Fixin' To

In case you're wondering ...

2010-08-18T12:25:00.000-05:00

Where I've gone, the answer is nowhere. :) Well, not exactly. Let me explain.
For the last several months, I've been mulling a transition to a more definite blogging/website identity, and I've recently taken a step in that direction. For the time being, I'm posting my ramblings at http://fixinto.posterous.com/. As I'm able to make a more permanent change, I'll work that in as well. Until then, the "posterous" account is where you can find me.

'All the world's indeed a stage'

2010-06-19T01:00:00.001-05:00

Over the last several days, I've wrestled with what to say in response to Jason Wert's post "Rush and God." I'm just going to write from the heart and see what happens.
I first heard of Rush when I was 14. I distinctly remember one early time I heard one of their songs – probably "Limelight" or "Tom Sawyer." It was on a bus while on a Scout trip to Washington, D.C.
Over time, my affection for and interest in the band grew. I even attempted to play the drums, modeling myself after Neil Peart. This is hysterical because I have no natural sense of rhythm.
I can't say for sure but I do wonder sometimes how much of his work as a lyricist impacted my chosen profession as a writer. I think it had some influence.
Around the time I was 19, I met Christ in a real and personal way and spent time with people roughly my own age who'd had the same experience.
Up until about eight years ago, my last Rush concert was around the time I was 20. I still liked the band and eagerly awaited every album, but I felt conflicted at times about listening to and supporting a band whose members were – at minimum – agnostics if not atheists.
Allegations from fundamentalists who believed the "Red Star" of 2112 was more than just the symbol of oppression but rather an sign of allegiance to Satan didn't help either.
In late 1998, I'd just been through the loss of my mother when I learned Neil Peart suffered two personal losses – his wife and daughter. My interest in the band renewed and I waited for the band's triumphant return on "Vapor Trails."
I took my wife along for the VT show and she likes the band now too.
Then, we went with a friend to see the opening show of the band's 30th anniversary tour in 2004. That friend, his wife and two children died in a automobile accident in Arizona four years ago this month. The day after the Rush show was the last time we saw them alive.
He was a drummer and she was a graphic artist. They'd moved to Nashville so he could pursue his passion. They later moved to Arizona to help out with a church.
I sat in my car crying the day after we learned of their deaths and listened to and sang the words to "Afterimage" over and over. "Suddenly you were gone; From all the lives you left your mark upon."
So, word of a new Rush album and tour began to spread later that year. In 2007, I began to introduce my young daughter to the band. She stayed with some friends and my wife and I went to see Rush on their tour-opening stop in Atlanta, Ga. We felt like we owed it to our friends. I sang the words to "Mission" in their memory. "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."
I still continue to grapple with the conflict between who am as I believer and the enjoyment I get out of being a Rush fan.
I've prayed for God to just shut off this desire if it's not something that pleases him and I hope I haven't ignored what may have been quiet whispers in this direction.
I've met dozens of other Rush fans at other shows and my daughter went with me to one when she was a little more than 2 and a half. Why would I do this?
Fortunately for her, she has a sense of rhythm and I believe Peart, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee are the among if not the best at their instruments. My wife couldn't go to the show in New Orleans in April 2008 because she started a new job and the show was rescheduled from a Saturday to a Sunday.
So I drove to New Orleans, went to a hotel not far from the arena, met up with some fellow Rush fans at a restaurant and walked to the show. An online friend met us at the arena and when they said no backpacks – my daughter's diaper bag was a backpack – we left the bag in our friend's vehicle and I stuffed two diapers in my back pocket and went in the arena.
She loved it and still remembers several aspects of the show.
So we're planning to go see them again this tour – hopefully with everyone along for the trip.
Where am I on the aspect – and question – of the influence?
I believe that many people who are like the guys in Rush haven't truly encountered genuine believers – people who do their best to make their actions and their faith match. They've seen the ridiculous roadside church signs and at least one member has said the church just looks like an exclusive club. It's so much more than that and I long for Rush and their fans to discover what authentic Christianity looks like.
My wife recently got a tattoo with the Hebrew word for "redeem."
She says she got it because she believes God can redeem anything if we let him.
I'm trusting him in believing that all this energy, time and money spent supporting Rush will somehow be of benefit to him and his kingdom.
Over time, as I've contemplated my own mortality, I've thought about wanting two things to happen at my funeral. I would like whomever delivers the message that day to give people an opportunity to consider and accept Christ as their savior and Lord – for all time.
But I also want them to hear "Limelight." "All the world's indeed a stage and we are merely players, performers and portrayers; each another's audience; outside the gilded cage."
When the curtain closes, I want to hear my Lord say: "Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done."
What do you struggle with as an obsession or long-term habit and how do you think God could you use it for his glory?

Blogger's note: All lyric references in this post are the copyrighted works of Rush, not mine.

Secular music and faith - should there be a line?

2010-04-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

As most of you know, one of my favorite bands is Rush. For those who've never heard of them, they're a Canadian rock trio founded in the Toronto area in 1968. Their debut self-titled album hit the shelves in 1974 with Geddy Lee on bass and lead vocals, Alex Lifeson on guitar and (the late) John Rutsey on drums. Later in '74, Rutsey bowed out due to health problems (he died within the last few years), then Neil Peart joined the band as the percussionist. He later became the chief lyricist.
For many years after I became a Christian, I struggled with continuing to listen to this band because they are, well, secular - for starters, and second, they are agnostics at best. Why the struggle? I embraced the Christian counterculture of rock music in the late 1980s/early 1990s and believed some of those who said Satan directly influenced some forms of secular music. Rush got lumped into this category because of the "Red Star" emblem depicted as part of the story in album "2112."
After years of wrestling – and even skipping songs I didn't think were appropriate (which I still do sometimes) – I reconnected with the band on the album "Vapor Trails," the band's first album after they took a hiatus while Peart spent some concentrated time coming to grips with the loss of both his wife and daughter in a short period of time.
The VT album and tour was also my wife's first real introduction into the band's work, and she's hooked too.
On their 2007 release – "Snakes and Arrows" – Rush displayed the song "Faithless." Its chorus goes:
"I don't have faith in faith
I don't believe in belief
You can call me faithless
I still cling to hope
And I believe in love
And that's faith enough for me."
On a "making-of" video for the album, Lee talks about how those outside the church view it as an exclusive club. Essentially, I think they speak for people who see the church as it exists today and want no part of it. This shouldn't be seen as a threat to the church, but a challenge; a challenge to be what we were called to be and be fragrant to God and those who don't know him and are turned off by what they see from his representatives on Earth.
So, do we – as the church – distance ourselves from the likes of people like Rush, or do we appreciate their talents, hear their words and enjoy their work?

So do we trust the storywriter or not?

2010-04-11T23:28:00.000-05:00

As I've been thinking through some circumstances in my life recently, I've been mulling over some things Mandy Thompson said. And I've tried to put some of these things in practice. I've worked to approach God with some honesty about how I feel about some of these things. I've come back around to realize there are some heart issues I need to face: How's my attitude about this situation? What have I done to improve it? I have I made the circumstance better or worse for myself or others with the way I've handled it?
The answers, unfortunately, are probably not good.
As I thought on this today, I began to understand the core problem is I'm not trusting God – with friendships and other circumstances. I'm trying to make things happen because I don't like how things have turned out. So I've been trying to reverse-engineer things and cut paths in places which were never meant to be disturbed. In other words, I've been trying to play mini-Providence and it's a role which isn't suited for me.
So instead of trying to "fix" the circumstances, I need to take my hands off of them and let the Person who started writing the story in the first place finish the job. Do we really believe the verse which says: He is faithful to complete it? That's what I need to find out for myself.
In what areas of life are you learning you need to trust God's ability to finish the story?

Apologies, dear followers

2010-03-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!
It's been far too long since you've all heard from me. I could rattle off the old excuses – I've been busy, tired, sick, playing Wii (some), lollygagging on Twitter, procrastinating and generally not thinking about my blog – but this information wouldn't do you any good.
You want to READ stuff!
Well, I had a few ideas last week. I remember three of them and will hopefully get a couple of them out over the next week or so.
I haven't figured out yet how to hold down a full-time job and blog. But people who do this successfully are typically multi-taskers by nature. I'm a rifle kind of guy and I usually take a long time to line up my shot, sometimes missing the opportunity.
But I've been thinking again lately about ways to revamp and upgrade my Internet presence. I don't want to make any promises, but let just say some things are on the agenda for the ol' family board meeting.
In the mean time, I'll start noodling on those ideas and hopefully some will blossom soon!

Acceptance

2010-02-06T09:36:00.000-06:00

I've recently discovered a personal challenge I guess I always knew was there but recently became glaringly obvious.
I want people to like me, so I sometimes try too hard to achieve this. I guess somewhere way back (or maybe over a series of times), I felt unliked, unloved and unwelcomed enough to think I had to find external validation to my existence.
So, it seems I'm on a regular search for this elusive emotional stamp, usually from people I wouldn't ordinarily think would like me. It's like a twisted relationship treasure hunt or geocaching game. I'm not sure what “winning” this game will look like but I'll know it when I see it and I haven't arrived. This is complicated by the sense I'm already at a likeability deficit before someone gets to know me.
Yes, I know how messed up this sounds, and it won't likely earn me a spot as add-on chapter to "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
I think of the famous Sally Field Oscar acceptance speech where she said: “You like me, right now, you like me.” She hit the acceptance jackpot and was overcome by it.
I know we have to look first to Christ for acceptance. It cost him a whole lot – his life in fact.
I realize as I examine this that I've got a long way to believe he's really here – right in the midst of this, even as I write. So, healing is in order and he's the only one who can heal a hurt this deep and cavernous. As a believer, I know he accepts me, it needs to start there and work its way out. I invite him to start this healing when he's ready.
Acceptance can't get any better than this (Ephesians 1:4-6): “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
I know I'm not anywhere close to being done with this issue, but acknowledging it and letting Christ do his healing work is the start. And, on the human end, I need simply to let people like me for who I am naturally (and returning the favor), not beg them for their love. If I am really honest with myself and Christ, I already have more than I need and should be willing to give liberally, not act as though I've never received any.
What challenges have you faced with acceptance and how have you overcome them?

Looking back, looking ahead and trying not to crash

2010-01-01T12:15:00.000-06:00

This past year, my family and I have gone through some radical changes, the most prominent being my wife's employment with LifeChurch.tv. We've also gotten to know a bunch of wonderful people all around the world. My perspective on the world and how we interact with it has changed radically.
I no longer see just my little chunk of the globe – and what I've experienced of it – by itself. I'm connected with people in India, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and varying parts of North America. On the whole, this past year is certainly one I don't want to back up and do over (I certainly can't say that for other years, that's for sure).
To look ahead, I know I need to get my weight under control and we've recently taken some positive steps with this by using the Wii Fit system – a step forward from little to no activity is better than standing still.
But beyond this, I hope 2010 is the year I really get some clarity about what I'm to be about and what my purpose is, or at least some level of contentment with my circumstances in various settings. Sometimes I think I'm missing the mark. At other times, I realize I'm probably right where I need to be. Sometimes, I get the wrong messages from my circumstances. So, if nothing else I hope 2010 will be a time when I get my perspective right, even if my circumstance don't change one degree.
Though in much of the last year I've gained a great amount of confidence, I still face challenges in second-guessing myself in so many areas of my life. So, I need to learn how to take risks and not worry about the consequences as much after I make a decision. I should just make the choice, stick with it and pray it works out for the best.
I feel like I've made more progress this past year in living by faith and I want to continue down this path in 2010, learning even more about who Christ is and growing in learning how to love and serve with my brothers and sisters, being more generous in how I spend my resources.
So here's hoping 2010 will end with me being thinner, physically healthy person who is willing to take greater risks with proper wisdom, discernment and confidence in how I approach people and life's circumstances. How will I measure this? I think I'll know and I'm trusting we'll see real fruit from this 364 days from now. So let's do this!

I did it, sorta

2009-12-01T00:50:00.001-06:00

Officially, I didn't complete Nablopomo 2009 for November because what's become a familiar habit prevented my success - I fell asleep on the couch before I was able to post at the appropriate times.
I wish I could insist that since I was not officially in bed with the aim of sleeping, it should count.
I did it for 28 of the 30 days properly. Does this not matter? I think I should acknowledge it, and maybe others will join me in saying I was THIS close.
I hope sometime soon I'll be able to break this trend for my own health's sake and that it doesn't become a metaphor for other aspects of life.
Have you ever almost hit the mark on something only to fall short? How have you overcome it?

The one who wounds & heals

2009-11-29T16:40:00.001-06:00

Today, along with hearing our in-person teaching pastor speak, I read through a few passages in Scripture, starting with Isaiah 61:1 which talks about the Anointed One binding the brokenhearted.
I followed this to Job 5:18: "For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal."
We often think of God's latter quality of healer. We forget the first one, where God pierced his own Son. It's a much less painful thought to approach God as one who never harms. Obviously, the "harm" isn't intended for our destruction but our ultimate best.
Our teaching pastor at our church shared from his heart today. Here's some of what he said:

In retelling the story of Jacob wrestling the angel, our pastor said: "There's always a limp and there's always a reason."
"Difficulty is the great instructor."
"He loves us too much to let us stay the way we are."

There's a running joke around my house about my approach to cleaning, especially when I'm going through stacks of papers or something else which needs to be sorted and organized. I often say: "Sometimes you have to make a bigger mess to clean up something."
I'm learning God will often do something which looks to us like a larger mess, but - honestly - mainly because we're not in control of it.
What is your perspective on the thought God being both wounder and healer?

Why my blood has a strange color

2009-11-28T16:53:00.001-06:00

As I've watched what can only be called grudge-match rivalry weekend in college football unfold across the nation, I'm reminded my loyalties are somewhat divided in some respects.
Growing up in Montgomery, Ala., less than an hour's drive to Auburn University, my heart for many years lie on the Plains and I bled orange and blue, as the saying goes.
For those of you not familiar with the intensity of in-state college football rivalries, its safe to say the Auburn-Alabama ranks among the top. Alabama residents who never set foot on either campus are expected to pick a side and cheer for one or the other.
That's intense.
So 20 years ago this month sitting in my apartment in Tuscaloosa, Ala. as a University of Alabama student, I had a decision to make. Moments before kickoff, I decided to root for the Tide, adding a large vat of crimson to the mix.
Five years ago, we moved to the (Mississippi State) Bulldog Nation. I was - and still am - proud of MSU for choosing to hire Sylvester Croom as the first black head football coach in the Southeastern Conference, a decision the University of Alabama - where the Tuscaloosa native played and coached as an assistant - couldn't quite bring itself to make.
MSU beat Alabama twice under Croom and I can't say they didn't earn it and I understand why the 'Dogs yanked Croom after last year's 0-45 embarrassment at the hands of what's been called lately The School Up North (The University of Mississippi, otherwise known as Ole Miss).
So, add some maroon to the blend and you have one confused dude when it comes to Saturdays in the fall, at least for a few games.
Usually it's easy to figure out. I hold a piece of paper from Alabama, so that weighs heavily on most days, but I'm eager to see what the 'Dogs will do as they continue to move forward under Dan Mullen (they rectified last year's debacle with a 41-27 win today). And the rebuilding continues on the Plains under Gene Chizik so that's been interesting to watch.
This is one of the few areas of life where it's OK to get pulled in three different directions, and depending on where Jadyn goes to school (Lord willing and assuming she's able to do so), we might get an even more confusing color pattern in the future.
Until then, Go Roll Eagle!

Going deep

2009-11-27T23:06:00.000-06:00

Through the teaching this past week of Chris Beall on Church Online at LifeChurch.tv, I've been challenged about setting aside time to hear God in the quiet.
The task seems simple enough on the surface – Set aside time a few minutes a day to listen to the Lord in an undisturbed setting.
It's more difficult than it sounds.
But it's essential.
When we are trying to find purpose and direction, we expect God to land the answers in our lap so we can get on to the next thing. OK, at least I do.
When we take a step back and think about this approach, we realize this is absurd.
As Chris said: "Early mornings, private pain, discipline; that's where people become great." Sometimes, the answers we seek do appear out of the blue. But most of the time, they're forged in blood, sweat and tears.
As Oswald Chambers asserts, prayer is essentially a process toward getting to know God, so as we seek answers, we need to focus more intently on seeking Him rather than what he has for us.
How are you being challenged to grow deeper in your faith?

Gratitude

2009-11-26T08:44:00.003-06:00

For some reason, it's not always easy for me naturally to count my blessings. I tend toward the half-empty view, or at least I used to. So when I step back and force myself out of the negative mindset, I realize I have plenty to be thankful to God for, including:

I'm alive.
I'm reasonably good health for a big boy, with the knowledge I need to do something about the "big" part sooner rather than later.
I have a beautiful, intelligent wife who is more understanding and patient with me than I give her credit for being.
My gorgeous, bright daughter who I hope I'm doing right by as I raise her.
Being employed and finding new ways to enjoy my work.
Learning not to walk in fear - the world isn't going to fall in around me if I do something out of the ordinary, and if it does, I need to trust God to handle the aftermath.
The dozens of amazing people we've gotten to know through Church Online and Twitter these past 11 months from all over North America and on at least three other continents. It's been amazing journey I hope is nowhere finished, but rather just beginning. These folks have enriched our lives beyond measure and I hope we've done the same for them. Many of them are literally like family to us and I believe God has given them to us as such. (Grant me this temporary relapse in fear - I'm afraid to start listing people and miss anyone.) I also have met a number of fellow Rush fans in various parts of the globe I also consider good friends and I'm grateful to know them as well.
The people we've already known. These include my in-laws, who've gone above and beyond in making up for not having counterparts on my side of the family. Between our Twitter friends, our in-person church folks (past and present) and our online friends, we have a patchwork family which looks like very few others.
The time I got to spend with my parents and for the good things they did for me. They did more to prepare me and love me than I give them credit for when I slip back into half-empty mode and I look forward to seeing them again someday.
My relationship with Jesus Christ, which has grown by leaps and bounds since we've been hanging around LifeChurch.tv.

