Taking a Break for Lent
I’m giving up the Internet for Lent.
Actually, I’m giving up going online at home for anything non work-related. I spent a lot of time reading around about photography or looking at camera gear and reading about sports. And I could spend all day just looking around on Amazon. I’ve also been convicted by how often I check my email and Facebook hoping that somebody has sent me an email or written on my wall - something about those things make me feel like I’m important to people (My wife has given up Facebook altogether … what a woman!). And honestly, sometimes the computer is just right there and it will only take me a minute to check my email and before I know it half an hour has gone by.
So in an effort to find more productive things to do and spend more time focusing on God (maybe by reading or playing guitar or something else), I’m going to stay away from the home computer. The few exceptions might be entering receipts (we track our spending on the computer) and posting pictures of Wes - there are a few people who couldn’t make it without regular picture postings … you know who you are.
I say this to say that there won’t be anything here again until after Easter. That’s why I haven’t posted much lately - so that you’ll be ready for this season as well. And you thought I was just being lazy.
Lindsay and I have also decided to give up TV. We don’t have cable or anything, but we’ve spent a lot of time lately watching DVDs of Grey’s Anatomy or Planet Earth or other random movies. We hope to invest that time in more fun and creative things. We are going to allow ourselves TV on Sundays because maybe you didn’t know that there are actually more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter - Sundays aren’t counted. Traditionally Sundays have been a day to celebrate and enjoy the thing you’re fasting from. So Sunday afternoon/evening might become movie night at the Elm.
See you after Easter, hopefully it will be lots warmer then.
My Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday. I really wish I understood more about politics - at least I think I wish I knew more. Maybe if I did know more I’d wish I didn’t.
I’ll go ahead and say that I did not vote today. I figured no vote is better than an uninformed vote. I tried to cram by reading around on a few websites earlier today, but there’s just so much information on all the candidates and I’ve gotten to the point where the traditionally “Christian” issues are the ones I feel least strongly about.
I saw a movie last week that really made me think about politics. Before you go thinking I’m into sophisticated cinema, let me say the movie was the far-from-sophisticated “Sydney White.” It’s a cute little flick with loose references to Snow White set on a modern college campus. The main character, played by Amanda Bynes (who I became a fan of after enjoying “Hairspray.”), decides to run for student body president to overthrow the current administration run by the obnoxiously annoying president of the most popular sorority. Greeks dominate student government at the pretend college, so Sydney rallies all the non-greeks to vote for her.
I always thought that would be a good strategy when I was at Auburn, where only a small percentage of students were Greek. The majority of student government was made up of the minority of those Greeks. So, essentially most of the people affected by decisions had little or no say in the process or the decisions themselves.
Isn’t American politics the same way? A quick Google search reveals that almost 60 percent of the 18 and over crowd in America turned out at the polls in 2004. I guess that’s not too bad. I would guess most voters are from the middle and upper classes. So again, you have the so-called “elite” in the positions of power making decisions that affect everyone, particularly those who didn’t vote.
I would imagine as well that the majority of voters don’t really understand what their vote is doing and instead only vote based on a few issues. For example, many Christians go to the polls with two issues primarily in mind: abortion and gay marriage.
Let’s take abortion. Most “pro-lifers” (I don’t really like that term) will vote for a republican since most of them oppose abortion. What they don’t understand is that this republican will likely make decisions and legislation that will result in social workers losing jobs and crisis pregnancy centers losing funding and adoption agencies losing support. It’s not that republicans don’t support social workers, pregnancy centers and adoption, it’s just that other things are often more important. Without social workers to help people find jobs to support a family with, without pregnancy centers to walk with young ladies through such big decisions and without adoption agencies to offer another option, the number of abortions is not likely to decrease.
I would guess that a whole lot of votes that are cast are very uninformed ones. And that’s why I didn’t vote today. I want to consider the ramifications of my vote. Regardless of who ends up winning, my vote says a lot about what I believe. And I care too much about what I believe to make a hasty decision.
The Dark Knight
I’m pretty excited about this one …
Our Guilty Pleasure
Okay, it’s time I came clean … I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy.
We disconnected our satellite dish to save some money, and along the way discovered the excellent DVD offerings at the local library. A week or two ago I had some time to browse the DVDs and ran across Grey’s Anatomy season one. I knew the show was really popular, and somehow I also knew that a lot of the characters sleep with one another. (I’ve since learned that it’s more like all, not some) I’d also heard that, despite the promiscuity, the show had some redemptive and interesting themes. So I checked it out and we dove in.
(NOTE: Spoilers coming …)
The pilot begins with two of the main characters waking up one morning having met the previous night. As you might guess, it wasn’t a pajama party that led to their morning meeting. From that point, I don’t think we saw or heard of any other sexual rondezvous for several episodes. And the thing about themes I heard was true.
So here I am wondering what all the fuss is about, this is a pretty good show. Then, like episode four or five, pants started flying everywhere. We’re about halfway through season two now and I can think of only three main characters (Dr. Bailey, Dr. Webber and Ellis Grey) that have not had some pre- or extra-marital exploits on screen, and two of those seem to have shared an affair in the past. Sheesh.
Lindsay and I wonder as we watch if there are really people that live like that - having sex with anybody and everybody who’s willing and thinking nothing of it. It’s hard to imagine.
Despite the rampant sexcapades, we’ve pushed through and enjoyed the non-sexual dynamics between a lot of the charactes. I also like that each episodes title comes from a song.
Speaking of songs, I recently learned from my brother, whose wife is a big Grey’s Anatomy fan, that the season four finale that airs January 10th will feature Caedmon’s Call’s “Ten Thousand Angels” in its entirely as the episode wraps up. Great song, should be pretty cool.
And hey, for all our enjoyment, here’s Derek singing the song live. Enjoy.
Christmas and Capitalism
Thought it might be nice to revisit this …
8-Foy-2-Foy-Foy-Foy-Foy
When I was in Auburn, I called this number all the time. Now Matt Lauer calls it.
Behold the Lamb of God
Since the holidays have arrived, I thought I’d put a plug in for my favorite holiday CD - Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God. It’s about a lot more than Christmas. If you own, or if you decide to buy the CD, you absolutely must listen to it one time through each holiday season with undivided attention and without interruption.
Each year, AP takes the Christmas show on the road. Lindsay and I caught it last year when it came through Chicago and I highly recommend it. The tour usually has a stop in Nashville that features a ton of outrageously talented musicians. Here’s a cool little behind-the-scenes video with artist interviews, sound clips and some of the inspiration behind the songs. If you’d like to buy the CD, you can go to this page. Go. Now. Then come back and watch the video.
JPG
I found a wonderful photography website today, JPGMag.com. You can upload photos and have folks give feedback, share ideas and even submit you photos to voting, with the winners getting published. Here’s the first pic I submitted, which you can read more about here:
