Defining Moment

I need to take a moment to define something. What does the word Christian really mean? In a recent series at my church two brothers from our creative arts team put together a series of videos parodying the Mac/PC comercials. The first went like this:



Yeah, we're a weird church. Some people have taken the whole thing to be rather offensive and it's raised a bit of controversy but if you watch the whole series (and the video in the previous link) you get the point that people oftentimes have a negative association with the word Chrisitan. For further evidence, think about people's views of the late Jerry Fallwell. Here's a man who supposedly wanted to represent the kingdom of God in the politcal arena and yet few would aver that he had God's love at the forefront of his actions. Somehow a word which used to mean good, honest, loving people has become tainted into describing a hypocritical political party. When most people hear the word "Christian" they don't think about Jesus. They don't think about people who give their lives to missions in impoverished countries and they don't think about people who daily sacrifice for their neighbors. They don't picture the family that prays for each other through any type of crisis and draws strength from each other and God's love. But those are the Christ followers that I know, love, admire and emulate. And "Christian" just doesn't describe them accurately.

And now for something completely different...

Okay. So it's been a rough couple of weeks. But as my seven year old cousin Brian said (at his older brother's funeral), "I don't think Andy would want you to be sad." Beyond sweet, right? He also went on to explain that Andy's up in heaven right now and "he probably has super powers!" So we all agreed that now Andy can run super fast, fly and hopefully have all the super-cool moves of his favorite X-Men hero Colossus. *sigh* Out of the mouths of children. (That's a pic of Colossus/Andy at left for those non-comic geeks out there.)

But life has also been more than a little chaotic because my lab is gearing up to move at the end of the month. It's been craziness all around - I'll spare you the story of the four day old decomposing mouse flesh *ewww* - but things are especially nuts for me since I'm doing the job transition along with wrapping up my class work. I only have five more weeks of my Investigation of Death Scenes class and then I'll get my Forensics certificate. (Woohoo! Lord only knows what I'll do with it...) Overall, it's been a fun series of classes. I might actually miss the cool stuff we've been learning, but I will definitely NOT miss the very late nights.

Although last night - even with class - I was home in time to see the end of the Cubs game... that is, I was home in time to see innings 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the Cubs game. I shouldn't be surprised that they lost (of five extra inning games this year they've only won one) but with games like that you can't help holding on to hope. The highlight for me was when announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenly decided to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame as a 14th inning stretch. Some may argue that they're not the most insightful commentators out there, but you have to hand it to them that they know how to have fun.

Not much else to say at present. Had a great weekend - saw Spiderman 3 (Good flick - my only complaint was that there seemed to be too many conflicts for one movie: Superhero v. Supervillain ; Superhero v. Self ; Superhero v. Former Best Friend ; Superhero v. Alien Life Form. Still entertaining though and if you liked 1 and 2 you'll probably enjoy it.) Also went to a really fun Cinco de Mayo party at my sister's house. Margaritas, games and karaoke but perhaps those should be stories for another time.

Death Sucks.

That's not meant to be funny. Or ironic. It's called I'm at the point where that's all I can think to say. Death sucks. If you object to the curse word in there, chalk it up to postmodernism that says I can be a Christ follower and also use the words that aptly express my feelings even if they're considered vulgar. Hopefully you can also credit the fact that I wouldn't be much of follower if the death of my 21-year old cousin didn't leave me upset and frankly, pretty darn pissed off. I know all the lines that there's hope because Christ has conquered death. This life isn't all there is. He's in a better place. We'll be together again someday. Sure. It's true. I DO believe it. It's actually quite comforting. But there's still this heap of emotions that keep bursting through the healing words and thoughts leaving everything to feel so.... raw.

