Fitbits, Efficiency, and Taking the Long Way

My beloved surprised me with a Fitbit for my birthday back in December. I’d been pondering getting one to replace an eight-year-old running watch whose band was falling apart. The chief attraction of the new device for me is the reminder to move. At 10 minutes before the hour, if I’ve not walked at least 250 in the preceding 50 minutes, the thing vibrates and prompts me to move. If you spend as many hours writing as I do it’s pretty easy to wind up sitting still for extremely long stretches – especially if, like at the moment, you have an adorable dog curled up on your lap.

It’s amazing just how bad sitting still for long stretches is for a human body. This Washington Post article paints a pretty grim picture. I don’t recommend sitting still long enough to read it.

My new toy pairs with an app on my phone that allows me to set and track fitness goals. I am not training for anything beyond my desk job, so my goals this winter are extremely modest. To avoid sitting still for hours at a stretch I want to take at least 250 steps every hour for 10 hours during the day. To get a modest amount of exercise I want to take at least 8,000 steps every day.  

I’ve learned two things in the two months I’ve had this thing strapped to my wrist. First, setting modest goals works well for me. I am a sucker for the rewards – the fireworks graphic that goes off when I reach 8,000 steps, and the cheering stick figure who tells me I’ve taken at least 250 steps.

Second, I’ve been reminded that efficiency is a waste of time. Or, perhaps better, efficiency is a waste of life. I think Wendell Berry would understand this, though I can’t imagine him with a fitbit and smartphone app. Berry put it this way: As we use the word, efficiency means no such thing, or it means short term or temporary efficiency; which is a contradiction in terms. It means cheapness at any price. It means the greatest profits to the greatest liar. What we have called efficiency has produced among us, and to our incalculable cost, such unprecedented monuments of destructiveness and waste as the strip-mining industry, the Pentagon, the federal bureaucracy, and the family car.”

My own experiments in efficiency come with trying to get in a few extra steps at every possible moment. For two months I’ve been going out of my way to go out of my way. And the results of my inefficiency are striking.

For one thing, I’ve averaged well in excess of 8,000 steps per day every week, and I’ve lost a few pounds over the Christmas holidays and winter weeks. That never happens.

But, more importantly, I’ve seen things I would have missed, and met people I would never have seen. Now, to be fair, that second point has a great deal to do with the cute dog on my lap. Mr. Bounce is an ambassador to all people, and having him on walks does engender conversations that I would not have if I were walking alone. But I’ve also simply been walking the neighborhood around home and around church more. I’ve had several fascinating conversations with neighbors in both places, that would never have happened if I’d been efficient.

So, here’s to the most inefficient year of my life! Hope I see you out there wandering aimlessly.

Experiments in Evangelism

How to be evangelically progressive … or, is that progressively evangelical. Personally, most of the time I think we should ditch all of those words: progressive; evangelical; and how to. But this afternoon I figured out, for one small and, doubtless, insignificant moment, how to be evangelical about the progressive wing of the church.

Walking past a kitchen supply shop in my neighborhood an apron in the window caught my eye. It had a raised fist wrapped around a clove of garlic and it read, “smash the garlic … and the patriarchy.” I thought immediately of my beloved, who loves smashing both those things, and I thought, what the heck, that’s a Valentine.

So I turned around and went into the shop. On the same shelf as what turned out to be a dishrag rather than an apron the store had copies of I Am Not a Tractor: How Florida Farmworkers Took on the Fast Food Giants and Won.

I know the outlines of the story of the organizing, boycotting, and education work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and their ongoing efforts to ensure fair wages and decent conditions for their work in Florida agriculture. In particular, I know a bit about efforts by Presbyterians to support the workers. So naturally I looked in the book’s index and was pleasantly surprised to see multiple references to “Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)".

When I was making my purchase the shopkeeper asked if I’d found what I was looking for, and so I told her that I’d found mention of my church in the index of a book about farm-worker justice efforts.

It struck me as I headed on to the grocery store that a whole lot had to happen for me to “share the gospel” in that small way. First, faithful folks in Florida had to be made aware of the injustices in the food system. They had to see, in the fields, neighbors with whom they needed to be in solidarity. The workers had to inform people, organize them, build networks, create strategies, and work for years to make inroads with huge corporations. Congregations and denominational organizations had to make and keep long-term commitments, and share the news far beyond Florida fields so that I would know a little bit of the story. The workers had to get their story told such that someone would come along and write a book.

After all that work is done, sharing the good news is as simple as pointing it out.

A little past Christmas, 2017

The morning light is slanted as it streams across the neighborhood. As the solstice recedes slowly in the mirror and another trip around the sun begins I’m mindful of the prologue to John’s gospel: the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. As St. Francis knew, not even the deepest darkness can stand up to the light of one candle. So as the calendar turns to a new year, I’m sorting through the shadows for signs of the light that still shines out there.

