"... or snacks"

Love it.

'Constructive Summer'

Much needed positive thinking at such a time as this. (Thanks, Steve, for the reco.)

Free Roxana Saberi

We need our newspapers and general media to survive, not the least because of invaluable journalists like Roxana Saberi.

Freedom of the press matters.

Free Roxana.(Join the Facebook group.)

Our human battles

' . . . "I loved that idea of animalistic chaos and following our own desires,” Jackman says. “I think Wolverine represents that in its most allegorical sense. He’s a man who battles between the animal and the human, between the chaos in him and the self-control he must have. We all deal with this to some extent. At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me." '

(Hugh Jackman)

'I Believe'

(HT Steve Beard)

Not always 'Linear'

The pizza was the bread, and the wine completed the sacrament I was taking after more than a year since I took my last. The hymn, “At the moment of surrender”; the icons provided by a Dutch photographer.

I was in the midst of seeking Him in a Church called Home, but not yet welcomed back, it had been longer than is comfortable since I took my last communion. I’ve been hungry, and I’ve been thirsty.

And I’ve been at war.

I’ve said to others, I envy Job. Why would anyone, though, envy a man beset by pain on every side? Because he overcame. With God by his side—by placing himself by His side—he overcame.

My son’s father wonders, though not explicitly, how I would pursue a faith he believes is constricting. To begin, I do not find it a trap. I see doors more widely open, and a true sense of reverence for the One with Whom I’m at war. There’s a greater, more humble sense of His grace and of His mystery. And those whose faith is great are not the ones, necessarily, whose lives are squeaky clean and faith unquestioning. But quite the opposite.

That not to say the appeal of coming Home is that it’s easier to live there. But quite the opposite: It forces one to confront all that is uncomfortable about belief. It forces one to relinquish control. To accept that what we think is, is not necessarily so.

And so, He made my Grenache into wine, my pizza dough into bread—and once again confounded my belief, my doubt, my war, and held His arms more widely open again.

And so I continue to walk toward Home, where once again, I can drink of the wine and the bread of His promise.

Some "Party"

From Prof. Benjamin Carp on the "tea parties" last week:

In Boston in 1773, the men who boarded the tea ships had to conceal their identity or risk punishment -- perhaps even being hanged for treason. Last week, the merry protesters chatted with journalists about their complaints, then folded up their "Welcome to the Second American Revolution" signs and went home. The original Tea Party had helped make free speech possible, but these modern protests didn't seem likely to change the world just yet.

A representative government, unlike a monarchy, must listen to the people -- otherwise we are indeed poorly represented. But it should also be careful not to overreact -- either by punishing dissidents or by conceding too much.

Beetlejuice!

My daughter (2nd row, 2nd to the right of the director) playing clarinet last summer at band camp.

Always love a good Peeps show

My personal favorite from the finalists (check them all out):

'Nothing changes -- ever'

Indeed, it was just a scented wind ago
(But another day, another year)
When a young boy snatched at a
hover fly, and clutched
In crumpled hands, the empty air.
Nothing changes -- ever.
The insect drones a lazy paean to the sun
In the molten noon, and there is not winter.
But the brook is ice and the leaf is mold
Till the grass is sweet again.
How to measure time --
Earth reborn, and flesh a year dissolved.
Again full cycle, and the fly is gauze
on the garden walk --
And childhood's done, with memories.

--from 'Poem' by Roger Fogelman.