coho weekend

Last weekend my mom was in town from Washington so we went big and celebrated Levi's birthday on Saturday and Baptism on Sunday. Both events were awesome and special, but by Sunday night I was pretty spent.

I headed into the weekend with no plans. I can't remember the last time this happened, so I tried to take full advantage.

Friday night Nora's dad watched Levi for a couple hours while we went out for a drink and some dinner.

Saturday I spent most of the day wandering cohousing with Levi and picking up random conversations. We headed out with some Newberry folks at night while Jon and Lisa picked up Levi duty. (are you getting the theme yet)

Sunday was another day at home with a quick bike ride to church in the evening. I got home around 6:30 and just in time to beg for some scraps from the coho potluck and snag a burger from Jon's BBQ.

Coho dreams do come true!

first dinner and a movie

Last night marked the true beginning of Newberry Place as we celebrated our first community meal. It was followed by a kids movie. We ate some spicy enchiladas courtesy of Linda. This place is starting to feel like home.

Dr. Day

I'm currently part of Leadership Grand Rapids, a 9 month leadership development program in Grand Rapids.  As part of the experience the class works on Community Trustee Projects for local groups and organizations.  My small group is putting together a project for Michigan State's new Med School.  The school is interested in hearing from the community on what skills, in additional to the technical understanding of medicine, they should be training or adding to their curriculum for new doctors.  Over the course of the past couple months we've interviewed several people that work closely with doctors and the health care system.  But we wanted to add one more element to the study so we set up at my neighborhoods "Dr. Day" to talk to people that either don't have health care coverage or at least might not engage doctors on a regular basis.  We asked them "What makes a good doctor?" "What has disappointed or impressed you about doctors you visit?", and "What skills should new doctors have upon entering their practice?"

The first response was always, "They need to be a good listener".  Everyone shared their frustration with health care feeling like it has turned into a fast food restaurant instead of a nice family meal.  There were also a lot of comments about wanting to engage in their health care with the feeling like they were on a team with their doctors, nurses and care providers.  There were several stories from people that felt like they were put down by their doctors, being told that they just need to stop being fat or stop some behavior that they don't feel like they have control over.  On a positive note, several people had a lot of hope for younger doctors  that demonstrate better bedside manner and felt like female doctors where much easier to work with.  

sculptures

Yesterday I facilitated a board retreat for the Community Media Center.  I tried something new as the icebreaker and team building portion of the day.  I gave each table a mess of raw material (modeling clay, wood scraps, paper, tape, pipe cleaners, paperclips, etc.) and had them work in teams to create a sculpture that represented the identity and character of an organization that "Builds Community through Media".  Needless to say, the results were as wild and diverse as the participants. 

 

We then gathered around the various table's art work and performed an interpretive art critique of the concept trying to be communicated.  The creators had to sit silently while the rest of the group tried to decipher the meaning of their creation.  We then gave the creators the chance to describe their creative process and the resulting product.

It was really fascinating to see how some groups took a very literal and linear approach their sculpture, while others worked on abstract concepts and interdependent ideas.  Some individuals really struggled with having to put more conceptual thinking into tangible objects.  Overall, the activity really brought the staff and board together around the common themes between the various discussions.  There was also the added benefit of having some tactile learning going on.  Several people continued to sculpt, configure, draw and color throughout the day.

Obama Time

http://www.yeswecansong.com

Two guys named Dan have recommended this to me in the last day. The Dan's can't be wrong.

Enjoy!

the persuaders

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

This has been out for awhile, but I'm revisiting it after some conversations about community. Check it out if you have time between trips to the store.

pics of the new digs

we're in!

Well folks, the Fabers are officially moved into Newberry. In flurry of force a group of friends pushed to get us moved in by Friday night. Who knew that canceling a U-Haul truck would elicit such a euphoric feeling. Thanks to their hard work, some great organizing by Nora and some caring people to watch Levi, we had all day Saturday and Sunday to actually turn the place into a home. I'll post some pics soon.

no christmas card this year

Well Christmas and New Years Day have come and gone, and we just didn't get around to writing a Christmas card this year. Here are some more recent photos that might have made there way into a card, had we created one.

Levi on maiden voyage in snow suit

Levi and Sam Magnus Venema meet


pinch those cheeks - I know you want to


high-speed trains at the mall


his very own low-speed train from grandma Faber and the Wynstras


levi "gettin' learned" by grandpa Lagerwey

the wire

With our move-in date postponed until next week; I filled my vacation time with other pursuits. Watching the first season of the HBO series The Wire was a welcome distraction from the half-filled boxes scattered around our house.

Over the last couple years I've heard countless interviews and reviews about how great the show is, but just couldn't commit to another serial TV show that I knew would eat up 12 hours of my life. So the holiday break, in combination with feeling a little under the weather, provided the excuse I needed to blitz through the show.

