Category: General (page 31 of 121)

Some “specks of lint that fell out, the last time that I picked my brain…*”

• Apparently, some people have such an aversion to the truth, they wouldn’t know it if it kicked bit them in the butt.
• Apparently, some people are right (they’re wrong, but they’re right correct!)…It’s not that they’re lazy; they really just don’t care.
• Who cares about apathy?
• You could expend a lot less effort by doing what’s right the whole time, instead of trying to desperately come up with something at the very end.
• Apparently, some people just like to be aren’t happy unless they’re miserable.
• Coddling doesn’t work. Neither does getting tough.
• Two full years is plenty of time to figure out that this gig may not be the right one for you.
• A unilateral friendship really isn’t a friendship – it’s sucking up for whatever reason.
• Rick Warren is right…Money you don’t have, things you don’t need, people you don’t really like.

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* from “You’re Nothing Without Me” from City of Angels
Music by Cy Coleman Lyrics by David Zippel

Scott Adams is currently including the glum character Sourpuss in the Dilbert strip.

I know that Sourpuss guy. Heck, I’ve been that Sourpuss guy!

Once upon a time, my roommate answered the door to the Jehovah’s Witnesses wearing – only! – a sheet!

My other roommate, now a successful accountant in Atlanta, was once reduced to almost tears by the Jehovah’s Witnesses at our apartment door (“I don’t think my momma would want me talking to those folks,” he almost whimpered, as he frantically closed the curtains.)

I, myself have encountered the Jehovah’s Witnesses in many different situations. (One elderly, but rookie, Witness, said, in my driveway, “But Jehovah God doesn’t make deals, and I don’t think I can, either.” She’s also the one that I “guided” through her own presentation, because she didn’t have a clue what she was doing. When she got to the part about wanting be a part of the “144,000” I told her to look for me in verse 9.)

But I digress…

I bring up all those Jehovah’s Witness anecdotes simply to point out that whatever your response, however you choose to share your faith, it’s probably not a good idea to include a butcher knife.

Just a thought…

I came home the day before yesterday to find a plain brown carton – from the Musical Heritage Society – on my front porch. I was like a kid at Christmas. See, I had ordered from the MHS clearance section. I got these six CDs for five bucks apiece! This will more than likely complete my Christmas music acquisitions for this year.

Joe Williams may be best known to many Americans as Claire Huxtable’s father on The Cosby Show. But before his daughter married Dr. Huxtable, Joe Williams had already made a name for himself as a great jazz singer. When I grow up, I want to sing Christmas songs like Joe Williams.

Tony Bennett’s Snowfall was first released in 1968. This remastered, repackaged edition probably ought to be in the rotation for your Christmas open house/dinner.

If you like jazz, and if you like Christmas music, find the Verve collection Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas. I was working late at the church office Wednesday night and I had this CD playing. When Ella Fitzgerald sang The Secret of Christmas…

So may I suggest, the secret of Christmas
It’s not the things you do, at Christmas time
But the Christmas things you do all year through…

…I was wiping a little dust. Good stuff!

Spike Jones. No, silly…not the one with a “z” in his misspelled name! The one with the City Slickers! You’d be hard pressed to find a more competent and talented bunch of musicians from the 1940s and 1950s. Thing is, their excellent musicianship was masked by the silliness of their stuff. Oddly enough, this Christmas collection reflects Spike Jones’s more “serious” side. Jingle Bells (in pig Latin!) and I’m Gettin’ Nothin’ for Christmas notwithstanding, this is a great Christmas CD. (Check the tight vocal harmony on Silent Night.)

In a former life, many moons ago, I was a trumpet player and all-around brass aficionado. There’s something about Christmas music and brass ensembles that is just right. The Canadian Brass enlists a few of their friends to make Noel wonderful. And did you know that they include the great Stan Kenton arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High? In the same vein, Christmas Fanfare is a little more “buttoned up” version of Christmas set to brass.

So, that’ll just about do it for me and my listening for the year. What about you? What music makes it really Christmas for you? Got any favorites? Any off-the-wall and out-of-the-ordinary Christmas music?

From a letter written by C.S. Lewis, addressing an 11-year-old girl’s questions about the identity of Aslan…

As to Aslan’s other name, well I want you to guess. Has there ever been anyone in this world who 1) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. 2) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor. 3) Gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. 4) Came to life again. 5) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb. Don’t you really know His name in this world. Think it over and let me know your answer.

Link via Dick Staub

…you can always baffle ’em with, well…you know…

This article is talking about “the media” – mainstream, and otherwise – but the list is enlightening on a lot of communications levels. Your mileage may vary…

Link via Free Republic

You may have surmised, if you read my post after the Georgia-Georgia Tech game the other day, that I’m not really a big Dawgs fan. That’s kind of funny, because I have been a pretty big fan of their coaches.

This article about the “hot seat” reminds me why I like Coach Richt…

That’s where player after player, person after person, senior after senior, stepped up and Georgia became a team.

“It’s what unites us,” [quarterback D.J.]

Shockley said.

Four years, that chair has sat there. They call it “the hot seat.” Each August, players � seniors primarily � are asked to sit there. Every Georgia player and every coach is right there with them. And then they just tell their story. However painful, however difficult, they tell it.

And this…

“That is what brings you that much closer together,” [junior rover Tra] Battle said. “You get past the realization that it is not just your teammate, but this is your brother. This a family member. This is someone that you love. And that is reality of what the hot seat is intended to do.”

Not in a selfish, self-serving my-life-was-more-difficult-than-yours manner, but in a way that allows teammates to understand each other. That’s why [safety Greg] Blue stepped up and told his story.

“It let them know that I can trust them,” he said. “Usually, you don’t tell everybody what you have been going through, but I was able to tell my teammates and my coaches what has been going on in my life.”

And the team starts to understand the person more than the player.

Well, the old hat answer is something like…

You make an A** out of U and ME!

Seth Godin reminds us that everybody doesn’t always know what we think they know…

Before you decide that everyone knows something (or no one does), take a second to realize that you’re wrong.

Thanks to Ross Hollman over at Strategize for the link!

I had lunch today with the one, the only Marty Duren, the voice of all things right and reasonable over at SBC Outpost. Marty’s a sharp guy, doing a great work, he gets his news from The Onion and LarkNews, and he’s a fan of maple butter blondies! Does it get any better than that?

Thanks Marty, for the lunch and the fellowship!

I’m becoming convinced that many of us just don’t get it when it comes to Christmas.

We’re frustrated by unfulfilled expectations. We’re frazzled by the unrelenting calendar. Some of us are so burdened and burned out by unpleasant and even harmful memories of Christmases past, that we don’t realize the glory of the Great Invasion.

Robert Greenleaf, of Servant Leadership fame, had such unpleasant memories of childhood Christmases gone bad. Yet, he decided to compensate by going all out to celebrate the coming of Jesus.

Check this great story over at the Servant Leadership blog. And then decide, right now, once and for all, that nothing is going to keep you from knowing, experiencing, and sharing the Good News of Great Joy this year and every year.