With all that said, it's time to get some other things under way today. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving Day?

Making the point now

2009-11-25T16:52:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, when I dropped off Jadyn at daycare, a young man she fancies (yes at 4) was in the classroom with her waiting to eat breakfast. She was wearing a new jacket and she wanted him to notice. She called him by name and wanted him to see it. I don't think he was paying attention. As I was preparing to walk out the door to go to work, it registered with me - she wanted him to notice and he didn't, at least not that I saw.
I had plenty of time, so I went back in, hugged her from behind and told her: "You're beautiful and I love you."
I can't be there every time she asked someone to notice, but when I can, I want to remind her that her father genuinely and deeply loves her and wants her to always remember that, especially as she develops a relationship with Christ.
What significant point do you want to make to a loved one, and how do you hope to go about doing it?

Why TV shows and I don't do well

2009-11-24T22:29:00.000-06:00

I may have blogged about similar themes before. If so, there's a reason.
It bears repeating.
I tend to get hooked on television shows which contain the following - decent acting, largely unpredictable plots and intelligent writing. There's a trend with most of the ones I've liked over the last decade or so - they get canceled, most of them slightly over (or significantly under) the typical five-year syndication window.
As I sat down to write this post, I got great news! "Scrubs" is coming back on the air!
This is another genre I like - insane comedy with a message. It's one of the reasons I enjoyed "My Name Is Earl." Though the essential format was the same each episode - there's going to be some issue Earl needs to rectify from his list and how they got to the end is what made it interesting.
So, here's hoping the resurrection of "Scrubs" will last.
What types of television shows do you like and do you feel "snakebitten"when your favorite shows go off the air?

In-person interaction

2009-11-23T22:47:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I hung out in person with someone I normally don't see face-to-face, but rather, I see him online. He lives less than two and a half miles from here, but it's just how things have worked for both of us.
I got to hear how things have gone for him these past few weeks. I learned what he's been doing and discovered more than I'd known in the online interaction. So what I'm learning is that while online friendships are valuable and certainly worth our time to cultivate, the richness we can find in sharing face time is at least of equal importance and in some ways greater value.
So how to we connect with and communicate with people who are thousands of miles away? Short of driving or flying to where the other person is, we can compensate for this through means such as Skype and Tokbox. Because when we interact with each other, we're completing the picture in an important way. How have you taken your online interaction into the 'real' world?

What does it look like?

2009-11-22T23:55:00.000-06:00

Today, for the first time I can remember, we really engaged in worship in our in-person church. It looks though we're in the early stages as a congregation of learning how to yield ourselves to allow the presence of Christ to fully appear in our midst. It's a great place to be. For a few seconds there I wondered if were going to extend our time significantly today. We didn't but the sense that many of us didn't want it to end was tangible.
Without airing laundry, our in-person church has been through it's challenges and struggles and now that it's turning a corner, I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store.
During a portion of this time, I thought of the words of the Twila Paris song "He is No Fool," based on the story of missionary Jim Eliot, who gave his life in efforts to minister to the Auca indians in Ecuador. I started scribbling down the chorus: "He is no fool, if he would choose; to give the things he cannot keep; to buy what he can never lose; to see the treasure in one's soul; that far outshines the brightest gold; he is no fool ... ."
I'm trying to hear from the Lord what this pursuit should look like for me. What does it look like for you?

Weekend warrior

2009-11-21T23:30:00.000-06:00

Before I became a parent, it seemed a weekend was loaded with so much extra time to do whatever I felt like, or didn't feel like, doing. Now, it seems like there's so much to think about and do with a little one around. I'm not complaining about the reason I'm a parent in any way, shape or form. We waited for her, sometimes impatiently, to arrive. But parenthood is the phenomenon which has compressed my free time the most in the last four years.
I'm a procrastinator already and it just forces more things to get shoved tomorrow's column. I'm learning how to schedule and juggle things on the weekend and felt pretty good - all things considered about what I got done today. But I try to balance the pressure to get things accomplished in my time off and just enjoy being home with my family.
What do you do to juggle off time with the need to get things accomplished around the house?

Peeling it back

2009-11-20T23:44:00.000-06:00

Sometimes it's so easy to look at a circumstance or situation on the surface and think we can lick it. Then, we encounter anything which is challenging related to the details involved and then we realize how much further we have to go. The setbacks can seem impassable, because we see others who either never had the problem at all or found a way to overcome it. It's difficult to see the way forward when you feel trapped in between these two places.
In the long run, I think it is better to go ahead and plunge in and see how tough and disgusting things are and get to the other side in an improved spot.

Finding the balance

2009-11-19T23:55:00.001-06:00

We never seem to be able to find that right balance between sleep and doing things we might otherwise spend our time and resources toward. Tonight, I feel asleep before 10 p.m. And that's just the way it went. Sleep; pursuing what we want. Sometimes, we can't proceed without the right amount of sleep, and at other times, doing what seems best is impossible without that sleep.

Glad we're part of this

2009-11-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

I've talked about this before here on my blog but my wife is the online experience coordinator for Church Online at LifeChurch.tv.
She typically helps out with the 8 p.m. CDT experience on Tuesday. Yesterday, they had an amazing encounter. I serve at two experiences at other times, one earlier Tuesday and one later Saturday evening, but I've never run into anything like what's described.
Christ's followers are the biggest obstacles people face getting to know Him. While we may never know the outcome of how these people experience Jesus, we know they've been presented truth about Him. Hopefully these planted seeds in these peoples' hearts will develop in something more. But even if it doesn't add up to anything immediate, hopefully they'll think back on their visit and remember the grace of God.

The sleep chronicles, part 99.7

2009-11-17T23:42:00.001-06:00

For the first time in I don't know when, I fell asleep on the couch before 9 p.m. It happens a good bit after 9 p.m., but the combination of several nights of less than six hours of sleep and getting up at 5 a.m. probably walloped me. But the nap I took gave me the energy to get some things done before we go to bed for real.
Sleep does all sorts of things for us, and if we don't get it, we function below our capacity, propped up often by caffeine and just going through the motions instead of going full speed.
What are some things you do to make sure you get enough sleep?

Hybrid language

2009-11-16T23:55:00.000-06:00

I've been discussing the idea of developing a conversational writing style with some people recently. This is a good idea and I want to work toward it. The trouble is, I'll need to use someone else as a model.
See, I tend to mix a number of styles in my speech, especially when I'm around friends or in other suitably comfortable savings. Instead of explaining it, I'll use an example: "Peace out, y'all!"
I use words which are probably antiquated in some respects and modern or possibly out-of-place in others.
It's how I talk. :)
I'm comfortable with it. It's my "second skin" as a language. I enjoy it and especially where it relates to informal talk, I'll probably stick with it as base of operations.
I'll just be myself and see how it works out.

Is it weird?

2009-11-15T23:09:00.001-06:00

In this day and age of Twitter, would our younger selves look at those of us who interact, connect and share on the social media network think we'd lost our minds at what we do?
In the last several weeks, I've watched three live concerts and interacted during these events with others. Like someone mentioned tonight during the Michael W. Smith show, it was as if we were all there together.
Today, my wife talked with a friend three states away about the contents of Rotel. I joined in a group chat about what would your name be if it weren't what you were given.
I'm not down with Homer. Won't ever be.
I've howled with laughter and even shrinked from some of the candor I see. I'm not quite that brave.
Yet.
But I sense connections with people all across North America and individuals who live in Asia, South America and Australia through various means including but not limited to Twitter. Dozens have prayed for me. Some of us have prayed together.
Despite my best intentions and hopes, I may never meet most of them here on Earth. But they've enriched my life in ways they may never quite know.
I hope I've done the same.
I told someone the other day there's some folks in the Pacific Northwest who would probably swing the doors wide and welcome us with open arms if we showed up on their doorsteps, though I'm sure they would appreciate some advanced notice. :) And possibly other parts of the world.
So is it weird that we have all these friends scattered about the globe?
From where I sit? Nope.

A familiar visitor

2009-11-14T23:52:00.002-06:00

This morning, as I was getting ready to take Jadyn outside to play, I started feeling feverish and experienced a pain in my left leg, kind of a cramp throughout much of the leg and a dull ache in the hip joint.
This is how most cases of cellulitis in my legs start for me. They used to be just an annoyance I could get over in about a week. But last year, a case in my right leg kept me out of work for several days in September. Another put me down for the count in December in the left leg. These cases resulted in severe skin damage to both legs. The right leg is a long way toward being healed. The left one is improving but isn't there yet.
It appears at this point I've had a minor relapse in the left leg today. I'm taking the appropriate medication and hopefully won't suffer a great deal with this one.
While we have not been able to make a certain direct correlation to diet, nor have I been diagnosed with such, cellulitis is a common problem for diabetics and these infections would occur after I had overdone sugar.
After the last major round of cellulitis in December, I significantly cut back on the amount of sugar I intake. In fact, I've gone several weeks with out it. I loosened up on it a little bit this week and again, though I am not 100 percent certain this is the cause, the correlation is there.
I've added in a lot of wheat bread and will eat it when nothing else is around.
One of the challenges I face is that I don't just eat to sustain myself. I eat when I'm bored, upset, stressed, happy and wanting to celebrate. I know this and have tried to find the ways to just shut it off and stop it. I've not been able to on my own. I get these cellultis reminders so I don't think I've arrived - that's when I usually get in trouble.
I'm not anywhere close to arriving in addressing this issue.
As I got ready for work this morning, I realized that a difference between this year and last is that people on four, possibly five continents will pray for me about this. This is a huge difference and I believe with their help I can conquer this once and for all.
-----

P.S.: I thought it might be in order to clarify what cellulitis is – It's a skin infection. The fever and joint/muscle pain are early warning signs the infection is on its way, at least in my experience. Once it is actually visible, cellulitis usually manifests itself by causing redness and swelling in the impacted area. At this point, my latest episode is mild compared to the ones which damaged my legs last year.
Here is more information from WebMD regarding the condition.

Memory flashes

2009-11-13T23:45:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I've been thinking about people and circumstances long since passed. A person who was a mutual acquaintance of my parents and our next-door neighbor; an old hotel in town which may not even be there now and if it is, it probably isn't the best in the area; the old AM rock station I used to listen to (yeah I said AM rock station) and others I can't recall right now.
I'm not sure what's been sparking this, but I guess it's part of the healing process of helping me remember that even though a great deal of time has passed since my parents died, the world they lived in isn't completely dead, even though it's changed a great deal.
Lord, help us understand the purpose for old memories and let us live out your plan and passion for it.
What old memories to do you have and how much do you wish to understand them?

Winding down

2009-11-12T23:35:00.000-06:00

After a productive day, I'm glad to be calling it a night soon. I trust everyone has had a successful day. What has God been doing in your heart to prepare you tomorrow and even the next day?

Up late again! :)

2009-11-11T23:48:00.000-06:00

And I'm up late again but I've been having fun - learning how to use Google Wave and catching up with some old acquaintances on a message board I visit.
Amanda and I did some assessing/brainstorming tonight about direction, focus, etc. We're getting there, but we've not arrived. A Rush lyric from "Prime Mover" says: "The point of the journey is not to arrive."
We've been living an amazing adventure over the last several weeks and months and are thrilled to be part of it. But we know that if we continue to let the circumstances of our lives dictate outcomes instead of us bringing them under a certain amount of submission, we'll let our time run us instead of the other way around. So, time to take care of few other things, then go to sleep.
Anyone else in the throes of an

Sleep, perchance to sleep

2009-11-10T22:44:00.000-06:00

I've got to figure a way to balance things - I'm constantly nodding off after about 9 p.m. these days. I am fighting to stay awake long enough to post this. I know this isn't the way things should be, but I haven't found the balance.
I have to find it for my health and sanity, but until I find time to even out my morning it'll be difficult. For now, I'm going to go to bed a good bit earlier than normal.
Anyone else have trouble finding the right set of circumstances for sleep?

Yesterday's science fiction, today's reality

2009-11-09T23:19:00.000-06:00

About 10 days ago, Amanda and I did a video chat with a couple in Sydney, Australia from the comfort of our house – with no real effort other than the click of a mouse. We really enjoyed it and learned a great deal.
I just saw an ad for Ford's Sync system in which the driver asks the system to read a message - it tells him a highway is closed. Earlier, I watched an ad about this from this from OnStar: A system which - under the proper conditions - will give law enforcement and OnStar personnel the ability to disengage the acceleration on a vehicle reported stolen. In promoting the feature, OnStar says it will help reduce "the risks of high-speed pursuits," an announcer says on the video.
So, all of this stuff we'd likely have seen imagined – in some shape or form – in science fiction television shows and films of the past.
We're living in a SciFi (or is it SyFy?) show to some degree in everyday circumstances.
My question tonight is – are we better off for it or worse off?

Force feeding and faith shouldn't mix

2009-11-08T19:34:00.004-06:00

This morning, Amanda pointed out that Jadyn tends to steer away from spiritual conversations after noticing one she dodged as we readied her for church.
While we don't want to force feed her about Christ, we do want her to encounter Him for herself and we want to set the right atmosphere this. Amanda mentioned we don't pray enough for this to happen and it's true. Later, I was looking through some books on a dresser in one of our rooms and two caught my eye – "You Have What It Takes" by John Eldredge and "101 Ways to Talk to God" by Dandi Daley Mackall.
I've thought about using some of the approaches Mackall suggests in helping Jadyn learn how to have her own conversations with God. Plus, Eldredge says: "She wants to know: Am I lovely? That's the question every little girl is asking. And she looks to her dad to answer it."
I already try to affirm my love for her and my opinion of her beauty on a regular basis. It's the spritual side which has been lagging, but I know that one day, how she sees her relationship with her earthly father will have a direct correlation to how she views God.
I decided to come up with a plan of action to address this, then went to church.
After church, we went to lunch. We talked about what she learned in her children's church class, and she said it was thankfulness. A friend asked her what she was thankful for and her first answer was Jesus. I was relieved!
This doesn't mean I need to slack off and say no further action is required. But it does warm my heart that she does seem to understand.
A few minutes ago, we just completed a nearly one-hour battle to get her to eat some corn. We ended the stalemate by making her down a forkful.
I'm grateful it doesn't seem like helping her develop her faith in Christ isn't coming to the same conclusion.

Connection without face-time (in most cases)

2009-11-07T23:25:00.004-06:00

Over the past year, Amanda and I have gotten to know many people around the United States and a few in other parts of the world through our online connections.
We feel connected to them in some ways more easily and directly sometimes even more than people we've met in person. Why? Because of the conversations we've had on Twitter, e-mail and other forms of electronic communication.
I've been in one particular group of people who share a common background and I feel more comfortable with them than I do with some in-person friends because they are right there with me on this specific issue - they've thought the same things and fought the same battles in their hearts. We are kindred even though we haven't all met in person. We share life and we're as far as 600 miles away.
We've even gotten to know people on the other side of the world and chatted via video or through instant message, just sharing what's on our hearts or minds at the moment.
So, we have family we haven't met in person yet and we're glad to have the bigger, broader definition of family active in our lives.

Oops!

2009-11-07T01:51:00.003-06:00

I wasn't doing this for a prize, but I feel asleep on the couch in the late hours of Friday and woke up early Saturday morning fully intending not to go bed without having blogged and it still bugs me that I missed the window. So here I am, backpedaling barely seven days into the month.
This being said, I am attempting to write now with the hope of writing again later in the day to satisfy Saturday's blogging requirement and have that count - somehow! :)
What do you do to try to make up for something when you've missed a deadline or otherwise just plain messed up? Do you try to make it work somehow, just ignore it or find another way to deal or not deal with it?

How daddies can be caregivers too

2009-11-05T21:44:00.003-06:00

Have you ever had one of those instant flashes where you knew what was ahead of you and could only just deal with it and not run away? I got one of those Wednesday.
I walked into Jadyn's daycare. She was resting her head on one of the worker's laps.
Not normal.
One cheek was flush red instead of its usual, lighter shade.
Not normal.
They said she'd been running a fever, but couldn't agree on the degree. So I checked at home - 102.9 F/39.4 C.
Not normal.
With the pattern of normality now fully off kilter, I settled into the caregiver role, since Amanda was 10 hours or so away in Oklahoma. I gave her medication to fight the fever and worked to get her to bed.
Several hours I got her to sleep in her bed, she decides to come into where I'm sleeping and we don't stay asleep for long. So, at somewhere around 5 a.m., I'm up and awake this morning and so is Jadyn.
I get her to the doctor and take careful notes regarding his diagnosis so I can report back to Amanda and the daycare center. The diagnosis was ILI (Influenza Like Illness) - through tests and examination, the doctor ruled out strep, pneumonia and flu. Basically, he said she's a normal child with a fever and sore throat.
So, we get some food at McDonald's, clean up the house a bit and then take a nap, awaking to Amanda back in the house!
Sometimes we're faced with situations outside of our comfort zones and elements and we just have to deal and run with that which we're dealt. I did and think I came out on the other end OK. :)
So when have you faced a situation where you've had to do something you're not used to and how did you manage?

