amateur

The End

2011-07-12T16:19:00.002-04:00

Yeah, obviously it's time to say...

The End

I've archived most posts but have left ones with comments up, simply 'cause I hate deleting other people's words.

Whatever Happened to Stories?

2011-07-09T18:49:00.004-04:00

From a recently read review:

The PG-13 rating (mandatory for maximizing audience size) disallows any serious bloodletting or sexuality, and this makes much of Robin Hood seem almost cartoonish...One has to wonder whether Scott's original vision of Robin Hood was more adult and fully-formed than the theatrical version.

So basically, he's saying that a film's not for grown-ups if it doesn't have a plentiful amount of blood and sexuality? Well, guess what? Some of us deliberately look for movies without that! So "Casablanca" is for toddlers? And "Rear Window", which managed to be suspensful without explosions and carnage? Sheesh, whatever happened to storytelling?

You Gotta Watch

2011-07-07T07:57:00.004-04:00

Writing is all the more dangerous when you write well.

I followed a link and started reading a blog of a young, pretty missionary who wrote emotionally and well. The first post I read was really quite good. So I read some more. The next one, ehhhh; good, but some things crept in that made me cock my head. Then the third, and the comments (since when is it OK for Christians to drop f-bombs??!?), and well, I stopped reading and started just thinking.

At first I was envious because she wrote well and people read and responded to it. (Stop coveting, girl!) But as I read more, I started getting disappointed, and then bothered.

They were responding, for sure. And that's where I saw the problem.

The problem is not that people will listen to her--they already are; she has over a thousand followers--but that people will just listen. She does say things that need to be said, so I'm not saying "stay away!", but she's also saying things that don't. Test everything, folks (1 Thess). That means EVERYthing,(1 John 4:1), for cryin' out loud. Just because someone is convincing doesn't mean they're right.

I know, I write, and I get it wrong sometimes, of course. We all stumble in many ways, as James said. But if you back up a verse there, you'd read that people who teach (as simply writing, simply communicating will teach, whether you're trying to or not), will be held more accountable than those who don't. You gotta watch what you're doing. Especially if you write well.

Peering

2011-06-12T21:44:00.004-04:00

I've wondered before why God didn't lay out specific instructions on everything, so there wouldn't be all the disagreements, arguing and division. Why didn't He say, "This Tribulation that I'm telling you about will happen in 70 A.D." or "2300 A.D."? Why didn't He say, "I made the Heavens and the Earth in..."?

He did, of course, lay down the law on many, many things. He told us not to murder each other, steal from each other, told us not to use His name lightly. The Ten Commandments. And He gave a lot of detail over things like building the tabernacle and not weaving two kinds of cloth together. But He didn't cover all of life. Maybe the Bible would still be in under construction today if He did...

God is indeed a mysterious God. But I have realized one thing about why He didn't leave a complete set of instructions. It's because He doesn't want us to just follow a set of instructions. He wants us to follow a Person.

The Real Toothy Cow

2011-06-03T10:29:00.009-04:00

You know the sign of a really good book? You have to hold your hand over the next page to keep your eyes from jumping there to see what happens.

I had to do that during the reading of "The Monster in the Hollows", by Andrew Peterson. I also had to reach for a tissue here and there throughout, and at the end, lying on my bed reading, my throat ached with the tears.

I read it in one morning. Another sign. And pre-ordering it, something hardly any books these days call for (lamentably). This one, I thought, was the best of the series yet.

Not that I didn't fall for "The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness". The name alone was enough to delight in. And the other names in the book! Who couldn't giggle and jump over someone who clearly loved making up names at least as much, if not more than, I do? I mean, “Toothy Cows”! These books are now referred to in our household as “The Toothy Cow” books.

Well, until now and "Monster". Not really because the cows didn't roam plentifully throughout this book, but because the story has matured through “North or Be Eaten” and this third, to where it has more of a Wingfeather atmosphere now.

You know what the best part was, though? When someone said, "That didn't go as I'd hoped," and then God nudged me with the next little phrase:

“Little does,” Nia said, looking away.

Being used; the best thing that a book could hope for. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to wait for the fourth.

* * *

P.S. I still have to say that I really, really loved that librarian!

To Flee or Not to Flee?

2011-05-02T20:49:00.004-04:00

I seem to tend to start plotting blog posts in my head when I'm dissatisfied. I know why this is. It's because I've been slowly learning to "be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry", and therefore hold my tongue when things start erupting. At the same time, I have grown to hate confrontations.

But sometimes some of these things can still bother me, inside there, with no outlet. It's what made me, I think, latch onto blogging with such ferocity in the beginning; all those things I've wanted to say now had an out!

But that's cowardly, isn't it? Saying things on here that you don't want to say to someone's face? No, not even merely cowardly, but just plain wrong. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, after all.

But tonight a different view inserted itself into my mind. What if...what if it's just a different, and less confrontational, form of confronting? More loving, even?...especially if they see it and are more open to it then if it was screamed into their face?

I don't know. Count another one up on the "shelved for now" shelf.

All Things Scottish

2011-05-02T20:47:00.004-04:00

I've nattered on about "favorites" before, and such came up again tonight in my mind.

See, I've been immersing myself in all things Scottish lately. Scottish accents (my husband does a great one!), Scottish wav files and sound bites greeting me on my computer, songs (Tartanic! Love that CD we just bought!), and concentrating on the Scottish side of my ancestry.

So when my current favorite Tartanic song played on my mp3 player tonight (yes, I do have that one favorite), and I backed it up and listened to it again, and hunted for it when I first sat down, I still reveled in the other music on my player. Especially the world music, and I don't mean just the current "world style". I mean the Ukrainian songs, Jewish, Arabic, Indian, and American-based world-influenced stuff, as well as the early Christian New Wave things and the just plain rock songs. Who could choose?

Words From the Past

2011-01-22T16:56:00.009-05:00

Last Sunday God actually used my own words to speak to me. This isn't bragging; rather, it's a huge relief because most of the time I feel so unusable/unused. Say, 99.5% of the time. I can only offhand recall one or two incidents where I actually know I did something lasting. But the pastor was talking about how exciting and enticing God is, and what was going through my mind I can't now recall, but my words that He brought to mind were...well, really, it won't make as much sense as it would if I include a few excerpts rather than just the summing-up words.

One year ago today, we stepped on the plane to Germany. One year we've been away from home. What a long, strange trip it's been...

Excerpt from my journal:

5 Feb 94, Sri Lanka

Words, pictures, even a video camera could not get Sri Lanka across to a Western mind. We were trying to come up with descriptions on our ride from the airport, but nothing really worked. Lush, we said, but you would think of a Club Med vacation. Poor, we tried, but then we'd see large intricate shrines and houses. I was desperately trying to match things I was seeing to experiences--this reminds me of that--but nothing connected. But when Mark said over dinner, "Welcome to the Third World", I thought, "Yeah, that's it!" There were people walking wherever you looked; not masses and masses, but some everywhere. Cows and dogs roamed the roads, and drivers were a kind of free-for-all...

...What else have we learned?

-That loving your neighbor is easier when you don't actually live with them.
-That I could pass as a native in a number of countries. (Until I opened my mouth, that is.)
-That nowhere else that we've been do people live and eat like they do in the States...

24 Dec 1994

Christmas Eve in Malta. In downtown Valletta, Christmas lights dance across every street; hawkers' craft booths are stretched out under them. A man named Ray is preaching in the streets, and 24 people respond to his message, in the very spot where, 30 years ago, almost to the very day, he was arrested for doing that same thing...

...Well, since 9 Jan 94, we've visited 14 countries and 19 ports in those countries. We battled constant illness for seven straight months, said good-bye to friends we may never see again on this earth, got infrequent mail from back home, laughed a lot and cried more--what have we learned? That's God's presence is the most exciting thing on the face of the earth.

Those last words were the ones.

On the other hand...

2010-08-05T17:45:00.003-04:00

...think of what you could do with kids' fiction. You'd still have to do some research, probably, unless you set the story on another planet, but it seems to me you could get away with sillier things, which would suit me to the core. Especially considering the silly names I've come up with over the years*.

In fact, I've recently discovered that it's a lot of fun to write fiction for older kids. Yup, I've started writing a kids' adventure and am having a blast with it, when I can work on it, that is, what with starting school, and book illustrations to draw, and all the regular stuff...

*My daughter asks me sometimes how I come up with these names, and I actually can answer that. Due to some hearing loss, I regularly hear things wrong, which can be turned into very unusual names. (Franknoodle was today's. Not one to be used in the future, though; I wasn't very enamored of it.) One, I remember, came off a highway sign. And so on.

About Writing

2010-07-22T13:58:00.002-04:00

I read in a book a few days ago:

A woman once told me at a writers' conference that she wanted to become a fiction writer because she hated research. She said, "If I write fiction, I can just make it up! Then I won't have to spend all that time in stuffy libraries."

Just Write--Susan Titus Osborn

I tell ya right now, if she thinks libraries are stuffy, she's just plain not a writer.

It's All Too Much...

2010-03-09T16:00:00.009-05:00

...and other Beatles' songs.

Soon I'll have a whole blog's worth of posts as to why I don't blog anymore.

No, really, the last few months it's 'cause it's taking my whole being just to recover. I'm either:

a) still going through gluten withdrawal
b) still getting over that mono-like sickness, which I now suspect may be either
gluten withdrawal or me unwittingly ingesting gluten
or
c) I'm still unwittingly ingesting gluten minus the other factors.

I've noticed before that when you're sick, all mental activity shuts down. Your body is putting so much work into healing that all you can do is lay in front of the TV. (Sometimes you even manage to turn it on.) Such is the case with me. No, I do more than lay in front of a piece of electronic equipment, but what I do do is all gluten-free related. Planning dinner takes 5 times as much thought as before. Finding those ingredients, more, and...well, so on.

So...I may yet again write anew. Just not right now.

P.S. Interesting, blogger.com's spell checker didn't recognize "blog's".

Christmas 2009

2009-12-22T13:46:00.005-05:00

Just thought I'd put our annual Christmas newsletter--minus the names--up here.

____________________________________________________

No news is good news, right?

Or so they say. But when you’re writing an annual newsletter, it makes for a very short one, unless I follow the example of seemingly all backs-of-today's-DVD-covers and books:

“The family had a stupendous year, making spectacular mountains out of hilariously small molehills! You’ll gasp at every leaf they rake, every trip they take, and cry with them over the lack of a proper ending to the year!” But if I did that, you’d read everything we wrote from then on with the same jaundiced and skeptical eye with which we read the aforementioned movie blurbs.

