Blue Canary in the Outlet By the Lightswitch

Hello there! I'm alive! Senior year is one of those things that just seem to speed by and take all of your time. That isn't much of an excuse, but again I've been living my life.

I turned 18 on April 15th, and got to thinking about what that actually means. It doesn't mean much fun things, but here's a list if you're keeping track:

• Register To Vote (check)
• Sign up for Selective Service (check)
• Buy a Lottery Ticket (check, and no it didn't win :P)
• Sign for medical/legal stuff (check, unfortunately)
• Drive past 11 (which honestly I'm rarely awake past 11 so....)

I'm sure there are other things (before you say tobacco and strip clubs, just stop) but that's what I made the list of. So family came over (it was weird not having my grandmother there, but I have a feeling she was... I'm not into that whole supernatural stuff, but I'm aware it exists) and we had cake and spaghetti and went our merry way. 

April 16th brought the They Might Be Giants Concert with Clay and my Aunt Marie. Well, Aunt Marie drove us there, but Clay had wanted me to come since they announced the concert. TMBG is a band that has been both quite largely followed and quite obscure. They've been around since the late 80s/early 90s and have a rather unique, quirky alternative sound I love. It was "an evening with" so they were their own opener. All in all, it was a great concert and they played for nearly 2 hours. Many thanks to both Clay and Aunt Marie for making that happen.

April 18th brought High School Musical. I can't say too much really (partially because I was partially deaf that day, and the other because I'm a cynic) except there were two main reasons I was there: Dan Doyle (The Actuary Gigabass), and Becca. I wanted to support my friends (mainly those two) and so I did. 

April 23rd brought a mock senate (which was fantastic!) and the Trib Total Media Dinner Thingy. I was named one of Trib Total Media's Top 50 Outstanding Young Citizens for the South and West Region. I don't talk about these sorts of things much, but this is an exception. Those who were selected were invited to a (really fancy) banquet out past the Airport. It is extremely rare that I feel REALLY out of place at social functions. I was surrounded by AAA and AAAA schools, and the tops of those schools, so it was intimidating and strange to say the least. They stuck us in the back corner of the room (and I think that's a good thing, because we were with a family from Chartiers-Valley who spent the whole night feeling like the riff-raff) and gave a lovely dinner that due to my illness I couldn't really taste. All in all, it was a pretty okay night, and I have a neat little certificate to go with it.

April 24th brought the Senior Project. As a graduation requirement, students in our district are required to complete a project detailing their profession of choice. It involves completing research on the career, doing a job shadow, and it culminates in a presentation and interview on a selected day. That day was the 24th, and my panel consisted of an elementary teacher I didn't know, my kindergarten teacher (yep, he got to start and end my high school career), and one of the high school computer teachers (I wrote a story about his sports marketing class for The Cougar Times). I passed, I think, but the kicker was I had lost my voice. I have been sick effectively for the past week (it's finally been diagnosed as a sinus infection and is being treated) and lost my voice entirely the day of the presentation. So I was lucky enough to whisper the entirety of my presentation to my panel....

This coming Tuesday I am going to be on a student panel about education at (WYEP-owned) WESA. As I said, we'll be talking education: the past, the present, and the future. They will record our little panel and then broadcast it at a later date (you better believe I'll be posting a link when I get it!). The panel itself will start at 7PM, and if you'd like to join us just register here: http://wesa.fm/post/905-wesa-present-life-learning-forum-april-28.

Upcoming events include: the last Court of Honor for troop 831 (ever) is tomorrow, the doom and gloom church meeting is tomorrow, and no doubt fun stuff awaits us next week. 

Until next time, I'll see you on the radio 

(I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY THAT!!!)

Hopeless Wanderer

[Note: This may get a bit, um, deep. Or at least deep to me. I wrote the bulk of it Friday night, added some Saturday, and am finally getting around to posting it now. This is fair warning that I delve into church (no I'm not going to preach to you), my childhood, and mostly incoherent thought]

This past Sunday we had a church annual meeting.

There is a major difference between thoughts and someone else voicing those thoughts. At least with me, I feel there is a certain amount of control that comes with keeping thoughts bottled up, but once those are voiced, once those are brought to 'reality' it becomes a whole other thing to deal with.

I've often voiced that I am an 'idea guy' (it's even on my about page) meaning that I am usually able to think logically through things, but when it comes to actually doing those things I usually freeze up. I always seem to have an excuse - no time, too many other projects, whatever. 

This all works fine in my little bubble, but when it comes to the real world, this doesn't work so well. I recognize this and I'm trying to work past it, but certain things (mainly my mission to earn my Eagle Scout) have suffered and I really have to become more decisive and more impulsive.

But back to the whole idea-versus-reality concept. I've written numerous times about this, but I don't think I've ever touched on this thing that I'm going to call the idea safety gap. This meeting discussed the possibility of closing, or rather selling, the church.

Let me clear this up: at this point it's only a possibility. In all probability any move will be made in the next year or two, but by the time anything is finalized I'll (hopefully) be in college. But that doesn't really matter. It's a major part of my growing up. 