Tearing down the walls

2009-11-04T22:29:00.004-06:00

Through the past several months, I've noticed something about Twitter.
I've tweeted about this before, but I think it bears repeating: Folks from a wide sampling across the social media service, at least the ones I've encountered, are from different backgrounds.
Race, color, culture and even to some degree gender segregation and body weight lines are largely erased on Twitter. Why? I think it's because the focus is on 140 characters, not other aspects of the person.
I didn't grow up in a house with a strongly vengeful attitude toward black people but one likely shared by many whites who experienced desegregation - white folks generally wanted no part of it.
But my parents did eventually send me to a majority black high school, and I'm the better for it.
Ultimately, the Lord has worked on my heart to where I'm more inclined to find ways to reach out and broaden my horizons than not.
We're not there yet but I see the encounters I have on Twitter and other social media around the world moving us closer - much closer - to fulfilling Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Make it so, Lord, in our lifetimes.
P.S.:
What is your experience with learning how to interact with those who don't look like you?

A Healing Journey - Part III

2009-11-03T22:30:00.011-06:00

As I finally got close enough to the community where the cemetery is to tell, I realized the weather would cooperate and I would finally get to do what I needed.
These are the conditions I found at the cemetery, shortly before 1 p.m. Sept. 5 (my parents' graves are in the foreground): So while I must have looked fairly strange to any passersby, I conducted business by getting out my laptop and typing my thoughts.
Here is what I wrote:
----
Mom and Dad,

There's hardly a day which goes by where I don't feel you missing from my life.

As I sit here, I hear what sounds like a band practicing, birds chirping, vehicles going somewhere and life just generally continuing around me.

Yet my life has been stuck – emotionally at least – in two moments in time – one outside of a house in Montgomery where you, Dad, were loaded into a an ambulance and rushed to a hospital. You were probably dead when you got there. I can still see the bag of personal effects they gave Mom; your glasses, your false teeth and probably your wallet were included.

The second was the day 11 years about three hours from now (as I write this) when I unlocked the back door to the house I grew up in and made a mad dash through the house to Mom's bedroom, where I saw someone who'd been gone for several days.

Mom and Dad, I miss you, but I cannot continue to live my life in the past, hung on thse moments of loss and grief. I don't think the Lord intended me to stay in this loop forever, but use these days as milestones on a path of healing.

So, I forgive you Dad, for dying less than 18 hours after we had an argument.

I forgive you Mom, for being the last to go; something for which I thought I would never forgive you.

I'm sorry I fought both of you more than I listened to you. I'm sorry I wasn't as easy to raise as I should have been.

As I feel buried emotions rise to the surface, I can't sit here and say that the only time I'll ever need to do this is today. But I wanted to feel Sept. 5, 1998 all over again, so that I could – somehow – move past it, with healing im my heart, and warm, not frigid, memories in my mind.

I am trusting however, that by the grace of God, this will be the first day of the rest of my life, that I can walk away from here knowing I left something behind. Something I didnt't need. Something I couldn't bear to part with but couldn't carry anymore.

I love you and I know that even though you both sometimes had difficultly showing it emotionally, I know by your provision and concern (I can hear Mom saying on times I was late getting home, "I was about to call the State Troopers.") that you cared.

I trust and hope to see you again in person some day. But for now, I have a family waiting on me who loves and wants to see me. I have, by the grace of God, things yet to accomplish here and hope to live the rest of my life at his good pleasure.

Thank you Jesus for allowing me this time to face what I haven't wanted to for so long. May this day be seen from here forward as a blessing, not a curse. In Jesus' name, Amen.

------

Since this time, I've generally been more determined about what I'm doing and I've been more willing to consider some things about the future which were pretty far out there previously.

But God is good, really, and He is leading us through to the future and I intend to be a different human being after this graveside visit in real, personal and tangible ways.

P.S.: So all this said, do you have a situation in your life you need to confront, but have delayed for years? If so, what is it and what do you hope to do about it?

A Healing Journey - Part II

2009-11-02T21:49:00.005-06:00

As I pushed on toward Alabama and wondered if the weather would permit me to reach my destination, this sight greeted me on U.S. 82. It serves as a metaphor for what I sensed the Lord was already doing in my heart and would do more of the same if I'd arrived at the cemetery.
By the time I reached the outskirts of Biringham, Ala., rainy conditions left me concerned I would need to bail on my plan and just head to where I would stay the night.
It's been nearly two months since I took this trip, so I needed to squint at the notes I'd taken along the way and try to piece together my thoughts from scribbled words and questionable letters.
I did and recalled more about the soundtrack it seems God himself picked for me along the way, including "Walking in Memphis," "Heaven," Los Lonely Boys and "Son of a Sailor" by Jimmy Buffet.
As I proceeded, I discovered the weather I'd been concerned would keep me from getting to the graveside not only wouldn't be there, it served as a backdrop for some amazing pictures.

A Healing Journey - Part I

2009-11-01T22:09:00.003-06:00

Over the last several weeks, I've wondered if it would ever stop raining.
We've experienced a few dry days interspersed with biblical downpours. The hope is these rains will taper off and we'll return to standard weather patterns.
Nearly two months ago – near the beginning of this damp spell – I set off on a journey, driven to find a relief similar to the one we seek for these recent rainy conditions.
For many years, I've struggled to find a way out from under a blanket of memories and patterns left over from my interaction with my deceased parents. To this day, I find myself twisting and shifting to remove myself from a straitjacket of old patterns and habits constructed for relationships which ended – for this lifetime – at a community cemetery in Alabama.
I haven't been sure this cloud would ever lift.
As the 11th anniversary of my mother's death approached, I realized something a few weeks before the day arrived – this year's anniversary would fall exactly on the date and day of the week she died.
Instead of taking the time to grieve, I chose instead to dive headlong into the circumstances we faced immediately afterward, deferring actual mourning to an undetermined date and leaving these old habits clinging to me like a leftover dryer sheet.
So, as the calendar rolled toward Sept. 5, I realized doing something on this day would be a good chance to gain some distance from these remnants of a life now gone.
I decided to go to the place where it all should have stopped – the graveside.
As I got ready to leave for the cemetery from Mississippi, I had this sense one of the things I'd be attempting to stare down is the fear of loss, a fear which can cripple someone and prevent even the most calculated risks.
I put on “The Extremist” by Joe Satriani as I confronted cloudy conditions on the first few minutes of the ride. This music – with its sweeping motions from charging and electrifying to simple and emotive – provided a great soundtrack for the first leg of the trip.
As I proceeded, I thought about whether the clouds I'd encountered along the way would ever break, or if would be just as bleak or worse if I'd even make it to the cemetery at all.

Focus

2009-10-31T09:41:00.002-05:00

I couldn't let another month pass without posting something. Readers, followers and just folks generally interested in what you have to say need something to read. So, I'm gonna really try hard to do just that in the coming weeks and months. Yeah I know you've heard me say this before but I think I really mean it this time. :)
Does that sound like part of an argument? Because it should.
I've debated over the last several months about what my focus should be as Amanda and I have thought over our next steps/goals as a family.
It comes down in many respects to me gaining a focus, a narrower purpose than just existing. I'm interested in so many things, many of them good, wholesome and worthy. But I haven't found that "one thing" or core series of things which energizes, invigorates and inspires me.
I look at those who have and they are much further along in life than I am, many of them much younger than me.
Yes, I understand what we should have to show for our lives at the end is that we hear Christ say "Well done, good and faithful servant." Honestly, I've lived as though this is supposed to happen on faith, that we trust God to place in our hearts the things he's set before us to do and we do them.
But as a man who wants to provide for his family and learn to be more purposeful about my life, I see others who have greater success as a result of being focused at earlier ages and think I've wasted a lot of time. But will earthly success matter 1,000 years after we depart? Mostly likely not.
So somewhere in between my frustration with not sensing a focus in life and trusting it's all going to work out, I think I need to do something toward finding a niche - as a writer, a blogger, a tweeter and a person. Does that mean randomness has no place in my life? But more often than not, I want to find a groove and stay with it for longer than a few weeks.
I think I'm on the verge of this discovery and I can't wait to learn what it is so I can get going on it.
If you have any insight in this or have faced a similar crossroads, please feel free to share it.
I hope my next post sometime in the next few days will be about a significant milestone in my life and I how I faced it. I'm trying to find some of my notes about the experience. If I can't locate them easily, I'll try to work from memory.

Squinting

2009-08-22T12:14:00.005-05:00

Have you ever been in a place in your life where you just want to understand what's next?
That's where I am right now, squinting hard to see the next step to take.
What I don't want to do is push so hard to find this out that I miss what's around me right now.
I'm starting to wonder if like I'm the disciple who says to Jesus: "Show us the father." Christ could have been frustrated in his answer. "Duh! Been there, done that, ya dope!"
But he was more constructive than that.
So I'm going to rebuild that list. You know, the one where you have preferences and trigger points, with the hope the Lord confirms these or shows you new ones.
It could be he shows me status quo is where he wants me to be. And if that's what I see, then I have to be OK with that.
Cuz I'd rather not keep asking dumb questions if I REALLY already know the answer.

A reunion of hearts

2009-08-11T00:19:00.003-05:00

I hope this blog will serve several purposes – to express to some of my favorite people on the planet how much they mean to me, clear the air about my frame of mind when I saw some of them this past weekend and express where I am now with a number of things.
I went to a youth and college group reunion at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala. this past weekend with my daughter.
Given a number of factors, I got about four and a half hours of sleep the morning before the reunion, then drove about four hours – with stops – to Montgomery.
On the way into town, I passed the area of the city where I “cut my teeth.” I'd been by there hundreds of times in the last 10 years after my Mom's death but I cried this time.
I cried:
For what – and who – was no longer there.
For a past I couldn't change.
And, possibly, for a difficult-to-see future.
This past week, certain aspects of my life got tied into a huge black mass of frustration, fatigue and bitterness.
I spoke from this place of negativity at times while interacting with some of the people I saw at the reunion but I didn't fully realize it until my daughter and I were on our way to where we were staying for the night.
I'd hoped I hadn't alienated anyone because of my – at times – sour attitude.
Aside from my tendency to want to be liked anyway, this particular group of people is important to me because they were part of the place where God laid a significant foundation for me in a couple of areas – spiritually and socially.
Many of the folks in the college group helped me learn how to experience genuine social interaction with others. My time there also gave me a serious root system in the faith.
Additionally, I believe the Lord forged and inspired in us – men and women alike – a bond which goes beyond routine friendship.
Two days removed from the reunion, I feel like I've had something extracted which was in dire need of removal.
I feel refreshed, revived – like I've had layers of caked-on dirt washed away.
I know this is just what I needed.
If I got to see you this weekend, please know I do care about you, regardless of how lost in my own sandbox I might have seemed.
If you were part of this rag-tag group of folks and didn't get to come this time, see what you can do to attend next time.
It's hard to say what the future will hold, but I know going to back to see old friends from the college group did more than just revive memories.
It jump-started my heart.
And that's always a good thing.

They call it Pap's Place

2009-08-01T13:48:00.006-05:00

My wife and I moved to northeast Mississippi about five years ago. One of the first television ads we saw in this area was for Pap's Place, a Southern-style buffet restaurant in Ackerman, Miss.
To move toward understanding it, I think you must see some of these ads. Here's one of the early ones. And here's a more recent ad. (I intend no copyright infringement in sharing these ads; I just want more people to see them!)
From early on after seeing these ads, I've wanted the rest of the world to enjoy the good craziness which takes place in these videos and I tried to figure out how to get them captured and uploaded.
I'm glad someone else did.
One of my short-term life goals is for the Pap's Place ads to go VIRAL!
I have several reasons for my twisted pursuit.
The food is great, though not necessarily part of a heart-approved diet. We usually don't go there more than once year.
The atmosphere is just good-ol' down home. Elvis shares a place on the wall of trinkets and goodies along with Jesus.
The folks who run the place are sweeter than the desserts on the bar. They love their customers, regardless of color, age or station in life.
So I would appreciate the help from anyone who's either been to Pap's or is just as intrigued by these ads as I am to lend me a hand and get as many people as possible to see these commercials!
And if you can ever get to Ackerman to see the place, just trust me: It's worth the trip!

Pondering the future

2009-07-26T23:06:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, my wife Amanda recently joined the staff of LifeChurch.tv as the online experience coordinator.
At this writing, the church – based in Edmond, Okla., part of the Oklahoma City metro area - has 13 physical campuses and Church Online, which is literally what it sounds like – a church experience, online; complete with a worship set, offering, message and fellowship (which takes place in the form of chat).
People are also available to pray with anyone who needs it and there's a person on hand to help with any technical difficulties attendees may encounter.
Her responsibilities include helping to build up the number of volunteers needed to staff more experiences and troubleshoot where needed.
As she progressed through her candidacy with the job, we expected we'd be required to move for her to take the position. It turns out the job is remote.
It took us a while to get our heads around the idea of what this means. Not the term, of course, but what it means practically. We're still working on it.
We really liked what we saw and sensed in Oklahoma City when we visited out there July 4th weekend.
However, even if we lived within a five-minute drive of the Church Online headquarters, the position would still be remote.
For several weeks, we've been in the process of determining what this means in terms of relocation – where, when and under what conditions.
We're grateful for the opportunity – and liberty – this new position for Amanda may afford us, both in the near and long term.
For any feedback or questions you may have, feel free to click on the e-mail link in my profile or send me a tweet. Many thanks!

'Shifty'

2009-07-15T18:58:00.005-05:00

Amanda just told me she saw a tweet about the passing of Darrell 'Shifty' Powers. Here's a story on it
from a paper near where he lived.
Shifty was one of the men of Easy Co., 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, depicted in the 2001 HBO project "Band of Brothers."
From what I remember from the series, Shifty grew up in Virginia with a keen ability to see things others couldn't. In the series, he was shown as having spotted trees which hadn't been there the day before, indicating some kind of activity on the part of the German army.
Though he might have been plain spoken and seemingly simple, he was an amazing example of courage and diligence.
The more men from World War II pass, the more I miss my Dad. We've losing national treasures as they die, and projects like "Band of Brothers" help preserve the history they lived for the rest of us and those who will follow us.
Here are a few videos I found about him.
Shifty video 1
Shifty video 2
Shifty video 3 (clip from foreign language version of the series showing Shifty in action - warning; it may be a graphic scene for some.)

Thank you, Shifty.

Three years ago today

2009-06-16T22:40:00.002-05:00

Not long from the moment as I write this, Amanda and I got a phone call three years ago we'll never forget.
The loss of Chris, Leah, Miller and Mallory Walls still remains in our hearts. We think about them often and miss them. Though we don't understand why at this stage in our lives the reasons why they're gone, we know their lives are valued and cherished by those they left behind. Their legacies of faith in Christ will do the same.
I've not been home a little more than 90 minutes from a reception following a memorial service for a co-worker who passed away unexpectedly within the last 10 days.
Today's events with our co-worker made me think about Chris and Leah even more. It's refreshing and comforting to trust we'll see them all - even my co-worker - again some day.

A slight modification

2009-05-26T21:26:00.004-05:00

For some time now, I've been hoping to do something with the phrase "fixin' to" other than use it as the basis for some now defunct, common e-mail addresses Amanda once shared. We hope to launch "fixin' to," essentially, as a Web site sometime in the near future.
But in the interim, I decided to make some changes to this existing site to bridge the transition the old and the new. Granted, there isn't a lot of traffic on this site, at least not lately, but I'm hoping to change this very soon, posting more often and with a bit more of a theme - Southern culture, my exposure to it and how I'm warm to or turned off by aspects of it.
I'm a native Southerner but I married someone who grew up north of the Mason-Dixon line; scandalous, I know.
You get the idea.
So thanks for stopping by now and look for posts marked "fixin' to" as the core of the new approach. Later!

Should church serve as a political forum?

2009-04-12T14:30:00.002-05:00

I came across a circumstance today where someone distributed fliers for an upcoming politically-related event. As I understand it, the distribution of these fliers was not sanctioned or authorized by church leadership.
Regardless of whether church leaders were knowledgeable or not, I personally think church is not the place to promote or endorse political activities, regardless of party affiliation, platform or agenda - not any Sunday, but especially not Easter Sunday.
Anyone agree, disagree or otherwise have a thought?

Embracing Easter

2009-04-11T22:43:00.002-05:00

This weekend, I've been trying to absorb the impact of the three days between Christ's death and his resurrection, maybe more so than I ever have.
It's so easy to get caught up in the preparation for celebrating Easter that we miss Him - and what he went through - in the process.
Emotionally and mentally, I'm trying to place myself in front of the cross and get a sense of the pain and grotesque physical state he was in as he died. This was not a death where the person fell asleep one night and didn't wake up the next morning. We shouldn't understate how much he suffered; it wouldn't do his death justice.
What's so great is that the story isn't over on Friday afternoon. It resumes on Sunday morning with his resurrection.
As I've mentioned, Amanda and I have been attending and volunteering with LifeChurch.tv. This weekend, Craig Groschel talked about the path of his life and how the Lord was there, but often we're not in a position to see it. At times, it's taken a while for me to understand it.
But he's been there, and I do see it now.
I pray that everyone who reads this will embrace the truth of Christ's death and resurrection and learn to love and grow with him.

