I trimmed the trees and it was cute seeing the kids trying to haul off the big branches to the back of the house. They were told they could just pick up the smaller ones, but they were determined to prove themselves. (Hey George, can you stop by with the truck sometime this week so we can haul it to the dump? Free dinner for your services.)
Bedtime is getting a little easier as both kids are starting to go to bed at the same time, and now we all read books together as a family, dogs included. It’s real special moment of the day, or maybe I’m just happy it’s time for them to go to bed and there will be some peace and quiet in GeedingManor.
When I bought WifeGeeding’s birthday cake, the high school girl behind the counter was named “Karcyn”. You would pronounce it the same way you would “Carson”. I’ve never seen it spelled such a way.
I have fun memories of playing around mesquite trees and cracking mesquite bean shells.
Our pastor is on vacation so we had a guest pastor who decided to preached a sermon on anger, which actually made me angry. For one, he referenced people from Asia as Orientals, instead of Asians. Oriental refers to material “things” from the orient, so when you call a human being “oriental” you are referring to them as an object with no soul or substance. But in truth that really didn’t bother me and I really just chalked that one up as him being an innocent naive old white man. Hey, things happen, he’s human, we all make mistakes and he had no idea that could be offensive in an overly politically correct and oversensitive world. What really bothered me was his definition of depression, he described it as anger directed inwardly by an individual. That is an incorrect and gross over-simplification, and to make sure I didn’t hear him out of context, I asked a few other friends their perception and understanding of what he said. As one who has suffered from depression, sought counseling, been mediated, and struggled with suicide, that really irked me. It serves as a good reminded that pastors are not therapists.
I watched the pilot episode of FX’s ‘Married’ which stars the very underrated Judy Greer, and I was surprised at the number of celebrity cameos. If you are into crass humor that revolves around being married and having a family, then I’d highly recommend it.
I wrote the next two bullet points that mention James Garner on Friday night thinking it would be strange bit of timing if he died over the weekend.
Per the Dallas Mavericks Wikipedia page, the name of the team came in part from the television series ‘Maverick’ in which James Garner played the namesake character, and he was a member of the ownership group. I had no idea. Garner, by the way, is 86-years-old and the last work he’s done was voice work back in 2010. Here’s an old ESPN article about the name and the kerfuffle with local UTA that was already using the name. I remember having that bumper sticker mentioned in the article on a bench at my house and having no idea what it was referring to.
Jon Hamm is today’s version of James Garner.
Random quote from ‘Rectify’ that has stuck with me, “We are what we don’t throw away.”
For you ‘Breaking Bad’ fans I noticed Target is now selling Los Pollos Hermanos t-shirts. The problem with most of Target’s t-shirts is that they are an “athletic fit” which means they are a snug fit, and chubby people like me prefer a loose fitting shirt.
I have only faint memories of when you had to pull the entire tab off a Coke can.
As much of a fan of space as I am, I’m surprised I’ve never seen these two pictures of an astronaut on the moon standing next Old Glory with Earth in the background. Pic1Pic2
Gov Good Hair is out of state again but this time he’s in Iowa, and I don’t think he’s trying to convince Iowa business to move to Texas.
I can see John Oliver going on a long Emmy winning streak because a once a week half-hour show is a lot easier to put together than four half-hour shows a week.
The institutional church system is just a poor model as CEO-Pastorman gives a minimum of 52 "sermons" a year where he's the only one talking for 20 – 45 minutes without participation. If you took the number of times pastors / priests from post-300ADish have said dumbass, misinformed, UNGODLY things, we'd be able to identify the causation for much of the ills of society today.
And I don't think I've overstated the above. A very good friend of mine — who does not identify as Christian — but has been heavily involved in social work his entire career / adult life thinks much of the psychosis he encounters is due to the "Christian belief" of eternal torment. If you really think about that belief, then why wouldn't countless folks be running around certifiably crazy because they've got loved ones — or eventually themselves — burning forever and forever and then forever again? Eternal torment is sentencing a man to a life sentence although he doesn't get to die to end the judgment. He gets shocked back to life at each point of "death" to continue serving lifetime after lifetime after lifetime.
And he doesn't get a cell with minimal comforts; he gets to "live" every day in complete and total agony.
If you really believed that about your mom who died without "praying the prayer," or your dad, or wife, or, HELL, some complete stranger who was a jerk to you while checking you out at 7-11, then I think that belief would be sufficient to cause psychotic behavior. In fact, I would more question why any of us who believe that are not psychotic.
