What's the oldest thing you still have that you got when it was new? (Spouses, children, and Galapagos land tortoises don't count for purposes of this exercise.)
I haven't performed a rigorous search through all of my worldly possessions, but the thing that most likely fits the bill is a Bible I received for my birthday in 1960. It's a King James Version -- there weren't a lot of alternatives back then -- and it bears various penciled notes in my handwriting, most of which are explicable but a few, like the one that says "Leviticus 14: How to cleanse lepers," are of mysterious significance. (Did I make a special note of that chapter, just in case I found myself trapped in a leper colony? Nothing like being prepared, I guess.) The Bible also has one of those inter-testament sections for recording significant family events: births, marriages; it even has a little fill-in-the-blank family tree page. The only things I felt were significant enough to be recorded were my own birthday (just in case I forgot), and that of my younger brother (probably so that I could remember to forget). The Bible's cover is ragged, and the rarely used, having been displaced by easier to understand (and more rugged) versions.
I suppose this exercise should be a reminder of fleeting value of material possessions, but it's also a reminder of the priceless nature of the memories such possessions can evoke. I'd like to live a simpler, less cluttered life, but taking inventory like this is proof that not all clutter is created equal.
I had every intention of posting something yesterday. Unfortunately, my internet service provider -- SoddenLink* -- had other ideas. I was able to "borrow" enough bandwidth from an unknown neighbor's unprotected wireless network to check email and complete some critical client-related tasks (fortunately, he or she uses a more reliable ISP), but couldn't muster the enthusiasm to use it for blogging. More about that later.
In any event, we're back from a relaxing vacation, and I figured I'd ease back into the 'sphere with a quiz of sorts. So, where in the world am I and my ant bud, shown below?
OK, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out in general where we are, so I'll have to ask for a pretty specific location, down to even an intersection or street name. Even then, this should be no hill for a stepper.
*However lame it may be, the misspelling is intentional. It's my only means of expressing dismay at how the company's service has sunk to the same level as its TV commercials.
Update (Feb 19): The stolen dog has been recovered and is in fine shape! Thanks for getting the word out.
Update (Feb 15): The reward for the return of this dog has been increased to $2,000. The owners are really anxious to get him back.
We interrupt this sabbatical for a local public service announcement. I've been asked to help someone try to recover their stolen bulldog puppy, the details of which are in the poster shown below.
If you're a Midland blogger and have the inclination to do so, please post this image or link to this post, and let's try to get this pup and owner re-united. Thanks!
We now return to our previous state of hibernation.
Do you know anyone famous, infamous, semi-famous, or should-be-famous-if-there-was-any-justice, and you can say about that person, "I knew her/him when..."?
I know several folks who fall into that category, ranging from a multi-millionaire would-be-governor of Texas whose lawn I used to mow when I was in junior high, to a current US congressman whom I met with on Wednesday evenings in our roles as directors of our respective Sunday School departments. But I also know someone who may be on the verge of becoming an "I knew him when..." candidate, and if you pay attention, you'll be able to make that same claim.
I'm referring to Kyle Lent, whose blog is listed over at right in the "Other Texas Blogs" category. Kyle grew up in Midland, graduated from MHS, and we count his parents as dear friends. He now lives in the Austin area, is a member of a Christian band, and owns a recording studio. He's also working on a solo musical project, and that's the real subject of this post.
He's posted links to four of the songs on the new album, which will be titled In Harbors Gray, and I'm impressed. I've got all the CDs recorded by his current group, the Justin Cofield Band, but, frankly, his solo work is much more my cup of tea. I recommend dropping by his place and listening to the songs; if you have time for only one track, start with the bluesy Providence. I think Kyle would probably tell you that he's been influenced musically by people like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jonny Lang, and he's skillfully woven those influences around a worshipful song.
Somewhere in a shoe box in a closet, I have an 8mm video tape of Kyle and his dad playing guitars in a talent show at a local fair. I don't know how old he was at the time...early teens, I think, but he was the crowd favorite. To this day, I still can't figure out how the judges decided some doofus pre-teen boy in a sequined suit singing and dancing to a Broadway show tune was superior to a rockin' dude belting out licks with his guitar behind his head, but I guess that falls into the last category of "famous" I mentioned above.
Anyway, take a listen to Kyle's music, and when you start hearing it on the radio and downloading it from iTunes, you'll be able to say "I knew him when..."
Scattershooting* while contemplating Biblical references to "grits"...
The story of the jealous astronaut has consumed the airways -- and rightfully so -- creating a field day for talk show gag writers and journalists seeking respite from political stories. My favorite headline this far was this simple one that appeared on CNN Headline News the day the story broke: "Astro-Naughty."
I understand that as a result of this incident, NASA is second-guessing its psychological evaluation process for prospective astronauts. Good luck with that, I say. For some reason, this weird episode is comforting in the way it shows that while we might be able to conquer space and perform all kinds of technological "miracles," the human mind, psyche and heart are still as mysterious and unpredictable as ever.
