She said YES!

Yesterday, I got done with work around 4. I got impatient with hailing a cab, so I walked back to my hotel, 11 blocks downtown, 3.5 block crosstown. It took me 20 minutes. I got to the room and quickly changed into jeans and sweater. I moved the ring box that had been in my computer bag since Saturday to my jacket pocket while Leah was in the bathroom.

The plan was simple. I took her Rockefeller Plaza, 25 blocks uptown. I had to remove my scarf and gloves because we were walking so fast. Yesterday was the warmest day here all week, with a high of 44. Unfortunately, it was also the windiest. We walked up 6th street (The Avenue of the Americas). I made a bee line to the skating rink once we found Rockefeller Plaza. It was busy and crowded, but not impossible. It took us around 15 minutes to get through the line, buy tickets, get our skates and get on the ice.

I had been planning this moment since I found out that I was going to New York. The original plan was for Savannah, a planned vacation at the end of the month. When I found out that IBM was sending me to New York, I though that would be so much better than Savannah. The problem is that I had to move plans up a month. The previous two weeks has been crazy. I had to talk to both set of parents, get the ring moved up, and talk with Audrey. I got everything done, except the ring that I wanted. No time to make the ring I wanted. I got the diamond I wanted and the jeweler put it a tiffany setting. I can bring it back next week for them to make the correct setting.

I had never been to Rockefeller Plaza before, only seen pictures. It was gorgeous. The rink was not very crowded at all. We started skating around and I started getting super nervous. We circle once, twice, and then a third time. I couldn't find the right words to start. Leah joked, saying, "Are you purposely skating away from the edge so I will fall down?" I thought to myself, "Yes and No", but just laughed it off. I unzipped my jacket and the zippered inside pocked that held the ring.

Finally I pulled her to the middle of the ice. I told her that I wanted to be there for her for the rest of our lives. That I would love her and protect her forever. She seem to note the difference in my tone. I got down on one knee. I continued to talk, but I couldn't tell you exactly what I said. The rink started spinning as my nervousness manifested itself into dizziness. Dizziness + Tearing up + Ice + trying to put my love into words + being on one knee was hard, but thankfully I didn't fall down.

At this point I tried to remove the ring from my jacket. I didn't unzip enough, and my nervousness made it challenging to remove the box. It finally popped out. I opened it and asked her to marry me. Unfortunately, I opened the box upside down. She gracefully turned it for me and said yes. At this point I was reminded that we had an audience of a few hundred people. They cheered. Leah removed her glove and I put the ring on her finger. We hugged and held each other for a few minutes.

We started to skate again. I couldn't feel my legs, since all the blood had rushed to my head. I tried very hard to make the moment perfect. I had also tried very hard to make it a surprise. Leah told me that I was successful on both counts. You can read her blog entry about last night here. We might have video available. With the flood of "Congratulations" from everyone, a pair of women filmed the whole thing. I gave her my email address. Hopefully that will work out.

We continued the night with the Saks Fifths Avenue window displays, a scroll down Fifth Avenue, dinner at Artisanal Fromagerie and Bistro, and a climb up the Empire State Building. The winds were brutal up top, but it made for a wonderful memory. Someone recognized us from the skating rink for one more "Congratulations".

Leah has brought me such happiness, I wanted to make her feel as special as I am happy. We made a night full of wonderful memories. And now I am engaged.

Blog Reading Level

Meditation 2.0

Reevaluating Wednesday Night Vespers

For those readers who do not got to UUCA, we have a Vesper service after our Wonderful Wednesday night dinners, but before Adult RE (religious education). It's a nice time to hear a Lay Minister give a sermon and have time for introspection. It has some challenges, though. First and foremost being the dinner and the time it takes to feed everyone. Dinner officially starts at 6:15 and Vespers is at 7 pm. Not a lot of time for a family to get everyone fed, then into the childcare room. Plus you miss out on the social aspect of dinner, the after-dinner conversation.

