Beloved is a fan of a lot of CBS shows: NCIS, Madam Secretary, and Hawaii Five-O being her big favorites. I've trended recently more toward the sci-fi/horror genre since there's been a ton of quality offerings over the past few years: The Walking Dead, The Expanse, Taboo, Into the Badlands, Game of Thrones, American Gods, etc. So we haven't been watching a lot of television together over the past few years. Recently this changed because of two shows: Star Trek: Discovery and Living Biblically. I'm not going to do a review of ST:D until the 2nd season drops, but given that Living Biblically is a recent addition, this seemed a good opportunity to critique something with which I'm familiar: a show about religion.
Three weeks ago I attended a retreat at Carol Joy Holling Camp and Conference Center led by Andy Root, a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Andy and I are both Gen Xers, and we share a particular affinity for the life and works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so when I received a flyer about the retreat from my friends at Carol Joy Holling I signed up right away.
While we were at the retreat, I was also bingeing on Series 9 of the new Doctor Who. This happens a lot in recent years: the series usually debuts during college football season, and as a pastor who loves football, has two kids, and only gets a limited amount of time to enjoy things on any given Saturday, it is unfortunately the Doctor who gets relegated to the vagaries of the DVR (though, of course, the relativity of the time involved makes that relegation more than a little ironic and humorous). This year was no exception. I was finally working my way through the series when we arrived at Carol Joy Holling, and the first night of our retreat was also the night I enjoyed episode 8, "The Zygon Inversion." Having just come from an evening meal where Andy and I enjoyed a robust discussion of recent Bonhoeffer biographies, I already had Herr Dietrich on the brain when I watched the Doctor's epic anti-war speech unfold on my laptop. I'll post a quote here and then the following scene from YouTube, and then tell you what I'm on about.
THE DOCTOR (speaking to 'Bonnie' - who is actually the Zygon leader Zygella disguised as Clara Oswald, the Doctor's companion): These things have happened, Zygella, they are facts. You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. You're not superior to people who were cruel to you, you're just a whole bunch of new cruel people. A whole bunch of new cruel people being cruel to some other people, who'll end up being cruel to you. The only way anyone can live in peace is if they're prepared to forgive. Why don't you break the cycle? (Emphasis mine)
Read more at: http://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=23619
In 1934, at an ecumenical conference in Fanø, Denmark, Bonhoeffer preached a sermon in which he said the following:
How does peace come about? Through a system of political treaties? Through the investment of international capital in different countries? Through the big banks, through money? Or through universal peaceful rearmament in order to guarantee peace? Through none of these, for the single reason that in all of them peace is confused with safety. There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself.
I couldn't help but hear the words of Bonhoeffer echoed in the Doctor's impassioned plea for Zygella (and her human counterpart) to "break the cycle!" There has always been something of an anti-war bent to the Doctor, and at times the series has featured moments of great theological and ethical import buried underneath fantastically good television, but this is one of the moments where this watcher felt as if Stephen Moffat and the other writers of the show were channeling a particular theologian, whether consciously or unconsciously. The similarity to Bonhoeffer's argument, and the terrible experiences of the battle-weary Time Lord and the world-weary theologian and pacifist conspirator against the Third Reich, seem to come pouring out of the TV screen into our minds and hearts.
Forgiveness is always a risk. Peace is never certain. But as the Doctor points out, the war that seems to be such a certain guarantee is also uncertain, and in addition guaranteed to be painful, costly, and in the end resolved in only one of two ways: genocide, or diplomacy. Since no one wants to be a genocide, why not engage in the diplomacy before resorting to violence that's going to lead you back to diplomacy in the end anyway?
This is, honestly, one of the things I love about Doctor Who. Leave aside the comical costumes and the iffy (if improving) special effects. The epic storytelling and the dedication to playing out the ethical consequences of one's decisions are an invigorating contrast to the rampant jingoism and chest-thumping machismo of what passes for governance in much of contemporary American life. Hearing what appears to be the Doctor channeling a beloved theologian of mine was music to my ears, and worth noting and sharing with anyone else who cares to hear about it.
