Steve G Investigates!

Creating

2011-11-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

respect can cripple you.

i respect great writers. Chuck Palahniuk. Malcolm Gladwell. Mark Twain.

i respect great teachers and storytellers. Rob Bell. Garrison Keillor. My professors.

i respect those who create great songs. household names, friends, or anonymous. they are there bringing things crafted and purposed to this world.

through print, through movie, through podcast, daily their voices are felt.

i find lately, though, that my respect for these has kept my voice from being felt. why unfold myself onto the page, why divulge my thoughts and act upon inspiration, when someone else has already said what i came to say, and said it well?

yesterday i walked into a bookstore. a large one, here in NYC. thousands upon thousands of books. did any of these authors doubt that they had anything new to say? did they for a moment think that their book in-process would end up on the discount $3.99 pile, likely no more than the cost of the binding and the ink and the paper?

but there it was, the discount pile, actually several of them. someone's work clearly didn't make it to the finish line.

but does this negate their voice?

i am not sure if everyone fears anonymity, but i sure do. or did. it's one thing to be unknown when you haven't tried. it's quite another to have tried, very hard, and to still be anonymous.

if the above strikes you as cowardly, let me assure you that it is exactly that.

i am beginning to think that inspiration is not necessarily unique. many of us must be inspired by the same things. the genius of some of those i mentioned above is that they can take a common inspiration and craft its expression. they can give it a voice. and when they do, the rest of us cannot help but resonate with its truth.

i have resolved to shed this cowardice of respect that sometimes convinces me that it's all been said and done. because it is right. and it is also absurd that this would keep any of us from creating.

wrestling with Rob Bell (as seen in Boulder) and Love Wins (part 1)

2011-04-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

just back from hearing my friends Mr. Dillard, Phil Waggoner, and various men of impeccable and unreproachable character playing very good music and living out their passion,

i now find myself with a 15-yr Glenmorangie (say Glen-MOR-angie, like saying "orange" with some extra phoenetics) whisky in hand, lightning in the background, and Chopin's piano concerto no. 1 in the background. i am compelled to write, because certain ideas have slapped me across the chest today. they grab the scraggly back of my head and force me upward, to inhale all manner of questions and confusions and wild tensions.

this may take a while. feel free to come and go as you please.

walking up the stairs of the Boulder Bookstore, albeit an hour early, chairs are still being set forth. very few chairs, it turns out - the space is small, intimate. we find a row of three, just a couple rows back from the "stage," really just little more than a step up with a folding table.

the first time i saw Mr. Bell, he had packed out the Paramount Theatre in Denver. just yesterday, he spoke at Denver Seminary - the one and same institution where God himself has brought me for this season in my life - as it went, the doors opened at 9, and I am told, the entire university's chapel room was at capacity by 9:05.

now, the same voice, the same man, joins us in a room of 50. in the sweltering hot upstairs of the bookstore we steep, and then Rob is in front of us...not exactly "sitting" (the chair, "a throne" as Ally would later refer to this tall, uncomfortable, posture-correcting apparatus, was not once occupied during the entire session), but more bouncing with fervent energy as he perched upon the edge of the table, legs sometimes swinging wildly. it reminded me of one of those ventriloquist puppets...

questions began. questions were answered, though for one to attempt to reconnect an answer to a specific question would be to attempt a maddening exercise indeed. this is a man who clearly has more to say than he feels need to restrain.

so, rather than make the attempt, i will endeavour to provide you with succinct notes from my fervent scratchings which i made within a Norwegian children's book (to explain this would take more time and room than i am willing to devote at this juncture):

(also, please understand that my use of quotation marks is highly liberal here. i only provide them to indicate my best summation of Mr. Bells' comments.)

1. "We are in the midst of a Historic Reclaiming of Christianity. People are beginning to realize that what Christianity has turned into is not what it was intended to be in some fundamental ways. There is this toxic straining and striving for that which we've had the whole time. Some of us are, in a sense, Returning to Roots."

i remember my Hebrew professor, Dr. Dallaire, saying not long ago that she believed it was a move of the Holy Spirit that Christians are now rediscovering and celebrating the Jewish roots of our faith. the phrase "Historic Reclaiming" strikes me a bit funny, as no doubt there have been many such movements during 2000+ years of Christ followers, and we know for sure of the reforms during Josiah's reign and later under Ezra and Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

still, i cannot help but resonate with his statement. as i continue to be challenged in my understanding of the Jewish'ness of the scriptures and of Jesus' teachings, i begin to feel great humility and awe at the move of God that would allow me to be some small part of bringing that joy, that feeling of

"OH, so THAT'S what this means!"

every time the Spirit of God illumines a passage for me in what may be closer to its original context, and connecting dots from this...to this...to that, and just falling to my knees (usually figuratively, but not always) and being like,

"no way is that what this is really saying! why has no one told me this???"

2. "Fear is an awesome fundraiser."

this one is still permeating and steeping within me. Hell House comes to mind.

3. "Luke 8:10, 'To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God...' for Jesus, knowing, knowledge, was a Flesh-and-Blood Real Thing. It is not simply information to rearrange into your mind."

Rob seemed to be saying here that "knowing," in Kingdom language, meant acting. it is not some purely intellectual pursuit, but a holistic integration of Kingdom values, Kingdom logic, Kingdom grace and peace, into our daily lives.

4. Rob was asked about his overall motivation for writing the book (Love Wins). was it addressed primarily to Christians, to non-Christians, etc? his response was, "both, and more. the point is that God has thrown a party and everyone is invited. the book has two parts of a tension: first, that Jesus issues an URGENT invitation to be part of this thing, but while also acknowledging the REALITY of God's love/grace, which seems to leave that invitation open for as long as it takes. when someone comes along and claims to have resolved that TENSION which is created by these two aspects of God's message, that one has likely missed the deeper truth which the tension was created to illustrate."

5. i'm not sure if this even followed from a specific question, but i ABSOLUTELY LOVED this: "i don't Google my name. people will tell me what other people are saying about me, and i'll be like 'oh.' criticism WILL shape you - but you choose if you, after receiving criticism, just throw it back in the other person's lap....or, you can choose for it to reshape you by refining you.