’Cause we didn’t have a stupendous year. Oh, it was pleasant enough, and a few memorable things did happen, such as our son getting engaged and then getting deployed to Iraq, where he is now as is his fiancée, and our other son and his wife buying their own place, and our daughter becoming a teenager, and my dad coming out to visit, and seeing my high school best friend for the first time in 10+ years (last year I saw another one; her place should be written up as a vacation destination!), and taking a trip to El Paso to see our son and his fiancée before they left. But even then it all fits in one paragraph.

Our year was more filled with what we read, what we learned from what we read, what projects we completed around the house; things that may look boring to an observer or reader of a newsletter, but are actually quite exciting inside. But they still don’t really work in an annual missive.

But, you know, it’s just as well, isn’t it, since we would rather you think about Christmas than us, and about a tree of another kind as well as a Christmas tree, a crown of thorns as well as a crowning birth, and the gift He offers all of us; the best present ever.

And it makes me wonder...

2009-06-03T08:30:00.001-04:00

Jesus sure cast out a lot of demons during His time on earth. Really makes me wonder: was there a lot more possession going on back then, or is there as much now and just not recognized as such?

again, quote

2009-06-01T10:07:00.001-04:00

He did not come to tell us to be holy, but to make us holy...

--Oswald Chambers

Civil Wars

2009-04-16T08:45:00.002-04:00

"When Christians on either end of the political spectrum redefine the church as a voting bloc instead of Christ's very body, then we have succumbed to a false wind of doctrine. ...

"The church's mission is not to transform a changing culture but to bear witness to the unchanging truth of God. The church's mission is not to change the world (or our country--addition mine) by using the world's tools. We have been given spiritual tools..."

--Michael Babcock

Weaknesses and All

2009-03-24T11:11:00.005-04:00

I wrote in an earlier post that I seemed to stop writing on this blog when I started drifting away from God. I found in recent weeks quite the opposite. I simply haven't been interested in writing because I've been so concentrated on God Himself.

That's good, the "not interested in writing" part (that the other part is goes without saying), because that means I'm willing to count it as rubbish, to give it up in a heartbeat. I learned when we were preparing to board the Doulos that if I'm not willing to give up my dearest dream--at that time it was writing songs--then I'm not following Jesus. The step I took then wasn't even the giving up of the songwriting; that came after and was so much a joy rather than a giving up. The actual step was a small one which He honored with such a filling that nothing, nothing else mattered.

So I've known since then that I could do it again. This new form of writing had become dear to me, but hey, I shrug now, it's incidental. It doesn't even matter to me that I may not be able to come up with things anymore (writer's block or worse, in other words). I had, actually, been systematically drafting and then deleting all the old posts on here (sorry, I inadvertently lost some old comments that way) for various reasons: I was afraid that Blogger would pull a Facebook and declare that all content belonged to them forever regardless of deletions or even a deleted account; I intended to stop writing on here completely and close down my account; I simply had nothing to say; and so on.

However, readings and encounters of late have been given me pause. I may yet write more (this doesn't count ;)), if only to use this as my place to vent something which has no place else to go, such as in a book. Who knows--maybe something will even be of use somewhere, someday.

Old-age Weaknesses

2009-01-16T17:36:00.004-05:00

On the drive home from a trip to the grocery store, a post just popped into my head for some reason, and it's not even about the game that I had mentioned and then erased in the first paragraph. It's about movies (another weakness of mine), and how I know I must be getting old because I'm starting to like chick flicks.

I know, of course, that logically this doesn't stand up. It's the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy (after this, therefore, because of this); I'm getting older, I'm starting to like chick flicks, therefore it must be the aging that's doing it. So instead I'll have to say that I'm getting senile because of what's happening to my likes.

It has to be, because I can remember the day--the movie, actually--that I stopped watching said flicks, the same way I can remember the day and movie that stopped my watching ones that scared me. I used to watch those in my teen years because those movies were the ones that one's peers loved and touted, and who knew to think any differently? I was only granted the ability, I have to conclude now that I look back, to start thinking for myself when I became a Christian at age 20 (along with, I swear, gaining IQ points!). But until that point I watched "Jaws" and "Alien" along with everybody else.

I reached the turning point when I decided to watch "Halloween" with my then-boyfriend-now-husband because of its classic status (even back then). We walked out after 15 minutes when I realized I was not enjoying myself, not in the least. My future husband wasn't either, and I swore from then on I would never watch another horror or scary thing, and I haven't (except for one inadvertent moment during "I Am Legend" which I didn't know would be scary and probably wouldn't be to most people).

The chick flick last straw came with "Steel Magnolias", though not through as conclusive a moment. I just thought it was pretty darn weak, and found myself going instead for Indiana Jones-type movies, graduating to the point where my idea of a great movie was just about action, and only action.

But I think I still have a thread of sanity to hang onto here, because I know I wouldn't enjoy "Magnolias" any more today than I did whatever years ago. Of course some girl movies are better than others, and I never avoided them all the way I did the scary genre. I also think that a bit o' snobbery had worked its way into it, the same type of thing as artists looking down on crafts and real rockers looking down on the Beatles or Barry Manilow or something. So maybe it's not senility after all, but a maturing into genuineness, allowing myself to like some embarrassing things that I really do like, thus proving myself logically wrong and maybe not-quite-old-enough at the same time.

Definitely Deafening

2008-11-24T09:28:00.006-05:00

There are better ways of making a satire.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I saw "Tropic Thunder" last night. Not my kind of movie, but I wanted to see it because Robert Downey, Jr., whom we've recently noticed is quite a good actor, was in it. Plus my husband thought it sounded funny, so hey, I can watch a strictly guy flick for him. (I often watch action movies, but I like those.)

It was very much a guy flick. So why announce it in a post if I'm hanging my head over it? Because there are things worth commenting on (besides, who reads this stuff? Any that might are free to now feel morally superior to me), the first one being Downey's part. He amazed us with his performance. This morning I'm wondering, though, if that makes it a lesser one. I pondered on that in an earlier post, brooding that if you're aware of how good a work is, then maybe it's not good enough, since your focus is on its quality rather than what it's saying. Regardless, his performance was worth watching, as was someone else's whom I simply could not believe was playing the role until a few minutes after my husband figured it out and even then didn't believe it for a few.

I wouldn't say those two renderings were worth the non-stop, ever-present swearing (yes, that's redundant but so was the language) or the juvenile gross-out "humor", but I did take pleasure in the abilities of the two performers. As a satire, though, "For Your Consideration" was a much abler, wittier, wryer and gentler treatment of the same subject.

A Quantum of Sense, please

2008-11-15T20:14:00.007-05:00

We just got back from seeing the newest Bond offering, "Quantum of Solace", and this time, the critics were way off. Ebert liked the old Bond for all the reasons we cringed at* and are so glad are gone now, another one said it was "emotionless", whereas the poignant moments almost brought tears to my eyes, most unusual for a Bond movie--what movie did they see? Nothing disappointed (except perhaps the opening song, which was ok, but forgettable). Rather, in the words of that kid in The Incredibles, "That was TOTALLY WICKED!!!"

Some said too much action was put in--how different than "Casino Royale" (where they complained the action screeched to a halt during the card game. (It didn't. It was merely a different kind)). If they had made it like "Casino", it would have fallen short, been a mere copy and an undoubtedly far inferior one. Too bad all you critics who are loving "Casino" now didn't love it nearly as much when it first came out.
__________

*Ebert and at least one other critic lamented the loss of the euphemistic names of women characters in Bond movies. I can only say that they must be misogynists if they liked those names.

time out...

2008-10-28T08:42:00.001-04:00

I was actually going to write a post this morning, but I fell off our icy porch and hurt, among other things, my hand so it hurts to type...maybe when the Advil kicks in...

"Wonder is the Very Essence of Life"

2008-10-16T08:05:00.002-04:00

Ezekial, in common with all the Old Testament prophets, had not to generate his message out of his own individuality, he had simply to obey God.

Our Heavenly Father has an amazing sense of humour; He will bring across your path the kind of people who manifest to you what you have been to Him.

It is an insult to take the temperamental line in dealing with human beings--"Cheer up, look on the bright side;"...(see, I'm not the only one!!--amateur)

--all quotes by Oswald Chambers

Comments?

2008-09-02T08:50:00.003-04:00

Someone just told me last night that their comments on here were not getting posted. I've not received any comments to post; has anyone else tried to comment and not seen it up here?

Free TV

2008-08-15T17:31:00.019-04:00

Ok, I know we live in the Eastern time zone and that we don't have cable or satellite like rich folk, but I'm getting really tired of seeing, every night, in order, Synchronized Diving, Swimming, then Beach Volleyball, and if I'm lucky, I can stay awake long enough to watch American gymnasts standing around, looking anxious and chalking up while other out-of-focus gymnasts whip and flip around in the background. I realize this is what I get for free, but do I have to sit through a whole HOUR of the same two gangly women playing one game of volleyball when they're not searching for a lost ring? (No, and I don't. I mute it and leave the room.)

New, Hip Writing!

2008-08-04T21:06:00.006-04:00

There's a trend in books lately that's really annoying grammatically*. You know how people talk, when they come to the end of a phrase, but they're still not done talking, so even though it's not a question, it still goes up at the end? Like, say, a phrase from "Help!" (we watched that this evening, showing it to our daughter for the first time. She liked it! Yay!): "With this ring...could I interest the military?" Only he goes up after the first phrase..."With this ring?"

That's what they're doing in books; putting a question mark at the end of phrases that go up inflectionally even though they're not questions. It drives me nuts. Where did this come from?

*I should say "punctionationally" only I don't think that's a real word.

Exception

2008-07-23T08:51:00.001-04:00

Actually, right now it's because I've finally had a breakthrough--I think--in (on?) another piece of writing.

Input, Input!

2008-07-16T21:30:00.006-04:00

Ok, so now you and I know that whenever I don't write up here, it's because I'm not spending enough time with God (if I'm not driving up to Massachussettes and back, that is). Just watching a Beth Moore DVD tonight resulted in my mentally composing two posts on the way home. Beth was talking about how when she learns something, she has, HAS to tell every one what she learns. My condition or predicament mostly reminds me of Number 5 in "Short Circuit": "Input!! Innnnnnnnnput!!" If I'm not learning, exploring, or "gathering my daily manna", then I have nothing to give out, either.

