If you can read this and not cry, I question whether or not you have a heart...

So, I'm not a woman, and if you asked me whether or not I read Women's lit, I would laugh in your face.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  I'm not one, as previously mentioned in earlier blogs, to fall into the tawdry books that line the shelves at the grocery store.  These fall under soft-core porn in my eyes.  

And yet....

I have just finished Atonement, by McKellan, and all I can say... wow.  What a great read.  It took my heart and dashed it into a billion pieces... And what an ending!  I never saw it coming.  Never.  I thought I knew, I thought I did, but wow.  

(I just had a feeling that I was one of those kids at the end of Reading Rainbow who give those seemingly nonsense bookreviews.  You know the ones I'm talking about?  They try to get you to read the book by starting out with a question: "Did you ever wonder what it was like to go inside the human ear? Well, let me tell you..."  And they babble on about illustrations and funny comments.  And then they tell you to head on down to your local library to "Check-it-out!"  Man, is that show still on?  Does Levar Burton get residual cheques still, or are they making new ones?)

I do like war novels, especially around the two World Wars.  I dunno that I would like to have lived then, but there is this semi-nostalgic blurry edged feel to that time.  And I think that this has partly swayed my feeling towards this book.  But I think the clincher was the characterization.  I do love deeply developed characters and inter-twining stories.  Though written in a modern mindset, there were some distinctly post-modern themes which make the read even more profound.

Ok, so thats my plug on this book.  

Now I have to get back to reading some good old theology.  At least old theology.

I'm dodging!

I subbed for middle school gym yesterday, and awesome!  First off, yes, I do sub as a gym teacher.  I know you're thinking my physical acumen would just show up the kids, but never worry.  And, also, yes I have the proper attire.  Need I remind you that I have run a marathon recently?  And, on that note, no, I d not wear those really short shorts.  

I will say that gym in middle school is a struggle.  Well, I can only speak for the boys... I'm sure the girls are just darling.  The guys are growing and becoming men, but not very well at this point.  Yesterday their arms were a little more in proportion to their bodies.  And some are just giants compared to others.  And, God help us, they're watching and trying to mimic EVERYTHING they see on TV.  If they can watch some guy jump like Superman and make a basket, well then there will be at least five guys who try it in a middle school gym class.  And of course, there are those who are much better at basketball than others, present company included.  But there seems to be a missing synapse that encourages immediate learning.  

Example:  If I cannot dunk the ball from any point, jumping like Superman does not guarantee success.  

Example: If the ball is leaving my hand like a shotgun, with no arch and no spin, and I haven't made a basket yet, then I probably need to stop shooting like that.

Example:  If I run into someone much bigger than me and they do not budge and I end up on the floor, I might need to move around him next time.  

And, as any middle school teacher will tell you, there is an unnecessary amount of arguing.  I obviously must have blinked because I missed that basket, and now its my fault that the yellow team is losing... despite the fact that the yellow teams has an average of 4/10, while the other team has a 9/10 avg.  Oh the unwonton pride of the middle school male.

This however, does not darken my spirit, because earlier I helped with the Special Needs class, and I had a great day.  I am amazed every time I help with this type of class.  Its such an encouragement to see how they interact.  They genuinely care for each other.  I had guys who just needed help getting dressed, and there were some helping to put shirts on, and those willingly asking for help.  Incredible.  It looks so counter what we think middle school boys should be like.  Its not a "sense" of community, it actually is.

And we played Dodge Ball, which is the greatest game ever in the minds of these kids.  They love it!  And I loved watching it... oh the scenes that just make you want to laugh.  Not because of the seemingly inane things these kids will do (to love at these would just be mean-spirited), but because of how much fun they're having and how innocent they are.  My favourite moment, that I hope expresses my point is this:

"Mike" is awesome.  He had been playing some hardcore Dodge Ball, and he was abel to stay in for a long time each game.  Well, as we were beginning the last game, he had a great idea.  We were playing in the back gym, where the wrestling team practices.  And so, their large mats were rolled up and put on the side.  I was watching the game when I heard, to my right, a voice calling out, "I'm dodging!  I'm dodging the ball!"  And there was "Mike" crouched down behind the wrestling mat, head down and covered in arms.  How great!  He thought he had beat the system!  You just don't find this greatness, this innocence in the general population.  

May God grant me this encouragement often enough to know that I need it, but not so much that I become numb to it.

Apparently, if you use the wardrobe as an "in" once, you can't use it again.

I'm growing old and by the grace of God I am somehow maturing.  I am amazed at His grace and goodness despite my inability to grasp such things long enough to truly understand what that means, and sometimes what I should do in response.  Its like that scene in A Wrinkle in Time when they are trying to explain what a tesseract is exactly... I get it, but just then.  If I move my head or blink I've not only lost it, but am annoyed at the fact that it was on the tip of my tongue and now its gone.  And as I go through my Lenten exercises I realise that I probably need a longer term of Lent to understand that bit of Passion half as well as those who have gone before. 