"I get up in the morning, make breakfast with my wife, then we might walk the dog for a little bit. And then when I sit down, whatever I'm working on - a video, a book, a sermon - I just start to let it come out. i don't think about what other people might think of it - all I know is that there is this FIRE in me to make it, and if I don't make it, I'll spontaneously combust."

i love that he said this. in fact, it may be THE DEFINING THOUGHT that i took away from this afternoon. i feel that fire. i just don't always know what to do with it. and, sometimes i don't feel up to the task, when someone like Rob Bell can so competently vocalise or illistrate what my fire is putting on my same mind.

the thought has been with me lately, 'why even do this? is there a need for me to continue on when someone else has already put all this out there?'

but hearing him talk about that FIRE, the same fire which burns in me, i see that God gives Rob Bell that fire the same way he gives me that fire. just as he must create with it, so must i. it is not for me to decide whether or not to use the fire...

just HOW.

6. "I love my wife, and decided to marry her, because I couldn't imagine another day without her. But I didn't marry her because I didn't want to be with Sheila. Or Linda. Or Joan."

he was illustrating the absurdity of presenting relationship with God, or heaven, in terms of "it's either this, or Hell." basically that Hell is a horrible motivation for someone to "choose" Christ, because they haven't chosen Christ at all then. they've just chosen one destination over another.

7. Rob was asked about the phrase, 'everything happens for a reason,' especially when used as a source of comfort for someone going through difficult times. Rob's answer:

"This might be one of those phrases, one of those things we throw out there, that is better as a rear-view mirror than as a window. I have performed tragic, heartbreaking funerals, where people will offer platitudes from scripture like, 'all things work together for good' or, 'there is a reason for all things.' And I'm left thinking, perhaps we should save these thoughts for later - maybe we should refrain from this kind of thing in the moment and let the moment play out. Let the grief, the healing, the actual experience of tragedy, guide us to greater wisdom.

"My dad was 8 years old, when an uncle put him in the car and they began driving towards the funeral home. When my dad asked why they were going to the funeral home, he was told that his dad was dead, but that this was a time to celebrate his dad's passing. It was expected that he not cry, as this was a happy occasion - after all, he was now with Jesus. The same happened a few years later, when his high school-aged brother died. There must be a time to grieve and to allow the natural ebb and flow of our humanity to surface."

8. "We should hold onto God's justice and judgment - after all, we CRAVE justice. We cry out when we see or hear about injustice. Sex trafficking, those who prey on the weak, 300,000 people in Africa who have HIV, but for $2 could get antiviral medications that would greatly reduce the mortality rate, millions who go without clean drinking water. We want justice.

"When Heaven and Earth come together, there will then be a sense of 'you can't do THAT here.' This is what is meant in Revelation when John says that all these things will pass away."

9. "If we LOSE the tension of our faith, of the words of Jesus, this is tragic. Many feel the need to 'take a stand' on one side of an issue of faith, or the other. when, really, the STAND we should be taking is to embrace both sides and to embrace the tension."

this one i need to think about a little bit more. i agree that there are many aspects of the faith which require a tension to "work." i agree in the sense that nothing should be "off the table" in terms of conversation or discussion.

Summary:

after hearing Rob today, i am left with the overwhelming impression that he wants the CONVERSATION to happen. the dogmatic ways in which so many have approached faith, the lack of willingness to question or be questioned, has led us far from the roots of knowing YHWH the God of the Old and New Testaments.

though my review of Love Wins will have to wait for a day in the near future, i am greatly encouraged, partly for altruistic reasons, and partly for blatantly selfish reasons.

The altruistic: this book has raised some KICKIN' conversations over the past few weeks. people are talking about some sacred cows. people are leaving room for tension and debate, and seem to be at least making some room for these tensions to form in their walks with and towards God. my deep, honest, and tired (perhaps also slightly tipsy as i've had now more than 1 whisky) prayer is that this will permeate and grow in the weeks to come.

The selfish: now that these things are floating out there, i now know that My Fire is not mine to ignore. i wake so often compelled to just CREATE and read and record and listen and especially and most definitely CONVERSE about all these things and more.

this gives me the most wonderful hope that my voice will be heard, and that there are many, many things to say.

so i see what started as a post with poetic metaphors and illustrative language has morphed into tired but joyful ramblings. i bid you good night.

A Montana Musing

2009-10-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Shane Carruth has this theory.

Now hang with me on this one:

Let's say it were hypothetically possible to go back in time. As in, enter a box or machine or whatever at point "A" and re-emerge at point "B".

Now, point B just happens to exist in what we call yesterday, or last week, or maybe that day you really screwed your life over. And now you want to go back in this box starting at point A, the aftermath, to get out again at point B.

I call Do-over.

So you sit in this box, and you're being transported from point A to point B. But it's not instantaneous, like in the movies. If you want to go "back" 48 hours, then you have to sit in the box for...48 hours. It's a 1-for-1 relationship, Shane says. There is a cost for going back.

And here's the tricky thing. When you get to point B...well, "you're" already there. If you truly want to re-live that moment, change something, you're going to have to dispose of the variable. And he's "you".

Folks who dwell in sci fi will notice the appearance of the paradox. What happens if you meet yourself? Will the universe cave in? Will time cease to have meaning? No, says Shane, probably the only thing you're really going to screw up is your sanity and the lives of people you choose to surround yourself with. Anyway, he made a movie about this, called Primer. It won Sundance. Netflix it.

See, people fantasize about time travel thinking they can go back and change something they don't like. Nostalgia to the extreme. But even time travel, following this logic, doesn't "change" anything. Traveling...switching locations, switching times...doesn't change anything. What happens somewhere never stays there - you always take it with you.

I've often wondered why I travel, why it makes me come alive like little else can. So the reason I bring all this up, is while I haven't necessarily time-traveled (other than forwards at a slightly relativistic time-dilated rate having driven so far at high speeds), I did get into this Chevy Cobalt-sized box yesterday morning. 9 1/2 hours later, I exited this box almost exactly 650 miles away from my previous location.