If eternal torment is true, then God's the worst Warden in the history of ever. And for those who say "Satan" is the warden of Hell, then I ask who gave him that position? And in that event, I would say God made the worst delegation in the history of ever.
I digress. Bottom line, NO man has enough edifying things to say to be expected to talk uninterrupted for 30 minutes or an hour a week to a group of people for the rest of his life. Jesus didn't do that. Nor did his disciples. Nor did Christianity for most of the first 3 centuries.
But we've done it ever since. And we've indoctrinated a whole, whole, whole bunch of folks with crazy notions of eternal torment and then told them things like depression is anger at yourselves. Or depression is a choice, get over it.
Asswipes.
I believe Jesus has done more good in this world than we could imagine. However, I believe we've darn near matched his good with bad (if that were possible) in our misrepresentation of him throughout history. Gandhi had it right: "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
So visiting pastors are no longer allowed on our church, we have a pretty strict no food in sanctuary policy and first visitor handed out water from pulpit as part of a message, second pastor made reference to sin and it being black … We are almost always an all white congregation with an occasional member that is more tan. This particular Sunday we had a black family visiting and his choice of words followed by his confusing when he looked up and realized he had a black audience made everyone less sure that his word choice was not intended as raciest. Old white preachers what cha going to do with them ?
The quote from Rectify is a good one, it made me think of Bob Goff, author of "Love Does." He quits something every Thursday. Doing so gives you a chance to look at your life and get rid of things that are either unnecessary, or even harmful to you or your relationships with others. I recommend the book, it's an easy read.
The institutional church system is just a poor model as CEO-Pastorman gives a minimum of 52 "sermons" a year where he's the only one talking for 20 – 45 minutes without participation. If you took the number of times pastors / priests from post-300ADish have said dumbass, misinformed, UNGODLY things, we'd be able to identify the causation for much of the ills of society today.
And I don't think I've overstated the above. A very good friend of mine — who does not identify as Christian — but has been heavily involved in social work his entire career / adult life thinks much of the psychosis he encounters is due to the "Christian belief" of eternal torment. If you really think about that belief, then why wouldn't countless folks be running around certifiably crazy because they've got loved ones — or eventually themselves — burning forever and forever and then forever again? Eternal torment is sentencing a man to a life sentence although he doesn't get to die to end the judgment. He gets shocked back to life at each point of "death" to continue serving lifetime after lifetime after lifetime.
And he doesn't get a cell with minimal comforts; he gets to "live" every day in complete and total agony.
If you really believed that about your mom who died without "praying the prayer," or your dad, or wife, or, HELL, some complete stranger who was a jerk to you while checking you out at 7-11, then I think that belief would be sufficient to cause psychotic behavior. In fact, I would more question why any of us who believe that are not psychotic.
If eternal torment is true, then God's the worst Warden in the history of ever. And for those who say "Satan" is the warden of Hell, then I ask who gave him that position? And in that event, I would say God made the worst delegation in the history of ever.
I digress. Bottom line, NO man has enough edifying things to say to be expected to talk uninterrupted for 30 minutes or an hour a week to a group of people for the rest of his life. Jesus didn't do that. Nor did his disciples. Nor did Christianity for most of the first 3 centuries.
But we've done it ever since. And we've indoctrinated a whole, whole, whole bunch of folks with crazy notions of eternal torment and then told them things like depression is anger at yourselves. Or depression is a choice, get over it.
Asswipes.
I believe Jesus has done more good in this world than we could imagine. However, I believe we've darn near matched his good with bad (if that were possible) in our misrepresentation of him throughout history. Gandhi had it right: "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
It's certainly enough to depress me.
So visiting pastors are no longer allowed on our church, we have a pretty strict no food in sanctuary policy and first visitor handed out water from pulpit as part of a message, second pastor made reference to sin and it being black … We are almost always an all white congregation with an occasional member that is more tan. This particular Sunday we had a black family visiting and his choice of words followed by his confusing when he looked up and realized he had a black audience made everyone less sure that his word choice was not intended as raciest. Old white preachers what cha going to do with them ?
The quote from Rectify is a good one, it made me think of Bob Goff, author of "Love Does." He quits something every Thursday. Doing so gives you a chance to look at your life and get rid of things that are either unnecessary, or even harmful to you or your relationships with others. I recommend the book, it's an easy read.