Nancy's Sabbatical

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Greetings to all,  Here is a note about the Colorado baker's case from president and CEO Marie Alford-Harkey  of The Religious Institute: Dear Nancy, This morning, the Supreme Court released a decision in the  Masterpiece Cakeshop  case. The good news is that the court did not change the longstanding principle that businesses open to the public should be open to all. The court did reverse an earlier ruling that Masterpiece Cakeshop unlawfully discriminated by refusing to serve a same-sex couple seeking a wedding cake, but it made this decision because of concerns unique to this case. The court did not grant businesses a Constitutional right to discriminate. I want to thank you for all of the ways you’ve been involved in this case: from filing an amicus brief to the court to observing the National Weekend of Prayer to working every day to further LGBTQ justice in your faith communities and in society. I also want to let you know th...

Dear blog followers, Robert and I are now in Grand Marais, Michigan for two weeks. The first photo you see is one of me doing a run/walk on the beach in front of the cabin we have rented. It was rather cold yesterday, as you can imagine since I have several layers of clothes on under the windbreaker jacket. I prefer cool weather over blistering hot, so yesterday was fun. Today started out much sunnier, but still cold, at 42 degrees, ha! Right now at about 5:30 pm we are reaching the high temp for the day, 47. By next week, it might get into the 70’s and all is good in my book.  Robert and I are having quality time and the amazing thing I just noticed is that I do not have any work to-do’s on a to-do list. I have sent a few emails but do not feel any pressure to do any work related things… so that is a new feeling. Even when on Patmos, I did feel some to-do’s, but now, the need to do a certain thing is almost gone.  I feel thankful, very thankful. The Colorado Ba...

While on Lesvos in the small community of Skala Eresos, this gay-friendly place was also a family place. One night, while walking through the center of the village, I was struck by this sight of four young boys between the ages of 7-11.  As far as I could tell, each one of them had a cell phone. Each one was looking at his phone. As Cathy, the Greek woman on the plane said, “What can you do?”   True confession:  I looked at my electronic devices almost daily. It was nice to blog and take photos. However, when we are in Michigan (June 3-16) what do your think?  How about if I have a one day fast from the cell phone and the iPad?  That sounds like something a pilgrim needs to do, fast from the phone.  OK...  a new idea for the next leg of our journey.   Love and prayers, Nancy

Now that I am in US, I regret not taking more photos of children. There is the fact that I would need permission to really post photos of kids, so with that I won’t feel quite as badly. I do want to write a bit about these photos. We arrived on Patmos on Sunday. On Monday we got our rental car. The owner of the rental car business is Katerina. Her business is called Katerina’s cars. When I went to her storefront, her daughter was with her. You are looking at Katerina and her little girl. Most of the Greek names are 4 syllables or longer. Her mother told me the daughter’s name a few times and I should have written it down. This little girl was very friendly and we visited a bit. It was a week day, but a holiday, (May 1), so children did not have school. The man who owned the house we rented on Patmos had a wife and one child, a ten year old daughter. Then, we got to know Yanni who I wrote about earlier. He is 37 and recently married with one child, a 4 month old girl. Panos w...

Greetings to all who continue to read this blog. Thank you for your interest. I realize this could get boring after a while. I have felt the love and prayers of family, friends and folks from Messiah and First Lutheran Churches. When a person travels, of course, there are always things that could go wrong. Reflecting on the five weeks in Greece, I can only see the grace that has surrounded Robert and me. We feel so thankful to have had such a gift.  My two girlfriends Jodi and Lynn, are still both working. Jodi has gone back to her job as a psychologist today at the Hennepin County Medical Center. Lynn works as an RN at University of Minnesota Medical Center and starts three 12-hour shifts of work tomorrow. That is how travel is for most working people. To have a three month sabbatical is a priceless gift. I am stopping now and trying to be a Pilgrim.. and simply say, “God, thank you so much.” The flight from Athens to MSP is quite long. Robert and I sat in two middle...

