A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis
…you know the rest!
Check out the latest addition to one of our local outlet malls: The Foxworthy Store! I love this part of the story…
One shopper, a bride-to-be, came in and made a list of all the hunting decor she’d like to see in her boudoir. She wanted everything from the camouflage bedspread and shams to the toilet paper holder made of deer antlers.
The words of Psalm 71:18 won’t let me go this morning for some reason…
Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me.
I don’t what – if anything of value – I might have to offer “this new generation,” but I want the rest of my life to count.
Sinatra was great. The Velvet Fog, according to me and Judge Harry Stone was pretty awesome, too. Tony Bennett? Wonderful! Joe Williams, as I’ve already mentioned, was my kind of singer before he was Claire Huxtable’s dad.
But WOW! Johnny Hartman was – and is! – surely the ballad king! Tonight, I’m unwinding with his contribution to the Verve For Lovers series. Nothing fancy, nothing showy. Pure, unadulterated romantic ballads, in a lush baritone.
Oh yeah….there’s some other guys playing along with Johnny Hartman on this CD. Guys with names like Tyner, Jacquet, Jones (Hank and Elvin), Hinton, and some saxophonist named Coltrane.
Check it out!
OK, it’s official: I got the news the other day that my little attempt at a blog sucks as of late. Correctimundo! It has been rather lame lately. (Lately?!?!? Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?!?!?) I haven’t been posting anything significant.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to post or that I haven’t had anything to post. It doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about posting or even talked about posting. But as the ancient Chinese proverb I saw somewhere today succintly reminds us…
Talk never cooked the rice.
So, the first step back to blogging frequency is to clean up the draft pile. Without further adieu, here, for your perusal and enjoyment and wonderment and thought and consideration, are some random links to some stuff I found on the way to some place else. Peruse. Enjoy. Wonder. Think. Consider.
Those waiting to be given respect, might best get busy earning it.
It’s been tough being a Number One seed in this year’s NCAA men’s tournament. But I guess that’s why they call it The Madness, bay-bee!
As it stands, the final Four is LSU, UCLA, Fl…Flo…Flor…Florida (there! I made my self type it!) and oh, yeah…George Mason. Who? George Mason, bay-bee! And the glass slipper has the George Mason colors all over it!
Went to the Y first thing this morning, as usual.
Double-Your-Cardio-Double-Your-Fun Friday, as usual.
Checked in with one of my Coach-Approach trainers/slave drivers/drill sergeants as I was finishing up my workout. She was “just telling this new guy about” me…
She: Go ahead, Charlie, tell him how much weight you’ve lost!
Me: About 27 pounds.
She: See! Isn’t that great?!?!
A little more small talk, off to the locker room, the shower, and the dreaded scales, as usual.
Oh, as I was leaving the building, I ran into the same trainer/slave driver/drill sergeant…
Me: I lied to you a little while ago.
She: Lied to me? About what?
Me: About that 27 pounds.
She: Well, we all fudge our numbers from time to time. You’ll get back on track. Don’t worry about it. Keep plugging. Hang in there.
Me: Uhhh…it’s…uh, 29 pounds as of today…
I’ve started using the great Oswald Chambers classic My Utmost for His Highest in my personal devotional time Daily Dynamic Times or DDT’s ($1 to Tony McCollum!) this year, and like millions of other Utmost-ers, I came across today’s selection and it reached out and grabbed my mind and heart.
Well, it seems I’m not the only one. My buddy Royal Farris – yeah, he spells his last name wrong! đŸ™‚ – blogged about it already today.
Here’s the part that has grabbed me and hasn’t let go all day long…
We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart— unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.
And this…
If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay forever on the “mount of transfiguration,” basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9 ). But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.
That’s the title of the first post I read via Bloglines this morning, and when I read the title, I thought someone was having a little blogosphere fun with my blog buddy, Chad Canipe. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…Chad had passed away over the weekend. Chad was 34 years old, he leaves behind his wife Renee, and their two cool kids, Colin and Aidan.
I’m still stunned and in shock. The last thing Chad posted on his blog was about a nagging medical condition. Well, he just never got over it, and it turned out to be a lot more serious than imagined.
I never met Chad in real life, but he was truly a long-distance encourager for me. He had a heart for God, a passion for his city, and he seemed to be one of the most creative guys I’ve encountered.
It was Chad who encouraged me to blog way back in the Straddling the Gap days.
It was Chad who helped me set up my comments and my RSS feeds when I didn’t have a clue about all that stuff.
It was Chad who turned me on to How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci, a book that literally changed my perspective on life.
It was Chad who helped me begin to see some things that God was/is doing in our culture.
It was Chad who graciously shared a very cool picture of his son Aidan, in a shot that perfectly captured the spirit of Advent for me.
It was Chad who encouraged “The Boy” about design and Web stuff.
The Kingdom of God is not diminished today, but the citizens of that Kingdom are certainly lacking one of their finest brothers. Chad’s untimely passing reminds me of that great quote from Erwin McManus’s The Barbarian Way…
Martyrs didn’t survive, but they died facing the right direction.
Please keep Renee, Colin, Aidan, and the rest of Chad’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers in these days. And if you’re so inclined, you can donate to a memorial fund by clicking the button at the top of this post. you can also stop by an online memorial forum to leave your thoughts.
Life is but a vapor…
“Your Beta Upsilon Chi name is…Peter!”
“Why ‘Peter’?”
“WHY NOT?!?!?!”
So many good Animal House lines, so little time…
Sorry…