'Til you wise up

Sometimes things just come together in a way that makes you step back and...exhale. A beautiful painting, a moment in a song, something that causes you to think, "everything just happened right." Maybe it was the day they had. Maybe they just found love, or perhaps it's escaped them once again. But once in a while you'll see something. A culmination of so many other things coming together at just the right point to create something that moves you.

It happened again for me recently while watching a film I've seen over 5 times now. P.T. Anderson's, Magnolia. Some of you have seen it, and hate it. Some of you have seen it, and love it. If you've never seen it, I simply suggest that you do. It's raw, it's real, it's weird, and amazing.

Tom Cruise gives an oscar nominated performance as a motivational guru full of himself. In the moment of his career a scene that stops every muscle in your body, Cruise sits at the bedside of his dying and estranged father. He breaks, and in those few moments you see the "coming together" moment, where everything seems to stop and stand at attention to what's just taken place.

As the film progress' in classic P.T. Anderson, with his usual cast of characters, the haunting vocals of Aimee Mann connect the lives of these characters through song. The genius of this scene however is that each and every character joins in the song as it cuts from shot to shot.

Artists describe the moment as the universe standing still and in the gap they create something that benefits the world. Beauty and art accomplish that for us. In an instant, through a film or a painting, a song or a book, we tap into something bigger than us, something larger than we could ever imagine. It's a result of us being created in the image of God, and in those moments where it all comes together, we sit...

still.

"You're sure
There's a cure
And you have finally found it
You think
One drink
Will shrink you 'til you're underground
And living down
But it's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
'Til you wise up"

Friday Afternoon Rant

Justin Timberlake has joined the ranks of the all-time great Saturday Night Live hosts, alongside legends Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and Tom Hanks. This past saturday night was incredible.

I'll admit if the movie Dreamgirls is good, but I am so tired of the coverage. It's everywhere! The most hyped movie of the season and I'm not sure why.

Does anybody find it interesting that the reason the new contract agreed upon by The San Francisco Giants and Barry Bonds is being held up is due to a "language issue?" Apparently, Barry wants the Giants to still pay him his $16 mill in case he gets endicted by the feds, or suspended by MLB. I thought you weren't knowingly involved Barry? Can you believe the most hallowed record in all of American Sports is about to fall next year, and no one cares!? What a cryin' shame.

Do yourself a favor, go to You Tube and watch Damien Rice's performance of "Cold Water" for BBC Four's Sessions @ The Four Seasons. The most incredible performance I've seen in a long, long time. Goosebumps just thinking about it.

Due to our disagreement over Muhammed Ali and our overall view of sports in general, I'm now in a Le Batard/Schiambi-esque blood fued with fellow blogger Adam Masterson.

3 days, 2 grandmothers, 2 parents, Disney World. That was the beginning of my week. Needless to say it was an interesting experience. But a good one. Epcot is still the best theme park around, simply because you can drink a beer in 7 countries in 4 hours.

Speaking of beer, I heard recently that a beer a day reduces the amount of alluminum in your brain. Something to think about.

If you don't have a place to go for Christmas Eve, join us at City Church. 7pm at the Cinema Paradiso, downtown Ft. Lauderdale.

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.

Peace on earth, good will to men.

The Greatest

Last saturday night I accomplished in part, one of my dreams. I was ringside for a fight. There's something about boxing. It truly is the "sweet science". Go ahead, call me old fashioned, call me barbaric. Boxing is the ultimate gladiator sport. One on one, man on man. No where to go, no where to hide. Slowly but surely your opponent determines your weaknesses, and picks them apart. He waits. He toys. Finally, you let your shoulder fly open a bit too far, and...

I'm telling you, there is nothing like seeing a man fall to the mat.

And for all those who try to convince me of the greatness of the Ultimate Fighting Championships, save it. It's not boxing, it's a fad. The "sweet science" is just that, a science, an art, a strategy.

Watching up-and-coming talents from the area, as well as former greats perform, I was reminded of the one and only. The man who captivated a nation. A man whose religious beliefs alienated some, inspired others, but everyone embraced him. It was his brash confidence. His command of a crowd. His social awareness, and his boyish smile. He truly was the greatest, and the last gladiator.

The words of the greatest champion, Muhammed Ali:

"A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing."

"Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life."

"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

"I am the greatest. Not only do I knock em out, I pick the round!"

"I figure I'll be champ for about ten years and then I'll let my brother take over - like the Kennedys down in Washington."

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."

- I could go on. Perhaps another time. Long live the "double greatest"!

Mt. Hood

Most of you know I'm two years into my graduate studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and Boca Raton. The president of RTS Orlando is Dr. Frank James, and the brother of one of the three missing climbers on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Dr. James has been the spokesperson for the 3 families. The last news report was that Kelly, Frank's brother, was turning his cell phone on and off and that T-mobile was picking up the signal.

The 3 climbers are very experienced and purposely climed Mt. Hood in bad conditions to prepare for an Everest climb next year. But, nature plays by other rules. It has stormed everynight on the mountain and they say the wind can be upwards of 100mph at times as high as they are.

If you pray, please keep these three men and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Peace.

Friday Afternoon Rant

This is the second installment of the new weekly segment: Friday Afternoon Rant -

I love Christmas. I hate Christmas lights.

Randy Shannon is your new head football coach at the University of Miami. He's now 1 of only 5 african-american head football coaches out of 117 Division 1 jobs in America. What's that percentage?? Congratulations Miami for being one of the five.