I have had a love/fear relationship with the FX series Sons of Anarchy from the very first episode. On the one hand, the storytelling was incredible: complex emotional issues paired with deeply flawed characters and the sketchy morals that come with running illegal guns, drugs, and other contraband, with the addition of a heavily Shakespearean influence, combined to create a series that was addictive and horrifying all at the same time. On the other hand, the unflinching portrayal of the violence of this life, and the consequences of that violence, would lead to many sleepless nights after bingeing on two, three or even four episodes at a time.
So incredibly beautiful. How disappointing to discover
this beautiful relationship was a distraction in the minds
of the writers. They, and we, deserved better.
Yeah, okay. I'm writing about a television show. And I'm really mad. Heartbroken. Good art can do that to you sometimes. Unfortunately, this time it did it because what happened in the last few minutes nearly ruined the whole run for me.
When I finished Cryptonomicon a few weeks ago, I swore I wouldn't read another big thick Neal Stephenson book. I loved Snow Crash & The Diamond Age but I really struggled with Cryptonomicon. Then Amazon offered Quicksilver cheap on audio & Kindle - paired together it would be less than the cost of a paperback copy. Guess who's now sailing toward England on the Minerva with Daniel Waterhouse and Captain van Hoek? I'm happy to say I more or less get where this one is going a little better, and frankly it's a little more humorous as well. Seems more tightly focused than Cryptonomicon was. The sheer number of characters gets a little overwhelming at times, but thankfully the reader for the audio version is excellent at creating distinct accents for all of the characters. I've never listened to Jim Dale doing the Harry Potter series, but I would imagine Simon Prebble is a close second if what I'm hearing now is true. I'm also trying to finish Evensong by Gail Godwin before it's due back at the library. She knows pastoral ministry in and out, even if the novel itself gets a little clunky and the main characters are incredibly high church Episcopalians. It's good stuff. Just yesterday I checked out Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs from the library and I'll get into that one as soon as I'm done with Godwin.
We have been on a lucky movie kick lately. First Iron Man 3 as my annual birthday summer blockbuster stuff-what-gets-blowed-up-real-good movie. Loved it, though it bogged down more than a little at the end. Great movie. Then Oblivion when a dear friend surprised us with a free night of babysitting. I think I enjoyed it even more than Iron Man 3 since it had no real expectations going in. Great story, incredible visual work & special effects, and for all his craziness, Tom Cruise is just a hellishly good action hero who's almost impossible not to like. Finally, Star Trek: Into Darkness. Star Wars when the time comes. Zachary Quinto is great as Spock and Benedict Cumberbatch was in-freaking-credible as John Harrison. You wouldn't think the mannered, abrupt Sherlock of the excellent BBC series could pull off a physical, menacing role like that, but he does it and makes it look natural. Can't wait to see how he plays the Necromancer when they get him onscreen in The Hobbit.
We gathered with some friends for the Super Bowl last night and, true to form, spent more time watching the commercials than the game. One of these years I'm going to have to adopt an NFL team I truly love so I might actually care about the game itself if said team ever makes it to the top.
As it is, I'm considering proposing legislation to ban GoDaddy from ever producing a commercial again. Yeesh. And as some of my friends noted, there aren't a lot of farmers like the ones Paul Harvey described who could afford the $50,000 pickup Dodge was selling in their commercial, no matter how much it might tug at your heartstrings. That one and the Clydesdale commercial win for "most likely to make me cry if I watch it by myself." The Oreo Riot, Miracle Montana Stain and Babylandia were my biggest Laugh Out Loud moments. And our friends brought a "Snackadium" for us all to enjoy, which we did. Sloppy Joes, queso, Chex Mix - it was a good night for my tummy 'round these parts.
Hey, you know what? I haven't done one of these in a while. Let's see...
Just finished reading Dead Beat, book 7 in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I'm really enjoying this series. It's formulaic, and a bit chauvinistic at times, but I really enjoy the Harry Dresden character and the group of folks who continue popping in and out of Harry's life. Smart-ass wizards with cool friends make for some fun reading.
