bloglift

i've added a couple things to the blog today. the first is a link to other blogs i find insightful or witty or appropriate. i'm hoping it will grow as i find new ones or think of ones i've forgotten. the second is a poll. i really like polls, and i saw there was the new option to have one, so i went for it. polls are fun. i like voting for stuff - especially when the stuff you vote for doesn't have the ability to lie the country you live in into an endless war and rape the environment for oil. wow, sorry. that was heavy. i'm just talking about polls. i flatter myself to think enough people actually check my blog that the voting will be significant. but perhaps now that i have a poll untold masses will flock here. after all, everyone wants democracy. in conclusion, i like polls (and good blogs), and i hope you do too.

p.s. in this poll you can vote for your favorite two!

what luck

drat, i was really hoping to get one more post in while it was still november. maybe i'll be less lazy next year. this post is just to recount a horrible phenomenon that has plagued me lately.

i don't know anyone who writes checks anymore, except maybe to pay a bill or two that you can't access online. so it's safe to say that in my universe checks are all but extinct. well, in the past week i've been stuck in line behind four separate people writing checks. they do this with all the speed of cold syrup. one lady had to produce her driver's license twice. it's really just awful for everyone involved. so if you are one of these people, get a debit card for everyone's sake. i'm sure your bank offers free cards with your account. they aren't hard to use - not nearly as much trouble as writing a check. you won't even have to ask anyone for the date. that can be your gift to humanity this year.

a tale of two cities

i used to kinda stick up for my hometown. when everyone else in high school was hellbent on getting out as fast as they could, i maturely observed that most places were no better or worse than most other places as people everywhere are pretty much the same. so i stayed and went to college in my hometown. it helped that they threw money at me. by the time i finished college i was very thankful for my education in a specialized degree, but i too was ready to get the hey outta dodge. i felt as though everything around me was getting smaller. the city seemed content to backslide rather than progress. the path of least resistance seemed the programme de jour. now when i return i all but suffocate.

i went to nyc to see my brother over thanksgiving. i expected the pace to be daunting, especially since i was on holiday. instead the rhythm of the city was infectious. i soon realized the tremendous asset great cities possess that my hometown severely lacks: options. i'm not at all talking about a great plethora of chain restaurants from which to choose - my hometown has that in abundance. a place needs options of cultures, of opinions, of beauty to enjoy. i guess you can live anywhere, but i think there are only certain places that live in you. new york is one of those places. i also felt it when i lived in chicago. i wonder if it's possible without a huge city.

the last straw with my hometown came when i was leaving after my thanksgiving visit. i was on my way out of town when i noticed one of the staples of the city (and my childhood) was gone. growing up village inn had been the greatest restaurant. the place was a classic in so many ways. it had bad lighting, but it only made the table candles that much better. the brick walls were home to countless names and memories. when deciding where the family should eat, the mention of village inn always met with total agreement. but a few years ago, things changed. it was remodeled in a way that robbed it of its charm. decent lighting came in, and with it horrific paint over the bricks and dorky logos for the local schools. the sign out front went from being original to being anything but, and slowly but surely, that's what happened to the place - just another option among harmless competitors. the pizza was more or less the same, but the place wasn't. and now, it's totally gone - not torn down, that might be somewhat palatable. but of course my hometown wouldn't do anything so gracious. instead it's been wood paneled and turned into the old hickory steakhouse. just what the city ordered.

thanks Luke

i'm pretty glad the Diatessaron didn't catch on. it was an early attempt to smooth out the differences in the four canonical Gospels into one seamless "super Gospel" (my phrase). as much as not having to address the disagreements between the Gospels (and yes my literalist friends, there are disagreements) might make my job and life easier, i really am thankful we have the four different accounts. it's tough to think about what we would lose - especially based on certain criteria. for instance, if we went with the so-called multiple attestation criteria, those stories that appear most frequently between the four should stay. if we did this, what would the Christmas story look like? it doesn't appear at all in Mark or John, and the version in Matthew is quite brief - sparing the tricky details about why Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem in the first place. only in Luke's Gospel do we read the details about Mary and Joseph laying the baby Jesus in a food trough "because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke is proclaiming Jesus to be the son of God and the savior of the whole world, so such beginnings would be pretty convenient to leave out - unless Luke was also trying to tell us something else.

i think he was as Luke reiterates throughout his Gospel God's love for the poor, outcast, and abandoned. i think he included these details to show us from beginning to end a world that made no room for the very people who bless us beyond measure. i couldn't help but remember this story the last few days. there's a gentleman who comes regularly to the community soup kitchen. last week, the trailer he was living in was burned down. now he has no place to live. it was only by trying to help him find some temporary housing that i learned my community has no homeless shelter which is inexcusable on so many levels, especially considering the new multi-million dollar addition to the local jail. (i wonder why the jail needs so much space?)

thankfully members in one of my churches agreed to let him stay in our fellowship hall until we can find him permanent housing. i've been asked several times why the larger churches in town don't do such a thing regularly as there is no shelter. officially, i don't know that they don't because i only spoke with three, and i didn't ask if they could put him up in their fellowship halls. but this is something it makes sense for churches to do. this man spent a few nights sleeping under a bridge when almost every church on the street he slept under could have taken him in.

maybe if Luke hadn't included that little phrase about having no room for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus it wouldn't be such a big deal to keep people out of our churches or houses. but i think God had a purpose for the very words Luke used. we can't say we don't know any better. that phrase should remind all who read it not to turn anyone away, because there's no way to know who you're making sleep in a barn or under a bridge. at the very least, it's a child of God. but it could very well be God's only begotten Son.

not hyperbole

wow, i've done a really great job of writing regularly on here. it's encouraging that i post fewer writings each month. so i guess this one will knock out my november quota. but at least i'm coming back strong, because i have a story that may be the most preposterous thing i've ever dealt with.