The Wire is set in present day Baltimore and depicts the attempt of a small, assigned police task force to take down a major organized drug cartel in the city's projects. Part of the case is getting a listening device (wire) put on public telephones in the projects, hence the series name. The story has several side stories, but is essentially one detective's crusade that gets a lot of other reluctant people involved. But over the course of the case, many of them get inspired and care about the case in different ways.

I've never seen a better show at depicting urban street life and government politics at the same time. Aside from the great acting, gritty drama, and crude violence, it was interesting to view the show through an organizational theory perspective. From this perspective, it paints a great picture of two different organizational systems trying to counter one another. The drug system is a highly fluid and open system that protects itself with a series of norms and values. People are highly disposable and the system changes rapidly in response to threats. The government system is very hierarchical and functional and protects itself through a chain of command and control. Any attempt to circumvent that chain of command is met with fear and resentment. The show demonstrates the pitfalls and strengths offered by each of these organizational approaches. And, I think more importantly, how at every corner both systems, and their people, try to protect themselves. It is also interesting that in the end the more organic system adjusts to change more willingly and ultimately wins out in the end. The show really speaks to the differences in organizational culture as well.

On a local level, I think there are lessons in this show that transend the topic of the war on drugs and how pointless it is from many perspectives. The show also speaks to how government and the private sector interact and to how systems do or don't change. We can look at our local systems, like public schools, healthcare, police, etc., and see how incapable their structure is for dealing with root causes and systems associated with poverty, which are too fluid and cultural for a control and conquire style to make any difference. The hiararchical systems also tend to destroy innovation and swallow up anything that will make it uncomfortable. In Margrett Wheatley's terms, the best we can do is "purturb the system" enough, and in multiple places, so that it can no longer afford to remain the same. Then it will make incremental changes that may add up to a broader systems change.

merry christmas

The Faber family is in a holding pattern, restless in their seats and circling their nearly completed cohousing unit. After frequent delays throughout the last year, the final countdown has begun. We were told a couple weeks ago that we might be in by Christmas - no such luck. But we are hoping for New Years.



About half of our current house is in boxes. This makes for the awkward,"Where is the spatula?" Response, "In the bottom of the box underneath all those other boxes." But somehow, I'm still tripping over just as many of Levi's toys every day. Someone must not be respecting the rules of packing.

There are about 1/2 of the families into their homes now over at the cohousing site. So some of the fun cohousing stuff is starting to happen. We had a small birthday party last night and then some spontaneous poker. We can't wait to be just a small walk on a pathway away from our friends and neighbors.

r/c fun

In 1994 my brother proceeded to rip up our back yard to create his own Remote Control race track. 13 years later, and I'm seriously debating whether I should do the same thing in my back yard. On a fluke a won a truck on EBAY and now have it to the point where it can race with my brother's truck. We brought the trucks over to my relatives for Thanksgiving. My nephews had fun pretending to be busses that the cars could jump (or not).

on the farm

We just bought a share in a cow (her name is Penny) at a local CSA (community supported agriculture). So now we can get raw milk straight from Penny on the weekends. Here are some pics of our kid with the calves down on the farm when we went to pick up our first gallon of milk.


We also inherited a breadmaker from Nora's Grandma and have begun experimenting with some home baked, whole wheat creations. The Fabers are really returning to the earth here folks. We'll let you know how the first attempts at making our own yogurt and cheese go...

alma mater blues

This article just came out in the Press last week, and I've been stewing on it for a couple days now.

Calvin ready to Oust Baptist Professor
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- "Professor Denise Isom loves her work at Calvin College and her Grand Rapids church, Messiah Missionary Baptist. The problem is: Isom must choose one or the other.

The Calvin board this month refused to exempt her from a rule that requires professors to attend a congregation with ties to the Christian Reformed Church."

Here's a definition of Institutional Racism:
"Institutional racism is distinguished from the bigotry or racial bias of individuals by the existence of systematic policies and practices within the institution, that have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial or ethnic groups."

The racist, classist and homophobic policies that this current administration has decided to uphold and enforce has taken this school down a road that is not only damaging and hurtful to individuals, but will ultimately contribute to its irrelevance in our city.

Some of my best friends were people I met at Calvin and some of my favorite people work there. And this is not a slam on them or their work. I aim my criticism directly at the President and Board of Directors because it is their lack of integrity and leadership that is resulting in these irrational enforcement of antiquated policies and thinking.

Unfortunately, I believe that only until they feel their decisions in their wallet (when students stop coming to the school and paying tuition and donors stop giving money) will they change these views. And many of those students and donors share their mono-cultural worldview, so it will be a long time from now. But I don't think you can read any recent books on globalism, education and economics and see how this is a solid strategic decision to lose your talented workforce over something as small as where they go to church for an hour on Sunday morning.

I stopped giving any financial support to Calvin a couple years ago after my friends and acquaintances were forced to choose between their jobs or sending their kids to a public school in their neighborhood. Since then, I've seen additional friends and others forced out because of their orientation or because they feel the need to worship outside "the network". A recent defector from Calvin summed things up for me pretty well. To paraphrase him, he said that he learned that when the school hired him (a minority) they never had the intent to be a multi-cultural institution, just multi-racial, and there's a big difference.

chicago and becks

The family just got back from a memorable weekend in Chicago. Saturday morning we drove down with Nora's Grandma to visit Nora's uncle and aunt. They were kind enough to offer us two of their tickets to see the Chicago Fire close out their football season, which also happened to be the weekend that David Beckham was in town with the LA Galaxy. A Fire win would result in them making the playoffs, so there was extra drama on the line. The game was sold out at the new stadium, Toyota Park. In the second picture you can see the blurry figure in the middle is Beckham. The score stayed 0-0 until the 92nd minute when a Beckham mistake resulted in a turnover and a one-on-one with the goalkeeper and chip-shot win for the Fire! GOAL!


But aside from the drama of the game, the real fun of the weekend was spending time with great friends and family. We were able to visit Brian and Kendra in Oak Park and meet their new little son, Maximus. Holding a little boy again brought back great memories of how small Levi was just a over a year ago. I hope we didn't scare them too much, seeing how quickly their kid is going to be terrorizing cats, reaching for books and typing on keyboards.

Things don't get much better than eating dinner outside on a sunny October day. Levi found some balls and a truck waiting for him when we arrived, so the back yard became his favorite place too. We also got to see Nora's cousin Dylan, who came out to visit on Saturday.


Driving home on Sunday night, Nora and I said to each other, "It feels like we've been gone for a long weekend." That's a good indicator of how great the hospitality and company was.

community sayings (part 2)

"If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth." - Mitsugi Saotome

Community is far from harmonious, so I like the the little phrase in this quote, "the joy of challenge". In my experience, it is difficult to find joy in the challenge unless there is a greater purpose, achievement or something to lose. To realize that finding joy in community is going to be an ongoing challenge, makes the reaching for it less annoying and more fulfilling.

The Giant's Ladder and Brew

I'm coming off a big weekend of work and fun. Friday and Saturday were filled with a 2-day retreat for Leadership Grand Rapids. There are 34 members in the Class of '08, so there were plenty of new people to meet and enjoy. The end of the retreat had us working as teams to complete a high-ropes course called The Giant's Ladder. Imagine an extension ladder made for a giant that stood 20ft tall and you start to get the picture. The goal was to work with 2 other teammates that you were tethered to and get to the top of a 40ft obstacle. Pretty fun!


On Sunday afternoon I brewed my first batches of homebrew goodness with my friend Dave. This was Dave's 7th or 8th batch of beer, so it was great to learn from a seasoned veteran. We brewed two separate five gallon batches. One is called Chinook IPA and the other Phat Tyre Ale. So in another 6-8 weeks it should be ready.

community sayings (part 1)

I'm starting to put together some quotes and sayings on community in preparation for the move to Newberry Place. I'm hoping that we end up with some pre-dinner or celebration moments where we can pause and share some thoughts on what it means to be community and good neighbors. To have a little archive of thoughts/meditations will be helpful. If you have anything to contribute, just post a comment on one of these threads.

Here's one that I've used already and been thinking about, that speaks to the slow process of building community...

"If you want your dream to be,
build it slow and surely.
Small beginnings, greater ends.
Heartfelt work grows purely.
If you want to live life free,
take your time, go slowly.
Do few things, but do them well:
simple joys are holy.
Day by day, stone by stone,
build your secret slowly.
Day by day, you’ll grow too;
you’ll know heaven’s glory!"

'Brother Sun, Sister Moon'

first family moves into newberry

It's official. The Schaafsmas are in and unpacked. This is a really exciting stage of the project as units get completed and real, live people start occupying their homes. Over the years I got so used to talking about the project's development that I almost forgot people would be living there.

The bad news is that my foundation isn't even in yet, so we are looking at a Thanksgiving dinner at the old house instead of the new one. It's hard not to be a little envious of the folks that are getting their keys.

returning from a week off

I took last week off of work to have a little family vacation. We didn't go anywhere spectacular, but did have a great time together.

The Highlights:

• camping with Levi for the first time at Benton Lake
  
• riding my bike up White Pine Trail and fishing on the Rouge
• Nora and I biking on Monday and working around the house while Levi was at daycare
• fly-fishing on the White River near Pine Points (first time in a long time)
• dropping Levi off at Matt & Ruth's for night - getting a good dinner, waking up late, watching a movie
• watching the kick-off of the EPL soccer season on Saturday morning
• getting ready for the local food potluck tonight