"So, the soup is my soul?"

Over the weekend I did a whole buncha stuff:

Saturday night: I went to a poetry slam with some friends in this cool little black box called the Lot Theater. It was so packed that people were sitting on stairs, standing along the walls, hunching over each other, you name it. Fire code? Ha! We laugh nervously in the face of the fire code!
The poetry was, for the most part, hella difficult to understand. They spoke so fast and with these typical slam poetry off-beat cadences that I got maybe 50% to 75% of what they were saying. Not bad in general, but when you add in the fact that poetry is usually lots of metaphors and similies and everything stands for something else, I really probably only got 10%. In spite of that, good times were had by all.

Sunday day: The Day of The Open Door. A bunch of Denkmals around town were open on Sunday - old churches, museums, monuments, yada yada yada. So I rode around on my (borrowed) bike and checked them all (okay, some) out.
The first place I went was this way old Cistercian cloister in Riddagshausen. It was built in 1145 and ... well, it's neat. I took some pictures, but since I can't get them up here yet (still at a public computer), I'll borrow some from the cloister's website:


Anyway, I don't know if these pictures can really capture how awesome and beautiful everything was. And I don't just mean awesome in the "Hey, look at this awesome sweater that's on sale" way; I mean it in the "Our god is a terrible and awesome god who shall either smite or redeem thee" way. Super impressive. I looked around and found the little part of the church where you can light a candle for people who you want to think of / remember. Well, for some reason I was really thinking of my sister Madison. So, Maddy, I lit a little candle for you and put it on the neat little candle holder that looks like a tree. I don't know if that somehow spoils some Catholic tradition to tell the person you lit a candle for them, but whatevs. I'll post pics soon, Maddy, and the you can see your church and your candle.
Having done this, I thought to myself, "You know what? I ought to give everybody a church and a candle here. That way, whenver I drive by that person's church, I'll think of them." So, that's what I did. I rode around the city and found churches for people. Dad, you have a church called St. Ägidien and Mom, I gave you St. Magni at first, but then I saw the Rizzi House and decided that was your church instead. Stories on these churches and more churches for other people in upcoming posts.

Sunday night: I went to a genero-Protestant church with some friends. This is funny, as I'm not really a big "Let's go to church!" person, but they were going and I thought it would be neat to see a German church service. The place was pretty modern. By that I mean that the building was really new and that there was a band onstage with drums, guitars, and a keyboard. Most of the other people there were my age, so I'm thinking "rock and roll! a groovy young-people church..." But it was pretty much just a normal church: a little singing at the beginning (in English and in German) and then a sermon. The sermon was titled "The Congregation: God's Family?" (except in German) and it was all about how the church is like one's family in God. Okay, again, not a big church person, so I have to admit I kinda tuned out for the exact details on this part. But there was a projector screen with pictures, so I followed that.
There was this picture on the screen of a table with a bowl of soup on it. Each table leg had a word written on it - prayer, for example, or brotherhood - which, I would guess, represents the idea that each of these things is equally important to ... something. Because when the next slide came, one of the table's legs - "prayer", I think it was - was cut short and the table was all wobbly. The cartoon bowl of soup on top slid off. Which, of course, symbolizes .... uhm ... I didn't know. Is the bowl of soup somehow representative of the congregation? Of the community at large? Is the soup my soul?! Without prayer, brotherhood, and two other things, will my soul fall to the floor and get into the carpet? Will God have to get out the vacuum cleaner? German church. Hmm.
On a more concrete note, there was free dinner afterwards! I ate some dish with potatoes, meat, cheese, and stuff in it that Brigit told me was "Kartoffelauflauf" but which I heard as "Kartoffeln of Love" or "Potatoes of Love". So, I had potatoes of love for dinner. Good thing; I think I'm all out of soup.