So here I am...hoping for inspiration, hoping for change, hoping for insights. And I get them. I think I used to travel because I wanted to escape. I wanted to run away, to become someone else, to start over.

But up here in this chilled mountain air, I'm thinking a bit differently. See, now I'm thinking that maybe I travel because I know who I am. And every so often, I must allow myself to be transported somewhere unfamiliar to see myself, as I have become, from the outside-in. To search fearlessly within that soul of mine with the searchlight of Truth framed in self-denial and the relentless slap-you-across-the-face passion of Eternal יהוה.

To meet myself, and to converse with him. But this version of me doesn't get disposed of...I get to take him with me.

Redemption

2009-09-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:12

The after-effects of redemption – cleansing. Pure. White. Fresh. New. Like this:

I find myself in a bit of a revelation this evening. I must have always pictured redemption as an instantaneous process. I’m starting to wonder about that now. As I experience redemption, a new beginning, that process of cleansing, I think it’s more like this:

He entered the Most Holy Place by his own blood.

It must have been like that for Him, then. Redemption doesn’t look like redemption on the ground. In the midst. It may not look like the chlorinated church baptismal.

It looks like suffering, it looks like something that would draw blood. It looks like the tip of a spear. It looks like darkness, and fatigue, and everything you wouldn’t want redemption to be.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, “You must be born again”. Being born must be one of the most traumatic affairs which one endures in life. The pain, the screaming, the forced emergence into something completely foreign.

The blood.

If being born of the flesh is analogous to being born of the Spirit, should we not expect a similar experience when being born of the Spirit?

Redemption is continual, I find. It is daily, even as it is eternal. And creation groans expectantly. Which means something eternal, deep, and aware inside me, groans expectantly.

Redemption sounds like a battle cry. It sounds like crying. It tastes like blood, it tastes like victory. It screams when nothing is left, that everything is ahead. It demands everything, but it takes us where nothing more is needed.

So I say, Let me be born again.

Nostalgia

2009-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

First, watch this:

"Nostalgia" actually is made up of 2 roots. From the Greek, "nostos", meaning "a return home", and the Indo-European "-algia" meaning "sickness".

Janelle Wilson, who wrote "Nostalgia: Sanctuary of Meaning", has this to say:

"Nostalgia goes well beyond recollection and reminiscence. It demands an emotional valence..I think it is more a longing to recapture a mood or spirit of a previous time. Or, perhaps, to rediscover a former self (a self that seemed more like the 'true self', for instance). Perhaps we "nostalagize" for those things which symbolize what we wish for. What we are nostalgic for, reveals what we value, what we deem worthwhile and important."

Today, I'm cleaning my apartment - like, for real cleaning. And I come across boxes, cartons, of old cassette tapes. So I start sorting, tossing, dusting off and playing these relics.

Mix tapes (remember those?) from middle school...high school...even college. Some crappy blues song we recorded when I was 14. Old Zeppelin and GnR. My sister's voice when she was 3 or 4, my mom in the background.

My own voice, addressing me in all its pre-pubescent glory.

Draper's dead on with this "time machine" concept. A carousel. And sometimes, I don't want to get off back here. Where I got on. Sometimes I'd like to go back and try again.

To get off somewhere back there, and try again.

Those times weren't especially good, or particularly bad either. They were moments, just like this one. Okay, so my angst was greater, my confusion more pronounced maybe. Every one of those moments has helped me become who I am in this one.

But that kid...he didn't know any better, and he didn't need to. No rent, no job (well, not a real one, that actually mattered...), no burden for spiritual maturity. Make a crappy video, make a jackass out of yourself with tin foil, torches made of notebook paper, and a Saturday night.

As I listen and reflect I feel nauseous. Sick. Nostalgic. So, then - who am I trying to rediscover? What do I want tonight? What am I saying is important to me?

Possibility. Promise. Hope.

These are the things I find myself swimming in nostalgia for. Because that kid, desperate and clueless and full of angst as he was, KNEW, and I mean KNEW, that there was something better down the road. Just make it through this, and it gets better from here.

Nowhere was this more pronounced than at Uni. The whole world laid out before me. Do anything, be anything. I knew I could pull off...anything.

I guess the question in front of me tonight, is am I fulfilling that kid's dreams? Am I the man he thought he would become? If he met me right here, tonight, would he be proud? Disappointed? Would he want to punch my face in?

And would he be right?

2nd Travel Blog

2009-06-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'll be updating my travel blog with photos, etc. (http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Fort-Fun-Granola-Boy/) as I am able!

1st Travel Blog

2009-06-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished up the first of several travel blogs. No, I haven't gone anywhere yet. Thanks.

And yes, that is my shower curtain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6P_XYx8G8&feature=channel_page

Now in HD!

Wanted - a Shedding of Pretenses

2009-05-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

The following is something which I wrote a few years back, but it is more true to me now than even it was then.

It seems that most people, Christian or not, end up having small vision, small dreams, and, consequently, small impact in this world, because they hold onto this "life" too tightly.

Each man or woman, by necessity, will by degrees do one of two things: clutch desperately to what they think they have earned or deserve in this life, or lose his or her life, for His sake, and in doing so find their true self.

Those who understand this truth, and proceed to live it out, are fewer in number than I once thought. Like John the Baptist, who knew and acted: "He must increase, but I must decrease". Or Mary Magdalene, who never pretended to be worthy to wash Jesus' feet, but knew there was nothing but rags to lose, and infinite purpose to gain.

I now believe, at the risk or pretension, that most never live. Few are the number that hold so loosely, who have even once known the touch of the Father as they spread themselves before Him, stripped bare of hindrance, and with joy can proclaim, "It is well with my soul; O my Lord, it is well".

YHWH, help me find these people, who wish to live as I do.

A youth pastor parody

2009-05-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

This isn't so much in-your-face funny, more like "Ugh...I think I know this guy" awkward-funny. It's especially revealing that some people don't realize it's a pardoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTn8FDoKBL4&feature=channel_page

Enjoy.

Social Anxiety

2009-05-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Now that the semester is over, I feel finally able to sit back and process a little. These times are good.