Not Exactly a Legacy

2008-07-15T22:49:00.006-04:00

I was hoping "I Am Legend", which I watched tonight, would spawn a post. I was disappointed, though. All I got out of it was that it really wasn't a movie you should watch when you're alone in the house (ok, the CGs weren't that compellingly real; on the other hand, even bringing the dog out after dark scares me), and that the movie never really caught me. It seems somewhat elusive, those ingredients that leads a film to grip a person.

2008-07-11T09:08:00.000-04:00

27 years today. :)

Dreaming of Dreams

2008-06-28T14:33:00.003-04:00

Why can't I dream these cool James Bond dreams that my husband and sons do? Why do I get the doing dishes and putting on makeup dreams? And lately people are hurting me, too...(not physically, just telling me their daughter, of course, is so much smarter than I, which is undoubtedly true, but do they have to bluntly tell me?)

The Second Longest Week of My Life

2008-06-13T19:33:00.002-04:00

Not as in the "second-longest week", but as in, this last week was another longest week of my life. The first was back in '95, when my husband went away on an inland trip while we were in Mozambique, during the week of our anniversary. This last week I was waiting to find out if I had cancer.

Yeah. Not something you go around preparing yourself for. At least I hadn't. And when my doctor told me that mole on my leg could very well be melanoma, the quickly-spreading kind, I realized that I was not quite prepared to die.

I'd thought I was. Christians talk about going to Heaven, but when death is staring you in the face, it looks quite different. I wavered between imagining myself actually seeing Jesus, and looking at my 12-year-old daughter and imagining her without a mother. I thought about all the things we haven't been able to do yet, and all the things I never got around to doing. Lines of songs, quotes, would jump out at me; "to live is a privilege", one which I felt like I'd abused. I had a glimpse of what Paul felt like, torn between wanting to depart and be with the Lord, and staying here for the benefit of those he knew.

I can write about it now: I found out today the results were negative. I've been granted more time. I only hope now that I'll actually live it.

The Wood Between the Worlds

2008-06-01T12:57:00.002-04:00

"The best of life on Earth is a glimpse of Heaven; the worst of life is a glimpse of Hell. For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven."

--Randy Alcorn

another further different quote

2008-05-28T09:59:00.001-04:00

Seeing that Christ went about the world giving the most violent offense to all kinds of people, it would seem absurd to expect that the doctrine of his person can be so presented as to offend nobody.

--Dorothy Sayers

Tropical Thoughts

2008-05-21T13:06:00.005-04:00

Around this time of year I always start feeling tropical. I guess the warmer weather stirs longing for beaches and clear waters or something. Backwards, I know; I'm supposed to long for warmth in the dead of winter. But there you go.

To satisfy these urges I lean towards making mango/papaya fruit salads and watching movies that take place in Caribbeanic areas; "Dead Man's Chest" this time. Once scene got me thinking about something entirely different, namely, how the idea of doing good got you closer to Heaven came about. The pirate with the fake eye is telling the "hello, poppet" one that reading the Bible gets you "credit for trying". I guess, in other words, your good deeds outweighing your bad will give you a better afterlife than the reverse.

The thought was obviously there in the early church since Paul had to tell them "not by works, lest any man should boast". It's widespread, I mean, I remember thinking when I was young that every time I sinned a black spot would appear on my soul. As I pictured my soul being a round, white thing, it would get almost filled up quite quickly. I would adjust the size and manufacture other ways of keeping it from ever completely filling up. That may have not been a widespread practice but the aforementioned belief does seem to be the general one one comes across. And obviously the Old Testament is rife with "do these things, and you will be blessed; do others, and you will be cursed". That's dealing with this life, though. I dunno. My point isn't really to try to figure out the origin but just to "huh" over.

Then there was the other movie we watched last night. This wasn't tropical, but rather a new release we'd been looking forward to, "National Treasure II". Within 10 or 15 minutes it was established that the lead characters had been living together. This is Disney? We had let our daughter watch it with us, thinking it was going to be children's fare, and instead we get this. Our daughter noted out loud that they shouldn't be living together, so it could have been looked at as an object lesson, but why make it one? Why is Disney deliberately instilling these thoughts into young minds?

The rest of the movie was pretty good even though it was a sequel, although with some of the same shortcomings as the first. (They really have to figure out a way to make the climactic scene actually be climactic. Both movies fell quite short on that.) One of the last scenes shows that they are obviously expecting to do a third. I hope it's not as bad as the third "Pirates OTC". I also hope Nicholas Cage gets a new hairstylist by then.

What does a person do with Esther?

2008-05-19T10:08:00.004-04:00

So there I was, finishing Nehemiah with him beating men and tearing out their hair for marrying Moabites and such, resulting in their kids speaking the others' languages rather than knowing their own, after which I continued on into Esther, who marries a non-converting, Marduk-worshipping Gentile king, son of the king who carried the Jews into exile, and by this action she saves the Jews from annihilation. Hmm. What does one make of this?

Enjoyable Excellence: REDO

2008-05-13T21:16:00.003-04:00

See, that's what happens when I slap something up just because I haven't posted anything in a while. It turns out like my previous post. Bleah!

Let me try again:

Place: Shakespeare Tavern, Atlanta, GA. Play: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". 2nd intermission. I lean across the table toward my husband and say, "In my opinion, 'The Player' is stealing the show." He nods enthusiastically, "I know who my loudest applause will be for." Not that the two leads were bad; they weren't. There were no weak actors in the production, in fact. Hamlet was amusing, the queen quite painfully dressed, but ah, Drew Reeves, I think his name was, was a delight to watch. He far outperformed Richard Dreyfuss' rendering in the movie.

We need to see these plays more often.

Ears are for Listening

2008-05-02T08:49:00.003-04:00

If, in order to be heard, a person has to raise their voice above a conversational level when they're talking to someone three feet away, then whatever noise is causing them to do that is loud enough to damage their ears.

Lately I've been having to bring earplugs to church/meetings. Granted, I have sensitive ears, but these times often fail the test above as well. Why have so many Christians followed the lead of rock concerts rather than one that says to be good stewards of all we have, which would include our ears, seeing as they're a part of our bodies? I happen to like hearing and guard that privilege carefully. I hope others will start doing the same, for the sake of all ears, ours and our children's.

An Eclectic Visage

2008-04-29T08:58:00.007-04:00

Over the weekend I was taken to be a Byelorussian by a Byelorussian (until I opened my mouth. She said she was waiting to hear me speak). I've now been thought to be from Cyprus by Cypriots, from Jordan by a Jordanian, Spanish when I was in high school and even Indian (East) though my hair is not dark enough (especially as I age). With this I have added Byelorussian to my repertoire. I feel rather tickled, privileged, to have such a versatile, or diverse? face.

Servanthood

2008-04-20T20:12:00.003-04:00

A test of how much a servant you are is how you act when you're treated like one.

--Mark Chase

Another Dreary Vision

2008-04-06T20:56:00.006-04:00

Last night we saw "Children of Men". I came across it while pawing through the movies at the area's main library. We hadn't seen any movies in a while, and I had had, at one time, wanted in a mild way to see this one, though I can't now remember the reason and wasn't sure if I still wanted to.

It was another "dismal future" one (I've written on this before). I finally thought of a possible reason for that, though; why so many films set in the future see it as a hopeless place. It could be that these makers of these films, simply, fear the future. They see no happy ending. In the same way some writers write about things they wish would happen, these filmmakers (along with the screenplay writers) project their fear and lack of hope onto the screen.

Except this film seemed more of a statement than that sort of thing; more that than story as well. One did not get the impression of heart or passion put to picture, but rather a feeling of manipulation, maybe a mild sort of propaganda. Not much to get involved with. One was left with not much of anything but sort of a "well, life may go on, I guess..."

Much gratuitous swearing in it, by the way.

Today we watched "The Muppet Movie", ending the weekend on a much happier note. Beaker and Animal tie for my favorite Muppets.

101 Locust Recipes...

2008-04-02T13:16:00.015-04:00

...they taste like chicken! (Only the drumsticks are smaller.)

People have been touting "the perfect food" for a long time. Green smoothies (I almost fell for that one), bananas, not eating--fasting (from a health standpoint) was supposed to be perfect in that it cured everything; it was even supposed to push fillings out as new enamel grew!

Ezekiel bread is one of these. I've read it's the perfect food because Ezekiel survived on it alone for 390 days (plus another 40 later) during a famine, complete proteins involved, all that. If he could do it then, we should do it now! is the reasoning. No need to ponder the fact that it was during a famine, a special circumstance, that it was cooked over cow dung, and that there are many gluten-intolerant people out there who could definitely not eat it.

No, instead let's cash in on this and offer you diets straight from the Bible! We started with the locusts above:

(not actual size. Magnified many times so you can actually see it. Email for recipe.)

This would be part of the "Wild Man" diet, featuring the above beauties and local, organic honey. Also coming soon:

Desert Dishes
Canaanland Cuisine
The Milk and Honey Diet
The South Desert Diet
The Fed-By-Ravens Food Plan

Don't know when to quit

2008-03-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

and people do seem to like them.

I was wondering now what roles held up. Something like that. So who do you remember these older stars for? ones who don't, for the most part, make many movies any more?

1. Goldie Hawn
2. Paul Newman
3. Barbra Streisand
4. Clint Eastwood (ok, he still does some)
5. Sally Field (she does do TV now, though, right? Oh, well)
6. Gene Wilder

Bonus:

Sean Connery

Spiritual Antennae

2008-03-27T08:15:00.003-04:00

Every time a group hunkers down to a really good discussion on prayer, it seems to inevitably be about petitions, whether your own or interceding for others. I wish people would remember, or realize, that listening is a very large part of prayer. I know we know that prayer is so much more than asking for things, but whenever it's discussed, those other things seem to disappear.

But when Paul says to "pray without ceasing", does he mean that we should walk around continually muttering about things? Does he mean that we keep up a constant stream of "do this, do that, bless hims" every minute we're awake? "With all sorts of prayers and requests"...

Or does he mean something else entirely? A while ago I came to think of it as always referring everything to God, eventually a sort of "always on" mode. Filtering it through Him, what He thinks about it. Kind of like having spiritual antennae, always testing, testing, to see what the Lord says about this or that. Constantly listening, constantly sensitive to when we do something wrong or when someone speaks error.

