Writer's Block

Hey folks........

I have probably started and stopped an entry at least 4 times in the last week and a half. I couldn't think of anything to submit to y'all and honestly have not had the energy to write!

Work has been hell lately, which is funny considering that I work in Christian Retail! Get it? I have been logging approximately 50-60 hours a week the last month or so and it all culminated in me getting sick and leaving early last Thursday (early being 4:00 p.m., I still put in a 7 1/2 hour work day) and taking Friday off (if that means that I was still there first thing to make sure that everything got started okay).

In other words I am overworked and underpaid. That's just the black and white, honest truth. But now that I am done whining let me go on with the rest of my thoughts.

So I have been reading this book by Ken Gire called Reflections on the Movies: Hearing God in the Unlikeliest of Places and I stumbled across something that got my creative juices flowing. Gire states in his chapter entitled Criticism of the Movies that -

Criticism is one way we can approach a movie. It seems to me, however,
that this way of approaching a movie contributes little, if anything, to
our growth as human beings. Critical analysis of a movie seems to me
something like the way we might analyze a sentence, diagramming its
subject and verb, its adjectives and adverbs, its prepositional phrases,
direct objects. When we're done with the diagramming, every word is in
its proper place, and there is something satisfying about that. It's the
same type of satisfaction an accountant gets when he balances the books
he's been examining. The difference between the two is that accounting
was designed for that kind of scrutiny. Art was not. Art was designed to
be experienced, not critiqued.

Okay.....let that sink in.
Think about art.
Its affect and its nature.

Now think about the Bible.
About God.
About the Church.
About Christianity.

These are things that are inherently meant to be experienced, not critiqued.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe that God gave us minds to discern and the ability to think for a reason. This is not a plea to believe everything that your pastor says wholesale and to never be critical. If that was the case we would have more Jim Jones' and David Koresh's than you could shake a stick at.

This is a plea to act on your faith. Make it an experience not merely a mental ascent to some truths that you hold.
Do the things that Jesus did.
Serve others.
Love your neighbor.
Walk somewhere for a change.
Wash somebody's feet.
Tell stories.

Experience the Kingdom.

Ray Charles and St. Benedict

"Father, in your goodness grant us the intellect to comprehend you,

the perception to discern you,

and the reason to appreciate you.

In your kindness endow me with the diligence to look for you,

the wisdom to discover you,

and the spirit to apprehend you.

In your graciousness bestow on me a heart to contemplate you,

ears to hear you,

eyes to see you,

and a tongue to speak of you.

In your mercy confer on me a conversation pleasing to you,

the patience to wait for you,

and the perserverance to long for you.

Grant me a perfect end - your holy presence.

Amen."

~St. Benedict

I read this prayer in church a while back and still haunts me. In that good haunting sense that permeates every thought and dream. The crucial part of the prayer is where St. Benedict beckons the Lord to bestow on him a "heart to contemplate you, ears to hear you, eyes to see you, and a tongue to speak of you."

That's all that we can ask, right? The ability to do something doesn't require actually doing it though. I think of Ray Charles, may he rest in peace, when he says -

"I was born with music inside me. Like my ribs, my liver, my kidneys, my heart. Like my blood."

Ray Charles was compelled by his love for music. His "insides" were seen from the outside. His music was a reflection of the torrential downpour of hardships and addictions that plagued his entire career. His music also mirrored the good times in the way that his music broke down language, racial, and religious barriers. Ray Charles exuded the unabashed and unedited self. The self that told it how it was and was gravely unapologetic.

Can we learn something from "The Genius?" Some folks say that the "unchurched" don't know anything about God, but is that true? Wasn't his music a gift of God? At times spiritual, other times worldly and secular.....but always a gift.

St. Benedict's gift was that he knew that the only end was one that would reflect his purest desire. That the love he had on the inside would make it's way to the surface.

Feel.

Listen.

Look.

Speak.

New Look

Hi all.

Welcome to the new In-Between!!

Sometimes I get bored with things where they are and need to change it up once in a while.

My wife does that with the furniture. I hate that. I will be gone for a weekend and come back and the bed has been moved and dressers have been relocated. It's not right. I have no doubt that one of these days I will come home and she will be flat on her back because she has moved something that any sane person would have asked help with!

Anyhow.....about the changes.

Please look at the links on the left. If there is one thing that I am especially passionate about it is......being passionate about something!

