There’s nothing like a Thursday night with hot cocoa in hand (or on desk rather) and taking a fine listen to Kenny Rodgers and Etta James. I can’t help it, I LOVE them both. Their music and voices make me feel at home. More times than I care to recall, Billy (youngest kid here at the house) has reminded me that my music is so much less than exciting or the least ‘bit entertaining. As far as I’m concerned, Billy can blow it out his ear. What makes Billy fun is that he continually picks on me and loves to provoke a debate. Hey, it’s the closest thing I have to DC: debate (even with a teenager).
Valerie’s visit was really a blessing. From the rice pudding to the good cry, it was such an uplifting time. We went to see “Facing the Giants.” All I can say is, “SEE IT!!” My good friend Kevin, who was often my Friday night date in the library at college (he was the librarian so don’t go getting any ideas), told me once in jolly fashion: “Kim, there are two things Christians should try to stay away from: movies and rap!!” We were both beside ourselves with laughter before we were shushed from some seminary students. I have to say, I agree. However, with the recent Christian based movies that have come out in theaters, I’ve had a slight change of heart. THANK GOD…there is something clean to watch that has a point or a moral to the story and not just nonsense.
Also in the entertainment department, I’ve been reading a book (yes, I’m taking a break from church history) Valerie gave me,
Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. Candice, I promise to read
Blue Like Jazz (also written by Donald Miller) after this. Anyway, the book is just hilarious and delightful. His writing and the questions he ponders and his wit make me feel at ease and known. It’s like he’s gotten inside my head and is revealing all my secret questions and thoughts. His sense of humor has had me rolling as well. Just for instance, he talks about how his aspirations to become the next great Christian author were shot down. Here’s an excerpt:
“I had written a book several years before, but it didn’t sell. It was a road-trip narrative about me, a friend, and God, and how we traveled across the country in a Volkswagen van, smoking pipes and picking fights with truckers. God wasn’t actually a character in the book the way my friend and I were; God more or less played Himself, up in heaven, sending down puzzling wisdom and answers to prayer every hundred miles or so. But even though the story had God in it, which I believed made it prime for Christian bookstores, sales were less than holy. The book limped along for about a year and then, suddenly, died. God led the publisher to take the book out of print about the same time sales dipped into negative figures. The publisher called and asked if I wanted to buy a few thousand copies for myself at twelve cents each and I ended up buying four. I believe the rest of the books were sold to convenience-store distributors who shelved them next to three-dollar romance novels at the back of the potato-chip aisle.” I guess what intrigues me most about Mr. Miller’s story is the fact that he sort of reminds me of myself: a big dreamer and just out to live life out loud and to have a sense of humor in the midst of it all. I can’t stop here, here’s one more excerpt: (he’s at a writing convention after his former book flopped in hopes of becoming the next great Christian author) “
I remember having a very good feeling that morning, walking down the big hall toward the conference room, once again believing I was on my way to becoming the next great spiritual writer, a sort of evangelical Depak Chopra crossed with Tom Clancy, or whoever, just somebody famous. I had terrific ideas; I really did. I was going to write a story about a nun who takes over small third-world countries by causing their evil dictators to fall in love with her, leaving a trail of megachurches and democracy in her wake. The book was going to be called Sister Democracy, Show Some Leg!.” At any rate, you get the point here. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read thus far.
Well, I’m off to balance the family checkbook and make rice pudding.
