Category: Random Thursday

Random Thursday for December 24, 2015

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Unrelated remarks in no particular order

White Winter Hymnal.  I like this song, but I have no idea what it means.  Is was on the Pentatonix Christmas album, but is it a Christmas song?  According to Songfacts, it’s not supposed to mean anything.  Listen to the original song here.

“Lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold (from Daytrotter): “It’s lyrically fairly meaningless. As an introduction to the record, (this was intended to be the opening track on the album), we thought it would be nice to start it with a simple jam that’s focussed on singing – on the record it starts with a tongue-in-cheek harmony thing that we hoped would make people laugh or something but I think it just confuses them. This is my favorite song to play live, though singing it live is sometimes difficult because the lyrics are so vague. Weird how that works!”

Star Wars Episode 7, The Force Awakens.  People in my household are watching all the Star Wars movies in order (by episode number, not release date) to get ready for The Force Awakens.  Someone (I can’t find out who) pointed out you can forget Episode 1 and not lose any plot points.  I wonder if any of the newest movies will refer to Episodes 1-3, which were, IMHO, cinematic garbage.  I liked The Force Awakens.  It seems like the biggest spoiler for The Force Awakens is A New Hope.

Leonard Cohen:  “There’s a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”

 

 

Random Thursday for December 17, 2015

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Even though I call this Random Thursday and say “unrelated remarks in no particular order”, people still complain about how these posts are disjointed and don’t hang together.

definition of random

 

I hope that helps.  (Thanks to Merriam-Webster)

UNRELATED REMARKS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

As a member of the radical middle, I hoped the GOP would go so far to the right that they’d go right off the map.  I wasn’t prepared for how many were willing to go off the edge with them.

I have some new songs to share:

This is All Will Be Well by The Gabe Dixon Band.  Anyone who is working in ministry, either professionally or as a volunteer, will appreciate this song.  It rings true and helps me through the frustrating times.  Lyrics are courtesy of Google Play.  Click this link to hear the song.

The new day dawns,
And I am practicing my purpose once again.
It is fresh and it is fruitful if I win but if I lose,
Oooooo I don’t know.
I will be tired but I will turn and I will go,
Only guessing til I get there then I’ll know,
Oh oh oh I will know.

 All the children walking home past the factories
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true,
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 The winter’s cold,
But the snow still lightly settles on the trees.
And a mess is still a moment I can seize until I know,
That all will be well.
Even though sometimes this is hard to tell,
And the fight is just as frustrating as hell
All will be well.

 All the children walking home past the factories,
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 Keep it up and don’t give up
And chase your dreams and you will find
All in time.

 All the children walking home past the factories
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true,
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

You can ask me how but only time will tell.

Adding some balance to your Christmas music playlist:  Jackson Browne’s The Rebel Jesus.  Here are the lyrics, courtesy of Lyrics Freak.  Click this link to hear the song.

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants’ windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all god’s graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace
And they call him by the savior
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in
From a temple to a robber’s den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But please forgive me if I seem
To take the tone of judgement
For I’ve no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan

On the side of the rebel Jesus.

 

 

Random Thursday for December 10, 2015

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Unrelated comments in no particular order.

Jerry Falwell, Jr’s concealed carry comments have been all over Facebook.  I remember when his father, near the end of his life, met with a group of gay Christian men to try to understand their point of view.  I believe Jerry was honestly trying to see things from another point of view.  I don’t think the later Jerry Falwell, Sr. would have approved of his son’s comments.

Everyone on each side thinks the other side’s crazies have taken over.

I have spent a long time on this blog trying to keep people from making comparisons to the Nazis.  Then Trump comes along to test my resolve.  Here is a flowchart that should help, courtesy of College Humor.

nazi flowchart

Trump is a mirror, reflecting our worst selves.  I think minorities don’t like him because they see how he views Muslims and figure he thinks the same about them.

I draft my blog entries in a Moleskine notebook.  I have a hard time passing up a good notebook.  Here are some alternatives to the Moleskine.  I’ve used the Mod notebook and liked it.  Check them out at http://gearpatrol.com/2014/04/09/margin-call-5-moleskine-alternatives-for-the-notetaker/.

best-moleskine-alternative-notebooks-gear-patrol-lead-full

Random Thursday for October 1, 2015

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Here are your random thoughts for this week.

Another day of people trying to convince me guns have nothing to do with shootings.

cow staredown

From my Facebook feed:

wade reck

Is ‘contestation’ a word?

We have fewer ways to communicate with teenagers.  They don’t do e-mail or Facebook.  I hear Twitter is on its way out.  Are Snapchat and Instagram all we have left?  What social medium is actually working?  We have so many methods to communicate, but it gets harder to reach someone.

I googled “man laws” and got a bunch of sites about how men are supposed to back each other up with women, how to figure out who rides shotgun, and when your buddy’s ex-girlfriend is officially dateable.  I googled “woman laws” and got a bunch of sites about equal pay for equal work and abortion.  Are there woman laws in the same way we have man laws?

“The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne’s are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God.” ― Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

(Image is “cow staredown” by Ray Dumas on Flickr.  CC BY-SA 2.0.  They think shootings involve guns.)

Random Thursday for September 3, 2015

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Referring back to my blog Six Degrees of Adolf Hitler, I’m happy to read how Richard Parker chose not play the Hitler card in a recent column in the Dallas Morning News:  “To put Trump’s bad idea [deporting illegal immigrants] into perspective, no nation has experienced forced repatriation on the scale he proposes since 20th century Germany. No, nothing compares to the Holocaust, so I won’t try.”  (Richard Parker, “Trump’s bad immigration ideas are a good chance for true debate”, Dallas Morning News, 18 August 2015)

Back in class after a summer off, taking Intro to Worship.  One of the instructors said when you sing together in worship, you breathe together (since the music requires it), but it also synchronizes the congregations heartbeats and brainwaves.  You are truly united in song.