I've often been told that a church is the people, not the building. Which I totally agree with, but at the same time, I have grown attached to both the building and the people. More so the people, but since I'm technically at this point attached to my father (the priest) I go where he does. 

If Slickville goes away, if the church itself closes fully (I don't know this will go down, but there are a lot of possibilities here) and he is reassigned elsewhere, I don't know how I'll deal with it. I know there are other churches, and I know there are closer Orthodox churches, but Slickville is my home. I know I'm always welcome in Carnegie, and usually welcome elsewhere, but I grew up going to the church 40 miles from my house. It's my family. 

Thus starts a series... not sure how many parts or how frequent, but I plan to post once in a blue moon, or maybe even start a side blog, because this isn't my usual content here...

It's Halftime America.

I went through five iterations of title on this, but because of my insistence on writing the title first, I just went with the famous Clint Eastwood commercial quote because I am going to a New Years Party with hosted by a guy who portrayed Clint Eastwood in the Match Game that benefited Arsenic. Lost? Good.

So this is my first full week off of school since summer break. It's a strangely peaceful feeling not having to accomplish some nonsensical deadline. It's during these times that I think the most, it's an isolation that comes as both a blessing and a curse. This week, it was a blessing.

Monday I spent decorating my house because up until that point I hadn't had the time to do so. It took 4 hours, and I probably shocked myself twice (but I can't remember) but it was totally worth it to see my parents' faces when it was all lit up.

Tuesday I spent doing, well, nothing really. Tuesday night I went to the church where we have scout meetings for a Lutheran Christmas Eve service. The front of the evening's bulletin read simply "All is calm, all is bright". And it was. There are certain things that I cannot put into words well, and one of those is the feeling of absolute peace. Not like a 'home' sort of feeling, but of resolution or at least reassurance. I only half payed attention to the service and more or less payed attention to the moment, to the experience of appearing and existing.

Wednesday was Christmas. My family would kill me if I focused on the sippy bird I received, but I would be stupid if I omitted it, because it's pretty awesome. I received from my family this year a Nikon DLSR D90 camera. In English, until this point I've been relying on the $5 Kodak point-and-shoot that my brother acquired for me at a yard sale. My photography has been luck-of-the-draw work. I'd shoot 200 pictures and get 30 that were in focus.

DSLRs are the step up from point-and-shoots. There is so much more control with these things, and on the first day of having this camera, I shot this lovely picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexanderpopichak/11557347076/. Essentially, it's freaking amazing at it's job. My family has been looking at some of the things I've been doing with the little Kodak, and decided I need to look into this more professionally.

To which I have a bit of a confession: I've been holding off on pursuing photography as something I can legitimately work with because I didn't think I had the camera worth it. Now I do. I have so much learning to do, but I want to take this further. If what they're saying is true and I have an eye for this, who knows what'll happen.

This isn't an answer (just read last week's post: it sums up my thought process at this point pretty well... I'm still lost, I think I may have found some breadcrumbs though...), it's a way to try something new; something that may lead to something else.

N.B.: All thanks go to My Parents, Paternal Grandmother, my aunt Marie and uncle George (yep, that Aunt Marie and Uncle George), the Spring Standards, the people that work with my parents, and Rick Dayton, who without his help this would have never happened.

The Star Maker Says, "It Ain't So Bad"

So, yeah this week. I've wanted to post a few other times this week, but then I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to post about Friday. Well, today's Friday, I think, Honestly I lose track during the summer, and I have multiple things to talk about.

A man I admire greatly, His Grace Bishop Daniel, visited Slickville this past Sunday. He came to elevate my father to the rank of Protopriest. He served with us all, and it was quite nice to hear him speak. I hope to have the video of his homily up eventually, but nevertheless it was quite a nice service.

Unlike the last time he came, he gave a week and a half's worth of notice, enough time to alert some presses, which packed our tiny church with about 50 people. Mind you, we only have 25 or so come on an average Sunday.

We (that was, my mother, father, and I) were discussing the night before the logistics of how it was all to work. Again, we had more notice, so they had the event catered, my father was able to tell a bunch of people, so we didn't exactly know who would come.

But then we realized that the building is alive. And no, I don't mean that in some "church in the woods is haunted oooohhh spooky" way or the feel-good metaphor of a lively parish, but rather the physical inside of the building appears to expand to fit as many people that show up. On a typical Sunday with 20 or so people, it feels full. And with 50 it feels full. It's extremely hard to describe, and I welcome whoever reads this to come out sometime and see it yourself.

So after everyone left, the pictures were taken and cleaned up and my father wrote an article. My mother decided that I should write it instead, but in reality what I did was play editor to his original. I added a lot of wording, condensed some stuff, and you can probably pick out the portions that are my style. You can read my frankenstiened version here: http://www.uocofusa.org/news_130723_2.html.

So that got published on Tuesday. On Thursday we got our copy of the Signal Item, which is a local paper published weekly about the goings-on in originally Carnegie, but has expanded to the Carlynton/Chartiers-Valley area. And I read through and I find something that looks awfully familiar.

