it must just be me?

So dinner is in the oven, and I sit to kill a little time by flipping. I enjoy that at the end of a day. I start with the lowest number on the TV which happens to be a christian station. Big San Antonio guy is preaching in his usual style, and as he gives the recap of his 4-part sermon series on how to be a winner or whatever, he says this:

"There are 7 principles in the word of God about how to have your prayers answered. The disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Lord, teach us to pray.' That very sentence means there is a right way and a wrong way to pray. And when you pray according to the formula given by Jesus Christ, your prayers get answered. Otherwise, they're not."

*Calls BS on this kind of stuff*

I can't be alone in this. I'm tired, really tired of formulaic, pseudo-superstitious, "you have to hear my message on that to get it" approaches to the Divine. I think it is wrong to tell people stuff like that. It's like we are all on drugs or we are about to drink the Kool-aide for the umpteenth time. I think of the poor, struggling person whose life is on the skids who listens to this kind of garbage and thinks, "If I can just get it right...say the right things at the right time like the holy man on the stage, then I'll be able to pull my life back together..." It's crap.

Anytime you concretely say that there are 7 (and that was picked because of the mysterious nature of numerology) principles about bla bla bla, you are already doomed for ridiculousness before you even complete your sentence. Enough. We've had enough. I'm sick to death of this kind of crap. Away with your "I've got the key...THE KEY for you to get all the stuff you want from God, and here is the secret incantation, even though you probably will never be righteous enough to acheive the good life.

Yes, I know I ought to quit watching it. Maybe that is one of my NY resolutions.

Have a happy.
Love you,
G

onward

I don't have time at the moment to give you a play by play. Plus it isn't all that interesting.

It was good, but I'm always glad when it is over.

It was nice to see everyone and celebrate together.

Hope yours was good too.

Talk soon.

G

past, present, and future

I was happy to see that we had a pretty good number of folks at church today. We are more of a "go home and see your parents" church than a "bring your parents and relatives to church" church. Today, I got to meet some friends' parents. That was very nice. And it was fun and different to have more of a classically-based service for an interesting change. I was really proud of the work that the choir did, especially considering that we never or almost never use a choir.

After watching today's rather ridiculous demise of the Packers (yes Gumball, those actual Packers, not the Cowboys you keep calling the Packers), I thought that even though it was good for us that they went down today, it was kind of sad, too. I'd rather (in most cases) see Favre have a good day. When he doesn't, its kind of like noticing that someone you like and respect has started employing the comb-over. Pathetic, really.

After the game, we decided that if we were going to watch Schindler's List that it had better be right now. So, we did it. I probably won't be writing about this for a while, so I'll just sum it up for you here. My good thoughts for that masterwork only increase with each viewing. It will be some time before I can handle it again as it is just too intense. I still think that the last 30 minutes of that film are some of the best moments ever produced on film.

Joel slept through (as he put it) "all the torture parts," so he "wasn't as soft toward it at the end." But he knew that he missed some of the investment necessary to reap the benefits of Schindler's last monologue.
I came away this time with even more of an appreciation for the fact that Schindler was just a regular, conflicted, flawed guy with questionable motives who grew tremendously. I love the irony in him pointing out that war draws out only the bad in people and never the good - while he himself has the opposite experience. I love his humility and broken honesty at the end. And I love that he truly gave what was so important to him - never to recover his fortune and never to truly see the full impact of his acts of kindness.

Well, I could go on and on. But that is enough for now.

Tomorrow brings a little wee bit more shopping and the beginning of the cooking cycle for Monday night and Tuesday. Once Christmas is over, I suppose I'll reflect about what has been a roller coaster ride of a year and look toward the realities of 2008. We will be hanging around mostly this next week. If you are local or even if you aren't, feel free to stop by. You are always welcome here.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas, my friends.

weekend

Dixie and I got to spend most of the day together, even though we were participating in the Christmas shopping mayhem. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. We worked in a fairly strategic manner, ate lunch together in a non-hurried fashion, and took in a movie. We bought stuff, but we also spent some time just looking and thinking and saying what we liked and didn't like. I think our tastes have become very similar, even though I still don't know a good ladies shoe from a poor ladies shoe.

