Kerry Was Homeless: Part 1

I’ve been meaning to write about the following for like, a month now, but the incessant writing demands of my work have suffocated any motivation for extracurricular writing projects. Alas, however, I've found a quiet Sunday and a quaint Dunn Bros. to finally give Kerry the recognition he deserves – way to go Kerry!

More than a month ago now, our good friend Kerry Rauschendorfer took it upon himself to lead a small trip to San Francisco. Sounds fun and dandy, until you hear the mission of the trip: to be homeless for five days, and survive on a mere $20. It was a very hardcore and un-filmed version of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie’s the “Simple Life.” Ok not really.

For five days, Kerry and his crew wandered the streets of San Fran – searching for shelter and food, and chatting it up with the homeless among them. I talked with Kerry a few weeks ago on his experiences. Here’s a little bit of what he had to say:

Q: So Kerry, how did you spend your days on this trip?
A: Well, actually, one thing I didn’t realize is how much free time you have when you are homeless. We spent our days looking for food and shelter and pretty much sat around the rest of the time, talking to people.

Q: How did you find a place to stay?
A: They have a lot of resources on the Internet, and we talked to some police officers too. When we first got there, we went to Golden Gate Park to spend the night. We threw a tarp down on the top of the hill and sleeping bags. None of us got any sleep that night – it was cold and none of us had warm enough sleeping bags or clothes. So at 5:00 a.m. we got up and started to walk the streets – a better option than just laying there. Then we went to McDonalds and got a sausage McMuffin.

So the next night we tried to find a shelter – but to stay in a shelter you have to register as homeless. They take your picture and write down the zip of the last place you stayed. You can reserve a shelter for seven straight days, but we made it difficult on ourselves and forwent that option. One of the people that registered us recommended a shelter, and we stayed there for a night.

Q: What was the shelter like?
A: In the shelter there were four rows of 25 beds each, spaced a foot a part. There were light blue rubber mattresses that were dirty and smelled, well, like a homeless person. I have no idea how often they cleaned them. But I didn’t feel like the mattress was clean enough to put my sleeping bag on! But they gave us each a fresh blanket – so we slept on half the blanket and covered p with the other half. The whole night people are coughing and farting – and you wake up smelling bad and stay smelling like that all day. It’s definitely not a luxury hotel.

The next night, one of the men with us refused to go back and sleep in the shelter, so we went back to Golden Gate Park. We had previously spoken with an officer near there – and he told us we would be fine staying there. However, at like six in the morning we were woken up by an officer and given a ticket for sleeping in the park. The officer was kind of a jerk and I felt betrayed because we were told it was okay. The tickets were $271 each – and we are still working on fighting them.

OK. This is getting a little too long for one blog post – so I will post part two of Kerry was Homeless soon. Sooner than a month, I promise.

A Long Rant About People Obsessed Wth Theology

I’ve decided that theology completely annoys me most of the time. Why? Mainly because many people can become obsessed with their particular theological viewpoint – and instead of focusing on drawing nearer to God, they focus on drawing nearer to their viewpoint and become blinded to God along the way.

It bothers me. The last time I checked, Jesus said that the two greatest commandments were love God with your whole heart, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Well --- who is your neighbor you say? According to the good Samaritan story Jesus told – everyone.

Now I don’t meant to pick on Calvinists – but sorry to say they often are the most likely breed to become obsessed with their theology – denouncing Armenians, open-theists, post-moderns and charismatic’s of “heresy.” People – Jesus’ biggest prayer is that we would be united. How is burning bridges with other denominations who still worship Christ as Savior creating unity??? IT’S NOT. Let’s take this lovely conversation I recently found on a blog. Larry King is interviewing Rick Warren – who has brought God to so many people.

Rick Warren said that there are five “Global Goliaths” that need to be immediately addressed in the world: spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases and illiteracy and education. Now, how does it work?

Now this is how the blogger responds:
“There are few things as grievous as hearing a pastor describe the greatest problems facing humanity without coming anywhere near sin and the need for a savior. The closest he comes is 'spiritual emptiness, people don't know they have a purpose.'"

Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!!!? Why?! Can’t you address the good he said in that statement? Those are ALL things that Jesus commands – but just saying that “well, the problem with the world is that everyone’s a sinner and needs Jesus,” on secular TV will most likely make him a joke. No – he wants to SHOW people the gospel and introduce it to them in a way they understand and that will draw them in. He’s being shrewd. He’s loving others. In my opinion anyway.