How long has it been since my last PCR? I dunno, but it's been a while. Got a few minutes to share it and so, here we go.
I finished Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass a few days ago via our library's free audiobook system. It was my first experience with Tyler, and I enjoyed it, though the book itself certainly wasn't life-changing. I kept waiting for the big moment, the denouement (thank you, Mrs. Heier and Mrs. Sundell!) wherein I would understand the larger narrative arc that was going on in the midst of the story. It never came. From what I've read, this is a common feature of Tyler's writing, which makes me a bit cautious about trying another. We'll see, I guess.
Now I'm on to Kraken by China Mieville. This is certainly a change of pace from Anne Tyler. On first listen, Kraken reminds me of a cross between Neil Gaiman's two masterful novels Neverwhere and American Gods. The narrator even sounds like Gaiman doing his own work narrating Neverwhere, which is fantastic in my humble opinion. Anyway, the basic plot involves a museum curator who specializes in mollusks discovering that the world's best-preserved giant squid has been stolen. He is subsequently dragged into the underground conflict surrounding that squid, its worshipers and a host of other characters far too bizarre to spoil here. Suffice it to say that if you liked Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar from Neverwhere, you're going to love this book.
I'm continuing to journey through the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - currently I'm reading Crossroads of Twilight, with hopes of finishing the published works in the series before the next volume is released in November. Stephen King once noted that Jordan's picture of how this series would develop was insane. I dunno about that, but I fervently hope that the ghostwriter who's finishing the series does it well - I'd hate to invest this much time in a series to wind up as disappointed as I was in the last two volumes of The Dark Tower.
On the telly, Sons of Anarchy is back, and picking up right where it left off. I'm really beginning to love this show. I imagine much of what I love is due to the superior talent within the cast: I'm no biker, but I believe with every ounce of my TV-watching eyes that these folks are exactly who they seem to be. It's gritty, it's human, and unlike Grey's Anatomy or many of the other navel-gazing shows popular at the moment, I don't feel like kicking Jax or Tigg or any of the Sons in the nads on a weekly basis. With other seasons starting in coming weeks, I'm very much looking forward to Fringe, Big Bang Theory, NCIS and CSI getting rolling again. Beloved has gotten hooked on White Collar, but I also got her on Fringe this summer, so in coming weeks we'll be furiously working through Season 2 on DVD so we can enjoy Season 3 together.
We haven't caught many movies this year. Dropping upwards of $50 when you figure babysitter, tickets, soda and popcorn means we will watch a lot of stuff on DVD, but even then by the time we get the girls into bed we're usually too tired to make it through a movie. So I really can't comment on anything movie-wise at the present, though I'm hoping to catch Inception at the matinee tomorrow if I can get teh Sermon rolling early in the morning.
If you've got good recommendations for books/movies/TV/music, let me know!
What a week for television, huh? Yes, I was a Lost watcher and yes, the finale was incredible. Beyond that, much more intelligent people than I are breaking it down in much better ways, so let's just leave it at that, shall we? Just. Freaking. Incredible. 'Nuff said.
I've also been following V and Fringe. The thought occurred to me this morning, after finally catching the Fringe season finale, that they exist along an interesting continuum. Toward one extreme, there's Lost, where nothing is ever explained and much remains mystery, so much so that it alienated a lot of early fans. Toward the other, you have V, which I'm sorry to say will likely not be back in the rotation in the fall because every single crisis is telegraphed so completely my three-year-old could easily follow the show. (Not to mention the glaring problem of a super-evolved species that can track anything that moves on the planet below, embed cameras in their own uniforms to monitor the human population, and discover a secret meeting of rebels with some dart-throwing remote robot, but remains mystified by the common cell phone and a group of rebels on their own ships who have conversations with human resistance groups IN PUBLICLY TRAVELED HALLWAYS) Then, in the middle, you have Fringe, which is rapidly rising to X-Files level satisfaction (the Mulder years, that is). I am really interested to see where Fringe goes next, as the first season has been tremendously satisfying.