So tonight was the first meeting to discuss Vespers. We started by trying to build a time line of the Vespers' history. From the attendees at the meeting, we surmised that the Vespers service started about 12 years ago, around the birth of the lay minister program. However, dinner and Adult RE was there way before that. So we made an assumption that the Vespers program may have been started to support the lay ministry program. We had no way confirming it, but it made sense.

Then we went into listing the strengths and weaknesses that Vespers had for Lay Ministers, the Congregation, and new visitors. After that we tried to lay out what we saw as a "Success Vision" for Vespers.

It was a very energizing meeting. Most of the meetings I have had so far as a Lay Minister in-training has put me into introvert mode, where I was doing a lot more listening than speaking. I broke that streak tonight. I think it was because of something that I feel strongly about, it's something that I feel I have a lot of input on, and I am getting more comfortable with my peers.

We took a lot of notes, and had a lot of good ideas. We had a few disagreements, but nothing too heated. We will meet again soon, but we were charged with getting the feedback of other congregation members. So, if you do go to UUCA, what feedback do you have on Vespers?

1. Have you ever attended? If not, why? If yes, how often?
2. What are some good things that you got from the service?
3. Do you see any room for improvement?
4. If there was another night where something like vespers was done would you come? What would you like to see?

Motivation for Lay Ministry

Today I attended another lay ministers class. During class we were asked to give a short (2-3 minute) presentation on what motivates us, "Why We Answer the Call". I decided to dive deep and speak about my sister, Elizabeth Ashe. I always jump at the opportunity to do so. It bring me joy to remember her and share her with others.

However, in hindsight I wished I would have broached the subject from a different angle. After I was done, the leader of the lay minister's program made the offhand comment, jokingly, that "You know, some minister's have just one sermon, and they do it well." I laughed it off, but afterwards felt like I might jump on the "hey I have a dead sister" bandwagon too often.

I was also disappointed in my delivery. I practiced ahead of time to do it slow and not get choked up, but I went too fast and ended up with a shaky voice.

And I was turning inward and reanalyzing my performance, it dawned on me how selfish I was being. As others were sharing I kept reflecting and comparing to me. I immediately stopped and focused on my friends' words. It was refreshing to hear their backgrounds and their motivations. It was a good class.

Here is the little speech I gave tonight. Enjoy

Motivation

Length of days is not what makes age honorable, nor number of years the true measure of life. Understanding and an untarnished life, this is ripe old age. Coming to perfection in so short a while, she achieved long life

Wisdom 4:8-9,13

We have times in our lives that test us, that transforms us. One of those times for me was the three final years of my little sister’s life. Elizabeth Ashe battled with a rare malformation that took away her ability to walk at age 17 and her life at age 19. One of her creeds was, “We are not measured by our good time, but our bad.” If that is true, she lived 100 life times.

Elizabeth started early. In the second grade, at the same time as the 1988 elections, she first convinced her teacher to hold mock elections, and then went on to win those elections. By then she had decided that she was going to be the first woman president. But she understood well what was the true purpose of leadership, and that is to help improve the world. During her seventh grade year, she joined me in the local Red Cross Youth Council. Not only did she eventually take over the leadership of this council, but she won the Red Cross Youth Volunteer Award for two years in a row, one of those years being after the discovery of her illness, and a Red Cross Outstanding Group award. Red Cross wasn’t her only avenue of giving. She went one day with me to a community center called the Insider’s Teen Center, a place for teenagers in forest Park to hang out and be in safe and positive environment. She soon started talking one on one to the kids there. Not only making friends, but changing lives. She would reach out and touch the hearts of the most troubled children. Elizabeth adored the Teen Center and the help it provided to so many teenagers.

If you had the chance to ask the President of the United States one thing, what would it be? When the Starlight Foundation gave Elizabeth that chance in 1997, she told Mr. Clinton the value and importance of place like the Insider’s Teen Center. She handed him a large prepared report and gave him a 20-minute lobby.