Eight suggestions on how 'BSG' could have ended better

2009-03-21T15:44:00.010-05:00

I've already seen one person's conclusion as to how "Battlestar Gallactica's" creators flubbed the two-hour series finale and I tend to agree with a lot of this person's comments.
But my approach to this subject will be slightly different in that I will make recommendations on what could have made the difference in ending what could have been one of television's greatest drama series.
Instead, the ending left me slightly less impressed with the series than I had been over the course of the previous five years of its existence. It still, on the whole, was a well-thought-out, well-acted, vast improvement over the original 1970s series. But the ending, at least in this stage in looking back on it, left way too many loose ends. Yes, life doesn't leave us with neatly-tied packages; sometimes it takes years to clean up what one person leaves behind.
But this is a television show, and its creators and writers appeared to just throw their hands up and say "I quit" with the series-ender.
The thing which is the most difficult for me to swallow is that the crescendo toward which many character and story lines appeared headed just seemed to get forgotten about or abandoned as the end neared.
Genuine character resolution - following a character to his or her logical, at least plausible, conclusion - simply appeared lacking.
I read somewhere that the creators focused on the characters in the end, not the story line. Both are equally important, and one - the story - was largely lacking at the end.
OK, here's my list of what the shows creators could have done differently to make "Battlestar's" ending a fitting conclusion to the rest of the series:
1. Help Kara Thrace make sense. Kara just sort of "poofs" at the end; literally. She's there one minute and not the next. She's too integral a character to just disappear. Her death and later existence as a resurrected being is not fully explained; she even wonders aloud who she is. She deserves an answer and so do we.
2. Give "All Along the Watchtower" stronger meaning. It's a timeless song, there's no doubt, but its impact seems pervasive and guiding - it clicked on four dormant Cylons; Kara knew it as a kid; even human-Cylon hybrid Hera knew it and it helped get the colonists to Earth. There must have been a reason beyond what the creators have explained as it just being something which comes out of the ether and provides guidance. Its influence suggests someone else was helping it get that way. Who was that?
3. Let Gaius Baltar's heroism not be a surprise. He makes a major stand toward the end, one which seemed uncharacteristic for him. Just help us see how he went from the sniveling little brat he was most of the series to this stand-up guy. And he and Six turn out to be glorified narrators as well as types of Adam and Eve. Explain that better, please.
4. Help us understand who Daniel was. Was Daniel, the 13th humanoid Cylon, Kara's father? What was his role?
5. Who created the Final Five? In one episode, Ellen tells Cavil that he is named John, after her father. There's no answer to this question whatsoever.
6. Who is God? The Cylons are mono-theistic. The humans are not - they're polytheistic. How did it get this way and why do the two cultures make the distinction?
7. Let the final battle with Cavil's Cylons be less anti-climatic. Why couldn't we have some well-aimed gunfire in the ventilation shaft or a black-ops plan that worked or a Cylon model who turns on Cavil and blows up the base ship? The writer whose link I post above mentions how Cavil just sort of gives up in the firefight in the command center and eats a bullet. Not how his character should have ended.
8. Tell us how the humanoid Cylons and the humans co-exist on the new Earth. Do they just make babies and be happy with each other? Do they make babies with the Earthlings who are there already? Or are we to believe the mantra that it has happened before, it will happen again? At the very end, I think we're supposed to think that but I'm not sure.
Sure, I agree that consumers of television shows, books, movies, music, etc., should draw their own conclusions and not every last detail should be spoon fed and excruciatingly explained.
But these are just the eight things which come immediately to mind which would have made the series-finale so much more tangible and interesting.

An amazing but trying day

2009-03-08T23:11:00.005-05:00

I apologize to those who've recently come across my blog through Twitter or other means that there hasn't been much to look at lately. This'll give you something to read for now.
Today was one of those life-changing days - it came with its share of problems but it was also so rich with blessing and goodness, it's too amazing not to share some of it.
The condensed version is that we heard a message at church which seemed at least in part to validate a course of action we'd been considering for some number of weeks and was almost like the swift gust of air needed to get a stationary sailboat moving. We felt a sense of relief as we shared some of these details with some of those closest to us, compelled by the message we'd heard.
We also watched a couple who'd been married 25 years renew their vows - an equally moving and thrilling experience. Earlier, I'd seen two people who'd been at opposite ends of an issue work out their differences in a short, love-filled conversation. I truly saw a reconciliation happen and it was very cool to see.
The trying part came in the form of facing nearly immediate challenges after we'd left church. Yes, I understand the verse which says "the rain falls on the just and the unjust."
I get that.
But it seemed like it couldn't be a coincidence that we were getting resistance so soon after we'd heard these redeeming and heart-stirring words of truth.
At its core, the message was simply that following/trusting Christ carries with it no actual (as in no clearly calculable) risk, but it isn't safe to follow him. His followers, scripture warns, will face all manner of trials and tribulations. Our church, the messenger said, is to be a place where it is safe for those who don't know Christ to come, learn about Him, ask questions and generally find out what our faith is all about. It is also a place where once someone commits to Christ it is no longer a "safe zone."
So we've got our hearts open to hear more from the Lord about how best to follow this path He's laying out for us. For those of you inclined to pray, please do so and ask Him to help us hear and trust Him as walk in the direction of the sound of His voice.

Internet church - yes you read correctly

2009-02-06T17:42:00.006-06:00

If you've never seen or heard of it, Internet church sounds strange.
It would have to me had I not experienced it myself.
Though a long series of circumstances, Amanda and I have found ourselves hanging out at least once a week together and Amanda on her own at least two other times during the week as a volunteer at Life Church's Internet Campus.
Yes, it's church on the Internet in the sense of a worship service, an offering and a message.
But it's so much more than that.
We've connected with people from various parts of the country, including people in the area where Life Church is actually based - Oklahoma.
And we're having a blast with it!
My initial concern about the idea of online church was that it lacked personal, human connectivity.
I'm quickly learning that this is remedied with phone conversations, video chat and other forms of contact. Of course, nothing beats an encouraging hug or a pat on the back in a tough time. So, there's that to work out. But I think it will in due course, though I'm not exactly sure how.
And there is the actual expression of faith that must happen, but I know they have mechanisms for that and I think that will just happen naturally.
Amanda and I met on the Internet, as most of you know, so it seems natural that we would feel comfortable experiencing fellowship and other interaction through this medium.
I guess the best thing I can suggest is stay tuned!

Revamped!

2009-01-05T06:15:00.003-06:00

Since I've taken some steps to increase the potential visibility of this blog, I decided over the past weekend to make it more navigable and catalog every post in some form or fashion, especially the posts which pre-date the label feature's availability.
Speaking of labels, please note the one entitled "essential posts." If you read no other posts on this blog, I'd appreciate you taking the time to read these, even though several are fairly lengthy. There are currently five posts in this folder.
You'll also find I've clarified my About Me info and even dropped a picture of Amanda and I in the profile so you'll know there's a real human behind this. It should also be easier now to follow this blog with the Subscribe feature in a prominent location.
So please enjoy and let me know if you have questions!

Real problem or teapot tempest?

2009-01-01T09:14:00.005-06:00

This story greeted me this New Year's Day morning and I just have to ask for opinions on this, regardless of perspective.
Let me put a framework on this first.
If we'd asked the late George Carlin to offer the invocation, it would have probably been bleeped often and sounded like an atheist's plea for the Christians to shut their pieholes, but it would have been inclusive of those who do not share the Christian faith and no one would not have asked him to sway from his bent. Or if they had, he wouldn't have listened.
Yet, there is an expectation - in some circles - for Rick Warren to "tone down" his expression of his faith by not naming the name of the One in whom he professes to have faith and whom he encourages others to call upon when he delivers the Inaugural invocation 19 days from now.
Sure, I think having Warren present is an attempt on President-elect Barack Obama's part to do what he said he would do election night - and that's try to be the president of those who did not vote for him. Millions of evangelicals did not vote for Obama, for a myriad of reasons. He should be given credit for acknowledging them. It sure beats the alternative - ignoring the millions who voted red instead of blue.
So all this said, is it fair for those who are not fond of Warren's expected presence on the dais on Jan. 20 to expect him to exclude Jesus Christ from his prayer? Should he be mindful of the fact that not everyone in this nation professes faith in Christ and offer some form of generic, all-inclusive prayer? Or, should he stay true to his faith and not waver one iota? Please opine!

Added thoughts to 2008

2009-01-01T09:05:00.002-06:00

Last year (it feels good to say that) wasn't all bad. My Eeyore-ish tendencies will lead one to think this, so let me clarify.
In April, I took Jadyn to her first rock concert almost 300 miles from home by myself. We did just fine. And, in June, we visited family of mine I hadn't seen in going on 20 years and some of whom neither Amanda nor Jadyn had met. On this same trip, I also discovered that Amanda's best friend growing up treats me like she's known me all her life, too, and that's a blessing beyond description.
In 2008, I think we all learned more about our capabilities and Amanda and I are probably getting closer to sensing what it is we should really be doing. So that's not a waste at all.
So far in the new year, I'm trying to focus on seeing the silver lining - or at least reverse the negative lens through which I see things. Even though I'm really tired at this writing, it's working. Let's hope it continues to do so. Happy New Year!

Out with the old, in with the new

2008-12-31T15:58:00.002-06:00

So.
2008.
Yeah.
2008.
This was one of those years which were like spinach. Good for you in the long run; not really fun to endure in the interim.
I am about 24 pounds lighter than when the year began, but I don't like what it took to get me there - two infection bouts; one of which I'm dealing with right now as the year ends.
This is the year where - due to our own circumstances not directly related to the global economy - we had to tighten our belts in the wallet category. We learned a discipline we'd lacked previously, and wished we hadn't gotten there to begin with. But we did it and we're the better for it and we're grateful to see how things have worked out.
Amanda lost a job she loved but now - as the year closes - is still getting the opportunity to do it on a volunteer basis and really absorbed more into the ins and outs than she was when she was getting paid for it. Ah, the irony. She's got other full-time work and has had her own learning curves in that job too.
This year was a growing year in other, more obvious ways, too. - Our daughter grew and we generally loved the changes we've seen in her - we've just about conquered potty training and that's a huge milestone.
Aside from her growth, our own has been through painful lessons we'd prefer not to repeat. Here's hoping we learned them this time.
I guess the best I can hope and pray for in 2009 as that we act on the wisdom we learned in 2008 and develop in the ways which will beneficial to us and our service to our Lord and others around us.

What do you think?

2008-12-13T15:30:00.003-06:00

I saw this bumper sticker and decided it would be great online discussion fodder, so I snapped a picture of it.
Regardless of whether you are a believer in Christ or not, please take a look at this bumper sticker and offer your response.

Friends

2008-11-26T23:33:00.006-06:00

A touch on a shoulder. A genuine hug. A sincere inquiry about how one is doing.
Lately, I've been reassured that I have friends in my life who care. Though not everyone goes to our church, most do. Some, unfortunately, are many miles away.
I'm very glad to know that we have friends who love us unconditionally - often in spite of our obvious and even not-so-obvious flaws. I find myself caring intently about people who I've not always seen eye-to-eye with and knowing the feeling is mutual.
This isn't touchy, feely stuff - it's real-world.
And I think it's a true picture of God's grace.
As I try to reflect on what I'm thankful for, this is definitely something which fits in the category.

Eating crow

2008-11-09T07:50:00.005-06:00

At this writing, Alabama's football team is 10-0, the Southeastern Conference West Division champion, four wins away from a national title and one season removed from a .500 finish.
The only clear reason for this is simple: Nick Saban is doing the job he was hired and paid a ridiculous amount of money to do.
I still think $4 million a year is outlandish. But the powers-that-be at Alabama are starting to look like they knew what they were doing. The taste of a potential national title is starting to feel like a promise and not a tease, one that can only come to reality with a little more patience on the part of the part of fans and players.
Let's don't get ahead of ourselves just yet. Mississippi State and Auburn would most likely relish the role of spoiler in knocking Alabama out of title contention and the team representing the SEC East in the conference title game will probably not go quietly.
And whomever Alabama is matched with for the national title game will most likely think they deserve it just as much as the Tide and will likely play accordingly.
So as an Alabama fan and graduate, I do not apologize for thinking that paying Saban the amount of money the university has shelled out is too much and I still think they did Sylvester Croom wrong.
But the investment in Saban is paying dividends and may result in the ultimate payout about two months from now - the 16-year title drought may finally come to a close.
The only right and proper thing to say from here on out is - Roll Tide!

Marking the month

2008-10-31T23:24:00.004-05:00

I can't let a whole month go by without having blogged, so I'll put something up before October is gone in a matter of minutes.
October contains two significant dates in our family - My birthday and our wedding anniversary. This year marked our 10th as a wedded couple. We marked it, I believe, with a sense of accomplishment and an eye toward setting our feet on a solid path for the next 10.
In October, I continued to recover with no major setbacks from a severe infection which took place in early September in one of my legs I can see, but the month closes out with Amanda continuing to recover from one of the worst respiratory (cough, sinus, etc.) conditions she's ever had.
I guess this is just supposed to be normal life stuff but it seems like we've our share of it lately.
I know, "the rain falls on the just and the unjust" (a biblical quotation I can't recall verse and passage for at the moment). I also know that we are blessed beyond what we actually deserve.
But my back aches and I'm just plain weary right now.
I hear the words of Christ - which I haven't even fully understood even though I've heard or read them hundreds of times: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29 NIV).
Lord, help us pick up your yoke and learn from you, not tiptoe around it or make more excuses. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Just in the last few minutes, Jadyn walked out of her room, holding a blanket, looking for comfort. I'd heard her pull open her door. I held her just for a few seconds. The words of Jesus about coming to him as little children became very real to me in that instant. We should drop our pre-conceived notions about who He is and what we are and just come to him.
I'd bet we'd be surprised at what we find.
Let's hope there are good surprises ahead in November.

RIP Rick Wright

2008-09-15T22:24:00.003-05:00

I write this with tears in my eyes as I listen to "Keep Talking," one of the songs at least co-written by late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard "Rick" Wright, who - according to media reports - passed away today of cancer at the age of 65.
Pink Floyd's - and his - contributions to the sonic landscape are immense and nearly immeasurable. They've left us with some really timeless work with apparently incredible amounts of forethought and loads of creativity.
I'm grateful for Mr. Wright's contributions to the band's success and pray for healing and comfort for his family and friends as they mourn his loss.
I'm also preparing myself for the fact that natural causes are starting catch up to those who've left an indelible mark on recorded music and we'll see more and more like Mr. Wright pass away in the coming years.

Ten years ago today

2008-09-05T09:14:00.003-05:00

Blogger’s note: I’ve struggled for weeks whether to post this, but in the end, I believe it’s the right thing to do – for closure, healing and maybe, to help others. This is our story, and it is copyrighted to this blogger, with the obvious exception of the excerpt from Oswald Chambers.

Ten years ago today, my life changed in a way that will continue to impact me for as long as I live.
About 16 months before, it changed in a profound matter too in that I met my future wife on the Internet. I moved to Pennsylvania and we pursued our courtship. In late 1997, I asked Amanda to marry me.

The bed

In the weeks leading up to the early part of September 1998, my mother got hold of an old cast iron bed and called us up one day and asked us what color we wanted it. We told her, and she commenced to transforming it into a deep, forest green. It became a wedding present to us. She even paid for a mattress to fit it.
I asked her how we were supposed to get it from Montgomery, Ala. to metro Harrisburg, Pa.
She told me we were coming to Montgomery to retrieve it.
So Amanda and I arranged for a four-day weekend over the Labor Day holiday to drive down to Alabama and retrieve the bed, then drive back with it in time to return to work on the following Tuesday. In exchange, we were going to leave some furniture with her to store.
On the Tuesday before, I’d talked to her and had a good conversation. I don’t recall today what we talked about, but it was without turmoil or discord, for which I remain grateful.
Beginning two days later, I started calling Mom to have one final review of things before we headed down the highway.
I left answering machine messages for her to call me on a number of occasions. The fact she hadn’t followed up immediately wasn’t unusual, so it didn’t bother me in the first few hours after having not reached her.
For the first time in several weeks, I got to take some time and do a devotional in the morning before we left on the trip. I use Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost for His Highest” on a regular basis.
The day was Sept. 4, and though I was probably reading an older version, here is the link to Sept. 4’s entry in the modern adaptation of the devotional book:
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/09/04/devotion.aspx?year=2008
In hindsight not long after, I realized this key sentence was one of preparation for what we would discover: “Our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession, becoming responsible for him.” Though for periods of time, out of rebellion and anger, I have not lived as if this is true, I’m reminded as I write this that it is absolute truth.
Though my life is not I as I would like it to be – said the pot to the potter – the Lord has blessed us immeasurably. Sometimes, we’ve responded that it wasn’t enough. Lord, please forgive me for my ingratitude.
You have been responsible for us, though we haven’t always been responsible in kind.
Help us to change this. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Departure

In the weeks leading up to our trip, we’d had some discussion back and forth with Mom about who should get wedding invitations and who should get announcements. Amanda decided the visit would be a good time to sort it out, so she took her wedding invitation database in a print-out so she and Mom could review it.