Beloved and I caught two movies last week: I Love You, Man and Sherlock Holmes. We enjoyed both quite a bit. I'm not sure why everyone got so bent out of shape by Sherlock Holmes: it seemed faithful to the Holmes I remember from the stories, and if Robert Downey, Jr. isn't Basil Rathbone, well, what of it? We enjoyed the film very much. I Love You, Man was a very, very big surprise. I expected just a few laughs, with a completely predictable ending, but got more than a few laughs and an ending that shakes up the pretenses just a bit. A good movie for a date night with the spouse if you don't mind more than a few obscene jokes about sex.
I'm listening to Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz right now, and liking what I'm hearing. To my recollection this is the first book by Koontz for me, but at the very least I'll be listening to the rest, as they are all on our library's free audiobook download program. Your library might have something similar - you should check it out.
That's pretty much the pop culture roundup here. I've been taking a break from blogging as we are approaching the end of the U.B., and my attention needs to be focused elsewhere. Thankfully that particular charlie foxtrot will soon be navigated and behind us, and we can turn our attention to better things. Your prayers for the next few days, however, would be appreciated.
Let me start by saying how much there is in my life for which I’m thankful.I have a beautiful, wonderful, incredible wife who continues to bless and surprise me in many, many ways.I am the father of two adorable girls who fill me with joy on a daily basis.Sometimes hourly, even.I’m the called pastor of a campus ministry where I feel as though the gifts God has given me for ministry are a good fit, and I get a lot of satisfaction from the work entrusted to me.And I love winter – snow, cold, ice; none of those things really bother me as much as some (and no, that’s not a judgment on those who dislike winter:I’m only saying I’m not one of them).
All that having been said, the 2009-2010 winter has been, for lack of a better word, pretty rough.Some of it I can’t share here.But between lack of sleep, lack of exercise, poor diet, lack of focus and the daily struggle to be a good father, the word for the winter is "frustrated." So this week’s Friday Five is a good one to use as an opportunity to take stock, and I hope you don’t mind if I do it with you all listening in.
Candlemas is past, and Christmas is well and truly over; here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day....
1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp?
One thing I’ve really enjoyed this winter is our spin class.Holy cow, there’s nothing like pushing your body to the limit over the course of 45 minutes or so.Even on bad days, I still feel as though all the sweat and burning legs are worth the while, and of course it’s easy on the joints.The fact that we’ve become friends with a couple of our class leaders is nice as well, although we do keep one of them in our prayers as she begins a fight against cancer.
At the same time, I’m disappointed with myself for not running regularly, and I think it’s beginning to affect Jack as well.One of the reasons we got Jack, of course, was so I’d have a partner for my runs, but between excessive snow, schedules with the kids, lack of quality sleep and ennui due to some of the unbloggable stuff, my mileage has plummeted since August or so.I had hopes of doing a marathon this coming summer, but I need to kick it in the butt if I’m going to make that a reality. And Jack could definitely use the time outside as well.
2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer?
I’ve eaten like crap this winter.Too much fast food, too many M&Ms, not enough fruits & veggies.It’s odd:when I went through the divorce, I lost my appetite completely, to the point of losing about 40-50 lbs in the course of three or four months.This time, with the emotional turmoil we’re experiencing, all I want to do is scarf down fast food burgers and pizza.What’s up with that?Here’s hoping that starting a garden this spring will bring about the dietary change I need.
3. Brainpower; do you like me need to stave off depression, if so how do you do it?
I’m not entirely sure about this, but I think the mild depression for which I’ve been taking an anti-depressant might have intensified this year, or at least this winter.Reading is a struggle, which will shock most of you who’ve known me over the years.But I just can’t focus, and I feel as though I can’t even think properly these days.I miss appointments and drop to-dos far too often.A good portion of the time I feel like a dunder-headed ninnymuggins, and that ain’t good. We'll see how things change come spring, and if they do, then maybe it's time to look into ways to handle Seasonal Affective Disorder or something like it. And, of course, if I could think more clearly there'd be more to offer here as well - so if your particular neurosis includes an affinity for what I've got to say, you could pray I get this figured out, eh?
