Category: random thoughts

noah is pretty excited about the calculator that pam got him for school this year. it is the simple things in life that add spice.

the above photo is a comparison of an original photo and a retouched photo from from the ann taylor website. a former student (thanks lanee) posted an article on her facebook profile from new york magazine concerning above image and a website glitch that accidentally displayed the unretouched photo on the ann taylor item page. ann taylor has received a huge amount of flack over the extreme manipulation of the photo and the model’s physical proportions.

one of the books that has challenged me a great bit is jean baudrillard’s “simulacra and simulation” – though i found it a difficult read. in this work baudrillard challenges symbols, reality, and society. baudrillard discusses a progression from seeing truth in reality, to simulating reality, to dismissing reality and seeing truth only in it’s simulation. if you can’t tell this book was one of the main sources for the movie “the matrix” (the first one – not the two other let down sequels). part of what challenged me from baudrillard was his argument that often in an attempt to further the experience of a natural good or beauty we develop a simulation of that natural item and then often slowly move to the point that we consider to the fake experience more real that natural one. here are a couple of examples. 1) real food doesn’t look “real” enough in photos so photographers often use fake food to photograph and then people wonder why their food doesn’t look like the photos. 2) ever meet someone who thinks of herself as a rock climber but has never actually climbed in nature – instead she climbs walls with brightly colored plastic “nubs” screwed into it (something originated for practice) and never goes out into nature.

we live in a fake society that actually believes the fake/plastic items are more true than the real items.

so back to the above photo.

according to bobbi brown (a cosmetic artist) supermodels are freaks of nature. yet many believe them to be perfect examples of beauty. of course, few consider that they might actually be real good examples of an unhealthy body (way too low of bmi’s). supermodels shape themselves to convey feminity. in doing that they actually become less female – such low bmi’s lead to a cessation of fertility. the above untouched woman is probably such an example. she is quite skinny in the untouched photo. the untouched photo is almost assuredly already fake. the models has probably been “padded”, taped, and made up to make her look more “perfect.” yet this fake image of a woman is not fake enough to represent the reality beauty that is wanted. the already unnaturally thin woman is not considered thin enough and the company decided to photoshop her image down to unreal proportions. it is literally impossible for anyone to look like the retouched photo, but that is the image that ann taylor is selling.

we could blame this all on the company (and the should be ashamed of themselves) but the reality probably is that we have willingly given up truth for simulations. we have exchange the “realness” for what is fake and we now believe that the fake is reality. what is fake around me that i am choosing over reality? what simulations are you choosing over reality?

it would be great if we would all “take the red pill” a little more often.

i have posted before about my fascination concerning the journey of earnest shackleton and the endurance. i read everything i can get my hands on and i watch everything i can find concerning the journey. last night i started watching the endurance and was struck by a statement concerning thomas orde-lees made by one of his grandsons. orde-lees’s grandson said:

my grandfather always wanted to be someone. this is why he would refuse to row. that was something everyone did. yet when the need for bailing was reached my grandfather bailed like a mad man for the entire night. of course, everyone would remember that. gentleman don’t row but they will do whatever is necessary to save everyone else.

the grandson’s statement is said with a wink and a nod because he obviously recognizes the absurdity of not rowing when it is needed because it is “common” while bailing like a madman because it is uncommon. at least at this point in his journey orde-lees was apparently only interested in serving others when it would be lauded but not when it was in anonymity.

i wonder how many times i do things just when others will see it? or how many times i avoid serving when it will go unseen? how often do i believe and behave like orde-lees?

i think gentlemen do the menial things that never receive the glory and allow others to chase after the meaningless credit. i hope i usually live like it.

mike penza (along with his wife kaylyn) is one of the people who GOD used to start tapestry. he is now a student at gordon-cromwell seminary in boston. today he pasted a blog post on my facebook profile that he said reminded him of tapestry. here’s part of the post:

As I sat here, drinking coffee and thinking about my life and ministry it dawned on me that there are more reasons for coming to Panera than just food. Yes, they have good coffee and breads and desserts that aren’t that good for the waist line but it hit me that there’s more to it than these.

In fact, I think the food is just icing on the cake. Deep down and not so deep down, people love community and the blessing they get from contact with another individual, especially friends that share a common interest in life.

it is a really good post concerning the community that the author is experiencing at panera bread and the “what if’s” that arise when a church opens itself up to strong webs of relationship with no focus on a building.

i was thrilled and honored that mike immediately thought of tapestry when he read the post. he would know from personal experience if it is true of tapestry or not. i was also pretty pumped that i was at emy j’s drinking coffee – it’s much better than panera.

thanks to neatorama i found this link that compares your writing style to various famous authors. i’m sure it is about as accurate as i am at picking the ncaa basketball tournament winner each year (i always come in second in my tournament bracket pool while never having the final two teams right) but i still thought it might be worth a try. in order to be accurate i posted multiple entries from my blog into the analyzation page and it consistently said i write similar to two writers. they are:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

and …

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

this is great because i like both of them though they both sometimes write things that i am not comfortable with. there have been a few times where i have reached the point in some of their works where i choose not to finish a book because i was pretty disturbed by the material (“haunted” by palahniuk is one of the book i just stopped). yet i am still drawn right back to additional works. in fact, i absolutely love the book “fight club.”

