John Carrier

Last night I got an email confirming my volunteering gig at a local Ronald McDonald House.  I start in a couple of weeks and I’m going to be a “Housewarmer” once a week for three hours.  I could not be more pumped about this.

The quest to become a rabbi has prompted me to make a pretty thorough inventory of my life, my values, my commitments, and my priorities.  One area where I feel I really come up short is in doing volunteer work.  I’ve been studying a lot of scripture (I mean a LOT of scripture), studying Hebrew in order to study even MORE scripture, praying regularly once to three times a day, watching the “purity” of my diet, and getting better at doing less “work” on the Sabbath.  I’ve been plumbing the depths of contemporary theology and drafting essays about the key challenges facing Judaism and the Conservative Movement today. 

What have I left out?  Helping people.

Rabbi Robert Kahn gave a brief drash during a recent weekday minyan where he explored the beginning of the Amidah, a litany of blessings, requests and prayers of thanksgiving Jews are invited to recite three times a day.  The Amidah starts by acknowledging who god is: our God and God of our ancestors.  Then it says what God is: great and holy, and some other stuff.  Finally it talks about what God does, and the first of these is “doer of acts of loving kindness.”  Rabbi Kahn’s interpretation:  In this prayer, the first thing God actually DOES is acts of loving kindness…not creating, not plagueing, not smiting, but helping those in need of help.

 It is said that studying the scripture is the chief commandment among all others because it leads to all others.  It’s about time my study prompted me to act.  Stay tuned for the further adventures of John in Ronald McDonald House.

BTW, and this busted my myth, too:  Ronald McDonald House does not serve exclusively burgers and fries.

Sunday I ran about 21 miles.  I say “about” because I took a wrong turn off the route, and I don’t use a pedometer; suffice it to say that I’ve now seen more of North Minneapolis up-close than I had to date.  It took me a little over 5 hours, not counting time that I stopped to check my map, refill my water bottles in city parks, or buy sports drink at gas stations (appropriately).

This marks two personal records: It is both the farthest distance I’ve run and the longest continuous time I’ve spent running in a single session.  My previous record was around 18 miles in 3.5 hours sometime last summer.

Upon finishing, I felt like a superhero.  Then immediately afterwards until sometime yesterday, I felt like a cripple.  But also still like a superhero.

In case you don’t have my trading card, I’m 6′2″ and weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 pounds.  The word “Clydesdale” comes to mind.  Coincidentally, I’m pretty sure that what the people were recoiling from when I went into that bike shop for a water refill was the scent of horse.  Sorry, bike-shop people.

Good tunes for getting your running cadence back: HaDag Nachash

Good tunes to get up those hills on the U of M campus: Rammstein

Good tunes to cross the finish line: White Zombie

Yes, my pace was similar to that of a brisk walk; however, I was not passed by a single walker.

The Twin Cities Marathon is just under 6 weeks away, and I’m gunning to finish in just under the 6-hour time limit. Participant Ribbon, here I come.

It occurs to me that I create more blogs than I create blog posts.  I’m like the king of blog spin-offs, the less-racist Archie Bunker* of blogging.

This time my new blog is parshathashavua.com. 

I created it following the suggestion of a rabbi to start a listserv for family and friends on the subject of my own weekly Bible study.  This would reinforce the habits of not only keeping up with my Bible readings, but also reacting to the text and sharing my reactions with others, and hopefully inspiring some comments and constructive criticisms to further propel my study.

Rather than using a listserv per se, I decided to execute the rabbi’s idea with a blog.  The blog format allows people to subscribe via RSS or via email, and said people can comment publically via the blog or privately via email.

So if Bible study is your thing, please check out parshathashavua.com, and please subscribe by either submitting your email address or clicking the link to subscribe with your favorite RSS feedreader. 

* TV trivia: “All in the Family” was the most prolific show for spin-offs.  While “Happy Days” and “Star Trek” come close, with four spin-offs each, the four spin-offs of “All in the Family” produced two additional spin-offs.  God bless you, Carl Reiner, wherever you are.  “Joanie Loves Chachi” is a spin-off of “Happy Days” but is probably the most archetypal spin-off of the entire spin-off genre.  Erin Moran is not Jewish, but she is Catholic, and thus may still love Bible study; however, Chachi** was clearly just a fling.

** The popularity of “Joanie Loves Chachi” in Korea and the purported source of this popularity are purely urban legend, though one Garry Marshall and Scott Baio have been known to promote.

It’s no fifty-miler, but 26.2-mile first step.  I’m training for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon which takes place on Sunday, October 5, 2008. 

I’m a few weeks into a marathon clinic at the Uptown Running Room, and my training schedule has me running a total of 35+ miles this week, including an 18-mile run this Sunday.

My training runs, most of which take an hour our more, have proven an excellent opportunity to practice Hebrew with the Pimsleur recordings I’ve ripped to my iPod.  Pimsleur is an excellent complement to my book learning, and it has really sharpened my pronunciation, I think.  Furthermore, I believe the regular exercise contributes to my mental fitness, which has helped my acquisition and retention of the language.

My wife says my weight is down, too, and I’m feeling pretty invincible.  Theoretically invincible, that is.  My longest training run so far has been 16 miles, and after something like that, I feel physically crippled for a few hours, but the idea that I can run 16 miles (albeit slowly) makes me feel — mentally, emotionally, egotistically — like a dang superhero.