'Heard: The Week in Quotes (vol 14)

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

-- Lewis Carroll

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.

-- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

-- James Thurber

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the
opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

-- Niels Bohr

Pope Benedict XVI?  Cardinal Nigeria Face?

-- David Stanaland

A Toast of Sorts

I was thinking in the shower the other day, and I realized that in a shade past a week, I will have completed my third year at ORU....which is pretty trippy to say the least. I've met some pretty amazing folk here, engaged in some pretty ludicrous exploits, and grown and changed in more ways than could be written.

In fact, all of those ideas require more space than what I really want to take today, so instead I'm going to encapsulate each of these three years in a single word...a word starting with 'g'. They are as follows:

1) The Year of the Guitar
2) The Year of the Girl
3) The Year of the Game


It's amazing to me how distinct my experience has been in each of these years, based almost exclusively around the people who've surrounded me. Year one down here is best summarized by the year of the Faith of Abraham, that amazing band that never quite was. It's difficult to describe anything I did during year two without including the name of at least one of a small cadre of girls.

But this year, this year was all about sport for me. Up to this point, I had only played one season of basketball intramurals here at ORU (if y'all will recall, I was sidelined with a broken hand from what would have been my sophomore season on the hardwood). This year, I started in every game of football, ultimate, volleyball, c-league basketball, and soccer that Brigade played in, and I coached our b-league basketball team.

It's been a blast.

My aforementioned meditative shower was the shower following our first round 1-0 playoff loss and it was then that I really realized that it was over. And I was only quasi-sad. I am sad to not be playing sports anymore. But, at the same time, and as cheesily as I can write, the memories will last forever.

So here's a shout out to all my teammates, all our fans, and all our opponents: It's been a great season of sports with y'all, and I can't think of anybody I'd have rather gone through it all with.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

'Heard: The Week in Quotes (vol 13)

So, in last night's post I referred to myself as pretty self-absorbed, which I stand by. As evidence, I present to you an edition of 'Heard packed with me quoting myself. I looked through my handy dandy notebook, and these are some of the gems I found. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

I want so badly to be good enough, but I'm mostly certain I'm not.

-- Me

[appearing under the first line of Psalm 23]
I wish that I could get to believing that in a life affecting way.

-- Me

[from an account of my jury duty experience which was originally going to make it on here but didn't]
8.54 am: We're watching a closed-captioned video called "A Jury of Your Peers." I think it's rather smug to have a closed-captioned musical note during songs.
[...]
10:34 am: They're showing some movie with a bunch of Inuit, a polar bear cub, two annoying kids, and Charlton Heston. And we're all just sitting here in this big room with diffused lights, all staring the same direction, exhibiting various expressions of despair and gloom.

-- Me

A life lived in tension: made from dirt in the image of God.

-- Me

The transcendent Truth is beyond the limitation of a human's understanding of fact; as soon as we factualize something, we both contain and control it. With the living and Most High God, such control is impossible.

-- Me (for English 305; I don't normally think)

It's that time again, I suppose...

...to say that if you don't like me, don't read me. But, before you go, if I've written anything that's offended you in any way, let me take a line or two to try to sufficiently apologize.

Most of what's on here is at the very least primarily about me. As much as I try not to be, as it turns out I'm pretty self-absorbed. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, whatever it is that might have upset you, was probably more about me than anybody else anyway.

Still, I understand that maybe somehow someway something I wrote bothered somebody who reads this, and for that I am truly sorry.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

1

Happiness has a lot less to do with being where you want to be than it does with actually being wherever it is that you are.

it's not fair...

...to, shortly after i've made peace with new rules, do the very thing which your stipulated rules forbade.


:|

someday i'll write something real...probably.

peace, love, and joy

'Heard: The Fortnight in Quotes (vol 12)

A double dose:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.

-- Christopher Morley

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

-- Aldous Huxley

Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.
Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.

-- what I heard in church this morning; Eucharist Prayer C (Rite Two)

This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus.

-- John Newton

So It's Been a Week...

...and I'm sure that many of you have just been gnawing through your fingertips trying to figure out what's gone on in my life since Easter. Well, I guess, a bunch of stuff.

But now my knee hurts, and my eyes are in their weird tired-y mode, and everything I'm thinking is sentimental and soaked, so I don't really want to write right now.

But I do want to do this: One thing which I've been working on has been a music video for a new version of the insta-classic "Miss Communication ( ; and I think you know why)". Yes, yes, I realize that I wrote the song and within a week had penned two other competing versions of it, with slight variations of lyric, progression, key, and time signature. And yes, I do realize that you oughtn't have one version of a song performed live on an acoustic guitar and then write and record another version which you refer to as "unplugged."

But this is different. This is a music video. A real one. With the writing at the bottom right and everything.

I want you to see it.

And then I want you to show your roommate(s)/spouse(s)/pet(s)/plants(s). Watch it until you know everything there is to know about it. Tell your friends. Talk about it as a praise report in your class/small group meetings (as in, "Thank God Tim made this"). Show your brothers, sisters, and parents. Show everyone you love.

And everyone you hate. Build a bridge of peace on Earth through this beloved tune and it's amazingly fitting counterpart toon.

Ignore the pun. Remember your mission. Save the world...

(if you can't see the video below, it's prolly cause your on facebook or in your e-mail or whatever. it's ok. either click through to the actual post, or click here for the direct vid from virb)



Peace, love, and joy to you all.

Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

-- Book of Common Prayer

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

Reflections on a Good Friday

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

-- Book of Common Prayer (which you can get in PDF form here, towards the bottom, right above the "Fonts" section)

ORU is loud. St Dunstan's is quiet.