Again, though, that's probably only part of it, even though it's a constant.

Seek Ye FIRST...

2008-03-26T10:50:00.006-04:00

Sheesh, I've been going about it all wrong this time. Ever since October...no, before that. Last summer, I think. Ever since then we've been working towards going back "out there".

Only now I keep coming across passages and columns saying, "Seek ME". I've found I've been pursuing missions more than Jesus Himself. I see it in an Oswald Chambers daily reading, in a magazine article, and especially in the "Perspectives" book/course. (If people want some meat to sink their teeth into, that's a good one to go to.) Yes, "The true greatness of any church in not how many it seats but how many it sends," (unknown), but anything can become an idol, even very good things. Pro-life crusades, songwriting....missions. Anything that gets our main focus. As P.T. Forsyth said, "the weakness of much current mission work is that [we] betray the sense that what is yet to be done is greater than what [Christ] has already done. The world's gravest need is less than Christ's great victory." (emphasis mine)

"And step by step you'll lead me....and I will follow You all of my days." (Rich Mullins)

I did say, "quotes coming up"

2008-03-26T10:38:00.006-04:00

I was in the central highlands in Vietnam when someone remarked about how the Christians suffer there. One Vietnamese Christian remarked, "Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst thing."

--Tom White

referred by Chip Kirk

Back By Popular Demand

2008-03-24T09:19:00.003-04:00

Actually, it was more like, "You should have said 'so-and-so' and 'this person'", etc. So I have added those suggested names to my "who do you think of?" Character associations, thus:

1. Brad Pitt
2. Angelina Jolie
3. Johnny Depp
4. Catherine Zeta-Jones
5. Matt Damon
6. Cameron Diaz
and one extra:
7. Renee Zellweger

Ham for Easter

2008-03-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

We had unused Christmas-bonus turkey actually, since we didn't want turkey again at Christmas but had to eat the thing pretty soon, so we decided to be unconventional and have it at Easter.

Last year we had lamb, a sort of obvious choice, I guess. I wondered last year, but never got around to actually writing the post, why so many people have ham for Easter--when did that start? (I suppose Wikipedia could tell me.) It seems quite ironic to me that people choose to eat an unclean animal on the most "religious" holiday of the year. A fitting irony, maybe, in that Jesus did declare all foods clean (a few times), but rather an uncomfortable one on my part. I dunno. Just seems sort of....?

He is Risen!!!

2008-03-23T00:01:00.001-04:00

Character Association

2008-03-19T10:13:00.010-04:00

I'm just curious. I can't remember now why I thought of this, but I idly wondered about it and now want to as idly ask:

What character comes to mind when you think of these actors/actresses?

1. Harrison Ford
2. Kate Winslet
3. Tom Cruise
4. Keira Knightly
5. Russell Crowe
6. Nicole Kidman

"Mama Killed a Chicken...

2008-03-19T09:58:00.003-04:00

...she thought it was a duck
she put it on the table with its legs stickin' up"

The past few days we've been putting a bunch of songs off of old albums onto CD's. I tell ya, people just do not know what they're missing if they have never heard some of that earlier Christian music. If they've never heard the original "He's Alive" (despite his "dolphin voice"--ask if you want clarification on that--it's a powerful rendition), or the early Christian alternative stuff, before it got monotone; the 77's, old DA, that kind of thing.

They've been so good to re-live, and I can't wait to play these things in the car as well! Why have we let them languish so? (Probably because it's easier to pop a CD in than take all the stuff off the crates our albums are stored in, hunt for the song you want, then put everything back when it's over.)

Just Musing

2008-03-16T17:55:00.005-04:00

It recently occurred to me that I often hear people speaking on the armor of God, on "not flesh and blood but rulers, against the authorities". It also occurred to me as I was reading Ephesians that I don't often find stuff on Eph 4:29 (unwholesome talk, building others up), on I Cor 4:9, "For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena", or farther down, v 13"...when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." Hmm. I probably have heard, "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others," but I know not often enough. Nor very much on Phil 1:9 and discernment.

Love Askew

2008-03-14T23:31:00.004-04:00

Over a decade ago I had an astonishing three months, months during which, I'm thinking now, we were probably under a special benediction since we were being prepared for our overseas life.

The starting point of the wonder began with something quite small, though. It started with an eye- and heart-opening temperament seminar. During this seminar I found out that I was liked. By people. By...God.

See, as someone who has never managed to keep friends interested in being friends with me for more than a couple or few years, I also internalized that to reflect on what I thought God must think of me. I'd had this subconscious feeling that God saved me because He had to, because He'd promised to save anyone who called on His name. But after that I was kind of left to drift to the back of the crowd.

But to realize He actually liked me, and wanted to be with me...that was earth-shattering. It was mind-boggling -- really! But I'm now wondering, why? Why did it seem so much more meaningful to feel liked than loved (as I technically knew I was)? As Beth Moore says as well in one of her studies: "...try to fathom that God doesn't just love us. He also likes us!"

Doesn't just love us? What definition have we come to for "love" to lower it so? Have all our well-meaning efforts to convince people that "love is not a feeling, it's an act of your will"; "feelings of romance don't last, love is acts" made it...duty or something? Is it that we have only one word for 'love' using the same one to describe our relationships and our feelings for chocolate, whereas the Greeks have at least five; storge, agape -- what about "phileo"? That's the friendship one; liking love. Liking and loving. Have we squeezed the phileo out of our love here?

There are times when, as they say, loving doesn't necessarily involve feelings, sure. But it seems to me that maybe in our effort to keep it from meaning what the media suggest it means, we've swung too far the other way, as we are wont to do. I don't know. Maybe I've missed something here. But I want some of the glory of love to be restored to it. And I want my love of God to have a lot of liking in it.

um...

2008-03-13T09:00:00.004-04:00

If "...it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel -- oil and natural gas -- to produce one gallon of ethanol," then how is that saving gas?

(emphasis mine)

Easter Thoughts

2008-03-10T10:53:00.009-04:00

When "The Passion of the Christ" came out in theaters, we went to see it. The theater was very still throughout (though I know I was only just keeping myself from wailing). We filed out silently, rode home in silence, and continued on that day in a somber vein.

This was not the sweet, beckoning joy that most people think of when they think of love. This was a tremendous presence, something almost solid, landing in the room with the impact of a meteor.

That's what stunned me. Not the violence, the violence was barely endurable (but probably underdone in the case of the scourging); rather, the overwhelming love of someone willing to go through the horror for. . . . .us. That's someone worth following to the ends of the earth.

And that’s what I wanted to do when I got home. Just get up and walk out of the door, the house, and keep walking until I could walk up to Jesus.

"The Passion of The Christ" ripped me in half, like the veil in the temple. I had expected to be ripped, because I am an intensely empathetic person. What I hadn't expected was how it also rocked my soul, rocked it in a way it hadn't been rocked since the conference that led us overseas. No sermon I've heard since coming home has had that much power.

What I'm thinking this year is: Should we watch it on Good Friday again this year? I couldn't bring myself to one year, did watch it another, and last time I found movie standpoints creeping in.

I don't want that. I don't want to think of movie things when I watch it. I also know that His followers only saw His death once. Is it therefore wrong for us to watch a facsimile once a year, or is it instead a good reminder?

Asleep in the Light

2008-03-03T07:11:00.010-05:00

is the name of a Keith Green song. It also seems to be the national theme. K.P Yohannan says that whenever he comes to America (which he doesn't much like to do), he is amazed by how saturated the country is by the gospel. We have so many books on so many subjects, so many Bible translations, and so many people analyzing minute points on Scripture that maybe it takes a visitor to see its overkill.

Why?

The image that comes to mind is that of a clogged drain. The Gospel isn't getting out, so it's building up here with nowhere to go. If the analogy runs true, it's also stagnating with its lack of flow.

I don't know if that's really the case, but I do know that the Gospel which is so freely, freely available here to virtually everyone is completely inaccessible to large parts of the world. America has approximately one Christian worker for every 230 people, but those who have never heard the Gospel even once have one worker for every 450,000 souls. 9% of the world's population speaks English, and yet 94% of all ordained preachers in the whole world minister to the 9% who speak English. I have to look up these statistics when I want to refer to them (I got them from "Why You Should Go to the Mission Field" by Keith Green, so they're probably somewhat outdated), but there's one illustration which stays with me much more easily:

the rice grain in the middle representing the number of Christian worker(s) among the unreached (only the sea of rice I saw was much bigger).

It was that same Keith Green tract which first convicted us and eventually led us overseas, and we've been longing to and working toward going back ever since we came back here. It saddens and frustrates me to hear people say (as we did before the first time we went out) things like, "I want to stay here and shake up the Americas". If all that engorgement hasn't done the job by this time, then his staying here is going to change all that single-handedly?

Of course huge things can happen from one person. Look at Open Doors, started by one man. Operation Mobilization, started by one. Jim Elliot and his four partners. (And look what else they have in common...they went.) But you know what's gonna "shake up the Amercias" the best?

Obedience. As Keith (yet again) said, "They have a rule in the Armed Forces that says, 'Always obey the last order received, until a new order is given". The last order we received was "Go into ALL nations...'" It may seem strange to say leaving the country is the best thing for it, but so often it's something like that. The best thing to do for your kids is to love their father/mother; the best thing you can do for your spouse is to love God more than them; the way to write a better song is not to go to songwriting classes, but to serve others.

But instead, while "we talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first." -- Oswald J. Smith

Walking in the Dark

2008-03-01T16:13:00.005-05:00

Whoever thought up this starting of daylight savings time earlier, and lasting longer, certainly never consulted mothers of young public-school-aged children. When my daughter still went to public school, I would fervently long for daylight savings to be over so I could walk her to her bus stop in the daylight. We used to have to use a flashlight, for crying out loud, to see our way to our rural waiting post. At least we were in a slightly civilized neighborhood; I feel doubly sorry for those whose houses are all by themselves surrounded by trees and who-knows-what animals.

And now they want me to start getting up in the dark again! Ok, so I don't have to walk her to a bus stop anymore, but others do. I just happen to like to wake up when there's at least a glimmer of dawn on the horizon. Sheesh, March 9th??? Give me a break!!

Maybe we should all move to Arizona.

Mysteries and More

2008-02-27T22:08:00.004-05:00

I really like mysteries for some reason. I don't know why, really; I never really read Nancy Drew as a kid (or an adult)--wait, I do remember three non-Nancy Drews ones I did read as a kid...

