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Taking Out the Trash: The Easy Green Point

The picture doesn’t say a thousand words, until you know that I am holding 6 weeks of trash for two people in my hand. That’s the honest to goodness truth. This is 6 weeks of trash for Rachel and I, and I find that rather amazing.
I think back to my little place in Iowa where I had a trash can in my garage that came up to my waist. It was the smallest trash can that I could get from the sanitation service, and they expected me to fill it every week – at least they came to pick it up that often. And I guess I was a pretty good customer for the sanitation service.
So how is it that we are throwing out so much less in Germany? Well it’s not that we’re necessarily throwing out that much less, it’s just where it is going.
In Germany “garbage” gets divided into 5 groups: Bio Waste, Paper, Glass, The Green Point, and Trash. Bio Waste is coffee grounds, tea bags, moldy bread, and banana peels. Paper is anything made out of any kind of paper; newspaper, magazines, old envelopes, boxes and egg cartons – all in the same container. Glass is everything made of glass, subdivided into brown, green and clear glass. “Trash” is anything that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories.
The reason that there is so little “trash” is because of the 4th group, “The Green Point.” Into this group goes all packaging: tin cans, bottle caps, styrofoam, grocery bags, the package that the sausages came in, empty milk carton, etc. It all goes in the same container. How is this possible? I have no idea, but I know it all gets reused.
That’s the brilliance of the whole system – it’s simple, effortless, and it works even for people who don’t understand how it works. I recycled a little here and a little there in the U.S., but I didn’t recycle nearly as much, because it was complicated; it took effort. (In some places it even costs extra!) The system here isn’t complicated. I don’t have to “take” my recycling anywhere. Everything is right out in front of the building. One day I may take out paper, the next the Green Point, another day the glass. And about every 6 weeks, I take out the trash. It’s simple and accessible, and you can find it everywhere: in front of every building, in every airport, on every platform of every train station.
We’re wasting perhaps 1/10 of what we used to. I have no idea how it works, but I like it. I don’t feel like I have to be an environmental activist to be environmentally conscious (I can be environmentally unconscious and still be environmentally conscious!). The Green Point – made easy for the ignorant and environmentally unambitious common man.

Luther Congress and Lutheran Ed.

Luther Congress and Lutheran Ed:
At the end of July I had the privilege of attending the International Luther Research Congress in Canoas, Brazil. The article below came out of some musings from the congress and thoughts on Lutheran Ed winding through my head during the past year; hopefully it will be showing up in a couple of small Minnesota newspapers. The photos are of me in front of the chapel at ULBRA, my fried Lubomir Batka (right) of the systematics department at Bratislava along with Vesa Hirvonen (left) from the University of Helsinki. Al Collver of LCMS World Relief and Human Care samples the wine during our excursion Brazil's own Little Italy. The blurred photo is Robert Kolb of Concordia Seminary delivering the first video address in congress history.


SOME REFLECTIONS ON EDUCATION FROM THE LUTHER CONGRESS IN BRAZIL:
Entering the campus of ULBRA (Universidade Lutherana do Brasil) by its main thoroughfare you can’t miss the massive fountain in the shape of the Luther Rose. Each of its sides measure some 70 feet, a foot for every thousand students making their way through this university in Canoas, Brazil. Continuing past the fountain you come quickly to the chapel, a modern structure, whose stained-glass walls carry on a vibrant dialogue of light with the surrounding world.

Fountain, chapel and university lying on the same plot of land; does one come to the university by way of the fountain and the chapel, or to the chapel and the fountain via the university? At least in Canoas these questions pose a false dichotomy. Fountain, chapel and university are a unified whole.

It was here that I, at the end of my Fulbright year, had the privilege of attending the 11th International Luther Research Congress, a gathering of Luther scholars from around the globe that meets once every five years. From July 21st – 27th we discussed “Luther’s Ethics in the Realms of Church, Household, and Politics” (ecclesia, oeconomia, politia). For the 16th Century reformer these three hierarchies or estates formed the unified whole of an ordered world, not yet fractured into the endless dualities and happenstances of our own post-Enlightenment situation.

These scholarly discussions seem a long way from my own educational roots in Lutheran schools of Watonwan and Martin counties, and yet they are part of the same heritage. This past year at Eberhard Karl’s University in Tuebingen, Germany has allowed for some reflection on this educational heritage. What place does a Lutheran education have in a 21st Century world?

