Final-- Slice-of-life Profile

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to include source information (source of idea and contact information for sources), so I'm putting it here. Cathy Eikenberry was a source for my religion story about Castle Brooks Spiritual Supply. She is really involved in the Lafayette Area Pagan Alliance, but also a house-wife and seamstress. She was very interesting to talk with about the shop, and I also learned about her personal life. She didn't seem like the average, run-of-the-mill soccer mom. She wore tight, bright-colored clothing that she made herself, and either wore heels or was barefoot. I got many details and interesting information, but I decided to go with the sewing angle because it was a good metaphor. I spent Monday (April 30) afternoon with her and her family at their home, and followed up with a phone interview to clarify a few things on Wednesday (May 2). Her phone number is 423-4474. When I called to schedule the in-person and phone interview, I had to start talking to the answering machine first, and then she picked it up. So if you call to verify the interview, make sure to leave a message. Her e-mail address is lavendarmoon@insightbb.com. Here's the story:

Local Pagan sews fabric of life with spirituality

The ironing board in Cathy Eikenberry’s dining room is covered with stacks of brightly colored fabric. A scarf for a Day of the Dead celebration, a doll for the African sea goddess Yemeja, and a tie-dyed pair of pajama pants are among the sewing projects she is working on.

Four altars honoring African deities watch over Eikenberry’s work area. They offer inspiration for the projects, helping her decide what colors and patterns to use.

Eikenberry first started sewing because she had problems finding clothes that she and her family liked and fit into. Today, sewing plays a larger role: being a seamstress offers a way to connect her personal and spiritual lives.

As a mother of five, it is hard to find time for personal study and quiet reflection. Eikenberry usually awakes before the children and the sun to enjoy a bit of time to herself.

Like many stay-at-home moms, her day is full of errand running, from school and scouts, to the grocery store and taking her husband, Mark, to work. However, in between scheduled activities, she keeps busy sewing and studying Pagan religions. She is currently working on numerology and the tarot, which her children find fascinating. At the tarot course she teaches, her son Justin, 13, often chimes in with his own insights.

After coloring a picture of the Goddess, her daughter Alyson, 6, who sports colorfully wrapped dreadlocks, asks if they can all attend Catholic mass when her older siblings come to visit over the weekend.

“I have friends that go to church, and it’s fun to meet new people,” Alyson said.

Eikenberry encourages the children to follow their heart and be open-minded to different religions.

“I don’t care if they’re Pagan, or Catholic, or Buddhist or whatever, as long as they don’t judge or harm others with their worship,” she said.

Eikenberry feels that she is on her right path because there is no separation between her spiritual and personal life. Every time she tries to take a job outside the home, something happens and the children need her to stay home and be more involved.

Finding a way to appreciate spirituality in her every day life keeps her going when she is busy shuttling the family, sewing and helping with homework. Even a trip to the fabric store can be a spiritual experience.

Eikenberry’s Pagan spirituality helps her to sew the many pieces of her life as a seamstress and mother together.

“No matter what I do, it always brings me back to caring for my kids and sewing.”

slice-of-life profile

Hopefully this is what you're looking for:


Walking 12 miles, meeting new people and being outdoors delivering mail to her neighbors are a major part of Nancy Workman’s daily routine.

Workman loves her job as a mail carrier in our community because of its unpredictability.

“Each day I come in, and I have no idea how much mail there will be,” she said. “I love meeting the people on my route and getting to know them.”

She prefers her walking route to a driving one because it allows time for reflection and personal contact with those on her route.

Workman loves the freedom of the street, but dodging dog poop can be a real challenge.

“Dog poop can really ruin your day,” she said.

The difficult weather this winter presented the biggest challenge for Workman, but neither rain, nor snow, nor heat nor gloom of night could keep her from delivering the mail. However, it does keep her up at night watching weather forecasts and worrying about the next days’ storms.

“I really do love this job,” Workman said. “I plan to keep delivering the mail until I can’t walk anymore.”

Techy Bible: divine invention

I found an article online from the Chicago Tribune's Religion section that talked about the Bible being completely recorded onto CDs. It also mixed in parts of a business story about the Christian market.

The lead starts by painting a picture of one producer, and his quandary with finding a perfect person to record the voice of Satan. It uses expressions to draw the reader in and make it more comical, such as "Finding the perfect Jesus" and "making a deal with just the right devil has turned out to be harder than hell". It briefly describes the project, and then returns to a quote about experimenting with the part of Satan. I think picking this theme back up keeps the readers' interest. The next section is a little background about the size and power of the Christian market. It is interesting how they mix topics like religion, entertainment and business. Although the story was focused on several aspects of the product, I only saw potential impact "this is going to be huge!" as opposed to real reactions from Christians who would buy the CDs. Are they really excited about it because they think their children would listen to the Bible on CDs? Why would consumers want to buy this instead of just reading the Bible? I didn't get those questions answered. I would also like to have seen a tie-back to the role of Satan as a clincher for a sense of completion.

religion & medicine

I found a different type of religion story this week from the New York Times. It is a medical and religion story. The article by Nicholas Bakalar can be found online.