I took some pictures at the last flag ceremony for the mayor of Carnegie, and he was kind enough to have them published in my name by the Signal Item.

I love that they picked out my two favorite pictures to print. These flag ceremonies have certain elements to them that are extremely hard to capture, and are amazing to experience. In fact, one was published that I couldn't time right before. Those moments are the playing of taps, the lowering of the flag, folding of it, and the presentation to the family of the fallen. And the coolest part (at least to me) is that they present it to the family with the same words that it was originally presented at the funeral with.

And then the commander of the VFW salutes the family. This is the amazing moment captured. And I will tell you that this picture does no justice to how truly poignant that moment is.


This all, if you know me personally, you know I freak out anytime I see something I made being put someplace other than my blog. So this was quite pleasant.

Post-Script: Sorry this was so LONG. I didn't realize that, but usually I write 300 word posts, this is more like double that. Sorry :/

We have Rolled into Another Dream

The title is part of the quote of the day on Dictionary.com.

So this week is Holy Week for us eastern-rite Orthodox. This also means that the past six or so weeks have been “Lent”. No, I’m not going to go and spread religion across the masses or whatever, I’d much rather talk about looking back and forward.

It’s really hard to acknowledge the present, and appreciate it because it simply is. It’s a state of being that is constant, yet fleeting at the same time. Hindsight is 20/20 and the future is what you make it but it’s looking at the now that is pretty near impossible.

It’s easy to look back and say, “The musical was awesome last year” or forward and say, “this summer is going to be great” but what do we say about ‘now’? I guess one of the things that I’ve been having trouble with lately is ‘living in the moment’. In the process of looking forward to the end of the school year, or the musical, or whatever trivial thing it is, I forget about the state of being that is now.

Let me say this much though… it’s not a bad thing to not live in the moment, it just is a thing that is. Tomorrow is the second annual Re(imagiNATION) competition in Schenley Plaza. I’m planning to show up and just live through it. Enjoy meeting artists and bands and WYEP people… but instead of take pictures and video of it for the future… I want to remember it as I saw it.

I’ve had this theory since I was little that I’d get to see more if I lived and looked at life like a photographer. It’s still a theory but I’ve found it to be true. Take for example, that I try to take a walk through the neighborhood every day for like 20 minutes or whatever. Same route, for I am a creature of habit, but each time I try to notice something new. And over the past year or so I have. And it got me thinking… if I notice something new each time I walk the same streets, imagine what is possible in all of the new streets I haven’t traveled… So I guess I want to have perspective on the future and past by living through the moment. Hopefully it can all coexist.

The title is part of a quote... and the only reason I chose it is that it involved rolling and dreams... for if we live life from the comfort of only a dream... can we ever wake up to reality? Keep the dreams, but wake up from time to time. I'll shut up now.

Lets See How Far We've Come 2012: A Review

So Apparently 2012 is over now. For me, it was an interesting one to be certain. I sort of summed it up in my Christmas Letter in about a sentence:

This year was a challenge to see how full a schedule could be, and how much we could change.

Change in this case can be a good thing and a bad thing. At the beginning of 2012 I made a resolution to post once a week, on a Friday if I could, and this resulted in the 59 you see on the sidebar.

January brought Bishop Daniel to Carnegie. I invited the bishop to Slickville, and He said that he would try his best to come out sometime. I visited the nationality rooms on the campus of Pitt, and I also read John Green's new Book, the Fault in Our Stars.

February brought yet another college campus visit - this time to Carnegie Mellon for a Merit Badge program. March brought an adventure to the wilds of West Virginia, the wilds of the studios of WYEP, and the wilds of theater.

April brought the Drowsy Chaperone, my first ever musical that I performed in. It also brought a rant on Love timed around Easter.

May may have been the craziest for one weekend: Cinco de Mayo weekend. Friday brought a Camporee for which I designed the patch for. Saturday brought the first ever Re(imagiNATION) competition. The following day Bishop Daniel kept true to his promise and visited Slickville. He called the Tuesday before, and said that he had remembered me inviting him. I also became a Life Scout in May.

June brought NYLT, a training course made by the devils of the scouting world to change you from whatever it was you were to a leading man. It also brought me to Camp Seph Mack. We had developed a tradition of inviting the staff down to our site for a bonfire. It seems that bonfires bring people together, and this was no exception. On outpost night at NYLT, we had a bonfire I will remember for years.

July brought my first ever guest post, from my father, regarding vacations. I took my first ever vacation with my family out to Delaware. I celebrated 3 years of writing this website, and I started taking almost weekly bus rides out to WYEP to work on various projects.

August brought back school, and I quoted some songs for blog titles. I also started book reviews.

September brought my debut into announcing for the Carlynton Golden Cougar Marching band, and some side adventures with that.

October brought Homecoming, which I had the pleasure of sharing with a good friend of mine. It also brought Jamboree on the Air, and the end of the Football Season,

November brought the Ten Commandment Hike, references here to Squanto, and some reflection on natural disasters and the sort.

December brought me some good music, the 2012 HOOTENANNY and the 'end of the world as we know it'.