I know that sometimes I will hide behind a very structured schedule, and life, to avoid down time. I guess I've come full-circle, since I used to be neurotically anti-social and heavily sought out alone time to avoid others...now I'm more likely to spend my time neurotically hopping from activity to event to class to avoid being alone.

Yea neurosis!!!

Some of those close to me know (some don't, or at least didn't...) that I have dealt with some form of anxiety disorder for all my adult life. I don't make a huge deal about it, since it's something like 40 million adults in the US that find themselves in a similar boat. In fact, I used to think that "anxiety disorder" was just a clinical term that we make up.

It's always so much comforting to know that your seemingly unexplainable, irrational physical symptoms and emotional crises has a name...plus it's a lot easier to say, and saves us all some time.

Which is why, when my god speaks of my becoming a new creation, when He says that "creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God...", that it means a great deal to folks like me.

Which is why following Christ, for me, is hardly a crutch to help me through life, as some have claimed. I've never understood that argument, and dispute it more now than ever. The Jewish concept of redemption, and I would argue, the Biblical concept, has as much to do with today as it does eternity.

On my best days - my most confident days, the days where I truly feel connected to something deeper than myself, the days where I know the lives around me are better because we share something - on those days, I can literally sense the new creation taking shape, and the old begins to fade.

Days like today...like Paul emotes so eloquently in Romans 7, the old creation is not completely gone. Some days, it is as if redemption takes a back seat. I want nothing but to be left alone, and the wall grows thick. I don't want this, I know it isn't rational or right or anything resembling who I have become...yet here it is.

"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, the help of my demeanour, my God."-Ps 42

Newly Created

2009-04-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

We seek commonality. Do we not latch onto that which is familiar?

I would argue that even our differences become commonalities, when those differences intrigue us. Why would someone intrigue us, unless we identify a part of ourselves within them?

Maybe they excel in that which we aspire to. Is this not inspiration?

I have heard the idea tossed around that, to be truly progressive, we should rid ourselves of preconceived ideas about what "this" or "that" mean.

I maintain that not all preconceptions are bad. Our instincts communicate to us, alert us to universal truths.

It has been said, for example, that the only universally despised quality in a man, across any culture alive, is cowardice.

When men see that quality of "beauty" within a woman, he cannot help but to look. This is not a rational decision.

We rise above some of our instincts - greed, lust, any quality unrestrained. These are the instincts which, as new creations in Christ, belong to what Paul called "the former self".

But do we not also see that the New Self shares some of the qualities of the old? It does not lust, but it is sexual. It does not envy, but it is still ambitious and assertive. It does not descend into bottomless appetites, but it still appreciates flavour and beauty and taste.

I find that the Old Self makes a damned big show of its appetites. Its rationalizations to this end are rather tiring and irritating.

I thereby contend that part of our responsibility as Christians is to be INTRIGUING and INSPIRING to others. If we truly share the qualities of the divine, how can we be boring? If we truly love another as we love, how then can we be careless in seeking common ground?

I have given up nothing

2009-03-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

There are times where I begin to truly count the cost of following this Christ. There are things I don't "do" as a follower. There are things I don't say. My ambition in certain areas is curbed.

The stakes are raised. Some in my life don't understand my faith, or pretend not to. Some scorn. Some talk behind my back.

So why do it?

Lately this world seems to be calling me, seducing me, with intense ferocity. It wants me. It speaks sweetly to me. Every rationalization seems to be at my lips.

Here is my answer.

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

"More than that...I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

"And I count them but garbage, so that I may gain Christ." - Paul, Phil. 3

That word, garbage, is in the Greek skubalon. Refuse. Excrement. A polite way of saying "shit".

In other words, I have given up...nothing. Rather, I have gained everything. I begin to grasp the slightest understanding of the WAY, the דרך, the journey towards G-d. Whatever I have given up to get this far: IT WAS WORTH IT.

As Hebrews notes of our fate, we are but wayward travelers, passing through. This strange firmament is not our home. Thank YHWH.

Does this really happen??

2009-03-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

So here's a video that was forwarded to me. My question: is this for, um, real?

These are the times I sit back calmly and quietly thank YHWH that I grew up Catholic and missed this part of Christianity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsHH_HYSkH8&feature=related

It is kind of charming/funny in that "Thank God I wasn't there for this" kind of way.

"Hun"??

2009-03-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

I was called "hun" twice this morning.

Usually I would expect this kind of comment from a waitress in her 40's or 50's when she offers me a fill-up on my coffee.

My first "hun" this morning was from the girl at my apartment Starbucks. She had to be all of 19. We started talking about the music playing over the speakers, I thought it sounded oddly like "jingle bells". She laughed, then called me hun. ...what?

The second was at Joes. A girl walked in and wanted coffee. I told her that we were closed, and I got..."Thanks, hun".

Should I take this as a compliment? Or should I be worried?

Snuggie Cult!

2009-02-22T16:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, so another YouTube video...I promise to get back to some original thoughts soon, but for now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWHlvtWhum0&NR=1

The truth about the Snuggie revealed, at last. Finally someone said it.

Never let 'em see you sweat, my friend...

2009-02-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Check out this poor guy's sermon (the clip's only a minute or so). I couldn't watch it all, it *hurt*.

Not that I haven't wanted to just lose it on stage on the rare occasion. It's one thing to "want to" lose it, another thing entirely to actually self-destruct in public. Uglllyyyy.

CO Detector

2009-02-15T23:33:00.000-08:00

Today, I have a special treat...my first, thoroughly incompetent attempt at a video blog. Enjoy.

(Or if the video doesn't show...the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh2zNjJP9Qg)

Californication

2009-01-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

The wind buffets my tiny tent, exposed some 6000 feet above the jungle of Los Angeles. I abandon my shelter and climb into my tiny car, rocked to a fitful sleep by the gusts. I feel...alert. Hyper-aware.

Some time later....sunrise, we begin our descent. SoCal rush hour, Monday morning, is not nearly so pronounced an obstacle in the foothills east of town. The traffic report is in an indecipherable code:

Traffic heavy on the 405.

Vehicle stalled on the 10.

Century solid from LAX all the way back to the 1.