Though one might rightly expect a scholar or two from Lutheran education (MLHS has had two Fulbrighters in the last two years), I am quite convinced that mine is not the face of Lutheran education – some ivory tower specialist at conferences and universities on other continents. I would suggest that the face of Lutheran education is actually that of two friends, Josh and Alicia, with whom I graduated from MLHS in 1996. Parents of two children, Josh works in law enforcement as a probation agent supervisor and Alicia as the office manager of a local clinic. They are, in my estimation, the face of Lutheran education, because they cannot simply be defined by the work they do in local governance (politia), in the local clinic (oeconomia), or in their own home (oeconomia). Integral to their lives, their identity, and to their roles at work and at home is the fact that they remain members of the church (ecclesia), in whose faith they now raise their children.

I understand these two as the face of Lutheran education in the face of much misunderstanding. From within and without, I fear that Lutheran education may have fallen into estimation from the standpoint of false dichotomies: public vs. private, civic vs. parochial, state vs. church. I fear that it has come to be seen as something of an adjacent happenstance: the 3 R’s plus religion, an order of textbooks with a side of Jesus. So understood, a Lutheran education system has no place in the 21st Century (or in any other for that matter).

However, Josh and Alicia form the face of Lutheran education by a day-to-day life that quietly but surely defies these dichotomies. Monday through Saturday are not detached from Sunday. These two are carried into their week conscious of their God-given places in life, their “callings” or “vocations.” Josh gets to see himself as an instrument for the protection and well being of society; Alicia gets to see in each person who enters the clinic a creation in need of care. Beyond their professions comes their care for parents, children and neighbors. These two are not looking to somehow convert or Christianize their bit of the world. Rather, they are Christians given to care for the bit of the world around them. They are no super people, no special order. But the faults, failures and brokenness that they both meet and make among family and friends, co-workers and fellow citizens, finds its place Sunday as that which is forgiven. Forgiven they are freed back into Monday through Saturday. They are both “free” and “dutiful” as Luther summarized in his 1520 Treatise “On the Freedom of a Christian” (Luther’s Works 31:344). These persons are not compartmentalizeable instances or adjacent happenstances; they are undivided wholes.

Fountain, chapel and university – household, state, and church – not dichotomies and not adjacent happenstances, but a unified, well distinguished, ordered whole, lived as such by two children of Lutheran schools. That is a vibrant, colorful and yet subtle dialogue that brightens the world around them. This is place of Lutheran education in the 21st Century; it is nothing other than this whole and dare give nothing less.

Andrew

Better late than never, finally a post on Andrew's visit! He was here just after Easter, a much needed respite from the frantic parish life he leads in Concordia, MO. The weather was near perfect - he even asked at one point if we ever had clouds in Germany. Turns out the summer weather came in April and May, and our spring weather has descended in July. But back to Andrew...he got a good feel for the University city that Tübingen is, got to explore all the old cobblestone streets, take a ride on the stocherkahn boats, take a long hike with Jonathan and see the "haree coos", oh, and he had plenty of opportunity to sample some of Germany's finest beverages here at our local brewery! The Maibock was one to remember, as we sat outside on his last night here, alongside the Neckar River, savoring both the conversation and the beer.
We also did some exploring with the eldest Kennell sibling. First, to the Black Forest where we enjoyed a beautifully sunny day and a tour of a renowned farmhouse museum. We made a stop in Freudenstadt on the way, and dined on Schnitzel and Kartoffeln after seeing the L-shaped church that was built on the corner of the market square. The farmhouse museum proved to be a real learning experience, at least for us city kids! Jonathan took lots of pictures and reminisced about his days on the family farm growing up. We even got to sample local cuisine there: Black Forest Cherry Torte. Mmmmmmm.... Lots of souvenirs for sale there, and the only regret was that we didn't buy one of the hats that Andrew and Jonathan tried on here!
Our other adventure came in Konstanz, which sits between Germany and Switzerland on the Bodensee. On the other side of the Bodensee is Austria, though we didn't make it that far in our day there. Konstanz is a gorgeous lake town with a great deal of Reformation history. It was there that Jan Hus was burned at the stake, and there that the Swiss Reformation took hold. On the outskirts of Konstanz is a small island famous for its flowers - the Insel Mainau. We were there at the height of tulip season, and the colors were spectacular! We had a lovely day there, and even made it over the Swiss border for a few photos.
Andrew was our first of many visitors over the last few months, and what a joy and encouragement his visit was to us. The conversation and the laughs flowed as easily as the German beer. Our place didn't feel the same after he left...we're already looking forward to his next visit.

