Good writing

It's been a while since I've heard this, but today I did. And this is one of my favorite verses in song.
And I use the word "verse" loosely here.

My name is Sue.
How do you do?
Now you gonna die.

Brilliant.

Thank you Mr. Cash. Today I'm reminded that I miss your songwriting.

Demographics can be fun

I took Western Civilization when I was a sophomore in high school. It was an AP class which means college level. College level means hard. Big mistake on my part.

On one of the exams an essay question directed me to do something with demographics. Use them to support my response, talk about them, who knows. So I raised my hand like any properly trained student who has been told there is no dumb question and asked, "What are demographics?" Apparently I missed the training session where they tell you the teacher doesn't have to actually answer your question. Instead I got, "You probably should have asked that before the test."

If I could have that moment back I would like to say, "Well I guess I won't be answering this question." Oooh, in her face. You won't be surprised to hear I opted not to take that AP exam. That was the one good decision I made in that class.

I know what demographics are now.

Oompa-Loompa genius

This is just too good not to share. As simple and childish as it is, the awesomeness is undeniable. It rings with me as I frequently consider dismantling the TV. Or maybe just the cable.

From my friend Roald Dahl, care of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I just finished reading this and was thoroughly impressed with the Oompa-Loompa songs. This one I read out loud to wife last night before our first born interrupted. But I got through most of it. (I have not double checked the accuracy but it looks pretty close.)

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

the bad first

I have found myself going through this March Madness type tournament on CMT.com today. 64 videos from amateur/semi-pro country/not-so-country musicians. There are a bunch, as in a BUNCH, of not good songs. I only write this to say you know a song is not going to be good when it is titled "I Still Think About You" and the first line is "I just googled your name again." I am pretty sure but any reference to Google disqualifies a song from respectability unless you're Brad Paisley. I think that dude can sing about anything he wants.

This does make me feel better about my own writing that has taken a multi-year hiatus.

However, this gives me a chance to start what is hopefully a reoccurring occurrence here. What I think would make a good movie or song title. The newest is Lonely Kingdom. I think this could make for a fine movie one day. I'd probably go see it. How could that not be good.

Oh, and one of the videos was made in my old home town outside of Cleveland. How wacko is that?

News rag

Here is a portion of an email I sent the boss to update her on the family status last Thursday.

We're all doing well and Jackson seems very content to sleep and be loved. I attached a couple of pictures but please ask everybody not to sell any of these photos to the tabloids. They are all trying to get the first picture (and paying top dollar I might add) but we want to keep him out of the international spotlight as much as possible.
Thanks.

When I got into the office Tuesday somebody had worked this up.

repositioning

I thought this was a really interesting video. 20 minutes, but you'll be engaged.
Rethink your assumptions.

the elusive bride

Do you know who the bride is? Not you or me or him or her alone, but us together. Us together is her, the bride. I'm just getting my brain wrapped around this. I'm seeing more that this is the Church. And big church Sunday style is not the Church. And the various house churches are not the church. It may be expressions, but not it. That's my growing understanding of the bride, and it's challenging.

That's my super quick background on why I thought this was a really great email I got to peek in on.

You know God was able to give Moses some very specific instructions on how to build the tabernacle. If He had wanted to, He could have done the same quite easily in defining what were the important sacraments, what day of the week we should meet, and what were the 17 key points to have in our statement of faith. Instead “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

With all that there were arguments and schisms in the NT church too. I guess many of Paul’s letters (those that survived and those that didn’t) addressed that.

So do you think we have been doing it all wrong for 1700 or so years now since Constantine?

I suppose the problem is that you can’t really define what is beyond definition in some sense. People want an ecclesiology that they can see, understand, control, or at least that is definitive, ordered, and structured in some sense. They see a pattern or system to everything in the created world and expect the same in the church. What you’re describing is far too dynamic. People want to see and know what their role is in all of this. After all these years, we still want a king of our own flesh, just like Israel and a defined kingdom. We want a simpler order, hierarchy, methodology, or system. The order within a fractal is too complex!

Anyway…just some thoughts. In some sense its very simple to grasp. In another, it’s way over our heads, and not wanted because it’s not within our control, nor does it have the appearance of order in a simple way.

summer fun

Summer is here. Time to bust out the water balloons.

thank you for your service

I am saying good bye to www.apple.com/trailers/ today. But hello to www.themoviebox.net.

Thank you Apple Trailers but you've been preempted.

I will say Hot Rod looks gud.

promising

I can only hope this movie fills out the trailer nicely.

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What's in a name?

Not surprisingly I have been thinking about names. I'm gonna have to name a boy here soon so it's been on my mind. Fortunately we have many friends with children. Unfortunately they have taken numerous cool names so I feel like the selection has begun to limit itself before I could even get in the game. So anytime I hear something about names my ears perk up.

When I was younger I did not like my name much but I have grown quite fond of it. Especially my middle name, my mother's maiden name. So I have been quite picky when it comes to this son of mine.

You must know that I am in love with finding shadows of Christ and the Father's nature in the everyday mundane life. I really love it. A lot. And the foreshadowing of events like exodus and passover. Well a couple weeks ago I heard somebody talking about how we take on the name of Christ as Christians. So naturally I started to mull it over and this is where I was stuck.

Is something missed when a wife decides not to take her husband's name when they marry?

I have some friends where the wife has opted for this. I know many of the reasons wives choose not to; career, hassle, independence, etc. And don't think I'm judging if your wife didn't take your name. But is there a missing piece, small though it may be, to a joining of man and woman where the husband's name is is not adopted? I won't wade into authority (which should be a big blessing to the wife if I understand it correctly) or any other stream from these waters but you can. Just a question in my brain these days.

Initially I think there may be something lost. In the same way, as a follower of Jesus, if I would not take up his name, might I be lacking some intimacy? Am I even living in the name I've been given? Am I living as a bride under a new name?

I'll talk to wife about this and see what she thinks about her own name. That isn't a question I've asked her yet but it makes sense to me. I'm sure there's something to be learned from her on this matter.

Greg Boyd's in the house

I thought I had pasted this up here earlier but I don't see it. I think it's really great.
Here are some highlights for you.

We “fall” when, instead of freely receiving LIFE from God we seek to acquire LIFE on our own. This is what the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden is all about (Gen. 3).

And yet, so long as we buy the lie that LIFE can be found outside of God, we think the problem is that we simply don’t have enough. If only we had more of our god, we think, or perhaps if only we had a different god, we’d find relief from our pain, we’d feel full, alive, meaningful and secure. But it’s all a grand illusion.

We are on the precipice of LIFE when we begin to wake up to this grand illusion. When we realize and accept the utter futility of god-chasing, we are at the door of the Kingdom.

this body of ours

Yes, again today, I am amazed at our bodies. We have been wonderfully made. The mechanism is built in such perfect ways.

Still amazed.

heart songs

A few weeks ago I took a Saturday morning and got together with a couple of friends. We covered a bunch of stuff but one of the sweetest things happened to me.

Have you ever had somebody say something to you, about you, that you couldn't put to words, but when they said it you knew it was true? Well that's what happened to me. My heart, for some time, had been trying to speak something but my mind couldn't sort it out. I couldn't wrap words around the feelings I was having. But then there it was, as if obvious. What an incredible thing to have the ache of your heart spoken over you. It's hard to describe how my heart was rejoicing, but it was. It still is. I expect this will be a cherished memory for a while.

So fast forward a few weeks to yesterday, Sunday. I am standing in our church house and singing a song that is getting repetitive. Something to the effect of "you are faithful," endlessly. Occasionally I can handle this but there are many times I'm bugged.

So it's happening again. I may even be thinking, "I don't get this." Blah, blah. Do I believe it? Yes. But it's getting tedious. This time however, my mind wanders back on that Saturday morning, how great it was. And there's a nudge in me whispering, "Yeah, I like that too."

KA-BOOM.

Oh...really?...oh...ok.

I've heard about praising God. Or blessing God. But inside of me, it has seemed as something I'm supposed to do. "Well, ok, I guess if that's what you say, I'll praise you. You are awesome. You are good and right. How's that?" Sometimes even part of a prayer formula. Yuck, run.

What if, His heart, is blessed by what I say. Truly blessed. To think that I can bless God, in any way, is amazing to consider. The creator of the universe, the judge of everything, the editor of the bestseller of all time could be blessed by little me.

It makes me think more on this Father-son relationship we have. As a son I can bless my heavenly Father. Mind boggling. More and more I'm thinking that's about all I'm good for. And what a little cuss I've been.

I was gonna say, "As a side note," but I thought better of it. How much can I bless my earthly father. Do I really do that? Ummm, I don't think so, but today I will start.

I think yesterday was another one of those moments that will change me from the guts out. I can be loose and free with my praise and it blesses Him. So great. So, so great.

Father,
You are AWESOME. You are good and right.
You paint incredible sunsets. You grow up beautiful trees.
You are deep to no end and yet make yourself known in the most simple ways.
I love you. I really do.
your boy,
Colin

I think I just figured out where the Psalms came from.

No socks with sandals

Today I was sent "15 Style Mistakes You Can Fix Now" by one of the two people that live in my current residence. How would you take this? Needless to say, I know how I took it.

I do like #14: If you have a hairy chest, you cannot wear a V-neck without an undershirt.

This applies to me. My chest is hairy. I have though, been using clippers to cut it close recently and I like it mucho. There was some initial itching, but it only lasts a day or three. I have repeated as necessary and that itching has been substantially less than the initial shearing. I am considering trying it out on my legs. But again I fear the itching as does wife who sleeps in the same bed I do with great regularity.