So this is where I break off and say thank you. I decided to write every week because I wanted to work on my writing skills a little, and develop a voice for this. Anyone that knows me can tell you I am not good at finishing things. I will start, or add a middle part, but finishing doesn't work with me. But I've had motivation

Back at the end of 2011, I had a total view count of 3,000 something. It's doubled in the past year, now at nearly 7500. All I can say is thank you. It helps to know that someone out there is reading what I'm writing. Friends, Family, Canadians, I don't care who you are, I just want to thank you, and invite you to join my little site here in 2013.

I plan on writing by the way until at least 2015. From there only time will tell, but that seems to me to be a tad far off. Thanks again, Happy New Year, and May God Bless You All!
-Alexander Popichak, the 2015Blogger

It's A Thursday, and I'm Sick

That is a fair assumption of my day so far. Actually, that has been my week. Back on Saturday I fell ill with the dreaded ick that seems to have spread to everyone as of late, and have been sick ever since. Nevertheless, it's Winter (Western Christmas) Break and I thought I'd write about that.

I consider myself extremely lucky in more ways than one. Granted, the unlucky balances that out, but with some good I have not too much to complain about.

One of the ways I am lucky is that I was born into a family of a strange religion - Orthodoxy. We follow the traditions of years ago, which while sometimes they seem old-fashioned, it has its benefits. Namely, there is a 13 day discrepancy between Western Christmas (December 25th) Orthodox Christmas (January the 7th).

So how is this so wonderful? It means that I get to separate the holiday (holy-day, get it?) from the commercial celebration that the December Holiday has become.

So why escape the commercialism?

I think this is where the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas comes in. What rang true in 1965 is worse today. People are too materialistic anymore. We want the "stuff" and nothing more. It's nonsense.

I apologize for the preachiness and brevity, and I plan on something deeper tomorrow. Happy Christmas and Boxing Day To Everyone!

Ten Commandments Hike - An Illustrated Adventure

{CLICK ANY PICTURE TO MAKE IT BIGGER! - AP}

So yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting 10 houses of worship along Laurel Highland Council's Jewish Committee on Scouting's Ten Commandments Hike. The basic premise was to travel around Oakland visiting the different churches and learn three things: 1) about the architecture of the building 2) about the commandment they were assigned* and 3) about the denomination that the church/house housed. I did this back in 2010 in this post here, and I decided that I wanted to do it over again. I enjoyed learning about the denominations, and where I fit, and the whole idea of "duty to G-d"**

Rodef Shalom

Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic

That brings up an interesting. The first stop was the Jewish temple of Rodef Shalom, and we began from there with a talk from the Scout Exec for our council, Mr. Mike Surbaugh. He asked for life scouts to raise there hand. Me being a life scout, I raised my hand, and along with another gentleman was summoned to the front of the room. He prefaced his question with "Whether you knew it or not, I'm about to prepare you for your Eagle Board of Review." He then asked us what "duty to G-d"** means. (Sidenote: it's in the Scout Law... if you don't know that, I will not be taking the time to explain it... google it.)

The whole hike's mission was to answer that, and I think I may have an answer. I'll wait until the end to answer, though.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran

Nevertheless, I'll spare you the details of the eight hour journey, but I will give enough room for pictures that I took along the way. We then made our way to Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church, adjacent to Rodef Shalom. From there, we went to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. After each of the stops, we had time for a question and answer session. My favorite questions were the ones that were either "How is [insert religion here] different from Catholics?" or "What's the difference between [insert religion here] and Christian?" My favourite answer was given at the Lutheran church with the latter question. The campus pastor looked confused for a second and the responded "Nothing! Lutherans are Christian" and went on to explain the formation of the Lutheran church and the church doctines versus that of the Catholic faith.

(Sidenote: roughly 40% of Pittsburgh is Catholic. It's certainly not the case everywhere, but whatever)

From there, we went to Saint Paul's Roman Catholic Cathedral. I won't include a picture simply because of that figure above. This is about the same idea that the pastor there had, and didn't bother to explain Catholicism.

The Crew at The Christian Science Church

My personal thought is that if you want to learn about yourself, have someone else of the same quality or better explain your position and allow you to examine it through a microscope. Granted, I'm not Catholic but I kind of want to hear from a semi-expert what it's all about.

Saint Nick's Greek Orthodox

From there we went to a Baptist church that was reminiscent of a Gothic Cathedral complete with scary-looking organ in the front. Then we moved to the Christian Science Church. I'll again point you towards my last post on this topic, and my explanation of Christian Science. The Same holds true.

From there we visited Saint Nicholas (Greek) Orthodox Church. I put Greek in parenthesis because I am of the opinion that we should become a Holy, Catholic[in the universal sense] and Apostolic Church again and create an American Orthodox Church with all the ethnicities  Hopefully this could happen in my lifetime, but that is another post for another time.

Heinz Chapel Exterior

Remember what I said about through a microscope? The gentleman from the Orthodox Church did exactly that, and explained my faith for the other people in the room. It was interesting. I plan on writing on that in the future in and of itself.

