Advent, Active Waiting, Love of God and Love of Neighbor

At some point I read a story which illustrated the concept of "active waiting." It seems there was a woman who desperately wanted to have a baby. She decided that there were some things she could do to become a better mother, if and when the time came, and she didn't have to wait until she was pregnant to get started on them. So she quit smoking, she got more exercise, she read parenting books, she sought to improve her relationship with her husband. By the time she did have a baby, the baby was incorporated into a well-integrated life--it was not the be-all and end-all of her life; it wasn't an idol, as it might have been had she not done all that preparation.
I like the idea of "active waiting," particularly in Advent. One of the practices I have taken from the idea is the practice of asking more advice, soliciting more opinions, about whatever it is I am actively waiting for.
This Advent I have decided to actively wait for wholeness. From what I understand of Christian teaching, the two commands we are to follow are to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Wholeness would spring from these. So because I like to solicit opinions as I actively wait, I've been asking around: "What does 'love God/love neighbor' look like to you?"
Some of the responses I've gotten so far:
--One person remembered how it used to be common for people to bow their heads or tip their hats when they'd pass a church. Now this person bows--just a quick li'l head bob, nothing fancy, but it's always packed with personal meaning--upon meeting anyone for the first time.
--One person said "love your neighbor" meant something quite concrete: "love the people living right by your house."
--Still another said that the "love God" part of the command could be fulfilled by doing the "love your neighbor" part. And that the secret to the latter command was in actions like cooperation, apologizing when wrong, matching talents to needs.
So I'm throwing the question out there. What does "love God/love your neighbor" look like in your own life? Do you have any specific practices that flow from these commands that you can recommend to someone who wants to get better at them?

U2: A Diary: The Matt McGee Interview

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Matt McGee, founder of @U2 and author of U2: A Diary, answering five questions about his new book.

1. Once you committed to making U2: A Diary happen, what sort of adjustments took place in your daily schedule? (In other words, where did writing a book "fit" into your life?)


I remember chatting with my wife (and the kids to a lesser degree) before committing to do the book, and saying, "If I'm gonna do this right, I'll be at my computer every waking moment of every day." We generally share the parenting duties -- we both cook, clean, help with homework, etc. So I had to ask her to handle all that stuff whenever she could, so that I had time to write and research. I also had to explain to the kids that Dad may not be spending as much fun time with them until the book was done. God bless Cari -- she basically ran the house just so I could fit the book into my life. And God bless the kids for letting me be an almost absentee Dad for a while.

And I should mention, too, that I basically stepped away from @U2, too. The staff ran the show so I could focus on the book, and they did a better job running things than I do when I'm around. That's both cool and scary. Cool that I'm not needed ... and scary that I'm not needed. :-)

2. What were some of the reactions you got when you told people you know--fan and non-fan--"Hey, not only am I running this U2 fan website, but I'm writing a book about the band, too"?

"You must REALLY like U2!" was a common reaction. And then I also heard a lot of, "I tried writing a book once" or "My best friend/cousin/brother/sister is writing a book, too." It's amazing how many people are either writing a book or know someone very close to them who's writing a book. Those were probably the most common reactions from non-fans. The U2 fans just about always reacted with things like "Awesome!" and "Let me know how I can help," which was really awesome. Everyone was really supportive that way.

3. One of the aims of this book, as I understand it, is to provide a corrective for some of the lazier reporting out there about U2. Is there any particular U2 myth you would hope would be mythbusted by this book, and if so, which one?


I don't know if myth is the right word, but I'm really proud of how the narrative of the early Christianity/Shalom/band disruption era turned out. For years, there was very little written about that time period, and the band seemed to avoid it or play it down when the subject came up. Then, within the last 4-5 years, they've talked about it more in various magazine interviews, books, and so forth. But the stories didn't always fit with what we'd heard before. So it was really tough to get the story right, to get the timing right, and I wanted to make sure the wording was right, too. Thankfully, I had great help from friends like you, Scott [Editor's note: Scott is organizing an academic conference on U2--check it out], and Beth [co-editor of Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog], and I think the book will have the most accurate version of those events possible.

4. If there was more than one version of events which changed up the timeline, how did you decide which one to go with, or did you provide all the "alternate histories"?

On some occasions, you'll see words in the narrative like "reportedly" ... "possibly" ... "believed to be" ... "other reports" ... and things like that. Without going through the band's personal diaries (if they even have such things), it's impossible to tie some things down definitively. So when necessary, I try to offer the alternate histories, as you say.

In other situations, it's just a matter of deciding what source to trust. For example, Paul McGuinness was recently talking about the death of Greg Carroll, and he said the whole band was in a bar in Dublin when it happened. But back in 1987, Bono gave a quote to a New Zealand magazine about how he had just landed in Texas when he heard the news that Greg Carroll had died. Bono was due to appear the next day at Farm Aid II, but had to get on a plane and go right back to Dublin. In the book, I decided to believe Bono's version of events given one year later over Paul McGuinness's version of events given 20 years later.


5. Was there any particular time period which was harder to research, and if so, for what reason?

Anything pre-1980 was very tough, because you can't find many online news archives that go back that far, and many of the people who were involved back then are impossible to track down. I was lucky enough to have a quick email exchange with Meiert Avis, who was part of the Windmill Lane crew in the late '70s and 1980 when U2 was there, as well as Chas de Whalley, who produced U2's first studio sessions and recordings. Chas, in particular, gave me a great interview. He also helped me track down some other people on the scene who helped flesh out some of what was going on then. That helped a lot with the early days.

Brandon Dawson

New interview with Brandon Dawson for Thunderstruck can be found here.
"When it comes to music of all genres, Dawson is contagious enthusiasm personified. With the dominant music-geek stereotype that of the elitist snob, it’s refreshing to spend time with someone so filled with curiosity and joy. Which is why it’s surprising, as we talk about his debut album Becoming Human, to hear him discuss the tough process of renouncing fear."

