Category: General (page 18 of 121)

A little diversion from the good folks over at Pearls Before Swine…

It’s been a long time since I posted an “Unwind.” Usually “Unwinds” happen on Sunday nights, but lately, Sunday nights have been way too unwound already to even think about unwinding.

Anyway, it’s a breezy summer evening here in northwest Georgia, and I’m out on the back deck with my obsolete laptop and a wireless connection. I’ve got a big ol’ honkin’ glass of ice water and a small bowl of almonds.

I’m reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, and jotting some really good thoughts in my Moleskine.

My “Unwinds” usually include some good music and tonight is no exception. I first discovered Mark O’Connor on the video for “The Devil Went Back to Georgia” (featuring Johnny Cash as a preacher…very cool!). Some time last week, our local NPR station had a feature on Mark O’Connor and his Hot Swing Trio, doing the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. I had forgotten about that program until I read in Twyla Tharp’s book about how she used one of O’Connor’s works in a major dance project. Talk about synchronicity!

At any rate, you could do a whole lot worse than Mark O’Connor’s stuff for an “Unwind.” Oh, did I mention that the CD also includes Wynton Marsalis and Jane Monheit?

I’ve set out a pretty extensive and intensive reading plan for the next week or so. Some are oldies that I’m just getting around to finishing. Some are oldies that I’ve had on my list for a long time. And some are fairly new.

At any rate, I’m in a reading mood. And I’m diving in!

What are you currently reading?

“Easy to apply, hard to remove.”

A good read over at Thinking Faster.

One of my all-time favorite movies is City Slickers. You know the one scene among many that makes it that way, don’t you? Yep, the one where Curley talks about “the one thing”…

Curley: You all come out here about the same age. Same problems. Spend fifty weeks a year getting knots in your rope – then you think two weeks up here will untie them for you. None of you get it. Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curley: This. (Holds up his index finger.)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curley: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh**.
Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the one thing?
Curley: That’s what you’ve got to figure out.

How ’bout a little help from you Curleys out there?

• When your personal rope’s got knots in it, what’s the “one thing” you do that helps you untangle?

• What about when your organization/church/family/company/whatever is all tangled up? What’s the “one thing” that raises the energy, re-focuses the team, and gets big wins?

From today’s One Year Bible…

Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law. I am but a foreigner here on earth; I need the guidance of your commands. Don’t hide them from me! (Psalm 119:17-19)

Well, at least right now, it seems to be the center of the “church world” in Woodstock, Georgia.

Location: The Serene Bean, Olde Town Woodstock
Sound: “Mas Que Nada,” the original, from when Sergio Mendes was with Brasil 66, not Will.i.am

Why is it the center of the church world? Right now, there is a pastor sitting outside with his laptop. There is another pastor sitting at the table next to me with his laptop. And there is what appears to be a pastor with one of his leaders. The pastor has apparently recently discovered Robert Lewis’s Culture Shift and is passionately trying to convince the leader that their church needs to shift its culture. Good luck, dude…I don’t think he’s buying it yet.)

Wait! Hold the presses! It’s the other leader who has discovered the book, and he’s the one trying to do the convincing! It’s the pastor who’s resisting! Cool!

…Bob Wills is still the king.

But now with a sling.

After somebody’s destructive fling.

Got any clues? Give ’em a ring.

Stop it, already!

OK, so it’s a soapbox day, I guess…

See that picture? Cool, huh?

Guess where it is.

Nah, go ahead…guess.

C’mon…guess.

If you guessed it’s in one of the foyers of the brand-spanking-new Georgia Baptist Convention palace headquarters, you’d probably be right.

Thirty. Million. Dollars…