We then visited my all-time favorite stop, Heinz Chapel. Heinz Chapel is this cool little non-denominational chapel on the grounds of the University of Pittsburgh. I say all-time favourite because it has beautiful stained-glass windows, high ceilings, the whole thing is Gothic-style awesomeness.

Heinz Chapel Interior

The whole building has a built in 4,000 something pipe organ into the walls. Hearing this thing played is AMAZING! We were lucky enough to have an organist follow us on this trek, and everywhere there was an organ, he played for us. Heinz Chapel was the last organ stop, it was indescribable to hear it.

Islamic Center of Pittsburgh

If you ever travel to Pittsburgh, Heinz Chapel is one of those places that if you're lucky enough to visit, DO IT. The stained-glass windows are 68 feet high continuously, with brilliant colours and because it is on a University Campus and nondenominational, there are philosophers and the sort in the artistry. Again, a must-see. There we had a Buddhist gentleman talk about meditation* and Buddism.

We finally went to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh. This was not a stop in the previous year that I had gone, but it was something I wanted to see. I wanted to hear what Islam was about simply out of curiosity.

Let me get this across clearly: the media paints one picture. I wanted to see another.

The Imam was a nice gentleman who explained the Islamic faith to a room full of Christians, Jews, and the sort. He gave the side of his faith, and dispelled some things. He also talked about his faith and the Five Pillars of Islam* and the duties of those of the Islamic faith. I tread carefully here, but I feel that he represented well, and gave me much to think about.

So again I present the original question: "What does Duty to G-d** Mean?" I'll answer with this: It's first recognizing that there is a higher power (the proverbial Something-bigger-than-Phil) and having a relationship with that higher power. It's understanding and respecting ("tolerance") other religions, as well as your own views. Take, for example, I am an Orthodox Christian. I don't identify fully with those of the, say, Lutheran faith, but I can respect their beliefs as theirs, and can fully say with an open mind that this is my stance. These are my views. Having a duty to this higher power comes with the territory. It's knowing right from wrong in my case, may be different in others.

*The BSA isn't a Christian Organization, and the BSA has only the requirement to believe in a higher power. Some, such as Buddism and Islam, fit this criteria yet do not recognise the Ten Commandments. They instead talked about their faith.

**This isn't a typo. In the Jewish faith, they don't type out the full word with the "o" as a sign of respect. The idea is that the name is sacred, and if something is printed out and then thrown away, it's like throwing away the name of G-d. I did this for this post because I thought it was a pretty cool idea

Note: I feel the hate mail coming already. It's good to learn about other faiths, my mission was awareness and education, NOT CONVERTING YOU OR I!!!! - AP

Schools Summarized Via Church Pews, and Can Crushes

So, yeah, I've gotten to that point where I write the title more as a reminder to myself as to what the post I thought of was supposed to be about. This is an intro.

So I was recently reminded that rarely do teachers let the students choose where to sit. However, when they do, it is a predictable pattern.

The title describes a church pew mentality (more on the church part in a later post, but right now I'd just care to explain the pew part). People going to church (or school) generally want to be there (or at least signed up for the course) but they are afraid of the front, being too close to the priest (or teacher). Catching on?

With classrooms, naturally everyone wants to sit either a) as far away from the teacher as possible b) as close to the door as possible and/or c) near their friends.

Teachers do this thing that priests cannot (or at least I don't think for them it's all that ethical...) they give seating charts. This forces the people that want to be at the back (the general population) to come closer to hear the sermon, I mean, lesson.

However, if you work the system right (this is where I fit in), you don't appear too eager to be at the back, or for that matter the front, you end up getting put in the middle of it all.

Nevertheless, all English classes will still have comically small desks (I want to spotlight that sometime...) and spinny chairs will never be put in classes.

The Can Trailer... Taken With a Phone Before the Crush
Amazing Quality, right?

And on an unrelated note, I got back from a can crush earlier. So our troop has this trailer outside of our local park where we collect aluminum cans and then sell the scrap as a fundraiser.

People, in general, are mean. They don't read the side obviously and stuff everything---plastic, glass, bags, into this thing. IT'S NOT A TRASH CAN.

So anyway, our mission every few months or so is to open this thing up and take the cans out of the bags, and sort out anything that's not aluminum cans. This is a huge undertaking, and this evening we had like 11 guys working on it with shovels and trash cans and gloves and whatever else (one time we had a huge railroad spike).

After working on this for forty-five minutes, we had completed the mission. The side effects to such a task include but are not limited to: hearing the crash of cans in your sleep, your clothes smelling like a combination of stale pop and stale beer, and of course that headache sparked from the nausea of smelling this concoction...

So yeah, that's a blog post, and I'm dealing with the headache now... hope to post Saturday or maybe Friday... mais je ne sais pas que fois vais apporter...

Vacation From God?

So, my father decided to join the blogosphere temporarily last week and wrote a Pastoral Reflection for UOCofUSA.org. It is a cool little reflection, so I've decided to rewrite it below.

See it online at: http://uocofusa.org/news_120711_2.html

UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA
Pastoral Reflections

"Vacation From God?"

By Rev. Fr. Robert Popichak

Ah, summertime! Each of us looks forward to the time of year where we get a break from our daily work and school routine.

In the United States, we call it vacation. Other countries call it holiday. Irrelevant of the name, it brings images of leisure time, travel, friends, family, and sometimes adventure.

Whether it is a trip to the shore, a cabin in the mountains, a tent in a park, a luxury hotel, or a cruise on the open seas, we all need a break from our normal routine to recharge our personal batteries. As each of us is different, we all have our own idea of what constitutes the best use of our time away from the office or the classroom.

As I write this, my family is preparing to go to a beach on the east coast for several days—our first true long vacation since our sons were born. Planning, sorting, arranging, packing—all of these take time and preparation. Maps are reviewed, online searches are made for attractions and sites of interest, arrangements to stop mail and newspaper delivery are made…all in the name of an orderly change. The destination is finalized, GPS loaded with our destination address, a temporary home is set for our Dachshund, and the car is packed…now what?

We spend a great deal of our lives looking forward to a break from the norm—whether it’s the typical long summer vacation from school or the ever-so-short week or two away from our jobs, it seems that planning for that getaway obsesses us for many weeks before the actual event.

Time away…from what? We never seem to give much thought about our spiritual lives when we plan a vacation…it’s just a Sunday or two missing church—God will understand! There are 50 other Sundays and other holy days to visit with Him…and of course, since He loves us, we don’t have to worry about Him! He’ll be right there when we get back…and if we need Him on our trip, He’ll be there as well!

Sometimes, we fail to plan for the most important part of our vacations—the spiritual recharge. My most restful, peaceful, relaxing, and recharging vacation was nearly twenty years ago. Pressures from my work were immense—the personalities were grinding my nerves to nothing—all was NOT WELL! I NEEDED a vacation!

For some reason, unknown to me at the time, I decided to visit a friend in Northeastern Pennsylvania—in the Pocono Mountains. Since their family worked as well, I would spend a weekend with them, then do something I had never thought of before—spend a week at a monastery! Arrangements were made and I arrived at the Orthodox Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. I was shown to my room, met my mentor for the week, Hieromonk Juvenaly—the monastery librarian, then was given the schedule of services…beginning with compline, vespers, and dinner. Church services were nice—quiet, peaceful, NO PEWS! Dinner was quiet as well…and my night’s sleep as restful as I had ever experienced.

At 4 AM, the alarm went off, I got dressed, then up the hill in the dark to the chapel for Matins and Liturgy…which began at 5 AM! I went up the road in the dark—no hint yet of the sunrise. The church was empty except for a monk lighting candles…and the smell! Beeswax candles were burning throughout the church—it truly smelled heavenly. The silence filled everything as I stood in the back, just letting it permeate every cell in my body, until the arrival of other monks and laity. Matins and Liturgy were just a bit more special, the words a little clearer, the hymns a little easier to sing, the prayers ever so much more REAL.

At the end of the Liturgy, when I went forward to kiss the cross and receive the Antidoron, I truly did not want it to end. I had truly been transported away from every care and concern…to be with God for those few hours in His house. Throughout the days, it seemed that there were not enough services, so I spent extra time in the church, just breathing in the scent of the candles, looking at the light on the icons, and thinking about what I was doing there. I even thought about a monastic vocation! Father Juvenaly told me that the life of an Orthodox monk was not for me—I must say I was crushed emotionally…but he said not to worry, God had definite plans for my life!

Now, two decades later, I can honestly say His plans for my life were nothing close to mine. I have loved every moment of my priesthood, but still fondly travel back to my week with God. Just the thought of it makes me smile…to truly vacation with Him, on His terms, in His house! I can take a microvacation just by thinking back to the first morning Liturgy.

As we travel to our family vacation spot, I will still think of that week. Each of us has been given the opportunity to experience God’s love and creation every day of our lives. Do not pass up the chance to see Him in everything around you—trees, hills, water, birds, animals, clouds, rain, storms—all are His creation!

On your vacation, take a few minutes to thank Him for everything He has given you—your health, family friends, and all good things come from Him. Visit an Orthodox church where you find yourself—go in and look around, breathe in the smells, experience a slightly different view of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Recharge your batteries…and save those memories for when the snow flies!

May God grant you a safe journey, no matter where you roam, a safe return to home and family, and His Love and Protection along the way!

Originally Posted on July 11, 2012 at  http://uocofusa.org/news_120711_2.html The Article was written by Fr. Robert Popichak for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America's
"Pastoral Reflections" Series. 

This entry appears here with permission from the author

Brief Bonus Blog Post Fun Time!

So this past week, shortly before I wrote the post of the week, I wrote a little reflection of sorts on Bishop Daniel coming to Slickville. They published it on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America's homepage. I am an internationally published author. This is kind of awesome.

Read the Original Here: http://uocofusa.org/news_120512_2.html

Or, Read the Text Version Here:

UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA

CONSISTORY OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

PRESS RELEASE

Archpastoral Visit to Slickville, PA!
By Alexander Popichak

I am the teenage son of an Orthodox priest serving the quiet village of Slickville, Pennsylvania. Not many things come in the way of excitement to the mining town of less than three hundred, so when His Grace Bishop Daniel visited Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Church on May the 6th, he was welcomed as only Slickville could, with a buzz of excitement and open arms. When our parish president greeted His Grace with the traditional gifts of bread and salt, Bishop Daniel had said that he had never visited Slickville, but was glad to finally be visiting for the first time.