4. How about a story that lifts your spirits, is there a book or film that you return to to stave off the gloom?
This makes me wonder – maybe it’s my reading choices that are driving my ennui?I’ve been spending a lot of time with The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, and if he weren’t the personification of Dream, I’d say that Morpheus would be the personification of Depression instead.Perhaps I need to get away from him for a while.
We’ve been watching Friday Night Lights on DirecTV, and even though every episode is a gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster that never ceases to make us sick to our stomachs, watching Eric and Tammi Taylor manage all the stress while maintaining the absolute bedrock solidity of their marriage is truly inspiring.I said it on Facebook yesterday:the fact that this show is not in NBC’s rotation is proof positive that if their executives were any dumber they’d need to be watered once a week. (God bless you, Molly Ivins, and I can't wait to meet you in heaven - I have a feeling we'll get along fabulously.)
5. Looking forward, do you have a favourite spring flower/ is there something that says spring is here more than anything else?
I always watch for the hostas to break the surface.It happens early, of course, but I love playing in the dirt, and seeing green shooting out of last year’s stalks tells me that it’s almost time to break out my pruning shears and shovel and get ready for some fun.
Bonus; post a poem/ piece of music that points to the coming spring...
Copland captured it pretty well:
ps:Please don’t take this as a ‘woe is me’ post – reread the first paragraph if that is how this sounds.I might compare the present moment to mile 21 of a marathon:painful, slow, and filled with questions, but I continue to move forward and, most importantly, I’m trying to find the joy in the race.That second wind is bound to come along one of these days, right?Life is good, friends, because it is a gift from the Giver, with all its complexities and questions.We trust the God who gives life more than the life itself.
Took the wife to see "Avatar" last night. Holy mother of Eywa, this is one incredible movie. I'm thinking "Best Picture" in a landslide, as the worst part of the movie is the story, and even the story is not terrible, just predictable.
First off, the effects are beyond belief, and that's in 2D. I'm not sure I want to try the 3D version, as I'm prone to a bit of vertigo and I can't imagine the scenes where characters navigate across mile-deep crevasses as the camera passes overhead will be good for my stomach. Then again, it might be worth it after all. Both Beloved and I commented that the CGI was as good as, if not better than, everything we've ever seen to this point. The landscapes and terrain are as realistic as anything in the Star Wars prequels, and however the motion capture was done with the characters, it blows the socks off anything Robert Zemeckis has done (think The Polar Express and Beowulf), and I don't think Zemeckis is half bad. As one reviewer put it, it's one thing to create 11 feet tall blue skinned humanoid characters with tails - it's another thing to make them so realistic they seem, well, sexy.
The acting is first-rate, especially Zoe Saldana in the role of Neytiri, the female Na'vi and Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, the human who makes contact with the Na'vi. Also, Stephen Lang is excellent as Colonel Quaritch, though whenever I see Lang in a movie I'm reminded he played the cowardly Ike Clanton in Tombstone and I have to giggle a few times.
As I said, one quibble is the fairly predictable storyline, but the movie is so good you hardly notice the unsurprising surprises. The politics are fairly predictable, also, but as we watched, I thought to myself, "I hate to admit it, but sometimes we actually are this stupid about people who don't look/act like us." Some of the names are unimaginative, especially the uber-valuable mineral that led the humans to Pandora in the first place: "unobtanium." Yep, you read that right. One wonders if Cameron spent so much time dreaming up the Na'vi and their language (which is exquisitely well done, by the way) that he left that minor detail to a summer intern or something.
These are extremely minor concerns, however, overwhelmed by the spectacle and creativity on display in abundance. I'll be seeing this one again in the theatre, just because it's that good. You should, too.
In other culture news, we finished Surprised by Hope in our Friday book club last week, and I'm glad to say that things picked up in the end after slogging a bit in the middle. A recurring frustration for our group was Wright's tendency to refer to his own books for further explanation of detailed points; for those of us just beginning to read his work, it was annoying to say the least. But his discussion of death, resurrection and "life after life after death" was worth the read, and our discussions were always thought-provoking and enjoyable. That's kinda the point of a good book group, so in that sense it was a great read.
