The title/lyric is from Ode To The Little Brown Shack by Billy Edd Wheeler. The finest song I know of about the family outhouse. Check out the online outhouse museum by clicking the title. Yes, there's an Outhouse Preservation Society.
I love David Sedaris, and another David I love has the good taste to welcome him on his show every so often to read a selection. Here's one of my favorites. Those who know me best won't be surprised I enjoy this conversation.
Oct 4, 2007
You come like an answered prayer. Praise God! Try to love try to OH!
This title/lyric is from Dave Matthews Band's Hunger for the Great Light. I saw the band twice this summer in concert. You can see them play this song in concert by clicking the title.
Critics may point out the inaccuracy of the following title, but little can diminish the expereince. Kids, it is time for
THE WEEKLY INAPPROPRIATE CHURCH SIGN
Admit it, you're gonna go to the website next!
Critics may point out the inaccuracy of the following title, but little can diminish the expereince. Kids, it is time for
THE WEEKLY INAPPROPRIATE CHURCH SIGN
Admit it, you're gonna go to the website next!
Oct 3, 2007
I got it on; your favorite T. It never looked as good on you, as it looks on me.
This title is a lyric from an old school song (for me) by The Lemonheads called Favorite T. They are still around, or at least their website is. Check it out by clicking the title.
Thought some Patton Oswalt was in order. I love this guy and dig this observation.
That sucks! Are you in The Strokes?
Thought some Patton Oswalt was in order. I love this guy and dig this observation.
That sucks! Are you in The Strokes?
Oct 2, 2007
Everyone around me has changed, but the garden that you planted remains.
This title is a lyric from the song The Garden You Planted by Sea Wolf. They have some inspired moments in their music. Check them out by clicking this title.
It is an amazing thing going home. You are never who you have evolved into or grown into or worked your way to; your reputation based on work or accomplishment doesn't precede you, that is what you say in conversations once you get there. You are, at home, who you used to be; whenever it was you left. For me, going home most recently meant heading to Indiana for my high school reunion (10 years for those keeping score). I gotta say walking through the airport headed to the plane that would take me eventually to Linton for this reunion there were a hundred other things I was more looking forward to doing in coming days.
One of those was visit Purdue University and see some kids I love who are in various stages of college. There are at least thirty schools in the country where I know kids and could've gone. Purdue was my pick on this particular trip for a handful of reasons. First of all, so many kids are there to visit; 6 who have been in my camps or youth groups. Second, Notre Dame was coming into town to get whupped on Saturday. Third, and most honestly, I have this extremely crazy archetype for the woman I will one day marry and two of the girls (I helped raise) at Purdue are the main examples in my head that she exists-that I might one day find this woman. In moments of fantasy I assume this woman is one of these girls. So I needed/wanted to see them in their most recent habitat.
This led to a moment that helped put things in perspective.
As I sat in the lobby of a dormitory with one of these girls (who I just adore and think may be the kindest person I know) I became aware that I was annoyed by the 18 and 19 year olds in the room; some drunk, all obnoxious in the way a new puppy is when it shits on the floor or pees right next to the newspaper you've laid down for it, I wanted to wad my magazine up and smack them each and all on the nose. I looked over at this girl...GIRL...I have been clinging to as a beacon of hope that there are women for me out there and realized she was not my peer at all, but these adolescent animals'.
I spent that night thinking about the disctance between 18 and 19 where these kids were and 28 and 29 where most of my classmates and I are. There is so much you learn in those years, maybe all spans of a decade, but surely especially this one. You begin to try on adulthood, some put it on permamnently. You lose and fail and get your heartbroken and compromise. Some get married, some have babies; some get married and then have babies. There are houses bought and surgeries performed and parents lost and fortunes gained. There are divorces and court proceedings and once in a lifetime religious ceremonies. Some have worked nine years in ten at the same job and others have had twenty jobs of varying responsibility in that time. As Saturday wore on, as I talked with some people I know well in the midst this decade, trying to figure it out in their way, I longed for some peers.
I suppose there is a prt of me that longs for peers in other ways; I want a wife that is my equal, I want to work with people I deem as talented as me, I want friends on my level. But this night I just wanted to be in a room with people who had been through some of the same stuff I had been through...at least started the same place.
And soon I was at my reuinion.
This isn't us, though a pic of some Linton alums.
Going home is an epic thing (read the Odyssey), a sometimes hard thing as we stand before those who knew us before we pushed off from the shore in search of our destiny (read Jesus' homecoming). But as I entered Linton-Stockton High School Class of 97's 10 year reunion, though it could have been a comparison session or a chance to say I told you so's or a chance to laugh at people's misfortunes and heartache, what I wanted was the company of people my own age; from my own hometown even.
