Here and Now

From Morguefile ...when I grew up? ...when I became so serious? ...when I became so angry sometimes? ...when I stopped looking at clouds and rainbows and bugs and puddles? ...when I quit wondering "what if..."? I wonder how "wow!" got replaced with "just a minute..." I wonder why?

Ralph Waldo Emerson actually did say this***** - from Morguefile I for one hate being misquoted.  It's amazing to me how many things go all over, especially the internet, mis-attributed.  Sometimes they sound sort of okay - sometimes you read it and you're like, "Nah...somebody just pasted that together."  This went around last fall, but I missed it. The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   I saw it this morning and it just didn't sound right.  Sure enough, it's fiction.  I mean, it's a good enough quote, but not from the Dalai Lama... Here's some other famo

From morguefile From Steven Pressfield's Book,  The War of Art  : I was crushed.  Here I was, forty-two years old, divorced, childless, having given up all normal human pursuits to chase the dream of being a writer; now I've finally got my name on a big-time Hollywood production [King Kong Lives] * starring Linda Hamilton, and what happens?  I'm a loser, a phony; my life is worthless, and so am I. My friend Tony Keppelman snapped me out of it by asking if I was gonna quit.  Hell, no!  "Then be happy.  You're where you wanted to be, aren't you?  So you're taking a few blows.  That's the price for being in the arena and not on the sidelines.  Stop complaining and be grateful." That was when I realized I had become a pro.  I had not yet had a success.  But I had had a real failure . I caught Pressfield's  blog  via Seth Godin's  blog  and hadn't ever heard of The War of Art .  Intrigued by the title, I checked him out.  Pressfield

From Morguefile, edited Because of the post from last night   I was thinking about this question: "If our church burned down tomorrow, would the community miss us?" One of our youth leaders asked that question when she came back from a conference.  I think the question might have come out of the conference, I'm not sure.  But it's a good question. Now, for the record, I never* want a church to burn down.  It's a rhetorical question.** But think about the implications.  What would be missed if your church burned down tomorrow.  Oh, people would talk about it of course.  But would there be a George-Bailey-passing-the-hat kind of community save the church movement?***  Because the church would be so missed by the community that if it's NOT there, the community ceases to be the community.  Is the church the place of love, salvation, hope, and joy that the people in the community look to? So what about your church?  If it was gone tomorrow, would anybo

From before  the beginning  of this blog until  June 2008  I served  First United Methodist Church  in Warren, PA as the Associate Pastor.  It's a great church and if you read the posts in those three years of the blog you'll get some insights as to what I did around there during my tenure. This post isn't about that. Just now I read about a fire at a big stone First United Methodist Church in  Ada Ohio .  I saw the picture on Facebook and at a glance had a sinking feeling that it might be First UMC Warren.  I was glad that it wasn't, but then I was, and am, very sad for the people of Ada, Ohio. But I thought about the many times people said, "Oh, if we have a fire, not that much here will burn.  It's all stone." But these two pictures tell a very, very different story, don't they? My prayers for the people of Ada. From toledoblade.com from toledoblade.com

From Morguefile I read an article that quoted this book called  REWORK .  So I went to Amazon, located the book and the quote and found it interesting. The chapter is called "They're Not 13" and here's a more full quote than the article used*: When you treat people like children, you get children's work.  Yet that's exactly how a lot of companies and managers treat their employees.  Employees need to ask permission before they can do anything.  They need to get approval for every tiny expenditure.  It's surprising they don't have to get a hall pass to go take a sh!#. When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of nonthinkers.  You create a boss-verses-worker relationship that screams, "I don't trust you." What do you gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social-networking site or watching YouTube while at work?  You gain nothing.  That time doesn't magically convert to work. They'll just f

The other day we had one - a sort of cascading failure*, that is.  Which means it was a pretty typical day in the Beatty house. From Morguefile So we rented a couple movies and some video games for the girls** and Elie gets a couple games that she doesn't like.  Okay.  No big deal.  They're due back the next day - but, hey, we did the half price thing so I'm okay with it - we're getting our money's worth this month, trust me. Anyway, it's chaos when we go to take them back - and we return a game without its case - not sure how we got it back - my guess is that we put two games into one case - but who knows?  We got it back nonetheless.  That was the beginning...  AND - we didn't even know it at the time...  Ignorance is bliss.  Went to bed feeling warm and happy. The next morning, though, is when it really all came to pieces.  6:15 AM - go to start ye old Ford Focus.  Clickity-Click... nope.  Not gonna start.  Lori needs to leave for work in 15 minu