All in all, we had a good day.

The movie? "No Country For Old Men." I thought it was fantastic. I love the Coens.

may have to wait a few days

Well, our plans didn't pan out exactly. My grown-up kids went over to my sister's house for some kind of Christmas get together, and they didn't return until around 11:00. Um...too late for Schindler. We'll see how things go this weekend.

Sarah had a work engagement, so Ryan stayed for dinner. That was nice. We made some Chicken Marsala as a team. Me = pounding / cooking the chicken and Dixie = spaghetti and crafting the (delicious) sauce for the marsala. It was kind of like an impromptu thing, which made it much more fun.

Also, I experimented with garlic cheese biscuits, once again drawing the usual criticism from my children that I had become "obsessed." That means that I have done an activity more than once in perhaps a month. So they say, "Dad, you're obsessed with biscuits now." Whatever. The biscuits I have been making of late (and yes, I am trying to perfect them) use buttermilk and self-rising flour. I keep self-rising flour on hand, but not buttermilk. But I bought some buttermilk to make a pie, so I have a carton in the fridge. My thought is that before the buttermilk I have goes bad, I should try to use it. I'm just trying to be a good steward. And if that makes me obsessed, then that is a good kind of obsession - using the resources all the way. Also, not one person complains when they are stuffing their yapping little faces full of glorious biscuit.

Next time, I shall use more garlic and more cheese. Still, they were good.

I've told you nothing in this post save the unimpressive details of what turned into a very pleasant evening. Schindler can wait a few days. I'll be ready for the experience.

Today, we should probably buy a couple of things.

Have a good one, yall.

cinema

Tonight's the night.

Clayre and Dixie agreed to watch Schindler's List with me tonight once Clayre gets home. Do we know how to party or what?

Yeah, it'll be a late showing, but that's OK.

AU, if you wanna stay up late the night before Micahvus, c'mon over...

all the livelong day

Well, I experienced a first yesterday.

I attended a funeral that concluded with a standing singing of "The Eyes of Texas."

*reflects*

hospital day

Just like I have a funeral file started with my pastor, I am starting to compile my incapacitated / terminal file. Today, I learned that the best care a person can receive in Dallas is at Children's Medical Center (specifically the ICU area). Holy. Cow. What. A. Place.

As a side note, I'll just warn you now that if I ever go seriously terminal, I am going to buy a carton of Marlboro Reds, and until they are all smoked down, you won't hear two words from me that are not completely enveloped in sweetly scented clouds of Marlboro glory. But that, ladies and gents is another story, and hardly the actual point of this post.

Today I had the privilege of hanging out with some dear friends at Children's. It started out scary - their little girl, baby Rachel, a barely one year old Down Syndrome child was in for the second major surgery (the first being open heart surgery) of her young life. This kid is one of the sweetest and cutest little things you ever did see. It broke all of our hearts to think that she would have to endure this operation. It's very complicated, but the bottom line is that her "airway was compromised." Supposedly this was a birth defect, and the surgery included a graft of cartilage from one of her ribs in to her trachea. Mind you, this is a baby we are talking about.

When I got to the hospital, I encountered baby Rachel's parents nervously awaiting the moment when Rachel would be taken from them and into surgery. When the nurse came, we still had enough time to hold hands and pray. For some reason, I was able to completely connect with the fear and anxiety in the room. How completely difficult it would be for Lee Ann (Rachel's mom) to once again surrender her child to others who could hopefully do something good for her in the operating room. It was overwhelming.

Good news came an hour later. The graft would not be necessary, at least not now. A cyst had developed that needed to be removed. Once that was gone, Rachel would have a really good chance of basically growing out of this. No defect. No further surgery. A hope for a somewhat normal breathing life. What a relief.

Rachel will need to stay in ICU for a night just to be sure, but it seems that she is going to be OK. I can only barely imagine the relief that Jim and Lee Ann must be feeling tonight. I'm so thankful for a chance to hold the hands of dear friends when the control is clearly gone and the comfort we can give to each other has to be enough for now.

I guess that's just one more reminder of how fragile it all really is, and how important we can and should be to one another.