All I know is this. I've never gotten anything done in a study group before. Is it bad that our war in Iraq is now in effect being run by a Study Group? I'm imagining them sitting around with all their notes out and a some hot chocolate, and somewhere they got sidetracked when they started talking about policy because young Jim Baker got dumped by Sarah Collins, and he just wants to talk about it and cry it out.

If you haven't read Hugo Chavez' playlist, go to fayolashakes.typepad.com - hilarious.

John Mayer's album "Continuum" was nominated for best album of the year yesterday when the Grammy nods came out. Buy it if you haven't already.

Giving speeches in class to 4 or 5 people while being video taped is the weirdest thing you can ever do. Nope, watching the tape is the weirdest.

Brew Urban Cafe is the best coffeehouse in the tri-county area.

Peace.

Safe Haven

You never know how a day will turn. Yesterday morning I woke up early to meet with a few guys over breakfast and then spent some time studying at Brew downtown. When I got home around 11 am, I was startled to find something out of the ordinary in our carport.

Backstory: My mother has a cousin whose been living on the streets for the last 15-20 years. A product of a ridiculously broken home and addiction after addiction. A father who brow beat him to death, and a brother in trouble so much with the law he was forced to flee the country, and ultimately died of a drug OD in a bathroom in Spain. That's right. Read that last sentence again.

I live in a bedroom efficiency on the side of my 80 year old grandmother's house in Wilton Manors. My grandfather built this house 60 years ago for $1200. They never moved. Once in a while, she'll get a call from the police or a hospital asking her if she's a relative to my mom's cousin. 15-20 years of addiction, floating, and life on the streets has made it impossible for us to really do anything. He's too far gone for my grandmother's or my ability to help, unless he actually stayed around and checked into a shelter. But he won't. He'll move on, and we won't hear from him for years, perhaps not until one day the call will come that he's dead.

After my grandmother and I spent some time talking with him yestrerday in our drive, I spent the rest of the day thinking about it. My grandfather who passed away last year took these 2 boys in. He cared for them, loved them. Circumstances that were so bad in their lives that would ultimately kill one of them, and banish another to the streets. But through it all, they loved my grandparents. From another country, the one brother would call, just to check in, never saying where he was, but he called.

When my grandmother recieved the call from the hospital a month ago saying her nephew was there, she actually talked to
him. The first time in years. She had to tell him the closest thing to a father he had died last year, and that his brother was dead. So, a month later he stopped by to talk. And we did. And then he left again.

Through it all, those 3 boys in all, saw my grandparents, this house, as the last safe haven. The last refuge. No matter what, there was Uncle Chester and Aunt Bea. The contact info left with the police is this house. This family.

I thought a lot about being a man of peace and kindness. That if one day my house, my life, was seen as a safe haven for family and friends in need. My grandfather was. This house was. I don't know what we can do, but there's family out there, and I pray for the day that God might do something ridiculous and redemptive for him.

But I thought all day about a man who climbed the beach at Normandy. A man who worked contruction for 40 years. A man who came back from war and built a house of peace, a safe haven.

I thought of Papa.

So my brother recently won best sound at the FullSail Film Festival in Orlando. (FullSail is a sound/film/engineering school in Orlanod, one of the best tin the country if you weren't familiar) They just posted their winning short on you tube. It's called Shelly. Warning:It's intense and has some pretty bad language if that kind of thing bothers you.

Enjoy.



Shelly

Friday Afternoon Rant

Some of you have asked what the recent "untilted" posts are. They're installments of a short story that i've started writing. I've always liked how writers of a hundred years ago would publish chapters of their new novels in the newspaper. So i've taken to posting the story in that fashion. This is the first time I've ever written anything fictional. I'm not as good as the likes of fellow bloggers, Cameron Conant, Fayola Shakes (My (Im)mortal Life), and Adam Masterson, but I'm trying something new. I'd appreciate your comments, thoughts, questions as more of it comes out. Someone feel free to say at any point, please stop!

Friday Afternoon Rant:

Everyone should read "Eat this Book" by Eugene Peterson. My entire campus read through it this semester. It's a gem on spiritual reading.

Can someone tell Ryan Adams to take a page from Damien Rice and only release an album every 2 or 3 years. I love you Ryan, but you oversaturate the market with drivel. "Heartbreaker", and "Gold" were gold. Take a break.

If you were the new stud starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and could now date any celebrity, would you pick Jessica Simpson? Come on Tony, you can do better than that.




Here's an excerpt from Adam Masterson's last blogpost entitled, "I Wrote This During a Class I was Bored In",
I thought was amazing:"If you have read Tolkien then you know that his stories feature elves and elves live forever. And in one of his works he writes that the Creator gave to elves gifts that men envied - strength, tireless energy, beauty and not the least of which was immortality. But to men the Creator gave what Tolkien called a strange gift - it was the gift of death. Because when men looked to the elves they thought of immortality being associated with eternal pleasure and experience and failed to realize that it also meant eternal sorrow and pain. Where there is no death there is no escape from the world and all of its sorrows and mess. The elves may live forever but they were bound to an earth that decayed and didn't age with the same grace they did, whereas man had the hope of one day escaping it all."

Did I just put Tolkien next to a picture of Jessica Simpson?

The new James Bond is incredible.

USC will beat Ohio State.

And lastly, can someone please open a Chik-fil-a franchise in south florida! The farthest south they come is WPB. Someone get on that.

Peace.