Life Goes On (Despite our best efforts)

I’ve been quite swamped lately.  Summer is supposed to be a slow, relaxed time.  But I find that that thought only serves to deceive me and make me mad that life didn’t slow down as I had assumed it would.  I’m very involved at church right now.

I lead an adult growth group that studies the Redemption Story.  We are reading through the Bible and seeing God’s redemptive plan throughout.  We have already read through Genesis and we are now on Exodus.  That is time consuming to prepare for properly.  And if I don’t prepare for it properly, I get depressed afterward, which takes more out of me than if I had prepared well.

I chair the Adult Growth Leadership Team.  My observations on preparations above definitely apply to this role as well.  I’m also finding I’m not good at coordinating people now.  I often just say I will take care of it myself.  Which is winding up killing me.

I do child care on Wednesday nights.  The youth group and several adult growth groups meet at that time but there is no developed plan for the children at that time.  So, I volunteered to carry that burden till we found someone else to take over it.  I have been doing it since Easter.  I usually have around 8-10 kids from toddler up to 5th grade on Wednesdays.  The most I’ve had is 15 I think.  And I am doing this on my own.  I don’t just watch them, I teach them. I don’t have curriculum.  Lately I have been teaching them about sin and how we are saved through Christ (naturally I teach it in a way that they can understand yet still be challenged).  It is a joy to see a child’s eyes light up and hear them say “Oh, so that’s who Jesus is” or “So that’s what Jesus did” or any other response that shows they get it.  I always ask them the next week if they remember what they learned last week.  I never expect much, but I am almost always pleasantly surprised.

And while life continues on this summer and the fall semester begins (which puts me officially on the back half of my MDiv), I long to be here…

in a hammock in Playa Grande, Honduras

UP

Pixar is awesome.  They never fail the movie going public.  Sarah and I had a date last night and so we went to dinner and a movie.  First, the dinner:

We went to Longhorn on Clemson Blvd in Anderson.  We’ve never been there before but the in-laws say its wonderful.  So off we go.  Sitting down, it was a nice place.  Texas themed (yawn) but still quite nice.  It wasn’t the throw your peanuts on the floor Texas themed, it was a classier Texas theme, which was new to me.  It was not cheap.  It wasn’t expensive either, just pricier than a Texas Roadhouse.  They had Sam Adams on tap which told me this place must be good.  Sarah and I each ordered steaks which when we did we were told by the excellent waitress that their steaks are never frozen and instead arrive fresh and aged to perfection.  I had aged steaks from a butcher before, and the sound of the words “aged steaks” is like Pavlov’s bell to me.  Needless to say, once the food arrived, we were very pleased.  Sarah wanted desert, but then decided against it until the waitress said the words that are like Pavlov’s bell to Sarah: “Fried Cheesecake”.  It was delightful, best I’ve ever had of it.  Oh, and before we were served we were asked if it was our first time, we said yes.  At the end of our meal, the owner/general manager of that one came to our table and thanked us (shaking my hand) for coming and gave us a coupon for a free appetizer next time we came in.  We will definitely be using that.

For the movie:

Amstar in Anderson (or I guess it is The Grand Theatre now) has upgraded nicely.  Now, inside there aren’t movie posters on the wall for the coming attractions, but flat screen HDTV’s turned sideways on the wall giving the poster of the movie with the trailer rolling as well, very cool.  Maybe these are common now as we just haven’t seen a movie in a very long time.

Anyway, we chose to see the 3d version (who wouldn’t).  The tickets were more expensive but I account the glasses for the price jump.  I paid $10 a ticket since I had a student discount.  Once we were seated, the previews started rolling, all of which were in 3d.  Toy Story 3 was announced (June 2010).  The previews made nice use of the 3d, especially that gerbil or hamster movie whatever its called.  But the movie itself did not make ostentatious use of the 3d.  Sarah was a little disappointed in this.  I however was thrilled.  3d is coming a long way, you no longer need the cheesy red and blue lenses that made you a bit sick after too long.  The NFL has been experimenting broadcasting live NFL games in 3d at select theaters across the country (sadly Anderson, SC is not a big enough market to land this yet).  Perhaps 3d is the next logical progression for movies.  Perhaps this progression is like adding sound, or adding color to movies.  Yes the first ones that did such made great use of it.  The first color movies used vibrant colors in order to show you the development and make your eyes feast at its splendor (think of all the colors in the Wizard of Oz).  And 3d movies are no exception.  Most make things jump right into your face for the thrill of it, the excitement of seeing things in 3d.  But once color caught on and was common, there was no strong desire to throw it in your face, it simply strenghtened the already good movie.

Up is like this.  It doesn’t throw the 3d in your face, making you jump back because “wow, I thought that was going to hit me”.  The 3d simply and wonderfully gives visual depth to a visually beautiful movie.  I took my glasses off from time to time to see the difference.  It was night and day.  Even though they did not throw things at you with the 3d, just the advantage of depth made me shun the flatness of 2d.  If one day, all movies are in 3d just as all movies have sound and color now, it will heighten the movie going experience tremendously, especially if it doesn’t make a spectacle of the 3d.  I guess, what I’m saying is, at no time did I think “wow this 3d is awesome” while watching Up.  I thought “wow this movie is awesome, and the 3d increases my enjoyment all the more.”

The movie itself was fantastic.  It’s now one of my favorites of all time.  I don’t want to say anything of the movie other than it is more than just entertaining, it is moving.  Up has serious heart, I cried two and half times during the movie (the half was just a time my face scrunched up and my throat hurt but no tears rolled down my cheeks).  I tried holding it back in the movie, but I’ll readily admit it here.  The movie was just beautiful.  Go see it with your spouse, and take the kids if you have any (they won’t cry at those parts, its not like the Lion King when Mufasa died when I had to turn the movie off and go sulk in a pillow when I was a kid).

End of Semester

The semester has ended (yay!).  I had to take an incomplete though (boo!).  So it’s kinda-sorta over for me.  I’m taking a class this summer: Evangelism.  I’m excited about it, as long as they don’t show us how to make tracts and pamphlets.

I recently got into motorcycling.  I now have a Yamaha XS650 Special.  For those that care, it’s a parallel twin and looks and sounds much like the older Triumphs which I always loved.  In fact, Triumph is making retro-cruisers that are styled after their older (60’s and 70’s) bikes, very cool.  Well anyway, my bike needs some work to make it really nice.  It runs fine (although it stumbles past 5k rpm) and is a blast.  There are just a few small issues that will keep me busy for a while.

Here is a quick shot of it.

I hope to write on here often this summer.  There is just so much going on in my head that I need to write it down.  But alas, I seldom do, so most of the epiphanies I get just fade away.