Spawning Tragedy

With this post I’m doing something new on this blog, which may be a bit risky. Our original and enduring intent with Deutsche Gedanken is a simply way for our distant friends and family to sort of check in on us, and have a little peek into our lives. Most of the posts are light-hearted, what Minnesotans would refer to as “visiting.” Here I am throwing out something weightier, something heavier than I care to consider. I’m not a blogger; I hardly ever read blogs and don’t intend to make this blog a cog in an unending electronic discussion forum. I write what I write, because I was struck, deeply though from afar, and I wish to give these thoughts some voice after letting them settle for some weeks now. If this all backfires, I’ll go back to the standard “visiting.”
I believe that the massacre at Virginia Tech has been described as something of a national tragedy, a description likely meant to accent its magnitude and horror.
How did this happen? Where did it go? What does this mean now?
I’m not sure that I or anyone can answer the question, “How did this – how could this happen?” with absolute specificity. I can say that I observed where it went with absolute disgust. Someone, who shall here remain nameless in the hope that he shall be forgotten, takes the lives of 32 people, who were doing nothing more than going about the given courses of their given day. Killed them for no other reason than that they happened to be in a wrong place that he was creating at that time. No act of self-defense, no momentary overflow of boiling rage can claim this tragedy. I fear here that we are faced with a pre-meditated attempt at Stardom.
What sickens me is that this someone got exactly what he wanted. He not only had his horrific way on his campus, but managed to get his name in lights. The star, the self-made “outcast” now in the limelight, he had the media wrapped around his bloody little finger and hopping to his tune in the weeks to follow. Where this went is sick. He makes a video tape and writes some disjointed thoughts and mails them where he knows they’ll be put in lights. How can the media in good conscience (has it a conscience?) gratify a killer in his homicidal wish? How? But he got what he wanted; he got his face on the front of every newspaper in America and in the western world, he diplomaless English major got his writing published. The self-made loner was made a star.
That’s where it went: media and mass murderer hand-in-hand.
Write how they would, speak how they might, there is in my mind no hindering the true colors of what happened here. Words like “tragedy,” “horror,” “grief,” and the like got used over and over again. And with every word he got just what he wanted. There can only have been two thoughts in the mind of NBC as they got his bomb in the mail. “We shouldn’t publish this – that’s exactly what he would want us to do.” “We’ve got the story before anybody else. Go with it!” The second thought obviously won out, and when NBC picked up the tune, the rest of the media had to rap along. No front page or headline would sell next to the pictures and publications of the bloody star.
So what do we, the public see in the next weeks: his face, his photos, bits of his video, his words, and body bags.
What I unfortunately saw of him makes me then wonder about my first question: “How did this happen?” These aren’t just some snapshots, no sober testimonial. The thing that strikes me is that he posing, often smiling. It’s like he’s on TV. One might think him prophetic if the media system weren’t so predictable. And then I see what he writes. Not all of it, but a good bit of it bears striking resemblance to lyrics. I’ll admit that I haven’t followed the story (I hardly follow “the news” at all), and so perhaps the following inquiry has already been answered. I would be interested to know what CDs he listened to – what was on his ipod. What DVDs were in his collection? He was an English major – what did he like to read? Where was he surfing on the internet? Writing lyrics and posing for video media are not naturally occurring human behaviors. They must be learned. We see evidence of them here in this tragedy. I would like to know where he got them.
My cynical side thinks that it works something like this. A kid grows up in the midst of an ever-growing sea of crap that just about any person in the world can now get their hands on. And part of the crap is violence that is not only explicit and bloody, but glamorized. I’m no first hand expert, but I would challenge anyone to make a case that the rap industry as we now know it could survive were the themes of drugs, violence and illicit sex extracted from its lyrics. Those themes are glamorized and money is made, as it is then also in Hollywood, cable and network TV, and the video & computer game industry. Men of previous centuries only saw death with the naked eye, in non tune-in / tune-out situations. I can watch 20 deaths in an hour; I can cruise around with a massive bass system hearing homicide after homicide, dreaming of popularity in the process.
Money made by the entertainment media on one end, then “tragedy,” then money made by the “news” media on the other end. And what do we have at the end of the day? – another glam-violence superstar, with whom hundreds of angry young “outsiders” can now identify. And in my home country they are all lucky enough to be able to get their hands on lots of semi-automatic weapons.
It’s a sick cycle that spawns its own “tragedy.” It can’t live without its own offspring. It makes money.
So what does this mean now?
What many would likely label a “conservative,” I now find myself scratching my head about some things. For the most part I am for smaller, less invasive government. I tend to support the ideals on which America was founded. However, I am wondering if the game hasn’t changed, somewhat, since the founding of our country. The time of America’s founding came at the end of long social and political struggles in Europe. It came at the end of ages characterized by monarchy, oligarchy and wars between various kingdoms and empires. In this history citizens, the common man, had had precious little say. As I see it our country was founded at a time when the common man needed protection from the ruler, be it his own ruler or other rulers. The primary danger to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was unjust and unrepresentative government, be it that of America or a foreign power that threatened the same.
These were wise observations and deserve lasting attention. However, it seems to me that we are living in an age in which nation states are dissolving. Groups of people who identify with one another are no longer bound together by political borders. Though war never comes to an end, the wars of nation states, as we see with the “War on Terror,” may now be coming to at least a temporary end. Be it September 11th or any of the dozen or so mass shootings in America in the last decade, I no longer think of my government or a foreign government as the greatest threat to my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness. In my opinion the greatest threat to all of these is perhaps the nameless person next too me. A person who enjoys the same “freedom” that I do, who can get his hands on anything and everything in the world, including glamorous dreams of stardom made possible by a society that glamorizes violence – a guy next to me who in his “freedom” can get his hands on enough guns to kill 32 people or more.
The Virginia Tech massacre leaves me at a loss, not only because of where it went and where it may have come from. It leaves me at something of a loss, because I’m not sure where to go. It tells me that history may be taking something of a new turn (something I generally do not believe about history). The greatest threat to my life, ironically to my liberty, and the pursuit of my happiness may very well be the “free” individual next to me.