I don't know why I have such a hard time with sadness but I always seem to be crossing the razor-edge line from sorrow into rage. Don't get me wrong, I've shed plenty of tears but after they're dried I still feel like punching something. What am I so angry at, you'll ask, and I don't even know if I can sufficiently explain it. Maybe it's just that, for me, anger's more easy to deal with. Anger feels powerful where as sadness seems too vulnerable. Sure it's immature but I can't fight wanting to scream out that "It's just not fair!!!" Injustice. That's something to be angry about, right? The injustice of death, with a Dylan Thomas style plea to "rage, rage against the dying of the light!" But Thomas seems to speak of death of the aged, those who have lived and seen and done. He speaks not to the death of youth. When the cruel world claims those who have only begun to live, there lies tragedy indeed.

This week marks the fourth funeral I've been to in the past few years and three out of four have been for people under thirty. That's where death really sucks. In a reflection on the Virginia Tech tragedy, author Neil Gaiman said, "[I'm] still managing to think of this as something that happened, tragically, to Other People. And then ...my heart sinks... and I get my nose rubbed hard and painfully in the fact that there are no Other People. It's just us." And that's true. Every death is someone's someone. A son, a mother, a brother, a friend, a cousin - an Andy.

Andy. Andrew Patrick Moore, A. Mo, though you will always be our Andy. I remember you so well as a little boy with a shy smile and how in just a few summers you became a handsome young man that I suddenly looked up to - quite literally looked up to, for in between vacations you sprouted up taller than most of your older cousins! We played board games and UNO and in a small enough group your shyness etched away and we could talk about college and friends and your future.... The future that you no longer have outside of the hearts of those that love you. My image of you will always be barefoot, wearing swim trunks and a life jacket for you were ever most alive on a jet ski or being whipped around the lake tubing or water skiing with graceful confidence. You used to say the ride was awesome because it was fast - and perhaps now that's how we can see your life: a wonderful, but all too fast ride.

I don't know what else to say besides "it's so tragic" or "it's so unfair" or "it's not right" or perhaps most appropriately, "it just plain sucks". But none of those cliches can capture the whole of the situation. I suppose I could use another's words to say it best, "There is no pain greater than losing something - someone - before truly recognizing it's value." (R.A. Salvatore). You were valued to us Andy, you still are and always will be. But your potential, your impact and value in the world, were only just beginning. I can't describe how much you will be missed, but I will say that you will forever be remembered and you will be a constant reminder of how precious and fleeting life really is. Our family reunions at the lake will never be the same - we are 17 cousins now and there will be an empty chair for you at the table. But there is hope in knowing that we will have a grand reunion in heaven some day. It will certainly be the best one ever.

Goodbye, Andy. I'll miss you man.

Sorrow's Song

I'll explain later -
Basically this is a compilation of various song lyrics that just...
...fits.
****

I was naive, and I thought that I was strong.
...but now I know that I was wrong, 'cause I miss you.

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone.

Life's like an hourglass glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button,

I miss you.
Can you tell me, is there something more to believe in?
Or is this all there is?

I'd want to know, I'd want to know, my God, 

All I know - time is a valuable thing, 
watch it fly by as the pendulum swings,
watch it count down to the end of the day.
The clock ticks life away - It's so unreal!

It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word -
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard.
But I will remember you....

Your presence still lingers here... 
These wounds won't seem to heal this pain is just too real.

But long before, having hurt, I'd send the pain below.
Much like suffocating.

This is me pretending this is all I need and I just wish
that I didn't feel like there was something I missed.

And all the colors mix together - to grey.
And it breaks her heart.

I'm bound by the life you left behind,
your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams.

You won't get to see the tears I cry.

God thy will is hard, but You hold every card.

Don’t you cry, wipe away the teardrop from your eye.

It's easier to believe in this sweet madness, oh,
this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees:

Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, 
though there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.

It won't rain all the time. The sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long, your tears won't fall, 

...forever.

Drink to your health - Literally!

The next time glasses are raised with a clink and a cry of "Salud"* we can all take the cheer much more literally. Turns out certain cocktails are not as much a vice as they were once thought to be. In fact, scientists have now shown that fruity drinks contain multiple health benefits (one more reason why I looove science). According to the study, "ethanol - the type of alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila and other spirits -- boosted the antioxidant nutrients in strawberries and blackberries." And since we all want as much benefit from our antioxidant friends, skip the smoothies and go straight for the margaritas and the daquiris. Now that's my kind of health food!

