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Archive for the 'Writing' Category
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT JEWISH
I decided yesterday I’m gonna host my own passover this year. I think I really like tradition and ceremony. There is something about getting together with people with a greater purpose than to watch a movie or eat.
We have a great group of friends around here and I was thinking about inviting some people over and sharing the tradition with them. Though I’m concerned about it being taken seriously (it is a celebration, but at times a somber one). Then I had a great* idea: I’ll write my own seder.
Obviously it would be based on years of tradition, but having someone remember the bitter tears of slavery who is mostly thinking about a pair of jeans they want, doesn’t really work, but having them remember the bitterness they feel about what enslaves them still today, might be effective. I’m not trying to “make the passover hip”, I just want it to also be relevant to peoples lives. Basically, I want them to go home having experienced something more than matso ball soup and finding the hidden cracker.
What do you guys think? Is it sacrilege? Am I destroying passover? Or is it possible to be relevant and reverent?
In case you haven’t heard, the writer’s strike is officially over. I can go back to adapting the stage-adapted version of Congo, The Musical as a film.
So the big question is, When do the shows come back on (so you can stop watching Who Wants to Marry a 5th Grader? Hosted by Chris Hansen)
Exerpt from The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis:
There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.
Here I am reading a fairly small book to entertain myself while using the restroom (though I find I don’t get a chance to open the book till the actual process is already over) and the story is moving along nicely and then Lewis drops this one. He is having an imaginary coversation with George Macdonald about the nature of heaven and hell. I won’t argue for or against his theology in The Great Divorce but I will say he gives us chance to re-evaluate our stance. I experienced this same phenomona when reading The Space Trilogy.
Where does Jesus actually fit into the schedule of church, worship, events, youth group, bible studies? I’m not saying any of these things are wrong, I’m just wondering how central Jesus (being the founder and driving force of Christianity) is to the day-to-day responsiblities of a “christian”.
If you guys only knew how many great posts I have slaved over, only to have my blog software jack them up…
Why is the word “shit” colorful language? When have you ever seen something described in that term, that made you feel happy or alive? It’s dull and boring. Burnt Sienna, Dark Tan, Umber, Cocoa these are just pretty names for bland color. Brown is only slightly better than gray.
Here is some colorful language:
xylophone, bobblehead, onomatopoeia, flabbergast, titicaca
Not sure about the last one. It just came out in the stream of conciousness.
Many of you might know I work for a company that does video and web coverage of drift racing. This weekend I will be live blogging results from the Long Beach event. I’m pretty sure most of you dont care about drift racing but if you do come check it out. I will be blogging from www.thedriftzone.com/liveblog (will should be up later today). Also the long awaited dvd fanguide for the Formula D series will see it’s first 8,000 people this weekend. I’m really feeling the pressure about that. I’ve already found a couple errors (our fault) and the DVD art wasn’t printed right (not our fault).
Also, I am going to be launching a podcast of my own this summer that I am really excited about. I will let you know more details when they become more than just ideas.
I guess I wasn’t back.
In the spare time not spent working on this dvd project (which basically means when I’m pooping), I have been reading Francis Shchaeffer’s The God Who Is There. The books frames the major problem in todays society as a loss of an anithesis, starting with philosophy and spreading throughout general culture. The antithesis being A is A, not A is not A. Absolutes, you might call them. The thought process of modern society, according to Shaeffer goes like this: There is no good, there is no bad because no one can really know the difference. Priests molest, Cops are corrupt, and Republicans are gay.*
I was laying in bed on saturday night, my wife sleeping beside me, after having cried most of the day. One of our pets died and she was a big part of our family. I started to ponder death when an amazing thought hit me:
We are all gonna die. Everyone. First my parents, aunts and uncles, then me and my siblings.
Then my heart just stopped. The feeling that came after can be described like this:
Everything Is Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.Wisdom Is Meaningless
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.15 What is twisted cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.16 I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
Schaeffer states that Christians are the only actual realists. They understand that money, power, friends, family will all go away. That life on earth has no meaning and that one day they will die. There is no optimism, no hope in life itself. We don’t believe we can fix aids by hugging each other and buying red t-shirts**. We don’t believe in the “goodness” of man on his own.