En que lingua, que significa, esta?

The jungle awakes. Mid-January, and already in the 70's. Today will be 85.

Traffic is heavier now. I make my way to the observatory in west Hollywood and begin to climb. Asian locals greet me on way up. They do not rush. They are a contrast to the city bustling beneath us.

Later, the city traversed, I am on Venice Beach. Somewhere behind me, in this insanity, is the Abercrombie model we met yesterday. And elsewhere, the Russian/German photographer that found a storefront so fascinating. And her little table that she took everywhere. She's there too, drawn to this jungle. I feel...connected. There is a depth to them that I now feel. We share a story. We share a place. This place.

My toes sink into the sand. A sixth sense, which perhaps only those of Irish descent can appreciate, tells me I am in the process of being sunburnt.

An otter swims near the shore and graces the children with its whiskered smile.

The day begins to wane. I wait. She waits. She sits outside Tom Bradley terminal, eyes intent on every takeoff. She's somewhere else. I want badly to ask her where.

Then 38,000 feet and an hour later, we fly over Vegas. They say things stay in Vegas, that we don't take them with us.

I've lived in Vegas. They lie.

But thank YHWH things don't stay in LA. I take every moment with me. And now I'm home, my strange seaside adventure playing over and over again inside.

This post will likely make no sense to you.

That's okay.

I'm Cheating On My Gym

2009-01-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a cheater. For the past month, I have been seeing another gym.

Now I could pretend it was a sudden, unexpected "thing", that it just kind of happened...but we all know that isn't really how these things play out.

The truth is, I'd been thinking about doing this for a while now. I guess I just didn't think it would happen so quick!

The part I feel the worst about, is that it took almost a month for me to tell my old gym.

It was bound to happen. I mean, I was with Old Gym for over 4 years when I finally made up my mind to explore my options. The magic was gone. The friendly counter people had slowly been replaced by, let's face it, snobby teenagers that would just as soon fold towels than check me in. And speaking of those towels...you really got stingy with them. I mean, seriously...how much do little towels cost these days?

But it wasn't just that...I asked you for new equipment, Old Gym. I knew after a while that I wasn't as important to you as you pretended. Or else you would have bought me that new Bench Press.

And what about your clientele? The average age in FoCo is 30...yours had to be double that. I mean, I *love* your old people, don't get me wrong...it just wasn't what I was looking for? If you really had cared about me, you would have gone out into the streets and pulled in all kinds of fit, young, and friendly girls my age (hey, we agreed...total honesty, yeah?). I waited and waited...but you never came through for me.

So here's how it happened: one day, on my way home from work, I thought about heading to Old Gym. And it felt like torture to me. I knew then, the charade had to end. So instead, I stopped by New Gym, still in my work clothes.

I was unprepared for the sense of freedom as I walked through those doors. Andrea, working the counter, smiled at me even before she knew I wasn't a member yet (and yes, Old Gym...she is fit, young, and friendly, just FYI). She showed me the place, we realized we had the same last name, all kinds of friendliness going around...then she told me the price.

You have to understand, Old Gym, that I was fully prepared to walk if New Gym couldn't match your deal. I was totally ready to give us one more shot if price was out of range. And it totally was...on the low end. New Gym charges me $20 less a month than Old Gym.

And that was that. I'm not saying I'm proud, but then again, I know that I did what needed to be done.

You're still a great gym, Old Gym, and I'm sure you'll find plenty of other runners and weightlifters and yoga students to take my place. You'll forget all about me.

As for now, I still belong to Old Gym until the end of the month. It would just be too awkward to go back.

"This Blog Will Be Regularly Updated!"

2009-01-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's a New Year's resolution:

"At least through May, this blog will be updated no less than once per week."

So it shall be.

Come, my friends, and rejoice in this electronic literary blessedness.

Some Insights As I Fast...

2008-11-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

This post breaks the golden rule of fasting.

Never tell anyone you're doing it.

Lest others might think that you are after some kind of recognition, some kind of awe-inspired praise from your peer group. Lest you become full of yourself, and think that you're something better than someone else.

Then again..."Oh, look at me, I can...not eat." Hmm.. Not exactly awe-inspiring, upon reflection.

We're not jumping the Grand Canyon on a Harley, here.

But I'm going to tell you about it, anyways. This experience, this process of fasting. I guess I feel that the potential benefits to myself, and to you, might outweigh the potential for me to lose this heavenly reward.

First off, this is Day #10 of the fast. The ground rules are (the 1st rule of fast club is....)

A - No solid food.
B - Natural fruit juice is allowed. For this, I utilize my blender. Or visit Jamba Juice downstairs, but forego the organic add-ins.
C - No milk.
D - Naked Juice is OK. If you're scandalized by that, go to King Soopers and look at the label.
E - One beer a week is allowed. This was a condition upon beginning the fast.
F - A coffee or two is allowed, but as I have found, is a very, very bad idea in general.

I already have a number of insights I'd like to share, but most will wait until the days following.

Here is one that I'll share now. If done properly, fasting before YHWH does little for your ego. Except maybe shatter it. Maybe the lesson here is that this process is what you make it.

For me, a fast reminds me of weakness, not strength. Dependence, not autonomy. Interconnectedness, not self-sufficiency.

Oh, and visiting stores that serve apple pie may not be the best idea, either.

i want my FOCUS ON THE FAMILY back.

2008-10-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

I remember the James Dobson of 1989.

This was the Dobson that interviewed Ted Bundy, confessed serial killer and molester of several women. This was the Dobson that wanted the world to know the evils of pornography, and who laid the philosophical groundwork for such progressive ministries as XXXChurch. When no one else was talking about this stuff, Dobson was.

I remember when we would listen to the James Dobson of the late 1990s, and read his books about healthy relationships and the importance of families. His Focus on the Family seemed to be the counter-voice to those saying that the family was irrelevant. He defended the idea of the healthy, functional family unit, not just as the foundation of the church but as the foundation of a vibrant and functional society.

So what made this voice in the wilderness, FOTF, turn its focus away from all which I respected it for?

I heard today about this letter, prepared by FOTF, where they imagine a world 4 years from now.

