LoL#23: I think, therefore I'm not TOO bored!

Welcome (back) to my crazy weekly e-mail ramblings! (LoL = lisa on life = life of lisa = crazy semi-coherent caffinated thoughts!)

Before I go too far on the tangent du jour I want to give some birthday shoutouts to three super spiffy people who just recently or will very soon celebrate being 22: Igor (sometime end of January?), Nick (February 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th?) and Cindy (February 8th)! (and pardon my lack of specific days) Happy Birthdays!!!

And also I just have to say how cool it is that it's now FebRRUUUUary! Back in sixth grade "February" was one of our spelling words (remember the good old days of spelling tests??) and my super cool English teacher Mrs. Brons told us all to pronounce it FebRRRUUUUUUUUary (with a super long "rooooooo" in there) because everyone always spelled it Febueary or Febuary or Feburary or some other wrong spelling. And a week of shouting "FebRRRUUUUary" along with my entire class must have worked because now I can spell it right! :)

So anyhoo, I think therefore I'm not TOO bored. This is my own unique ripoff of "I think therefore I am" or if you prefer the more sophisticated Latin "cogito ergo sum" (doesn't it just sound cooler in Latin???). But basically this cheesy little phrase is the foundation of Cartesian philosophy (aka the philosophy of Renee DesCartes) that proves without a doubt that I actually did learn something from Philosophy 101! (In truth the only reason I remember this is because I had a TA who was way too fond of the phrase "Cartesian philosophy" and our class syllabus was cluttered with countless weeks of "cogito argument" assignments as well as a movie night of The Matrix relative to DeCartes...fun stuff!)

Now before I go too far overboard with Latin phrases and sophmore year memories, I have been keeping myself unbored with some cool philisophi- theolgic- psychomental thoughts that I've for some strange reason decided to share. Forgive the bizzarre and slightly offbeat nature of what will most likely seem out of character for the typical LoL, but I have a little story that I've been pondering about franchises. Now's where you're probably thinking to yourself, Self, what is this nonsense about franchises and how in the world is this going to spawn a philisophical and theological point?? Stay with me.

Think for a minute about franchises.... I was gonna use a McDonald's analogy but that's a little too big so think instead about a local bank. There's a bank manager who has a specific plan for his bank and how he wants things run (customer service, account policies, days off etc.) So he sets up his plan in a certain community and hires a couple good people to run The Bank. Years go by and The Bank does well. The bank manager reaches the community and provides them with good interest rates, good service and free checking and in return the community invests their money, avoids bouncing checks and is generally happy. But then as even more years go by the bank manager decides that he can try something new and expand things. See if he had multiple Banks all over he could reach even more people with his awesome services and banking innovations. So he decides to go for the franchise route. This way there can be a Bank in any and every community but throughout all this expanding he stays firm to his original design of what he wants his Banks to look like and how they are run. The manager can then go on cross country tours and know that each one of his banks - regardless of what the building or neighborhood is like - is designed by his specifications and he can walk into any one, anywhere and feel right at home.

I thought up this analogy on the train the other day. I'm not going to go too deep with explaining the comparison but I was reading a really boring part of Exodus (this goes with one of my 2003 resolutions, and after all the Bible is a bestseller) where God's talking to Moses about building the Arc of the covenant (think Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Arc...). Anyhoo, God's got all these extensive specifications about what he wants done (sizes, materials, layouts,etc) and the whole point is that God's presence is going to come dwell in this Arc (basically a fancy way to say God wants them to build a super spiffy box for him to live in). It occurred to me though that just as God was specific in the Old Testament about having a place to occupy among His people, in the New Testament it translates to specifcations about how Christians should model their lives (i.e. God chooses to live within people and wants their lives to reflect his designs). So essentially modern day Christ followers are kind of like franchise versions of the Arc of the Covenant.

Like I said it's philisophical, theological and psychomental...kind of like me!! ;) And if that was a little too crazy and Bible-y for you just smile and nod and know that when it comes to me and my random thoughts they're as random as they are mine.



philisophi-theologic-psychoment-ally yours,

lisa :)


p.s. In the spirit of sharing really random radio commercials there was an ad for Eric & Kathy's morning show on Mix 101.9 and they were interviewing John Mayer and he was joking around with his own spoof of his song "Your Body is a Wonderland" and the part that I'm still laughing about is him singing "Your body is a taco stand..."