*"Salud" is Spanish for "health"

Quote Worthy (...Again)

"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."

- Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Oh yes. It's one of those years. Those years where spring is but a teasing joke to mock us all. Was it really just two weeks ago that I was wearing a tank top and pondering my slight glow of a sunburn in 79 degree heat? And now I'm starting my morning with the realization that the rain storms that woke me in the middle of the night faded in sound not because they were blowing through the area, but rather because they were freezing into a much more sinister form of precipitation! Leaving the house was the equivalent of stomping through a slushee factory and waiting for the bus in near blizzard conditions was far from pleasant (seriously, the only blizzards I EVER want in April are the Dairy Queen variety) - but there is a definite bright side to this equation.

Granted I'm fearing the frigid tundra that will be Wrigleyville for the Cubs tickets I have this weekend, but on the subject of baseball I can take all this slush and sleet as quite a good omen (not to be confused with a good Ohman - that I'm also hoping for). See, the last time Chicago recorded crazy snowfalls in April was in the "spring" of 2003. Although this resulted in a snowed out Opening Day, it led to one of the best Cubbie seasons in recent history. (Only a few outs away from the Series... thou shalt not remind thyself of Bartman...) So with plenty of snow (and Soriano!) I'll hope that this can only mean good things for my northside boys in blue.

Is it just me...

Okay you can file this one under "Random Pop Culture References That No One But Me Cares About" or you can put it in the "Is It Just Me Or..." category but let me be the first to come out with the question:

Is it just me or does American Idol Season 6* contestant Sanjaya Malakar (right) bear an uncanny resemblance to Jack Black's sidekick from the movie Nacho Libre (left)?

Long Lost Twins?

*In my defense I haven't watched a single episode of AI this season but Sanjaya's been all over the news cause lots of people are arguing that he can't sing his way out of a paper bag and other people are arguing that his hair is really awesome but no one seems to be arguing that he's a dead ringer for Eskeleton (the Nacho Libre character played by Hector Jimenez). You heard it here first folks.

Quote Worthy

"I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting.
"They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."

~Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

Archiving

I'm taking on a new venture of archiving! Cue dramatic archiving music! (...What do you mean there's no dramatic archiving music? Note to self, compose dramatic archiving music!)
Those that have been privy to my ramblings in the pre-blogging days - the days before "Randsanity" was even a word - remember a little thing called The LOL*. Besides the typical "laugh out loud", LOL also stood for "Life of Lisa", "Lisa on Life" or in its more sporadic days "Lisa Online". It was a weekly, then monthly, then semi-annual email out to friends and family that contained my random ponderings on work, life, and everything mundane and observation-worthy around me. And so it is with great effort and joys, I begin the process of converting those old emails (which were saved in my Hotmail LOL folder) to blogs. I'm tagging as I add them to keep them more incorporated with Blogger Arrow, but to view only them there's an added LOL tag. They can also be accessed via the date - check the year 2002 for now, '03 and '04 will be added eventually - this also explains any confusion that may arise from seeing posts of mine from 2002 when my Blogger profile boasts "Member since September 2005". The advantage of this over previous attempts at an LOL archive is that the dates shown reflect the date the message was originally sent, and thus they paint a somewhat adequate picture of my life in my first few years out of college. Not sure if anyone will waste their time reading them but if nothing else there's some landmark moments in my life (my first few months at NU, starting to date Tony, midnight showings of the LotR trilogy, inventing the word Randsanity, etc.) as well as amusing pop culture references from the early 2000's (Pepsi Blue, anyone?). In a way it's like opening my own little time-capsule, without all the dirt and fuss of "Where the heck did I bury that?" and "Why the heck did I put that in there?". Enjoy!