Anyway, maybe it was when I discovered Agatha Christie. But even then I hadn't gotten to the point I am at now; when I head for the fiction section of the library for some light reading, I look almost exclusively for those little skulls on the side of the books.

While there are some enjoyable ones out there, I've been disturbed lately by how many I've come across recently where the heroine is getting married, but currently living with her fiance (or just living with someone). It's the norm all of a sudden. In fact, one book went so far as to declare that a certain mother character had "issues" because she, and this said in quite the scornful and incredulous tone, obviously expected her daughter to remain a virgin until she got married. ("That household obviously has issues.")

I don't get offended easily (hurt, yes; I'm unfortunately terribly sensitive, but not offended) but that so offended me that I lost all desire to read any more. And these aren't young authors writing this stuff (well, I think the "issues" one was); they're mostly women older than I, who you'd think have been raised with those older or at least 50's values.

I take that back, it's not sudden. It's been creeping in, step by step, and now it's a flood. At least, I hope it's still at flood stage. I hope it hasn't spread out and become an everyday, ordinary, always-been-here normal lake.

A Dry Spell

2008-02-18T08:48:00.005-05:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. Just don't have anything to say. I could ask why men seem so much more content to let their grey hair show than women (almost every single older couple I know is this way), but after the last few posts, another one like that will likely turn this into a fashion blog. I've had a few things, off and on, but I can't remember them and I haven't been up to snuff lately, anyway, so...

Not that anyone's complaining. ;)

Which Super Bowl Commercial?

2008-02-04T10:19:00.001-05:00

Well, it was kind of a tie for me--I liked both the screaming animals Bridgestone tires commercial and the first Bud Light one-- the ability to breathe fire one.

I laughed a lot more of them than last year's, though. And no, I was not one of those people who watched it just for the commerciala; here's a good article on that player who made that great catch.

Believing Fashion

2008-01-29T19:52:00.001-05:00

Years ago, I, for a reason I can't now remember, was observing a friend's make-up. She had on, or was putting on, what looked like grey eyeshadow. I asked if it was, indeed, grey, since I thought the object of make-up was to look less, er, grey (so to speak). She said, no, it was blue, and it was supposed to either make her eyes look bluer or otherwise enhance them somehow.

It didn't. It just looked like grey sitting on her lids. (Naturally I didn't point this out.) But one must follow fashion advice, mustn't one. Just like I should never wear green eyeshadow because I have green in my eyes. Takes away, or something.

Well, I've tried it and it looks pretty good, if done right (and sparingly). And no, this is not a fashion advice column. I just wish that people would realize that just cuz Angelina Jolie looks good with poofy lips it doesn't mean everyone does:

(Not the best comparison pics; for a better view, watch "Spy Kids" then "Night in the Museum", or even just watching "Night" by itself makes you realize that something is just wrong with her lips.)

Or who in their right minds would prefer:

yet practically everybody adopted the ironed hair despite the fact that it was flattering to but very few. (I don't mean naturally straight hair, which can be quite flattering, but the sticking-out-at-the-ends-deliberately-straightened stuff.)

I have a small, "rosebud" type mouth which I have no intention of poofing up even though it's crooked due to a bike accident I had when I was 15. My mouth size suits my face, as most mouths usually do; Jennifer Connelly looked much prettier in "The Rocketeer" than in her skinnier films, and Botox is just a creeeeepy idea. Open your eyes, folks, and see what looks--if that's what you're into--best for you.

Either-Or

2008-01-25T11:23:00.002-05:00

"When someone asserts that we must choose between two things, when in fact we have more than two alternatives, he is using the either-or fallacy.

--The Fallacy Detective, pg 108

Yet among Christians this is the norm. You're only allowed to be either a Calvinist or an Arminianist, a futurist or a preterist (actually, there are four views but the principle is the same; no one allows you to be a prefuturist, for example), and so on. When are people going to realize that there is only one Person who never made a mistake in His theology, only one human who was perfect in all He thought? Do we ever think about the possibility that in following one "ist" or "ism" to the letter we might be following a doctrine rather than a Person? Why can't one be a Calminianist, or even not make up your mind as per preterist/futurist and shelve the matter pending developments (not necessarily events)? There are things I just don't know and though I may have leanings I realize I'm not seeing the whole picture, and am open to correction.

As an example, I became a Christian almost 27 years ago, and for approximately the first 25 years had only heard of, had been taught, the futurist view of eschatology. I didn't even know there was any other view, let alone four. Now that I have read about all the views, I realize there are some very valid* points in at least two of the views and all have possibilites, and I am shelving a conclusion (suspending judgement), although I'm currently finding one view more valid than the rest. But I'm not insisting that everything this view says is correct and that all others are not worth looking into or that all others are heretical.

I guess it goes back to the old thing of examining things for yourself. Or maybe just being willing to listen. Reminds me of a song I once wrote about that...

______

* "very valid" seems akin to saying "very pregnant" but I wanted to emphasize the validity and can't think of a proper way to do that. Maybe our resident grammarian reader can suggest one.

Does the shoe fit this time?

2008-01-24T10:24:00.001-05:00

Many people don't want to make good decisions; they want to make painless decisions.

--Haddon Robinson

(Another generalization?)

Insert Your Name Here

2008-01-22T10:40:00.001-05:00

One night at prayer night, we were discussing what to pray about (I wonder why we don't just start praying and let these things be prayed instead of bringing them up and then whoever closes in prayer forgets some; but since I do like our prayer nights despite a few shortcomings, ignore that), and one person was talking about America's greed, materialism; "The people's greed, their materialism, will be..." In the middle of it I was suddenly reminded of an exercise we did in a college psychology class. We were told to make a few general statements about the state of mankind; e.g. "Mankind is generally ______", fill in the blank stuff. Ok. I put down a few things like "Mankind is generally greedy" "generally lazy", and so on.

Then the teacher said, "All right, now replace 'mankind' with 'I'". Ouch. "I am generally greedy." Lazy I could accept, agree with, but the rest....well, my opinion of mankind hadn't been very positive and yet I hadn't included myself in that general assessment. Obviously I was looking down on others, despite the fact that I'm usually more critical of myself than them.

I can't remember what the actual point of the college exercise was but I know what it was for me, and the fact that I still remember it all these years later might suggest that it made an impression (except for the fact that I remember the strangest things for years, some of them quite trivial). But after prayer night I reminded myself that it might be a good exercise to perform before putting forth one of those generalized descriptions. I only hope that it's not me looking down again.

That Abraham Post

2008-01-21T10:38:00.002-05:00

Ok, I guess I finally need to post this. The idea came to me a while back, and reading this post this morning prompted me to once again attempt to dredge it up out of myself. (Is "dredge up" redundant?)

The thing that occurred to me was that the only "plan" God had for Abraham's life was to have a kid. He commanded Abram to move, and to have a child; granted, when he was too old to, but still, he got written up in the Hebrews Hall of Fame, studied, mentioned almost every time God was mentioned ("the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob") and all he basically "did" was move and have a child. This is not to belittle his accomplishments in any way. His move to another country and culture was a big risk and the child he loved so dearly he was willing to sacrifice, and was the foreshadowing of The sacrifice. Still, he didn't lead people out of 400 years of bondage, found a ministry or write best-sellers. So maybe some of us can take another look at what we haven't done. Maybe the only thing that's required is to move and have a kid or two. ;) Maybe the only thing that's required is that we give of us everything we have.

Come, let us reason

2008-01-18T08:25:00.001-05:00

It could have been a different lesson.

We were late. The word "holy" was being discussed; "What do you think of when you think of the word "holy"? Though I'd just slid into my seat, I jumped in anyway with a reminiscence of one speaker's observation: The word "holy" meant "set apart". That speaker had illustrated with a soccer ball (not literally), one that he only used for important games, never practice. In other words, it was "set aside" for those days.

The leader nodded, and someone else chimed in, saying it made her think of purity, someone else, becoming more like Jesus, and so on. And the rest of the discussion revolved around their perception of the word "holy" rather than what it actually meant. They tried to figure out how to achieve that purity; they pondered the struggle to follow Jesus. I'm not saying I was the only one right and everyone should have listened to me, but their efforts and conclusions were based on an erroneous definition. The command they were discussing was, "Be holy, as I am holy". The instruction was therefore, "be set apart as I am set apart". What they were discussing was worthwhile, but not what the actual instruction was.

Granted, in following the misinterpreted definitions you wouldn't be doing anything wrong; in fact, those things are good things to strive for. The problem arises when you rely on similar sloppiness for all your definitions or conclusions. If you heard once that loving your neighbor meant you should behave with your next-door neighbor in the exact manner you behave with your spouse, you might just end up in trouble. (Ok, not a very good example, but I couldn't come up with anything else. I go blank when I have to come up with an answer. Usually it takes me a few hours to a few months to finally come up with what I should have said).

Of course, if everyone had realized that "Ohhhhhhhh, it means I'm to be set apart", then that would have been a really short lesson, wouldn't it.

Age of Machine

2008-01-15T22:22:00.001-05:00

I wasn't the one calling it Big Brotherish this time.

The imagination boggles at the places this goody could be taken.

I Don't Get It

2008-01-15T10:35:00.002-05:00

People are always bringing up how much work a marriage is. I just don't get it. It's never seemed like work to me; more like...breathing? Something natural and very necessary. Maybe it's because we're best friends, and that if something happens to me it never seems real until I tell him, and that there's no one in the world I'd rather be with.

I dunno. Anyway, I was working on a post about Abraham.

Big Brother creeping up behind you

2008-01-11T15:33:00.001-05:00

This post really belongs at my husband's blog, but until he starts putting 'em up I'm gonna do it. Sorry, this is sort of choppy; I'll probably refine it over the coming days.

____________

"There is nothing wrong with your thermostat. Do not attempt to adjust the temperature. We are controlling your power consumption. If we wish to make it hotter, we will turn off your air conditioner. If we wish to make it cooler, we will turn off your heater. For the next millennium, sit quietly and we will control your home temperature. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your thermostat."

California is considering a measure that would require, on new homes and any renovations of the heating/cooling system in existing houses, a thermostat with an FM receiver so that the state could override the programming during peak hours or emergencies to save energy.

