Here and Now

Bill Murray's character Bob in What About Bob? says to his psychiatrist (Richard Dryfus), "There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't." So, I'm one of the former - I like Neil's music - it's catchy, it's cheesy, it's classic AM radio 70s music. Now his newest album, Home Before Dark , is really good. Rick Rubin, who produced Johnny Cash's last album produced this...but I digress. I couldn't help but think of the opening line from Neil's "Sweet Caroline" this morning (you should hear Rachel sing the horn part Bomp - bomp - bommmmmp!!!!) "Where it began, I can't begin to knowing..." I was thinking about the books that I've been reading lately and they seem to be about the beginnings of things. U2 by U2 ; The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss ; The Making of Star Wars ; Bob Dylan Scrapbook , and I realized that I enjoy "the making of"

A friend of mine once told me a story: He was a soldier in a combat zone, and as he was trying to move quietly he heard a woman screaming and men laughing. He crept forward and discovered a man and several children tied up while a couple of terrorists did unspeakable things to a woman, the wife of the man who was tied up. True story. As he was telling me the story I quickly ran through the options - do nothing, walk away and try to live with myself. Intervene, get myself killed and not stop them. Shoot them. There was no good solution. Life is full of the choice between bad and bad (life is also full of the choice between good and good - but that's another post). Is the commandment about not killing more important than the commandments about helping the helpless? Okay, most of our bad/bad choices aren't this dramatic. But we still have to make them, don't we? I have known people who have had to choose between putting a few gallons of gas in the car to get to work or buying

So yesterday we put out the Ten Houses Challenge. Check it out here ... EDIT - okay - the free hosting service I chose is flaky, so the site should be up, but no promises...

This morning, in my usual blog surfing Monday morning start, I came across a link that led me to a link that led me to this article: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/9-12/arts/feature/13258.cfm Ray Boltz, CCM pop icon of the 80's (and one of the great mullets of all time...heh) has come out of the closet. So, what's going to happen to all those background tracks for "Thank You" and "Watch the Lamb"? The typical church response is to throw out anything the person produced because it's somehow "tainted" - nevermind that lots of CCM artists have recorded lots of secular songs written by people who definitely have not lived a "Christian" lifestyle - THIS is seen as betrayal by a CCM artist... I remember when Doug Pinnick of Kings X came out...not that they were this huge band or anything, but everything they had done got pulled from Christian book stores and friends tossed their CDs in the trash... So, what will happen to all those son

I'm just learning what "passive-aggressive" means. I mean, I've heard the term before, of course, but it was always the punchline to a joke on Frazier or something. I never really thought about what it really means. Now I know. It means me. Oh, not all the time, surely. But Lori can probably tell you stories... Better yet, don't talk to Lori about that. I realized it again today, though. I've had two books given to me: The Shack and Scalpel and the Soul . When I was given The Shack , the person said, "You HAVE to read this book." When I was given The Scalpel ... the person said, "I think you might enjoy this book. It really affected me." So, what happened? I received both books graciously (that would be, um, the passive part, I guess) but I've had The Shack for three months, and the other for three weeks and I had set The Shack aside for "more important" things (and that, I guess, would be the aggressive part). But I'm