Another Day in the Life of "Benjamin"

Hello everyone!! Sorry, it's been a looooong time, but I thought I would post my journal entry from Friday (I wrote it today, but the events are yesterday's), as it marks a pretty good snapshot of how my life is and how my project is doing.  Hope you enjoy it :)

Today was interesting. Because my planner is out of pages I wasn't able to plan today on paper. Nevertheless, late Thursday night I was able to contact Father Matthews again and plan an interview with him for this morning (Friday). So 8:30 saw me attending their morning prayers service, and Father Matthews seemed happy to see me (“Is it Ben or Benjamin? I like the name Benjamin...”). He had me sit in the stall next to him and showed me when to speak the verses in Psalms and recite the prayers for the fifteen minute service, and the only other person in the chapel was another woman who also helps run the church. I had been to a similar meeting before, but I think this time it was better because Father Matthew treated me like a friend, not just another visitor. After it was over, we made our way back to Father Matthew's office and started what would end up being an hour-long conversation.

Father Matthews is a very thoughtful, careful, and yet simple man, and I think he relished the opportunity to share his life and feelings about the church and Christianity with someone else. Our conversation lasted a bit more than an hour, and although I really liked listening to him, I will have to do better about guiding the conversation next time toward the topics that are most important for my study. For most of the interview I think I was just a little too happy to be interviewing :-P Before we started the interview I wrote this about him while he was in the other room finishing off an email:

Father Matthew is the real thing. I feel that if he had lived half a century ago he would have been equally comfortable and suited for the calling as a priest in a traditional Christian church. His clear singing voice for the ancient hymns, his amiable way with people, his sense of humor that manages somehow manages to be both dry and warm at the same time, and his sincere concern toward his parish uniquely qualify this man for his position in the Church of England. At age 44 and standing at around 5’10”, his receding grey hair and penetrating eyes give him the undeniable look of a leader even while his manner retains a distinctly common touch.

Although I was surprised to hear him swear once or twice during our conversation (and perhaps I shouldn't have been), overall he seemed a very good and sincere man. He isn't terribly pleased with the status quo in his church, with numbers declining each year and society as a whole drifting away from regular church attendance. I will always remember the ways he spoke when he talked about his son (“the apple of my eye”, as he put it), nor the way that he described how lost he would feel if he didn't believe and trust in God.

As we walked out at the end of the interview he turned to me and said with a smile, “Now it's time for me to go and play the piano. Yes, I'm taking piano lessons – that's what happens when you reach your mid-life crisis and need something to do!” I laughed and returned that my mom had started taking Spanish classes recently, now that she had more time on her hands, and as he opened the front door he told me that I needed to come back and that he would find some other individuals for me to interview who were older members of the church. I was very happy to say yes!

The rest of the day can be summed up like this: three Avatar episodes with Richard, scripture study, a lesson with the missionaries and a wonderful black woman named Carol, dinner, choir practice, and latin dance party at Kennington

Oh, and here are some recent photos :)

 Squirrel at Hyde Park :)

It's the Brown cousins in London!!

 Trip to the Natural History Museum

Getting ready to watch Henry V at the Globe

Let's face it: the standing tickets are cheaper

Muslim Mosque I saw in the neighborhood by the Indian Market

All the photos I've neglected to post here...

Westminster Abbey!

Carol (hostmom), Sister Hall, and myself

Paul and Ben and...shiny reflections in our eyes

Outside the British museum with Natalie (left) 

and Ariana (right).

This guy is more than 3000 years old...

Inside the British Museum.

View from below St. Paul's...

 Me on the Millennium Bridge.  So glad Voldomort didn't really destroy it...

Liz, Aspen and I after seeing Antigone!  That's St. Paul's behind.

A rare pic of my flatmate Richard Sheppard.

Admiral Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

St. Martins in the Fields!

Just down the road from Westminster Palace...

View of Parliamnet from the bridge...

"Can I read your Captain's blog?"

It's Justin Bieber.  And Lany!

Lany giving Hitler a piece of her mind...

 "Does it hurt?"  "Every time."

Cami Shiel came to visit! 

Buckingham palace :D

Stuff you hardly stop to think about...

Hello Everybody!  So if you were wondering about my London living conditions...


...for my social spaces assignment I made a rough (emphasis here) drawing of Carol's apartment where I live, labeled it, and made some notes about the space and it's uses.  I also talked to Richard (my roommate) about it and he added some interesting comments that helped shape my thinking. Hope you enjoy it:

One thing is for sure: Carol's flat is really small. Composed of a living room, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, a small outside porch, and a uniquely split bathroom composed of a small room with a toilet and another with the shower and sink, the resulting lack of space means, as Richard put it, that “everything in it is multipurpose.” The small outside porch is for food storage and for the clothes dryer. The washing machine is in the kitchen instead of a dishwasher. The second bedroom is also the library. The living room, which is equipped with a small fold-down wooden table and several fold-up wooden chairs, is also the dining room. However, due to the unique rental situation that has placed Richard in the small bedroom and me in the larger, double-bed bedroom, the living room moonlights (literally) as a double bedroom for Carol and her daughter Alana. This means that the primary public gathering place in the house is also a private space depending on the time of day.


