The Secret Sisters

A month ago I caught these two sisters harmonizing to a packed theatre near Union Square, NYC, before Amos Lee took the stage (more on Amos soon):

Traffic and Death

Last weekend, on a lovely Saturday late afternoon, we were speeding home from a day with extended family and drove straight into gridlock – standstill, a parking lot six lanes wide. Slowly everyone put their cars in park, rolled the windows down and turned the ignition off.

I was hoping to get home with time to take my dog into the park, walk around and enjoy the evening a bit before dinner. This threw everything off, my schedule shattered. I have places to go, people! Move out of my way!

At this point I realized somebody had to die.

At first, I began an onslaught on the people in front of me, anger, internal murders. Then slowly I realized all the rage only hurt me. I was upset and they were listening to the Beach Boys. So the second option, the only really healthy option, I had to die. I had to crucify my schedule, my wants. I had to detach myself from the gridlock. Then I was fine. I listened to the radio for thirty minutes while my wife and girls took naps. We eventually made it home and I took my dog for a walk.

David Foster Wallace on Television and Love

If you’re not familiar with the late David Foster Wallace consider this your initiation. He was a brilliant writer and thinker. He left us much to grapple with. Here are some of his ramblings on television, fulfillment, and love:

“And so TV is like candy in that it’s more pleasurable and easier than the real food. But it also doesn’t have any of the nourishment of real food…what has happened to us, that I’m now willing – and I do this too – that I’m willing to drive enormous amounts of my sense of community and awareness of other people, from television? But I’m no willing to undergo the stress and awkwardness and potential shit of dealing with real people…And it’s gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who not love us but want our money. Which is alright. In low doses, right? But if that’s the basic main staple of your diet, you’re gonna die. In a meaningful way, you’re going to die.”

-David Foster Wallace, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself

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Mockingbird Post: Unstoppable and Human Error

Some quick thoughts as I guest post on Denzel Washington’s Unstoppable and the reality of human error over at the Mockingbird Blog.

NYC: Refusing to be Left Behind

A few weeks ago Kristy and I went to New York City for the Mockingbird Conference, a stellar weekend of grace, freedom, and fellowship. On Friday evening we dined at ABC Kitchen, a new trendy restaurant off of Union Square. The place was warehouse chic with a hint of feminity in the decor, a mix of raw beams and concrete walls with antique chandeliers and white furniture and floors.

The place was slammed, and the food equisite, apple and pear salad, a brilliant cheese pizza, and homemade creme-filled doughnuts dipped into chocolate. The table to my right was a family, two parents and a couple little ones, a strange sight in a high end restaurant. To my left was a dressy couple on a date, and beyond that was an elderly couple. The elderly man was about eighty-five, haunched over eating his food. Just as I looked his way he set down his fork and pulled an iPhone out of his jacket pocket. He put the iPhone in his left hand and with his right hand again reached into his jacked pocket pulling out a large magnifying glass. He navigated the iPhone with his left hand and held the large magnifiying glass with his right hand half way between his failing eyes and the phone. He then looked up, took another bite of his fish, and talked to his wife.

The Lure of the Berries

A red cardinal has been smashing into the outside of my office window for the last few days. My windows look into a small garden area. There’s only one narrow way in and out, and the rest of the area is enclosed with walls shooting up thirty or more feet. It’s been several days of the little cardinal looking for an escape but only finding another disaster, staring himself face to face in a piece of glass.

This morning, upon another crash into my window, I walked over to get a better view of the bird, watching and rooting for his escape. He spent most of his time on the branches of a bush where red tasty berries were abundant. I watched him eat a few before crashing into my window a few more times. He then spotted some daylight hidden behind some bushes. He lifted from the window’s ledge, flew by the bush rich with berries, and out into freedom. So I went back to my desk to finish up some reading, so happy the bird was now free.

Fifteen minutes later he crashed into my window again. The lure of the berries, a powerful force. The thing he couldn’t resist was the very thing that imprisoned him.

(As I typed these few paragraphs he smashed into my window another four times.)

Tags: depravity

We are Lovely

The grace of God is this: we are lovely before we are lovely.

Tags: gospel, grace

He’d Understand a Heart Like Mine

Yesterday I heard two songs on the radio, one on the country station, the second on the Christian station. You may know the lyrics, but humor me, take the time to read them. Here are the lyrics for the first song:

Miranda Lambert, Heart Like Mine

“I ain’t the kind you take home to mama
I ain’t the kind to wear no ring
Somehow I always get stronger
When I’m on my second drink

Even though I hate to admit it
Sometimes I smoke cigarettes
Christian folks say I should quit it
I just smile and say “God bless”

‘Cause I heard Jesus, He drank wine
And I bet we’d get along just fine
He could calm a storm and heal the blind
And I bet He’d understand a heart like mine
› Continue reading

Speaking Life

All our words are voices into the rushing wind, a vain attempt to define or heal ourselves. But we’ll lose our voices and our lives before we reach any freedom from the mess of life. Freedom only comes as we quiet ourselves and listen to what the Creator is speaking.