This post-apocalyptic hellscape is ruled and presided over by President Obama, harbinger of evil and destruction.

The leftist commies under his command have allowed the homosexuals (apparently some sort of new, master race?) to rule the land with their tyrannical immorality.

Obama's tax strategy has backfired to the point that no one has anything. Well done.

Obama's health care strategy has backfired horribly...it is now free, but the wait is so long that no one can receive the care they need.

Obama's progressive foreign policy has resulted in foreign invasions, nuclear strikes on Israel, and all manner of brazen terrorist attacks. How could we have been so stupid?

Guns are gone, and porn is everywhere. (Is nothing sacred?)

Oh, and campus ministries are gone. None could withstand 4 years of Obama's anti-Christian policies.

Christian books have been banned. Orwell's vision can't touch the horror of Obama's reign!

And so on and so on.

So, in the words of Jules, allow me to retort...

Dude, you're a MINISTRY. You're not supposed to be a mouthpiece for ANY political party. You're not supposed to be a tool for the Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Socialists...ANY of them.

You're supposed to represent Christ to a lost and dying world. You're supposed to be proclaiming The Year of the Lord's Favour.

And His Name is not Bush, McCain, Obama, Palin, Cheney...none of those names is spelled YHWH or Yeshuah.

This letter is beyond disappointing. It's so inappropriate and propaganda-ish that I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously...except people will. They will take Dobson's political scare story and make it their reality.

This makes me sad. It makes me wonder where the redemptive message in this letter is. It makes me wonder if they can become a ministry again, and redeem their calling to millions.

Brain Power

2008-09-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

I read something today, in the NY Times I think, about some researchers looking at how the brain "experiences" events.

Turns out, that those sudden memories, those involuntary, immediate ones that spring up, have incredible power behind them. These events, forgotten through our conscious days, suddenly spring to life from a scent in the air, an old picture or video.

The brain is fooled momentarily, and actually re-lives the experience as if it were in the midst of the moment. To my mind, then, that event is every bit as real as the moment it happened in linear time.

This could be a great thing - a wedding, birth of a child, some great achievement relived.

Or it could be brutal - a breakup, a fight, a death...relived.

Today I experienced one of the latter. One minute, I'm walking into a shop to get some coffee. The next, my heart is stung. My body recoils inside-out. I saw someone I thought was gone forever, a ghost from a past recently forgotten, and there I was...right back in it, fighting within myself for emotional survival.

Seems they were right.

Death by Blogging

2008-04-07T07:58:00.001-07:00

I just read this story in the NY Times. About people who get paid to blog, and over-stress themselves to the point of exhaustion and, rarely, even death.

As I have been reminded by those of you that read this...this blog is in no danger of such extremes. ;-)

Gifts

2008-04-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

In his letters to the Corinthians, Paul speaks at length about the value of spiritual giftings.

He seems to believe that not every Christian should endeavour to produce every good work. Rather, that God especially equips each of us for particular tasks within His kingdom work.

Then he tears them a new one.

Because Paul wasn't happy with the Corinthians. Both times he writes the church at Corinth, that we are aware of, he is admonishing them for

missing
the
mark

and coming up short, considering all that the Father has in store for them.

But even as he calls them out on their misdeeds, lack of charity, and general disregard for all things holy, he builds them up as Christians. He never diminishes them.

He never reduces their sense of themselves, or God's living, breathing gifts within them.

I love teaching. I love communicating God. Communicating with Him, about Him to others. This, maybe above anything else, is my gifting.

There are times, some of them not so long ago, where I have wondered if my giftings are valid. Questions begin to stir.

Am I too beat up from life?

Does my past disqualify me from a future?

Are some people (like me, for example) just too damaged to qualify for real life?

Imagine if the answer to any of those questions was "YES". Imagine that. The Good News, then, is a charade. A farce, a cosmic joke. Then, as Paul says, we are to be most pitied for buying it. If.

The single most significant change in my life the past year has been to SHIFT. To risk, dare, dream, whatever, that the answer to all the above questions

might
just
be
NO

And that something I've believed all my life...might just be true.

Imagine that.

So here I am, a Corinthian, groveling in the mud. Still gifted. Still vibrant. And waking up.

Ads and Temptation

2008-03-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

I picked up the latest edition of one of my favourite mags this weekend. Sandwiched in between articles on how to renovate my apartment, I see this ad:

(go ahead, click on it...I'll wait.)

To say I was "insulted" betrays the real issue. You see, after the fact, I looked into this thing - I guess eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com have some kind of freakish rivalry over who can get who to hook up or whatever. I could seriously care less.

What insults me is that the people that made this ad, whether intentionally or not, have shamed everyone who doesn't believe "like they do". They are not just attacking one man who believes a certain way; they are attacking everyone that shares this "archaic" belief that sex before marriage is best avoided. And that it, in fact, might just be harmful and fundamentally poised against God's redemptive purposes.

Wow, this world pisses me off. It latches onto Christians with serrated teeth and accuses them of being judgmental. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they do try and force people into their way of doing things, when those things may not have a whole lot to do with Christ and His redemptive purposes.

But SEX...(got your attention?)...SEX, this world has it covered. Sex isn't "holy". Sex is completely fine outside of marriage. Especially if you're in a "relationship" - after all, we're not monks and nuns here. We have needs. This isn't 1952. Right?

Maybe.

Or maybe the topic of sex is so positively shame-laden because both Christians and the world have lost their way. Maybe we should not suppress it, or let it run rampantly uncontrolled. Christians and the world have done both, at different times, in different ways.

Maybe sex and holiness are indistinguishably intertwined. Maybe sexuality doesn't have a whole lot to do with a penis and a vagina, and a lot more to do with connection. Vulnerability. Integrity, within myself, and with others.

Commitment.

How dare some bulls**t advertising agency suggest otherwise. They are allowed to state their opinion, as they should be. And I am allowed to be pissed, and to take them to task.

This post probably makes me seem a little more conservative than I really am (okay, maybe a lot...I don't feel very post-modern right now. I feel more Dobson-ish..). I'm just pissed off. It's a very present struggle to be a Christian, and I wrestle daily against discouragement and temptations that would so easily derail me.