California, the home of rolling blackouts, and brownouts; every summer that I lived there I remember the power going out at least once. Not because lightning hit a transformer, the common cause here, but because "California's population growth and its affluence have strained the state's electric and natural gas resources. Famously, rolling blackouts have occurred due to shortages of electrical generation during peak periods." But instead of building new energy plants,

"In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control. Your desires and needs can and will be overridden by the state of California through its public and private utility organizations. All this is for the common good, of course."

One can easily see a way around this; room air conditioners and portable heaters could make up any deficit when your power's zapped off, but then, they're back where they started; more energy is being used to make up their attempts to control it.

Sounds kind of like certain light bulbs previously mentioned.

And To All a....forced toxin

2008-01-02T10:07:00.002-05:00

(revised version)

Thanks to a newly signed bill, by 2012 incandescent light bulbs will be gradually unavailable for purchase starting in 2012. Light bulbs will have to comply to new, more efficient standards, and currently the only ones that do are Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. I'm all for saving energy, but I'd like to be able to restrict my own lighting usage without the government's interference, thank you. I do not have a deranged desire to put toxic materials in every room in my house:

According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, (Brandy) Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter’s bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor.

Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges’ house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state’s “safe” level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter.

The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a “low-ball” estimate of $2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began “gathering finances” to pay for the $2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn’t cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.

Given that the replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs in the average U.S. household is touted as saving as much as $180 annually in energy costs — and assuming that Bridges doesn’t break any more CFLs — it will take her more than 11 years to recoup the cleanup costs in the form of energy savings.

Even if you don’t go for the full-scale panic of the $2,000 cleanup, the do-it-yourself approach is still somewhat intense, if not downright alarming.

Consider the procedure offered by the Maine DEP’s Web page entitled, “What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?”

Don’t vacuum bulb debris because a standard vacuum will spread mercury-containing dust throughout the area and contaminate the vacuum. Ventilate the area and reduce the temperature. Wear protective equipment like goggles, coveralls and a dust mask.

Collect the waste material into an airtight container. Pat the area with the sticky side of tape. Wipe with a damp cloth. Finally, check with local authorities to see where hazardous waste may be properly disposed.

The only step the Maine DEP left off was the final one: Hope that you did a good enough cleanup so that you, your family and pets aren’t poisoned by any mercury inadvertently dispersed or missed.

This, of course, assumes that people are even aware that breaking CFLs entails special cleanup procedures.

...It’s quite odd that environmentalists have embraced the CFL, which cannot now and will not in the foreseeable future be made without mercury.

Read the full article here.

Why not instead do something like make it a law that major businesses canNOT set their A/C temp below a 73-76 or so degree range in the summer, thus enabling me (and maybe others) to abandon my practice of taking my sweater with me when I shop in the dead of summer? I've actually seen it set in the high 60s! (Or set so that the thermometer registers 75 or thereabouts, which is most people's comfort zone. I set mine at 80, but not many people like that.)

Guess I'll have to put bug lights and candelabras in everywhere instead.

Thank you to Pith for the story (and sending me the links after repeated pestering).

Why Does Jr. Asparagus Annoy Me?

2007-12-29T22:13:00.002-05:00

My daughter is always asking me my favorite this or that; Pooh character (Eeyore), color (depends on if you're talking car, clothing, just to look at). It's hard because I usually don't have one favorite of anything, and the when I do have a few they don't usually stay favorites. I usually just tell her that; no one favorite.

I can't remember if she actually asked me my favorite Veggie Tales character or not, but somehow I started pondering those guys. Bob's the straight guy, and while game, kinda boring. Pa Grape's cool cuz he's feisty, and Larry's mischievous so he's fun.

But for some reason Jr. Asparagus really annoys me. I delved into this topic with my husband, and what we came up with is that he's not a goody-goody, but is something like that. He's....well, besides his aggravatingly squeaky voice, he's....well, just annoying.

Does anyone else find him so?

Please, Sir....could I have some more?

2007-12-28T16:43:00.001-05:00

Regarding my last post, there is the occasional exception to the rule. The bonus materials on the DVD "The Princess Bride", having been created in the days before people started deliberately filming bonus materials for DVDs, is rather fresh and charming.

But that's not why I bring it up. The first time I saw "The Princess Bride" I loved it so much I determined not to see it again for a long time, so greatly did I not want to get tired of it. I succeeded -- watching it again the other night, for maybe only the third/fourth time and many years after the first, it was as delightful as the first time. Part of the repeat charm, though, may have been due to our daughter's watching it with us and declaring that she "loved that movie!" (Smart girl!)

In his book "Perelandra", C.S. Lewis once had his main character, Ransom, about to have a second helping of something that had given him a great deal of pleasure the first time, when an inner prompting bade him stop. He realized he was no longer hungry, and therefore, as the character muses,"Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be a vulgarity--like asking to hear the same symphony twice in a day.

"As he stood pondering over this and wondering how often in his life on earth he had reiterated pleasures not through desire, but in the teeth of desire and in obedience to a spurious rationalism..."

In other words, a sort of gluttony, perhaps? How much have DVDs lessened viewing pleasure? When "Star Wars" first came out, some people went so nuts as to see it 17 times in the theatre. Naturally no one would do that today. How much more pleasure I used to receive from hearing that great new song on the radio again than being able to pick up a record and play it any old time. I won't even start on iPods and the like. Availability and repetition have all but obliterated the elusiveness of music; no longer does one have to wait in hope.

I'm not advocating selling entire DVD or CD collections (although that's quite an idea to ponder), but I do wonder how much all this repetition is spurring people on to more and more new things, seeking yet again that first thrill of discovery that today so quickly evaporates with its easy re-discovery, or by no longer needing to pursue that resonating kindred note you used to only chance upon.

The Best Superlative Ever!!!

2007-12-27T18:05:00.001-05:00

I would really like watching those bonus materials/features on the DVDs we buy if it weren't for the ubiquitous flattery with which they are encased. Every actor, every director is a genius, brilliant, the best they ever worked with--please!

The blurbs for works produced by Christians are sadly not much better. I'm currently reading a book that sounded exciting, especially as it involved pirates (Christian pirates? Do you know, my husband actually saw a booth at one book show called Christian Pirates? Jumping on the bandwagon until it's in splinters is one thing; touting godly stealing is entirely another. Christian keelhauling...). It didn't take but a page or two to sigh over another poorly wordsmithed project but I'm gamely plowing on with an eye on its possibly salvageable story line, though currently it's beginning to sound like National Treasure on steroids.

And how many times have I read a book or movie blurb which included the word "hilarious" and which have subsequently given me perhaps one half-smile throughout, and more likely made me cringe? Like the cheapening of the word "awesome", every superlative has been devalued. Words, which can be so powerful, are no longer used for their meanings but instead for their impact on you.

Maybe I'm among the last to bemoan its pervasiveness; maybe to most others even a gum wrapper is suspect by now. But that's not the real problem those writing them face. The real problem is, when these people come face to face with something truly brilliant, truly genius, what are they going to call it?

A Christmas Quote

2007-12-19T11:14:00.001-05:00

The night before His birth into the world, the body of the Lord Jesus dwelt inside the body of His mother. Today the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwells inside the body of the Christian. One is just as real and factual as the other. Do we celebrate the latter as much as the former?

--Chip Kirk

Five for Five update

2007-12-03T09:14:00.001-05:00

Duh, I forgot Carol of the Bells. Make that song #5.

I looked at the originator's blog and had to smile over one of his movie choices -- Die Hard. That's right, it did take place at Christmas and could just be my #5 movie.

________________________

'Nother update:

Well, even tho' Die Hard takes place at Christmas, I can't really think of it as a Christmas-themed movie, so although it is a favorite of mine for watching after a rough day, it ain't going on the list.

Five For Five on mine

2007-12-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

I followed this from another blog, who got it from another blog, who... it's what they appear to call a "meme" (which I have to look up the meaning of every time I see the word on a blog). I quote:

Rick, over at "Mmmm, That's Good Coffee", has started a new meme called "Five For Five". The only rule is to answer the following five questions:

1. What are your five favorite Christmas songs?
2. Five foods you look forward to at Christmastime?
3. Five favorite presents of all time?
4. What are your five favorite holiday TV specials?
5. Top five holiday-themed films?

This will be tough, especially since I rarely have a favorite song, movie or whatever. They cycle. But here goes:

1. What are your five favorite Christmas songs?

O Come O Come Emmanuel

The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" (although it's not technically a Christmas song, it's played every Christmas)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

One Small Child

Jingle Bell Rock, possibly (The Geoff Moore version), or the Brian Setzer version of Jingle Bells, or Joy to the World, or Un Flambeau, Jeanette Isabella, or -- you get the idea.

2. Five foods you look forward to at Christmastime?

Sourdough bread with spinach dip (Christmas Eve)

stuffing (if we have turkey)

Magic Bars

Thimble cookies (no wonder I have insulin resistance)

Chocolate covered plums (more sugar) (if it's one of my presents! Can't get 'em here)

3. Five favorite presents of all time?

Easy. Last year my sister gave me a DVD of our growing-up memories in pictures and songs.

I notice it doesn't say "Christmas" presents, just "presents", so actually my favorite all-time present was for my birthday. My husband surprised me by arranging, complete with baby-sitters, first a dinner in San Francisco and then afterwards a play at the Golden Gate Theatre. Not just any play, either; it was Ron Moody in HMS Pinafore. I rather believe I squealed when he first appeared onstage. And this was all a COMPLETE surprise to me.

The kiss my husband gave me after I bought him a completely unexpected gift.

The plane tickets our church bought us to fly up and see my sister-in-law, who had cancer, at a family reunion just after Christmas.

Oh, there was this really cool little grey assembly thing with this ball that followed a track and hit something which would cause something to happen which would cause something else to -- oh, wait, that was a birthday present, too.

4. What are your five favorite holiday TV specials?

Now that everything's on DVD, it's hard to remember the magic of those shows. But every year when I was a kid I'd really look forward to seeing:

Rudolf (of course)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Little Drummer Boy

5. Top five holiday-themed films?

Scrooged

Jingle All the Way

Hmm, this is tougher. The Nativity Story may possibly become one in the future. I'll have to think more about this one.

A Glimpse of a Hint

2007-11-30T10:26:00.001-05:00

For years the verses Phil. 1:15-18 have puzzled me. One is often told how important motive is when doing anything; if you do something but inside you're doing something different, that's hypocrisy, right? "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit," and so on. So why does Paul say that it doesn't matter why they're preaching the gospel, he just rejoices that the gospel is preached? And they, those preaching to make things worse for Paul, had a pretty sorry motive. I asked and asked people and never came up with a satisfactory answer.

