A Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command…

…From the Collect of the Day October 27, 2013

Ash Wednesday

It has become something of a tradition of mine to post T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday" on the poem's entitled day. I'm unsure why the worlds of this piece are so affecting, but for me it captures the spirit that the Ash Wednesday liturgy is supposed to embody. Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite events on the liturgical calendar. While many events during the yearly cycle of the Church are celebratory, Ash Wednesday and the events leading up to Easter Sunday are meant to be a time of reflection and serious thought....more importantly, it's designed to be a time to remind us of our blindspots and shortcomings as humans. While I like not to think of this as some sort of spiritual sadomasicism, we do need to be reminded of our need for a redeemer and savior. 

A great reading of this poem by T.S. Eliot can be found here. 

Ash Wednesday

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

II
Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying

Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.

III
At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.

At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind
over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.

Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy

               but speak the word only.

IV
Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and in knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos

Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

White light folded, sheathed about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

And after this our exile

V
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
For children at the gate
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert between the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.

O my people.

VI
Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dream-crossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window toward the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth

This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

-T.S. Eliot 1927

Advent Post IV

As a thank you for giving back to my alma mater, every year I receive a booklet for devotions and reflections on Advent from the president. This year the booklet was titled "Why Everything Matters" and featured reflections involving Ecclesiastes. Through this Advent season I'll be posting the prayers that come at the end of each reflection. 

My hope is that these prayers will encourage you (dear reader), regardless of your spiritual disposition to pause and reflect and perhaps add a layer of meaning to your holiday season. 

God of promise,

you have given us a sign of your love

through the gift of Jesus Christ,

our Savior,

who was promised from ages past. 

We believe as Joseph did

the message of your presence 

whispered by an angel,

and offer our prayers for your world,

confident of your care and mercy for 

all creation. Amen. 

Advent Post III

As a thank you for giving back to my alma mater, every year I receive a booklet for devotions and reflections on Advent from the president. This year the booklet was titled "Why Everything Matters" and featured reflections involving Ecclesiastes. Through this Advent season I'll be posting the prayers that come at the end of each reflection. 

My hope is that these prayers will encourage you (dear reader), regardless of your spiritual disposition to pause and reflect and perhaps add a layer of meaning to your holiday season. 

A memorial for those murdered in Newton,CT

God of joy and exultation,

you strengthen what is weak;

you enrich the poor

and give hope to those who live

in fear. 

Look upon our needs this day. 

Make us grateful for the good news of salvation

and keep us faithful in your service until the coming of

 our Lord Jesus Christ,

who lives forever and ever. Amen. 

Newton Reflection

In tying my thoughts about Christmas and the Holidays to the tragic events on Friday (14th) in Newton I keep being drawn back to the hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  We all echo the sentiments of the verse which calls for the arrival of healer. 

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

At the moment we are all enthralled by grief and sorrow.  

Advent Post II

As a thank you for giving back to my alma mater, every year I receive a booklet for devotions and reflections on Advent from the president. This year the booklet was titled "Why Everything Matters" and featured reflections involving Ecclesiastes. Through this Advent season I'll be posting the prayers that come at the end of each reflection. 

My hope is that these prayers will encourage you (dear reader), regardless of your spiritual disposition to pause and reflect and perhaps add a layer of meaning to your holiday season. 

Laboring God, 

with axe and winnowing fork

you clear a holy space

where hurt and destruction have 

no place, 

and a little child holds sway.

Clear our lives of hatred and despair,

sow seeds of joy and peace,

that shoots of hope may spring forth

and we may live in harmony

with one another. Amen.

Advent Post I

As a thank you for giving back to my alma mater, every year I receive a booklet for devotions and reflections on Advent from the president. This year the booklet was titled "Why Everything Matters" and featured reflections involving Ecclesiastes. Through this Advent season I'll be posting the prayers that come at the end of each reflection. 

My hope is that these prayers will encourage you (dear reader), regardless of your spiritual disposition to pause and reflect and perhaps add a layer of meaning to your holiday season. 