I don’t know – I’m also catching myself as I write this and wondering if perhaps it is my intentions that are warped. What do others think. Should he have mentioned that as number one on his “global goliaths” list?

Regardless I think weird blogger needs to get a grip of reality – and start following Jesus himself by loving others instead of putting them down. And yes, this guy was a Calvinist – and you know he didn’t even say that – I assumed that he was from his statement and when I looked around the site, I found my assumptions to be true. I don’t want to become like this guy and dis all Calvinists because yes they do a lot of good for Christ – but theology debates in general are getting on my nerves.

Employee of the Year

Friday afternoons at work usually seem to last an eternity, mainly because my motivation-meter dips below the red. Last Friday, however, I fortunately discovered that some peoples motivation lags even further behind mine.

The guy who sits on the other side of my “workstation,” was out for a couple hours Friday. I’ll call him Ben, mainly because that is his name. So my company hasn’t been doing exactly “well,” lately, and a lot has been up in the air. Some people, like me, have taken on extra work as a result of this – while others, like Ben – have become pretty bored. Now Ben has a pretty good job here too, he reports directly to the VP of Investor Relations, so it’s not like he’s some peon like me. Anyway so Ben disappears at like 11:00 a.m. on Friday. This is normal. Around 2:00 p.m. he strolls casually back into the office.

“Did I miss anything exciting around here?” He asks.

As usual, I reply, “Nope, nothing, just same exciting announcements on discount ticket sales,” or something like that. Then I realized the time and asked, “Where the heck were you?”

“Oh, out,” he replies.

“Out?” I question. “Where is out?”

“Well do you really want to know?

“Obviously,” I reply.

“I went to a movie.”

WHAT? Are you serious? I pretty much cracked up. Ha. He said that he was sick of being bored and he kept asking for stuff to do to no avail; so he went to see There Will be Blood. He said his wife thought that was pretty bad – I gave him crap but c’mon, I kind of have to applaud him. Sneaking out to go to a movie during the day – genius :). If only the world could have more employees like “Ben.”

My Computer Doesn't Have the Audacity to Hope

I think that my computer is racist.

Every time I type the name "Barack Obama," it underlines it with that red squiggly line that screams, "You suck at spelling!" Oh yeah computer? What, does "Hilary," get that line? NO. Does "Clinton," get that line? And no! What about John McCain?? Oooo McCain got the red line too. Apparently my computer is a feminist liberal. Strange, I thought it was built by a rich white guy who's last name is Job - which would seem to me he is completely against the welfare system and liberalism.

So tomorrow is "Super Tuesday," aka CAUCUS DAY. For most of the states anyway. A select few, for some reason unbeknownst to me, have the privilege of voting early it seems. Molly said that if I have the audacity to hope I will caucus tomorrow. So I'd like to think I have such audacity and will be heading over to Grace Lutheran Church at 6:00 p.m. I'm hoping to show my computer its racist ways will not withstand America's audacity to hope for a good looking president...

(OK ok just kidding...:)

Cold Weather, Colds, and Cold Cars.

It's Saturday night and I am sitting here reluctantly at home. I've been home all day and I'm bored but I don't feel well enough to go out. That sucks. I'm even sick of watching movies but looking at this computer makes my eyes hurt.

On an unrelated note, my car didn't start up Wednesday - probably because it was the coldest day I've experienced in the last five years of my life. So it took 'Ol Yeller three days and 27 degrees above zero to start up again, but it's working now, thank God. My boss had to give me a ride Wednesday and Thursday which was nice of her but fairly awkward. I felt bad enough that I scoured my house and my company to find a couple of people willing to be my taxi drivers Friday.

Yeah, and then since Friday I really haven't moved much. I attempted to go out last night, and that lasted a half-hour. Tonight after lying on the couch all day I attemped to get up and get ready to out, and that lasted like five minutes. I am so tough. Man, a 98.8 fever and I am wiped out!!

Whatever it's a cold. With colds, you don't get fevers just onerous sinus headaches and constant fatigue. That's my excuse. Feel bad for me. Another reason you should feel bad for me is because I have to pick my friend up at the airport tonight at midnight. Fun times. Ok time for iTunes movie rentals.