The keys

Not long before we walked out the door, I had a sense I would need the keys to the house. I was one of the few who had any.
I’m still trusting to this day it was the Lord.
So, I grabbed the chain which bore the keys to Mom’s house and we rolled down Interstate 81, still having hadn’t heard from her.
I carried my cell phone with me in hopes I could reach Mom from the road. We still hadn’t heard from her when we arrived at Amanda’s parents’ house in northeast Tennessee. They’d just moved there from Pennsylvania two weeks before.
So when we got to Amanda’s folks’ house, we called someone who was a family friend and who worked with Mom on a regular basis to see if he’d heard anything from her.
Nothing.
So our concern grew but we still didn’t have solid evidence anything was wrong.
Boy, it was nerve-racking.
We got up the next day and continued south on I-81. Over the course of our journey, we tried to call her again several times.
Still no response.
In about mid-afternoon, we reached one of the exits of Interstate 65 outside Clanton, Ala., about 45 minutes’ drive time north of Montgomery.
I went to a pay phone and tried home again.
This time, I sensed in my heart what we would find would not be good.
Keep in mind this would have been Amanda’s second time to see my Mom in person.

The house

It is no longer a secret, but for much of my life as a teenager, my mother required me to be selective about the friends I brought home and ask them not to tell about the condition of the house.
If there’s an actual name for what Mom did, I don’t know what it would be.
It wasn’t hoarding. It wasn’t out of greed. It wasn’t exactly the work of a Depression-era packrat. I still have no idea really why she did it.
But, beginning around 1978, she began to collect and stack newspapers and magazines around the house in piles. The piles grew over time and, one by one, rooms became useless because these stacks made them impassable and non-functional. These piles did not include household garbage, though she did hang on to canned or refrigerated foodstuffs for longer than necessary as well.
Sometimes, as an act of defiance, I would walk through portions of the house in a straight-forward fashion, instead of side-stepping so as to navigate the piles and or stacks of other things such as furniture.
However, this should not be my mother’s enduring legacy.
It should be the countless times she helped me out of a jam – with money, or a term paper, or math problems or … you almost name it and she was there to help.
The exception was … “Mom, how do you spell ________?”
The answer was often: “Look it up,” which I do almost on cue even today.
Mom’s willingness to help didn’t stop with me. I remember a time she helped out a friend of mine just because she wanted to and didn’t ask my friend for anything in return.
It must be pointed out that Mom had our bed ready and waiting on us.
She was robust, intelligent, funny, often witty, often undeterred, gutsy and just a great lady who also possessed a strong business sense.

Arrival

After getting into Montgomery, we made several stops to see if she might have been out and about doing some stuff. She wasn’t at any of those places.
With all possibilities on her location eliminated, we drove to the house.
I knew instantly something was wrong, because an orange recycling bag – left by city workers in exchange for a bag filled with recyclables – still hung from a tree branch.
It was Saturday.
We pulled up in front and exited the truck.
We dug my keys out of a bag.
We opened the mailbox and it was stuffed full.
Of course, I’d warned Amanda about what we would encounter when we entered the house.
No amount of preparation about the house would have given her needed insight for what she would soon face.
I opened the back door.
We entered.
Though I’d been in Pennsylvania for a year, I instinctively knew the paths I would follow to reach my mother’s bedroom.
I raced through the maze of stacks and stopped just inside the doorframe to her room.
I have no idea how long I looked at her – I’m sure it wasn’t more than 30 seconds.
But what I saw is still etched in my mind.
I did not see the often generous, active woman I described earlier.
She was gone.
What remained – at least what I saw – was a face containing a smattering of light and dark patches as it decayed.
What little I saw was enough. It still is.
We guess she’d been dead since sometime around Thursday.
This was Sept. 5, 1998, the official end of my mother’s life on Earth.
The death certificate says she died of an arteriosclerotic cardiovascular catastrophe, or a heart attack or stroke brought on by hardening of the arteries.
We found her 15 days shy of her 71st birthday.
Fortunately, word of the condition of the house didn’t become a news story, as others who lived in conditions outside the norm have. Fortunately, I am telling about this and not someone else.
I couldn’t remember the name of the funeral home where Mom made pre-arrangements, which, we found out later, she’d just paid off about six months earlier, but I did remember we would have to turn by the “black” cemetery, known at the time as such because of its condition and the race of its occupants.
Amanda grew up in an area where dead folks weren’t segregated and no such prefixes exist for places of burial.
This was Amanda’s first significant trip to the Deep South.
Welcome to Montgomery.
Our four-day weekend jaunt turned in to a week-long stay, which included funeral planning and preparation and a variety of interaction with friends and family.
Mom already had arranged for us to stay overnight at a bed and breakfast. We stayed there for the allotted time, then a friend’s house, then one more time at the B&B.
Instead of using it to clarify the wedding invitation list, the database print-out gave us the information needed to contact friends and relatives about Mom’s death.

Marrying and moving

Early on in that week, it was apparent we would need to move to Montgomery to deal with the aftermath of Mom’s death.
Our wedding was six weeks away.
We moved ahead with our already-arranged plans to marry and went on our honeymoon through Pennsylvania, upstate New York and Vermont.
We returned to what would have been the start of our new life together in Pennsylvania, only to pack up and haul our stuff to Alabama.
It took us about five and a half years to take care of a number of tasks associated with settling her affairs and going through her possessions.
We got to this end of it with the Lord’s help. Whether we’ve always acknowledged it or not, unfortunately, is a different story.
Our first year of marriage was quite the uphill climb – almost exclusively because of the challenge we had to tackle directly and with force.
Criminal activity compounded the situation beginning Christmas Eve 1998, when the first of seven break-ins took place at Mom’s house over the course of about two weeks.
Law enforcement officials got close to but never quite caught those responsible for unlawfully entering Mom’s house before we could (We’d made other living arrangements due the condition of the house.).

Ups and downs

There were some aspects of dealing with the house which were positive – mainly the response of some very kind and generous friends who volunteered their time, usually on weekends, to sort Mom’s belongings. A number of these people remain close friends.
Amanda’s parents also spent many days with us in the early going to help us get a grip on things.
We also struggled with infertility – a subject very few people are willing to broach because of its unsettling nature – while we were in Montgomery.
Eventually, we finished the tasks needed to move on with our lives and leave Montgomery.
We are certainly different people for having lived through those days in Montgomery. Whether we are better is up for the Lord to decide.
I look back, I see what’s missing is my Mom, who didn’t get to see her first grandchild come into the world, or send us articles on the best way to do this or that as a parent.
My Dad, who died of a heart attack nearly 15 years before Mom, isn’t here to offer some grain of wisdom or to hear me tell him how proud I am of him for his service as a soldier in the 84th Infantry Division during World War II.
He earned two Bronze Stars (They didn’t give them out for teaching classes back in his day.) in the months following D-Day and was wounded in action. He was also in the Army Specialized Training Program, which placed soldiers in colleges across the United States during WWII.
Dad was a bright, industrious man who held down a full-time job and maintained other business interests, including his role as the founding treasurer of a credit union. He expressed his concern for people in tangible ways, such as having refreshments ready at the end of the trail after a Boy Scouts’ hike.
He was a skilled woodworker and mechanic – he did much of the work on our vehicles.
When Mom died, so did my connection to Dad.
I wish they were both here.
But then we wouldn’t have gone through what we did, spent time with people we’d have never met or been given many other opportunities we’d have never had.
The Lord did his part. He’s been responsible in his care of us, having blessed us with a beautiful daughter, dashing our doubts about whether or not he actually listened or paid attention as we waited – sometimes impatiently – through our first painful bout with infertility.
We’re now learning to trust his hand in a new uncertainty as to whether we’ll have another child.
We have no idea what awaits us what the next 10 years, but I hope we will grow in our ability to listen to the Lord in new, finely-tuned ways.
I hope we’ll teach our child – or children – to do the same.
And, we still have the bed!

NOW we have a title fight!

2008-08-29T12:31:00.011-05:00

I've been an amateur political observer for much of my life - probably since about 1976, the first time I can remember hearing the name of a national candidate (Bob Dole's) on the radio. I was about 8 or 9.
Watching politics is one of my favorite pastimes.
I cannot recall in any time since I've studied politics where we've had a presidential match-up like the one we have now in circumstances like these.
The late Tim Russert pointed out before his untimely passing that this election is the first in many decades which didn't feature a sitting president or vice president on either major party ticket.
That, in and of itself, is historic.
But wait, there's more.
The run-up to the Democratic Party nomination featured a bare-knuckled contest between a woman - New York Sen. Hillary Clinton - and the nation's first strong black candidate - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. This was the first battle of its kind for a major party nomination in terms of gender and race both playing major roles.
For weeks, Obama and Clinton fought for every vote and every delegate until Clinton eventually conceded. This week, she formally backed Obama for the party's nod. Thursday night, Barack Obama, 47, accepted that nomination on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Several days earlier, he'd announced Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, 65, would be his vice presidential nominee.
Less than 24 hours later, a history-making event happened again.
Republican nominee-in-waiting, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who turned 72 today, introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - at 44, she is 28 years McCain's junior - as his running mate. She's the first woman to run on the GOP presidential ticket and only the second woman in history to run for vice president (Geraldine Ferraro holds that distinction).
Here is our fight card for the presidency in 2008:
In this corner, we have a stylish idealist - whose desire to see change was likely forged as he helped those in need - but who doesn't have a lot of political experience, especially in the arena of foreign policy. Enter his running mate, a seasoned senator with a wealth of political know-how in all the right areas and whose roots in scrappy Scranton, Pa. and personal losses helped shape him into a strong leader.
In the opposite corner, we have one of the nation's enduring war heroes who, by reputation, has attempted to reform Washington from the inside and whose foreign policy experience includes a stay in the Hanoi Hilton. Today, he introduced us to a woman - who from first impressions - sounds like the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt in terms of toughness and competitiveness - this time in high heels and sometimes hiking boots and running shoes - with the compassion of Mother Teresa.
This is going to be one interesting, fascinating election. We've probably not seen one like it in most of our lifetimes and I'm sorry Russert and late political observer Tony Snow aren't here to enjoy it with us.
As the voting public, let's break the turnout at the polls.
I assume, unfortunately, that the tactics will get dirty. Name-calling, race-baiting and gender-baiting may be all part of the discourse over the next 67 days.
But, other than that, let's hope they play this fairly.
This fight card is interesting enough - let's keep the cigarettes, cash and booze at home and let voters be motivated on their own to cast their ballots.
Besides the contenders themselves, I don't know what else besides an ailing economy, a need for a clear direction for our fight against terrorism and a national desire to see a break from the dependence on oil could draw out at least 75 percent of our nation's registered voters.
Maybe they can add some midgets or have a debate or two at Wing Night down at the local watering hole.

Long time no post

2008-08-29T08:34:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone!
We've been busy and fighting summer colds, so I haven't had a chance to post lately.
Plus, I'm struggling with an idea for a post and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. Prayers for wisdom and discernment will be greatly appreciated. Whatever I come up with, it will be posted on Sept. 5, so keep an eye out for it.
In the mean time, I was scrolling through some Rush stuff on the MP3 player on the way back from dropping off Jadyn from daycare and got another listen to "Vital Signs," the last track on what I consider their masterpiece album, "Moving Pictures."
Obviously, the lyrics and music are not mine so they belong to Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee. But "Vital Signs" contains some of Neil's best lyrical work. Have a read (after this rambling missive) and have a great Labor Day weekend.
For our friends on the Coast, we're praying for you and will do whatever we can to help you guys recover from whatever ol' Gustav dishes out.
Speaking of Gustav, I've got to go cut the grass before he gets here. So I'm off. Later, and please look out for that post on Sept. 5 (Lord willing!)!

Vital Signs by Rush

Unstable condition:
A symptom of life
In mental,
And environmental

Change
Atmospheric disturbance--
The feverish flux
Of human interface
And interchange

The impulse is pure--
Sometimes our circuits get shorted,
By external interference

Signals get crossed--
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence

A tired mind become a shape-shifter
Everybody need a mood lifter
Everybody need reverse polarity
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to deviate
From the norm

An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.

Leave out the fiction--
The fact is;
This friction
Will only be worn by persistence

Leave out conditions--
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence

A tired mind become a shape-shifter
Everybody need a soft filter
Everybody need reverse polarity
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to elevate
From the norm

Let truth be our guide

2008-07-26T07:39:00.005-05:00

Depending on who you believe, Barack Obama is either the best thing to happen to American politics since John F. Kennedy, an alleged racist, Muslim sympathizer, an attention-hungry candidate who doesn't give a rip about our troops and - at the broadest extreme - the Antichrist.
Somewhere between these extremes presented to us about Obama lies the truth.
I hope in a few days to begin my own comparisons of factual information about the major presidential candidates - Obama and Republican John McCain. Therefore, I am not advocating or lobbying for either candidate.
What I do advocate is that our voting public make wise, informed decisions at the polls, not selections based strictly on fear and gross misinformation or outright falsehood.
I've taken a few minutes to look up a few Web sites which address all these assumptions about Obama.
The first is this answer about him being the next JFK. Doesn't sound exactly like our 35th president, does he?
The second is about an e-mail I received at home about Obama being an alleged black racist whose true allegiances lie with Muslims. The statements this e-mail is based upon are - at minimum - taken wildly out of context. Here is an analysis from snopes.com. Please take the time to read through it.
The next one is about an e-mail I got at work purportedly from a captain in Afghanistan who says Obama blew off troops lined up to meet him to get to a photo-op. Snopes.com has detailed information - even photos - to show the contrary and says that the original sender has asked people to delete his original e-mail because it contained what he now knows to be false information.
Now, for the last one - another snopes.com post about Obama and whether he could be the Antichrist. There is no information available to suggest this is even remotely true.
When we go to the polls in November, let's let truth and (as much as possible) geninue conviction guide us - not fear. And let's all check to make sure e-mails we forward to people are - as much as possible - truthful and accurate.

The Maximum Vacation, Part IX

2008-07-14T08:46:00.006-05:00

Day 8 – evening

Later we went out to eat and did some clothes shopping. Pennsylvania has no sales tax on clothing, so we took advantage of that, given that in some locales in the South, people pay around 10 percent in sales tax on everything.
Here, Jadyn sports a set of sunglasses Mommy got her during our whirlwind shopping trip in the humongous Tanger Outlet Center.

Day 9

We got up, packed up and directed our car toward our first stop of the trip – our friends’ house – to drop off a borrowed item and wave one last time goodbye.
We checked out a few of the places of importance to Amanda and her side of the family in the area she grew up in, then pulled out the directions for the car rental office at the Philadelphia airport.
We turned in our car, got inside the airport and did all the necessary check-in stuff. We got aboard the plane with the plan of getting to Memphis – and then Birmingham – in just a few hours.
This plan didn’t materialize.
Our plane started to taxi out, but the air crew realized that a panel was open on the aircraft. So, we went back to the gate to have it shut. Then, several passengers wanted to get off the aircraft because they knew they would miss their connections in Memphis.
While we waited on them to decide what they wanted to do, we burned fuel, so we had to get more gas.
What started out as a planned two-hour flight to Memphis ended in the reality of us staying on the aircraft a total of four hours. When we arrived in Memphis, our plane to Birmingham had already been gone about 20 minutes. Outbound flights were done for the day.
We didn’t make it home the night of Day 9 like we’d hoped we would. Instead we stayed in a hotel – paid for, of course, by the airline responsible for the delay.

Day 10

We made it back to the Memphis airport in decent time to catch our flight to Birmingham, which arrived without any glitches. Seeing the family vehicle waiting in the parking deck at BIA was quite a welcome sight. We loaded up and started our already delayed journey back to Mississippi.
Our delay gave us an opportunity to interact with people we wouldn’t have gotten to know better otherwise, including a person we initially met in Philadelphia. We never completely know why something happens, we can only trust it was for someone’s benefit.
We got home with about 90 minutes to spare before Amanda went to a previously scheduled event and have been pretty much on the go since.

Epilogue

Our journey into the Northern United States helped us remember some of the more important things in life. These all involve relationship – with friends, family and community. Sometimes, the bonds of trust and togetherness are forged in a flash; trust comes immediately to engage what lies ahead.
Other times, they come into being by reconnection, taking extended amounts of time simply to sit and chat in a day and age when time seems impossible to find.
Spending quality time with friends and family is no waste of time.
Neither is extending a hand of friendship and support to a stranger you wind up stuck with on a layover at a hotel.
All of these things come by making a choice – and we’re glad we chose to take the Maximum Vacation of 2008.

The Maximum Vacation, Part VIII

2008-07-14T08:46:00.000-05:00

Day 8 – morning

With all of us working on varying amounts of limited sleep, we got up to go to Dutch Wonderland, a theme park in walking distance from our hotel.
This was Jadyn’s first amusement park experience, and overall, she had a blast.
She loved her first ride, which moves along at a decent pace then slams into high gear.
First, here I am getting her set up for the ride.

The smile says it all.

She wasn't too wild about this spinning one.

She did OK on this ride, which climbs to heights above our heads.

The good ol' carousel worked fine. However ...

Jadyn wanted to see someone who passed by while we were on the ride, and once we were off, she literally ran down Duke the dragon to meet him.

Right after lunch, I went back to the hotel for a nap, while Amanda and Jadyn hung out with a college friend of Amanda’s and her daughter and stayed until about mid-afternoon.
I’ll save the roundup for the evening on the next – and final – blog about the Maximum Vacation.

The Maximum Vacation, Part VII

2008-07-13T17:59:00.009-05:00

Day 7 - afternoon and evening

After lunch, we made our way east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Route (U.S. Highway) 522, where our trip took a mostly northern heading toward the first day of the 30^th annual Creation Music Festival just south of Mt. Union, Pa.
Though we hadn’t placed this stop on our original itinerary, we thought it would be a good addition, both to spend time with our first-stop hosts and experience something we wouldn’t often get a chance to do. Plus, Amanda has fond memories of previous visits to the festival and got a chance to make some new ones.
We made our way through the entrance and to the parking area, then met up with our hosts.
We heard a speaker, ate some great festival food and saw several musical acts, including the David Crowder Band.
Jadyn figured out not long into our stop how to relax.