Shortly after, Divine Liturgy was served with four students of St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Bound Brook, NJ, Subdeacons Vasyl and Andriy, seminarians Yuri, and Ivan, who Bishop Daniel brought along with him, as well as two altar boys and parish pastor Father Robert Popichak.

The average age of our Slickville parish is around over 50, and the youth and energy demonstrated by four seminarians gave those in attendance a sense of hope for the present and future of the Orthodox Church as a whole.

I included this because I took
This picture myself...

After giving a brief talk about his personal history in the church, His Grace took a picture with our entire church family. We welcomed him, as well as his seminarians downstairs for a coffee social hour. Bishop Daniel was touched by the outpouring of hospitality our humble parish gave, and in response made it his mission to hug everyone there. The bishop and the seminarians were sent on their way eastward with bags of goodies, and muffins galore. Our parish family is extremely grateful for the visit, and can’t wait for His Grace Bishop Daniel to stop by again!

Originally Posted on May 12, 2012 at http://uocofusa.org/news_120512_2.html The Article was written by Alexander Popichak for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America.

My Weekend and Re(ImagiNATION) (a Two-Parter)

Warning: This may be hard to follow.

So my weekend began when I walked off of my bus and packed for the Camporee. I began texting a friend, and before I knew it, I was standing among tents that I helped put up (Note to the reader - Our Scoutmaster was last on the site. I was playing SPL and scoutmaster at original setup.). So I attended an SPL meeting where I learned that everything I knew as far as timing goes was a lie, and we had to wake up earlier.

I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of my troop surrounding my tent screaming "WAKE UP ALEX!" For the record, the only reason they wanted me up was because I was supposed to help making food for them.

We plugged through half of the day doing events such as lumberjack, this crazy memory game (more on that in a second) and a legit discus competition.

So there was this crazy memory game where there were 100 items on a tarp and we had to remember as much as we could after looking for 5 minutes. I was amazed at not only my own memory, but my troop's. They remembered close to 70 of the things.

Lunch rolled around, I had some ramen, and we had a shotput competition.

At this point, I had to leave my troop to join my WYEP group at our band competition in Schenley Plaza. My next post will be on my thoughts on that event.

I made it back to camp just in time for my father's interfaith service at camp, and got to listen to his sermon. Most people in general hate sermons but I kind of enjoy them. It gives me the chance to hear other people's perspective on things, and most of the time they are semi-profound. I like the profound ones... anyway, next topic!

So we went to the campfire in the parade field where troops sang songs, and we gave the best skit ever and other troop stole said skit and bottom line it was this amazing brotherhood-ish thing that is hard to explain fully but bottom line bonds scouts in general together.

I left the campfire at the end to attend yet another SPL meeting where they offered dutch-oven deserts and announced the winner of the patch design contest. I am proud to say that I am the designer of said patch. However, said patch hasn't come in yet from the patch makers as of 5/6/12 when I wrote this. When said patch comes in, I'll post a picture of it next to this rant.

We left camp that night, my father, brother and I for home. The next day we were to be in Slickville to greet the Bishop.

Slickville can be summed up in these sentences from a previous post:
"...Being the son of an Orthodox Priest kind of puts you in this alienated bubble. You see, my geographical church is in downtown Carnegie, Pa., but in reality I end up going to my appointed church in the center of the Universe Slickville, Pa. The median age in Slickville is 75ish, ergo I am the only highschooler other than my brother. But nevertheless I love it."

After church in Carnegie on the day that I posted about (link here) I invited Bishop Daniel (If you didn't click the link you are lost now) to come to Slickville. That was back in January. This past Tuesday we receive word that Bishop Daniel is coming to Slickville - because of my invitation. 

Slickville is this amazingly stark contrast from my hometown in the sense that it is a very simple town, where everyone knows everyone and greets anyone who walks through the doors. In the city if you did that, odds are that you would get mugged or something. 

So we are driving out to Slickville and we hit the half-way point of Export, Pa and my father turns around (Slickville is about 45 minute drive) and asks if his red bag which contains, like, everything involved with a church service minus the building is in the back. It wasn't. So he turns the car around and drives us back home, I get the bag and toss it in the back with lightning speed.

There is a lovely ending to this story in the sense that we were able to be back and ready before our regular start time of 10:30. We proceeded with a service in Slickville with a bishop for the first time in about 13 years. 

The neat part about the whole ordeal is that we didn't have enough time to call the presses, fix up some elaborate service, but rather gave the Bishop a truly Slickville Service. He recieved the raw un-rehearsed group of singers (We don't have a choir), the hospitality, and welcomed him as a visitor. And, I think to him he welcomed it as a change. 

In his words, "You guys didn't put on a show, you gave me a service."

That was my weekend, minus Re(ImagiNATION). That is my next post when I can get to it.

