I was blessed and priviledged to be present for the 2011 Pacific Lutheran University Commencement festivities over the weekend. You can watch it here. My brother Thomas graduated, earning his BA in Economics and Global Studies, with minors in Political Science and Religion. He is one well learned, and traveled global citizen, leader, and advocate who really understands what it means to live a life of thoughtful inquiry, service, and care; as well as to live in a sense of vocation, neighbor love, and on behalf of the other with true empathetic understanding. I am so proud of him!
It got me to wonder... so how many Lutes are there in our family?
Family Who Have Graduated from PLU
1. Dave Siburg (my dad)
2. Tricia Siburg (my mom)
3. Jeff Tengesdal (my uncle)
4. Mark Tengesdal (my uncle)
5. Mark Siburg (my uncle)
6. Suzy Siburg (my aunt)
7. Paul Jackson (my uncle)
8. Timothy Siburg
9. Allison Siburg (my wife)
10. Thomas Siburg (my brother)
"Family" Who Have Graduated from PLU
11. Margo Holm (earned her masters); basically my mom's adopted sister
12. Jenna Grubbs (my aunt's niece; kind of a cousin-in-law)
13. Joanne Erickson (my "second mother" growing up)
14. Elise Erickson (my "older sister" growing up)
15. Svea Erickson (my "older sister" growing up)
Family Who are Currently Attending PLU
16. Tamara Siburg (my sister)
17. Erin Parks (Allison's and my cousin)
Family Who Have Attended PLU (or its earlier name, of Pacific Lutheran College)
18. Bob Siburg (my grandpa)
19. Pat Jackson (my aunt)
20. Danny Tengesdal (my uncle)
Even if you cut-out the "Family" section, that still leaves 15 direct family members who have attended or are currently attending PLU. Wow! No wonder that we feel a special connection with this place.
Anyway... Attaway Thomas!! Attaway!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
This Week's Links
So, well on vacation, the blogging has understandably taken a back seat. But here are a few links you might find interesting.
1) Luther Seminary's, and my advisor, Dr. Matt Skinner has a new post up with the Huffington Post which you might enjoy.
2) An interesting reflection on what it means to walk with our sisters and brothers in the world in the wake of disaster is offered by the ELCA Bishop of the Central States Synod. It is a post obviously about Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin, MO..
3) Finally, for some sports... Jerry Crasnick reminds Mariner fans of what might have been, had Bill Bavasi not been our General Manager. Oh well. The Mariners are playing well now, and let's hope they keep it up!
Have a great week!
1) Luther Seminary's, and my advisor, Dr. Matt Skinner has a new post up with the Huffington Post which you might enjoy.
2) An interesting reflection on what it means to walk with our sisters and brothers in the world in the wake of disaster is offered by the ELCA Bishop of the Central States Synod. It is a post obviously about Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin, MO..
3) Finally, for some sports... Jerry Crasnick reminds Mariner fans of what might have been, had Bill Bavasi not been our General Manager. Oh well. The Mariners are playing well now, and let's hope they keep it up!
Have a great week!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
From Washington With Love
This post is specifically for all of my friends elsewhere in the country, who do not have the pleasure of currently being in the Evergreen State.
Imagine yourself flying on a Boeing 737, on a beautiful sunny and blue sky type of day. The clouds are few and far between, and mainly just in one spot to the south. They are gathering around the mid-level of a majestic peak. This peak, overlooking the clouds is seemingly trying to get up on its tippy toes to see someone or something in the distance. It wants to get a first glimpse of the return of its friends.
This is how it felt to fly in to the Puget Sound area on Wednesday afternoon. Over Eastern Washington, the skies could not have been clearer. The Columbia beamed in all its radiance. Lake Chelan shimmered to the north. And there, on our side of the plane to the south, was our friend, Mt. Rainier. The smile on my face could not have been bigger. It's always my favorite part of flying in or out of SeaTac. The ability or hope to see the beautiful summit that graces our little piece of heaven. Allison was ecstatic! We got to circle around and land out of the south, so we also got to see PLU and Tacoma from the air, as well as much of the South Sound and across to the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympics. I always enjoyed this when flying home especially a year+ ago from Claremont, but this time was more special. This was the first flight Allison and I had shared completely alone together. And it was so wonderful to feel like we were coming home, without worrying that we would have no time to breathe like we did the week around Christmas.
We have been back a few days already, and feel so blessed to be here. We have had the chance to spend a day at the place where our relationship all started and grew, at PLU. We have had the pleasure of hearing my brother's global studies capstone presentation. We have gotten to spend time with my sister, and hear a little about her semester in Namibia. And so much more. This trip home has only just begun, but its all ready been worth it and SO MUCH MORE.
To all of you not as fortunate to be in the Northwest, know and trust that Mt. Rainier says hi to you too, and it will be here along with all the Cascades to greet you when you come or come back.
Imagine yourself flying on a Boeing 737, on a beautiful sunny and blue sky type of day. The clouds are few and far between, and mainly just in one spot to the south. They are gathering around the mid-level of a majestic peak. This peak, overlooking the clouds is seemingly trying to get up on its tippy toes to see someone or something in the distance. It wants to get a first glimpse of the return of its friends.
This is how it felt to fly in to the Puget Sound area on Wednesday afternoon. Over Eastern Washington, the skies could not have been clearer. The Columbia beamed in all its radiance. Lake Chelan shimmered to the north. And there, on our side of the plane to the south, was our friend, Mt. Rainier. The smile on my face could not have been bigger. It's always my favorite part of flying in or out of SeaTac. The ability or hope to see the beautiful summit that graces our little piece of heaven. Allison was ecstatic! We got to circle around and land out of the south, so we also got to see PLU and Tacoma from the air, as well as much of the South Sound and across to the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympics. I always enjoyed this when flying home especially a year+ ago from Claremont, but this time was more special. This was the first flight Allison and I had shared completely alone together. And it was so wonderful to feel like we were coming home, without worrying that we would have no time to breathe like we did the week around Christmas.
We have been back a few days already, and feel so blessed to be here. We have had the chance to spend a day at the place where our relationship all started and grew, at PLU. We have had the pleasure of hearing my brother's global studies capstone presentation. We have gotten to spend time with my sister, and hear a little about her semester in Namibia. And so much more. This trip home has only just begun, but its all ready been worth it and SO MUCH MORE.
To all of you not as fortunate to be in the Northwest, know and trust that Mt. Rainier says hi to you too, and it will be here along with all the Cascades to greet you when you come or come back.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Video Project on Poverty
This video was my final project, for my "Proactive Ministry in Media Culture" class with Dr. Mary Hess at Luther Seminary.
Finding the Lost Coin...I mean, Ring
Many of you are probably familiar with the biblical parable of the woman and the lost coin. It can be found in Luke 15:8-10. The parable reads as follows:
"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Obviously the parable has deep theological signficance, which I would usually take the time to unpack. But in this case, this is not why I am writing this post.
Last week was a flat out, ODD, week. Perhaps it had something to do with the weather- Tuesday there were tornadoes and storms in the Twin Cities with a high of 90 degrees and 90% humidity. The next day was a beautiful 80 and mostly sunny. This was followed by showers and 70, the next day rain and gray and 55, and Saturday, down right chilly at 44.
Aside from the weather, it was an odd week too. The Faculty and Staff of Luther Seminary took on the Students in an annual softball game, in which the students lost for the second time in five years I guess. It was a sad moment. It would have been the most sad, until I realized at about 9pm that night that I was not wearing my wedding ring. [cue- dramatic music sound]
Like most people I presume, I flew into a panic trying to find it. Could I have left it somewhere in the apartment? Might it have fallen off when showering after the softball game? Perhaps it fell in a dresser drawer? No. The answer to all these places and more were "No." I knew what this meant. The sun had gone down about a half hour prior, and my ring was almost certainly outside some place.
I had spent the game playing third base, and I could only reckon that the ring must have come off at some point when I took my mitt off between innings. I went out to the field with a flashlight, knowing full well I was likely embarking on a "needle in a haystack" type of quest. I started by searching the dirt area of the infield, primarily around third. Deep down, I didn't think there would be any likelihood of finding it on the dirt. I knew it was probably on the grass in the area around where I took my glove off and had put my stuff during the game. I searched there too, but its pretty hard to search through glass with a lone flashlight at night. Just lots of dark green and worms all over the place, let me tell you. I temporarily abandoned my search, only to be joined by friends who came out without my asking to help search. Allison, Amanda, Jeremy, and Kaitlyn were outside searching with other flash lights, and together we searched for over a half hour. No luck. We decided to go back, and work on final projects that were due the next day, with the intention of getting up early in the morning to search again before class.