Salsbury Cathedral "Darkness to Light" Advent Procession

Unexpected God,
your advent alarms us.
Wake us from drowsy worship,
from the sleep that neglects love,
and sedative of misdirected frenzy.
Awaken us now to your coming,
and bend our angers into your peace. 
Amen. 

This Chart Says Everything You Need To Know About Digital Advocacy

The world needs people who are passionate and dedicated like Jason Russell and those who are connected to Invisible Children. But viral advocacy will only get us so far.

A Small Salve...Humbly Given

It's been a tough 6 months. I was unfortunate enough to lose a friend and mentor this past summer, and today I received word that the young child of a couple who attend my parent's home church passed away. It seems cliché to remark that the most tragic events happen to the most undeserving of people. As I'm sure all young souls appear in posterity, Thao was a child who exhibited a unique and admirable zest for life. How many 5 or 6 year olds do you know who liked to bake? Thao's parents are people who exhibit a brightness in living...full of creativity, community, and joy.  I would hardly be so bold as to believe that I can apply any sort of meaning towards this tragic event but I do believe that I can humbly present a small token of comfort.

I encourage everyone who might read this to reference my past post in honor of Ryan Davis.
Thao's parents and their close community are deeply christian and there will be an outpouring of scripture directed to bring comfort and healing. I submit this poem for the reflection of the thoughtful reader.


Thanatopsis was written by William Cullen Bryant, an American poet from the Romantic era. This is his most well known poem and is his reflection on death. While one might not be able to call this poem "christian" the themes of a known destination, the comfort of Nature, the knowledge that death does not doom any soul to isolation, and the hope of future reunion are all elements that any religious reader will identify with and find comfort in. I hope this poem will provide a drop in a soon to be overflowing bucket of encouragement, solidarity and love for Thao's family.

16. Thanatopsis 

TO HIM who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides	5
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images	10
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;—
Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around—	15
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice—Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,	20
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go	25
To mix forever with the elements;
To be a brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.	30
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world,—with kings,
The powerful of the earth,—the wise, the good,	35
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move	40
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man! The golden sun,	45
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings	50
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings,—yet the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first	55
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe	60
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come	65
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glide away, the sons of men,
The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man—	70
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side
By those, who in their turn shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take	75
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch	80
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

William Cullen Bryant

I walked in my Grandmothers Footsteps...

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and

I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

The other day I visited the village of Kretinga. Kretinga is a small town. For once, this isn't deceptively so. Most "small towns" in Lithuania aren't. This fact comes mainly from the still very high population density. Most people still live in Soviet era apartments, which while they look extremely decrepit are actually very nice. The buildings are run like co-ops so any

cosmetic work falls to the wayside until it becomes unbearable. Residents won't collectively shell out the money otherwise.

HOWEVER, I digress. I went to Kretinga this past weekend. Kretinga is the childhood home of my Grandmother. She didn't grow up in town, but lived in the farmlands surrounding the city. I wasn't able to make any prior contact so I arrived in town under the radar and not really knowing ANYTHING about Kretinga or my grandmothers relationship to it. This visit was the bare minimum of "ancestral exploration." I was shoved into it very enthusiastically by Kel, a man from New Zealand (with very red hair)

who currently lives in Klaipeda. He was adamant that I needed to visit Kretinga and was also very disappointed that I hadn't done more homework. The difficult thing about trying to connect ancestral dots is that in all the regime change and government turnover, centralized records can be hard to find. I would have needed to really dig in advance, and now that I know the country a little better, there isn't much keeping me from potentially coming back.

