when there is a bike lane, it's only about 6 inches wide. But we made it to and around York without getting killed, so I'd say we're off to a good start.

The church we went to this morning. It's a small congregation of mostly older people, but they were very welcoming, and they hope we'll keep coming. We'll wait and see if we make any friends at the Uni., and see where they go on Sundays. It was a traditional Anglican liturgy (think Catholicism-lite), which is interesting. Good coffee afterwards, though.

This is pretty much how we feel at the conclusion of this week. Good people (we're hanging out with a Welsh girl and a Spanish couple, who live in the same house with us), good food, good sights. Oh yeah, and lots of much-needed exercise. It's been a good week of exploration and settling-in, tomorrow starts the school term. I'll let you know how it goes. Melissa's still looking for a job, we'll keep you posted on that as well. I think that's all for now. Post a comment or send us an e-mail! Please? :-)

Belated...

2005-10-06T13:17:00.000+01:00

It's been a little while since we "got off the plane." 3 days, in fact. I know you've all been at the edge of your seat. Truth is, we haven't been able to get to a computer until now.

Anyway, in general things are going well. Our room is nice, and there's a pub and a mall within walking distance; The essentials of life. The school and the city, however, are not. The bus service is nice, but hard to decipher and too expensive to use every day.

I have lots of pictures, but we learned yesterday that the outlets here deliver 220 volts, as opposed to the U.S., which is 110. That means my camera is limited to it's current battery power until I buy a transformer to recharge it. Ugh. When my computer (which doesn't need a transformer by the way, just an adapter for the outlet) is running, I'll post the pics with more details of our first few days.

There's not much to say about the travel, except it's no fun to lug 160 pounds of luggage through 3 airports and a train, and my back is still recovering. It's also not fun to sit in the Dublin airport for 7 hours, even though they have a nice cafeteria.

All in all, leaving is a funny thing. It starts with goodbye and ends with hello. It's impacted me more than I expected. It means feeling like an outsider. Even the different accent and dialect reinforces that perception. And yet Providence is evident the whole time, from the particulars of the journey to the friendliness of the "natives." And that is comforting. Second to that in invaluability is Melissa, whose partnership is immensely helpful on a practical as well as an emotional level. I think we're both going to find this time beneficial and enjoyable.

There's some kind of truth to be experienced in travelling that can't be found in the safety of home. Maybe because it serves as a encapsulated metaphor for the journey of life, which moves from a known past to an unknown future. The end of the small journey, when it arrives, provides some sense of confidence that the end of life, when it too inevitably arrives, will proove the trip worthwhile.

Cheers! ;)

Subscription

2005-09-19T15:58:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I lied; I'm not off the plane yet. Actually, I'm not leaving for another 13 days.

Here's the thing: I want to keep in touch with everyone, but for some reason I'm not sure that the first thing to cross your mind when you wake up in the morning or when you get home from work will be "Hey! Let's check Chris and Melissa's blog!" :)

So, I've been checking around, and it seems like the best solution to this dilemma is an RSS feed. Here's how it works: Windows users can download SharpReader, Mac users can use NetNewsWire, and Linux users are smart enough to find a good one on your own ;) These programs will let you subscribe to my site feed, "bryanadventure.blogspot.com/atom.xml". Then, whenever you open the program, you'll see what's new! Cool, huh?

Actually, there's even a better way, if you're using the Firefox web browser. If you're not using Firefox, then... well, why the heck not?! Oh yeah, I forgot that Internet Explorer was permanently hardwired to your cerebral cortex.

No, seriously, even if you are using Windows, go here and download Firefox... you can thank me later.

Once that's done, come back to the blog, and you'll see a little green thing in the very bottom right corner of your screen that looks like water ripples or says "RSS" or something, depending on the version. Click on it, and you'll see a menu that says "Subscribe to..." Click that, and your done! Now look in your "Bookmarks" menu. The blog will be listed, and you'll be able to see any new posts without actually coming here and wasting 10 seconds of your life while the page loads.

Melissa says I'm too sarcastic. Sorry about that. I would like you to subscribe, so that we won't lose touch. And whatever gets posted, comment, comment, comment! It will make me very happy. Like the first time I got an e-mail. Mmm, good times...

Testing, testing, mic check...

2005-07-19T20:04:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! I know it's a while (slightly less than 2 months) before we fly, but I had some time to kill and figured I'd start this blog thingy. Here's why (I hope) you, our friends and family, will keep in touch via the blog. You can...

1) Read what's going on with us, including our living situation, the weather, interesting happenings in the area, interesting people, spiritual revelations, planned trips, etc.

2) Re-post your own thoughts (we can keep up those political-theological discussions we keep stumbling into...)

3) See pictures

4) Listen to the latest music I've been writing/playing. If I can't post sound files here, I'll at least post links

Really, the reason why I'm doing this is because I can't hope to keep up with everyone via personal e-mails, and this is cooler than mass e-mails! I hope you agree.

I won't be posting again until I get off the plane... (!)

-Chris