Gap on Existence

I was looking in Rolling Stone today. The first page was a Gap ad with a photo of Joe Anderson (?) wearing "The Private Leather Jacket" ($348.oo). Over the photo reads: "Create Your Own Mythology".

Now isn't that dead on?

Let's first remember that the truest definition of myth is not something erroneous, but something extraordinary, with meaning, and often something of history that is beyond the realm of science.

When a society strips itself of myth and ceremony, it loses more than story and ritual. What we are left with is a generation self-defining themselves. Self-creating. Living in the present. Not the past, nor the future. We have to make our own meaning.

But that's rather meaningless. Especially if our meaning is The Private Leather Jacket.

West Africa

In looking for a new house on Craigslist, I have now run into THREE scams by people in "Nigeria" who want me to wire the money, and I can pick up the key tomorrow. These People are always noble - missionaries or NGO workers or something. Terrible.

Summer Breeze...

...by the Isley Brothers is sugar.

Perpetual Change

Lately we've been staying with our friends, Shane and Erika. (ca?) I saw a sticker at their house that says, "The only thing that is constant is change." Such is my life. As Patrick puts it, about every two weeks, the three of us have DRASTIC changes.

A month ago we went on tour with Seven Years Absence. Since then I have stayed in 5 different houses, all but one of them multiple times. Oh, plus a church basement. Last week, for instance, I stayed in 4 different places. And this week I've already stayed in 3.

Last week I did some babysitting and I sanded a deck. Right now I'm a live-in nanny. It's been going really well. The long hours are tough, but the work is still pleasant. But it's 9:11, and I'm gonna go to bed soon. I'd prefer to stay up and do something, but I don't have the energy, and I need to be up again at 6:30.

That's another perpetual change in my life - my sleeping cycle. Falling asleep anywhere from 9 pm to 2 or 3 am. Waking up anytime from 5 am to 10:30.

And then there's eating! I'm never eating meals at the same time. Sometimes I have breakfast right when I wake up, sometimes I have it four hours later - which I suppose isn't breakfast at all.

Amidst this is my attempt to keep some things constant - work progress with the band, practicing, and my spiritual life. If I can learn to be constant in all these things right now, I will have conquered all obstacles of regularity.

Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

pretty backwards.

a great relief.

Solitaire

Facebook has all those terrible ads. I always block the images and give the thumbs down. But something just caught my eye. The ad headline said: "Still Single?"

What?

Has a time limit been set internationally, and we all have to get hooked up now?

So silly.

I hope you don't look at that ad and get feeling sad. Enjoy your singlehood while you're single. And when you're not, enjoy not being single.

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell's new book comes out in November. Yesss!

Abundant Life

Jesus Christ was not a mystagogue. Yet so many of His followers are looking for esoteric, mystical experiences, and not the reformation of practical living that He taught.

Eliot's Question

"Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question..."

I do not know what his question was. But mine is simple:

Why must a butterfly become a divorce?