I realized that I've posted lots of pictures here that say "from Morguefile" but I'm not sure I've ever said what that means.  Morguefile* is a great site with "free to use" pictures - lots of 'em - that people post.  Usually, unless I have a really strange request, or something super  specific that I want, there's bound to be a usable picture on morguefile - and I don't have to worry about infringing anybody's copyrights.  Now, the people who post their stuff on that site, I think, still claim copyright - or some kind of ownership - that is, the images aren't "public domain" - but they are pretty close - here's a screen grab of the license: ** Anyway, if you need free images,  Morguefile  is a pretty good place to start. *Why "Morguefile"?  Well, the explanation page seems to be down on their site, but if I remember correctly, that's the name of the file of "orphan" pictures at a ne

Yep - from Morguefile Just read this elsewhere, too (a blog post from last year - catching up - that someone else wrote): Today is a NEW DAY. Not an improved day.  Or recycled.  Or somehow, incrementally different.  This is new.  Brand new.  Wholly other from any other day. God is not in the "improvement" business.  God is in the CREATION business. Think about that for a minute. His mercies (or compassions) are NEW every morning ... The Psalmist assures us that  This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it  - not the day that God has remade, reheated, microwaved and served up with a side of mac & cheese.  This is the day that the Lord has MADE.  New.  Brand new.  Like no other day before it.  Like no other day will be again. Which reminds me of another truth:  If anyone is in Christ he [and she - they - it's ANYone, afterall] is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!   Or, as Today's NIV (TNIV) put's it

Seth Godin  the other day talked about doing blogging wrong, linked from  Neil Patel , about how he breaks the rules on purpose.  I guess I break the rules too... I just must not know any better. Sigh... Oh well, do I get points for at least caring enough to post frequently?  :)

From Morguefile John Acuff on his blog  Stuff Christians Like * posts about  Digital Fasts for Lent  with his usual, somewhat sardonic manner.  Maybe the idea of giving up stuff of Lent i s passe, I don't know... But I know this.  My 11 year-old daughter has given up being online - using the computer at all, in fact - for Lent (except for school work, of course).  Now she gets a reprieve on Sundays, since they are "little Easters" - that's the way we do this "giving up stuff for Lent" thing in our family.  Our 8 year-old daughter, when asked if she was going to give anything up for Lent, said, "Yes.  I'm giving up doing science projects."  Well, we'll work on that. Here's the thing.  While it's not a huge deal for the 11 year-old, it IS a sacrifice.  And it has meaning for her.  And she thought it through.  And she's doing it just like she should - she's not moaning and whining about it.  She's observing Lent. A

From Morguefile For years now I've been "writing a novel."  I put that in quotes because I've started at least six different novels, all set in the same fantasy world, none of them have gone beyond a dozen or so chapters.  The world is now well fleshed out in my mind (and in, quite literally, hundreds if not thousands of pages of notes and manuscript pages), populated with people who, while not "real" to me are at least as well developed characters as any in other novels that I have read, kingdoms and cities and towns and a map and...well, you get the idea. Over the past couple weeks (it began a couple weeks ago when I took a week of vacation) I've had a bit of a creative upshot in the "I'm writing a novel" arena.  I've outlined the major points of the story, I have a beginning, middle and end (and sequel, of course - it's epic fantasy, after all, so it would have to be a series), I have the major characters in place, some of t

from  Bonkers World *(Mostly) Though I would think that at least some of the world might have a general idea where Washington D.C. is... but, then again, maybe not...

From web I was just listening to  Sufjan Stevens  on  Pandora Radio  (my Gungor station) singing "Come Thou Fount" (from the Friday Night Lights  soundtrack no less).  At the end he goes into an A Capella verse with lots of harmony - but the harmonies are all just a touch behind the melody. Why? It sounds...weird.  I mean, really, really odd to my ears. I wonder if it's not live people but processed harmonies and the box or plug-in has to take half a second to process what chord to make the harmonies?  I don't know... There was just something unsettling about it to me.  It's probably just me, though. But is that normal?  Is that the way harmonies are supposed to be?  Or is that something new?  Or just the cool effect Sufjan was going for?  Does it matter?  No...just wondering out loud... It was a great song, great arrangement...just caught me at an odd moment. Check out Sufjan Stevens, by the way - some pretty good music...maybe an acquired taste, tho

From the Gungor Site - their new album Here's a link to a great post by Michael Gungor: here Granted, it's from last November...I don't read his blog very regularly... He gives kind of an insider's summary view of the problem with the Christian Music Industry...and pretty well sums up why I rely on  Pandora Radio  and  Noise Trade  and recommendations from friends for my music these days...