Hey everybody!

Haha. I have been underground since March or so. SO. I worked at an Italian restaurant for all of a month, their turnover wasn't what they wanted/needed it to be, so I got the axe. I now work for the same language school that I was working for a while ago.

Confirmation has been a slow process -- because of Virginie's job we don't have our nights free. So we have to track down Soeur Claudie for meetings every two weeks.

So I guess I have the wrong haircut to be identified as a believer around here. I should have opted for keeping the part in my hair. Some real hardcore people opt for a tuft of hair in the front of a shaven head. Dang. And I don't wear the right clothes. Or have the right shoes. I think the rest of us are sick of haircuts and Barber waxed cotton jackets (nothing against the jackets, of course). I think it's time for a revolution.

Christian hardcore

So you may remember me as that guy with the whack music, where standing outside my dorm room freshman year you debated whether the hardcore blairing from my Sony boombox (gosh I miss that thing...it rocked!) was me or my roomie from Tanzania (a dear fellow, whom I shall not name for lack of permission).

This was the époque in my life where I was just easing myself into the cold swimming pool that was "praise and worship" music...not so much out of religious duty, or my tastes, but rather out of social conformity. I remember my senior year, Sam led an "alternative worship" in the chapel...where we sang Taizé songs harhar.

But hey, maybe all these guys that other people accuse of "consumerizing the Church" are just God marketing himself...

Here is some more alternative worship -- Ancient Faith Radio! Orthodox guys are cooler when they sing in Greek. I remember for BXVI's Inauguration Mass the Orthodox guys sang the Word in Greek and that was the coolest thing ever.

I harken back to December, where at Rupt we were going to sing the Apostle's Creed in Latin, and dumbly thinking it was going to sound like my ultra-cool Gregorian polyphonies, I was wrong. It sounded like a cross between bunch of old people singing (which it was) and a flock of geese (interpretation mine).

Challenge -- before you listen to another measure of music, sit in silence for about 10 minutes and meditate on something like "Changes ton regard, et crois à la Bonne Nouvelle." "Change your way of seeing things, and believe in the Good News." This goes especially for all you Christians...

Wrench in the Cogs

Stuff in Colmar is going well, even in spite of the 34° F weather with the "rainy mix":) We have imported quantities of "sunshine" from the Côtes du Rhône, as well as Dordougne.

Here is an article to throw a wrench in your cogs...or maybe it doesn't do that for you at all. But for me it's a very real principle. Why am I not a French citizen yet? Because of this. The Preamble of the 1946 Constitution, although well-intentioned, distorts and dillutes real liberty with its near-communist principles. France is nice, but I'm over here to tell you -- there ain't quite anything like American Liberty.

Attached is a picture in memory of better weather around here...St. Martin's Church in Colmar; a shining example of high Gothic architecture. If you look at the northeast corner, you can see that it is just oozing with the Sacred Feminine, further evidence of the literal truth of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. *

*for those of you that might not know me that well, or that believe that I've been caught up in some sort of European nihilism, the above remark regarding the Da Vinci Code is sarcastic in nature

Craziness

Things have been crazy these past few months : we've moved 2ce since October! We are Aunt and Uncle! Congrats James and Claire! Welcome to the world, Julia! (she gets baptized on Easter!) We live in a city called Colmar now. Pretty old, steeped in history, with mazes of cute streets. Some friends came over last weekend and said I gave "the perfect tour" : well, Colmar speaks for itself. Come on over and visit! We have a guest room and a 3rd set of keys!

"Changes ton regard, et crois à la Bonne Nouvelle" he said as he put the ashes on my forehead. "Change your way of seeing things, and believe the Good News."

It's in the simple; it comes from the meek; Strength is made perfect in weakness; the Answer is in the Good News.

We are going to a Gallican church now -- 5 minutes on foot; rather nice. Le Collégiale de St. Martin, or, Marty's. Yes, I like having my piety look like the Alsatian pasta I tried to make last night -- messy. With a copy of "Let's Pray in Church" (Prions en Eglise), the latest Ben XVI bit, and a book written by some Southern Baptist guy, this little redneck is takin' Europe by storm. No longer content to dodge bullets in an unorthodox no man's land of orthodoxy, we are swimming the Tiber.