The story was about a recent study examining doctors' religious beliefs and how those affect their interpretations of clinical and scientific data. Although the lead is pretty straight to the point (hard news), it does convey the interesting results of the survey-- including doctors' opinions of divine intervention. Something that I thought was a good way to appeal to more readers was the advice about finding a doctor of the same religion. The idea of the study is vague and ethereal, but to give patients' specific advice from implications of the survey helps relate it to everyday people.It also points out the controversy even within the medical community about the topic. I would have like to seen some real people's reactions to the study, and ask them if they consider themselves to be religious or not. As it stands now, it reads like a university news release (may have been).

Virtual Worship- In SecondLife, nobody knows you're a lapsed Catholic

I read an article from Sunday's Chicago Tribune about the use of online churches for worship purposes. It can be found online here.

The lead is what really drew me in to this religion story. "If all goes well, the naked lady won't show up this morning when Pastor Craig Groeschel preaches his Easter service. But several cats will probably drop in. A horned dragon might perch on the crimson seats. There could even, perhaps, be an emu strolling in." When I first read it, I remember being shocked, and obviously intrigued since I kept reading it. Another aspect that I liked about the article was an explanation of the church's online service, and a comparison to other lifelike games on the internet. The reporter even got a comment from a member of the clergy who is an avid gamer to comment about the use of the site. Although the use of online characters (avatars) was explained early in the story, I didn't understand the lead until I was almost done with the article. Also, the benefits and drawbacks to worshiping online were discussed. The reporter also included the number of avatars that visited the church in one day, and compared this to other sites where avatars interact so readers can gage the impact and popularity of these sites. Overall, I thought this was a well-written and interesting article about a topic I had never heard of before.

Islamic Art bridges cultural gaps

I was really intrigued by the Chicago Tribune's religion coverage, and decided to critique a story from March 30 online called "Art offers window into Islam". It can be found online.

The article starts out with a story about how table tennis tournaments bridged the gap between American and Chinese cultures in the 1970s, and relates this to the similar power Islamic art can have. It then begins by discussing the potential with the exhibit curators. I liked how they described the art, and related it to a greater understanding of Islamic culture. However, I think it would have been interesting to hear from a Muslim, discussing what this art means to him/ her as a member of that culture. A real person is included in the story, commenting on how similar Muslims are to members of mainstream culture through her interpretations of the art, but this is reserved for the last three paragraphs. I think it would have been more powerful to include this information at the beginning or in the lead, and then tie back to it at the end. The comments from curators are important, but of course they're going to say these comments. They are experts on the art, not common everyday people.

Religion stories

Sorry this is getting posted so late. I wasn't sure when it was due, and had to work with sources this morning.

I decided to monitor coverage of religion in the Chicago Tribune because I figured they would have a larger coverage due to their large ethnic population. It is also a large paper, and has specific staff dedicated to religion coverage. I was suprised to find many stories focused on Judiaism, although there were many about Protestant and Catholic Christian topics. There was one story each about Muslims, Africans and the Bahai faith. The stories about non-JudeoChristian religions focused on lifestyle or faith issues, while the Judeo-Christian stories focused on news events. Because I looked at the paper online, I didn't know what section within the newspaper they were featured in (The Tribune does have a "Religion" section). However, 11 stories were based on news events, while the other ten were written more as features. In general, the features were considerably longer than the news stories. The first news story I read was only three paragraphs long, while many of the features were over 1,000 words. Each story seemed to be pretty balanced to me. I think where the discrepancy or bias lies is within the types of stories that are covered. Due to Chicago's large ethnic population, I would expect the local paper to cover a variety of religions that showcase the lives of real Chicagoans. All of the stories had Chicago Tribune in their by-lines, although story ideas may have been wire service generated due to the national/ international story coverage (Colorado, New York, Washington, D.C., Netherlands). A majority of the stories were about political or legal events that involved religion or religious groups. There were also a large number of stories about Christian religious leaders, mainly those facing legal problems. I think that the Tribune is committed to providing religious news. Their main religion reporter offers a religion blog (The Seeker) to converse with readers about religion topics. She posts just a couple of sentences and provides a link to various religion stories. However, in order to better serve their audience, the Tribune should cover stories involving a larger variety of faiths. It may help Chicagoans better understand other people they come in contact with in their daily lives. I believe they are curious about others, and would read stories about other religions. If I missed anything, please comment and ask. Thanks!