A touch of Leviticus, on the final day

I'm copying a little something I wrote from a note in Facebook, as a final set of thoughts on this month's experience. I haven't mentioned it much on here ... check out www.parkstreet.org/living_leviticus to get the whole picture of the thing, including a link to the church blog and Facebook site where you can see the musings of our Tribe of Levites.

So, it's the final day. I think I feel relieved; disappointed in myself; a little sad; and wondering what happens next.

I was going to write a whole thing about the way that this has changed my relationship to the Lord, but I think I'm going to save that for the video that will probably be made tomorrow at the Dinner of Jubilee. Instead, this note is a shout-out to my friend Emily, who early this week was the first - and only - Facebook friend to ask me what was up with this whole Leviticus thing.

I really appreciated it! I have been wondering all month what my other friends who are not in this experiment think about all of this. I wondered if anyone had been reading, if anyone was interested, if anyone was a little weirded out, or if mostly folks just ignored it as one other news feed item out of the scores it seems like Facebook sends me every day.

We had a cool conversation. We were talking about my question on Sabbath babysitting; Emily almost chimed in online, but then held back (as she said, she was only married to a Jew, not grown up one herself). We talked about what the experiment had been like, and the experience of doing it with other people, and how it was making me really, really think when I read Scripture. And then we chatted about other stuff, like the award she just won because she is an awesome young architect. Go Emily!!

I guess, in a way, this has been part of me trying to be much more open about my faith - and about what really goes on inside me in general - with people I meet outside of my Christian circle. I'm not sure I went in with that intent, but I guess it came out that way. My blog is another part of that effort, and it gets a surprising number of hits from my Facebook profile. (Also funny are the odd Google keyword searches I get.) I discovered other people's blogs in the process - go check out Kristen's site, and Ian's site, for some good reading.

Those are the parts that I liked best from this month - the relationships that were initiated, or strengthened in the course of this study. Lisa and Kristi and I used to find it hard to get together with each other, but all of a sudden we had this good excuse; I've seen them both more that 4 times this month, and on weekend I saw Lisa 3 times in 4 days. I'm not sure why we (me included, for sure) don't normally make time for each other like that. I am afraid that will be lost after we don't have this specific reason to do it.

Thomas, another Levite, mentioned in his note for today that the only way he has any chance at holiness is to be thinking about it all the time. I think I tend to forget that all of my important relationships require that level of intention to be really deep and connected. Eventually, it'll become a habit because you get used to all the ways you stay in touch with someone; but before it becomes a habit, you have to deliberately make that time and call that person and take the hike (which is really not some much of a hike) to Dorchester and not be too lazy to get out of your living room. And that connectedness can languish quickly if you let it ... it's very easy to fall out of touch, and suddenly realize you haven't seen each other in months.

Angela, my former roommate, and I, suddenly found ourselves in that situation this month. When we lived together, we saw each other every day, and even called each other at least once a day on top of that, mostly to talk about goofy stuff or to tell some really nutty thing that just happened. Since she moved out, we do still call each other most days, although not quite as often; and we still see each other, but there can be a lot of lag time in between. We realized this week that, after a couple of times when we missed meeting each other to go out for a drink or a movie for one reason or another, we ended up not having seen each other since the middle of December. We finally had our date today (and saw Sweeney Todd - the fake blood keeps it hilarious, which is a good thing because otherwise the movie would be unbelievably disgusting) ... but it took some real deliberate planning to say, "We're not letting this go for another week."

And yet at the same time, I've seen other people a bunch of times this month. Is it a trade-off? Can you only handle so many relationships at once? Do I need to put my friends on a rotation? That just sounds stupid.

Which gets me to what I've been kind of dreaming off as my vocation for a few years now ... I wish I had the means to just spend all of my time maintaining my relationships with my friends and being there and caring for them. I suppose that doesn't sound like much of a job, but I think it would be a great one. I guess there's a little bit of a "ladies who lunch" stereotype, that you just go out to expensive meals and then sit in your pearls being fanned by a cabana boy at the pool, but that's not really what I mean. What if I could be available to have lunch or dinner with a friend, anytime? What if I had plenty of time to go help them move or clean or paint? What if I could go see them sing and attend their rallies and support what they're involved in? What if I could just go hang out at their house, just because, just 'cause I had the time?

I don't know; as I read that, I think my schedule might be just as full as it is now, and I'd still have to deal with schedule conflicts ... but I feel like I'd be "busy" with stuff I love to be busy with. I'm sure I'm idealizing this because I'm in a grass-is-greener mood just at the moment. And in many ways, it's not like I don't have the choice to devote all of my non-work time to that right now. I just don't choose to.

Hmm. I'm not sure what my point was, and I actually didn't set out to write about any of this. Isn't that funny? Maybe my point is this: Levites, I like you guys; let's keep in touch, but for real. And to all my other friends out there - I really like you, too!! We might have to plan a few weeks ahead to get you in the calendar, but I would love to have lunch.