This from Jack London…

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

And speaking of Jack London, check out this Credo, believed to have been written – and believed and lived – by Jack London…

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

Just a few things on my mind, on my heart, in my Moleskine, on my screen, and in my backyard…

• Apple blossoms on two trees! Cool! (Here’s hoping we’ll have our own home-grown apples in the fall!)
• Crepe myrtle leaves that literally just appeared! (The branches were bare yesterday when I started mowing the lawn. By the time I finished, they were covered with leaves!)
• Impatient prophets lose their edge when they are away from the front lines where the action is.
• Not much has changed since Jesus’ day. We still have split-personality critics who are never satisfied, no matter what you do. Make that childish split-personality critics.
• Sometimes the Psalmists must be “guest bloggers” here. Like yesterday. And today.
• I’ve taken more of an interest in American Idol this year, and Simon Cowell does get a bad rap. I can’t remember where I read it first (Google has not been my friend!), but someone rightly pointed out that even though Simon has a reputation for being mean, insensitive, or rude, or whatever, he really is just “telling it like it is.” (Henry Cloud defines integrity as the courage to face the demands of reality.) Did you ever notice what Simon does when one of the contestants really nails it? He lavishes on the praise!
• Love God. Love others. Prove it. The slogan from EPIC City Church has grabbed me this week. Thanks, Tally, for pointing to EPIC’s story.
• Gary Lamb kicked my butt yesterday. (But he’s buying my lunch tomorrow and letting me hang out with a bunch of cool guys, so I forgive him.) Uh-oh…he did it again today!
• Oswald Chambers in today’s My Utmost for His Highest: Just because I don’t understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says. And a little further down: Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself?

Isaiah 11:6 has these familiar words…

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Well, in case there are any Daniels out there, my buddy Gary Lamb’s version of that scripture now reads…

The mice will live with the Lamb…

Now, I’m no Belteshazzar, but personally, I think the Mad Babbler needs to lay off the caffeine or the sugar or the Willie Bros. or something! 🙂

…the lovely and gracious Grace Kelly (insert that Roy Orbison “Oh, Pretty Woman” throat noise right here!) and the suave and debonair Cary Grant are on Turner Classic Movies in the Hitchcock thriller To Catch a Thief!

In the mood for something a bit out of the mainstream for tonight’s Unwind. Still hooked on jazz, but tonight’s selection is from the great bassist Charles Mingus, and his classic Mingus Ah Um, released in 1959.

Lots of good stuff on the album, but the highlight for me, and the reason it’s tonight’s Unwind is the soulful “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” which was Mingus’s tribute to the late, great saxophonist Lester Young.

Saw this quote today…

Everybody now wants to be somebody big in the public eye, as if that itself could justify one’s existence and make it worthwhile being alive.

(via Notebookism)

Uh-oh…here’s what Wikipedia says about Walter Mitty…

Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber’s short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, published in 1941. Mitty is a meek, mild man with a vivid fantasy life: in a few dozen paragraphs he imagines himself a wartime pilot, an emergency-room surgeon, and a devil-may-care killer. He has become such a standard for the role that his name appears in several dictionaries.

The character was played by Danny Kaye in the 1947 film version, and is scheduled to be played by Owen Wilson in a future film version. Thurber opposed the 1947 production, possibly because it trivialized a darker and more significant message underlying the text. It is possible to read the events in the story as the responses to the stress of reality by an aging man who is sliding into senescence. In the brief snatches of reality that punctuate Mitty’s fantasies we meet well-meaning but insensitive strangers who inadvertently rob Mitty of some of his remaining dignity. His wife is the only inhabitant of reality that we meet more than once. Thurber cleverly leads us into accepting her as a nag by giving Mitty’s fantasies a charming lightness and comic-book simplicity that disarms deeper scrutiny. On the other hand, her final appearance suggests that she is a woman struggling to cope as her role shifts from loving life-partner to care-giver as Mitty slowly slides into his second childhood.

What an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful early spring day in North Georgia! Here’s the way it looks from where I sit right now…

• J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 147 streaming on Musicmatch (Oh… Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Herr Bach!)
• Open office window (The real window, not the software kind! Note: We’re usually too allergy-conscious and air-conditioning-dependent to have the windows open at our house. Shhh! I won’t tell if you won’t!)
• Birds – lots of birds – just outside…better music than the Bach!
• The blinds are gently swaying in the breeze
• Cat in the window sill
• Uncluttered desk (for a change and for a little while at least!)
• Wind chimes
• Half-finished cup of green tea

Wish you you could be here!

The late, great Lewis Grizzard once differentiated between “naked” and “nekkid” like this…

“Naked” is when you have no clothes on. “Nekkid” is when you have no clothes on and you’re up to something.

Well, the chicken I just pulled off the grill is going to be “up to something” in just about an hour. It’s going to be on a plate with some grilled corn-on-the-cob-off-the-cob and some steamed green beans. Then it’s going to be “up to” my mouth with a fork.

Oh, why is it “nekkid” chicken? Because while I usually like my chicken with a little kick (cayenne, cumin, ancho chile powder, garlic, etc.) there just ain’t no substitute for chicken with nothing on but a little Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Nekkid, and mmmmmmm, good!

Come on over….if you get here in time, there’ll be plenty to go around!

…for now, at least.

The NC&Ds had a problem with Jesus’ works of power and compassion, so who did they complain to? Themselves.
They had a problem with His choice of party compatriots, so who did they complain to? His disciples.
They had a problem with His disciples and their joie de vivre, so who did they complain to? Jesus Himself.

Notice, “the problem” was never with themselves and their own super-sanctified attitude. The problem was always something or somebody else, who didn’t match up to their standards or bow down to their authority. Again, hmmmm….