ResQgeek

Based on the contents of my Facebook news feed yesterday, only two things happened.  The Pope issued his long anticipated encyclical on the environment, which was welcomed with praise by some and harsh criticism by others.  And, in Charleston, South Carolina, a young white male took a gun into the historic Emmanuel AME Church and killed nine members of that faith community.

I have visited Charleston twice, and have found it to be a lovely, charming city.  There are people that I call friends who make Charleston their home.  So I feel a connection to the city and its people, and this senseless tragedy leaves me feeling deeply wounded.  I am feeling especially upset because we seem to keep going through this, over and over and over again.  The reluctance of our society to honestly confront the issues related to gun violence here make these killings all the more senseless.

Last night, Jon Stewart devoted his monologue to the shooting in Charleston:



I agree with him, and I'm glad that he has used his very public platform to take a stand.  I also watched President Obama's statement about the shooting:



You can see the frustration in his body language, in his acknowledgement that this will likely change nothing in our nations gun politics.  But I believe that he is correct when he says "But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency."

Many of my friends will strongly disagree with me, but we, as a society, need to have a serious discussion about the role of guns in our nation.  They do not want to acknowledge the reality that easy access to guns makes this kind of violence far too easy.  They believe that the second amendment gives them unfettered rights to gun ownership.  But, in spite of the Supreme Court's decision that seems to support that position, I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the original purpose and intent of the second amendment.  The second amendment was written to address a specific situation at a specific time.  It sought to enable the nation to have the means to defend itself at a time when there was effectively no standing army or strong military capacity.  It was written at a time when the best weapons available to the average citizen could file a couple of rounds a minute in the hands of an expert.  None of these are true today.  We no longer need an armed citizenry to defend the nation, and weapons have become almost infinitely more lethal.  The second amendment is out of date, and need to be revised to reflect the realities of our present day society.  Unless we take drastic action, we will continue to see senseless violence like this repeat itself with disturbing regularity.

[I will be screening comments, not to filter opinions, but simply to make sure that they stay civilized and polite.  If you want your comment to be seen, then you will need to refrain from using offensive language and name calling.]

While I can't really call Sunday morning mass a highlight of the BookCrossing Convention (as it really had nothing to do with the convention), it certainly was a highlight of the weekend. A number of us had been invited to attend the 11:15 mass by bookczuk, and I was grateful to be able to attend mass without having to research church locations or mass times. There were eight of us who attended mass (why was I the only male in this group?), and we piled into two cars and drove to mass early, so we could find parking.

Let me just say for the record that the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is a beautiful church. The interior walls are dazzling white with gold leaf trim, and the whole church just sparkled in the multicolored light from the gorgeous stained glass windows. My favorite window is the stained glass reproduction of Da Vinci's "Last Supper" above the altar. Simply stunning.

But the real reason we were at that mass was the Cathedral Choir. From the first note, I was captivated. Between the beauty of the setting to the heavenly music, I felt more at home here than I have in any church in a very long time. In contrast to my home diocese, where I often leave mass furiously angry, here I was able to let my cares go and just let myself bathe in the majesty of the service. The mass struck a very deep emotional chord with me, and several times I found myself moved to tears at the sublime nature of the experience.

I can't thank bookczuk enough for sharing her church and her choir with me. I would give a lot to be able to experience the mass any where near that way more often, but the nature of my diocese seems to make that unlikely. But now I know it exists, and the memory of that mass is likely to sustain me in my faith for a very long time to come.

Thursday evening was spent at the Czuk residence, finishing up a few last minute preparations for the convention, such as filling the goody bags. In addition to chez czuk residents javaczuk and bummaseli, I also got to meet martip, lizmopuddy, sirroy and BookCrossing’s new CEO who uses the screenname redsoxbookguy, among others. There was pizza, wine and beer, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The mood was decidedly silly, which was to remain the prevailing mood through the rest of the weekend.

The Czuks live in a gorgeous house, in a beautiful neighborhood. The abundance of life that surrounds the house infuses it with a warmth that is matched by the people that live there. I would have several lovely conversations with Javaczuk over the course of the weekend. He has a great sense of humor (essential in this crowd, for sure) and is a true master at stringing together puns. It was also a true pleasure to finally meet Bumma. I’m not sure if she completely understood who I was, but there were a lot of people vying for her attention, so that’s okay.

The energy and excitement that evening was palpable. Everyone was looking forward to the weekend, ready to meet people and just have a good time. It was tremendous fun to be a part of it all, and I’m so glad I decided to go down early. It gave me one more night of fond memories to cherish.

There is SOOO much to write about from the weekend. Much has already been written by others, and I hope to not repeat too much of what others have written. Eventually, I hope to provide some more details, but for now here are some of my impressions of Charleston and the BookCrossing Convention:

• Charleston is a stunningly beautiful city! Everywhere you go there is interesting architecture, beautiful gardens, quiet cemeteries, peaceful parks. It is a photographer's paradise and I took many pictures (I haven't reviewed them yet, but eventually I'll post some of my favorites on my Flickr account). Its also not a terribly big city. Our hotel was out on the edge of the downtown area, but you could still walk to the heart of the downtown comfortably (and I did). I found that walking was the best way to see the city...you could take your time and really look around. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.



• Book lovers are stereotyped as being quiet, reserved, cerebral types. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least where BookCrossers are concerned. I found them to be bright, witty and funny, with wicked humors and both a high level of energy and a strong streak of rowdiness. I haven't laughed this frequently or hard in a very long time. And anyone who thinks women can't be ribald and suggestive in their behavior and humor needs a reality check. I'd say, based on this weekend, women would win in this arena against almost any group of men, no question. They managed to embarrass me repeatedly over the course of the weekend.



• BookCrossing is about the books, and so there were books. The book buffet was piled high and deep with them. They were lying around the hotel on virtually every horizontal surface (and perhaps even a few vertical ones...). I also saw plenty of books lying around town. I don't know how many books were released into the wild in Charleston over the weekend, but they must have numbered into the hundreds. The weather was perfect for wild releasing, and the crowds of tourists thick. Time will tell, but I expect that we will be getting a lot of journal entries over the next few weeks as the books travel and the new owners finish reading their books.



• It was funny to see how into BookCrossing the hotel staff became. As things got quieter on Sunday evening, the lobby area was still littered with wild books. A tour bus of senior citizens checked in, and I over heard a number of the hotel staff members explaining BookCrossing to the newly arrived guests, and encouraging them to pick up any book that caught their fancy. Amazing!

There is so much more I want to write about, but they don't pay me to write for LJ (too bad, that, eh?), so I need to end here for now. I'll be back later with more, I promise.