partsofspeaking

I am afraid Chik-fil-A has lost a pretty loyal customer. I can get a chicken sandwich somewhere else that doesn't wear its virtue on its sleeve. Did they throw a lot of their patrons under the bus? Well, yes. Chik-Fil-A got where they are (third in fast food dining) because Christians who shared their values were willing to pay extra for their products (albeit good ones) to support a business that stood for Biblical teaching on marriage. And, because they supported charities such as the Salvation Army. They know their success was at least in part due to it. Do they seriously think their former enemies are now going to make them number one in fast food sales. I'm old; I've never seen such a dis at patrons. They threw SA under the bus. SA will do ok, especially by me, but they didn't deserve this. I will spend my Chik-Fil-A budget helping SA. As one blogger had written, quoting Paul, "You did well, what hindered you?" Chik-Fil-A did this because they w...

I am. I've written 20774 words. I didn't say they were good words. Just words. I'm 8,000 words behind. I'm not sure this story will sustain 50,000 words, though. Closing the loop, December 4 . I got to 25,000 words. Considering what I've been going through personally, that's not too bad, but I didn't "win" NaNoWriMo!

Franklin Planner Quote: Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly. Attributed to John F. Kennedy. Let's unpack this. I dare, at 64, to climb Mt. Everest. I will fail miserably, as many do. How is that a great achievement? This sounds good on the surface, but makes no sense. Is there shame in failure? Yes. No. Some risks are just stupid. Some risks are immoral and unethical. Some risks are illegal. But some risks are just attempts in good faith. Such generalized, widespread, broad-brushed thinking is dangerous.

Someone said today in church today that preachers don't mention the wrath of God any more. They (she) may be right. God is much less wrathful in 2019 than He was in 1619, even 1919--or so our descriptions of Him would say. But if we preach the cross, we preach God's wrath. The cross is all about wrath that we do not have to experience because someone did for us.

We are all rebels, in some way. Mine rebellion translates into: my way my time my talent my money my career my marriage my house my accomplishments my deserved praise my education My friend Yoka taught today: People in rebellion will blame others for their sin. Also: Who can speak good into your life?

I created a comic strip yesterday. Dr. Dippity is a middle-aged college professor. Sarah is her pitbull whose thoughts are communicated to Dr. Dippity. I have 19 panels.  Problem is, I can't draw beyond stick figures. Well, I can draw stationery characters, i.e., a dog who can't move.  Maybe a budding artist would like to join me in a venture that will make no money but be fun? Sample:  Panel One: Dr. Dippity: “All these papers and essays! Ah! I’m so sick of grading.” Sarah: “Why do it?”     Panel Two: “It’s my job. I have to turn them back to my class tomorrow.” Panel Three: Dog eating the homework, papers in her mouth.” Panel Four, Dippity passing back papers in class. “Sorry, Todd. I don’t have yours. My dog ate your homework.” I watched a documentary on Bill Watterson yesterday and got inspired.  -->

I'm watching a documentary on Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes . Other than the book of the comics over the years, he did not license his characters and thus lost millions upon millions of dollars. He is quoted (in writing--he's not interviewed because he's a classic recuse) that the strip was only meant to be a strip and it was, basically, the one area of his life he had control over. On top of that being a really sad statement, it does touch me as a fiction writer. The administration of my college just decided to restructure (well, not just decided, they just announced it yesterday). It changes quite a bit of my job, and I had no say in it. I had no control. Some other aspects of life, such as I'll be 64 soon, I can't control. In my novels, I have complete control, except I am bound by the rules of logic and good fiction writing. Watterson did some unique and creative things in his strip, because in a strip about a precocious and imaginative litt...

I was listening to a podcast of Tim Keller's yesterday. It was on Marriage and Friendship. Profound, mind-altering, life-changing for me. However, he starts it with a metaphor, that being a Christian gives you a life with windows. A secular life (and he deals with many secular people) is a life without windows. Lots of to think of there. We have a window to eternity, but we have more. We have windows to the unseen world, that beneath and around what appears there is so much more. I don't mean fairies and elves, although that appeals to some. I mean beauty and God working and people's souls and a road others don't.

I'm reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death for the third time. It's a required text in our communication program; I think Walter Ong's Literacy and Orality should be too. Both are books that changed my life. Postman mentions Plato a lot. We all take it for granted that Plato was "right." Actually, he was just bringing up the right topics and questions; his answers were colorful but I don't consider them right. I've always been far more of an Aristotelian (largely because I have a master's in Rhetoric and Public Address, and Plato decried rhetoric). In one of his major faux pas, he said writing was wrong and no intelligent man would use it. And he wrote that down. Go figure. A foolish consistency is the hobgloblin of little minds, I suppose.

I use my blog, partially, to curate things I like and find on the Internet. I like this one: https://longreads.com/2019/11/06/the-art-of-losing-friends-and-alienating-people/?utm_source=pocket-newtab I also saw myself, disdainfully, in it.

If I see one more quote or article about how great failure is, I'll ... well, continue to be frustrated. What is this fascination with failure? It's lip service.The argument is we learn from failure but not from success.  Baloney. In success you find out what works. In failure you do not learn what works; you only learn what doesn't work. The only positive thing about failure is your attitude toward--that you can not let it derail you.  Failure is expensive and time-consuming.  It's also inevitable, of course. It has its place. But let's stop acting like it's a great thing. It's over-rated.

My pastor often says "we are broken," and "we are all kinds of crazy." I hear others say we are a mess. Part of me cringes or pushes back at that. If we are in Christ, should we be going around pointing to how messed up we are? Is God glorified in that. Yes, and no. First, you can't be in Christ until you confess to being a sinner. Let's just use the Bible word. Broken? Well, ok, but that doesn't get to the heart--we violate the being and plan God wants for us, and we do it deliberately, not just because "we were born this way." So we start with acceptance of the abject reality of our sinfulness, which is what makes us broken (not the other way around). Christians should be living in reality of who we are. So we have two choices: trust Jesus to transform us because we are broken, or lay back and let brokenness be our way of being, our identity, our excuse. Obviously, the first is the right one. I just fear that too much talk about our bro...

God is interested in saving the hard cases, not just the easy cases. There is no low-hanging fruit in the redemption world.

From an article in The Dispatch, Friday, Nov. 1, 2019, The move (announced retirement of Greg Walden, congressman from Oregon, R) shocked much of Washington, but not Brendan Buck, former counselor to House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Thoughtful legislating is not rewarded anymore,” Buck told The Dispatch on Thursday. “We are now in an era of entertainment politics, and if you want to work your way up through the system, the answer no longer is learning policy, putting your time in at the committee level, becoming a legislator. The way to get ahead now is to go on television and use hyperbole and say crazy things. And so, it is no surprise that it is some of our more thoughtful legislators who are deciding to leave.”