Still on Patmos, my girlfriends Jodi, Lynn and I, stopped into an art gallery. The woman who was working there had a lot to say. I am going to do my best to paraphrase her comments. I am 63 years old and have lived here for 38 years. I was born in Australia and my husband is from Patmos. We love living here very much. The quality of life is still good; however, much has changed since the economic crash. We used to be able to travel back to Australia every year. We had a coffee shop and by the end of the tourist season we made enough money to travel.  As our economy got worse, our trips lessened to every other year. Now we are lucky to go to Australia once every sixth year. The economic crash affects everyone. I am still happy however. I have my horse, my husband and my painting. This art gallery had many of her paintings. ‘I just can’t stop painting horses!’  She made the observation that on this small island of Patmos, families can still have at least some sort of qua...

Below is a response I received to my presentation: Date: May 23, 2018 at 4:41:47 AM CDT To: Nancy Hanson  Subject: Re: Thank you for attending last night Thank you so much Nancy for your presentation, your work, and your kindness.   It was a very nice experience for us all to meet you. You reminded to us the importance of spirituality in some way. It is a great part of our lives that we limit only in religious practice. And those of us who are dissapointed by the greek orthodox church, or those that do not find connection with any official religious group, we do not find the way to connect with our spirituality in a conscious way.   It has been also very helpful for me to meet you. In these days that we get confused in order to chose our dissertation subject, you reminded to me the importance of searching on spirituality, so I will focus my thesis on a religious group of women and their night dreams and visions.   Let us have some time and ...

After we swam to the rock we made the 90 kilometer journey back to Lesvos by way of one of those hot springs thermal spas. They say you get healed with the water. One of us got our locker broken into - so it is harder to feel the healing when you know you were robbed. All three of us try the idea that we list what we still have (health, limbs, passport, family, friends) we still don’t like it, but try to put into perspective. I met up with professor Costas Canakis. He invited students to come to an informal presentation. The group was smaller than the Athens group, however I got an interesting story from a Greek man. I may not get to finish this but will start. He asked if he could talk with me after class. I said of course. Here is my best recollection-  I grew up in a smaller Greek village and was taught it was a sin to be gay, etc. when I saw the American movie, “Boys Don’t Cry” with Hillary Swank, I realized that my attitudes were similar to the bullies in that movie. Now aft...

Greetings Everyone! Since the last time I wrote, now my girlfriends Jodi and Lynn have joined me. We three had time at Skala Eresos. Jodi and Lynn helped me film three interviews on Monday. I hope to be able to share some pieces of these after I get back to Washburn. Jonas H is so good at editing home movies. In a nutshell, we interviewed Noelle, Lydia, and Jennifer. Each had insightful stories to share. I’ll also send a few photos to Mary and even if we don’t have the headings of the photos yet, I trust you’ll enjoy viewing them. All for now! Love and prayers, Nancy

Greetings Blog Followers, You must be keeping me in your prayers as today was another amazing and beautiful day. There were many parts. I will send Mary a bunch of photos. To narrate the photos, the first woman is Jennifer... and I could tell you about her if I have time, but the main best part of today was hiking with the women travelers from Holland. It was about an hour or more hike up to a church. You will see photos of going up, along the way. It is a goat path. Our leader has done this hike 80 times or so. In case I get interrupted, I will tell you the best part first. Their first language is Dutch, but most all of these women speak English too. Wow. I hiked alongside a variety of the women as we went up and we had nice chit chats. In one case we sang “Ilove to go a wandering.. Valdereee, Valdera, My Knapsack on my back. Right before we got to the top, I sort of started chatting with two of the youngest people in the group (age 29 and 40). I have permission to writ...

I realize that it is a dream to have this sabbatical funding. My situation in being able to travel is something I would not have been able to do without the support of Messiah Lutheran and First Lutheran Churches. Not everyone will be a pastor who got a Lilly grant - BUT, if are able to use money for vacation, which we all know is a luxury some people will never have..... IF you are saving to do a vacation some day... Here are a few ideas about why Greece is a good choice. P.S. No, I am not getting money to write this! Ha. The biggest chunk of money will be the airfare. I need to find out the website Robert used. He found a round trip ticket on a reliable airline for under $800 from Mpls to Athens. My guess is that as the tourist season picks up, these ticket prices go up. Traveling in a time OTHER than June July or August seems to make prices less. If you are a school teacher, that is harder. Once in Greece, this is just one of many ideas. According to our Kos taxi driver the 4...