I got a glimmer of a possibility, though, when my husband told me about a new "One Minute Bible" which had been produced in England or somewhere and was selling like hotcakes. People started getting het up about that, saying something like the 'author' was reducing the inspired Word of God to commercial length sound bites just to get people to read it. Which he was, actually, but he was also trying to make an inexpensive book that would cover the Bible with broad brush strokes and make its readers curious for more. (I'm quoting my husband on this.)

When I heard the outcry, I thought, sheesh, at least some people who wouldn't normally read the Bible are reading parts. Then it struck me. Isn't that kind of what Paul was saying to the Philippians?

A Sort-of Rant

2007-11-26T10:20:00.001-05:00

Wow. Busy. Getting sick just before Thanksgiving didn't help.

Ok, so why....no, let me start over.

The more you say something, the truer it doesn't get. I mean, saying something over and over doesn't make it more and more true (except, possibly, in your own mind; even then, it's mere delusion if it wasn't true to begin with). Pretty basic, right? So why do so many modern praise choruses repeat so many lines? And why is it so many singers and leaders-of-praise will sing the same one-verse-and-chorus alternation about five times over (and the chorus a few times through at the end for good measure) but would never dream of singing all five verses of a hymn (if they sing hymns at all)?

I know, I know, my mind should not be focusing on these things but on the praise itself, but badly written and delivered songs are as distracting to me as a bawling infant held over a mother's shoulder so that his head is right on your ear is to most people. Especially when they're slowed down to the point of a 16 speed on what's supposed to be 45 (oof, that's ancient).

I know I probably shouldn't have written this. And it doesn't always distract; my frame of mind has a lot to do with it. I'll probably delete it in a little while.

Looking Back

2007-11-12T08:10:00.001-05:00

I started this post a while back and then forgot about posting it, so I'm not sure I can put into it what was originally intended, but I'll take a shot.

When I reached the New Testament this time through in my read-through, I was forcibly struck by how different it was from the Old, in tone, in style, and especially in the Person of God-in-the-Flesh. How outlandish the idea sounded -- God as a person?! Outrageous!

When you grow up with an idea, it seems like a most natural thing. Jesus is God the Son? Well, sure, I learned that when I was a kid. It's hard for those of us with many years of hindsight to see what a truly hard-to-take-in thing Jesus' appearance was. Surely He stood out, being the only sinless person around; people would know there was something different about Him, but with a human's inability to recognize Truth -- even those of us after His death who have the Holy Spirit to nudge us with it have problems sometimes seeing it -- it still would have taken faith to believe He was God. And we today, so far removed, those of us who didn't grow up being taught He's the Messiah, it takes even more, I think. Well, yeah, it takes. . .God.

A Dismal Future

2007-11-08T07:30:00.001-05:00

I was tired of coming across all these quotes and references to "The Matrix" in books and being clueless about them, so last night we finally saw the movie. I now wonder why so many movies set in the future are so dreary. Not the movies themselves, necessarily; but film directors apparently see the future as a place where someone or something has absolute control over humans (books also; 1984) and everything is dark and rundown. Think of "Blade Runner" and "Minority Report", "The Island" and "I, Robot"; even the future-future section of "Meet the Robinsons" was all dark and reddish. One notable exception is the Star Wars series, which actually dared to show lush vegetation at one point, but even that was on a more 'primitive' type of planet. Sorry, moon.

It's interesting how so many filmmakers don't see the future as a very bright place.

pt II continued

2007-10-25T15:03:00.001-04:00

4.

5.

The World Out There pt II

2007-10-24T13:28:00.001-04:00

Due to the suggestion expressed in response to my first "World" post, I have put together another quiz, but of a different type this time. These are simply pictures, and they probably don't have enough clues in them to enable readers of this blog to guess the right answers; it's just for fun.

Where is it?

Where (country or city) were these pictures taken?

1.

2.

3.

Because I don't want this post to load too slowly (yes, some of us still have dial-up), I will split this into two posts. Answers in first comment on each.

A Clue

2007-10-12T08:46:00.001-04:00

Here's a possible clue:

Consensus can be wrong. So warned The New York Times in a science section piece on Oct. 9. "Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus" reviewed the history of our belief that dietary fat was as big a health risk as smoking. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared as much in 1988. He was speaking not for himself but for the scientific community, which was nearly unanimous in fingering fat as the cause of heart disease and cancer.

The trouble was, study after study failed to prove the hypothesis. It was a case, the Times explains, of "informational cascade" -- a phenomenon in which groups tend to reach false conclusions because individuals often assume that the majority must be right.

The article quoted above was about people's hysteria over global warming rather than nutrition, but the same principle applies, as it does to my previous "Vote" post -- people letting others think for us. How many people have accepted global warming without looking into it themselves (if only by reading something like Michael Crichton's "State of Fear")? Do you remember about...maybe twenty or so years ago (I think more), scientists were creating a panic over the imminent ice age approaching? Have many actually look at the weather data out there to see that warming trends occur periodically and so do cooler periods?

Throwing the Beans Out With the Bathwater

2007-10-11T13:40:00.000-04:00

Things were ok until rumors started going around that eating fat made you fat.

Suddenly America exploded (blew up?). The experts had told us to eat lots of bread and fat-free sugar instead. Of course, most literate people or people with half an ear now know that all that bread and pasta and fat-free sugar-laden snacks make you fat, not fat. (One exception is Subway restaurants, who still tout "low fat! low fat!" sandwiches with massive amounts of bread.)

We followed their advice. We also followed other advice: First eating eggs and other cholesterol-filled foods caused high cholesterol levels; now they're suggesting that eating cholesterol doesn't raise blood cholesterol levels but rather almost the opposite. Saturated fat used to be horrible for you, now it's noted that it's necessary to absorb calcium and even keep your colon healthy. Living enzymes in raw food is one of the latest promotions, but other studies show that the only reason raw food has lots of living enzymes is that raw food is harder for the body to digest and therefore requires more enzymes. Eight glasses of water were necessary because our thirst indicators are unreliable, then some found people didn't need so much after all (although I think I may be finally convinced I need more than I do drink) and we were shown how people actually died from drinking too much water. (You can find anything online, even that water and the usually inoffensive honey are dangerous.)

Now whole grains are bad in that the phytic acids they contain deplete the body of minerals; but wait, only improperly processed whole-grains (like we eat out here in the West). Basically, it boils down to this: Americans have no clue how to eat anymore. How has it gotten to be so difficult to do something as basic as eating?!?

Oh, is that why...?

2007-10-03T11:37:00.001-04:00

I once wrote:

I am often leery of writing anything of what might be called substance because I am so often wrong. I'll read a book and murmur, "Oh.....yes......yes......" then read a opposing review on the book and realize, "Oh.......yes.....I missed that. Ah, indeed!” It’s not just the backlash and derision I’m scared of -- although that itself is certainly cause for hesitancy -- but of being wrong. And by that I don't mean just the possibility of misleading people, but being wrong in and of itself. Integrity involves wanting to do right because it is right; not to be superior, not to prove a point, but because right is right.

Today I saw:

A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition.

While I almost always score as an INFJ on those types of quizzes, and much of an INTP's description is totally unlike me, my written paragraph is essentially a paraphrase of the latter description paragraph. I thought it was a matter of integrity and now I find it's a matter of type (and a previously unknown type, or half-type, at that). Or is it? Did I score that way because of my aims toward integrity?

The application of such goes much deeper than just the "I'm like this" aspect, but I need to wrestle with these thoughts more before articulating them. I guess such wrestling is a lifelong doom.

______________________________________

p.s. The fact that it took me a good portion of an hour to get that last paragraph right is a telling sign. Or is it just that I'm a writer who needs to get her words just right........?

Still Quoting

2007-09-24T12:21:00.001-04:00

Jesus didn't ask, "Peter, do you know me," or "Peter, are you serving me," or even, "Peter, do you honor me?" He simply asked, "Peter, do you love me?"

--Chip Kirk (from John 21:15-19)

What's in Your Heart?

2007-09-23T22:15:00.002-04:00

John Eldredge, in what I think was his book "Wild at Heart", says that Christians have had Jeremiah 17:9 pounded into them too much. He says, and I'm quoting from memory so it's not verbatim, that once you become a Christian and are given new life, Christ gives you a new heart as well. Okay, we know that, but he goes on to say, "your heart is good". I have been pondering this ever since. Is the heart still desperately wicked (certainly I've been been told-preached that), or can we actually trust it sometimes? Thoughts?

"Don't Tell Me How to Vote"

2007-09-23T21:02:00.000-04:00

James Dobson said, back around March, that he didn’t think he’d be voting for Fred Thompson for president because he didn’t think he was a Christian. That’s fine, sir, that’s your prerogative, though I can’t say I think much of your litmus test. I can think of lots of Christians I wouldn’t vote for president with me as the forerunner. I’d make a lousy president, and don’t think being a Christian automatically makes a person presidential material.

The problem with Dobson’s statement, though, and any statements supporting his or someone's candidate of choice, is that many, many Christians will hear them and bleat, and stampede down to the voting booth to vote for whomever that person does condone. I can remember a telling example.

We belonged to a non-denominational church at the time and our Bible study group had met for something other than Bible study; I can’t remember what. What I vividly remember is one lady passing out material and talking about the candidates she assumed -- not in so many words but somehow the implication was there -- everyone there would be voting for.

She was stopped in mid-endorsement by another woman saying, “Don’t tell me who to vote for.” There was quiet as the first lady, mouth still open, looked at her. The second lady said, “By all means, give me your material, discuss the issues, but leave it there. Let me decide. Just don’t (with a slight pause between each word) tell me who to vote for."

Bravo!! I wish everyone were so inclined to think for themselves. I also wish that people would realize that this country is not going to be turned around by politics. As A. W. Tozer said:

“One thing must be kept in mind: We Christians are Christians first and everything else after that. Our first allegiance is to the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are grateful for political freedom. We thank God for democracy as a way of life. But we never forget that we are sons of God and citizens of another city whose builder and maker is God. For this reason, we must not identify the gospel with any political system or make Christianity to be synonymous with any form of government, however noble. Christ stands alone, above and outside of every ideology devised by man. He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them, but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction. The true Christian will be loyal to his country and obedient to those in authority, but he will never fall into the error of confusing his own national culture with Christianity. Christianity is bigger than any country, loftier than any civilization, broader than any human ideology.”