so if these test are accurate i probably offend some of your guys pretty regularly, maybe even scare you, but you still find yourself coming back for more. i can live with that.

last week i heard the following statement on the “to the best of our knowledge” podcast:

one of the best things we can do for the environment is to fall in love with the place we live.

their point was that if you fall in love with where you live you will do a couple of things that help the environment: 1) because of our love for our home we will look to protect our home environment from things that would harm it, and 2) since we love and enjoy the place we live we won’t have to constantly wander away to other places looking for things we enjoy.

whether or not being in love with where you live is actually good for the environment or not (i think it probably is) i definitely believe that it is very important for ministry. churches and the pastors that lead them should BE IN LOVE WITH THEIR COMMUNITIES IN WHICH THEY ARE A PART. this doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything that goes on within the community. instead you need to love the character, the people, the culture, the topography, etc.

i am glad to say that i really love the point area. two friends from baton rouge have come to visit for a few days. clint and eric arrived early this morning and i spent the day taking them around point and sharing with them some of the things, places, and people who make point amazing. today that involved belt’s ice cream and hilltop pub & restaurant. tomorrow it is going to involve biking part of the green circle trail, canoeing, and polito’s pizza. mhmmmm. i love point.

up until a moment ago i was sitting in emy j’s answering a few church related emails and working on my message for sunday night’s worship gathering. that all changed a few moments ago when around forty 1st and 2nd graders walked in for ice cream. the teachers are trying desperately to keep them quite but they are all excited about ice cream and the end of school. who can blame the. so i’ve decided to stop working on anything serious and enjoy the chaos that is happening around me.

here are a few random things that i can type while kids are shouting “i want that because it looks delicious!”

• thanks to adam and heidi holte i am probably going to try a duathlon in august. it’s the run, bike, unite duathlon of the portage county united way. i think adam and heidi are going to do it too (since they were the ones who told me about it. anybody have any helpful hints on running a spring duathlon? it’s a 2 mile run/ 13 mile bike/ 2 mile run.
• my friend debbie haltom tweeted this earlier today. she’s right. ever guys should read this post.
• in 2009 i recorded 159 miles on my bike – which ain’t much at all. thus far in may i have recorded 127. that’s what happens when you try to bike to “the office” at least twice a week.
• i love the fact that i see threads randomly around town now and get to spend a few moments with them when i see them. it’s 1:23 right now and i’ve seen and talked with three different threads thus far.
• last night i received a cool email from a former student ministry teen. i am always honored that many of them write and tell me of huge encounters with GOD that they have had and are continuing to have.
• this is a very interesting article on scott mcknight’s blog concerning whether or not free will is in opposition to science.
• there are four of us who have added input into this sunday’s message at tapestry. obviously i would prefer more BUT 3 other people beside me is a good start for something that no one in our group has ever done before. if you would like to contribute here’s the link.
• a little more just shouted “HE’S GETTING MORE!” within 6 inches of my right ear. i guess it is probably not very pastoral of me to thump him in the nose.

i’m heading to the library now. i can only handle so much fun. 😉

• i’ve been running on the plover river trail portion of the green circle trail for years. it is my favorite part of the green circle trail. until this week i had never ridden my bike on it. that has now changed. noah and i love riding on it because there are a couple of great hills on the trail. it is great living in an area that is full of trails.
• i haven’t been able to listen to my podcasts recently because i broke my zune by dropping it (not a good thing to do). i’ve since replaced my broken zune with a zune hd and i am beginning to catch up on all the podcasts i’ve been missing. while listening to the may 5th episode of “wait, wait don’t tell me” i was suddenly surprised to hear them mention the stevens point blow dart crime. i was thrilled. for those of you that don’t know about it here’s an article concerning the stevens point woman who was shooting people with blow darts in downtown stevens point because she liked hearing them say “ouch.” i am such a proud citizen.
• pam and i have signed up for the 12th annual famous racing sausage 5k run. we will get to run with klement’s famous racing sausages or at least get our photo taken with them.
• i loved this line from tonight’s “30 rock.” they said the world is in chaos because “people wear flip flops to church and the nba tatoo situation is out of control.” apparently tapestry and the boston celtics are part of the downfall of humanity. 🙂
• tuesday there was a bear sleeping in a tree on hoover road about 1.5 miles away from our house. i drove by where it was and saw about 40 people with cameras on one side of the road and two cops on the other but i wasn’t able to figure out what was going on until i saw the newspaper article yesterday. now pam wants a bear to show up in our backyard.

the above video is a wonderful little animation concerning an interview that a 12 year old boy with asperger’s syndrome did with his mom. it is wonderful. it made pam cry and made me smile. happy mother’s day.