Check out this video of a youth group race.  It’s so cool.  I’m going to have to try this.

dawes and mumford

Great song of the week:  “When My Time Comes” by Dawes.  I’m late to the party on this one, as I usually am, but what a great song.  Check out this video with Dawes and Mumford and Sons.  Goosebumps.

(Image is “Dawes with Mumford and Sons” by Stacey Kizer on Flickr.  CC BY-NC 2.0.  A different venue than the video.)

Random Thursday for August 13, 2015

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Once again, Random Thursday is on a Friday.

I wasn’t going to give Trump any more time, but then Mark Davis, someone I don’t agree with often, wrote this in the Dallas Morning News (Tuesday, August 11, 2015)

“Every once in awhile [sic], we all need an inner voice that says:  ‘I shouldn’t say that.  It’s over the line.’  If we ignore that voice and mouth off anyway and get roasted for it, we should not whine about political correctness.  Maybe we should look in the mirror and learn when to shut up.”

Someone else (not sure where I heard this) said, “The opposite of political correctness is not vulgarity.”

That’s enough of that.  Here’s a couple of great songs I want to pass along:

lucius

Two of Us on the Run by Lucius.  Here’s the video.

  • “There’s no race, there’s only a runner, put one foot in front of the other”
  • “And we’ll one day tell our story of how we made something of ourselves now”
  • I served communion at a worship service this week and the band sang this song.  As someone on the road to being a second career pastor, I thought about the story I’d tell one day.

Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) by Ages and Ages.  Here’s the video.

  • This song came about as the band went through a lot of changes:  the deaths of parents and birth of children.  Great chorus.
(Image is Lucius – Greek Theater – May 2, 2015 by starbright31 on Flickr.  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.  Starbright31 didn’t invite me to the show.)

Random Thursday for Aug 6, 2015

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No matter how low you set the bar, Donald Trump finds a way to go under it.

In the midst of the outrage about the outrage over Cecil the lion’s death, there was an insightful comment in the Dallas Morning News, in a letter by Don McElfresh, published on August 3, 2015.  Cecil’s death represents a loss of innocence, because “. . . most people, down deep inside, want to believe that not everything is for sale.”

cow staredown

Jon Stewart ended his run on The Daily Show with a lecture on three different kinds of B.S.  “If you smell something, say something.”  Words to live by.  I’ll do my best.

An impressive article by James Fallows in The Atlantic (Jan/Feb 2015 issue) called “The Tragedy of the American Military” gives words to feelings I couldn’t express:  “Reverent but disengaged” and “we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them.”  Doonesbury had a good one, too.

It used to be that saying “I’m not politically correct” was a way to try to communicate an uncomfortable truth.  Now it’s a lame excuse to give in to your dark side.  I’m talking to you, Donald Trump.

(Image is “cow staredown” by Ray Dumas on Flickr.  CC BY-SA 2.0.  Don’t look them in the eye.)

Random Thursday for July 30, 2015

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We need a leader who inspires us to be our best selves, not one who makes us comfortable with our prejudices.

It’s important to remember that Dylann Roof didn’t kill nine people at Mother Emmanuel AME Church with a confederate battle flag.  What have we done to prevent another shooting?

Other interesting articles on guns and shooting:

On a lighter note, I saw this image on Facebook.  Things like this are why I started this blog.  You can’t finish a thought until you’ve taken in all the available facts.  Socrates would be proud.  Many thanks to David G. McAfee.

si and thor

Random Thursday for July 23, 2015

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This week Random Thursday is on a Friday.

This is a good one for The Jabbok Ford:  “I read others’ sermons to remember that I am not the first person to wrestle with these texts; other preachers do too, and their scars are beautiful.” From Anna Carter Florence, in “7 Essential Books for Preaching”, Christian Century, 10/20/2009, page 45 (italics mine)

Ramones

“Ramones’ songs are like circles. The very first person to ever draw one was a genius.  Everyone who has done so since is in kindergarten.”  From Willa Paskin in “Sex & Drugs & Middle-Aged White Guys”, Slate Magazine

Starbucks should charge some people rent.  I’m looking for a table for some social time with a friend and they’re taken up by business meetings.

I knew Trump would self-destruct sooner or later, but over POWs?  Really?  Here’s a great letter to the Dallas Morning News asking other billionaires to take Trump to task.  Here’s an op-ed piece explaining that Trump either isn’t a billionaire or that you may be one and not know it.

Can we get people to stand guard at movie theaters and AME churches?

(Image is “RAMONES – Manchester Apollo – 1980” by Harry (Howard) Potts on Flickr.  CC BY 2.0.  I wasn’t at the concert.)

Random Thursday for July 16, 2015

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From Episcopal priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor:  “Being a priest seemed only slightly less dicey to me than being chief engineer at a nuclear power plant.  In both cases, one needed to know how to approach great power without loosing great danger and getting fried in the process.”  – From Leaving Church, quoted in The Christian Century, June 24, 2015, p3

I don’t get how strict Constitutionalists are angry about unelected Supreme Court judges rendering decisions.  It’s in the Constitution.

Is there a difference between being right and winning an argument?

This is an interesting photo.  It’s in a church in Israel and is intended to keep tour guides and others from talking in the sanctuary, thereby preserving its purpose as a place of prayer.  But . . .

no explanations in church