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"Then G-d opened her eyes and she saw a well of water."
2019-Nov-06, Wednesday 11:32
Came back from Galena on Monday. My Japanese tutor told me that Galena was a weird kind of tourist town that didn't seem entirely real--ディズニーっぽい dizunīppoi is the word she used, "Disneyified"--and that's definitely true. I described it on Instagram as an American's idea of a quaint European rural town scooped up and dropped in the middle of the Midwest, but it was a lot of fun. We went into town on Friday to shop, eat at a sushi restaurant, and visit a wine bar, and I can see why people think it's so charming. Though as my Japanese tutor suspected, it was mostly older white people. Or white families with children. That's who that particular version of small town idyllic life appeals to, in America at least,
I just wish it had been a little warmer. It snowed on Halloween and stayed cold basically all weekend, so most of what we did was hang out indoors and watch movies, play board games, cook, and drink. There was no leaf-viewing to be had other than what we could see as we walked around elsewhere, and going apple-picking was off the table too. I had a great time, though, and I'm glad I went.
A bunch of my friends who went seem to have gotten sick, but I didn't. Yet. 🧿
I spent most of my Monday evening doing chores, laundry and shopping and food prep for the week, and then on Tuesday went back to work. On Tuesday evening after work I went to Japanese tutoring, ate a quick dinner at Panera, an then went over to Millennium Park to look at the leaves since I could see them from the window of the top floor. Joke's on me, though--thanks to the time change, it was far past dark when I made it there and the leaves were only visible in the light from the streetlamps. I'm going to have to go on a lunch break some time in the next couple of weeks, since winter has truly come to Chicago and temperatures are dropping below freezing starting tomorrow.
I took a great photo of the sunset as I crossed the Wabash bridge on the way to tutoring, though:
After Millennium Park I went up to Fourth Presbyterian Church in response to![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
lisekatevans's invitation to attend a Michigan Avenue Forum discussion entitled "How Love for G-d Asks Us to Embrace Rather than Exclude Each Other" given by Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Rabbi Wendi Geffen, senior rabbi at North Shore Congregation Israel; and Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core. I thought it was kind of mixed--they started off giving mostly what I would say are platitudes about our commonality and how we're all looking for the same thing, which I think is a major downside of a lot of interfaith discussion I've heard. A relatively small percentage of people disagree with wanting to get along with people of other religions, or working together for peace, or similar broad goals. It's the details where problems occur.
However, after that intro things got better during the question segment. I liked when each participant talked about specific components of their faiths that led them toward interfaith cooperation, like when Rabbi Geffen mentioned the midrash about Hagar and the well (Genesis 21:19) that the well was there the whole time, but Hagar hadn't seen it due to her fear and grief; or when Patel talked about how Waraqa ibn Nawfal, a Christian priest, was the first person to believe that Muhammad had actually received a revelation. More of that and less "What if we all were nice to each other" would have made an even better discussion, but as it was, I came away happy I went but slightly disappointed with the content.
Fourth Presbyterian has a really beautiful interior, though.
I haven't played a single video game for almost three weeks now and I really have no strong desire to even now, which is weird to me. This is the longest period I've gone without playing anything in...maybe decades? And I have mostly a clear night tonight, but I think I'm going to read instead? I don't know. It's not a good or a bad thing, it's just a thing. I'm sure I'll feel the desire to play more games later, once I'm feeling less behind on other things.
On the other hand, that does make me wonder how much video games were a coping mechanism papering over not dealing with things. I know it's more than zero.
I just wish it had been a little warmer. It snowed on Halloween and stayed cold basically all weekend, so most of what we did was hang out indoors and watch movies, play board games, cook, and drink. There was no leaf-viewing to be had other than what we could see as we walked around elsewhere, and going apple-picking was off the table too. I had a great time, though, and I'm glad I went.
A bunch of my friends who went seem to have gotten sick, but I didn't. Yet. 🧿
I spent most of my Monday evening doing chores, laundry and shopping and food prep for the week, and then on Tuesday went back to work. On Tuesday evening after work I went to Japanese tutoring, ate a quick dinner at Panera, an then went over to Millennium Park to look at the leaves since I could see them from the window of the top floor. Joke's on me, though--thanks to the time change, it was far past dark when I made it there and the leaves were only visible in the light from the streetlamps. I'm going to have to go on a lunch break some time in the next couple of weeks, since winter has truly come to Chicago and temperatures are dropping below freezing starting tomorrow.
I took a great photo of the sunset as I crossed the Wabash bridge on the way to tutoring, though:
After Millennium Park I went up to Fourth Presbyterian Church in response to
However, after that intro things got better during the question segment. I liked when each participant talked about specific components of their faiths that led them toward interfaith cooperation, like when Rabbi Geffen mentioned the midrash about Hagar and the well (Genesis 21:19) that the well was there the whole time, but Hagar hadn't seen it due to her fear and grief; or when Patel talked about how Waraqa ibn Nawfal, a Christian priest, was the first person to believe that Muhammad had actually received a revelation. More of that and less "What if we all were nice to each other" would have made an even better discussion, but as it was, I came away happy I went but slightly disappointed with the content.
Fourth Presbyterian has a really beautiful interior, though.
I haven't played a single video game for almost three weeks now and I really have no strong desire to even now, which is weird to me. This is the longest period I've gone without playing anything in...maybe decades? And I have mostly a clear night tonight, but I think I'm going to read instead? I don't know. It's not a good or a bad thing, it's just a thing. I'm sure I'll feel the desire to play more games later, once I'm feeling less behind on other things.
On the other hand, that does make me wonder how much video games were a coping mechanism papering over not dealing with things. I know it's more than zero.