There was hugging and storytelling, singing and dancing, drinking and a ton of laughing. I remembered who I was ten years ago and in so doing found there was in me a large measure of him. I suppose I was always in part someone's minister. Oh, I didn't witness to anyone in high school. I don't really do that now. And I was often holding a beer and cussing and loud. I am still those things on occasion. But I think, if memory serves, I really cared about a lot of people then. And I sure do now. Looking back I was in training for this life. Those people are the first people I helped raise...and they helped raise me. And at the end of the night I was dancing with Dana, certainly someone who gives me hope the woman I imagine is out there, and she's my peer.
There's one.
I suppose I am ready to be blogging again. When this medium meant the most to me I was using it to share my inner most thoughts in a daily life that had no room for them. The next few months expect a lot of talk about love. I am searching for it, for her, for someone who is my peer and my equal. I remain patient, but I am done waiting. I have a 15 year class reunion coming up!
It is an amazing thing going home. You are never who you have evolved into or grown into or worked your way to; your reputation based on work or accomplishment doesn't precede you, that is what you say in conversations once you get there. You are, at home, who you used to be; whenever it was you left. For me, going home most recently meant heading to Indiana for my high school reunion (10 years for those keeping score). I gotta say walking through the airport headed to the plane that would take me eventually to Linton for this reunion there were a hundred other things I was more looking forward to doing in coming days.
One of those was visit Purdue University and see some kids I love who are in various stages of college. There are at least thirty schools in the country where I know kids and could've gone. Purdue was my pick on this particular trip for a handful of reasons. First of all, so many kids are there to visit; 6 who have been in my camps or youth groups. Second, Notre Dame was coming into town to get whupped on Saturday. Third, and most honestly, I have this extremely crazy archetype for the woman I will one day marry and two of the girls (I helped raise) at Purdue are the main examples in my head that she exists-that I might one day find this woman. In moments of fantasy I assume this woman is one of these girls. So I needed/wanted to see them in their most recent habitat.
This led to a moment that helped put things in perspective.
As I sat in the lobby of a dormitory with one of these girls (who I just adore and think may be the kindest person I know) I became aware that I was annoyed by the 18 and 19 year olds in the room; some drunk, all obnoxious in the way a new puppy is when it shits on the floor or pees right next to the newspaper you've laid down for it, I wanted to wad my magazine up and smack them each and all on the nose. I looked over at this girl...GIRL...I have been clinging to as a beacon of hope that there are women for me out there and realized she was not my peer at all, but these adolescent animals'.
I spent that night thinking about the disctance between 18 and 19 where these kids were and 28 and 29 where most of my classmates and I are. There is so much you learn in those years, maybe all spans of a decade, but surely especially this one. You begin to try on adulthood, some put it on permamnently. You lose and fail and get your heartbroken and compromise. Some get married, some have babies; some get married and then have babies. There are houses bought and surgeries performed and parents lost and fortunes gained. There are divorces and court proceedings and once in a lifetime religious ceremonies. Some have worked nine years in ten at the same job and others have had twenty jobs of varying responsibility in that time. As Saturday wore on, as I talked with some people I know well in the midst this decade, trying to figure it out in their way, I longed for some peers.
I suppose there is a prt of me that longs for peers in other ways; I want a wife that is my equal, I want to work with people I deem as talented as me, I want friends on my level. But this night I just wanted to be in a room with people who had been through some of the same stuff I had been through...at least started the same place.
And soon I was at my reuinion.
This isn't us, though a pic of some Linton alums.Going home is an epic thing (read the Odyssey), a sometimes hard thing as we stand before those who knew us before we pushed off from the shore in search of our destiny (read Jesus' homecoming). But as I entered Linton-Stockton High School Class of 97's 10 year reunion, though it could have been a comparison session or a chance to say I told you so's or a chance to laugh at people's misfortunes and heartache, what I wanted was the company of people my own age; from my own hometown even.
There was hugging and storytelling, singing and dancing, drinking and a ton of laughing. I remembered who I was ten years ago and in so doing found there was in me a large measure of him. I suppose I was always in part someone's minister. Oh, I didn't witness to anyone in high school. I don't really do that now. And I was often holding a beer and cussing and loud. I am still those things on occasion. But I think, if memory serves, I really cared about a lot of people then. And I sure do now. Looking back I was in training for this life. Those people are the first people I helped raise...and they helped raise me. And at the end of the night I was dancing with Dana, certainly someone who gives me hope the woman I imagine is out there, and she's my peer.
There's one.
I suppose I am ready to be blogging again. When this medium meant the most to me I was using it to share my inner most thoughts in a daily life that had no room for them. The next few months expect a lot of talk about love. I am searching for it, for her, for someone who is my peer and my equal. I remain patient, but I am done waiting. I have a 15 year class reunion coming up!
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