See, the thing is, she was in a wheelchair, and depended on someone else for everything. But that didn’t stop her from pitching to the leader of the free world.

The last year of her life, she scheduled a peace rally for the city of Jonesboro. She was able to get hundreds to attend, attracting attention from former President Jimmy Carter. He called her, while in the hospital, and invited her to come and visit him. She didn’t live long enough to make that meeting.

While Elizabeth was changing the world from the top down, she was also reaching out to dozens of teens via the internet. She created a Teen Help web site where she helped other with teen pregnancy, runaways, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide, abuse, eating disorders, and of course – serious illness. She would have me bring a laptop to her hospital room during her numerous long term visits.

You see, I’ve got a lot to live up to. I will never have touched as many lives that Elizabeth. She lives on inside me and hundreds other.

She has reached long life.

This is my motivation.

ps. Interesting footnote. The bible quote at the beginning is etched in Elizabeth's tombstone.

Get quoted in the Atlanta Newspaper

Here's an opportunity for Unitarians to be quoted in the public press.

Don O'Briant (cdobriant@comcast.net) is doing two religion stories for the AJC and needs some comments.

First story: Do you have a traditional way of saying grace for Thanksgiving dinner? A traditional blessing? What is it? Who says it? The same person or different people every year? And does everyone have a different blessing?

Second story: Whether you believe in God or not, most people would agree that there's a good bit of wisdom, common sense and poetry to be found in the Bible. Who hasn't whispered the 23rd psalm (yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil) when facing a crisis; recalled the promise of the 30th psalm (tears may linger through the night, but joy comes in the morning) when grieving; or been drawn to the book of Ecclesiastes (there is absolutely nothing new under the sun) when depressed. What bits of wisdom from the Bible have helped you in
your everyday life?

Contact him at cdobriant@comcast.net if you want to comment.

Rabbi Michael Lerner to appear at UUCA Sunday evening November 18

Rabbi Michael Lerner, founding editor of Tikkun magazine and a founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, is appearing at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta Sunday evening November 18 from 7-9 p.m. He will be speaking about the role of spiritual progressives in the upcoming 2008 elections. He will be giving a talk and leading a discussion on "How to End the War in Iraq, Win the War on Terror, and Bring Sanity to American Politics." Included will be a presentation of some of the work of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, a new interfaith organization that seeks to challenge the ethos of selfishness and materialism that shapes our perception of what is realistic in American society. He will also be available to sign copies of his book The Left Hand of God:Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, now in paperback.

For directions to UUCA, go to our website at www.uuca.org. We are located at 19ll Cliff Valley Way NE Atlanta 30329, off 1-85 on the access road between North Druid Hills and Clairmont. Phone 404-634-5134.

Those crazy Norwegian Athiests

Click the image for the rest...

Wow... after reading more of Russel's Teapot, I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I've found me a new webcomic to read. Woot.

Evil Fozen Pizzas Recalled

From CNN: General Mills on Thursday recalled about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.

The company asks consumers to throw away recalled pizzas. They can get replacements by clipping the bar code from the box and mailing it with their name and address to Totino's/Jeno's, P.O. Box 200 -- Pizza, Minneapolis, MN 55440-0200.

CHECK YOUR FREEZER
The recall involves the following frozen pizzas and product code numbers:

• Totino's Party Supreme, 42800-10700
• Totino's Three Meat, 42800-10800
• Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-11400
• Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-92114
• Totino's Classic Pepperoni, 42800-11402
• Totino's Pepperoni Trio, 42800-72157
• Totino's Party Combo, 42800-11600
• Totino's Combo, 42800-92116
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Supreme, 35300-00561
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Pepperoni, 35300-00572
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Combo, 35300-00576

Hebrew Crunk

A bit late, but funny nonetheless.