Tag Archives: Simpsons

Today Has Conspired Against Me

Or maybe this entire week has conspired against me. Let’s count the ways…
(In case you can’t tell, this is one of those whiny, poor me posts, so feel free to move on now)

  • I’ve been sick since Wednesday night with a sore throat and persistent cough. Last night I was coughing so hard my chest hurt.
  • Because of all that I couldn’t go to the Social Media Breakfast on Friday morning.
  • I also couldn’t go to a planning meeting for a group of local church communicators I’m helping to organize.
  • That sickness also meant the date night my wife and I have been trying to have for two months that almost happened this weekend didn’t happen.
  • It also means I forgot about the U2 tickets that sold out in two hours on Saturday morning.
  • It also means I never had a chance to enjoy one last taco at Dora’s (OK, it would have been more like six last tacos).
  • This morning I left the kids with a babysitter and took the bus to the doctor. I missed the bus.
  • Which meant I missed my appointment by 20 minutes and the doctor wouldn’t see me.
  • Then I spent three hours at the dealership while they investigated my car’s uneven tread wear problem, only to tell me they have no answers.
  • Then I got a call from the babysitter that Lexi has been throwing up.
  • I dropped $50 at Best Buy tonight to replace items that have been lost or stolen in the last six months.
  • One of those items was a power cord for the portable DVD player Lexi watches in the car. Thanks to disposable electronics, that portable DVD player will now be the main DVD player powering our living room TV. (Our house has two VCRs and four DVD players, and only two of the DVD players work. And one is portable.)
  • We have two couches in our house. Lexi managed to throw up on both of them.
  • While preparing all the puke-stained items for the wash, I realized the dog peed on the carpet.
  • At this point it was supper time and I realized I never had lunch.
  • Being gone all day meant I got next to nothing done for work.
  • We were planning to go to Kansas for Thanksgiving and I was excited about introducing Milo to lots of extended family that hasn’t had the chance to meet him yet. Tonight we decided we can’t go to Kansas with all the sickness and our complete lack of preparation.

Did I forget anything?

However, this week is Thanksgiving. So let’s find some bright spots, shall we?

Continue reading Today Has Conspired Against Me

Mis-Marketing, the Simpsons & a Crying Coach

To start things off on a less philosophical note, today in my P.O. I received something inviting me to attend Minnehaha Academy—a Christian pre-school through 12th grade school. Needless to say, I’m just a little confused. Secondly, I just finished watching an episode of the Simpsons that proves once again the value of the show. Sure, my mother still frowns at it, but this episode made a glaring statement about the violence in sports (hockey was the example) and the mixed statements we send to our children by condoning such violence. Now to get philosophical on ya…

My eyes opened today, and I tried not to groan. It helped a little. Then came something I never expected to see at chapel. The football coach was speaking, and he cried. Not once, but several times. A football coach getting emotional? Hmmm… He was talking about having an ‘attitude of gratitude.’ It amazed me the way he tried to find the good in everything. It was oddly similar to what L’Engle said yesterday. Hmmm…

Another quote stuck out at me today after reading an article by Mark McCutcheon. Mark was talking about living the Christian life as a relationship with God, not a mere religion. L’Engle said:

“Live in such away that your life would not make sense if God didn’t exist.” (Walking on Water, 31)

It’s becoming more and more clear what this life is all about. And at the same time it gets cloudier and cloudier. Do I live my life in the way L’Engle describes? Rarely. Is my Christian life just a religion? (Is there a distinction between my ‘life’ and my ‘Christian life’?) I hope not, but at times I think it stoops to that. The connection isn’t clear yet, but somehow I think my cheery pants from yesterday and the attitude of gratitude mix together with the religion vs. relationship to say something to me. It’s days like these that life becomes a little less muddled, and I can see.