Furthermore, and partly as a result of the semi-public nature of the living room, the kitchen serves as a secondary public gathering place. The only problem is that the kitchen is very small, and there is only a place to sit if you hop up on the large countertop by the window or if you bring in one of the wooden folding chairs from the living room. Hence, while the kitchen does serve as an additional place of social refuge, its sore lack of comfortable furnishings only makes it survivable for about a half hour before everyone either moves to the living room or gives up on the conversation entirely.


That being said, since my bedroom is the larger of the two it has become a private social gathering place for Richard and I when we hang out in the evenings. The double bed works as a mostly-comfortable platform for watching Youtube videos and Avatar episodes, and we have exchanged many stories while one of us sat on the one wooden chair and the other on the bed. When I get tired of sitting on the bed I often just sit on the floor. That's why we have carpet, right?

Perhaps the most interesting social space in the house is the entryway, which could be renamed “the transition zone,” because nothing occurs in it for it's own sake. Instead, the entryway is just a passage from one part of the house to other: from the kitchen to the living room, from the kitchen to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the sink, and for leaving from or arriving at the apartment. The list of uses goes on and on. Yet this ambiguous nature of entryway activity turns it something akin to the stack of “Chance” cards in monopoly. The slightest sound coming from it sends all the heads turning. After all, just what could be going on in there? Is it someone going out? Is Carol making food? Has the mail arrived? Is someone trying to break in? Make no doubt about it, noises in the entryway means something is about to happen and nobody can be quite sure exactly what it is, making it, ironically, the greatest point of interest in the whole flat.

The last, and perhaps most curious element of Carol's house is her bathroom. Because, well, it's split in two: the small room with the toilet and the other with the bathtub, sink, and cupboards. You may not think much of it, but I am not used to using the restroom being a two-room activity. Although I suppose it's useful since it makes it possible for someone to be using the toilet while the other is using the sink or shower. I still think it's a little weird though.

A note from Ben

Hello everyone, it's Ben here.

So I've been a little lax on this blog lately--I've really only been posting some of the more interesting and universal parts of my journal here for everyone to see.  But I think I will repost part of a message I sent to my family here because it gives a better idea of the way things are going here in London generally.  I promise that I'll be preparing some more posts in the near future that will have a greater sense of direction and clarity than the last few have been.

So thanks for still listening, and I hope you enjoy this letter (it was originally written to my Mom with my family in mind as well):

I guess I'll give you a quick update now that I'm already writing you. So this past week has been quite good, and it feels like time is really starting to fly now. Can you believe I've already been gone for three and a half weeks? If I was at the ranch I would be coming home Wednesday! 

I have a pretty good routine now, but I'm working to spend more time on homework and my project during the mornings and afternoons so I don't have to work on things in the evenings (like I am today). I go to church at rhe Whitechapel family ward on Sundays of course, then Monday evenings Richard (my roommate who served his mission here and now is going to University at Imperial College, which is a very good school, studying Biology) and I go to Family Home Evening either at one of the group FHE's that are put on by leaders in the YSA ward or ward FHEs at the chapel (it switches between the two every week). Tuesdays are my free day for getting work done, and it's the best day for going and seeing a play or something because I have the evening open. On Wednesday I go to Institute at the Wandsworth chapel in South London. It's actually with another stake but Richard goes that day because he sings in his university choir on Thursday nights, which is when the local YSA ward has Institute. For that reason I have been going on Wednesdays for the last couple of weeks, and I've really loved the group that goes there. The pre-mission young men are really friendly and I've actually been spending more time in the mission prep class with them rather than the normal Institute class so they have more ppl in the class. Plus I just love talking about missionary work :) Afterwards ppl always stay and play either indoor soccer (football) or volleyball :) :)  So Thursdays have been somewhat free for the past few weeks, and I went and saw "Antigone" last week (Greek play, really cool, had the actor for Dean Thomas in it) and War Horse the week before that because we got free tickets from a married couple who are serving as missionaries. That play was also really cool, so I guess I'll have to see the movie now :)  This week I did make it out to the local YSA ward's Institute on Thursday, so that was fun, and because my roommate Richard has his hands in everything in the church around here (he's also ward mission leader and meets with several companionships on a weekly basis), I'm now helping out with the choir and a small six person male choir that will be singing Be Still My Soul on the 27th for the Hyde Park Chapel open house, since the building just got renovated to act as both a chapel and visiter's center (the chapel is right across the street from the London Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum is on the same road just a little further down). So yeah, having Richard as a roommate has been a really amazing blessing. I feel very involved! 

