What is hope?

I have been confronted again with my thin understanding of hope. So often we use the word hope when we are merely saying wish. "I hope it doesn't rain. I hope she likes me. I hope everything turns out ok." All those phrases are mere well wishes- not hope. I couldn't define hope better than Reuben Alves who said, "Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is to dance to it."

Other's thoughts

I love Frederich Beuchner’s words regarding anger.

“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you."

Things that make me wince

Walking toward Comerica Park with my children and father-in-law, we witnessed a not uncommon sight.  Two cops had a pan handler against their car and were giving the "handler" a verbal lashing as they checked his pockets.  The tone and the words exchanged were not pleasant but not vulgar either.  I tried to engage both of my sons in conversation quickly as I shielded them from the scene that was no more than 5 feet from us as we passed.  Neither boy reacted and frankly the scene quickly slipped my mind.  After we entered the park, climbed up to the nose-bleeds and watched an inning or so, I noticed that Caleb seemed melancholy.  I couldn't get him to talk about what he was feeling, but he climbed up in my lap.  20 minutes, a carousel ride and some foam paws later, Caleb's normal spunk returned.  Driving home in the car, he piped up.  "Daddy, do you know why I was sad in the game?  It is because I don't want to go to jail like that man we saw as we were walking".

I tried to explain that good men who make good choices need not fear jail or the police. I am not sure what he understood of what I said, but within seconds, Caleb responded by saying he would like to be a police officer, and Nolan said "me too".

It is always interesting watching little boys trying to process man size information.

Song of Solomon

Here is my thought of the day... imagine for a second, a Christian band writing songs that were sexually explicit- on the scale of say ... Song of Solomon. Even if those songs were written for the band member's wives, I don't see any way that the Christian community wouldn't be outraged. The objections that the songs discuss private matters would probably be the loudest. And yet I can't help but think, couldn't the same objections be leveled against Song of Solomon? So, what is the lesson in all of this?

thinking... thinking...

Got it. Obviously we should reject Song of Solomon from the canon.

new old thoughts

Mysterium Tremendum... a term with which everyone should be acquainted. Check it.

New office

I am getting settled into the new office although it is a little unsettling to not have the constant stream of visitors in and out of my office. Plus I can't crank music over here. I have been moved to the "big boy" hall, but I still don't feel quite grown up. I am not sure when that is going to happen. Old? Yes, I feel old often, but not "grown up". Maybe I need to be crankier.