Understandably, I did not get much sleep that night. Later I would come to find out that Allison dreamed that she found the ring. Anyway, I was up by 6am, and out searching by 7am. The forecast called for rain by 8am, and I was determined to find that ring with light outside. If the rain came before I found it, I knew the difficulty in finding it would have only grown. I was out on my own for a half hour, I went over the entire field, but gravitated back to the grass. I figured it had to be in a certain 10 foot or so area. Allison and Amanda came out and joined, and just about five minutes before we were going to have to head off to class, my prayers were answered. I was circling a spot on the grass I had walked on at least four times in the past half hour, and found something shining up at me under a blade of grass. There it was, my wedding ring.
You can only imagine the joy I felt after this. The whole rest of the day could have been awful, but it would still be an amazing day! I couldn't help but break into such a big smile, as did Allison and Amanda. Our search was not in vain. The ring that had been lost, was now found.
The moral of the story- obviously, a wedding ring does not make a wedding. But the next time I am going to play softball, I am going to be very careful wearing my wedding ring.
"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Obviously the parable has deep theological signficance, which I would usually take the time to unpack. But in this case, this is not why I am writing this post.
Last week was a flat out, ODD, week. Perhaps it had something to do with the weather- Tuesday there were tornadoes and storms in the Twin Cities with a high of 90 degrees and 90% humidity. The next day was a beautiful 80 and mostly sunny. This was followed by showers and 70, the next day rain and gray and 55, and Saturday, down right chilly at 44.
Aside from the weather, it was an odd week too. The Faculty and Staff of Luther Seminary took on the Students in an annual softball game, in which the students lost for the second time in five years I guess. It was a sad moment. It would have been the most sad, until I realized at about 9pm that night that I was not wearing my wedding ring. [cue- dramatic music sound]
Like most people I presume, I flew into a panic trying to find it. Could I have left it somewhere in the apartment? Might it have fallen off when showering after the softball game? Perhaps it fell in a dresser drawer? No. The answer to all these places and more were "No." I knew what this meant. The sun had gone down about a half hour prior, and my ring was almost certainly outside some place.
I had spent the game playing third base, and I could only reckon that the ring must have come off at some point when I took my mitt off between innings. I went out to the field with a flashlight, knowing full well I was likely embarking on a "needle in a haystack" type of quest. I started by searching the dirt area of the infield, primarily around third. Deep down, I didn't think there would be any likelihood of finding it on the dirt. I knew it was probably on the grass in the area around where I took my glove off and had put my stuff during the game. I searched there too, but its pretty hard to search through glass with a lone flashlight at night. Just lots of dark green and worms all over the place, let me tell you. I temporarily abandoned my search, only to be joined by friends who came out without my asking to help search. Allison, Amanda, Jeremy, and Kaitlyn were outside searching with other flash lights, and together we searched for over a half hour. No luck. We decided to go back, and work on final projects that were due the next day, with the intention of getting up early in the morning to search again before class.
Understandably, I did not get much sleep that night. Later I would come to find out that Allison dreamed that she found the ring. Anyway, I was up by 6am, and out searching by 7am. The forecast called for rain by 8am, and I was determined to find that ring with light outside. If the rain came before I found it, I knew the difficulty in finding it would have only grown. I was out on my own for a half hour, I went over the entire field, but gravitated back to the grass. I figured it had to be in a certain 10 foot or so area. Allison and Amanda came out and joined, and just about five minutes before we were going to have to head off to class, my prayers were answered. I was circling a spot on the grass I had walked on at least four times in the past half hour, and found something shining up at me under a blade of grass. There it was, my wedding ring.
You can only imagine the joy I felt after this. The whole rest of the day could have been awful, but it would still be an amazing day! I couldn't help but break into such a big smile, as did Allison and Amanda. Our search was not in vain. The ring that had been lost, was now found.