Have a terrific weekend.

triggers

Years ago, I worked at a company that required a pretty normal Dallas-type of commute (30 minutes or so). My schedule was really predictable. Consequently, I happened to be in the car for Muse in the News every weekday. I also happened to pass a McDonalds that was just far enough away from my office to finish whatever I got from there by the time I arrived at work. And I also happened to rather enjoy indulging my "hunger" for a Sausage McMuffin With Egg, the greatest of all McDonalds breakfast inventions. This was before the McGriddles, which I don't like anyway, but I can hear some of you focusing now on McDonalds and off of me, so I threw that in.

Back to me.

So over a couple of years, I probably did this a lot of times.

This isn't a discussion about what kind of food is good / bad and all that stuff. The reason this has relevance today is that I found myself driving my son and his friends to school today because of different transportation requirements. We were in the car during Muse in the News, and about halfway through it I found myself really craving a Sausage McMuffin With Egg. Now mind you, I was not hungry at all. But I'll be danged if I didn't feel like pulling into a McD's for breakfast.

I'm saying all that because I think it speaks to the power of habitual triggers. That's all.

Have you experienced that? Tell us about it, but please for the love of Pete, don't turn this into a discussion about your freaky diet quirks. Enough.

monday of a new week

I just asked my daughter what I should post about today. Her response was absolutely inspiring:

"I don't know."

Well, I don't either, but that rarely stops me from putting something out anyway. Let's start with the weather. It's amazing how 100 miles can make a big difference. Personally, I'm loving these 40-ish and 50-ish degree days. Secondly, I loved after church yesterday (when people were telling me how much they loved the special music by Jessi) getting to tell them that we "met her on the internet..." Go internet! Thirdly, I gotta tell you that it is fun to talk about the Cowboys these days. Especially to the haters. Fun.

Well, that's a start. I hope this week is a good one for you. I plan on being particularly productive. How about you?

sunday

jason. witten.

last night and today

So Netflix decided to recommend a movie to me, and I took them up on it. All through the movie, I wondered what it was that I told them that resulted in them sending me this movie. Dixie said it was because I told them that I liked Schindler's List (which arrived yesterday). I dunno, I don't see the connection.
The movie they sent me was "Old Boy," and though I didn't hate it I had a hard time enjoying it wondering why Netflix thought I would like it so.

Dixie and I had a nice discussion afterward about unforgiveness, revenge, violence, incest - you know, nice coffee talk. So I guess that was OK.

Today, we will all be spending the day at church working the magic of "Kid's Nativity Play In A Day," the brainchild of Brenda Overton. Should be fun. My role is that of orchestra director, meaning I will rehearse up our ensemble of keys, acoustic guitar, cello, and two singers. The deal is that a couple of hundred kids will show up this morning where they will work on a nativity play. Later this afternoon, their parents will come back for the performance. I'll be in a room working music with the music lady. This thing should be fun and pretty cool. First time we've tried, so we'll see. But it is a great idea and it should work.

I'll let you know.

Have a great Saturday.
Go Cowboys.

and so it goes...

my scene is good
it works for me
*enjoys*

my scene is a good thing
i love it more all the time
*invites others to participate in said scene*

my scene has lots of opportunities for further enjoyment
i feel busy, but still i really like it
*prioritizes / eliminates other activities*

wow, my scene is super good
everything really revolves around it
*becomes one with scene*

notices other similar scenes where it also looks pretty good
*thinks of reasons why current scene > other scenes*
*criticizes*
*markets more strongly*

...please continue...

the best gift

repost

I originially posted this two years ago, but after looking through the comments, I realize that the cast has changed a little. Last night as Dixie was finishing up the Christmas decorating, it came to mind again, and I enjoyed the experience of thinking about it. So, I thought I'd share it with you, Mike, this is at least part of the story you are wanting. Enjoy.