I’m still thinking. Feel free to help me if you like.

The Waves on the Dan-ube

Right after Andrew left Daniel arrived. Hospitality had not yet run out in our apartment and Dan got a Torte specially made for him, the famed “Donau Wellen” (The Waves on the Danube), with which he here poses as happily as he will pose for any picture. So he came, he ate all our food, he drank all my beer, and then it was about time for him to leave. The visits are always too short for everyone’s liking, but we enjoyed the time we had – as always. Glad that he made the trip.
Dan managed to take in a bit of our fair city and this the land where the Schwaben live. He enjoyed Stocherkann ride on Neckar, found a beer garden or two, and bought delicious chocolate Truffles as a gift to take back to the States, which he was kind enough to forget at our place (and we were kind enough to eat). In the course of his ventures he managed to take in 4 castles and a palace. Two of these he really had to work for on an 8 hour hike along the hills of the Schwabian Alb above the Danube west of Sigmaringen. We hope his legs are now working again.
We’ll look forward to his next visit, but think fondly on him in the meantime as he, from Gunderson Lutheran Hospital, helps the good citizens of LaCrosse, WI with much of what they medically need to support this body and life.
We’re quite proud of “Dr. Dan.” In the words of Tommy Boy (and as something of a nagging reminder to myself): “Lots of people go to school for eight years, Richard.” “Yeah, they’re called ‘Doctors.’”

travels and adventures

It has been a long time since we've posted anything here. The end of February found us in Tuscany for 5 days, enjoying the famous food and wine and of course the sights! It was perfect timing at the end of Jonathan's semester, and we had lovely weather all week. We visited Volterra, Siena, Montalcino, and Montepulciano. We so enjoyed our time away together, and are hoping someday to return. Though next time we'll drive so that we can bring some wine back with us!! For pictures of our trip, click here.

March found us in Berlin for a week for the annual Fulbright conference. The big issues on the table were education and immigration. We learned a lot from the various presenters, and our heads have been full with ideas on how those two issues are also critical for the church. Maybe you'll get to read more on those musings from Jonathan in a future post...

From Berlin we flew to the good ol' US of A to spend a week with each of our families. We are grateful for time time spent with them, and very much enjoyed simply spending time with people whom we love and who love us back. That time went so quickly, and we're already looking forward to the next time we can all be together.

Now, this month, we are hosting both of our brothers for visits! But, more on that in another post...

The Elements

It's another gray day here in Tübingen. We had quite a bit of rain over the weekend, and this morning had a few drizzles, so we decided to take the bus into town instead of our bikes. Good idea. On my way home from language school, the wind really picked up once I got off the bus, and my poor umbrella just couldn´t bear the brunt of the wind, and, well, as you can see, it is now sadly on its way to where all good umbrellas go to die.