*And those that have been privy to my ramblings for a very VERY long time will even recall the lunch bunch emails that spawned the LOL but unfortunately those have been lost forever to cyberspace and my UIUC email address.

Dylan Hears a Who

For anyone who's ever said to oneself "Self, the only thing that could possibly improve my favorite children's books is if they were put to music by a 60's music legend!":

http://www.dylanhearsawho.com

Music by Bob Dylan*, Lyrics by Dr. Seuss

*Okay so it's not really Bob Dylan but it's a pretty darn good impression.

The Handshake

Okay so there's a really great article that you have to read. Yes, you. In fact, everyone. It was recommended to me by a friend from my college church.

It's called An Honest Handshake.

That's the link. I'll even refrain from talking about it so you can go read it. Yes, now. Come read my drivel later or pop back over here to comment. But I'm serious, go read it. Here's the link again. And again. Get the hint?

That's a lot of burning pj's!

I believe strongly in the potential for every person to be considered smart. Call it the theory of multiple intelligences if you will, but inside all individuals is some degree of knowledge waiting to be applied in a person's life. A person is smart.

People, however, are generally stupid.

Moreover, the unintelligent actions of an individual can generally go unnoticed on a planet of around 6 billion. When stupidity multiplies however, the result is rarely swept under a rug resulting more often than not in rolled eyes and utterances along the lines of "How dumb can you get?" Case in point (from Reuters today):

Candidates for British universities have been caught red-handed copying their applications from the Internet after hundreds mentioned "burning a hole in pajamas at age eight" on their online entrance forms. The phrase, taken from a Web site which provides examples of personal statements used by successful candidates, describes an early encounter with a chemistry set.

Did the potential students think "Gee, I'm the only person who would ever think of copying this!" Or were their plots hatched more with the thought of, "The Internet! Admissions directors will never look there!"? Either way, there's something a little bit hilarious in that not a handful or even dozens but rather "hundreds" used the same story. I have to wonder if a few tried to alter the example claiming to burn their bed sheets or perhaps tried to look advance by citing the incidence at age 6 instead.

I remember all too well the agonizing pressure of writing a personal statement for college admissions and mine centered around slime, rubber chicken bones and other lessons from science camp that influenced my pursuit into studying biological sciences (yes, my veins of nerd-dom run deep). It never occurred to me to try - or even to want - to lie about my story. But at the same time this type of thing probably happens quite frequently and sadly, is only noticed when the perpetrators are caught.

Analogy Time...

It's time to play the analogy game! For those that need a refresher course,

dog : bark :: cat : meow

Dog is to Bark as Cat is to Meow, because Bark is the sound that Dogs make and Meow is the sound that Cats make get it? Okay here's the real test, see the comment section for the answer.

Mexican : Taco Bell :: Irish : ___________

(*And yes this analogy did arrive because it's almost St. Patrick's Day and this red-haired green-eyed freckle-faced Irish girl got hitched to a spicy fiesta-minded south-of-the-border man.)

Recent Reading Regarding Racial Reconciliation

I haven't said much recently about what I've been reading lately, but earlier this week I finished a lesser known blog-worthy book. Edward Gilbreath's Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity isn't the type of book I'd normally tear off the shelf and breeze through in a day and a half but I found myself riveted by the no-nonsense semi-biographical analysis of race relations in the modern Christian church. Gilbreath, a writer for the magazine Christianity Today, takes historical, political and even skeptical approaches to the subject of racial reconciliation. He finds a great strength in including Latino, Asian and Native American voices in his book and avoids the problem of limiting his discussion to - quite literally - black and white issues. I checked this book out of the New Release section at my local library but I find myself hunting for it at nearby bookstores so that I can have my own copy to highlight, underline and (as soon as possible) share with others. I can't say I'd recommend this book to everyone simply because I don't know that it's the kind of topic many people are truly ready for but it should be a must read for anyone attempting to answer the questions of "Do we need multicultural churches?"; "Are multicultural churches possible?" and "How do you make multicultural churches work?".