Saturday, July 09, 2011

breakfast links


I stand bleary eyed and disoriented in the kitchen.  The roosters crow loudly in my foggy head.  Without electricity the much loved and respected french press will come to my  rescue again.

Geronne walks by, observes my obvious stupor.  "You want ot dog?" she says in English.

"Huh? Sa ou te di?" (What did you say?)

"OT dog? ou vle?"  She hands me the bowl.   I smile. "Sa se system Ayiti. M'pa ka manje ot dog nan matin".  (That's not my system - I don't eat hotdogs for breakfast.)

She laughs hysterically. Not being willing to eat a hot-dog (or an ot-dog for that matter) at 6:30 am is just total silliness to her.  Ridiculous American, she thinks.

Spaghetti is a more common breakfast food in Haiti, but she's stopped trying to get me on board. I've never embraced that idea.  My kids have. Noah loves himself some pasta early ante meridiem. 

I want to make her happy and eat the food she has prepared ... So I tell her Troy wants them.  "He loves a package of hot-dogs for breakfast. Ask him." He is never quite as amused as I am.

Instead of those breakfast links, and because I have very little to say, which has probably become painfully obvious to you by now, please find four more "breakfast links":

Fear - It jacks with us all sometimes.

An Incongruent Picture - and a need to figure out how to be more gracious.

Tony Campolo on Mother T. ~ Find Your Own Calcutta

From Heather's post Barn Burning -
"To the degree that the gospel shapes your self-image, you will identify with those in need...When you come upon those who are economically poor, you cannot say to them, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" because you certainly did not do that spiritually.  Jesus intervened for you.  And you can not say, "I won't help you because you got yourself into this mess,"  since God came to earth, moved into your spiritually poor neighborhood, as it were, and helped you even though your spiritual problems were your own fault.  In other words, when Christians who understand the gospel see a poor person, they realize they are looking into a mirror.  Their hearts must go out to him or her without an ounce of superiority or indifference."
-Tim Keller in Generous Justice
Happy weekend to you and yours.