The moral of the story- obviously, a wedding ring does not make a wedding. But the next time I am going to play softball, I am going to be very careful wearing my wedding ring.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
This Week's Links
In the midst of finals, I was not sure how much I would be blogging. But to keep this being the "weekly links," I have a few things to share.
1) Doing some research for my feminist theology class led me to discover this interesting church, and its website. The website includes lots of interesting information, unique prayers, etc. If you are looking for what an alternative ELCA congregation might look like, this definitely fits the bill.
2) An interesting blog post takes stock of this week's vote in the Presbyterian Church, and offers a check on our church and society through a lens informed by Galatians 3:28.
3) Finally, this week's sports story, for a Pac-10 (soon to be Pac-12) fan, has to be the news that Fox Sports has hired long-time great CBS announcer Gus Johnson to be its lead Pac-12 college football announcer. I'm excited to hear such an excited announcer calling my favorite Huskies. Go Dawgs!
Best of luck with finals everyone!
1) Doing some research for my feminist theology class led me to discover this interesting church, and its website. The website includes lots of interesting information, unique prayers, etc. If you are looking for what an alternative ELCA congregation might look like, this definitely fits the bill.
2) An interesting blog post takes stock of this week's vote in the Presbyterian Church, and offers a check on our church and society through a lens informed by Galatians 3:28.
3) Finally, this week's sports story, for a Pac-10 (soon to be Pac-12) fan, has to be the news that Fox Sports has hired long-time great CBS announcer Gus Johnson to be its lead Pac-12 college football announcer. I'm excited to hear such an excited announcer calling my favorite Huskies. Go Dawgs!
Best of luck with finals everyone!
Friday, May 6, 2011
A Reminder of Childhood
Most of you probably do not know this about me, but growing up I had a huge fascination (and still do actually) with airplanes and flying. I am kind of a nerd when it comes to knowing airline routes, and different airlines and their places of service. Anyway, this nerdiness aside, I used to love to build cities and airports using building blocks and other things around the house, and playing with hot wheels cars and diecast airplanes.
While skimming one of my favorite aerospace blogs which I monitor every once and awhile, I came across this video. You should check it out, because its pretty amazing! A childhood fantasy turned into a $5,000,000 project. WOW.
While skimming one of my favorite aerospace blogs which I monitor every once and awhile, I came across this video. You should check it out, because its pretty amazing! A childhood fantasy turned into a $5,000,000 project. WOW.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Facing the Big Questions
This past weekend was also an interesting one for me personally. Do you remember your first experience with a fire? I mean, not like a bonfire or a fire going in a fireplace. No, I mean, when something is burning that should not be burning.
For me, I hearken back to an experience in the middle of winter growing up, when our chimney caught fire. My dad, in his "macho" state refused to call the Fire Department. He successfully extinguished the fire, but only after we ran around finding the pets and important things in case we needed to get out of the house. That was an emotional and frightening experience. But it taught me at an early age of what really matters in an important sense. We always talk about how material things don't matter, but you never fully realize this until you face that "abyss" of trial.
I think learning this early on certainly helped me in my moment of fears over the weekend, as our oven caught fire. Now, I did not panic, I simply went around opening windows and trying to work on ventilation to get the smoke out. Another friend ended up using a fire extinguisher. It was an accident in the oven, and it might well have ended up going out as it was contained in the oven. However, the size of the flames and the amount of smoke billowing from the oven did not make me want to see if the fire would go out on its own.
The true trauma of this experience, however, did not emerge until after the fire was extinguished. I did not think too much of this, I was just thankful it didn't spread and that everyone who was here was just fine. But I was wrong. My experience with a fire in my past, was not the same as that of my partner. Allison had never experienced a fire, and this experience made her go through the swath of emotions associated with that "abyss" that I talked about. So, I got to use my experience as a way to help console my wife. She is doing better, but as you can understand, the first time one experiences something like this, you are forced to deal with all of those big questions.
Anyway, this is how April ended, with a lot of flames. Ironically, May started with some flakes. Go figure, light snow showers on our drive to church on Sunday, May Day. If there is any positive to this, we will be making a return to the homeland, "God's Country," as I like to call it (mocking my Midwest friends and family) in a couple weeks. We are certainly looking forward to seeing loved ones, terrain that has differences in topography (more like, elevation and mountains), and salt water.