I'm on to The Gargoyle right now, and finding it interesting, if a bit weird. It was a book I picked up from my in-laws when they were offering my father-in-law's extensive library after they'd culled what they wanted to keep for their new, much smaller house, and I'll be honest: it's not what I expected from their usual tastes, which makes me wonder if it was a "hey, that title looks good" find for one of them. Sorry, Troy and Annette, if you're reading this and I've just insulted your taste. :-) Anyway, it's engrossing, though now that I'm halfway in, I'm wondering where the major crisis in the plot will fall.
I'm catching up on almost an entire season of Sons of Anarchy now that most shows are on the holiday hiatus; I just haven't been able to keep up as this is one show Beloved has absolutely no interest in watching with me. I watched the first of several episodes this morning and found myself thinking, "I forgot how good this show is, even with the ugly subject matter." Hopefully I can get fully caught up before we cancel the dish in January. Yep, you read that right - we're going internet-only for a while once the football season is over. It's time to get serious about digging out from under our debt mountain, and considering most of our shows are available for free on teh internets, DirecTV is one of the few completely unnecessary things we can cut. But, like all cuts, it'll hurt for a while. :-(
Then again, I'll have more time to read, and that's never a bad thing, right?
Renowned composer and organist Paul Manz died last week of cancer. He was a wonderful gift to the church and a man of great dignity and grace. In 1999, I had the distinct pleasure of singing his best known work, "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" under Manz' own baton for a service of lessons and carols for Advent with the choir of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his son, John, was on the pastoral staff. What I remember of the experience was the absolute clarity, focus and musicianship he brought to the ensemble. And, of course, he blessed us by sitting down to the organ for a hymn or two. His death is a great loss to music as a whole, and Lutheran music in particular. Here's the best version of "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" I could find via YouTube. I think I may have posted this before, but it's worth another listen if you've got the time:
Let's see - other stuff.
Having finished Trinity by Leon Uris, I'm now well into the sequel, Redemption. Calling it a sequel is a bit much to this point: in a rather bizarre fashion, Uris used Redemption to flesh out some of the story from Trinity, telling stories we've already heard from other characters' perspectives and so on. It's still good writing, but the constant "haven't I read this before?" gets a bit dreary. Thankfully, we're drawing near to the end of the retelling, and there's a lot of book to go, so I'm expecting the remainder to pick up quite a bit.
I'm really excited for tonight's premiere of the new "V" on ABC. Even cooler, SciFi (no, I will NOT use their new version - it's not spelled "Scyence Fyction," you morons) has been rebroadcasting the original miniseries and episodes. Since Alanna is home with a fever today, we spent a few hours watching the original miniseries this morning. Ah, childhood memories. And the show itself is surprisingly good. Decent effects for TV at that time, and not nearly as clunky as I expected it to be. And what other miniseries had Freddy Kruger as a bumbling alien?
After using his song "Holy Now" for my sermon on Sunday, I've been listening to a lot of Peter Mayer this week. This would be the Peter Mayer who does NOT play lead guitar with Jimmy Buffett, although that Peter Mayer is cool, too (and Lutheran! The Jimmy Buffett one, that is.). So, here's another Peter Mayer tune, "Molly O'Malley's" Enjoy.
Early Saturday morning. Will be heading out for a run in a few minutes, the first exercise I've gotten since Monday. Pancakes and eggs to be made after that, then college football. Ah, the glory of September.
But I'm up before any of my girls, and since I didn't have time to run through my blogroll yesterday, I opened up a bunch of them just now. Some days it's a quick run through stuff that's not new, but between today and yesterday most of my blogger friends have new posts to peruse. Here's what I've read today:
Jan's church is starting to understand that ministry is an "all of us" thing, not a "Pastor" thing.
Cheesehead preached an amazing memorial sermon at a funeral for a 23 year old man, he and his family being largely unchurched (though if it had been me, hearing that sermon, I wouldn't be unchurched for long).
Diane connected the dots between the anxiety in health care reform and our refusal to look death square in the face.