Oh yes, and Thursday mornings we also have our weekly meeting as a field study group, so thats always fun because whoever is in charge can choose a place to meet and an activity to do for a couple hours or so before we get food and talk about how our weeks and our projects are doing. We've been to Westminster Abbey, the Borough Market (really good food and loads of free samples), the London Museum, and Trafalgar Square/Picadilly Circus. I've really seen our group grow close together over the last couple weeks as well, which is really neat :)

On Fridays there have been a couple of YSA activities that I have gone to, including the May Ball (formal dance) which was last Friday, and yesterday I went to a dance/fiesta put on by members of the Spanish branch that I was invited to. Haha, luckily there were a group of brazilians who were there (I felt quite at home with them) and two people who spoke only English, haha, so between the three languages of Spanish, Portugues, and English, it was the craziest night ever. One of the activities was to play act a fairy tale, and our group got chosen to put on Snow White. Just try to imagine a Mirror that spoke only Spanish, a Dwarf that spoke only English, a snow white that spoke only Portuguese, and the rest of us switching between the three languages depending on which version of the movie we had watched growing up....haha, it was quite a mad spectacle, but really fun :) And man, I wish I could Latin dance better. 

So that's pretty much it. My Saturdays have been pretty quiet, and like today I have tended to use them to catch up on school work for the week. This next week should be quieter with Richard on a family vacation until next Sunday, although that means he put me in charge of teaching the investigator class at the YSA ward tomorrow, so that should be fun :)
So that's pretty much it. 

 
Life couldn't seem any less exciting, that's for sure.

Picadilly, Indian food, and religious freedom

Thursday, May 31

Today was a pretty good one. I got up and got my journal entry from yesterday typed up before I got showered and changed so I could leave to the meeting. I was in charge this week, and we met at Trafalgar Square below the Nelson Column, and from there we walked to the Picadilly Circus and walked around the neighborhood for a bit. The wide boulevards had been brilliantly arrayed with hanging British flags hung from wires across the streets at about fifty foot intervals, preparations for the Diamond Jubilee that would commence tomorrow and continue until Tuesday. The area is decorated enough as it is, and in our half-hour walk around the area I saw at least seven or eight different threatres showing musicals and plays like Thriller, Les Miserables, The 39 Steps, and Chariots of Fire. We wound our way back through a side street that was part of Chinatown—the entire street was lined with Chinese restaurants, and every window sported silver spits where various types of meat, chicken, and seafood hung shining with oil. It was a very mouthwatering spectacle, but I couldn't see prices and none of us were particularly in the mood for chinese. We dropped by a gigantic, five-floor bookstore that Natalie (the creative writer in the group) was extremely fond of, but after finding only a few spots to sit down inside, we decided to go sit on the steps below the statued fountain in the middle of the square. We talked about our highs and lows, and I was pleased to hear how everyone was doing—I would say it was our most cheerful meeting so far. I led a short discussion about personal organization of a field study, and although I don't think I did a great job (if I could do it again I would do it very differently...), I feel like it was still useful.

When we were finished we went a found a pretty decent Indian restaurant that had a lunch special going on for only 5 pounds. I think we surprised the rest of the customers in the restaurant by how much we talked and laughed together while we were there ;)

We all had things to do afterward, so I made my way home and got my scripture study done. I got thoroughly distracted by the news afterwards, but to be honest there are a half a million interesting things that are going on in the world.

Of greatest note was a religious conference in the United States where representatives from almost every large religion was present: Catholics, Mainline Christian, Protestant, Evangelical, Jewish, and LDS. The topic being discussed was the threat to religious freedom in the public square that has been made in recent years. Most worrying have been subtle moves in government hat have threatened the validity of religious arguments as a legitimate basis for rational decision-making in the public square, an argument highlighted by a statement made by President Obama in 2009 where he asserted that noone can know with “certainty” what God asks of us. This development is especially interesting to me in light of the interview that I conducted yesterday with Richard. In the opinion of many people that he knows and interacts with there simply isn't a place for religion in the modern world. People with religious beliefs are considered old-fashioned, and many religious teachings are considered ridiculous. Those that follow them are seen as “blind followers”. Richard also spoke about prevalent negative stereotypes that exist for Pentacostals and hardliners in Christian churches, and how for many people mentioning those religions conjures up images of people speaking in tongues and writhing on the floor or refusing to read Harry Potter books because they have spells in them. Then there are the well-documented incidents of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, and Richard mentioned some people he talked to on his mission who had gone to Catholic schools when they were younger and had been beaten by the Catholic nuns. Today, they wanted nothing more to do with religion. All of these arguments and stereotypes become very convincing, especially in the face of some very convincing rhetoric from the other side about gay marriage and “fairness”, or evolution and the scientific explanation for the universe. In the wake of all this, it makes sense why religion is in decline in Europe and will most likely continue to decline in the years to come.

-Ben