I wouldn't say that the ghost of my Grandmother walked before, it wasn't that emotional or visceral. However, I was able to imagine her walking down some of the same broad thoroughfares that I did. I found an evangelical lutheran church, which was her denomination. For all I know she might have attended it. ....I have to admit this doesn't sound like the deep and emotional

narrative one would expect with visiting a very important piece of my personal history. Though I suppose to a certain extent history is like that sometimes. Routinely the most mundane things end up being meaningful. I don't mean to imply that Kretinga is mundane, or my grandmothers life was mundane for that matter. Far from it...the woman worked two night jobs and raised two boys in inner city chicago...alone. This of course, was AFTER being ripped from her home to forcibly work for the Germans in a labor camp. History, while extremely important and significant usually lacks that cinematic quality we like to impose upon it.

History grounds individuals and societies. There is an implicit understanding that with an understanding of history comes a greater understanding of how each of us is connected to a narrative that is bigger than ourselves. This point was driven home for me especially while walking around Kretinga. My life is very much the product of intentional and unintentional choices made by others. And their life comes from the same cascading reality. Life has a tendency to bubble forth like a pot of noodles you shouldn't have covered while boiling. History can help us make sense of Life's randomness. It can help draw some contours and give shape to something that might have originally been thought to be formless and amoeboid.

I wish more of my friends had an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors. My generation has known nothing but rapid social and technological change. Few other generations in history have witnessed the sorts of transformations I seem to bump into every 4 years or so. We're an unsentimental lot, but that doesn't mean we can't connect to a larger narrative or an older and subtly relevant time. I'm very glad that I visited Kretinga. You can see more pictures of it here.

Why The Hill Of Crosses is Cooler Than It Sounds

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

Imagine that your entire life you feel the identity you've been given is wrong. You spend your days being educated under one system that drills you constantly on what your supposed to be. You learn one common language, you learn one common history, you're told that the world is supposed to look and act a specific way.

Imagine you had a nagging suspicion that this world wasn't right. No matter how often the authority figures around you assured you that this is the way things should be, YOU feel that its not right. Perhaps the more you try and push against the way your told this world should be the more resistance you get. Friends begin to reject you, teachers begin to eye you warily, people you trust whisper that if you don't stop thinking the way your thinking you might be shunned. That job your supposed to get might disappear. But you don't care, and you're desperate to find a way to express your rejection of this reality boldly and evocatively. Your tired of the suffocating existence this world forces you to accept.

You begin to hear rumors of a place...a place that passionately and clearly declares that this reality is

a sham. A place that claims this reality holds no exclusivity over anyone's existence. Wouldn't you want to find this place? Wouldn't you want to do something to participate in the revolutionary statement it made?

This scenario is the basic story of "The Hill of Crosses." No one really knows exactly how it was started. There's a few stories that go back to 1850. Originally it was believed that the son of a local merchant promised to plant a cross on a hill outside of Šiauliai. When the boy was healed, he obliged his promise.

Lithuania, through much of its history, has fought constantly for cultural relevance. First the Poles, and then the Russians worked hard to absorb Lithuania. While the Poles favored language dominance and reserving good land for Polish nobility, the Russians had a tendency to ship anybody who complained too loudly off to Siberia. Lithuanian culture was continually struggling for its own survival. After the failed Lithuanian insurrection against Russia in the 1860s more crosses began to appear.

The Hill of Crosses gained new relevance during the Soviet occupation. The Soviets deported the Lithuanian population in earnest. Schools were set up to erase the Lithuanian language and culture, and Russian transmigrants were flooded into the country in an effort to overwhelm the natives. In 1961 the Hill of Crosses was labeled an undesirable place by the communist party and bulldozed. Still...the crosses kept returning and it was bulldozed several times over the next 2 decades.

The Hill of Crosses is an incredible reminder that belief matters. To quote Rob Bell, "....some things are true, but some things are TRUE." There may be forces or circumstances that continually reinforce the idea that this reality is all you have, or that things, no matter how hopeless can never change. But this reality pales in comparison to the signs of reality just beneath the surface of life. The Hill of Crosses, in its proper context is a stark reminder and a peephole into that truth.

More pictures of the hill of crosses can be found here.

The First Thing I do When I Get Back to America...

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

......find a decent Chinese restaurant and get order something with a heavy sauce.