Soooo, the found Jesus's tomb, and Mary and their son...ummm, I tend to take ZZ Top's version, and believe the he's done left Chicago, and gone down to New Orleans. You might not see him in person but he'll see you just the same. You don't have to worry 'cause takin' care of business is his name.

Breathing

I recently got a request for bottled Haute Soane Air, so I guess I'll take more orders and send a bulk shipment soon.

Speaking of breathing, here's a piece of advice for all you "foodies" out there : make sure you open your bottle of Bordeaux (2002-present) 30 minutes to 8 hours (1980-2002) beforehand. It's one way to not be bothered with the blasted décanteur.

I tried mountain biking again this weekend. Once something I took for granted back in Va with Zo, I believe I have almost forgotten the pleasure of biking. I wasn't reminded of this pleasure this weekend, as I had a couple of helpings of country-style chicken served in chesnut gravy with pan-fried potatoes for lunch, washed down with the customary 2.5 glasses of Cotes de Somethingorother. Nothing came back up, but it definitely weighed me down.

PS, they're thinking about cutting Iraq into 3 : a piece for the Kurds, one for the Shiites, and another for the Sunnis. Not a bad idea, especially since Sykes and Picot are dead. Why didn't we think of this before???? We're just cleaning up the diplomatic mess that a bunch of idiots after WWI thought that they were cleaning up...or are we?

George Soros : the Antichrist

Ok so maybe that will make a nice google.com hit. I being in the humdrumness of work, Virginie is along and well with her BTS (the degree she's working on). We will have the foxes over at the apartment for the next week, then Chris Haynes comes over next weekend. Got some fresh air this morning by going into the garden and clearing away the brush from around the strawberry plants. Nothing like a lot of dirt and fresh air! Yup, we're in Rupt again, and drinking in all that pure Haute-Soane air.

LONG LIVE JETER HALL!!!!

Quick, plug in a firing solution for tubes one and two! Colette's birthday is the 20th, it's National Patrimony Weekend, so all the castles and museums are open for free. But it's usually best to see them some other weekend, when it's less crowded. We went to Anglican church a few weekends ago and liked it a lot! We think we'll stay there. Harhar if you're Roman, you can follow the liturgy from A to Z. We are spoiled with a super organ, a super organist, and a really cool spartan Roman church.

If you've heard about Ben XVI's lecture about faith and reason at Regensburg that has caused so much controversy, you can read the thing for yourself. If you see the pictures of the illiterati protesting in those mahometan parts of God's green earth, Bennie's comments become justified. Il Babba's words are not "those of Hitler and Mussolini," nor do I think he "misunderstood Islam" when he reflected upon the transcendance of the Muslim God. The fiasco is best summarized on the drudgereport.com page in the headline "Benedict XVI fails to master media machine."

The presidential race is well, not heating up. I have the joy of working with a lawyer who studied political science, and says that Ségolène Royale will never be president. Good news, because Ségolène is a 1.)woman, 2.) a socialist and 3.)a representative of this post-1968 France, who has a "Civil Pact of Solidarity" with her "partner," (a man) another big wig in the Socialist Party.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the "only hope" for French politics, is good, but disappointing. But the edge that he has over Chirac, de Villepin, and Royale is that he has good experience with the Interior Department, which is more taking care of crooks and rebels in the interior than it is National Park Service.

Big stuff going on in America : I read this article on cnn.com and was shocked that students should be deprived of hardy living, forced to drink martinis and imported beer instead of well, Jack Daniels and Bud Light. Well no, seriously, a moving company for coming into the dorm? Where is the satisfaction of having hauled your refrigerator into your dorm room? Heck, I didn't even have a tv in college (ok, by choice), but plasma screens?!?!? I think it's about time that we should get our priorities back on line.

Sure, I live with a pre-September 20, 2004 vision of America, where there were still some glimmers of spartan hope, where I was proud to drive a 15-year-old Jeep with a tape player and no AC. Do any of those kids know how to camp? Canoe? Load, shoot and clean a gun? Kill or grow your own food? Tie all the right knots? Open a book? How can you expect God to bless America when it's populated by over- (or under-)educated yuppies?

John Out.