There was a guy sitting in the seat opposite me on the train this morning reading, likely studying, an economics textbook. When the conductor came around to collect tickets, the gentleman pulled out his wallet to find that he only had $5. Tickets are up to four something now but there's a two dollar extra fee for buying on the train versus at the station. Seeing panic in the young man's eyes and annoyance from the conductor, I offered the guy a free ride courtesy of a punch on my ten-ride ticket that I keep in my wallet in case of emergencies.* He thanked me profusely but I replied simply "pay it forward" - the instructions I was given when a similar situation last fall left me in the young man's position with a stranger providing my fare.
But the Econ book did take my memories back to my freshman year of college. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:15-11:45 in the South Rec Room of Allen Hall was my Microeconomics course that, despite the good grade I earned, I positively loathed. Here's where I should probably insert an apology to those that liked Econ or maybe even majored in it: sorry I hate your subject but it's all good 'cause chances are you can't stand biochemistry so we're even. The only thing I can actually claim to have "learned" from Economics is what econ folks will tell you is the most important thing to know about econ: The Law of Supply and Demand. Good thing I learned it, right? Seeing as how it's a "Law" and all. Basically it's a common sense type thing that says as the quantity (supply) of something goes up, the price of that thing (demand) goes down. The place where supply and demand are at an equilibrium is the ideal price. (I like the part where it talks about equilibrium cause that sounds more sciencey.) The whole concept is better explained with a graph - which is why I remember it, it's sort of like a math problem:
That's the part of Econ I could tolerate. It's when everything got all businessy and theoretical that I wanted to puke. Or maybe just snooze. Regardless, I find there are times when I think back about Supply and Demand and how it really does apply to life. Even in terms of God and the church. I don't really think that as a whole, there is a big "demand" for church in this country. We have plenty of "supply" - drive through Wheaton, IL and there's one on every corner, sometimes two or three! But with this surplus of buildings has come a sort of devaluing of the product. Is church worth an investment of time (and maybe even money) to the average American? I somehow think that maybe there's come a perception that the "price" of church is lower than it should be for most people. We take it for granted. It's always there, same as our Target, Meijer and Jewel. And God's around too. Whenever we need him, no big deal. It's everyday, ordinary, it's a surplus of church. And yet... what value
should we be giving to the shining bride of Christ? To a beacon of light in darkness? To our city on a hill?
For an instant let's look at the flip side of this scenario and envision an unspecified East Asian country where there are few Christian churches. As soon as the quantity mark moves to the "shortage" area of the supply line, we see an entirely new intersection with "demand" on the graph. Price - or value, if you will - has suddenly skyrocketed! And sure enough, we find believers meeting in secret, missionaries smuggling Bibles, and overall a passion for God that changes lives and in some cases induces martyrdom. If that example is too far off home turf, think back to your home ground in the days following September 11, 2001. In the midst of tragedy, when many people seemed sure that God was far away - in short supply - there was a huge demand for Him. Prayer services were organized. Bibles were opened. Worship houses were packed. People actively sought His presence, healing and comfort because it seemed (quite falsely) that we were not in a state of surplus of His love.
This is where Econ will always fail us. The Law of Supply and Demand will never fit God's character. Economics has no way to accommodate something (aka God) with
infinite price and
infinite supply of which we will always be in
absolute shortage.** There's no such thing as having enough of God. Equilibrium can never be reached. The less you have, the more you need; the more you have, the more you want. That's called Grace and much as I love math, there's not really any way to graph it. It's best displayed by a stranger buying you a train ticket. You say, "Give me your name and address so I can pay you back," but the stranger just smiles and says, "Pay it forward instead."
*There was something just a little ironic in seeing someone reading economics unable to come up with train fare. That's my wicked side sneaking in, sorry!
**This is why I stick with science, physics says that a thing can be in two places at once depending on whether you look at it, that's a little more God-style.
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This one was called "Wild Western Days" and featured a full stunt team. In this shot one of the dancing girls is slapping the guy with her purse but at one point the two men were having a full fist fight on top of the float and one of them threw the other over the front of the railing. It's also a self-built float which we thought was really cool (many of the others int he parade were done by professional companies).
This is an extreme close up of a float called "Preservation Celebration". It featured giant tigers and peacocks all made of flowers and Jack Hannah from The Animal Planet was sitting on the front of it. However, Tony took this picture especially for me because despite all the cool things to see, I was pointing and telling him "It's got monkeys!!!!"
No parade would be complete without a marching band and The Rose Parade featured almost two dozen of them. Call me biased, but of course The Marching Illini were by far my favorite act! Our whole section was Illini fans so we were all on our feet singing and cheering, but as is always the case these days you had a few people in the group complaining about the retirement of the University's former "mascot", Chief Illiniwek. Needless to say when this next float came by a few groups after the Illini, our section was all too glad to claim his as their own.
It was technically a float sponsored by Farmer's Insurance titled "Celebrating Our Rich Heritage" but to the die hard orange-and-blues around us the only name it needed was "CHIEEEEEEEEF!!!!"
This was a float titled "The Magic of Mardi Gras". It was sponsored by FTD and was one of the most colorful and bright floats we saw. Of course in this picture the clown face just looks a little scary.... Moving on....
"Celebrating America's Favorite Pastime" was obviously commemorating baseball and more specifically the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had really cool blue fireworks spewing out of it but the funniest part of this float was that from about the distance seen in this picture Tony was recognizing the sports legends seated behind the giant floral baseball player. If you're me, you didn't even realize at this point that there were people seated back there but sure enough baseball-boy Tony saw, recognized and named almost all of them. You can quiz yourself if you like. And I'll even provide some closeups:
Forgive the person's head that accidentally popped into this picture but as you can hopefully tell, the Grand Marshall of the parade this year was Emeril Lagasse. For most floats, we clapped or cheered but when he went by we gave him our loudest, "BAM!"
This was another fun and whimsical one titled "We Celebrate Families" by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California. I should probably mention too that these photos haven't been edited or retouched at all. The colors really were that vibrant!
"Rainforest Fiesta" was one of my favorites for the sheer fact that it was just really darn cute!
If the Rainforest wins in my book for "cute", then this one titled "Valentine's Day" certainly gets my vote for pretty. (Who knew it would be Valentine's Day before I got around to sharing these pictures??!?) Both of these were self-built floats, too!
Aslan is on the move! ...Or at least his float is! I really liked all the different shades of yellow and brown that they used on the lion head in this float that was honoring Lions Club International. The seeds and grasses almost gave the appearance of textured fur too!
"Guardians of Harmony" was the name of this float and it was by far the hardest one too get a good photograph of. First off, the thing was ginormous! It was done by the two Cal Poly University campuses (self-built!) and in case the size didn't pose enough of a camera problem, it was moving. Yes, I know everything is moving in a parade, but the serpenty body on the dragon was actually spinning like a corkscrew!
Lisa & Tony - 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade
