Two Gospels

The modern-day gospel says, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved."  Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, "You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life.  Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do."

The former sells books and draws crowds.  The latter saves souls.  Which is more important?

-- David Platt, Radical

Metropolis

A historic look at Charlotte's geography and development.  Around the seven minute mark, it begins looking into the future.

Note to Maddie

Dear Maddie,
Please stop taking all the colored pencils out of their container and putting them in the container with the regular pencils.  It confuses all of us and destroys what little shreds of order we have left in our lives.

Love,
Cameron, Ben, Andrew, Jonathan, and Mom

PS  You can keep on peeling all the paper off of the crayons, though.  We all think that's pretty cute even though we have to vacuum the schoolroom all the time.

Goldilocks and The Little Old Woman

One of the books that Ben is reading for school this year is a book of English Fairy Tales published in 1890.  Yesterday's assignment was the story of "The Three Bears."  However, instead of cute, perky, naughty, little Goldilocks, his book featured a "little old woman."

I wonder when...and why...she was replaced?

The little old Woman had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff voice of the Great, Huge Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no more to her than the roaring of wind or the rumbling of thunder. And she had heard the middle voice of the Middle Bear, but it was only as if she had heard someone speaking in a dream. But when she heard the little, small, wee voice of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, it was so sharp, and so shrill, that it awakened her at once. Up she started; and when she saw the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at the other, and ran to the window. Now the window was open, because the Bears, like good, tidy Bears as they were, always opened their bed-chamber window when they got up in the morning. Out the little old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood, and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.

You can read the whole story here.

Why My Kids Will Never Play Football

...as long as I have anything to say about it:

Concussions and Head Injuries in Football

(be sure to check the links in the sidebar)

I've been concerned about this issue for going on two years now, and finally, last night at halftime on NBC, Bob Costas said something about it.  I'm sure it was a league-approved message, but it felt like FINALLY it was becoming a mainstream concern.  Honestly the whole thing makes it much harder for me to watch and enjoy football.

More reading:

Penn player who killed self had brain disease
NFL:  Dodging the Concussion Discussion

You can call me a spoilsport, but with the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs and the innovations in pads and helmets making them lighter -- thus allowing players to move faster -- it seems like an increase in these incidents is approaching.

Thoughts?

One-one

Since almost all of the pictures around here are of the kiddies, I thought today I'd surprise you with a photo of some other people, who celebrated their eleventh anniversary about a month ago:

(get it?  one-one.  eleven.)

We went out to dinner in Uptown and then walked over to the McGlohon Theater to see a free performance of Othello -- that feel-good tragedy by Will Shakespeare where a husband ends up strangling his wife.  Great anniversary fare, don't you think?

By the way, I bought the dress at Ann Taylor Loft for ten bucks.  I came downstairs and Andrew told me I looked like a cheetah.  I say that's a WIN!

Have You Noticed?

Have you noticed the direct correlation between the start of school and an extreme dropoff in my blogging activity?


Yeah, me too.  It makes me a little sad.

It's not so much the school, but the scouts, golf, gymnastics, co-op, and piano lessons that are keeping me running.  I didn't realize until now what a luxury homeschooling AT HOME has been.  I know it's just a foretaste of junior high and high school when everyone has their little niches and I spend my days running hither and yon.

I've had to be more organized, think ahead, make quicker decisions, and use my time more wisely.  I thought I was doing that pretty well up 'til now, but there's always room for improvement, right?

Meow.

This makes me want to hug a cat. It makes my husband want to sneeze (and maybe kick a cat).

HT: The Nester

What Not to Say to a Music Hero

The last time David and I talked to Andy Gullahorn, David said something really, really clever.  I will share it with you another time.  But I honestly walked away from the conversation thinking, "Wow!  The man I married is very smart, clever, and quick on his feet.  Or maybe he just got lucky."

Because you know you do it.  You want to appear deep, pithy, clever, self-effacing, and witty with people you look up to.  That particular night last December, David hit one out of the park.