ORU joyfully and noisily anticipates the Resurrection. St Dunstan's mournfully and gratefully looks upon the Cross.

The Body of Christ. The Bread from heaven.


Hmm.

And this article about Christianity found me rather agreeable. Peculiar, indeed.


Peace, love, and joy to you all.

Beef Nuggets ~or~ Why I'm Single

And as I wrote, I bled; big, hot, scarlet drops fell onto the parchment, forming stars and lights and shapes and heavens. [...] But when I started to stop bleeding, I realized that there was nothing left; no more fear, no more joy.

--  How the Pale and Shriveled Man Died

Tonight at dinner, conversation happened. I guess that's a very poor way to begin this story; it really smacks of lazy exposition...as in "Here we are in Spain."

Regardless, I was at dinner in a conversation with several good friends about how girls are leeches which suck life out of me. But that's not what I sat down to write; if you want to have that conversation with me, I'm sure we could sometime, but tonight is hopefully going to be something else.

The discussion of how I just so amazingly stay single came to a point of identity: am I being me or am I being someone else. Unfortunately for me, this question was asked by someone who knows me pretty well, so I couldn't just ignore it with the whole you-don't-know-me Jenny Jones response. I responded nonetheless pretty quickly that I was being me. And I believed it. I mean, I don't feel pressured at all by the people around me to behave in a certain way. I just do my thing.

But I haven't been able to get away from the question. And I guess the answer's not as simple as I wish it was. Here's why:

I'm not really sure if this is a legit reason, before I begin. Maybe it isn't. But illegitimate or not, it's my reason for this.

The person who knew me better than anyone else in the world sent me an IM over the summer that she could never be anything more than just friends with me, and then (much) later sent me an e-mail that tritely dismissed me from her life.

There's obviously much more to the situation than that. But that's not really important, and I don't know that this is the venue, if there even is a venue for that. Everything you need to know about that whole saga is right there.

I used to struggle for an answer as to what I had said or done wrong to drive her away. I don't know that there was anything that I could have done differently to change the outcome. She certainly had plenty of opportunities and solid reasons throughout the year to get rid of me, but she never did. Why over the summer?

My answer: Convenience.

And that's scary. I want to pause here to make sure that you aren't hearing something that I'm not saying--God only knows who reads this blog and who knows what about my life and those involved in it. This is not a tirade about how awful a person this girl is or was. I was so interested in her because she was, and still is, such a great person. Now that that's out of the way...

What scares me about this is that this is something which I am: convenient. The voices which gently sing me to sleep ask me if I'm even capable of a real relationship and point out that if I died, people would be sad about it for a few weeks, but then return to the status quo. Don't get me wrong--I understand that these things aren't true...but these are the echoes that haunt me, the questions that remain at the close of the day.

If I'm convenient, I'm disposable. Which is where the beef nuggets come in to play. I don't know how much time y'all have spent in the jerky aisle of a convenience store, but there are these disgusting abominations of meat byproduct sold there known as 'beef nuggets.' They look like dog food, and scare even the most seasoned colon right out of---well, this is just getting gross.

I think that's what I've been this year: beef nuggets. Inspiring curiosity, but also sending out the message to everyone to keep their distance.

I guess if you never get picked up you never get thrown away, right?


Looking back, this has kind of been the pattern to my life: girls get really involved with me until something better comes along, or until it just gets too arduous to deal with me anymore.



Wouldn't it be cool if this post ended with some revelation that made all that crap seem better or worth it?

Here's my best shot:

Take heart: though I don't know why pain is part of life, everything I do know about God, I learned in those dreadful times.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

"A Music Video???" Yeah, Something Like That

So, Susan apparently somehow managed to wrangle bootlegged video of one of my ultra-rare live performances out at the McKitrick House. Anywho, I thought mayhaps you'd be interested in checking it out: it's of me performing a newish song called "Miss Communication (; I think you know why)". Since the song has now been leaked by some ne'er-do-well musical pirate ;) , I figured that I might as well pop a "studioer" recording up on my VIRB page tonight.

Anywho, here's another link to Susan's blog, which is always worth a look, and here's a link straight to the vid on YouTube. (btw: the first few words I say, which are kinda lacking on the recording, are something like "I got your e-mail...")

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

A Little Night Chemistry...

me + girls => H2O + stupid



I don't know about the water either...it's been half a decade since I did any chem, but I seem to recollect it usually showing up.


Anywho, that's not the point.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

The Funniest Thing I Have Read Today

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The SBL Handbook of Style

Music Lives Now on Virb.com

Hey y'all,

Just thought I'd let you know that I've got a few tunes hosted over at virb.com in case you hadn't already heard. I'll be periodically adding more and more stuff over there, and actually fleshing out a profile eventually. I'll keep you posted here, though if you want to obsessively check for updates there, that's fine with me: we all know that I could use the ego boost from the extra profile views.

So here's a link: Click me for a mind-numbing musical experience.

'Heard: The Week in Quotes (vol 11)

God made us number one because he loves us the best
Well he should go bless someone else for a while
Give us a rest

Yeah, and everyone can see
We’ve eaten all that we can eat

-- Ben Folds, "All U Can Eat" (lots of non-ORU language)

The entire Christian economy of salvation is thus a single mystery that can be summed up in one sentence: through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit God is the salvation of man.

-- Walter Cardinal Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ

The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself,
so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.
For great is the might of the Lord,
but by the humble he is glorified.

--ben Sirach 3.18|20 (NRSV)

Peace, love, and joy to you all.