7 Quick Takes Friday {Volume 136}

— 1 —

I listened to The Simple Podcast yesterday about living simply in a big city. I found it interesting how people think living simply = living on a farm and can’t be done in a city. But after listening to this podcast it almost seems easier to do in a city. In city living, you don’t have a lot of space so your forced to live simply and not have a lot of material possessions.

The whole thing made me want to drop everything and move to the downtown urban area of a city. I’ve always wanted to do that but doubt I ever will as it’s also not the cheapest way to live. I’ve just learned that every type of living has its pros and cons.

—2 —

The “city” guest on the podcast from #1 was a blogger named Kristen Kill. I did the stalkerish thing every blogger does and looked at her twitter, facebook, blog and instagram. On her instagram she had this really interesting photo of a “Sabbath Elevator.”

I love living in this city. I love that there is such honor and respect for all people of faith woven into public places. It is such a grace. #newyork #greatestcityonearth #diversityisthenorm #ifwecandoitherewecandoitanywhere

A photo posted by Kristen Kill (@kristenkill) on May 19, 2016 at 6:43am PDT

Now I grew up in NYC until I was 12 and was well aware of the Jewish Holidays. However, I didn’t learn or know about everything that they practiced. After seeing this instagram image I did some research on this “Sabbath Elevator” (thank you wikipedia and google). From my research, on the Sabbath Jewish people cannot create fire. And since the electric shock the elevator buttons create could create a fire they do not operate elevators. So on the Sabbath and other Holidays elevators in buildings of highly populated Jewish people go into this “Sabbath Mode” and will stop at every floor automatically or every other floor. I found this article really interesting in my research.

I also found some information that some will ask people to press the buttons for them or hire a non-jew to go around with them and press buttons. Others will only live on the lower portions of buildings (floors 1-4) so they know they could walk up and down the stairs if needed.

One thing I have learned about Jewish people is most of them take their faith really seriously. They ALWAYS take the high holy days off work. My mom always talks about how the Catholics used to take all the Holy Days off out of principle for all the Jewish people taking all their holidays off.

— 3 —

Last weekend I was at the NCCL Conference. I am patiently waiting for all the white papers they talked about in the keynotes to be available online. One of them was all about sharing your faith in the Digital Age via social media and blogging. Others were about churching the unchurched which was really fascinating as that is what so many churches are trying to do today with a big portion of people not attending mass.

I feel like the church struggles to change with the times. I’m not talking about the mass and doctrine that I don’t really want it to change but there are things technology wise that can change to make it easier for people to take classes and be involved in the parish within our busy lives.

 

— 4 —

At the conference, I did something I had never done before. I attended mass in a room full of tables and chairs. There was a nun sitting near us and we jokingly said to her, “I bet you’ve never had mass like this with tables and chairs.” And she said, “Oh no I have done this many times! Every time you ask them to change the room you have to pay so this is more cost effective.”

It was odd…but made sense.

— 5 —

Another cool thing that happened at the conference was my mom and I ran into the lady that has her old DRE job back in Dallas! My mom had said she was going to be there and I thought it was going to be weird but it was actually really fun. She was telling us all about the things she was doing and how things are and vice versa.

She actually is leaving that job and took a job with this non-profit organization that helps train people to be catechists for students with special needs. It sounds like an awesome organization that is much needed as more and more cases of Autism and other disabilities seem to pop up.

— 6 —

On Monday, I went to Theology on Tap. I was really looking forward to this months talk because the lovely, Arleen Spenceley was the speaker.  I’ve been reading her blog for awhile, I read her book, and I have met her at book signings and other events but had never heard her speak.

Her talk was really good and she really challenged us about doing things in this current culture that seem “crazy” but we know are right in our faith and prayers.

 

— 7 —

Anyone have any fun plans for Memorial Day? I don’t since I was pretty busy last weekend. I really want to go swimming or to the beach but I know everything is going to be so crowded.

I think this weekend is the feast of Corpus Christi and there is usually a Eucharistic Procession after mass that I’ll go to.

Have a great weekend everyone! Visit Kelly for more Quick Takes!