Last summer we went to see Ellis Paul at The Evening Muse, a charming little listening room here in Charlotte.  Ellis' CDs have been musical companions of mine since high school.  He was introduced to me by my friend Tara, who had heard him locally at the Old Vienna Coffeehouse in Westborough, Massachusetts.

A little background on Ellis Paul:  he is from northern Maine -- that part of Maine that is so far north that some people speak French.  He went to Boston College on a track scholarship but was permanently sidelined by a knee injury.  It was during his recovery that he picked up his guitar, much to the happiness of folk music listeners in New England -- and eventually, all over America.  I consider the height of my folk music fandom to be the night I saw Ellis perform at Club Passim -- the same club where Dylan and Joan Baez played once.

He is now so well-respected in the folk community that he was approached by Woody Guthrie's daughter to set one of her father's unfinished songs to music.  That song, entitled "God's Promise," is below.

Obviously I have some attachment here.  So it was a bit thrilling to approach Ellis after the show last summer and have him autograph the CDs we bought.

So I'm standing there, waiting my turn...waiting, waiting...thinking of all the songs he wrote that saw me through late adolescence, heartache, love, growing up...thinking of our mutual appreciation for the rocky New England shoreline...our love for Boston, Club Passim, and the Red Sox (he once sang the National Anthem at Fenway)...what to say?  What to say?

I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing that by the time I got to the front of the line all I could say was:

"I've been listening to you for half my life!"

I meant it as a compliment.  I was thinking of all the different times of life his music had been with me through.  The moves cross-country.  The shared joy in his music with my husband.  And everything I already gushed about above.

But to Ellis it sounded like "YOU'RE REALLY OLD!"

Literally, the man crumpled before me.  He hunched over with a wounded expression -- with a sparkle in his eye, as he can take a joke.  I tried to talk my way out of it and we were able to recover a normal conversation, which ended with some talk about how the back cover of his newest album, The Day After Everything Changed, is NOT photoshopped (see here for proof).

So...obviously some of that talking-to-a-music-hero coolness did NOT rub off on me from David.  Next time I'll just let him talk.

God, Money, and Art

Over at the Rabbit Room, they are talking up and down the topic of money and what it all means for the Christian.  I commend the entire series -- including the comments -- to you.  The last installment, on the purpose of art, is breathtaking. 

Art, if it can be ascribed value, is most valuable when its beauty (and the beauty of the truth it tells) bewilders, confounds, defies evil itself; it does so by making what has been unmade; it subverts the spirit of the age; it mends the heart by whispering mysteries the mind alone can’t fathom; it fulfills its highest calling when into all the clamor of Hell it tells the unbearable, beautiful, truth that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. None of these songs and stories matter if the beauty they’re adding to isn’t the kind of beauty that redeems and reclaims.

A Gentle Introduction to Hard Occasions

Today is the first of September, which means next week we'll be marking another anniversary of 9/11.  In the last couple of years I have encountered two books -- both based on true stories -- that have helped introduce the tragedy to my children.  In both cases, the tragedy takes a backseat -- but is still a very real presence -- to the main storyline of the book

One is called Fireboat:  The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey.  This story recounts how an antique fireboat was preserved and restored by a group of friends and then called back into active duty on the night of 9/11.  One of the boys picked it up purely "by accident" on a trip to the library and a happy accident it turned out to be!  It's an engaging story and the illustrations are bright and beautiful.

The second book is The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.  This Caldecott medal winner tells the tale of Philippe Petit's tightrope walk in 1974.  It's always shocking to the children that this actually happened!  The twin towers were awe-inspiring structures, and this tale relates that emotion.  9/11 is more of an afterthought in this book -- but I always choke up when I get to the page that says, "Now, the towers are gone."  The accompanying page shows the NYC skyline without the World Trade Towers.




What do you do in your home to mark the anniversary of 9/11?