Good Luck Sendout

Krriptonite sends out best wishes and good luck to all his wonderful Pennsylvania readers who hunt.

Just a reminder that aside from the approximate 750,000 hunters in the woods tomorrow, we really don't need as many stray bullets zinging around our beautiful woodlands. Be sure of your target, and don't tell me at the end of the day that you saw me in your scope:)

Star of Conservative Romance Production Returns

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Not one to spend much time blogging about or even concerning myself with celebrities I bumped into a recent headline of interest.

Mennonites have traditionally given those dirty romance novels the cold shoulder; however, there have been a few pristine little romance productions that have somehow managed to invade Mennonite circles. One of the prime invaders has been the "Sound of Music" a romantic musical starring Julie Andrews.

With her beautiful voice Julie Andrews became the face of the musical set in wartime Germany. Julie Andrews has rarely sung for many years since her soprano voice was impaired by surgery. She once described her impaired voice as "a wonderful, deep, bass voice of about five notes and that's about it".

Now at 74 years old, Julie Andrews plans to reappear on the UK stage for the first time in 30 years.

"For fifteen years I have been intently studying earthly life. It is true I have not seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, have loved women. . . . Beauties as ethereal as clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses, have visited me at night, and have whispered in my ears wonderful tales that have set my brain in a whirl. In your books I have climbed to the peaks of Elburz and Mont Blanc, and from there I have seen the sun rise and have watched it at evening flood the sky, the ocean, and the mountain-tops with gold and crimson. I have watched from there the lightning flashing over my head and cleaving the storm-clouds. I have seen green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, towns. I have heard the singing of the sirens, and the strains of the shepherds' pipes; I have touched the wings of comely devils who flew down to converse with me of God. . . . In your books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain, burned towns, preached new religions, conquered whole kingdoms. . . .

"Your books have given me wisdom. All that the unresting thought of man has created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I am wiser than all of you.

"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.

from "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov

Thank-you JESUS!

Well...its that time of year when doctors will be busy unplugging throats and people will be reminded to thank God for all the bounty in their lives that they have come to depend so heavily on. "Thank you God that I don't live in the Middle East and that I'm not starving like the Africans and...oh...would you please hand me my bottle of gently warmed milk before I go to bed?"

An optional assignment was given by a teacher in chapel the other day. I decided to join the students and have a go at it myself. We are compiling a massive list of thanks. I decided to submit a list of 25 that is fairly specific but certainly not composed in order of importance.

Things I am Grateful For:

1. A kind and encouraging note yesterday

2. Shirts that don’t get wrinkly (I think they have Teflon in them or something)

3. Coffee shops that don’t play loud music

4. Socks that don’t have holes in them (I hate holes in socks)

5. Friends that can be cynical with me.

6. Friends that refuse to let me become an eternal cynic.

7. Cheap rent

8. Country air

9. Family ( this one is huge and its so sacred that I cant even say much about it)

10. Libraries with soft carpet (I hate libraries with cold tile floors)

11. Drinking water that doesn’t have chlorine in it (If your not sure what chlorinated water is, go drink some Pepto-Bismol)

12. Department store cashiers that don’t look and act like they haven’t slept in 48 hrs

13. Weather that’s cold enough for hot drinks

14. Having supper with my Grandparents every Wednesday night. (Especially my Grandma’s killer breakfast meals)

15. Live music (Recorded music just doesn’t do it for me)

16. Passionate Jesus followers

17. My mom’s special hot drink mix known to its true blue drinkers as “three in one”

18. Showers that don’t change temperatures or volume of output.

19. People that can see past all my garbage and blow on the small ember of good that lays in there somewhere.

20. The opportunity to help build God’s Kingdom

21. “Indulgent Trail Mix” (It can be bought most economically at our dear Wal-Mart according to my knowledge)

22. Unscheduled days (I’m just saying….if I had one I WOULD be grateful for it)

23. People that don’t care about money (they’re really cool)

24. thank! God i dont haf too teach grammar? (Especially sentence diagramming)

25. That God doesn’t change His mind about all of us (He would have plenty of ground to stand on if he decided to scrap all of us and start over)

Who Takes the Way of Christ Seriously?

“During the 1960’s and 70’s there was an antiwar slogan that asked, “what if they gave a war and nobody came?” The point was, what if there was a declaration of war and all the people refused to participate? What if there were abortion clinics but nobody went in? What if abortion was a legal choice, but it was a choice nobody took? Changes in the law, blocking abortion clinics, and demeaning name-calling will not stop abortions. The history of the church through the ages has been the history of changes brought about in society through the church demonstrating and living an alternative vision of life. We need to stop telling our non-believing neighbors how wrong their way of life is, and we need to start showing the power of the gospel in the way we live…Let me ask you: which has greater power? Then thousand people who fill the streets in front of abortion clinics and shame those seeking abortions, or ten thousand people in California who take to the state capital a petition they have signed stating they will take any unwanted child of any age, any color, any physical condition so that they can love that child in the name of Jesus Christ?”

This is an excerpt taken from an unpublished sermon preached by Bill Tibert at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs.

Trains, anyone?

I would like to throw a question out to the cosmos that is probably outdated and good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of man.

Image via Wikipedia

Whatever happened to trains anyway?

This question was brought to the forefront on the packed highways this past weekend when I was doing some traveling. Getting hopelessly caught up in the hemoglobic masses of tractor and trailers, I felt my frustration thicken to the consistancey of molasses. Creeping along behind the great fossil fuel gluttons, I tried to think of alpine slides or Mayan ziggurats, but even such oddities as those could not stem my frustration. My frustration finally peaked with the aformentioned question, "whatever happened to trains anyway?"