I think I may be going through culture shock. Today a colleague and I went to a chinese restaurant in Klaipeda. We had been told by some locals that the food was really good, and that it was pretty authentic. While the food in LT is overall REALLY good, generally fresh ingredients, low sodium, and cheap...sometimes I still crave good old fatty and SALTY U.S. cuisine. I thought it would be cheese burgers, but lately I'v

e really desired a taco or chinese.

SO, I was extatic, but to make a long story short I was strongly disappointed. Not only was the food extremely expensive (given the regular prices) but there were pickles in the stir fry...yes...pickles. Need I say more?

All that to say that when I return to America I am going to find the nearest, slightly dodgy, greasy chinese restaurant I can find and I am going to eat an entire order of Beef w/Broccoli all on my own...with extra white rice....and a ginger ale....

...mmmmmm.

P.S. I have started using Google+ (its pretty awesome) and have created a picture album...because I somehow forgot that I have a mac, which can do just about anything involving the word media. Find the album here.

Klaipeda

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

So. I have another confession. I forgot to pack the usb cable that connects my camera to my computer. This means that any lovely pictures I've taken won't be able to be seen until I get back to the states.

...I also know this may cut my readership permanently in half.

KLAIPEDA

I've now been in Klaipeda, LT 4 days. While it hasn't felt like its been that long, the speed of the days is only going to increase. Tomorrow students arrive at LCC and each and every one of them gets packed into every available bed in the hall I'm helping manage.

It's been quite a journey so far. Klaipeda is a nice town. Its deceptively large. In this area of Eastern Europe (I can't speak for everywhere) most families still live in the Soviet era tenement that their parents or grandparents were given. A town that covers the area of a 25,000 person city in the US houses over 200,000. Whats interesting is that while the outside of many of these buildings look very eroded, some of the apartments must be VERY nice. I've passed one to many Beemers and Benzes to believe that those are simply the vehicles of the people that run the place. It's an odd juxtaposition.

Mostly a port and tourist town, Klaipeda was rebuilt by the Soviets as a military base and somewhat of a tourist/vacation spot. The oldtown has some very ancient buildings, but you can tell most of them were rebuilt a few decades ago. Still the town gives off that southern florida vibe that things are busy when the tourists are in town, but are probably pretty sleepy the rest of the time.

Lithuania, and Eastern Europe in general has slowly started growing on me. I think those of us in the U.S. forget how extravagently wealthy we are. I don't mean this in the typical "we're a bunch of greedy capitalists that only care about stuff" way. The U.S. social environment is filled with businesses and market oriented enterprises designed to find every obscure and conceivable way to make the U.S. citizen part with his money. Its striking how WELL these enterprises do. While Lithuania is oriented around a market economy, that well oiled- pristinely designed undercurrent isn't there. People who only use public transportation and people who own BMWs use the same beaches and eat at the same restaurants with the chipped paint on the exterior. (The food is AMAZING here btw....seriously, its mostly cheap and very well made)

Lithuania has a surprisingly unstratified culture, which is something you CANNOT say anymore about America. I only have to go as far as Benton Harbor vs. St. Joe in MI to see how true this is. This isn't to say that it doesn't have a dark underbelly...because this country does...alcohol abuse is pervasive, homelessness is a serious issue and there are some parts of the city I've been told to stay away from entirely, but above that undercrust things don't shatter so completely...most Lithuanians have a remarkably common experience of life.

So...a few fun and interesting observations:

-Bicycles have a designated part of the sidewalk and they USE it. Bikes definitely have the right of way and I've almost been flattened a lot.

-Europeans really do like speedos...

-Waiters will only bring you a bill when you've asked for it, and your allowed to seat yourself. Seriously, you could sit there for hours and they won't do a thing until you track them down.

-Nobody speaks 1 language...we Americans are pretty helpless in this regard

-If you every come to Lithuania get the Kepta Duona...its this amazing combination of rye bread, garlic, cheese, and a deep frier...completely fatal in high doses but incredibly good