Thanks to this blog for the quote.

Smile, Job!

2007-09-20T14:03:00.001-04:00

I found out a long time ago that my normal, resting face looks mad to other people. It seems I either look mad a great deal of the time or else people mistake intensity for anger. Whatever the case, people are always telling me to “smile!” Some add things like, “Cheer up! It’s not that bad!”

How do they know?

Most of the time it isn’t, but what if someone close to me had just died, I had also just lost all my money, and my kids were rebelling and in jail? “Smile!” Did Jeremiah smile “enough“? If Job didn’t have boils all over him, showing things to be not quite normal, would people have told him, “Smile! It’s not so bad. . .”

My daughter-in-law got quite endearingly indignant when I told her about the different situations in which I was ordered to smile. She said, “You smile a lot!” I do, around my family. One can’t help but laugh when one has a husband like mine -- he is a most original wit.

But on behalf of all those intense or serious people mistaken for grumps, may I beg you, next time you see one, to please not command a smile? Maybe just smile at them instead.

When I read

2007-09-17T20:18:00.001-04:00

Tired of my haphazard approach to Bible reading, I decided a while ago that I wanted to be more systematic about it. I would read it straight through, then straight through, then straight through with a chronological one, then kept wanting to and doing the same again.

Now on my ? time through, one main thought has surfaced; how much time is spent in the Old Testament. One spends a lot more time with the...chastening? sterner? thundering? side of God.

I suspect there's a reason for this, thought I don't know what it is yet (if, indeed, there is only one). As a balance, maybe? only there's so much more O.T. than New. It really lasts. You get those prophets one right after another (this is where a chronological one makes for a real change of perspective), laments, strange stories (I mean, no one walks around naked for three years in the N.T. except for the Gerasene demoniac [who's not really upheld as worthy of emulation], not that I can remember offhand, anyway). So...

I must muse on this more.

Add-ons

2007-09-16T20:41:00.000-04:00

A few more comments about "3:10 to Yuma":

My husband commented that it was well-paced. No lag times. Even when nothing was happening (so to speak) there was still tension.

There was something odd about the credits. We always stay in the theaters until all the credits are done, not really just in case there's a scene after (like after the first POTC movie) but because we...just like staying through the credits. Sometimes the scene after is worth it, sometimes the credits themselves are funny as the "Airplane!" ones were, and sometimes we just like seeing where the movie was filmed and who did the music.

I don't want to say what the odd thing was quite yet; I'd like to see if anyone else catches it and has a comment.

__________________________________

Oh, yeah, and there was one gross part which was fortunately not shown (the sounds were bad enough) and one part where I had to close my eyes. A few snide remarks directed at "pious people" as well.

(This Bird Has Flown)

2007-09-09T16:32:00.001-04:00

Today our son left for Kuwait.

He's strong, capable; a man now, shown himself to be able, not only by making it thus far, through Basic Training and AIT, but by the things life throws at him, such as what he had to go through last night to get back home again after saying his goodbyes to people in Lubbock. And hey, he's only scheduled to be there a year.

But at the airport I sort of burst into tears anyway.

A Dissertation: The Biblical Components of "The Settlers of Catan"

2007-08-26T18:01:00.001-04:00

I have no idea how to write a dissertation; my husband just said it sounded like one. Instead I'll give brief examples of this phenomenon:

1. The Poor Man's Sheep

An opponent rolls a 7, or uses a soldier card and steals a card from you; your last sheep. Waaahh!! You point out the story in 2 Samuel about the rich man taking the poor man's only sheep, a well-loved one at that. (You Make Bunny Cry can also be quite effective here, or when your last of another resource has been taken.)

2. A Roll on the Die

You or an opponent rolls a number that you can collect no resources off of. While everyone is saying, "I get wood," "I get ore", you burst out, "I get nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing...." (Ok, that's not a biblical quote, but it is church-y. Or used to be. Maybe nobody but Catan players sing it anymore.)

Oh, dear, that's only two. Surely there are more...?

I guess you never know

2007-08-13T09:20:00.001-04:00

I guess when I said, "I can't help wondering how many useless words I have typed", I may have been a little (but only a little) hard on myself.

Last Wednesday we were illustrated as an example of grace, the deed being one of which we had not felt particularly grace-full while doing; it was just something we did. So I guess I should keep on typing, because one never knows what will mean something to someone, something that may be quite every day and ordinary to one's self.

The World Out There

2007-08-13T07:59:00.000-04:00

I've loved geography from the time I was a young girl. Not the "terminal moraine" kind taught in my college geography course, but knowing where different countries are and what their capitals are. What goes on out there.

So it puzzles me how blithely oblivious most Americans are to the rest of the world, especially with all the globalization going on. Businessmen obviously know it's there, since you can find, e.g., Starbucks in Bangkok, but to the average person watching TV at night:

At the same time, Americans still fare poorly with regard to our awareness of what's going on in the world. Our collective global consciousness is pretty dismal, and the mainstream media do little to help. Our family often hosts international guests in our home, and our guests are forever frustrated that they can't get more than a passing glimpse of world events from our nightly news.

David A. Livermore

We noticed this trend a while ago as well. Tell me, how many of you know the name of Tom and Katie Cruise's baby regardless of whether you have the slightest interest in them or not? How many of you know who Michael Jordan is even if you don't follow, or ever watch his sport? Vacuous headlines are seemingly pounded into even our peripheral views. Now tell me, without Googling the answers:

1. Which country used to be named "Dahomey"?
2. Which country, as of 7-12-07 (when I first started this post), has the highest inflation rate in the world?
3. Who is Great Britain's prime minister?
4. Which nation in the world has the most Muslims?
5. Moldova is between which countries?
6. What country is rated #1 for persecuting Christians (#1 = worst persecution)

Answers posted in first comment.

Insert Creative Title Here

2007-08-09T09:06:00.001-04:00

It was my son's idea for a title. Loved it, and who needs an actual post anyway? Not with a title like that and kids like mine. :)

The Hazards of Homeschooling

2007-08-06T09:20:00.000-04:00

They say that sitting for long periods of time is harder on your back than standing. I can now attest that that is not true.

Last Thursday through Sunday was one of the hardest weekends+ I've been through in a lonnnnnng time. It started with having to drive a 17-foot U-Haul to Atlanta (and I will post in a separate post about the last U-Haul trip we made) to a homeschool convention there.

Homeschool conventions themselves are quite benign. What made it so hard was that my husband had a booth there, selling homeschool-type and other books, and I went along to help, first by picking out books I thought would be good for our booth, and then, I anticipated, by lending a hand at the booth and then wandering around during slow times to pick out this year's curriculum.

There were no slow times. "Helping out" is not what I did; I was lucky I got to make a trip or two to the bathroom, which, for absurd reasons known only to those involved in the making of the Cobb Galleria, were only located at the extreme front of the building, and, naturally, our booth was in the extreme rear. Regular vendors at the homeschool convention told us they'd never seen a booth as busy as ours, and they'd been coming to this convention for years.

Not only did we load, unload all those thousands of books, we had to price the books, look up the prices of the books we didn't get to before the opening, bend over, pick up, bend down, lift, put down, bag, hunt for, re-pack and load up again all the stuff that didn't sell -- you get the idea, and my husband did three times as much work as I did. I am still sore and aching in places I didn't know had muscles (even my stinkin' forearm was sore and weak from using the price gun), we didn't sit down at ALL the first day, and I also happened to have a pretty great time when I wasn't almost crying from sheer exhaustion.

It was fun to discuss books with fellow homeschoolers and recommend the books we love, and talk about the books we love, and meet so many nice people and not have a single nasty customer, highly unusual these days! I really enjoyed interacting with all those I met. I didn't get a chance to buy any curriculum, or even take a cursory -- forget that, even a hurried -- glance at more than a couple of aisles of booths, but we're already talking about what we'll do better next year. Starting with begging a few more people to go with us.

An Excellent Post

2007-07-17T08:57:00.000-04:00

A great post made excellent by the accomanying video.

The Headless Quiz

2007-07-11T20:35:00.001-04:00

You know all those bulletins people post at myspace; the quizzes they pass on and put on their profile? One gets tired of the unimaginative questions and lack of chooseable answers (in nearly all the cases, I'd answer "other" if it was a choice). In fact, I got so tired I decided to make one of my own up:

1. You have:
a) a long memory
b) a changeable memory
c) no memory
d) no head.

2. You think vegans:
a) are obsessed
b) are healthier than anybody
c) ought to shave their heads
d) are clueless and should be forced to marry French chefs.

3. When you go grocery shopping, you:
a) buy generic
b) buy organic
c) buy razors
d) eat the free samples and go out to dinner

4. When stuck in a traffic jam, you:
a) get your AK-47 out of the trunk
b) sing "O Solo Mio" at the top of your lungs
c) use the time to pluck your eyebrows/nose hairs
d) climb into the back seat and watch disaster movies on your on-board DVD player

5. For dinner, you would most like to have:
a) pizza
b) peaches
c) anything but peaches
d) it made for you

6. If a song you hate comes on the radio, you:
a) change the station
b) change the radio
c) rip out your hair
d) end up thinking of that song ALL DAY LONG.

7. What's your favorite Kool-Aid flavor?
a) grape
b) carrot
c) a smoothie
d) anything blue

8. Would you rather be:
a) Princess Leia
b) Paul McCartney
c) Yul Brenner
d) Jabba the Hutt or Laliari (from Galaxy Quest)

If your answers were mostly "A's", you are a pragmatic, no-nonsense, don't-give-me-no-details type of person.

B's, you're a cultured vegetarian.

C's, you are probably bald and have a serious hair-related psychological disorder.

D's, you are probably not a person at all, considering you have no head. Check to see if you're an alien.

If your answers were totally mixed, you're jus' plum outta luck cuz I didn't come up with a category for that.

So there.

26 and counting

2007-07-07T08:25:00.001-04:00

My husband left early this morning for the annual ICRS in Atlanta. At least it's in Atlanta this year; last year it was in Colorado, and as it's always the week of our anniversary, it makes for a dismal celebration. At least this year I have the option of driving there for that day.

This year will be 26 years. 26 years, and I still start missing him the minute he leaves. 26 years, and we still feel like we never have enough time together. 26 years, and it feels like our time together is just beginning.

I miss you...