The year began with our household still grieving both the national political situation and deeply personal loss. But, as the lyric from Hamilton puts it, the sun comes up and the world still spins. We been holding on and holding out, and the year just past turned out to be, for us, a memorable one full of simple joy. While the past 12 months have been a strange and trying time for our country, it’s been a year of milestones for our family. Youngest graduated from high school, middle graduated from college, and eldest got married. For a quiet and pretty introverted family, that’s a lot of parties!

I suppose it’s also fair to say that, for a quiet and introverted family, we host a lot of parties. We pretty much refer to any time that the house is full as a party, and we filled it often last year. We got the year off to a rip-roaring start last January with a “nasty woman party” when we hosted a house-full of women for the Women’s March on Washington. By the lengthening light of that January day we caught a glimmer of hope that the people of the nation could still grasp hold of its founding principles despite its present leadership.

The march was also a fine way to begin Hannah’s last semester of high school. The company of strong, smart women is always inspirational to strong, smart young women. Hannah is one of those, and she pretty much roared through the end of high school, finishing at the top of her class. That accomplishment came with the mildly terrifying opportunity to speak at graduation in June, and she pulled that off with poise and good humor. She spent the summer on the staff at Camp Hanover, and then headed off to Charlottesville for her first year at UVA. We’re not sure how our youngest child became all grown up (though I suppose it has something to do with the sun coming up and the world still spinning).

To ensure that we will never have two kids in college at the same time, Martin graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in May. As seems fitting for a kid who made a movie about traditional music in Appalachia a few years ago, he is fascinated with history. He’s now trying to figure out how to make a living out of that interest, and is part of the gig economy cobbling together work opportunities enough to pay the rent in Richmond. He spent the summer after graduation working on a film project with David, but when the grant money funding that ran out in September the job and the project came to an end. (You can watch the trailer on our Youtube station.) He spent the fall running machinery in a box factory, but the graveyard shift hours with near daily – or, more accurately – nightly unplanned overtime were unsustainable. Putting together a bit of this and that while looking for more is keeping him busy. Meanwhile, he and his long-time girlfriend, Delanie, are enjoying life in Richmond with their housemate, Maya, and their three cats. Their apartment, near the VCU campus, is filled with art and music and the vibrant energy of smart, creative, and funny 20-somethings busy building lives.

The same is true for Dylan, who returned to the east coast this summer, got a job, got an apartment, and got married to Monica all in the span of about ten weeks. It was a bit of a whirlwind! He is at the dissertation stage of his doctoral work and has completed the residency and class requirements at UC Santa Cruz. We are thrilled to have him back on the same side of the continent (though we will definitely miss spring time trips to Santa Cruz). He and Monica have a sweet little apartment in Falls Church, which is about 10 minutes from our house and about 45 minutes from Monica’s work and her parents’ home near Dulles airport. Dylan is working at a tech firm in Rosslyn (an Arlington neighborhood directly across the Potomac from the government center in DC. He doesn’t love the work, but it pays the bills and, he hopes, leaves enough mental energy to work on the dissertation. 

The kids each experienced a major life event during the year, and I reckon that means the parents experienced three major life events! It felt a bit more stable than that, though, as Cheryl continues her fascinating, engaging, and challenging work at the Library of Congress, and David continues his at the wee kirk.

We filled the house with lots if fascinating folks and delicious food throughout the year. We had houseguest for several months and discovered a daughter-by-another-mother we never knew we had! Gaytri brightened the place with her smile, laughter, and wonderful curiosity about life in our "typical American family." Someday we hope to take her up on the standing invitation to visit her in India.

We also hosted small groups of Muslim peacemakers, Presbyterian rabble-rousers, and travelling musicians at various points of 2017.  Last fall, we were lucky enough to host the three troubadours who play together as Abraham Jam, and, a month or so later, to host our dear friend, Noah Budin and his wife, Sharon, for a show Noah did at church. It’s great to have the keys to an acoustically amazing and visually striking performance space!

It’s even greater to get to make music and lead worship in such a space almost every week. Stop by if you’re in metro DC this year. We’ll keep the light on for you. Really, though, keeping the light shining is what we try to do with our lives day by day. By the light that we share, we can beat back the darkness.

Peace, from the Randolph!

Brothers on the disc-golf course in Santa Cruz.

Somewhere along a winding mountain road in the mountains above Santa Cruz.

Cheryl teaching Gaytri the fine art of making pizza.

Sometimes you just have to stop and have your breath taken away.

The best man before the wedding.

Sister of the groom and bridesmaid.

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because they said so.