— 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.”
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!
My husband and I went to a graduation ceremony wayyyy out in the country and were discussing the pros and cons of city living and country living. We concluded we’re suburbanites all the way!
Very interesting about the elevators. Learned something new. 🙂
Yeah. I worked for a lady that lived out on a big piece of property in the country and had to go to her house once. I was not a fan of having to drive 20 minutes to go get lunch.
My cousin lives on a piece of property and is getting married on it I’m really interested to see it but I don’t think I’d like it. I’d LOVE to live in a city but I know there is no way I’d ever be able to afford it.
I can say the suburbs has the best of both worlds. Close to stuff but not super on top of each other.
Yeah I’d never heard of the elevators either. I asked my mom that worked in NYC for awhile with a lot of Jewish people and she had never heard that either.
BethAnne recently posted…7 Quick Takes Friday {Volume 136}
Regarding #2, not taking time off for holidays has always bugged me a little. When I taught Catholic school, my students had a basketball game scheduled on Good Friday, and I was super surprised. We couldn’t have school that day, but they could play a game? That doesn’t seem right. But it’s hard to insist that you need holy days off when not everyone does it. Can you imagine?
Me: Boss, I will not be coming to work next Tuesday. It’s a religious holiday.
Boss: Which religion?
Me: Catholic.
Boss: I’m Catholic, too. I’m coming to work.
Me: …
It would have to be a whole-culture thing, and I don’t know how to make that happen.
Oh, and we didn’t have the elevators when I was in college, but since we had swipe cards for the dorms and elevators, they gave out Sabbath keys! (Maryland has the biggest Orthodox Jewish population outside of New York.)
YUP…I’ve been there. I worked for a baptist lady that didn’t understand any of my catholic things. And one time this guy came by on a good Friday because he was in the area and he was shocked we were in the office. And my boss is like why wouldn’t we be? And he’s all because it’s good Friday and like it just didn’t click.
I’m always amazed at people that go to and have weddings on Easter weekend…so weird.
When I was researching Sabbath elevators one comment that always came up was about office buildings and they all said a Jew would NEVER be at work on the Sabbath. I think some of our workaholic people could learn from that.