She also accurately determined the conditions we faced were quite warm, so she drank water.

This is mostly likely the biggest crowd Jadyn’s ever been in before, but she took to it very well.

She danced and had a good time ...

and so did we. We’re very grateful our hosts graciously allowed us to join them.
We continued on our original path toward the Lancaster, Pa. area, seemingly outrunning – and then getting caught by – a thunderstorm which appeared to follow us a good bit of the way to the east.
We got into Lancaster in the early hours of Day 8 on our trip, and we hurriedly got to bed so we could follow Day 8’s schedule as soon as possible.

The Maximum Vacation, Part VI

2008-07-12T20:34:00.001-05:00

Day 7 - morning and early afternoon

We rolled out reasonably early from our hotel in Parkersburg, W. Va. without another thought in mind not to go to the first originally scheduled destination on our trip – the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pa.
We essentially took the path we followed in to Parkersburg on Day 3 in reverse until we got to the Route (U.S. Highway) 219 North exit off Interstate 68 in Maryland, then made our way back into the Keystone State.
Here is a farmhouse along the way.

This is a sight we don’t see much of in the South – power-generating windmills.

We eventually found our way to the memorial, which is loaded with items left behind by visitors. Here are two photos illustrating the variety of things people decide to leave.

Amanda listened to the National Parks Service person as she told the basic story about Flight 93 – one of four aircraft hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
On this flight, people found out about the World Trade Center attacks and understood that this aircraft was part of the plan. Passengers and crew attempted a counterattack to retake the aircraft. Somehow and for some reason, the plane crashed into the patch of ground behind this fence marked with an American flag.

Officials believe the hijackers intended to fly the aircraft directly into either the White House or the nation’s Capitol. In other words, the steps the counter-attackers took prevented an already tragic day from getting much, much worse. To call them “heroes” is the right thing to do and so is honoring their sacrifices.
Amanda and I decided without speaking to each other that we needed to leave something behind.
Amanda wrote a message on the hat.

Then, Jadyn and I placed my favorite baseball cap on a little spot on the fence which makes up part of the temporary memorial.
May we long remember what the passengers and crew of Flight 93 did for our nation and its people.

After about a 45-50 minute stay at the memorial, we loaded back up, ate lunch in nearby Somerset, Pa. and headed for our next major stop on Day 7, which we’ll detail in the next post.

The Maximum Vacation, Part V

2008-07-11T22:51:00.000-05:00

Day 6

We'd already planned this day as a low-key one, with a stop with Jadyn specifically in mind.
In the morning, we went back into Marietta, this time to visit the city's Aquatic Center, which is basically a miniature water theme park. It's an excellent, affordable facility and a perfect thing for a child like Jadyn, who loves to play in the water.

After toweling off a bit, we went back to the hotel for another afternoon nap. Then we went to dinner with a cousin and later, took one last trip through Grand Central Mall, buying a few interesting items and letting Jadyn burn off a little steam.

As we began to pack and prepare to leave the Marietta-Parkersburg area, we wondered whether we could manage what we'd planned for Day 7. So, we gave ourselves several options and decided we would see which one could play out the next morning.
I anticipate two posts out of Day 7, if that tells you anything! I expect they'll be along within the next few days.

The Maximum Vacation, Part IV

2008-07-11T22:01:00.002-05:00

Day 5

I'd been to Marietta, Ohio three times in my life previously - sometime between 1977 and '79, December 1984 and May 1990. This was Amanda and Jadyn's first trip.
It is one of the ancestral points of origin on my mother's side of the family.
As we headed north out of Parkersburg on Interstate 77 into Ohio, a moderately thick blanket of fog obscured our view of the mighty Ohio River.
We made our way to Old Town Bakery, a relatively new addition to downtown Marietta. One of my cousins owns and operates it and it was our designated rendezvous point with my other cousin. (The photo in the link is from a person by the name of Bob Church who posted the link at this site.)
We met up with my cousin, got some very good breakfast, then took a driving tour of Marietta with my cousin at the wheel.
She took us up to an overlook, where the fog began to peel back and let the daylight shine.
Here are a couple of other pictures taken at the overlook.

My cousin drove us back down off the bluff and then on to other parts of the area, including segments of the heart of Marietta.
The image I take away from this most recent visit to Marietta is that it's a city that's proud of and rooted in its history yet it keeps its mind on the present and future. I see it as a progressive community with a bike and walking trail tied into downtown and recreation areas on the north side of town and a former covered - and later railroad - bridge reverted to pedestrian traffic about 46 years ago.
We strolled across this bridge to explore another side of town and take a look out on the point where the Muskingum and Ohio rivers merge.
Community members adorned the bridge with hanging baskets of flowers, adding a very nice touch to an already scenic path.

We discovered a cluster of various shops on the west side of the river, including this antique store with a clever name:

We went back to the hotel in Parkersburg - about a 20-minute drive - to give Jadyn a chance to nap before a gathering back at my cousin's house on the outskirts of Marietta later in the afternoon.
We enjoyed a great meal and some warm and genuine interaction with our relatives - I just don't think it could have gone better. Jadyn mostly just played in the dirt and hung out with cousins closer to her age.
By this day, neither Amanda nor I contracted pinkeye, and we truly enjoyed our time reconnecting with this segment of our broader network of kin.
By the end of Day 5, our senses of uncertainty on Day 3 gave way to a mixture of feelings belonging, connection and satisfaction. In other words, we had a great time!
We have five more days to recap, so please hang on as I get the blogs together!

The Maximum Vacation, Part III

2008-07-10T20:11:00.001-05:00

Day 4

The night before, we already thought we needed some recovery time and postponed a meeting with a cousin of mine. That was before we stayed up late trying to do research on what could be a serious situation.
The next morning, we called Jadyn's physician's office back in Mississippi and spoke to a staff member, who arranged for us to get some medicine called into a local pharmacy to treat the condition.
We were told the best way to prevent the spread of pinkeye was to keep our hands washed.
After a while, we decided to venture out and find dining and play around Parkersburg, and we found enough of all of it to suit us.
We took these pictures at City Park in Parkersburg.

Amanda snapped the cool one with Jadyn's feet in the air.
A little while later, we went back to the hotel and and took a nap.
We eventually decided to try to meet with my cousin the next morning.

We headed out again later and let Jadyn play at Grand Central Mall in nearby Vienna, W. Va.
As the hours passed and with treatment of Jadyn's eye, we began to realize that her condition might not have been as severe as we first thought.
We eventually went to bed for the night, ready to try again the next morning in meeting with my cousin.
Hang on - we hope have some more installments of the Maximum Vacation posted soon!

The Maximum Vacation, Part II

2008-07-10T19:14:00.001-05:00

Day 3

We went to the church Amanda attended growing up and I really felt like we were being prepared to enter a difficult period in our trip. We'd really had almost a mountaintop experience in the first two days of the trip and didn't want it to end. (Along the way, we made arrangements to spend more time with our first-stop hosts later in the week.)
The road ahead would be filled with new experiences. Sometimes, facing this leaves one feeling a sense of excitement.
Sometimes, we encounter senses of uncertainty.
This includes being unsure of how an interaction with family will turn out - some I'd never met before, others I hadn't seen in 18 years and we'd seen only a couple of them at our wedding almost 10 years ago. None of them had met Jadyn.
With this sense of heading into a valley of the unknown, we ventured out west from our friends' house along the Pennsylvania Turnpike (a familiar path for Amanda and me), then down Route (U.S. Highway) 220 and a previously uncharted path for all of us.
The first valley in the stretch of ground we encountered from Bedford, Pa. south to the Maryland line was quite picturesque. (Sorry, we didn't take any photos along this particular path.)
We got on Interstate 68 and continued a westward journey, stopping to eat supper outside Cumberland, Md.
Then, we continued on our way.
Our official welcome to West Virginia:

A few minutes later, we pulled in to the welcome center. After we stopped, we realized something was wrong with Jadyn's right eye.

Still, Jadyn struck a pose or two.
And the scenery was just plain gorgeous.

We suspected Jadyn's eye problem might have been pinkeye, but we checked the friend we stayed with and found she and her family had no signs of the dreaded, contagious condition.
We arrived at our hotel in Parkersburg, W. Va. some time around midnight. After several unsuccessful attempts to get our computer connected to the Internet, I went to the front desk for some help in getting the information we needed to diagnose what the problem might be.
After finding out what we could, we suspected pinkeye of some form, but decided we needed to rest for the night.
Please be patient - the next installment of the Maximum Vacation will be on its way soon.

The Maximum Vacation, Part I

2008-07-08T22:52:00.007-05:00

Though we'd been thinking about it as long as about a year ago, Amanda and I solidified plans earlier this year to visit Pennsylvania - the state where she grew up - for a summer vacation.
As we developed the itinerary, we decided to stay a total of about four and a half days in Pennsylvania and the remainder visiting relatives of mine in and around Marietta, Ohio.
We packed in absolutely as much as we could possibly stand and were pretty tired afterward but we had a blast!
If you are friends or relatives of ours who live in the areas we visited but we didn't get to see you, we apologize. We tried to see as many people as we could and simply couldn't get to everyone.
Day 1

On June 20, we drove from our home in Mississippi to the Birmingham (Ala.) International Airport. Here, we encouraged Jadyn to flap her wings just before we got on the first of three planes.
Our day of flying included stops in Memphis, Tenn. and Detroit, Mich. before we got to Philadelphia. The Memphis-Detroit connection was tight - we had less than 40 minutes to make it - but we did and got to the City of Brotherly Love in good shape. We obtained our reserved rental car and headed for a friend's house about an hour outside of Philly.

Day 2

We hung out with our friends, did a little shopping and got ready to go to a reunion of people from Amanda's youth group not terribly far from where we were staying. The men in our little cluster of friends took the kids back to play at the house.Then we loaded everybody back up and headed back to Reunion Central, where a fireworks display was scheduled.
The display got underway without warning and at the first shot, Jadyn ran like we were in the middle of a gunfight. We took her inside where she could see the fireworks but only hear them in muffled form, and she declared them cool, or something along those lines.

Please stay tuned for another installment soon from the Maximum Vacation!

Ohhh Noooo!

2008-06-15T07:20:00.005-05:00

There's something strangely comforting about having Mr. Bill back in the popular culture - at least enough to warrant a MasterCard commercial. (It was a regular gag on the old Saturday Night Live circa late '70s to around 1980.)

I'm not sure what else needs to be said.

An interesting disclaimer

2008-06-08T18:41:00.004-05:00

Last night, we were watching television and I caught something as a movie ad was just about to end - the word "tobacco." Fortunately, we have TiVo and I could scroll back and read the reference more closely.
I don't remember the exact wording but it was a disclaimer stretched across the bottom of the standard miniature version of the basic credits and above and in larger type than the normal rating and reason for that rating.
It basically warned potential viewers of the depiction of tobacco use.
That's right. Tobacco use.
Not graphic depictions of horror, overblown violence, incredibly excessive language or sex scenes which leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.
Tobacco use.
I'm a proponent for protecting against the slippery slope, that dangerous point of no return where if you set a precedent, you leave the proverbial barn door open for the activity to continue and then spread to include more things.
Don't get me wrong - I think the steps our culture has taken to limit second-hand smoke are, in large degree, good for us. Yet, this comes at the cost of limiting adults' freedom to use the product, which is still legal in this country.
I think we must be careful as a nation how much personal freedom we restrict and that when we choose to limit it, it must be for good reason.
I think giving general descriptions of why a movie has the rating it does is fine.
However, if don't exercise caution in delivering these warnings, then everything will be bad for us and we won't be able to make any decisions for ourselves without having everything disclaimed.
Then, we'll be puppets and not a collective of independently-thinking citizens.

Quick ... before the month ends!

2008-05-31T18:15:00.003-05:00

Here are a few quick thoughts before the month of May ends. Both of them have to do with comedy.

RIP Harvey Korman
This comedic legend passed away this week but left us with plenty of warm memories belly laughs. His work in this sketch from the Carol Burnett Show speaks for itself. He's the one in the chair.

The brilliance of "Office Space"

If you have not seen the movie "Office Space," then what I will post below is a spoiler, so don't read any further if you haven't seen it and want to do so.
I recently came across a word I'd never heard - I guess I was previously deprived due to my Southern upbringing.
"Tchotchke" is a term for "trinkets, small toys, knickknacks, baubles, or kitsch," according to the Wikipedia definition. The name of the restaurant where Jennifer Aniston's character works - and where employees are required to wear flair - is Chotchkie's. Same name, same concept. Brilliant!

RIP John Rutsey

2008-05-15T15:45:00.005-05:00

On May 11, John Rutsey, the first drummer for the Canadian rock band Rush, died at the age of 55 due to complications from a lifelong battle with diabetes.
He was the guy on the skins on the self-titled debut and an important part of bringing the band out into the rest of the world.
In 1974, the year Cleveland DJ Donna Halper discovered Rush and the year "Rush" was released, Rutsey left the band - it is said for health reasons, apparently due to his diabetic condition.
The same year, remaining members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson brought Neil Peart aboard. And the rest, as they say, is history. The band generated numerous gold and platinum albums over the course of at least three decades and a loyal following which continues today after 34 years. [They are currently on tour at the ages of 54 (Lifeson and Lee) and 55 (Peart.)]
A comment I read online in the last few days basically says this: Rutsey must have been a class guy because he didn't ride the coattails of his bandmates' later success. He didn't venture out to talk shows, or write books or do any other "Hey, look at me" stuff. He just lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity.
He helped launch one of the most successful and - in my opinion, one of the best - rock acts in recording history.
An anonymous drummer posted this tribute to Rutsey based on clips of his own very good drum-along to portions of the album "Rush."

So whether he asked for it or not, John Rutsey deserves one last round of applause.

The Muffuletta Appreciation Society

2008-04-27T09:02:00.005-05:00

On a recent trip to New Orleans, I wasn't able to get hold of a muffuletta.
I think I've blogged about this before, but I got addicted to this New Orleans delicacy while living in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and eating at a restaurant on the Strip. I can't remember the exact name of the place and it may not be there in its original form anymore.
But I absolutely loved the things and, over the last few years, have been in search of the perfect muffuletta. On our last trip to New Orleans in 2004, I got a muffuletta at a place which was probably in or near the area that got clobbered by Katrina.
So for not many other reasons than to get a muffuletta at Central Grocery, the place apparently established as the originating source of the phenomenon, I think we need to make another trip to New Orleans when we can do it!

Thanks!

2008-04-16T23:25:00.002-05:00

To all who have prayed for and supported us over the last 13 weeks during Amanda's unemployment, we say thank you!
She accepted a position today with an established employer in the area and overall we think this is a good step for our family. Thanks again!

Please hire my wife

2008-04-09T19:47:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow, Amanda will have been unemployed for three months.
So far, she’s applied for at least 50 jobs. She’s interviewed for five.
So far, no one has chosen to hire her.
Here’s what the top of her resume says and what employers are missing:
“Flexible, creative, skilled in problem solving, able to learn complex tasks quickly.
Hard working team player with great communication skills and a professional attitude.”
She’s a talented woman who freely gives of time and money to help others and is a fantastic mother who wants to use her abilities outside the home and provide needed additional income.
Her talents include, but are not limited to broad computer literacy, organization and filing of documents and multi-tasking. She is skilled in arranging PowerPoint presentations and using the Internet to communicate. She also is very familiar with the Microsoft's Office suite and Publisher program.
She is conversational in German and holds a political science undergraduate degree with a concentration in international relations.
Amanda is also very adept at using the English language, both in written and verbal form. Plus, she has a creative bent – she can paint, take good photographs, knows her way around a piano and a guitar and can sing.
She would prefer to work for organizations whose missions are service-oriented, such as educational institutions, but will be glad to use her talents and skills where they are most needed. She is looking for full-time work with benefits, to include health insurance.
If any of these skills and traits sound good to you and you are an employer in the Golden Triangle region of Mississippi, please write Amanda at praisechick @ gmail.com.

It's kinda like spring

2008-03-01T08:56:00.004-06:00

Now that the writer's strike is over, we're finally seeing some shows return (or their returns announced) on television. I guess we'll have to wait and see if any of the newer shows will return.
But we're finally seeing actual dates for things like the wrap up of the new version of "Battlestar Gallactica," which Amanda and I have been waiting on for months.
The painful attempts of people like Conan O'Brien to stretch their shows can now come to a close and while I've mentioned here that some reality television is helpful and beneficial, a whole lot more of it is junk. I'm glad to know we'll start seeming new, creative material coming our way.
Now, as for whether the ideas are original or not, that's another story. But I recently heard somewhere that it's not that the writers haven't run out of original ideas, it's that those in control want to make sure they make a profit and renewing an old idea is usually a safe way of doing that. That may be true but the regurgitation of age-old ideas just makes me tired. It'd be nice if there were an avenue for independent television like there is for music and movies. In some ways it's starting on the Internet with some of these serials that people have started.
I like being entertained and I like thinking that the people who bring me the entertainment have put some thought and effort into it.
And broadcast television isn't completely devoid of this.
An example is "Lost." These people have worked long and hard on how to mess with their viewers heads, and there's something satisfying blended in amid the frustration of it.
So, here's to new stuff on television and here's to people who have creative, inventive ideas getting their stuff seen and heard.