Meta tells the story of how she and her husband set up their financial stewardship plan (hint: they give more to the church than they do to their cable provider. Probably a good sense of perspective, IMO).
CoffeePastor is perusing the start of football season with a healthy sense of trepidation, being a Michigan fan. All is not well in Ann Arbor at the moment (but I hope it becomes so very soon, because college football is better when Michigan is a strong program).
Some folks think blogs are a pretentious waste of time. Sometimes they are - even here, where the author is one of the most un-pretentious people I know. ;-) But if you pay attention, blogs and facebook and even Twitter can offer some incredible wisdom in addition to a greater sense of connectedness.
My denomination is undergoing a time of great change at the moment. It's uncomfortable even for those who wanted the change, and sometimes excruciating for those opposed to it. But of all the things we've said and done in this conversation over the past eight years, what gives me the most pride in our denomination is how we've tried to make sure our collective wisdom is not ignored. Many, many voices have spoken and continue to speak about this time of change in our church, and they have rarely agreed. But unlike those who surround themselves with people who agree, we've tried to make this conversation as wide and wise as it can be. It might be more comfortable to silence dissenting voices, but no one grows wiser by hearing only what you already know.
Last night, Beloved and I watched Caprica, a prequel to SciFi's excellent series Battlestar Galactica. This movie was even more philosophical and metaphysical than the already-heady BSG; it addressed the nature of the mind, the soul, technology and what might happen when we develop the ability to mix the three more than we already do. But the sentence that struck me was this: "A difference that isn't noticeably different isn't really a difference, is it?" (As close as I can remember it, that is) So true. Likewise, a wisdom informed only by itself isn't really wise.
Well, that's some Saturday morning thinking for you. Now I'm off to kill brain cells by watching as much college football as possible between now and tomorrow night. There's wisdom, and then there's, well, whatever this weekend is going to be.
I've been on a particularly good streak of television lately. I don't know what it is, but some oldies have gotten new life breathed into them, while two newer shows are really delighting both Kris and I, enough that they get a blog post. Yay!
The Big Bang Theory on CBS is a really, really funny show. The premise is somewhat believable, which helps, but what makes this show a lot of fun is the cast and their unbelievably good comedic skills. Simply put, these five actors really know how to make funny "funny." I've been reduced to tears of laughter in each of the last few episodes. Look for this one to continue for quite a while if they can figure out how to work the "Penny & Leonard's secret love for each other" properly. And how to keep people from just killing Sheldon. Fringe on Fox is a lot of fun: it's The X-Files meets Lost (without the time-travel stuff). The cast is outstanding, especially John Noble as Walter Bishop and the guy from Dawson's Creek as Peter Bishop. Last night's episode dealt with liquefied brains, but they had enough guts to juxtapose a character's brain melting with her mother cooking spaghetti in the kitchen at the same time - THAT's good writing. I'm glad I got in on this one early - I won't be catching up for years the way I was with X-Files.
Friday Night Lights is finally back on NBC, though it remains to be seen if they've got the sense to keep this one around. Frankly, the couple playing Coach Eric Taylor and Principal Tami Taylor are the most realistic married couple I've ever seen on television, and two of the most positive role models on TV as well. Last week they jerked us around by our hearts quite a bit - I remember looking at Kris about halfway through the show and saying, "this f#%$ing show; they do that on purpose!" But it is good television, well worth the agony of watching an entire town succumb to the idolatry and obsession that is big-time Texas high school football. The all-around prize winner for jerking heartstrings, at least this week, goes to Grey's Anatomy. I stopped watching at the beginning of Season 3 because the show seemed completely self-indulgent and whiny at the time: "oooh, my super-rich hottie doctor boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband is sleeping around, and I'm so mad I could just...sleep with him/her!" Whatever magic they lost, it's back, big time. Last Thursday's episode might just be the finest hour of television I've ever watched, except for Dr. Mark Green's final episode on ER. Finally, the real world has returned to Seattle Grace Hospital, and not a moment too soon.
All right, that's the DVR workout this week for you. Back to sermonating...