So, insights away this Easter season, and enough to last me the year so that by next Easter I have less brushburns from falling on my face in repentance, but more from falling on my face in awe.

A sight no girl scout should ever see

Saturday afternoon was great.  I had no where to be, and so Claire, Lily, and I stayed in our pajamas 'til about two.  I wasn't dressing up for nobody.  We were playing and laughing, sometimes stopping the crazy amounts of fun to get a drink, or a snack, or to watch some Disney channel.  Good day! Heather was at some scrapbooking meeting having fun with cutting implements of all sorts.  

Well, we were playing with the Little Einsteins when there was a knock at the door.  Ummm... yeah, I am in my Pajamas, and who could it be.  I thought about running up the stairs to put some jeans on, but I knew that the person outside would definitely see me running by them to go even further upstairs.  And... I knew it was bitterly cold outside.  No one should be made to wait just so I can put non-Superman pants on.  I was wearing a t-shirt, nothing inappropriate, but just not the way to answer the door at 2pm.  

I opened the door to a well-bundled maybe 11 year old girl with two boxes of Girl Scout cookies in her hands... thin mints and lemon chalets.  

"Here are the cookies you ordered," she said with cold-bited breath.  "You owe me 7 dollars."

"Ok, give me a minute and I'll be right back."

I did not order cookies from this girl.  I have no idea who this girl is, but I've taken her cookies, and I neglected to order any Chalet's for myself... Heather must have ordered these cookies.  Why else would this girl be giving this house, us, cookies?  This is all thought in my head as I'm now trying to remember where I laid my wallet.

After paying her, I open the Chalet's and me and the girls eat them, and they are good.

Heather comes home, and I'm no dressed and showered, and the girls are dressed, also.  So, now we're all dressed and Lily is carrying around the greater part of half of a Chalet, and Heather asks,

"What's Lily eating?"

"Oh, well those cookies you ordered came.  It was kind of embarrassing, it was 2 in the afternoon and I was still in my pajamas.  And then I couldn't find my wallet and I felt bad that she was out there in the cold, and her mom wouldn't even look at the house, so I know she was annoyed or soemthing. But here they are, the box of Lemon Chalets and the box of Thin Mints."

"Warwick, I didn't order any cookies from anyone.  I knew you had ordered a lot from Lisa (from our church) and so I didn't order any more."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

 

"Well, i paid or them, and half of the box of Chalets is already gone..."

"Who's cookies have you been eating?"

"I dunno, but I don't think I'm gonna go around and ask.  And I did pay her the 7 dollars, and ate most of them."

The poor girl, she must have gotten our house confused with someone else's.  We are the only white house in our cul du sac.  And our poor neighbors, who did not get their wonderful Lemon Chalets, or Thin Mints.  I do feel especially bad for them.

Leap Day

I have been wrong, if even slightly. For years I have read incorrectly, with my eyes and ears and not with my heart and mind. Not on all occassions but if even once then wrongly. In doing so I have been grasping for straw in the Word and I have missed the down and the wool, and so I sleep on a mat of uncut ruffage instead of the comfort and freedom Christ would have for me.

This passage, John 3:16, I have misread and, so, misused. I have read it as though it only pertains my life to come and not the present blessing my Father would give to me. This passage is not about, so much, future blessings but about the changed life now. It is about my reaction to being loved by the Father, made innocent by the Son, and being renewed by the Spirit.

Let me not be as I am, but may I be made evernew - Alive in the love of the Father.

Long live Kosovo, or some form thereof

So, there is another country in Europe.  Apparently it was hiding in the southern regions of another country.  Its odd to me that this just kind of happened.  I know it didn't happen this way in all actuality.  I know that there were these Albanians plotting this for awhile, but it just seems like it came out of nowhere.  It was like everyone was just minding their own business and, poof!  there it is!  

Here is a better example of how "all-of-a-sudden" it seems:

There once was this camel who was walking through a desert.  It was thinking about how hot it was.  How really hot it was.  It just needed a drink of water.  In the distance was an oasis.  This oasis seemed so far away.  But it knew it could get there.  It had hope.  This Camel's name?  Miguel.

Do you see how random it was?  Just out of  nowhere, Kosovo appears.  Unexpected for everyone except Kosovo, which has been biding its time in the shadows.  Waiting to yell, "Surprise!  We're here now and you need to recognize us."

And leave it to the Russians to say, "Niet".  

Of course, we're gonna be cool with it.  Americans love surprises.

a follow-up to that second topic from the post about the guy singing in the stall...

Well, it turns out that that guy who likes to sing while doing his business is in my class tonight...

How do I know, you ask?  

the sneakers.  

Awesome.