Best movie I've seen in a while

2008-02-25T23:17:00.005-06:00

Thanks to a good friend who offered to watch Jadyn while Amanda and I went out last night.
We saw "Vantage Point." If you liked the general premise of the NBC series, "Boomtown," with a little suspense and plenty of action (mind-blowing car chases included) blended in for good measure, then you may like this.
I use the term "fun stuff" loosely given the subject of terrorism, but it was fascinating.
Here's the trailer, which is about 2 minutes, 34 seconds long.

Keeping it real, Part III

2008-02-23T08:55:00.009-06:00

Blogger’s note: This is the third and possibly final installment on the subject of being real. It is in response to posts by my friend Kim. Her blog is: Innocent Lamb.

'Connection - In an isolating age'

As I began to think about how to craft this post, I found myself embarking on a journey through what felt like a maze of narrow rows of thorns. No matter which way I turned or shifted, I risked getting cut – offending or, even worse, alienating one group or another. I also tried to weigh how much I needed to explain about my positions on the things which made this navigation tricky. Of course, that too could make the trip more difficult.
Ultimately, I am trying to look at how we turn our efforts to connect and be real with those outside the church, especially those seen as outcasts.
So I’ve come up with what I see is the best way to address these issues, both with the following disclaimer and a moderate amount of explanation along the way.
This post is neither an endorsement of the behaviors described or depicted below, nor is it intended as a condemnation of those who would engage in these behaviors. It is certainly not intended to violate the copyrights of the late Jonathan Larson or others who now hold these rights.

With that out of the way, let me introduce to you the following people:

Mark is a struggling filmmaker who has awkward interactions with his ex-girlfriend - a performance artist named Maureen - and her new significant other, Joanne.
Roger is a frustrated songwriter who is afraid to get involved with a stripper and IV drug user named Mimi.
(Tom) Collins is a technical genius who develops a relationship with Angel, a transvestite street performer who helped Collins in his time of need.
Collins, Angel, Mimi and Roger are all HIV positive.
These are the majority of the central characters in “Rent,” a dynamic, challenging, fantastic rock opera – now both in stage and screen versions - written by Larson.
Here are some of the questions they ask or realizations they reach:

From “Rent:”
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away

From “What You Own:”

Connection - In an isolating age;
For once the shadows gave way to light …
For once I didn't disengage

From “Finale B:”

Will I Lose My Dignity
Will Someone Care
Will I Wake Tomorrow
From This Nightmare
There's Only Now
There's Only Here
Give In To Love
Or Live In Fear
No Other Path
No Other Way
No Day But Today

Here's a key example of what I'm talking about from "Rent."

"Rent" is an amazing work I simply don't think we should dismiss because of its content.

On the subject of connectivity, to quote a work referenced in one of Kim’s posts, “Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction” by David G. Benner:

“The hunger for connection is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. We are like immigrants in a new land, with no family or friends and no sense of place. We seem to have lost our mooring. Or perhaps we have lost some part of ourselves. Like pieces of a puzzle seeking their adjoining pieces, we long for connections that will assure us that we belong.”
Without giving away critical plot details in case you have never seen “Rent” and want to, these six outcasts from both the church and the culture at large form an inseparable bond that at one point is referenced as a “family.”
In talking over this post with Amanda, she made a very valid point: Sometimes those outside the church are better at creating community than those inside it.
Why is that when we are supposed to be work and exist as a body and inherent in that is connection? I don’t have an immediate, safe answer. I do know that I don’t think much of what we do in American Christianity is what we’re meant to do. Again, I’m not sure I have a formula or strategy as to how to get us to a modern form of the authentic church, but I do think it’s something to which we should strive.
How do we make Christ and his church attractive to people like the central characters in “Rent” without compromising the values we find in scripture? Does it really matter if we compromise dogma for the sake of “leaving behind the 99 to save the one?”
How can we make the church relevant to people who wind up finding family and connection in their own ways, seemingly making the church irrelevant?
How do we meet what I see is the standard, which is preaching Christ and him crucified and meeting the standard of Matthew 25:34-40 - helping those seen as the least.
How do we interact with those outside the church, who, by virtue of Christ’s commission, we are directed to reach, especially in today’s culture of fragmentation and often isolation?
I think we have to use Christ as the standard.
In scripture, we are directed to be in the world, but not of it. Somehow there is a balance to being relevant to and interactive with the world we find ourselves in and yet distanced from attitudes and behaviors contrary to Christ’s example.
If you’ll recall, Christ is seen by some as associating with the wrong crowds, something of which most of us in the modern church could never stand accused.

So how do we do this – interact with those would be seen as outcasts by the church and yet not follow their habits and patterns? It’s a perplexing question I think will take a lifetime to answer.

We have to get our own houses in order and make sure we are walking with Christ and are living out the things we say we believe among those closest to us first if at all possible. It’s a tall but necessary order. I used to think it was a “once and done” thing, but it’s really a daily process. However, we shouldn’t let fear of something being discovered being out of order in our own homes as an excuse not to follow Christ and his leadership in our daily lives as we engage the world outside.
As we proceed to look and act externally, we can start by looking at how Christ dealt with people seen as “sinners” and compare them with how he handled the religious elite of the day.
An example of the former can be found in John 4:7-26 – the story of the woman at the well.
It’s safe to say that while he was direct and truthful with “sinners,” he was not overly harsh or abrasive toward them.
He was a whole other person with those who thought of themselves as holy and righteous, but yet permitted unholy activity in sacred places, as seen in Matthew 21:12-16.
In response to these two passages, I think we should continue to study the character and nature of Christ and follow his example, treating people by the Golden Rule (treat others as you would want to be treated) and tackling the things with which Christ would take issue.
So then, at minimum, people seen as outcasts from society and the church would least have a chance to interact with the church, and possibly, learn to love Christ and his teachings. I pray the Lord will lead all of us who read this post to come to this conclusion and that people like those who live like the folks in “Rent” will somehow learn to have hope for more than just today, though today is all we have for the moment.
To borrow words from “Rent:” for once, maybe none of us will disengage.

Prattville

2008-02-17T23:33:00.003-06:00

The Montgomery Advertiser Web site is reporting what looks like widespread destruction on the east side of Prattville, Ala. from an apparent tornado this afternoon.
The same system passed through here overnight with little to no known impact. In fact, ironically, it was sunny and warm here around the time Prattville - south and east of where we live in Mississippi - got slammed.
No deaths reported yet and that's what counts.
As most of you know, I grew up in and around Montgomery, Ala. Prattville is a northern suburb to Montgomery.
Lord, send your comfort and grace to those whose lives have been turned upside down today and help then follow your hand in their recovery. In Christ's Name, Amen.

Keeping it real, Part II

2008-02-17T18:44:00.008-06:00

Blogger’s note: This is the second installment of what will likely be three posts on the subject of being real. It is in response to posts by my friend Kim. Her blog is: Innocent Lamb. Also, there is one reference below which is of a graphic nature. As you read you'll hopefully understand why I included it. Just a heads-up.

Being real - obstacles, challenges and boundaries

To examine some of the reasons why being real is so difficult, I want to pick through the cultural challenges, starting with the broader scope.

The culture as a whole - A strange gumbo of superficiality and reality

In today’s American culture, we see a strange gumbo of superficiality and reality. We get limited glimpses of those we hold up as celebrities, and for some reason, the ones who appear more vain and vapid tend to rise to the top. Yet, there are television shows such as “How to Look Good Naked” and “Celebrity Rehab.”
The first show helps real women feel good about themselves by helping them see the good in what they see in the mirror. This public service can help other women erase years of self-doubt and even pain about what they perceived as a weakness.
The second gives us a glimpse into the world of drug rehabilitation and everything that goes with trying to kick the habit. It lays out all the dysfunction and destructive patterns which lead people down the path of addictive behavior, all the traps which create obstacles for those trying to get clean and gives a clear picture of just how tough but necessary it is.
So in what we see and read in our culture, this strange mixture of sobering reality and gagging superficiality can leave us wondering just where the markers are.
How much truth can and should we stomach – about ourselves, about others – and yet how to do we live so we are genuine human beings who are real and yet are following Christ and attempting to help others do the same?

The culture in the church – “I don’t believe I’d have told that!”

The late, great Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard once told a story about a church leader – possibly conducting a revival – encouraging those in the congregation to “tell it all, brother, tell it all.”
I don’t recall what the first few instances were, but I do remember the third one – Someone confessed to an act of bestiality.
The leader responded, “I don’t believe I’d have told that!”
Of course, I believe that confessing our shortcomings and sin can lead to healing and reconciliation with God and other human beings, but should something as (rightfully) taboo and illegal as bestiality be shared in public? My tendency is to say no, but I do not think that we should hold the attitude of “tell it all,” then be shocked when someone takes us up on it.
We’ve been taught, either directly or indirectly, that putting on a mask and being someone we may not be naturally is the right thing to do – in general public and in the church setting.
Revealing things about ourselves can be troubling, misleading or even off-putting, or it can draw unnecessary attention to ourselves when we should be trying to bring attention to Christ. Yet, there are times when we share something openly, someone else can relate and realize they are not alone. Often, that is where our enemy tries to ensnare us – he makes us think we’re the only ones with a particular problem, so we are beyond help and repair, even beyond the grasp of God. Sharing something openly can also bring healing to ourselves and others.
Generally speaking, I believe that as we grow in fellowship with other believers, we should have safe places and safe people in our lives where no matter what the issue may be, we can safely share a hurt or pain and extend a hand to a friend who’s hurting.
Instances of open, public sharing should be with the leading of the Holy Spirit and, when possible, the support of those close to us.
Is there a hard and fast rule about what to share and when? No, I don’t think so.
But it is my firm belief that the church should be last place where we find judgmental stares, snickers underneath the breath, backbiting and complaining. I speak as one who has participated in my share, and asks the Lord for his forgiveness, but one who believes that if the church is to fulfill its role, it needs learn how to love people where they are, because that’s exactly what Christ did when we first came to know him. How can we treat others any differently?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35.
And we can’t just love those who love us. That’s easy and our natural inclination. We need to learn to move beyond this by his grace.
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. … But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Luke 6:32, 35 (NIV).
I think in scripture there’s no mandate that we make every contact intimate, yet we still need to allow the Holy Spirit to do what he needs to do to touch a life, even one we would not ordinarily want to touch.

Where do we go from here?

As with so many things in life and as a Christian, there is a balance. We must not say or do things which will inflict long-term harm to a person or a relationship. Yet, we must be wise and sensitive to share things to another person and about ourselves to be of benefit to the other person, even if what is said or done isn’t pretty or fun. And we should be willing to be open and truthful with people about ourselves in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and of value to others.

Please stay tuned

2008-02-04T23:40:00.000-06:00

For those of you looking for another post on "Keeping It Real," I appreciate your patience. Completing the next installment was on my list of things to accomplish this past weekend but as the nebulous "They" say, "Life happens while you're busy making plans." I did make some headway on my thought process - that is until a head cold made itself a home in my head. In the midst of everything, I've possibly gained some new insight. Maybe it's worth the wait, but I won't make false promises. Please be patient and I'll get something going as soon as I can.
Yes, I did have enough energy to watch the "Big Game" Sunday and it was that indeed a mighty clash worthy of the best game summary NFL Films can muster. Yes, I was pulling for the "underdog" Giants because they plowed a tough road to the Super Bowl.
And somebody forgot them to stop plowing! What an amazing win!
As you await the next installment in "Keeping it Real," please remember the following: I learned recently that a friend of mine from high school is in harm's way in Iraq. Please pray for him, the soldiers with him and all of their families. Thanks!

Keeping it real, Part I

2008-01-19T11:04:00.000-06:00

Blogger’s note: My friend Kim recently started a series of posts about being real. I was so struck by her initial post that I thought I would develop my own responses in the blog world. This is the first of at least three intended posts on the subject.
Kim’s blog is: Innocent Lamb.

A ‘Band of Brothers’

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." – William Shakespeare from “Henry V”

One of my favorite projects developed for mass consumption is the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.” It’s an insightful, detailed and graphic look at the men of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, who fought in some of the critical battles of the European Theater in World War II. I personally think every one should see it. One of the beauties of living in a relatively free society is that we aren’t required to do everything, but I think seeing what these men did will help us appreciate the freedom we do enjoy.
The miniseries is based on the book by the same name by the late historian Stephen Ambrose. Its title, from what I can tell, has its origins in the Shakespeare quote above.
While a majority of the miniseries consists of a dramatic retelling of the stories of Easy Company, several of these real men who experienced both the horror and kinship of warfare share their experiences and feelings openly for our benefit.

Here are some excerpts from what some of the men said above:
Dick Winters – “It’s a very unusual bonding.”
Carwood Lipton – “We knew we could depend on each other, and so we were a close-knit group.”
Donald Malarkey – “Just brave, so brave it was unbelievable.”
Bill Guarnere – “I’m just one part of the big war, that’s all - one little part. And I’m proud to be a part of it. Sometimes it makes me cry.”
Babe Heffron – “The real men, the real heroes are the fellows that are still buried over there and those that come home to be buried.”
Shifty Powers – “Seems like you figured that you thought you could do just about anything. And after the war was over, and you came back out, why, you lost a lot of that, or at least I did. I lost all that confidence.”
John Martin – “Well, you was hoping to stay alive, that’s all.”
Dick Winters (in quoting a letter from a fellow soldier) – “Grandpa? Were you a hero in the war? Grandpa said ‘No, but I served with a company of heroes.’”
Confidence. Bravery. Staying alive. Selflessness. Humility. Unbreakable bonding.
I believe these things have their application for us as believers in the context of a group of believers whose lives are forged together by following Christ’s lead and interacting with each other.
This following video goes to the core of what Kim refers to in her first post about a “band of brothers” as referenced by John Eldredge.

I agree with and embrace the concepts I hear Eldredge relay in this video and in other materials I’ve seen or read of his.
I dare say that this “band of brothers” referred to in the Eldredge video can and should include the fairer sex in the appropriate context.
During a period of time when Amanda and I attended a home church environment, I learned a great deal from a particular female friend of ours who shared her feelings openly with the larger group. Fortunately, this friend continues to teach and challenge me in a positive way when I get to spend time with her.
Knowing that I would have missed out on learning from her that first few times in a larger environment, I long to create and protect the development of such collective sharing.
I certainly understand that there are times when men and women should gather together within gender boundaries to learn from the Lord in a safe environment where hurts, pains and other issues can be addressed on a deep level without any influence from the opposite sex.
But I also know that the Lord can use all of us in a collective environment where we all gather together and help each other walk through life, where men learn from women and women learn from men. I’m not talking about starting a cult or anything crazy like that – just a legitimate, organic collective of people – who honestly may not be friends at first but would eventually be impossible to separate with a crowbar over time – who love the Lord and commit to love each other in spite of each other’s many flaws.
I’ve been privileged to have been in several environments where this kind of sharing between the genders happens and is of no threat to anyone’s marriage, but we are not currently part of anything like this.
I long to return to an environment like this and go even deeper, where two or three couples interact and share with each other on a deep level.
Intimate friendship in the Christian context has its roots in the relationship between Jesus and John, who is referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” on more than one occasion in scripture.
I think this sort of interaction – both at the intimate, four- to six-person level and the creation of a larger group environment - where we can all share and work together openly - will go a long way toward living up to Christ’s words from John 13:34-35:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Of course, this idea is not to exclude those who are not married, but as with the interaction between married couples, the interaction among singles on the deep level must also be such as not to create inappropriate relationships across the genders.
OK, so where does the reality come into all this?
To go deep, we must be real. To be real, we must feel safe to do so. Confidentiality is a necessary and non-negotiable aspect to this. So is checking a judgmental attitude at the door and letting a person share what is on his or her heart without fear of backlash or ridicule.
Amanda and I recently met a couple who’d walked a very hard road to have a child. We had just talked to them for the first time beyond the introductory level, yet they were so refreshingly open and honest about their circumstances. It was so incredible to meet people who were so real without even being prompted. We both felt magnetically drawn to them.
We know that not everybody operates like this but it just reminded me that I long to be in fellowship with people who don’t give it a second thought to share openly and freely with each other without fear of alienating those with whom we are in contact.
In many cases, this takes time and patience and that’s OK.
I pray the Lord draws together those of us who want to see this kind of “band of brothers” develop and be a permanent structure within our lives.
I envision Christians living in a community – not a physical compound – but a collective gathering of people whose love for each other mirrors that of the natural family but goes beyond that in supporting each other in growing in our faith and living our lives more closely to what Christ envisioned.
To relate these concepts back to the overarching theme of the miniseries and the origin of the term “band of brothers,” it is because of Christ’s shed blood that we even have the foundation for such a collective of believers. And, this fellowship can and should produce the result Christ speaks of in John 15:13-14:
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”

What it's all about (at least in music)

2008-01-13T16:33:00.000-06:00

My favorite rock band, Rush, has been been shut out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though they are more than qualified.
But that's OK, because they recently got one of the highest honors they could muster. The kids at the Paul Green School of Rock in Washington D.C. (as I understand the inspiration for the movie "School of Rock") recently put on a show of Rush music. They do an outstanding job with some difficult stuff.
I am one of those people who like rock and think it has a place and if we are to continue to hear excellent music, the next generation of musicians should be exposed to the best so they can be inspired to create their own good, solid stuff. That's what I mean when I say this is what it's all about.
I stumbled across this story on Rushisaband.com.
Here's a video from YouTube of the kids' performance of "Subdivisions."