These links provide transport to the homepages of my home churches and my hobbies.
The music that touches me and the movies that move me.
The books and authors speak for me when I have no words.
Listen to them. They are much smarter and wittier than I.
Then come back and dialogue with me....I would love that.

Check back often....I'll change things up and add new links when I find new loves.

Blessings.

untitled him

I don't know what to say...but I feel compelled to write.

Have you ever felt incomplete?

Truly unfinished?

Like there is some part of your soul that is in the yet-to-be-used piece pile of your own personal puzzle? Sometimes I feel like I am the second rate "B" actor version of the role I was supposed to be. And it has nothing to do with a missed career or a failed marriage or some dream that I expected to realize and hadn't yet. Because my life is good. I have a beautiful wife who loves me (no kids yet, but we're working on it), a good job that pays the bills, and a pretty steady group of friends that I hang out with.

Yet there is something under the surface that screams, "Hey You! It's me under here! I'm your 'untapped potential!'" I have heard that my whole life...potential. I hate that word. It seems to connote that you have some sort of superhuman reserve that you choose not to use. Is that ever the case? Like you're moving along in life at 55 when you could be going 75. You're still going the same direction right? It doesn't matter how fast you get there, just as long as you get there.

But this is rarely a problem of speed. Because I will be the first one to admit that I am as laid back as they get. It seems to be more an issue of how I use my time. I don't need to do more things, I need to do right things. So are "they" right? Is this potential untapped if I disregard the right for the okay? Am I stuck in the rut of reasonable action? I don't know....I just felt compelled to write.

Will Smith, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash walk into a bar...

I went to see I, Robot on Saturday. I thought the story line was compelling, it was visually stimulating and had enough theological and philosophical content to keep the Asimov diehards happy. If you have not read Isaac Asimov's short stories, do it. They are must-reads for anybody interested in how pop-culture and pop-literature deal with issues of sovereignty and predestination.

Now is the time in the program where I steal somebody else's format for blogging. It seems that most bloggers keep everyone up to date on their current music faves.

Mine right now are The Essentials of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Two separate compilations, two discs each. Willie Nelson's rendition of "Blue Skies" on Disc 1 is absolutely amazing, and his duet with Ray Charles on Disc 2 for the song "Seven Spanish Angels" is staggering. What I like about "The Essential..." series is that they are the recordings from the original studio or live sessions. So....it's not a sixty-something Willie singing "Cryin'", it's the 26 year old Willie.

But I don't mine the "rough-cut" sound the older voice renders on a good recording.

Perfect example - "Hurt" by Johnny Cash. Can you imagine him singing that at any other time in his career? There seem to be waves of emotion and experience that crash against you like surf on sand. The voice of despair, grief, regret....is spent singing about the hurt and damage he's caused. If you don't know the song....listen. Then watch the video. It's somewhere on the 'net. I know people that don't even like country music that have cried after watching this video. I am one of those people.

Oh and, by the way, you've got to check out the live version of "Boy Named Sue" from Folsom that is included on, I think, the first disc of the album. Brilliant. "My name is Sue...HOW DO YOU DO!"

The object of my most recent obsession is poker.

I bought some poker chips off of ebay (11.5 grams, suited, ceramic w/dark wood carrying case); I downloaded Downtown Texas Hold'Em onto my cell phone so that I could play poker when I was bored, and I bought this book. The Biggest Game in Town is "...probably the best book on poker ever written." (Evening Standard, London) I just bought it yesterday and I am enthralled. Alvarez details the beginnings of No Limit Poker in Las Vegas' Binion's Horseshoe Casino.

For those of you who don't know, it was at Binion's where the first World Series of Poker (WSOP) was played. Now, I don't know all of the history that comes with the WSOP, but my pop-culture radar went off when I read names like Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and Nick the Greek. I wasn't a Poker afficianado as a boy, but somehow I recognized these Poker Greats.

I am now a follower of Poker. I watch WSOP on ESPN (does anyone else find that funny?), and I have a regular date with BRAVO on Thursday nights when an acquaintance of mine, and damn good poker player, Phil Gordon co-hosts Celebrity Poker Showdown. I know that some of my compadres share this obsession, and we are doing our darndest to do something about it. Every Thursday night sound good to you guys?

And to not let the eternal slip away on this one....don't ever think that time spent with friends is lost. Even if you are going all-in pre-flop with pocket cowboys. Remember, where two or three are gathered...