I'm a single Christian. I've been single longer than I thought I'd be. And I am PISSED OFF that some ad agency would come along and would try to add to the shame that was so hard to give to the Father. I'm pissed that they would want to make it harder for me.

But they have failed. Christ's blood flows in my veins.

"Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard time are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse - and it's doomsday to you if you do." Mt 18:7, The Message

That is all. Next time we shall talk about Peeps and more pleasant things.

Causes

2008-01-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

I find that there are nearly limitless causes with which one could become involved with today. This quote has been floating into my life a lot lately:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman

So much of our generation has rebelled against the "obligation" of Christian service, instead of finding joy in what we do and relating to those we do it for.

I have found such wisdom, peace, strength, in letting go - and when I think of the things I have done without peace and joy in "Christ's name"!

I now know, without condemnation in myself, that these things were done not out of a genuine desire for holiness and Christian service, but out of my own lack of sense of self. I was simply trying to give out of an abundance, a reserve, which I did not have. Even the widow which Jesus praised so highly for giving her last, gave out of what she had to give.

May we, as Christians, come alive inside. Start living. May we now become genuine with ourselves, and with a world that needs to see people ALIVE in Christ.

Galatians 2:20 -
"I am crucified with Christ, so that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

How my perspective on this verse has changed! The closer we draw to Him, the closer we should be drawing to our real selves.

Let Me Grow Young

2007-12-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

A month or so back, a co-worker casually told this story, about her grandfather I think it was...the story has haunted me since. I'd like to share it.

The story goes, that her family was gathered at the house one night. The grandfather, in his 90's, still insisted on taking his turn with the chores - this night, he was washing the dishes as the rest of the family socialized in the living room. At one point, someone noticed that granddad was taking an awfully long time with this chore.

They found him slumped over the kitchen sink, dish and washcloth still in hand.

And she said that the entire family gathered in the doorway. No one screamed, or cried.

They just...marveled.

They just...stood, in awe.

In reverence, to a life fully lived.

I usually picture someone's last days spent in a hospital bed, maybe some feeding tubes. Sickness, pain, everyone holding their breath through the night to see if he or she "made it" to another day. But not this man.

He was just living life, doing a perfectly ordinary thing. In one instant, he was washing a dish, fully present in the same world he had spent the past 90-odd years. And then...he was gone.

It makes me reverent.

He went somewhere. He lived life, then he left. Where did he go?

Heather Nova is a new favourite of mine: "Sitting here I remember, it's easy to smile. Let me grow young, like a brand new day, like I've just begun."

This story, these lyrics, they slap me across the face, they pour ice cold conviction down my back.

I burn, something in me screams, to lead people somewhere. To take my turn at my post.

To wash the dishes.

How can I feel younger at 30 than I did at 20?

Because there is purpose, passion, authority, which compels me forward to take people somewhere they've never been. It's easy to grow old on the inside, which is what God is really concerned with: our heart, our inside.

What screams inside you?

We never have to grow old. We were never meant to.

Let's all go somewhere together.

Let's grow young together.

Being Green in an Apartment

2007-12-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

I have had several discussions the past few weeks regarding home ownership vs. renting. I am tempted to (though I won't) go into the philosophy behind land/home ownership, and why it is not the achievement, status marker, or privilege it once was. Witness the plethora of "subprime" loan defaults, and what this has done to the world economy.

But land ownership no longer means you "own" the land. Let's say you own, and would like to be green. Put up a solar panel or install a compost box in your front yard, and you earn the wrath of your sullen neighbours. Thou Shalt Not Violate the Neighbourhood Covenant. Thy lawn shall be cropped, your car shalt not lie upon cinder blocks, and you and your family shall be beautiful, easy on the eyes, and loving at all times for thy neighbours' benefit.

Welcome to Pleasantville (formerly Dysfunction Junction).

I'm sure you're picking up the sarcasm, as was once quoted in the masterpiece Tommy Boy, because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Home owners' agreements (HOAs), neighbourhood covenants, and the like are a not-so-subtle method of control - community feudalism. And it's unnecessary.

Not that home ownership is never a good idea. For many of my friends, married with families, home ownership makes quite a bit of sense. I grew up out in the countryside of Ohio with farms bordering 3 sides of the house, and I can't imagine spending that childhood trapped in a Dayton apartment or condo with no room to explore outdoors. Though of course, owning a house means lots of work - you're committed to those studs and drywall, and you may even find yourself hosting a DIY party!

Nothing spells "fun" like alcohol, power tools, twelve friends, and a guest bathroom that needs redone.

The whole reason for this post is that I am in the process of discovering just how fun being in an apartment can be. As a birthday gift last year, I got my first issue of ReadyMade magazine and have fallen in love with their little DIY projects. I find myself looking around my little apartment saying, "what can I do with THIS corner? what can I build that would do this??" And with a little help from my favourite store of all time, 10,000 Villages, it's working pretty well, I must say.

Plus, in the words of the late, great Mitch Hedberg: "I wanna go to the Apartment Depot. Just a bunch of guys standing around saying 'I have an apartment, I don't gotta fix s***'."

Now, after all that, I will definitely admit to looking at a house for sale on Oak Street this week, and wistfully thinking about how great it would look with a new deck...

Connection and Disconnect

2007-12-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Okay so this probably won't make a whole lot of sense....but it is therapeutic for me to put some thoughts down for the world to see. So let's try to keep up, shall we?

I had an experience this morning. It's one of those times where you're sitting across from someone and you're sharing really deep, intimate, personal stuff, but it's really a goodbye moment where you realize that this is the last time you will ever share yourself with that person. Someone I've been connected to, but when the conversation was over and I walked away, I became disconnected from.

If it's God's plan that we all enter into relationship, then why do relationships end?

I used to think this was tragic, but I don't think that anymore. Actually, I think it is beautiful. Because two imperfect people tried to make a connection and it didn't stick. Things like personality, pride, lies, insecurity, and all kinds of other gunk got in the way, but here were two imperfect people who gave it a go anyways.