For Don

My friend Jim's dad died this week.
Don was a quiet guy. I used to go to Jim's house all the time, but I can't say I can remember many conversations with his dad. The impression I have was that he was kind of shy, maybe didn't really know how to make small talk with one of his son's friends. But in his quiet way he was kind. He could make me feel at home.
He called me "Angie," which is not something a lot of people do. Jim doesn't even call me "Angie," so I'm not sure how he got into the habit. I tend to reserve that nickname to people who've known me a very long time, but with some people, it just sounds right when they say it. I can hear Don now: "How are you, Angie?" I guess because he had this hesitant manner otherwise with me, the use of the more private nickname was especially...right. As though just because he was shy didn't mean he liked people any less.
...It's strange. I started out thinking that I didn't really remember that much about Don, but all evening memories have been surfacing. I was thinking of something else a few moments ago when suddenly I thought of Jim's cousins calling Don "Uncle Duckie," in honor of his spot-on Donald Duck impression.
And earlier I was remembering wanting to watch one of my favorite movies with Jim, but he nixed Lawrence of Arabia as soon as I suggested it. It seems it was one of Don's favorite movies too, which meant it was on in the house so often, Jim developed an allergic reaction to even the thought of watching it again.
Don could be so surprising. Like at Jim's mom's funeral a few years ago, at the end, when people got up to share their memories...Don got up and gave the most beautiful, the most gentle, poignant and heartfelt testimony about his wife, at a time when it would be most painful to do such a thing, at a time I could hardly imagine I could have even formed a coherent sentence, were I in his shoes. He just quietly talked about his wife and how much he would miss her and all the fun they had together.
There's a picture Jim has of his parents where they are playfully trying to wring each others' necks. This is the picture Jim has framed, on display. The cutest couple.
I hadn't really seen Don much since Jim's mom's funeral, but there are still sweet things I remember. Like how Jim's boyfriend Greg crocheted him an American flag afghan (Don was a Marine). Or how I'd hear Jim talk to him on the phone and end the conversation with "I love you, Dad."
I think these things stood out for me because I adopt fathers where I can, having lost mine when I was 13. And for all the complexity of their relationship (I'm sure all father/son relationships are complicated, but Don and Jim had a few extra twists and turns in theirs), there was such love, and they could even use the word "love" with each other--it was a privilege to be a witness to that, as it's now a privilege to write about it.
One of the last times I saw Jim's dad was when he came to a show Jim's boyfriend Greg was in. (In, or directing, or both? I can't remember now. And maybe Jim was stage-managing it too.) I was sitting in one of the back rows and in walked this man I didn't recognize, partly because the lights had already gone down and partly because it had been years since I'd seen him. But he looked over at me, and then he came over to me and whispered, "How are you doing, Angie?"

Pomegranates

An article I wrote about the Cincinnati band Pomegranates is now available on Thunderstruck.

Speaking of Faith

The radio program Speaking of Faith solicited comments about Catholicism. I submitted my comments, and now they are on this page.

Where the Streets Have No Name

I seem to only be updating this when U2 is involved...!
Here's an essay I wrote for @U2.

U2 3D

Isn't it clever? They came up with a movie name that matched their whole "one letter, one number" pattern in reverse. Maybe the technology was developed solely so that one day U2 might utilize it...
I attended the Cincinnati premiere of U2 3D with Bocce Bill last night (not to be confused with Pente Bill, though Bocce Bill plays Pente with Pente Bill). At first it was somewhat frustrating--there was what appeared to be a crack running down the frame. When the lighting was just right you could see it was actually a bit of film strip. Wha? Various members of the crowd made noises, and Bocce Bill went out to talk to someone in charge. At first the only result was that one could see a hand wiping at the obstruction, which was of course even more annoying and not the least bit effective, though the hand made its attempt several times. Finally, about halfway through the second song, the film was stopped, someone came out to inform us that a piece of film was stuck to the lens, and that they were taking care of it. They turned the movie back on (not starting from the beginning, as we requested) with the volume up higher (as we requested).
Then we could all relax and enjoy ourselves.
And how enjoyable it was. Things I particularly enjoyed:
* The song selection. One reviewer had a minor gripe (and so far all the gripes have been minor; the lavish critical praise has been something to behold) that it's mostly a collection of greatest hits. Yes, well, it's rather hard for it not to be, at this point in U2's history. And it would be one thing if it was just a collection of nostalgic hits; quite another for it to be their hits of 1983, 1987, 1991, 2000 etc.
* The sound. Unbelievable separation of the instruments. I was hearing things in these songs I'd never heard before, and given how many times I've heard these songs...! Also, props to whoever did the sound mixing, given that the audio (and visuals) was taken from several different shows. I could tell the difference when they'd cut to the sound from a stadium show, but it was done in such a smooth way, it seemed more a part of the narrative than anything else (the narrative being "Here's where we're sharing something intimate, and here is where we are opening up this intimacy to 100,000 people.")
* Adam.
* Edge. The worshipful tone of Variety's review (sample: "The Edge is a still presence, a cornerstone, a man who quietly revels while a wild celebration unfolds around him.") makes a lot of sense when you watch this. I'm on the record as saying I don't think Edge is very interesting to watch live--what he does is all interior, he's not playing to the crowd at all--but this was different.
* Larry, particularly during "Love and Peace or Else," when Bono starts stalking him.
Which leads us to:
* Bono. Everything you need to know about how to give a great performance can be learned by watching this movie. That's all I'm saying.
* My free movie ticket. Because of the technical difficulties at the beginning, we all got free tix at the end. Yay!