a few weeks ago i went to get my driver's license transferred from tennessee to alabama. i think i've voiced my disgust for having to do things like this when we supposedly live in a country of "united states." oh was my temper not prepared for what was to follow!

so my number gets called, and thankfully i don't have to retake some test of knowledge i've totally forgotten and never been called upon to use while driving. i just show this nice lady my old license, take a vision test, and start filling out the paperwork for the new one. i have to show her my birth certificate, and that's when she says to me, "so you realize you don't have a middle name." "what?!" she continues, "yeah on your birth certificate, it doesn't have your full middle name, just your middle initial. so in the eyes of the state, your middle name is 'b'." i insist, "but the 'b' stands for my middle name which is brent." she counters, "well we can't put that on anything, and officially that's not your name. now, you can of course get your name legally changed to be 'brent' but for now it isn't." fuming, i respond, "so i would have to get my name changed to be what my name already is?!" "yes."

well i'm pretty much beside myself at this point. what's especially interesting is that my social security card has my full middle name. i wonder where they got it from. so i called my mom to yell at her about giving me a middle letter instead of a name, and she insists that she put my full name on the paperwork. she later found the paperwork, and sure enough, she did her part.

so now the prevailing theory points the blame at a lazy typist somewhere in the tennessee government who couldn't be bothered to type four more letters that would have made all the difference in the world to me. thanks to this person, my new nemesis, my middle name will legally just be "b."

let's start a list

a few weeks ago i watched the documentary maxed out. the film examines this nation's attitude toward credit and debt as well as specific aspects of this industry. it was marvelously made and, at times, quite unsettling. especially troubling was the information presented on the tactics of credit card companies and debt collectors (who thrive hand in hand) who prey on vulnerable people, some of which have basically no chance of ever escaping debt (short of death). but the most tragic story in the film was shared by two mothers. each had children who went to college and were offered credit cards during campus orientation events. the students got cards and began charging. they quickly amassed considerable debts. the interest set in, and they saw no way to pay off their debt. they viewed death as the only way out, and they took it. they each committed suicide.

now certainly you might think these stories extreme, and perhaps they are. but they are not uncommon, and they expose severe problems with this nation's attitude toward credit cards. we live in a society in which one practically must have a credit card. without one, there's no way to establish credit. without credit, there's no way to buy a home, and to buy a car or any other significant purchase (even basic utilities) costs more. they are a necessity now. of course, just because one must have a card it doesn't follow that this person will get into trouble with debt. but, it's considerably easier than you might think. you could be a very responsible person who always pays your balance on time. but accidents happen. what if you're in a car wreck with someone who has no insurance, and you miss work for several weeks. if you hadn't been able to save lots of money before the wreck and you have no wealthy family to fall back on, what might happen?

credit cards are a necessary evil it seems. but i think we can do a lot to curb some of the damage they do. at the very least, they should be far less accessible - especially to people who clearly have not established any kind of ability to make payments on them. they should never be offered on college campuses, and leaders at universities should fight to keep them away and educate students about the real risks involved in having credit cards.

i've all but given up hope on the government passing laws that are beneficial to us, but here's one i've thought up: how about a registry for people who don't want to receive credit card offers? i receive probably ten a week. i never ask for them. i don't want them, and i immediately rip them up and throw them away. such a system serves no good purpose. if people want a credit card, they can very easily apply for one. but sending applications or statements of pre-approval only wastes tons of paper and exposes people to identity thieves (another dire problem you'd think we'd want to end). this practice doesn't help us at all; it only helps the companies. but why care about them when they don't care a thing about you? oh wait, i forgot, they do care about your money.

not funny

i've been told for most of my life that i have a good sense of humor. usually it comes across sarcastically as perhaps this blog demonstrates. i make fun of a lot of things and point out the absurd. but i have always been a fan of comedy. i love hearing jokes and ridiculous stories that make me laugh. i've listened to all kinds of comics and been exposed to humor of every stripe.

i read a blurb in my newsweek tonight about kathy griffin winning an emmy. during her acceptance speech she dismissed the customary thanking of a higher power and declared "suck it, Jesus." i can only see this as a transparent stunt from an attention starved person to get some publicity. well, unfortunately it worked.

she's been denounced by several Christian groups including one from good ole pigeon forge, tn. at the same time, "atheist groups" have rallied to her support, or perhaps the support of free speech. i don't think the speech itself is really that big of a deal. i mean, if it offends you then i guess it is a big deal - but i don't care about what she said very much, and i doubt God cares either.

consider the state of the world right now. millions are dying needlessly from disease, war, and poverty. most churches seem to care more about internal matters (helping themselves) than the many crises in the world (helping others). so imagine God seeing what a mess we've all made of creation. then someone walks up to God and says, "oh, by the way, in this acceptance speech for an award that means nothing a woman said 'suck it, Jesus.'" i feel like God would be really angry that 10 seconds of His life was wasted getting that report. God truly doesn't need us to defend Him. i think it would help so much more if we actually worried about the image of God we portrayed with our lives and the choices we make.

i honestly feel pity for kathy griffin. she's had a sad comedic career and what appears to be a sad life. she craves attention so much she'll say anything. it reminds me of girls i knew in high school and college that would do anything just so some guy (usually a creepy one) would notice them. perhaps the worst thing of all is that she's just not funny. i know some things are relative, and saying this or that isn't funny is such an opinion - but this is a judgment from a great deal of experience about what is or isn't funny. she's not. in none of her work have i ever so much as chuckled. the episode of seinfeld she appeared in was an hilarious episode with a great premise, but it was great in spite of her performance. so i guess to paraphrase jerry from another episode, she doesn't offend me as a Christian, just as someone with a sense of humor.