And if God promises that all the gunk will one day be burned away, then what are we left with? Perfect relationships. Nothing can stand in the way of this eventually happening, and all the pain and injustice will be forgotten.

Human relationships are beautiful because two imperfect people attempt to participate in the work of God. And I believe He smiles on our feeble attempts to instinctively make things right again.

The definition of "Disposable Income"

2007-11-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Especially the intro screen - talk about effective marketing! This was forwarded to me by an old college friend.

http://www.cleanishappy.com/

I found myself bored and played "which butt belongs to which person?" Stellar use of my life.

Review of Velvet Elvis

2007-11-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to put together occasional book reviews, since I'm kind of addicted to reading. Below is a review of The Velvet Elvis which I penned some time ago. Enjoy.

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Rob Bell

Zondervan, 2005

$14.99 (paperback)

I have the tendency to immediately reject membership in any movement, Christian or otherwise, which has a name. Terms such as Emergent or Post-Modern already threaten to be the latest and greatest catch-phrases through which to define a generation. Maybe I, like most of “my generation”, just don’t like to be pigeon-holed or placed in a paradigm that would serve to define (read: limit) me. Though the Velvet Elvis has been considered by some to be a work belonging to the Emergent movement, one quickly gathers from Rob Bell that such a movement is not actually a new idea at all.

This book is divided into ideas, simple divisions of thought. It reads much the way a conversation might read between two similarly minded people. Perhaps those having the insight/foresight to recognize a “Christian” paradigm when they spot it. Through the scope of the biggest gun they can find. Then having the courage to pull the trigger and see what happens.

But Bell would argue that this is not new. According to him, this is the way it was always intended to be. Bell compares living the Christian faith to art, to an epic work-in-progress, and as such he argues that we need our space, our room to work. That we must be allowed to wrestle with big questions and, perhaps, even disagree with the answers that someone else, no matter how distinguished, has wrought from his or her journey. As he puts it,

“For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we

have to keep going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and

each other…Jesus took part in this process by calling people to rethink faith and

the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the

endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live.” (pg. 11)

I suspect one reason for Velvet Elvis’ growing popularity is simply that Bell is able to succinctly pen the sentiment of frustration and rising indignancy which many now associate with established Christian “culture”. It strikes Bell as offensive that so many have been told not to think, “or if you must, at least think the way WE think”.

Some of the statements within the book can come across as too simplistic, such as when Bell seems to boast of his ministry’s lack of planning and absence of vision statement. It is clear from reading the book that Bell’s ministry does, in fact, have a vision, and a very powerful one. The vision statement could be the book itself.

As mentioned, Bell’s volume is fairly brief, and at $14.99 I would recommend first attempting to borrow a copy from a friend or library. The ideas are not new, but rather reminders of what faith is supposed to be: a work in progress. We must be allowed to paint our own picture. I especially like that Bell emphasizes good hermeneutics and Biblical scholarship as essential pieces of the journey, as otherwise his philosophy could be mistaken for touchy-feely, make-your-own-faith, New Age rubbish. But it is not. It is, it seems to me, founded upon truth, and the desire to search out that truth. To dig Truth out from its lair.

Rob Bell

2007-11-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Last evening, some of us went to see Rob Bell speak in Denver. His topic was "The Gods Aren't Angry", and he went to some pains to detail what he believes is a universal, deep-seeded belief common to all humans that there are forces which must be appeased. These forces are ambivalent, fickle, arbitrary, and above all you never know where you stand with them. And then the God of Abraham enters human history, and begins to reveal the way to Itself - a God who is perfectly fair, and who will let you know exactly where you fit in Its benevolent plan.

It was really his conclusion which impressed me the most. He ended by repeating the phrase, "It doesn't have to be like this", over and over. This phrase, which referred to an earlier story in his message, also stood alone as a striking metaphor of how we *think* things work, and how they actually work in God's system (the "Kingdom").

Since last night, I have found myself thinking of people in my life I'd like to sit down with. I'd like to look in their eyes. And I would pray peace over them. I would tell them, like Rob Bell, that it doesn't have to be like this.

I hope to have some of those conversations really soon.

Hooking Up...?

2007-10-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have read a multitude of articles lately dealing with the topic of "hooking up", suddenly the media has gotten a hold of this concept that, they are aching to tell me, permeates my age group and those younger.

Most recently, a new book detailing the post-"baby boomer" generation (I guess that's me, I don't think the definition of "baby boomer" was ever all that solid, much less those that come afterwards...) talks about the severe absence of commitment and true relationship, instead focusing on casual hook-ups.

So I'm sitting here thinking about this idea (reality?), and how God's plan involves our coming back into relationship with Him and with one another. I really despise it when Christians or media folks try and simplify the indecision that is clearly so prevalent among my peers.

Many of these articles bemoan the disappearance of "dating". Well, what the hell is dating? No one seems to be able to even define it anymore. I was told in my "young Christian" days that dating was bad anyways, so why are we now so concerned at its disappearance?

No one knows the rules - Lord knows I sure don't. So we struggle through the mire of our need, grasping in the darkness from our innate and most desperate need: to feel connection, any connection, to those around us. We, as a culture, have lots of missing pieces in our relationship skills.

This doesn't make "hooking up" in the sexual arenas right, in fact I feel that this causes us to "miss the mark" with God and one another. But I wish that, while speaking against this behaviour, we would also seek to understand why it is that some choose to hook up. I think I get it.

We as the church must never be naive or dismissive, as the church so often has. How many times I have heard the pithy advice "just turn it over to Jesus". When what Jesus really wants is for us to lead the way back to Him and one another, to get our hands and feet dirty with the work of connecting. It's damn hard work - I have a hard enough time with my own relationships. But I am reminded this week that it is my struggles, my failures and successes with relationships, that are preparing me to lead others to one another.

And wow, do I need that reminder this week...God help us all to CONNECT...

A New Blog Arises From The Ashes

2007-10-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

My original plan was to resurrect (and, most importantly, delete!!!) my old blog. This no longer seems to be practical, since I have forgotten my username, password, email, etc etc...

So witness the birth of the New Blog.

In other news, I love the Office...BBC.