We've been treating Abbye for a fairly serious flareup of uveitis, an "ocular inflammatory disease." It's apparently a fairly common thing for dogs with diabetes. Trying to cover all the bases, the vet has performed some tests which I've never seen done to a dog. One was a measure of her tear production, which was accomplished by sticking a strip of paper under her eyelid and measuring the amount of tears via capillary action down the strip. I've been told that an identical process is used on humans, which I didn't know; it sounds quite uncomfortable. The second test seemed even more so. It was essentially a test for glaucoma, measuring the pressure of her eyeballs, and was accomplished not with the puff of air many of us have experienced during our eye exams, but by punching the eyeball with something that looks like a digital thermometer until it beeps (the device, not the eyeball), indicating the pressure has been recorded. Again, the prospect of having this done to my eye gives me the willies, but Abbye didn't blink (pun intended) at either test. And, since you're wondering, she produces the normal amount of tears (for a dog) and her eyeball pressures are just fine. So, other than not working, her eyes are fine.
I've always liked the New American Standard version of the Bible, and I understand it comes closer to faithfully capturing the precise wording of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts than most other translations. But despite careful reading and re-reading, I'm always discovering new things, and this morning I ran across a reference that I'd never before noticed. Take a quick look, if you will, at the the Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 2, verses 14-16:
Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the LORD, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire, grits of new growth, for the grain offering of your early ripened things. You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it; it is a grain offering. The priest shall offer up in smoke its memorial portion, part of its grits and its oil with all its incense as an offering by fire to the LORD.
If you look in other translations of this passage you might find references to "beaten corn," but the translators of the NAS were apparently raised in the south -- probably Southern Baptists -- and so they've employed the superior term, "grits." There's something cool about knowing that grits are mentioned in the Bible.
Incidentally, in the original Hebrew, the word signifying "beaten corn" is geres, derived from a root that means husk or kernel, and is often translated as simply "grain."
You can think about the preceding thread the next time you watch My Cousin Vinny.
*In honor of the great Blackie Sherrod, dontcha know?
I see that Jimmy has drunk the Corté Kool-Aid and is now taking dance lessons to make points with his wife. The thing is, after only one lesson he seems to think he qualifies for sainthood. Let me tell you, Boxstep Boy, you'll know when you truly merit that recognition, but at this point your descent into the Nether Regions has scarcely entered the foyer.
Come talk to me when your dance-related expenditures have moved well into four significant digits (including a digital camcorder for taping lessons); when you can discuss the timing of "promenade, rondé, lock and flair" with the same facility that you employ in computing slugging percentage; when your time at the dance studio exceeds your time in Big Bend (including drive time to and from); when a good friend tells you that she dreamed about watching you two dance (and adds that, in her dream, she remembers thinking "well, they're not very good" [we assured her that was no dream]). We'll be ready to listen when you are able to admit that you actually bought a new pair of shoes just for dancing. You'll know you've arrived when the appearance of a newspaper ad for "social dresses" at Dillards strikes fear into your heart, and causes your wallet to shrink to a size that could be concealed in Emmitt Smith's DWTS partner's dance costumes.
Yeah, Jimmy, I applaud your romantic motivations -- even as I also understand the complicated calculus that you're trying to employ to compute a potential payoff -- but I hope you don't find that you might have been better off selling a couple of semi-important organs and buying your wife a nice gemstone. Because, frankly, at least that way you get to pick the organs.
...it's Who you know. Or so goes the old cliché. But as we like to say around here, just because it's a cliché doesn't mean it's not true. So keep it in mind if you decide to take the "Ultimate Bible Quiz."
When I saw Jim's post about the quiz, I couldn't resist taking it, albeit with some trepidation. Granted, forty years of regular attendance in a Baptist Sunday School (that includes time off for bad behavior through several years in college) and reading the Bible cover-to-cover in each of the last fifteen years should equip me to handle the kinds of trivia that one typically finds in these online quizzes, but I also frequently have trouble finding my car keys or remembering the name of a person I met five minutes earlier.
The real concern I have with a Bible quiz is that someone taking it might try to read more into the results than is warranted. The fact of the matter is that knowing the Bible inside and out doesn't make you a better person or even a better Christian, at least in the ways we humans define "better." Sure, God desires that we strive to know Him better in every way possible -- intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically as we experience His sovereign power in the created world that surrounds us. And the Bible is a primo source of good information to help us achieve that knowledge. But we'll never know Him fully in this part of life, and He's fine with that as long as we have Him.
I got a good score on the quiz, one that pleased me intellectually. But every Christian is at a different place in his or her spiritual journey, and a score on this quiz is so irrelevant in every important respect as to make it laughable. In fact, the only quiz that counts is one that has only one question, and it's a "yes or no" question at that. If you really want to know where you stand with respect to the thing that God cares about most, this is the quiz to take:
