Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Being an Adult

Rob and I are trying to figure out what to do about health insurance today. Frankly, I think health insurance is pure robbery. It's such a double edged sword because if you don't have it and something happens to you or someone in your family you're sunk for probably the rest of your life trying to pay medical bills. If you do have it though, you're paying through the nose every month for something you use actually quite rarely.

To me it feels like such a scam. And there is so much red tape and qualifications that it seems like if you've ever had so much as a hangnail someone out there would deny you coverage.

I guess the burning question in my mind tonight is how am I as Christians supposed to handle health insurance. If I stop and think about it, does health insurance become a crutch for me instead of trusting the Lord to protect me and sovereignly provide for my needs? I'm certainly not advocating stupidity and I know the Lord institutes such things as medical care and doctors to take care of us, but how much is too much? Where do we draw the line? Do we really need things like "umbrella policies" that protect us in case we get sued for some reason? Hurricane and earthquake insurance in Indiana?

Health insurance is certainly nice to have, but I guess I question becoming to dependent on something that is not as secure as our sovereign Lord.

Sometimes being an adult is just plain hard. I'm not complaining really because there is NO way I'd ever want to go back to say, middle school, but there seems to be certain times when being an adult smacks you upside the head and it's not very fun. And I think today is one of those days.

But as Rob just told me, "no one adds a day to their life by worrying." I know he's right too. So I guess we press on in this life through things that are hard and worrisome and knowing that in the end it will be alright.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

A Hoosier Rite of Passage: The Indianapolis 500

On Friday my boss and I were invited to a suite down on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the day. At first I was confused because even I knew that the race wasn't until Memorial Day weekend. But my boss explained that the cars/drivers do time trials everyday and the track is open for spectators.

I agreed to go with him to the suite, partly because it was a Friday out of the office, but also because I know the motor speedway is a large part of Indiana culture and I needed to experience it at least once in my life. I really didn't know what to expect.

On the trip down my boss tried to explain what a big deal the race is and how people camp out for hours, even days, to get a parking spot on the field. How I should turn on the tv race day morning just to see the gridlock traffic pictures of people going to the race on the news. I blithely informed him that I grew up on the east coast; I know what gridlock traffic is. Ever try to go down the shore on the Atlantic City Expressway on a beautiful summer Saturday morning? Yea, you know what gridlock traffic is.

Anyways, my first indication that spending the day at the motor speedway would NOT be my idea of a good time was when we drove by a HUGE (we're talking acres here) field with groupings of port-a-potties strewn across it. My boss informed me that come race day that field would be jam packed with RVs and tents. Tents? Are you joking me? To see cars go really fast around a track for three hours? Seriously people....it's not worth it.

The suite was really high up and looking out over the track I must admit I was impressed. It's different than I thought it would be, almost like an airport runway with the huge tower. Here's a view from the stadium seating outside the suite. It was cool to to see the people work on the cars in the pits directly across from us. They really are fast at changing tires and such.



You can't even see to the other side of the track because there are more suites across the way so really you can see the cars go by for maybe 5 seconds? Like I said, not worth it.

At least the suite was really nice and they served us good food and gave us sound lessening headphones as gifts. (Saturday Rob found those work great hooked up to my iPod while mowing)

And then the cars started going round and round. Sheesh, it's really amazing there aren't more half deaf people walking around Indiana because those cars going around are LOUD! It's a sound like what I'd imagine a fighter jet taking off to sound like. You can feel the reverberation resounding off your insides and you get dizzy from jerking your head back and forth watching them go by. The fastest one that day was going 226.9 miles per hour and apparently that's a pretty good speed.

The cars themselves are pretty snazzy and of course support our consumer obessed culture by being nothing more than advertisements. Target, McDonalds, Motorolla, Penske, even one promoting the new Indiana Jones movie all had their own cars and drivers all decked out in logos. It's an interesting thought -- advertising on a car going 226 miles per hour -- on one hand the company is getting exposure to a very, very large market, but on the other hand the car is going so fast it's amazing anyone can read the ads!

The afternoon went slowly and I didn't really enjoy being there. You can only watch cars go by so fast and I didn't know anyone else in the suite to talk with. Finally my boss asked if I wanted to go down into the pits so we did that and it was pretty neat. Here's a picture of the Target car (I think) getting serviced.

I suppose being at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a once in a lifetime experience, especially for an aspiring Hoosier. But that doesn't mean I get the appeal. It really attracts an interesting group of people and I tried hard not to stereotype (ok maybe I did a little bit), but wow, to think of all the people (an estimated 300,000 attend the actual race day) who invest time, money, and energy into watching cars go round and round......? What if we as Christ followers took the same amount of time, money, and energy to share the story we hold true and infuse a state, a nation, with passionate people in pursuit of Christ? Wouldn't our world be so different? I think so.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

To Pennsylvania, Virginia and back again

This past weekend Rob, Luke, and I made the long trek across Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to my childhood home in order to then go down to Harrisonburg,Virginia to celebrate with Ben at his college graduation from Eastern Mennonite University.

I've found that no matter how many times I make that drive it never gets shorter. It always seems too that the construction in certain parts never makes much progress and we always hit the same traffic around Columbus. But it's ok and we always eventually get there with out much trouble.




You'll see from these pictures that Ben's graduation was warm and sunny and very nice. We all enjoyed our time together as a family, the first since Christmas. Virginia was in full spring, bursting with leafy trees and multitudes of lilac bushes. Harrisonburg is surrounded by mountains, something I definitely miss living in Indiana.

Being in Pennsylvania again made me realize how much I miss it there. It's so beautiful there and my parents house is safe and familiar. Whenever I'm there I always take time to wander around and look at things. I trail my fingers along worn banisters and stare at the familiar family photos (albeit some pretty embarassing ones of me from years ago!) and the new photos of friends and family my mom keeps updated on the fridge. I eat lots of my parents food and constantly marvel at how my mom makes the simplest things so beautiful. That home is the keeper and protector of hundreds of thousands of memories and it's like they all come flooding over me every time I'm there crying out to be remembered.

Indiana is becoming more familiar and safe too, but I still feel caught between the two places and can't quite figure out where home is still. I want it to be both places and it can't be. I think it's all part of the growing up process and that's good and healthy to move on. I know wouldn't want to be there away from Rob and my dear friends here in Indiana still living with my parents.

But there are some days when I want nothing more than to curl up in my childhood bed and wrap all those memories around me like a warm blanket. I suppose though that's why we have different seasons of our lives -- to enable us to move on and make new memories knowing that they are shaped by our old ones.

I can't wait to take my children to my Pennsylvania home someday, Lord willing, and let them make memories of their own there. And then we'll get in our car (NOT a minivan -- I refuse to ever drive a minivan :) and drive all the way across those long, long states, home to Indiana.