Super Special Bonus Blog Post Fun Time!

Do I ever use my own pics?
SOURCE: OrthodoxCarnegie.org

So yesterday I was texting my sister (No, not my real sister, but you get the idea... [maybe this is what Jay Scribble means by "Secret Sister" and "Secret Brother"]) and she invited me to church. Granted, I can go to church down the hill anytime I want, but I got invited, so I decided to come...

So this morning I woke up and walked down the hill, over a block or so, down the hill some more, and eventually made my way to Mansfield Boulevard where the church is. I walked into the church, greeted the greeters (Its a bizarre feeling to be formally 'greeted') and then got the reader(My not-real sister's father)'s permission as well as the priest's permission to serve (I'm an alter server, not a priest, or deacon, or bishop, or anything else).

It has been a long time since I have served solo with another priest; and it was, to say the least, interesting. It isn't, at least in my eyes, my "home" parish. That title goes to Slickville, and will forever be Slickville. But it was nice to be able to experience church through the customs of my geographic home parish.

On a side note, the priest was absolutely amazed I walked the five or so blocks to church.
"If your dad and brother are in Slickville, and your mom is in Butler, how did you get here?"
"Um, I walked"
"Woah. Oh, thanks for coming"

Anyway, I stayed for the Parastas, and then attended Sunday for the first time in about seven or eight years. Again, it was a tad taboo for me to go into a church basement, sit with people my age, and discuss what had just happened upstairs. I won't go into too much detail (Feel free to ask, I just am not trying to be a blogevangelist), but it was bizarre to me, or at least foreign. Slickville has an average age of about 75, making my brother and I the youngest "members" of the church (legally and canonically, we can't be members, but again, I am not going to go into detail). Our Sunday School was my mother brother and I talking in the basement of the church about the miracles of Christ, as well as what the parts of the liturgy meant, et cetera. It was very much the same in the content respect, only it wasn't two small children and their mother talking one-on-one.

We later went next door to the hall, where I talked for a while with people I hadn't seen in a while, greeted other people, and then my sister's mother gave the two of us a ride to musical practice.

I am not at liberty to discuss the specifics of the show (See it at Carlynton live April 19-22nd) but basically, we took pictures, sang a little, attempted to dance (Or rather, I attempted to dance whilst the people around me actually danced), and then went home.

Yay, this is something I actually own!

"Going home" was staying at my house for about an hour, and then descending the hill I already had walked this morning to the basement of another church for a boy scout meeting. We discussed upcoming events, and then had some team-building stuff that we went over as well as chain of command.

According to my friend, the girl scouts are a classroom-oriented organization. You are sorted by age group and have one year or so to accomplish a rank. The boy scouts is quite the opposite. You gain a rank by earning it with your own initiative (You can be in the program for six or seven years and be a tenderfoot... we don't encourage it, but you can do it). We are very much boy-led, and its kind of amazing how it all is brought together.

I finished my Sunday by texting my sister and the before-mentioned friend and coming up with a blog post idea. I decided I was going to talk about my Sunday. I texted my sister a name, and that was "Super Special Bonus Blog Post Fun Time!" And she liked it.

PS: Why is Blogger telling me Slickville is not a word... or texting?

The Bishop Comes to Carnegie, I go Sledding, and Some Other Stuff

I have this habit where I write some amazingly profound three-thinged title, and then get too lazy to write what the actual title was. First off, I'd like to apologize that this isn't my regular post day, but I have been busy doing stuff.

Again Stealing from another site;
Source: UOCOFUSA.ORG

So this past weekend I did a lot of "church-ing". Being the son of an Orthodox Priest kind of puts you in this alienated bubble. You see, my geographical church is in downtown Carnegie, Pa., but in reality I end up going to my appointed church in the center of the Universe Slickville, Pa. The median age in Slickville is 75ish, ergo I am the only highschooler other than my brother. But nevertheless I love it.

SO anyway, I had the chance to go to my geographical church and serve (I'm an alter server and sometimes fill-in reader) with the bishop of Greater Chicago, Bishop Daniel. He's a fascinating gentleman who, if you didn't see him in some fancy robes, you would think him just a regular 30ish gentleman.

It was, to say the absolute least, an interesting experience. I met people who apparently I knew at one point; but had sincerely forgotten. I had last been there about two years ago. It was amazing how many people had just welcomed me as if I had been there every Sunday since I knew consciously what Church was. (Depending on how this gets received, I might blog more about church, but I do not want to offend anyone.)

Anyway, backtracking, the Saturday before this visit I decided to go and sled ride at Carnegie Park. I ran into a former scouting friend Eric. He and I crossed over together, and we immediately recognized each other. Its amazing how paths are crossed and people remember who each other.

I honestly think that in order for anyone to truly appreciate what they have, they must step back and take a look at what you actually have.

Sorry I didn't post much, or about anyone in particular, but I am doing this on my own time; which between musical and WYEP and school and scouts, is QUITE hard to find.

If you want to get in contact with me (Feedback on posts?), I network socially (Tweeting is quickest, @AlexPopichak).