Changes

2008-01-12T16:39:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, change happens in incremental, barely noticeable steps as we watch, like a bathtub being gradually filled with water.
Sometimes, it happens all at once - like a tornado.
About a week or so ago, I started listening again to the song "Changes" by Yes from their fantastic album "90125." While it's mostly a song about a relationship which appears to be at an end, it has some lines relevant to change in general. They've become more real to me as we are undergoing some changes in terms of Amanda's employment.
Some of the lines from "Changes" I find particularly meaningful right now include: "I'm moving through some changes; I'll never be the same; ... Capitalize on this good fortune; ... Only through love changes come."
The video to a live version of "Changes" is below.

The change began to unfold for Amanda Thursday around the same time a storm system bearing a tornado - which ultimately created tremendous damage, but fortunately only limited injury, to a community about an hour northeast of where we live - began its path through the area. The irony is simply too apparent to me to pass over.
A very well done video about the tornado's aftermath can be found below.

Speaking for myself, I'm sensing a peace about the road ahead. Though it is fraught with uncertainty, I'm trusting what happens in the future will be the best for us, even though the first few hours after the news hit looked and felt awful.
The losses experienced by the people of Caledonia, Miss. are in no way compared to the change we are going through (our house is intact, our cars are drivable), but the timing of both events taking place almost simultaneously seemed incredibly poignant.
Our hearts go out to the people of Caledonia. We pray they will get their lives back together and the Lord will provide for them the peace I'm sensing, that he will do a whole lot more with our lives than we can ask or imagine, even though it may be hard to see it in the first window of time after a life-altering event takes place.

'I've never been nothing but a winner'

2007-12-30T14:29:00.000-06:00

"When people ask me what I want to be remembered for, I have one answer: I want the people to remember me as a winner, 'cause I've never been nothing but a winner." - Quote attributed to Paul "Bear" Bryant on an Alabama fan's Web site.
For weeks, I've been struggling with my thoughts and feelings about the recent gridiron success of the Mississippi State University Bulldogs. The tussle's origins are two-fold: A haunting fear of alienating myself from my alma mater - the University of Alabama - warring with a core sense of what I believe is true regarding an opportunity the Alabama faithful let slip past about four years ago.
MSU's coach, Sylvester Croom, is a man with a proven record as a player and an assistant under Bryant. According to his profile on Wikipedia, Croom coached the likes of National Football League greats Derrick Thomas and Cornelius Bennett. He's a native of Tuscaloosa. He was on Bryant's staff when they won back to back national championships.
You can't get much more Crimson than that.
Yet when Alabama went looking for the person to take the helm after a downward spiral loaded with feelings of disappointment, betrayal and downright embarrassment, the higher-ups chose the safe alternative in Mike Shula.
Granted, I like Mike and I think the powers that be did wrong by him in the way they treated him. They forgot how much he had to overcome just to get the Tide back on solid footing.
So when they tossed Mike to the curb, they looked to someone they thought could get instant results. Instead, Alabama limped to a 6-6 regular season finish in 2007.
One of these losses came at the hands of the very man Alabama turned its back on four years ago. In fact, he's beaten them twice in a row.
After he wasn't selected at the Capstone, Croom went about 80 miles to the west, where people were glad to welcome him.
For their generosity, the folks at MSU earned the distinction of having hired the first black head football coach in the Southeastern Conference and even in the words of Croom (according to his Wikipedia profile, quoting a Washington Post article), referring to Mississippi: " The place has changed a great deal. I don't know how many people outside here understand that. But they're about to find out."
For what MSU's decision to hire Croom says about Mississippi and its attitude about race, I think it speaks even louder about what it says about the state of Alabama and where it needs to go in terms of racial harmony.
I still feel the way I did the day MSU beat Alabama this season: Alabama earned it when they chose not to give Croom the job for which he was immensely qualified.
Late add: The irony that a Bryant understudy - who wasn't selected to lead the Tide - won the Liberty Bowl 25 years after Bryant's final victory isn't lost on me and shouldn't be lost on any of us.
I hope Croom continues to remind Alabama's leadership of their poor choice, because, as Croom has proven with the 2007 season, he's like the man he played for and worked with.
He's nothing but a winner.

RIP Kevin DuBrow

2007-11-28T08:06:00.000-06:00

Let's travel back in time to 1983 to a day when four guys based in L.A. who went by the name Quiet Riot took the nation - and at least parts of the world - by storm with a little record called "Metal Health."
I was one of the teens who loved these guys and spent money (probably mostly Mom and Dad's) to see them with a friend in Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Ala. The above video - featuring their massive cover of Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize" - gives a taste of what they were like back in the day.
OK, back to 2007.
While the band's lyrical content of debauchery of various sorts no longer appeals to me, the sound - vocals ranging from banshee screams to melodic signing, wailing guitars, pounding bass and thunderous drums - still does!
So, it is with a sincere prayer that I hope the late Kevin DuBrow, the band's frontman and lead vocalist, met Jesus somewhere along his 52 years here on Earth.
He was found dead in his residence in the Las Vegas area over the weekend.
Thanks for the enjoyment and memories, man.

In the blink of an eye

2007-11-27T23:14:00.000-06:00

We took this picture of our daughter Jadyn in the upstairs play area of Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville, Ga. in March. We were in the community visiting some friends.
On Monday, a Brinks security guard and an alleged attempted robber were shot inside the mall.
One of the bullets fired in the incident apparently exited a window after flying above the food court and the children's play area, the Associated Press reported. The play area is just off the food court, where, according to the AP, people were diving for cover.
We've eaten in that food court.
Events we see or read in the news are often so much more real when we can say, "I've been there."
But it simultaneously induces concern and gratefulness to think that no one other than those directly involved were hurt, though we pray for healing for both of those who were shot.
If circumstances changed ever so slightly, a bystander - such as a child playing in the play area - could have been wounded.
It's difficult to bear the idea of my child getting hurt by some random event, but I can see the innocence of a child's playtime being vaporized by such a traumatic incident.
It certainly brings home the old saying: "There but for the grace of God go I."

Reclaiming a moment

2007-11-25T23:34:00.000-06:00

In the summer of 1977, I went to see a movie with at least one of my parents, probably my Dad, called "A Bridge Too Far."
It's a star-studded epic - measuring about three hours in length - which tells the story of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden during World War II. What I've read of this material from Wikipedia on Market Garden looks pretty accurate.

(Please see the above clip of the movie trailer.)
I recall very vividly not being able to remain in the theater due to stomach problems. It turns out I had appendicitis and went into the hospital for several days after an appendectomy.
I watched it again this weekend thanks to a rented DVD. I think I'd seen bits and pieces of it in the years following but as an adult with a greater understanding of the events of WWII and their impact, I could appreciate it more.
And I felt as though I could reclaim a moment of enjoyment interrupted three decades earlier by illness. I'm thankful this sort of reclamation is possible.
Also, there are lessons worth learning from Market Garden, based on my understanding of the events. (This is with no disrespect intended toward those who fought and died in the operation.)
These are:
- Develop contingency plans. Sure, sometimes putting all your eggs in one basket is a risk worth taking. But more times than not, it's best to build in at least a framework for a Plan B.
- Accurately assess the challenges ahead. Too much focus on what's to come can prevent us from taking any risk at all, but obtaining and fairly analyzing information about what we may face is worth our time to investigate.
- The ability to communicate is essential. Make sure the means of communication you plan to use functions properly in a harsh environment and send alternative means of communication just in case the first option fails.

The Man in Black

2007-10-31T13:54:00.000-05:00

Early in the morning of May 11, 1965, officers in Starkville, Miss. arrested Johnny Cash for public drunkenness. As he told it in the song "Starkville City Jail," he was just "pickin' flowers."
Organizers are planning for this weekend in and around Starkville the first-ever Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival in honor of the late country music legend.
Cash was tough enough to empathize with the hard-boiled characters in his songs and play for those in prison, human enough to struggle with addiction and connected to his faith and His Lord and Savior enough to live well his own story of redemption. He remains one of my favorite musicians.
Starkville is a little over halfway between Interstate 55 and the Alabama line along U.S. Highway 82 within a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Memphis, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala. and Jackson, Miss. It is also accessible by air at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport just east of Starkville.
Entry to the festival is free, though organizers suggest a $10 donation to support the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum and the Starkville/Oktibbeha Boys and Girls Club.
Information can be found at www.myspace.com/pardonjohnnycash
or www.pardonjohnnycash.com .

Over too soon

2007-10-18T08:25:00.001-05:00

My wife, who does a much better and more efficient job at this whole blogging thing, summed up what happened two days ago. I will say that this pregnancy reinvigorated us with the idea of being parents again, and while I don't understand why things ended this way, I'm learning to trust that there are many valid reasons why things don't happen the way we think or plan, and by the grace of God, we'll try again.
Many wonderful, kind and generous people have expressed their love and support - including calls, floral arrangements and tears of sympathy and watching Jadyn for hours - for us in the last 48 hours.
We feel tremendously blessed to have the friends we do.
From here, I'll let our letter to the baby speak for itself. She already posted this on her blog.

----
Dear Baby,

We found out today that you are no longer with us. We can't tell you how sad we are that we aren't going to get to experience you growing and coming into the world and becoming part of our family. We know that Jesus has other plans in mind for you, and that your brief time among us will somehow bring glory to God if we let it. We all love you so much and we look forward to one day seeing you when we all get to Heaven. Until that time, we know God will take good care of you.

Love,
Mommy, Daddy and Jadyn

Facing the giants

2007-10-01T06:35:00.001-05:00

A lot of things have transpired in recent weeks to make me take a closer look at what I do in terms of interacting with others and how they perceive me and making changes to that end.
I've made some progress in taking a different approach to things with these issues, but in some other areas I'm still doing what I've been doing and it's created some problems for me.
I finally have had to face some truth about myself that I've been avoiding for close to 20 years relative to my upbringing. Suffice it to say that things which transpired in our home and in my interactions with my parents still influence my behavior today, even though they've been dead nine and 24 years respectively.
I've got some hills to climb to overcome some of these root causes. Finally facing the truth is a good first step.
I've had this image of God that at some point, I'll have had my last chance to get things right and because I blew all my previous opportunities, he'll say, "Nope, that's it!" as if He is some mean and vindictive game player.
Scripture says otherwise about His character, but I do believe that He sends messages to us through our circumstances. This time, I'm hoping and trusting that I'll pay better attention and start facing the giants.

Sometimes it happens all at once

2007-09-27T17:16:00.000-05:00

I believe we get senses sometimes – and I trust they come from the Lord – that life is about to change.
I got one of these Wednesday, Sept. 19, right before my wife checked to see if her own senses were right.
And they were.

(Photo of a subsequent test – not the first.)

We all gathered immediately to pray for the new child, with our minds racing about what this would mean in terms of changes.
One major change came a lot sooner than we planned.
For a few seconds, let’s back up to late spring 2004. At this time, Amanda and I were getting ready to retract our physical ties to Montgomery, Ala., my hometown.
We knew we needed to get a vehicle which would help us in a potential move and we made a trusting decision that we would need a vehicle which could carry a child.
We bought a 2000 Toyota Sienna that became our family vehicle, especially when Jadyn came along less than 18 months later.
At 5:37 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, I got a call from Amanda.
She was panicked and Jadyn was crying.
They’d been in an accident.
I gathered my stuff at work and moved rapidly toward the time clock and out the door. A police cruiser crossed in front of me as the officer headed for the scene.
I continued on my chosen path away from the main traffic arteries, got there soon enough and ran to the van. Yes, I said ran. Yes, at my size.
Yes, I was sore for a couple of days.
Of course, that doesn’t matter.
What did matter is that Jadyn and Amanda were OK overall.
Amanda got a bruised right shoulder and Jadyn received a minor scratch from where her car seat belt caught her.
We took friends’ advice and started shopping immediately for another car seat. We’ve been told you’re not supposed to reuse them after accidents. So, I marked up the old one with a red permanent marker saying that it had been in an accident and not to reuse. A city garbage crewman tossed it on the back of a garbage truck the next day, but as someone told me at the scene, the car seat had done its job.
Indeed it had.
Later the night of the accident, I could be seen yanking, tugging and generally giving a car seat a work-over in Wal-Mart. The lady working the baby section asked if I needed help.
I explained that a car seat spared my child serious injury in a wreck earlier that day and I wanted to make sure the next one we bought would do the same.
She left me to my yanking and tugging.
Later in the week, when we went to get a few things out of the van, Jadyn saw this:

And cried.
I got a sick feeling in my stomach – it was my first time to get a close look at the front too. I also realized this could have been much worse. And given the news that we've got another child on the way, I'm grateful the airbag didn't deploy.
This vehicle served us well, was our first real vehicle together as a family and we’re sorry to see it go.
We’re about to start looking for its replacement and we’re hoping to do it quickly.
Of course, we’re elated at the prospect of another child – praying regularly that he or she remains healthy as she grows – and mentally mapping out the things we’ll need to do to get ready for him or her.
If the last week is any indication, we’re in for quite a ride over the coming months as we head toward the projected due date of around Memorial Day.
We’ll do our best to take every turn in stride – no matter what lies ahead.

9-11 plus six

2007-09-11T22:29:00.000-05:00

Today, I looked again at some video and thought about this day six years ago.
The memories and emotions came roaring back.
Some of the things I've come across either by viewing them in some form or thinking about them in my mind are:
The images of family and friends standing quietly behind Gov. George Pataki with fliers bearing their pictures and contact information.
The men and women who decided that jumping was better than burning alive.
The heroes and heroines who fought back on Flight 93 and somehow prevented what was sure to be more death and destruction.
The photo of a taxicab with a hole in its windshield from a light pole the aircraft flying in to the Pentagon knocked down.
I'm still left with the impression that acts like those we experienced on Sept. 11, 2001 can only be met with the sword.
I wish the Iraqi situation was a lot more clear and that an "exit strategy" was easy to achieve. I think we should redefine our goals in Iraq and begin a reasonable draw-down of forces, but in such a way as to not leave the impression that we consider the situation "lost."
Retreat from this fight should never be a motivation for reduction of forces - only that we've achieved a reasonable sense that we've done all we can to leave Iraq better off than we found it and our enemies in disarray and defeat.
We cannot back down from this fight. They've proven what they'll do when they see a moment of weakness.
We must remember this day for the rest of our lives and let it guide our nation's future actions as it relates to protecting its principles and most importantly, its people.

756 + *

2007-08-11T13:34:00.001-05:00

The news that Barry Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron's 33-year-old major league home run record barely registered on my proverbial radar screen. Why?
I'm trying to word this so as to not sound like I'm accusing the man unjustly - I have no proof either way, but I think there are too many unanswered questions about whether Bonds has used performance-enhancing drugs. The evidence on the subject is largely speculative and circumstantial. Until those questions are answered through some legitimate venue, be it a court or an independent review on behalf of Major League Baseball, I think the record should be viewed differently than those of Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth, the record's previous holders.

An exercise in breaking blogger's block

2007-08-11T07:10:00.000-05:00

OK, I have this strange thing about posting things here that I want to keep separate from MySpace and vice versa and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I've over-compartmentalized myself and my ideas to the point where I don't know what goes where!
So, you haven't seen me much here, mainly because I didn't think I had much to store in this electronic thought bin. I feel this sense of restriction on placing many of my ideas out there for the world to view. Fear is obviously at the root but sometimes I wonder if I'm afraid to conquer fear. You know - I don't know what I'd do with myself if I did?
I just did an Amazon search on "overcoming fear" wondering if anyone had tackled the subject, and sure enough, they have - in spades. There's even one about getting over the fear of success. Is that the root of it, that if I do something that people love that they'll want more of it and I won't be able to produce? Sure, that's an element, but that's not the root.
Another fear is getting "dooced," of course our online acquaintance (only by virtue of reading her blog) Heather Armstrong, through her site www.dooce.com, has turned getting dumped by an employer into a full-time gig. Big yay for her! She's one of my heroines.
I think I've got something to say, to offer to the world, but I haven't quite put my finger on it. Would they listen? Would I be dismissed, ignored or even worse, left to feel like I shouldn't have wasted my breath? What do I have to offer? (I don't have an answer to that yet but this sure does help).
OK, better get ready to get the little one up for the day.
I feel better, do you?

The sword came in handy this week

2007-07-14T06:31:00.000-05:00

In our master bathroom, there's about a 2-inch gap between the wall and the sink, which sits on top of a cabinet. The other day, I accidentially knocked my razor down into this tiny canyon. I tried my electric razor for a few minutes and I guess the heads aren't clean or something, because it barely made a dent.
So I began the process of trying to figure out how I could free the razor from captivity. The broom handle was too wide and a search of the kitchen utensils turned up nothing suitable.
Then, I walked past this old ceremonial sword we found in my Mom's house when we were cleaning it out. I can't read the inscription on the blade now but I think we determined it came from a military academy, probably one my Dad attended long ago.
I grabbed the sword, took it to the bathroom and reached with it to get the razor. The first time didn't work and I ultimately only got out the razor itself - the razor blade remains at the bottom of the gap. I had a spare blade in another bathroom cabinet. But I did also retrieve a comb and a travel size of shaving cream.
Determining what to keep and what to throw away is a regular discussion in our household and it's one for which I have no scientific approach.
For me, this is proof that you never know when something for which you have no use suddenly becomes one of the most important things you possess.
But we've noticed recently a change in our outlooks now that we keep the house clean on a regular basis so there's definitely an argument for keeping clutter to a minimum.
I think we just have to trust the Lord to grant us wisdom on this subject and pray that the thing we need the most at the time we need it is there.