So how am I sitting in bed feeling worthless and hopeless? I have a great wife, good job, good friends and a wonderful family. I have a working car and can pay my rent. I am, for all intensive purposes, comfortable. Because it took a loss for me to realize again that everytime I find meaning outside of God, I only find that everything is meaningless.
*I hate to use an asterisk, but just in case the sarcasm didn’t translate, I’m joking about the last one.
**But buying some beanies will help mothers in Uganda send their kids to school
(deep breath)…(sigh)
I’m back. Back in America, back to my blog, back to a place mentally/emotionally I want to be.
It was meant to be a fun vacation, a diversion, but it wound up being much more than that.
The word that comes to mind is retreat. The beautiful countryside. The slower pace of life. The warmth of family.
I didn’t come home tired with a thousand pictures, knick knacks, and a dread to return to life.
Instead, I am refreshed, relaxed and ready to take on life. I didn’t leave that way. I was beaten down physically, mentally and spiritually.
My situation hasn’t changed. I am equally if not more busy than when I left. My bills are still due. My cats poop still smells and I still have to wipe off the mirror after every time I brush my teeth.
So whats the point? Why am I writing about my personal life even though I said I wont’t?
Because I learned something simple and yet proufoundly impacting for my life and maybe you can use it too.
I learned how to stop and relax. No big deal right? That’s what weekends are for? Nope. I can’t remember the last weekend/holiday that ended with me saying, “That was refreshing, I am ready for life again.” For those of you with kids, “work” is non-stop. For those of us without kids, we fill that time with other compulsions.
My wife is on top of everyting, always. The house is always clean, bills are always paid and the dishes never sit for more than 5 minutes. I am not critiquing her. I reap the many benefits of not having to worry about some of these things. But I’ve always told her she needs to “relax” and slow down, because I knew how to.
I confused my own procrastination about certain things as the ability to “relax”. I didn’t realize I am just as compulsive, just about different things. I am driven by the need to have fun, to entertain and be liked. I am always needing to go somewhere, do something and be talking to somebody.
The second night in Ireland, I was laying in bed next to my wife pondering the realization that I just talked for probably 3 hours straight. Interrupting the silence, I asked her,”Did I talk too much tonight (complusion #1)?”. She answered, “maybe a little.” I thought about that for a second and asked compulsion…I mean question number two, “Do you think they noticed, like I was annoying?”. Same answer.
My brother’s house (where I stayed) was completely different than my own home. The dishes might stay in the sink for a couple hours after dinner or when people were over, the next day. There wasn’t a mirror to get toothpaste suds on. My wife went crazy right? Nope. She has probably never been more relaxed. We spent a lot of time just sitting around the house, hanging out. There wasn’t people over all the time, or events everyday. I think I might have made 3 phone calls at the most. I didn’t write email, blog or chat on skype. After evening number 2, I just relaxed. My wife didn’t need to clean and organize, I didn’t need to entertain and socialize.
So now I am home. The rest will wear off and in a week I will have forgotten I ever left. Our house will look peferct, our bills will be paid early, I’ll be making plans for every evening, feeling guilty for not posting/writing my graphic novel/editing my movies, and on my cell phone 8 hours a day.
Or maybe not. Maybe we’ll learn from our retreat. About ourselves, our lives, and how to relax.
As you can tell, my involvement in this blog has been much less as of late. In fact it has been pretty much zero. I apologize for all those who have come checking here and found nothing. I have still been thinking and reading and growing and laughing at poop and pee videos, but I just haven’t had the time to share it here.
I am leaving for Ireland on friday and have a large DVD project due when I get back. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up blogging, but I’m just pretty distracted right now.
I would love for some of our regulars readers, if they want to test the waters, maybe write a post or two or just send in some fun stuff or ideas.
Thank for you reading, now and in the future.