Here's hoping for a less eventful week, and that maintenance is able to help us out with our oven this week. Until then, we won't be using it as there is fire extinguisher extract all over it.
Have a great week!
For me, I hearken back to an experience in the middle of winter growing up, when our chimney caught fire. My dad, in his "macho" state refused to call the Fire Department. He successfully extinguished the fire, but only after we ran around finding the pets and important things in case we needed to get out of the house. That was an emotional and frightening experience. But it taught me at an early age of what really matters in an important sense. We always talk about how material things don't matter, but you never fully realize this until you face that "abyss" of trial.
I think learning this early on certainly helped me in my moment of fears over the weekend, as our oven caught fire. Now, I did not panic, I simply went around opening windows and trying to work on ventilation to get the smoke out. Another friend ended up using a fire extinguisher. It was an accident in the oven, and it might well have ended up going out as it was contained in the oven. However, the size of the flames and the amount of smoke billowing from the oven did not make me want to see if the fire would go out on its own.
The true trauma of this experience, however, did not emerge until after the fire was extinguished. I did not think too much of this, I was just thankful it didn't spread and that everyone who was here was just fine. But I was wrong. My experience with a fire in my past, was not the same as that of my partner. Allison had never experienced a fire, and this experience made her go through the swath of emotions associated with that "abyss" that I talked about. So, I got to use my experience as a way to help console my wife. She is doing better, but as you can understand, the first time one experiences something like this, you are forced to deal with all of those big questions.
Anyway, this is how April ended, with a lot of flames. Ironically, May started with some flakes. Go figure, light snow showers on our drive to church on Sunday, May Day. If there is any positive to this, we will be making a return to the homeland, "God's Country," as I like to call it (mocking my Midwest friends and family) in a couple weeks. We are certainly looking forward to seeing loved ones, terrain that has differences in topography (more like, elevation and mountains), and salt water.
Here's hoping for a less eventful week, and that maintenance is able to help us out with our oven this week. Until then, we won't be using it as there is fire extinguisher extract all over it.
Have a great week!
This Week's Links
Given the fullness of this past weekend, I believed it was probably time for some links. It's hard to remember a weekend as full of "news" as this past one. There was a Royal Wedding, the worst Tornadoes since the Great Depression, and a "successful" mission to track down Osama bin Laden.
1) In talking about the last event, I am not one who usually is a proponent of violence, but I appreciate when a perpetuator of hate is brought to justice. Was this the kind of justice I would have liked? Of course not, I would have preferred a fair trial, etc. But perhaps that would be asking for too much given all that might be at stake. I will likely not write anymore about this in my blog. However, if you would like two interesting faith based responses, you might check out the following:
A. Celebrating a death?
B. Hate Osama, but do not rejoice in his death.
C. Praying and a Range of Responses
D. A Lutheran Response
2) Friday's worldwide phenomenon of being glued in to all things Royal in England, even earned one of Allison's and my bridesmaid's a spot on the news. Our bridesmaid Cori Jo, is currently serving in the PeaceCorps in Micronesia. Their story as it appeared on CNN can be found here.
3) Finally, for our weekly sports story, the Mariners have started to figure out what "winning means." A big part of that success comes from their rookie pitcher, Michael Pineda. Jim Caple offers an interesting look at him.
Have a great week!
1) In talking about the last event, I am not one who usually is a proponent of violence, but I appreciate when a perpetuator of hate is brought to justice. Was this the kind of justice I would have liked? Of course not, I would have preferred a fair trial, etc. But perhaps that would be asking for too much given all that might be at stake. I will likely not write anymore about this in my blog. However, if you would like two interesting faith based responses, you might check out the following:
A. Celebrating a death?
B. Hate Osama, but do not rejoice in his death.
C. Praying and a Range of Responses
D. A Lutheran Response
2) Friday's worldwide phenomenon of being glued in to all things Royal in England, even earned one of Allison's and my bridesmaid's a spot on the news. Our bridesmaid Cori Jo, is currently serving in the PeaceCorps in Micronesia. Their story as it appeared on CNN can be found here.
3) Finally, for our weekly sports story, the Mariners have started to figure out what "winning means." A big part of that success comes from their rookie pitcher, Michael Pineda. Jim Caple offers an interesting look at him.
Have a great week!
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