yesterday
bride put the finishing touches on the christmas decorations in the house
we are blessed to have a lot of very nice stuff
there is one item that always takes me back

it was from 1980, the christmas of the year we met
bride has beyond excellent embroidery skills
and through the late fall, she was working on this
interesting christmas embroidery -
a decorated christmas tree with an elf standing by it
simple, and really cool

you may laugh at that - but all fall
she was doing this in plain view of me
sometimes while we were watching TV together
or just hanging out
i watched her work on it and i thought it was really cool
that she could do intricate artistic work like that -
hours and hours and hours she worked on it

i did not see it completed
until christmas morning that year
when i opened up a present from her to me
inside the box
was a simple
beautiful christmas stocking

she had made it for me without me realizing it
it was white with big red trim at the top
and my name in white thread cursive on the red trim
on the white part was the embroidered scene
that she had been working on for weeks

i'm sitting here right now trying to think
of a christmas present i have liked better than that
or that surprised me more -

i can't

i just now glanced slightly off to the left to tell kid1 goodnight
and there it was...
hanging on the fireplace mantle
i love that thing

yeah, that's what we meant

I was watching a video of a church service the other day, thrilling to the 25 or so promotional announcements that I would have loved to hear Gordon Keith read as the Generic Youth Minister. You know what I mean - it is the stuff that runs on the screen before the service starts kind of like when you get to a movie early.

One image really caught my attention. It was a simple graphic featuring a big salt shaker full of salt and one word beside it: "Influence."

No doubt the intended point of it was a take-off on Jesus' words that we (Christ-followers) are the "salt of the earth." That's in the Bible. You can look it up.

I think that such a graphic only serves to illustrate how ineffective we are. Gathered in the salt shaker, we don't have very much purpose. I question how "influential" that is. What do you think?

the words we use

1. Sunday morning, we were getting ready to go to church. Dixie put on an outfit that had the magic combination of black bottom and black top. Winner. It also had this nice gray frilly, wintery, I don't know how to describe it thing around the neck. I like it. I told Lyla, "Look, your mommy looks like a black snow angel."

Somehow, that compliment didn't totally land in the exact place I tried to throw it.

2. Dinner talk last night. Lyla, to me: "What's five + five?" Me: "I dunno, 26?" She corrected me. "Ten."

Silence.

Lyla: "What's one plus fart?"

3. Later in the same meal when had a discussion about "political correctness." Here is where we kind of got to, regarding it's features:

• The rules change and lose their meaning
• Using politically correct speech does nothing to change the heart of the speaker
• It creates unnecessary barriers
• It may be an necessary evil (but let's not go back to the discussion of evil).

4. The other night, Jay had us sit down and write a note to one of our kids, letting him know how we feel about him, and why we are proud of him. It was a reminder to me that words of blessing are powerful, both for the giver and the receiver.


What are your thoughts about the words we use?

good morning

It's Monday - far from quiet. There is stuff everywhere - lots to do.

For years, I hated Mondays. Now I no longer hate them. I see them as full of possibilities. It's a long story that is far from being a finished one.

Things change, don't they?

Last night, the whole family (except for K4) ended up all sitting around discussing the nature of evil. Are we born good or evil? Are there other possibilities? What is 'evil,' anyway? What is good? I'm not sure we got that one solved, but it sure was an interesting discussion. Thanks, Jay, Scott, Lance - whichever one of you started that one.

Later, friends.

the quiet

The first quiet has anticipation which makes it somewhat less quiet. If I'm up early enough, I feel like I'm getting something I didn't pay for. No one has stirred yet, but soon they will - and the question in my mind is. "When?" About the only noise worth noting is that of the coffee maker. This one is pleasant to me as I anticipate that first set of sips.

No voice from me yet. I kind of dread the first words I have to say, which adds to the anticipation of this time. Soon I hear the shower start upstairs, and I realize the quiet will be over soon. I sit and enjoy this time, as I hope it will last a few extra minutes today. My head has not yet become crowded with more than I can handle. My thoughts are still asleep, I guess.

The first words feel heavy on the throat, and I can feel the energy going out of me. Soon silence won't be an option. I hear the upstairs shower start. A drawer opens. Coffee is done. I'm ready for it. Footsteps on the stairs. In minutes, there will be much to say and hear.

Until next time.

saturday

Saturday, December 01, 2007

saturday

Not sure what to say about that.

Have a good one.


update
Do any of yall ever watch PBS when Dr. Wayne Dyer is on? He seems nice.
Is he bad? Or is he good?
It's on PBS, where they try to systematically destroy 2000 years of American Evangelicalism, but I'm too tired to have my guard up right now.
What do you think?